#I’m still not recovering from Canto 4

[yetanothershore]

Hazy

[velmashaircut]

Sims 4 Big Brother Challange Week 3

This week was the friendship task! Contestants in the Big Brother mansion had to form the strongest friendships so they could stay in the mansion and advance to the next stage. Throughout the week, Levi and Canto were able to become good friends with lots of the residents, but at the end, it was Levi who won the friendship challenge! Weirdly enough, I noticed he was no longer good friends with Nathita and that the two of them had just become acquaintances. I don’t know if the pair grew apart or had a little spat, but I wonder if they’ll recover from this set back.

Speaking of little spats, Kenji seemed to have a small grudge against Nathita and Aden for whatever reason. Canto had some good sentiments for Vikky and Kenji, and he also nearly died in a fire. I was observing somebody else, and all of a sudden I got a notification that Canto was on fire. It turns out he was standing way too close to the fire place, but luckily he was extinguished so we didn’t have a second sim dying in the household.

Since I’m on the topic, I made sure to keep a very close eye on Fall throughout the week to make sure she didn’t die like Taz did. Thankfully she didn’t, but I do question her mental state since she spent most of her time talking to the Potty Mouth 2.0. I also realised that since Fall had been eliminated from Big Brother, I could technically control her since her actions didn’t matter anymore. Because of that, I got her into cooking and now she can make gourmet meals!

Now for the loser of the friendship challenge, the person who made zero attachments was…Aden! I can’t pretend I was surprised, all throughout the week, everybody but him continuously spoke to their housemates. The only person I saw him talk to was Vikky. Aden’s sharp tongue didn’t really help him out either so it’s no shock he’s been kicked out of Big Brother. Thankfully he’ll still be residing on the lot so he won’t be forced to face that pirate hunter just yet…

Anyways, the next challenge the remaining contestants on Big Brother will have to face is the logic contest! Who will have the ‘big brain’ by the end of the week? Find out next time.

[caltropspress]

FEEDBACK LOOP #7: Curly Castro’s “Weapon 13X” featuring Breeze Brewin

There was a very old man, an old white man out in the crowd, and he started screaming and crying like a baby and he kept crying and he said, “God damn, God damn, what is this God damn country coming to that the niggers have got guns, the niggers are armed and the police can’t even arrest them!” He kept crying and somebody led him away through the crowd.

—Robert F. Williams, Negroes with Guns (1962)

Gun flash beats the child’s head in, maniac teeth dance in a bloody grin blue lies, badge confessions, yng dude dead just beyond his mama’s arms

—Amiri Baraka, “Stop Killer Cops”

Police said Cleaver and Hutton were holed up at 1218 28th Street with two 9 mm automatic pistols, two AR-15 and one military-type M-14 automatic rifle, and a large supply of ammunition, some armor-piercing.

—Berkeley Barb, Volume 6, Number 15, Issue 139

1.

“Weapon 13X” is a diptych. Two verses; one pivot—or volta, for you bookworms. Curly Castro is first with a séance that summons the mysteries of Clarence 13X and Weapon X. These nullified variables and Roman numerals come together in an elixir mix so potent that it would make Aes Rock choke on the amalgam. Castro opens the fission gate and discharges two-hundred forty thousand mega-therms on the city of brotherly love, the city of bombs from above onto a 6221 Osage Avenue row house. Shameek just got bust in his arm, leg, leg, arm, head. The Black man is God personified, and Logan is regenerative. Adamantium claws. Mathematical jaws. Science dropped and experiments performed. Spark this like metal does when dragged across concrete.

2.  “Harriet would grab her balls, / This my gun, and this my rifle.”

Harriet Tubman gets cast by Kubrick for Full Metal Jacket, recites the Rifleman’s Creed, but it was actually a pistol she kept buried within the folds of her calico. She sallied forth seeing visions from the overseer’s heave of a weight—made her skull snap. Don’t sleep. “When the caliber’s inside you,” you can’t necessarily count on “the muzzle smoke revival.”

3.

Quelle Chris provides production, lest we forget his 2019 Guns album with its Dada-bullet, double-barreled barrage album art. The title track armed to the teeth: “Ain’t no cracking that code, / Ain’t no safety on locks, / Might as well get you one, / Procrastinating will get you popped.” The machine gun funk outs finks and COINTELPRO cooperators, conspirators, dispiriters. Here, Castro’s got those same turncoats and sucker MCs in his sights, so to speak.

4.  [The oppressor] teaches the Negro that he has no worth-while past, that his race has done nothing significant since the beginning of time, and that there is no evidence that he will ever achieve anything great. (Carter Godwin Woodson, The Mis-Education of the Negro, 1933)

Castro makes a promise, provoked by those who came before him, those who brandished firearms in the faces of their enemies:

We never will disarm: these are the lies that you were sold, When your glory tripped up, you trade your weapons in for gold. With Yakub in the schools, trade your dreams, knowledge folds. Found the tome, Mis-Education Negroes…

Dr. Yakub sloshing liquids in the lab—Bunsen burners explode and the lab leak is viral whiteness. Tricknology replaces Biology. Castro is looking back while moving forward. “Doomed to repeat it”-type forewarnings. He knows the ledge and also wants his people to.

5.

aim     get your sights & its sound in abstract or journal movements to a peace settlement

dude shot my man

dead,          precious lord blow off theres no willy in th blues theres no you.

—from Tom Weatherly’s Maumau American Cantos (1970)

Castro is a “gunhand, cybernetic with spray cans, / Basquiat, baklava, Mau Mau.” That’s likely an intentional malaprop—surely his militant stance calls for a balaclava. Even still, Castro doesn’t stutter. He will still sh-sh-shift his voice on you—the dynamics of his delivery raise stakes and get guttural, scraping against sewer plates. He’s potent, even if Basquiat’s pistol appears flaccid with its hand-scrawled linework. In another piece, Basquiat starts the decolonization process at the point of a safari helmet. The image detonates.  

6.  Free country? Man, I should fuck you up for sayin’ that stupid shit alone.

“This film is a call to racial violence!” a film critic shouted at Roger Ebert after a screening of Do the Right Thing. She worried Bed-Stuy would set fire to theaters, but Lee’s 1989 film wasn’t The Rite of Spring in Paris in 1913. An amerikan psychotic turn to theater violence would be postponed until Aurora in 2012, and it would be white violence, which would come as a shock to none who have tracked the trajectory of white violence. Displacement is white violence, too. White violence is a sine qua non for gentrification. And so Castro allies himself with “Buggin’ Out battle brownstone houses, some Bird fans, / While Mookie turns the radio up and launched the trashcan.”

7.  “We are the weapons.”

Of late, Castro has consistently been proving you’re out your depth, with verses so allusive they suggest a strong “Erick Sermon and Parrish Smith, nobody blink. / They don’t now who the fuck that is” vibe. So what, though? At this point, Castro’s a vet, an elder. The youngins need to catch up or cash out. Get KRS-One bookish, kiddies, or be left behind. Be the weapon or never prosper. Create your own mythos: “Omega built a mother by the sun and Cyclops sent / a blurred Baraka poem capable to raise the dead. / Yet instead I use the sword...”—with Wu-Tang pronunciation of the w in “sword,” of course. History moves backwards and forwards at the same time. Language is lost and recovered. The poem is “blurred” because it’s been duplicated on a mimeograph—a machine that involves a “drum.” The words are ink-smudged. Baraka’s former partner, Diane di Prima, shouted, “"Power to the people's mimeo machines!” Accuse and attack, Baraka sloganeered. We’re talking about agency—by hand-crank, handgun, or mic check.

8.

Castro creates imagery like Emory Douglas did with paint: painfully bold and saturated with color like blood soaks clothes. Baraka called Douglas’s art a combo of “expressionist agitprop and homeboy familiarity,” which applies to what Castro does on the track. I quote Mao who called literature and art “part of the whole proletarian revolutionary cause,” and Mao quotes Lenin who called lit and art the “cogs and wheels in the whole revolutionary machine.” And Baraka also said Douglas’s work:

functioned as if you were in the middle of a rumble and somebody tossed you a machine pistol. It armed your mind and demeanor. Ruthlessly funny, but at the same time functional as the .45 slugs pouring out of that weapon.

The Panthers were trapped and tear-gassed in a West Oakland basement. Eldridge Cleaver told Bobby to go out naked—unarmed as the day he was born not quite eighteen years earlier—but he emerged from the burning house fully dressed, with dignity, and he was searchlighted and shotshotshotshotshotshotshot dead.

Castro needs Brewin to make the cypher complete—a two-man killarmy using loud words in quiet wars, no silencer.

9.  “Before blurting out, try analysis, brother.”

Breeze’s Yo, listen… at the start of his verse is comparable to Sir Thomas Wyatt intoning Whoso list to hunt… to begin his 16th-century sonnet. The amalgam here is less Five Percenter plus clandestine government experimentation and more a deconstruction of the both violent and sexualized language of braggadocio. “Anything you say isn’t played like Miranda Rights,” and so we’re already with our hands behind our backs, silenced by an pig officer’s gag order. The competition doesn’t get played; they play themselves.

Sir Thomas Wyatt sets it off like so:

Whoso list to hunt, I know where is an hind, But as for me, hélas, I may no more. The vain travail hath wearied me so sore, I am of them that farthest cometh behind. Yet may I by no means my wearied mind Draw from the deer, but as she fleeth afore Fainting I follow.

Breeze has wanted to stay pleasant to the ears—you know, like Lauryn Hill phone sexing—so this isn’t new territory but rather a well-worn path. Wyatt’s wearied and “so sore” by “the hunt,” the pursuit of his love interest, even though he knows “where is an hind.” Still, “as she fleeth afore / Fainting [he] follows.” He can’t help himself.

Love is lost within violent pursuit. Breeze speaks of a “plan to strike” and “zero in” on a “target,” his quarry. He and Castro are “talking about broads often, no doubt, / We broad and burly as hell, / Brag about the hunt, you was jukin’ a girly gazelle.” Breeze’s assault is dizzying, a salvo from all angles: “Hit ’em with some counter clay rebuttals that’s subtle but still befuddle if dude slow.”

10.  “It’s nothin’, I gotcha, and that’s word to Super Lover Cee.”

Super Lover Cee and Casanova Rud’s 1988 single “Girls I Got ’Em Locked” articulates the carceral embrace of “locking” a girl down, which—consequently—requires violence to enforce: “Don’t ever touch a girl owned by me or I’ll ruin ya’, / Slap you with my mic simultaneously as I’m doin’ ya.” The girl is commodified, and Super Lover Cee takes a proprietary attitude toward the relationship. If you overstep, you’ll be ruined, that is, you’ll fall. And while you’re prostrate, you’ll be slapped with the phallic mic simultaneously. Is the Super Lover doin’ her or you, though? What’s truly getting him off? That hypermasculine posturing skews homoerotic. Breeze Brewin laughs at you for subscribing to the nonsense: “Dag, if that was what you believe then your world be a hell.”

11.

Liberal discourse suggests policing your impulses. Put down the gun—don’t touch it. “Touchy subjects,” like racism (apparently), get the “We need to have a conversation” treatment. Look, don’t touch. Don’t touch the exhibit of stolen artifacts—those Benin bronzes in the British Museum. Beneath the topic of orignoo gunn clapping, Curly Castro’s track is about the x’s and o’s of eros as well. Many gestures meant to protect women are merely some other man staking his claim, adorning her with “diamonds in letters plain,” as Wyatt writes of the collar around the deer’s “fair neck.” Wyatt’s sonnet warns against overstepping (or even half-stepping). The collar reads Noli me tangere (touch me not)—she belongs to someone else. It’s a bad touch example. Like his fellow Indelible J-Treds, Breeze Brewin is the living circle-circle-dot-dot: nobody can touch him.

12.

Let’s bring it back to Little Bobby Hutton. When Eldridge Cleaver told him to leave the ambushed basement naked, he was thinking of Bobby’s safety. He thought the extreme measure of appearing on the street without clothes would be enough to convince the pigs he wasn’t armed. Cleaver was naïve to think so. Bobby Hutton was right to emerge clothed. In doing so, he rejected the indignity of the auction block, the lynching, the mutilation and spreading of souvenir flesh. The searchlight made Bobby Hutton the subject of a spectacle, yes, but he refused to consent to the psychosexual desires of white supremacy. He refused the castration ritual. Little Bobby Hutton, in effect, threw down a challenge to the cops: Use your imagination once again. Try to think of a few situations where your own weapon might be used against you���used against you…used against you.

Images:

Emory Douglas, The Black Panther, Vol. IV, No. 78, 1971 (detail) | Weapon X (detail, issue unknown) | Emory Douglas, Rat Subterranean News (1970) | Harriet Tubman with gun sketch | Anti-Mau Mau British propaganda poster | Newspaper headline from Negroes with Guns | Jean-Michel Basquiat, Untitled (date unknown) | Jean-Michel Basquiat, Native Carrying Some Guns, Bibles, and Amorites on Safari (1982) | Screenshot from Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing (1989) | Two images from the Berkeley Barb, Volume 6, Number 15, Issue 139 (1968) | Emory Douglas, The Black Panther (miscellaneous poster) | Medieval depiction of the hunt (unknown) | Image detail from the Berkeley Barb, Volume 6, Number 15, Issue 139 (1968)

[onstarsandiron]

The timeline, as near as I could assemble it, with a little conjecture by me. I centered it around Coronation Day, aka the Holy Convergence, aka the 1,000th anniversary of the Iron Kingdom, so anything before that is BCD, anything after that is ACD. Details under the cut.

1,000 BCD:

Solani Ark crashes into what will become Zenteli, pursued by The Great Dark

Goddess bears a daughter of light that fights back The Great Dark

Goddess creates the Iron Kingdom, and from her heart the Iron Crown is carved; Ironbloods claim they can trace their lineage back to her court

The Goddess dies and is buried in her tomb with The Great Dark’s heart

The Cantos is written and the first shrine of the Moon Goddess is erected on Luna

25-20 BCD

The Plague -- The Plague is always stated as being “Twenty years ago” but plagues take time to first become plagues and then cause problems and then be eradicated. With the complication of having to develop and manufacture Metals before they could treat the plague well, I’ve given it a cautious life-time of five years, with it having officially ended twenty years from Coronation Day

In the scene with Nich, Mercer, Di, Selena, and Mari are at the Tomb of the Goddess, Mercer says he can’t call Cynthia because the Tomb has been off limits since the plague started, meaning that they were still going to the Academy during the plague. I propose that Mercer, Di, Nich, and Mari were all the equivalent of seniors and this was their last year, as it would be reasonable for Di to go off to try and help the plague after he’d finished at the Academy. That puts all of them around 16/17, since that’s the age Robb was when he was supposed to graduate. 

Once Di contracts the plague, Malifare takes advantage of his and his father’s desperation and becomes one of the first Metals, and, if the reports Ana found in the lab were correct, the first fully successful Metal, aside from previous-life memories. 

I also propose that it is sometime during this that Mari’s mother is murdered -- Erik mentions, when Robb dons the Aragon crest, that, “The old dame was murdered and her daughter went missing.” (SoS, V: Stardust, Robb) -- and Captain Siege is born. This would coincide with much of the Aragon family suffering and dying from the plague; the Aragon family is noted as magnanimous, and they may have opened themselves to risk in an attempt to support the poor, though that’s just my personal headcannon. Di also asks Malifare, when they first met, if she’s there because of Mari, which may have something to do with it, but what, I do not know. 

18 BCD 

Jax is born 

17 BCD

Ana is born and lauded as the goddess born anew

Robb is born -- his 17th birthday was the day Jax got de-lit (:

10 BCD

Jax runs away from Zenteli

10-8 BCD

Somewhere in here Siege and Talle adopt hire Jax after he pick-pockets Siege in Nevaeh

7 BCD

The Revolution

Rasovant asks Nicholii to approve HIVEing Metals; when Nicholii denies him he, in a fit of rage, kills him. 

Mercer finds Nicholii’s body and calls for guards

Malifare burns down the North Tower with the whole Royal Family inside

Mercer gives Ana to D09 -- Nicholii’s personal metal, according to Machivalle -- and Ana receives burns from his heated chassis. They escape in the Tsarina

Mercer sends out one message to his wife, informing her of what had happened and of the location of the heart. Cynthia would later go and take it from the tomb, storing it instead in the hands of the Goddess statue in Nevaeh

The Tsarina is infested with the HIVE too, though, with weird memory core-less Metals. Mercer manages to get the ship all the way to Palavar -- I propose he does this to disable the ship full of dangerous robots for the greater good -- getting shot in the process. As his last act, he gives Ana his family’s symbol and sends her and Di off in an escape pod

An undisclosed time later -- it could have been weeks depending on how well-stocked the escape pod was -- Siege finds the 10-year-old and Di floating in dead space between Cerces and Iliad; Di tells her who they are and then asks that his memory be erased -- Mercer’s instructions. Siege does erase Di’s memories, this being the cause of Di’s later glitches, but she doesn’t drop them at a weigh-station like Di asked, hoping that she could be able to keep Ana safe

7 Years - 7 Days BCD

Ana, Jax, and Di have life-threatening Shenanigans aboard the Dossier; everything after this is just a summary of the books

7-6 Days BCD

Di and Ana in the shrine -- job goes south

They follow Robb up to Astoria, that goes south and Robb gets shot and half-kidnapped 

2-hours towards Palavar Robb’s chip is activated

Palavar happens, killing Bergar and disabling Di; The Kiss happens and Jax knows how Robb will die; Robb finds what will become Di’s new body

~2-4 hours after Palavar, while Robb is in the middle of experimentally trying to upload Di, the Dossier is so very politely hailed via missile by the Catarina

Cynthia kills Wick, Ana and Jax are taken onto the Caterina, Robb feels really, really bad about it all

Di wakes up and he and the captain free the Dossier

Once at the Iron Palace, Robb reveals Ana as the princess

5-2 days BCD

Jax is Cynthia’s prisoner, Robb promises on Stars and Iron to save him

Ana has to get lessons, and hates every second of it. Tries to get information out of everyone but only has some luck with Machivalle

The Dossier works on their own plan

1 Day BCD

Pre-coronation gala!

Robb and Ana make their appearance; Robb soon leaves to go get Jax -- not that he has a way out of the palace, mind you

Ana meets Wynn and gets an important note from Machivalle; Ana and Di dance; Ana runs off when she realizes Di is “Rasovant’s Metal”

Di runs off, finds Rasovant’s office, steals his own old guard uniform, starts having memories that are not D09′s

Robb bumps into Di in the Hallway, E0S brings trouble around and they split up, agreeing to meet in like 3 1/2 hours at the docks

Jax reads Cynthia’s stars in exchange for Cynthia promising on Stars and Iron to protect Robb -- this changes Robb’s stars

Ana is lured into the North Tower to be killed, finds Rasovant’s secret office and the truth behind Metals and the HIVE, Di comes and saves her

Robb rescues Jax, puts a vox collar on his brother

Ana and Di make out before Ana sends Di on his way so he can be safe

Malifare captures Di, he is not safe; Di gives instructions to E0S

Robb sends Jax off, decries the Valerio name

Di realizes he’s Dmitri, is promptly HIVEd

Coronation Day

Bad things happen. The following people die: Lady Valerio, Rasovant (Ana did that one), Riggs, the Grand Duchess, a couple other Ironblood guests, all human guards. Viera might also have died here, or she might have been kept alive long enough to be turned into a Metal later; I’m unclear on the Metaling process. Di stabs Ana. Robb loses and arm.

0-6 months ACD

Shrines are burned as Malifare searches for her heart

Siege and her fleet set up refugee camps for Metals

Ana recovers from her near-fatal wound

Robb and Jax are dating

5 Months ACD

Robb gets his robo arm

6 Months ACD

Ana meets Elara and Xu in Neon City

Ana is captured

Elara, Xu, Jax, and Robb go to save Ana; Jax and Robb split up and Jax recognizes the dreadnaught from Robb’s stars and knows he will die here

Ana is saved by E0S, runs into “Viera”, then Robb

E0S’s instructions from Di activate, and he leaves Ana to go to the bridge where Jax is

Jax and Di -- as a Messier -- fight; E0S/Di changes Jax’s stars and injects some code into Di

As Jax gets spaced Di instinctively tries to save him and accidentally touches bare skin, forcing Jax to read the stars of everyone consumed by The Great Dark, which drains his light in an instant

Ana and Robb get Jax to the Dossier and put him on life support

Siege sets course to Zenteli so Jax can die there

Very warm reception at Zenteli. Truly hospitable. Jax’s mom slaps Siege

Viera goes off and burns the Zenteli shrine

Jax has his star-induced vision of Di and Malifare in the plague ward

Elara takes Ana and Robb down to the ark where they meet Koren Vey, who gives them the coordinates to the Goddess’ Tomb as well as saying some cryptic stuff

Di is experiencing “glitches” from what E0S gave him, reveals himself to Erik, accidentally so to Wynn

Siege gets Jax and she and Talle come to rescue Ana, Robb, and Elara

Jax accepts Koren Vey’s light, collapses into Robb’s arms; he glows now. 

Siege, Talle, Robb, and Jax are taken back to the spire by the solgard while Ana and Elara evade them

Ana and Elara split, Ana to go to the Goddess’ Tomb and Elara to fetch Jax and the others

Lenda sends Ana off, she also bumps into Viera, through whom the HIVE now knows where Ana’s going

Elara fetches Jax, Jax’s mom helps him break everyone out

Robb and Elara break off to go after “Resonance”, the Dossier goes after Ana to the tomb

Ana arrives at the tomb, is followed by Di and Malifare. In the tomb she finds that the heart isn’t there, then blows them all up. Di finally breaks free of the HIVE.

The Dossier lands and takes Ana and Di; Malifare is nowhere to be seen 

Robb and Elara arrive at the Valerio estate and he fights Erik over the Resonance file, which reveals that Cynthia funded all of Rasovant’s research and herself found the heart first, as well as the heart’s current hiding place

The meeting at Havens Grave happens

Ana and Di get to talk

Robb tells Jax he loves him and they make out

A plan of action is solidified 

Robb and Di crash Erik’s party

Ana, Siege, and Talle go after the heart, Ana going into the shrine and Siege and Talle keeping watch

Malifare plunges Astoria out of the sky and takes off with Viera, now revealed as a Metal

Di saves Astoria, gets stabbed in the back by Erik for his troubles

Erik, unrelatedly and against the genuine attempt to save him by Robb, dies

Jax takes Robb and Di to the shrine

Ana gets the heart

Final battle: Ana and Di vs Malifare in the shrine; Dossier vs Messiers in the plaza

Siege finally takes Malifare out and Di destroys the HIVE

6 Months and Like 2-4 Week ACD

Ana is installed as Empress, introduces a wide range of new voices to the Iron Counsel

Jax accepts his role as C’zar, enjoys being a thorn in the Counsel of Elder’s side

Siege and Talle head off to hide the heart

Di says goodbye to Ana

Ana makes her speech at Erik’s funeral, runs off quickly after

Di doesn’t actually go and he and Ana kiss and everything is super sweet and nice, The End

[surfersofbole]

Going to Fall: What will you do?

This is the fifth installment in my “Going to Fall” series, which is based on Bob Dylan’s “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall.”

What will you do?

Here, your father must now mention if God has seemed unjust, unkind, then, have you paid him no attention? Our sins are many, of great kinds; punishment ‘s held with retention

not unlike the water vapor within the clouds above the world. All the clouds won’t harm a scraper, but rain upon a cardboard home turns the walls into soaked paper.

I can sense your apprehension, and I can sense your broken pride. Do you have some great dissension? Well, now, just take your small asides to relieve any contention.

Some of us find things enlightening when we must live in heavy dark. Lightning rods control the frightening and brightening flash of the short night. Umbrellas keep th’ tensions tightening.

You would think there’d be prevention - that God himself would take the lead. God wants no Earthly dimension and so he goes ahead, concedes rain must fall without suspension.

What will you do, my blue-eyed son? Somethings are hard to answer. Some… What will you do, darling young one? Think you that I should know this thing? Morning comes now with the bright sun.

Going back out before the rain starts falling

I wake up scared as hell that things are going wrong. Why? I was not quite sure of what was going on. My mind was in a cell. I lie down quietly. The motionless allure of a ceiling, empty...

A day begins anew. Will I ever arise? A thunder I have heard; the skies will be disguised. The rainclouds now accrue. I’m scared to leave this place; though, maybe I’m absurd, and I should go/make haste.

I’ll walk the beaten path; I know it will be short. All the small excursions other souls couldn’t afford... I'll face the wanton wrath because the world will fear I am leading an incursion with my mouth that all’ll hear.

The depths of the deepest, black forest

Electrified air climbs to clustered cotton fluff; screams turn to grumbles.

Some schwarzwald sunshine prawns prowl blister-black water - ice of a night sky.

Sharp whistles whittle brittle branch and bark, bitter for the burning blight.

Hollow trees topple. Then, forests from dying flames born of detritus.

The people are many, their hands are all empty

Xerotic mouths agape, facade of night entreats a dreamer thirsting not the light, "neglect a cleanly state and state that you ordain the rain to fall as it is due."

Disguising no intentions with delight, obsessed with obfuscating appetite, come cumulating nimbus clouds above haranguing with each lightning strike thereof.

In time, hard rains again will lift the plight and everyone will be an acolyte lest all the clouds they see move out of sight.

The pellets of poison flooding their waters

(The vending machine hums softly. A whirring and some clinking kick off a habit, and I press a button. A quarter? I try again. In the mechanism, it moves. Thunk. Mother's approval.)

Someone's swimming in the pool.

Crystalline medium with waving surface dances the light upon the ceiling.

Diving at the deep, he sinks into the bottom for the longest moment until he is diluted by the dark.

I sit beside the edge, staring.

No manacles bind us to the station we submit.

Someone's swimming in the pool, but I've a job to do. "Refill the canister with two chlorine tablets. Lock up and leave."

The home in the valley meets the damp, dirty prison

I walk to where the sidewalk ends en masse, past the concrete's blend with grass and the footstep-muddled pastures.

I found the last spot God had cried: an oasis that has dried in the desert of this life.

The rain is not the coldest where the trees have met the forest and the mountain meets the valley.

The executioner’s face, always well hidden

At mass, the priest, in his white, polyester robes, stood among pink roses.

"I say, precious Lord, look upon us and see not injustice; instead, find hope."

Among the heightened exaltations of the chorus, water came down upon us.

Back when crimes against the Lord and his people were punishable, men like Christ and Beckett, with their deaths, made leaders grovel.

King, bearing a new weight, shouldered a poor people's campaign; in his memory, we hid this struggle. In this new poor people's campaign, shall hidden faces make another man infamous?

"Do this in memory of me."

The word of the Lord makes requisite that we do things in memory of others that perhaps, through us, they could live on. Such a cause as theirs is worth perpetuating; such a love as theirs is the great communion.

"Mass has ended. You may go in peace"

Hunger is ugly, souls are forgotten

Oysters - pried apart with pearls squeezed from their soft flesh - are discarded shells that cleansed murky waterways. Layered nacre anchors banks.

Black is the color, none is the number

For the briefest second, worlds are colorful and palm fronds, like percussion sections, fill the wind with scratching sound. As raindrops themselves drive through darkness into broken asphalt, thunder-crash!                        The crack in night, it vanished while a youth in leather shoes and wetting socks went running to a covered walkway. Hole-filled pockets bore some grimed receipts, old notes, worn cards, and damaged pictures in a wallet that was drawn up. She inserted plastic; as the m'chine slow- processed four fast digits, vehicles blurred past and disappear until, at last, a menu let her check the balance. Black in text, a zero showed up. Buzzing lights then flickered; rain felt bitter/harder.

Tell it, think it, speak it, breathe it

False flags on steel poles; you find their real goals cause hard heads to feel soles as reeled votes steal polls. Loss is a hand that's doled to thoughtless card holders; well oiled, pristine political machines need propaganda's grist cleaned and shoveled on the screens. Greed - democracy's splotch - fills you with the scotch blues; when the night is botched, sit back up to watch news. Feel cold and say burr under a cedar tree, or passover seder with Sam Seder, see his angered, sabered tongue work hard/labor long; hundreds of lungfuls from racist uncles tapered off. Like flaming fungal masses on crumpled paper, scoffed arguments hindered turn to cinder; try not to join the splintered dense blocks of tinder, dry rot. "Freedom isn't free, son..." some person breathes on as a prison's breeze comes; truth in neon: "Freedom isn't free, and it isn't freedom." Jaime Peck 'n' Michael Brooks wait with bridled facts on homicidal cops and Congress' idled acts. The left's best anchors, hosts of the Majority Report, unveil the languor of neofascist authority.

Reflect from the mountain so all souls can see it

Guinness in my system at a Regal cinema; someone said, "I miss him." Liquor mixed with cinnamon makes my throat feel dry; is that why I'm stifled? "On everyone's behalf, when we heard you laughing at Dave Rubin's gaffes, all our sides were halfing." Why am I nervous before the final curtain? "He did the world a service, that I say with certainty." "I want to drink, alright, rather than think all night; pour shots until bar fight hour is a starlight tour." Drink my Tennessee whiskey and Hennessy briskly in backgrounds of dim-lit rooms. As this dim-wit reflects, chances look slim; the future's a grim skit. Pillow to my head and sink in like lead, a stone carelessly embedded in the river bed alone.

Stand on the ocean until I start sinking

When one recollects that the keystone oft sank in the sand before standing aloft among clouds on a mountain so solid of faith and devotion, it's then that a false step compels men, "Recover!" I noticed thrombosis had felled the calm warrior, that saint among saints that is Archangel Michael; the champion of men and proponent of justice inspires l'avant-garde to claim in it's crawling a victory not pyrrhic but won with empiric- al knowledge against an- tithetical sirens that draw men towards hatred with bigotry, envy, and greed. So, surrender your voice, but renounce not your thoughts, and remember the message borne by a colossus that called out to Lazarus, "Come forth."

Know my song well before I start singing

Cantos coming soon to a year near you!

Notes

This is the order in which the poems were written: 2, 1, 4, 3, 6, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. I plan for poem 13 to be a series of cantos based on my time walking through a park in my home town.

What will you do?

This poem was written months ago while I was still a Tumblr poet and is the introduction to the final section of the Going to Fall collection of poems I've written. The next poem will be posted when I figure out where I saved it.

The depths of the deepest, black forest

I thought I had a poem for this portion of the final section of my "Going to Fall" poetry collection, but I couldn't find it. Luckily, the haiku challenge issued for November prompted me to write this in place of the imagined poem.

The people are many, their hands are all empty

There were two prompts for this poem. The first is an obscure words poetry contest that I volunteered myself, in which I received the prompt "Xenodochial" (which means hospitable or kind to strangers). The second was from a challenge I made [for] myself [...] I had been stuck on this particular portion for months now, so I'm glad to have something appropriate and fitting.

The pellets of poison flooding their waters

Perhaps I put too much thought into a story about a guy closing up after a hallucination. The stuff in the parenthesis was typed last, but I only put it in because I could find no better way to add that the narrator is thirsty. I was going to write a twelve poem collection on this prompt, based on monthly news stories of people making the world a worse place, but the poems were scrapped. I do hope to revisit the idea under a different title.Perhaps I put too much thought into a story about a guy closing up after a hallucination. The stuff in the parenthesis was typed last, but I only put it in because I could find no better way to add that the narrator is thirsty. I was going to write a twelve poem collection on this prompt, based on monthly news stories of people making the world a worse place, but the poems were scrapped. I do hope to revisit the idea under a different title.

The home in the in the valley meets the damp dirty prison

I had the first two lines stuck in my head for a couple of days. This is the result.

Hunger is ugly, souls are forgotten

This is just a poem comparing oysters and people.

Black is the color, none is the number

October 11, 2020 corrections: *line 4 - "And" -> "As" *line 7 - "." -> "," *line 8 - "Thunder-crash!" -> "thunder-crash!" and line split. *lines 13-16 - "Hole-filled pockets - dirty, wet - hold paper/plastic cards and damaged pictures in a wallet. It is" replaced with current version. *lines 18-21 - "plastic; as the machine processed four fast digits, vehicles dove on past and then they disappeared. At" replaced with current version.

Three Poems for the Great Progressive

This poem came together from the following stanza that I spit out a couple of nights ago: Passover seder with Sam Seder under my cedar tree. Say burr, see his sabered tongue labor long. Hundred lungful's hinder cindered minds. The tinder finds a racist uncle's baseless tongueful like dry rot: the fungal waste is erased from space. Try not It includes one line I wrote a few years ago: "I drink my Tennessee whiskey and Hennessy briskly." The poem is basically about listening to the news all the time because you're sick, feeling restless, going out to the movies and bars, and finally going to sleep. July 20, 2020 update: Completed in honor of Michael Brooks. Also, I wrote the following poem soon after I heard the news, but did not put the time into it that I would have liked. The ground is dry and leaves grow thin. When the new moon is out the fuses trip, the grid's offline, and the world stands too still, I look to the sky as the gold flecks fly; ember is ash. A chill climbs up my spine; stomach can't dip lower. I cannot scout a star within the restless sky. August 11, 2020 update: I saw a contest early morning and wrote the first stanza of the third poem. The second stanza was written after I returned from work. The prompt was the first line from the Beatles' "A Day in the Life".

NOTE: This is the title for “Tell it, think it, speak it, breathe it,” “Reflect from the mountain so all souls can see it,” and “Stand on the ocean until I start sinking.”

[randomishnickname]

Random personal questions

tagged by bae @dont-call-me-algernon.

1. What’s your subway (or other sandwich shop) order?

fuck multinationals, I make my own sandwiches (and buy expensive falafels like a true anarchist).

2. What’s your shoe size?

39 (European size).

3. Favorite Show?

currently Black Sails, although Avatar: The Last Airbender will forever be my heartthrob

4. What’s your ideal style, if you could afford it?

Oh my. Basically Aragorn’s clothing in LOTR - long coat, fingerless leather gloves, kick-ass boots. Badaaass.

5. Starbucks or Hole-In-The-Wall Coffee Shop?

Again, fuck multinationals - I sometimes go to a great tiny coffee where you can drink tea amidst of books. But I’m more of a pub person

6. What color(s) would you dye your hair?

Dark grey with blue tips or dark red with white strand. Sadly nothing I could pull off.

7. Who’s your favorite celebrity?

More or less all of the Avengers cast, especially Chris Hemsworth, though Alexandre Astier is simply really really cool

8. Favorite Ice Cream?

I switch all the time, but I think Rum-raisin is probably the best one.

9. Have you ever met someone in secret?

One time when I was sixteen I went to a concert in a city 300km away in secret with a friend :D

10. When is your birthday?

...hey that’s private dude!

11. Introvert or Extrovert?

Introvert.with a lil’ dash of extrovert when on stage or dancing and stuff.

12. Any siblings? How many?

Two older brothers <3

13. If you could have powers, what would they be?

I’ll chose an altruistic one and go with be able to resplenish soils or let plants grow faster or similar shit. Elsewhise shapeshifting would be nice.

14. Dream job?

professional nerd? dunno, working on series would be nice

15. What’s your favorite song right now?

Voice Number Seven by Van Canto <3 <3 <3

16. What song are you listening to right now?

None

17. What’s on your mind right now?

“How do I write this fucking scene of my fanfic??? will this chapter live up to my expectations??? aaaaaaAAAAaaaaah”

18. If you came into a massive amount of money, what would you do with it?

Probably buy a bit of land near my city and try to build up an urban farming project there; buy myself that one awesome coat I’ve been gushing about and donating lots of it to charities I like. Also, going to visit Scottland.

19. What is your definition of success?

...I’ll pass

20. Where do you find the most peace?

Walking in the forest after the rain; or up a tree (I love climbing!)

21. What age do you wish you could permanently be?  

19y was nice - you recover from hangovers so fast. But my current age would be nice too.

22. If you could be any mythical creature, what would you be? (Describe it and where you got the idea, or even if it’s made up).

A dragon would be nice. Flying, being huge and scaly...a water dragon maybe? flying + swimming!

23. How many pets do you have? What are their names?

None :(

24. Coffee or Tea?

Tea, black and sweet

25. Favorite Nickelodeon, Disney, or Cartoon Network Show?

A:TLA <3 <3 <3 Ugly Americans is great too tho.

26. What is your dream house? Can you describe it?

The former house of my grandparents in the mountains - old stone & modern furniture, with a big garden, an old shed, and forest and meadows nearby.

27. Future pets you hope to have? What are their names, if so?

A rat <3

28. Favorite Book(s)?

So many! Currently the Vorkosigan Saga. An all time favorite is “Darkness at Noon” by Arthur Koestler.

29. If you owned a store, what would you sell?

I’d love to sell artist gear, but, you know, affordable one.

30. If you could go back in time without alternating history, where would you go?

Ancient Egypt! Also, Renaissance Italy looks lit

32. Favorite YouTuber(s)?

I’m not on YouTube much anymore, but I still like Mathieu Sommet (French youtuber, Salut les Geeks) and of course the guys from FrenchBall and Golden Moustache

Up for it, @korrathevampireslayer3791?

[starwarsnonsense]

The Last Jedi Trailer - A Shot-by-Shot, Spoiler-Filled Breakdown

Okay, I can tell that I’m going to get no peace until I’ve got this out of my system, so I’m going to aim to do a shot-by-shot breakdown of the brand-new and absolutely flipping fantastic Last Jedi teaser trailer.

This breakdown will be heavily informed by spoilers from sites such as Making Star Wars, and I cannot stress it enough that you should not proceed if you want to remain pure.

(n.b. I don’t touch upon the dialogue here - none of it is part of the scenes shown, and the dialogue really deserves a breakdown of its own.)

With that said, proceed to the breakdown - if you dare...

Shot #1 - Rey appears to have just come out of the small cave behind her. She’s distressed and overcome by what she has experienced. She is still in her Resistance outfit and has the three buns hairstyle (from toy packaging, we know that she later has long hair with a single bun and different clothes). I’m guessing this is a shot from the first act, just after Rey has her equivalent of Luke’s vision of beheading Vader in the cave from ESB. 

Shot #2 - A lovely establishing shot of Ahch-To as the sun sets. My guess is that this is an establishing shot used to set the mood for the sequence where Kylo and his cohorts pay Rey and Luke a visit.

Shot #3 - Another Ahch-To establishing shot. It wouldn’t surprise me if this is one of the first shots in the film, as the colour grading reminds me of that of the final scene of The Force Awakens.

Shot #4 - Rey facing the sea on Ahch-To. She seems to be tense, as if she’s preparing for something. My guess is that she knows Kylo is coming, and is preparing herself for his arrival and the inevitable battle. The fight takes place at dusk, according to reports, which matches well with the darkening sky seen here. Some people have speculated that this is tied to the scene where Rey fights a sea monster, but I find this unlikely since MSW have reported that she wears a black cloak for said sequence. This is presumably the black cloak/poncho Rey is seen in below:

(A photo of Rey in The Last Jedi shown at the SWCO TLJ panel.)

Shot #5 - A training shot of Rey levitating rocks. This again seems to be from early in the film, since the sleeve belongs to Rey’s Resistance outfit.

Shot #6 - I’m 99% sure this is Leia (seen from the back) at some kind of Resistance command centre. The silhouette, intriguingly, calls to mind far more sinister imagery - in particular, the silhouettes of her father Darth Vader and her son Kylo Ren. It’s possible that this is about her acknowledging her dark-side lineage through her clothing, in the sense that she’s not denying it anymore (I don’t for a moment think Leia is turning to the dark side in this movie) - I expect there to be a general theme of characters learning about their lineage and coming to embrace it, rather than suppress it. (Remember Lor San Tekka’s “you cannot deny the truth that is your family” line? I think that’s going to prove highly prescient.) Her costume here seems to be a good match for what Carrie is wearing in this behind-the-scenes shot shown during the panel:

(Rian Johnson directing Carrie Fisher on the set of The Last Jedi.)

Shot #7 - As far as I’m concerned, this is one of the most intriguing shots in the trailer. Kylo’s mask has been shattered, and is surrounded by shards of broken glass. You can also see smoke curling up from the fragments, indicating that the mask was attacked with a lightsaber or a blaster. Since Kylo’s mask was left on the bridge in TFA, this is presumably the upgraded or modified version brought up by MSW here. The glass suggests to me that the helmet might have been kept in some kind of display case, perhaps being perceived as a relic of an ancient Force user. It certainly points against its having been in regular use. The fact that the helmet has been shattered into fragments might - and I really mean might - represent Kylo abandoning the mask for good, especially if it comes to pass that he rejects Snoke and the First Order and decides to fashion a new identity for himself.

I have also seen it suggested that the destruction of the mask could indicate that Kylo rejects the mask because he now considers himself to be a stable embodiment of darkness, and no longer needs to wear a mask to affect evil. I don’t agree with this interpretation, the main reason being that Kylo has previously been shown to attack/destroy things when he is in a state of heightened rage or distress (e.g. attacking the console when he learns the droid has escaped/attacking the interrogation chair when he learns that Rey is gone). The mask represents and embodies the Kylo Ren persona, so - as far as I’m concerned - an attack on the mask represents an attack on Kylo Ren himself. This reminds me of an old comment Adam Driver made to Larry King. When asked if Kylo Ren survived The Last Jedi, Adam replied "Depends on what your idea of living is” - based on that, my bet is currently on Kylo Ren’s death and Ben Solo’s return.

Shot #8 - This appears to be the interior of the tree on Ahch-To, which can be seen clearly in the behind-the-scenes shot of the Longcross backlot below. Inside the tree is a collection of books. We know from the EU that Luke has been hunting for lore on the Jedi and the Force ever since ROTJ ended. It wouldn’t surprise me if these books represent Luke’s most significant find - the Dead Sea Scrolls of the Force. In relation to this, I strongly recommend reading the recent Star Wars News Net article on Luke’s lore-hunting adventures, and the dramatic and transformative impact of what he discovers. The spoilers we have about the importance of ancient lore to this movie - along with Luke’s “it’s time for the Jedi to end” line - offer strong support to the idea that Luke discovered something massive about the nature of the Force that caused him to completely modify his understanding of it and lose his faith in the righteousness of the Jedi.

(The Force tree photographed at Longross.)

Shot #9 - This is presumably what’s inside one of the books previously shown. It reminds me of two things - the star maps that Empire’s End keeps on harping on about (please see @holocroning’s excellent post on this for more info), and the symbol of the Jedi Order. I’m guessing that this manuscript in particular is the key to ancient knowledge of the Force that turns Luke’s world upside down and causes him to reassess everything he thought he knew. The owner of the gloved hand is unknown, but it’s possible that it’s Luke (given that he would presumably need a glove to cover his mechanical hand).

(The symbol of the Jedi Order.)

Shot #10 - Luke is seen training Rey on the cliffside on Ahch-To. Again, it appears to be first act stuff, going by Rey’s silhouette. As others have pointed out, zooming in on the image reveals what seems to be a tiny figure perched atop the tall rock beside Rey. It’s well within the realm of possibility that this figure is Yoda’s Force ghost, participating in the supervision of Rey’s training. (Frank Oz has previously strongly indicated that he’s part of The Last Jedi, so this is really no surprise.)

Shot #11 - This is Crait, the Resistance planet recently discussed by Making Star Wars in a spoiler report. The Resistance ships are flying towards the AT-ATs (most likely the gorilla-esque ones described by Making Star Wars here) seen far in the distance. The ships appear to be splitting open the earth to release the brilliant red gas contained beneath the surface. Location filming for this was done on salt flats in Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia. Rian Johnson cleared up what’s going on here in an interview with Entertainment Weekly:

“It’s way out there. It’s very remote. It’s uncharted,” says Johnson. “It’s a mineral planet and so there are mines on it.” The director (previously best known for Brick and Looper) noted how there are some “beautiful design elements and I hope some really unique ones that we’re able to bring into it.”

The shot of these small ships darting toward gigantic walkers mimics the snowy Hoth battle sequence from The Empire Strikes Back, but this white crust is salt. “The white dusting of salt over this red, ruby-ish mineral base,” he says.

According to Johnson, Crait is the site of an “an old rebel base there that’s now abandoned” and the planet was one of the first things he had in mind when planning The Last Jedi.

“It ends up playing a key role in the movie,” he says, adding that the Resistance fighters — flying in the skimmers seen in the trailer — “show up where they have to deal with a very pressing and immediate threat.”

Shot #12 - This is Finn in his recovery suit. This is pretty much guaranteed to be a shot from right at the start of the film, when we see him recovering from his injuries. Making Star Wars describe this scene here.

Shot #13 - This is clearly a Resistance outpost (in SPAAAAAAACE) under attack. Poe and BB-8 run towards the danger as others run away. I’m guessing the Resistance start the movie here, having abandoned D’Qar. Poe, going by his flight suit, is presumably running to get to his ship...

Shot #14 - ... only to encounter a little trouble when said ship is blown up in front of him. MSW have recently discussed how Poe has an upgraded X-wing in The Last Jedi, and this shot does a good job of summarising why he had an excuse to get an upgrade.

Shot #15 - This appears to be the Millennium Falcon taking down First Order TIE fighters. The most interesting thing here is the setting - you can see the sea here, so I’m pretty confident that this shot shows a battle in the skies of Ahch-To (though it’s also possible that it might be Canto Bight (the planet/city represented by the location filming in Dubrovnik), which we know is on the coast). If this does happen in the skies above Ahch-To, I’m guessing this sequence is nothing to do with Kylo Ren’s arrival, which appears to happen as the sun is going down and darkness is closing in. I could see this shot representing the First Order storming the planet after Kylo Ren’s defeat/capture, but that is largely my conjecture.

Shot #16 - Notice the dark sky again here - my bet is on this showing Rey heading in to fight Kylo Ren after he arrives on the island. Again, Rey is still in her Resistance gear, which supports our pre-existing belief that the Kylo/Rey battle takes place in the first act.

Shot #17 - MA BOY. Kylo is obviously looking very menacing right here. I also find it interesting that he looks exhausted, as if he hasn’t slept for days (a state Celebration attendees can probably empathise with). It wouldn’t surprise me if he chases after Rey as soon as he is sufficiently recovered to move, but isn’t recovered/prepared enough to face both Rey and his uncle. There is a huge blaze behind him. MSW have speculated about Kylo setting the tree on Ahch-To on fire, and while I wasn’t sold on that before I now think that’s more likely to be the case. I’m becoming more convinced that there’s going to be a substantial time skip between act one and act two of the movie, with the burnt-out tree representing the passage of time (along with Rey’s change in costume/hairstyle).

Kylo turns his lightsaber slightly here as if he’s making a demonstration/taking a stand. I expect this shot will probably precede a highly dramatic confrontation with Luke and/or Rey.

However, it’s also worth nothing that there’s something very odd going on with Kylo’s scar here, and that is that it seems to be in a different place from where it is seen in other shots of him in The Last Jedi. In this screencap, the scar bisects Kylo’s eyebrow. In other shots (see below), it seems to be more above his nose, which is more accurate to the position of the lightsaber strike in The Force Awakens. It’s possible that the image of Kylo above is actually from some heightened, anticipatory vision, where Rey imagines an almost demonic Kylo chasing her to Ahch-To to take his vengeance. It’s also possible that the screencap shows Kylo back at the destruction of Luke’s temple, which we know was set aflame. (All wild theories aside, it’s also possible it’s just a continuity error.)

(Kylo in The Last Jedi - an image from Battlefront II is above, and an image of Kylo from TLJ panel is below.)

Shot #18 - This proves that we’re returning to the moment from the vision in The Force Awakens where Luke places his hand on R2. Luke appears to have sunk to his knees besides R2, presumably heartbroken upon discovering that his temple has been burnt and his students murdered. The scale of the destruction here says to me that this is not a one-man job. I don’t believe Kylo pulled this off alone - there was either some kind of large-scale student mutiny or Kylo had the firepower of the First Order behind him.

(The flashback to Luke and R2 from The Force Awakens.)                                                                                                  

Shot #19 - Phasma is shown storming (what I guess is) a Resistance base with a squad of what I’m assuming are the Executioner Stormtroopers described here by MSW. I expect that this is a continuation of shot #14, serving as a parallel to Vader sweeping into Hoth just after the Rebels have abandoned the outpost.

Shots #20 and 21 - These shots seem to tie into a recent Making Star Wars spoiler report on Laura Dern’s character, which reveals that she is a fashionista/Resistance Admiral (named ‘Holdo’). MSW describe the ships and the battle they’re involved in as follows:

However it also sounds like the new Resistance ships [Admiral Holdo] brings to the fleet are formidable. They’re sort of an abstract design but they have ball turrets on them just like the Low Altitude Assault Transports from Attack of the Clones. Supposedly you can see the Resistance fighters in them as they blast TIEs and go up against Supreme Leader Snoke’s Mega Destroyer.

Shot #22 - This shot appears to be from the interior of the cave that we see the exterior of in shot #1, and may be part of the same scene. When you alter the contrast of this screencap, it becomes clear that this shot shows the interior of a tree rather than the rocky walls of a cave - that makes it likely that its the same location as the one with the library with ancient manuscripts seen in shot #8. You can also see Rey's staff leaning against the wall, which suggests that Luke is probably looking back at her. Luke has clearly changed his costume from what he was wearing at the end of The Force Awakens - the costume appears to be more practical than the quasi-ceremonial robes he was wearing at the end of TFA and will be wearing at the start of TLJ, which suggests that some time must pass between the start of TLJ and this scene.

[kareenvorbarra]

Stealing an excellent prompt from Vardas - top 5 edain quotes!

OKAY GONNA ANSWER THESE LAST FEW ANCIENT MEME PROMPTS

i’m gonna do it the same way you did, with actual lines of dialogue spoken by Edain characters. honestly it was a struggle not to fill this list completely with CoH quotes but I did my best. 

Predictably this got long so quotes and explanatory yelling are under the cut

1. Beren

To Felagund then Beren said: ”Twere little loss if I were dead,and I am minded all to tell, and thus, perchance, from this dark hell thy life to loose. I set thee free from thine old oath, for more for me hast thou endured than e’er was earned.’

The Lay of Leithian, Canto X

OUCH. let me cry at you about how little Beren values his own life, how much guilt he feels at outliving almost everyone he ever cared about, how he recovered some of his will to live after spending a few months in the forest with Luthien but after watching his new friends get eaten in werewolf jail he’s pretty much right back to square one x_x save him

2. Hurin and Morwen

‘And if we gain our ends, then the Elven-kings are resolved to restore all the fief’s of Beor’s house to his heir; and that is you, Morwen daughter of Baragund. Wide lordships we should then wield, and a high inheritance come to our son. Without the malice in the North he should come to great wealth, and be a king among Men.’

‘Hurin Thalion,’ said Morwen, ‘this I judge truer to say: that you look high, but I fear to fall low.’

The Children of Hurin, Chapter 1

Hurin/Morwen is the best-written Tolkien ship and that is the hill i will die on. all their conversations in the CoH are so good and shippy and full of awful foreshadowing and dramatic irony. you can feel their devotion to one another and how much they trust each other even though they have such different personalities and ways of looking at the world. Hurin’s been through a lot but he’s so determinedly hopeful, and Morwen wants to believe things will be alright (and in Hurin’s company it’s almost easy to believe) but she can’t quite bring herself to do it after everything she’s seen. 

my favorite thing about THIS quote in particular is that apparently, at some point in the planning stages of the Nirnaeth, Hurin and Fingon and maybe Maedhros sat down and discussed what they were going to do once they took back Ladros, and Hurin was like “that land belongs to humans, specifically my wife” and the elves were like “yeah you’re right”….god idk just something about Hurin recognizing her as the heir to the house of Beor, that that position still holds weight in his eyes and the eyes of the elves, gives me a lot of feelings 

3. Turin

‘All this I have answered,’ said Túrin. 'Valiant defence of the borders and hard blows ere the enemy gathers; in that course lies the best hope of your long abiding together. And do those that you speak of love such skulkers in the woods, hunting strays like a wolf, better than one who puts on his helm and figured shield, and drives away the foe, be they far greater than all his host? At least the women of the Edain do not. They did not hold back the men from the Nirnaeth Arnoediad.’

The Children of Hurin, Chapter 10

okay i fucking HATE this quote kjghjlhgfjaksdgh along with the whole exchange between Turin and Gwindor that comes before it. i love it, but god does it hurt me. this is one of those moments when it’s so painfully obvious how out-of-touch Turin truly is, how little he knows about his own people. he was a child during the Nirnaeth, and sheltered from the worst of its aftermath in Dor-lomin, and it’s like he still views it through a child’s eyes - the men who went to the battle and never returned are heroes, and to behave any other way would be cowardly.

i love him, i love this speech, i totally understand how he ended up feeling this way, but GOD Turin you don’t know what you’re talking about!!!! i’m so mad!!!!!!!! “they did not hold back the men from the Nirnaeth Arnoedied” as if that means anything! as if that means none of them tried, or wanted to try but didn’t because it would have been useless! also this quote makes me think of Rian because you KNOW she didn’t want them to go, she’d been married for TWO MONTHS and she hated war and literally all her other male relatives had died in combat, and Morwen had major reservations about the whole thing too but Turin didn’t know about that because he was a little kid!!!!!!!! anyway i’m really upset about this family, why couldn’t they all stay together and be happy and get to know each other properly!!!!!!

4. Tuor

‘Gurth an Glamhoth!’ Tuor muttered. ‘Now the sword shall come from under the cloak. I will risk death for mastery of that fire, and even the meat of Orcs would be a prize.’

Unfinished Tales, Of Tuor and His Coming To Gondolin

Okay this one’s short but i LOVE all the lines where dangerous outlaw Tuor comes through, because he’s the same person as beautiful cinnamon roll Tuor, and kind, sweet characters with a violent streak are my WEAKNESS (see also: Tuor wrecking Maeglin’s shit with his bare hands in BoLT). so here’s my son snarling death threats in Sindarin, ready to kill the shit out of some Orcs. and possibly eat them afterwards, who knows (Voronwe: *whispers* what the fuck)

5. Aerin

'He speaks with the truth of death,’ said Aerin. 'You have learned what you would. Now go swiftly! But go first to Morwen and comfort her, or I will hold all the wrack you have wrought here hard to forgive. For ill though my life was, you have brought death to me with your violence. The Incomers will avenge this night on all that were here. Rash are your deeds, son of Hurin, as if you were still but the child that I knew.’

The Children of Hurin, Chapter 

ugh okay sorry that 2/5 of this post is me getting upset about things Turin says about Edain women, i actually love Turin a lot thanks ju but god….he’s so….oblivious sometimes and it’s not really his fault but i still want to shake him and yell “you have the NERVE to insult this woman who helped and protected your mother and sister for years and endured decades of horrifying abuse the likes of which you’ve never experienced, all of which you should KNOW because SADOR JUST TOLD YOU.” 

enough about Turin. Aerin is one of the most important Tolkien characters to me - she has such a presence even though she only appears in the story briefly, and everything she says and does carries so much weight and i’m impressed that Tolkien managed to create a character of such depth with just a few pages and a handful of earlier references. i don’t think Tolkien wrote enough women, but when he did, he tended to do a good job with them (better than some later fantasy writers tbqh). and the Children of Hurin is very special i think because it has maybe the highest density of female characters in anything Tolkien ever wrote (Morwen, Finduilas, Aerin, Nienor), and they’re all different and they actually say things and we get insight into their lives and thoughts and motivations. 

Aerin is very specifically portrayed as strong in a way that Turin doesn’t recognize as strength - quiet, enduring, pragmatic - and she’s bitter and miserable and victimized but she still uses what little power she has to help others. Tolkien recognizes that, and he makes it clear that Turin is wrong about her. My other favorite Aerin-related line that didn’t quite make this list is when Asgon, one of the thralls who escapes with Turin, tells him that he thinks Aerin was the one who set the hall on fire, then says, “Many a man of arms misreads patience and quiet. She did much good among us at much cost. Her heart was not faint, and patience will break at the last.” i love that Aerin is this respected figure among her people, that everyone from elderly homeless Sador to young strong restless Asgon loves Aerin and recognizes that just living her life the way she does requires strength and bravery. so i’d like to non-sarcastically thank Tolkien for giving us Aerin, and for leaving her fate ambiguous even though every Tolkien reference site/blog on this damn internet seems determined to pretend that her death is canon i’m looking at you askmiddlearth

[phantombeaver]

TELL US ABOUT YOUR OCS!

Oh wow ok! I’m super happy someone is interested in them omg! 

SO I’m working on like 4 different stories right now (yeah i know, but two of them just need to be edited and two are still in pre-writing stage), so I have a whole lot of characters... hmm... But here are the MCs of my most worked-on story (in a very brief description);

Liv is an arospec/ace necromancer who sort of breaks the law by ressurecting a dude who was killed by a demon. She is super nice and anxious and very good at improv, but she is the worst detective ever (she does try though). 

Victor is a transboy who acidentally summoned a demon, got killed, and was rescued by Liv, and they are now working together. He loves music and is, also, a very bad detective. 

Benedict/Benny is Livs immortal great-great-great-great grandfather who is exiled to his apartment and just wants to binge watch day time television until he is pulled into the adventure in order to keep his granddaughter safe. Pulls a lot of  dad-jokes. 

I have so many OCs holy heck... Some other that I have worked on a lot but are from different stories; 

Rose - Young woman who gets drafted into being a council guard and is thrown into a conflic she woudl rather stay away from in order to keep her family safe. She is an umbramancer (which is pretty much punishable by death)Canto - Mage prince whos country is in conflct with Rose’s, but after the two nations gets a common enemy the prince reaches out for help. Huge dork. Luke - Rose’s adoptive brother. Had one thing he loved a whole lot, which was the only thing he felt really good at, but he had it ripped away from him and is now dealing with trying to recover (my precious bean). Nour - Sky-smuggler and the most sought after criminal in the country. Secretly a mage who works with an underground rebellion that protects mages from the inquisition.  Seilir - Bountry hunter turned royal guard of another nation (the common enemy nation, dont wanna give too much away)tasked with assasinating Canto as well as to take down some of the Council memebers. and Leonard - the youngest Council representative and an inventor from a family that revolutionized the nation with their work. 

I love them all so so so much!

[trilotechcorp]

New Post has been published on PBA-Live

New Post has been published on http://pba-live.com/back-to-back-wins-fruit-of-ginebras-defensive-mindset-says-mercado/

Back-to-back wins fruit of Ginebra’s defensive mindset, says Mercado

The stocky 6-foot-1 Mercado provided the offensive spark in the final frame as the Gin Kings took full control and refused to give the Hotshots any chance to recover in their 113-98 victory.

The win further underscored their readiness to heavily contend in the 2017 PBA Commissioner’s Cup.

Down by as much as 12 points in the third canto, the Gin Kings showed signs of life in the third canto mainly behind import Justin Brownlee.

The sweet-shooting American also got plenty of support from their local crew, led by LA Tenorio and Mercado, during a decisive push early in the fourth quarter to pull away from the Hotshots in impressive fashion.

“I’m just trying to be aggressive,” said Mercado, who banged in eight straight of his 15 points in the fourth, highlighted by back-to-back triples for a 90-80 lead with more than nine minutes to play.

“My teammates gave me those looks and luckily, I was hitting my shots.”

The same way that Mercado did in Ginebra’s epic 4-3 semifinal series victory over Star in the season-opening Philippine Cup.

Defense, however, did the trick for the Gin Kings this time, stressed the former Biola U standout. “Like I said before, it was not just me, it’s the entire team who played great defense. With Justin’s versatility, we are able to play good defense.”

For sure, the Gin Kings gained ample confidence booster as they racked up their second straight win in three starts while stopping the Hotshots’ four-game winning run.

“They are a great team and they are playing with great momentum. To beat them is definitely a huge boost to us,” said Mercado, who also collected seven assists, three rebounds and two blocks in 32 minutes of solid play off the bench.

“Personally, I just like to play every possession, try to break the game down and not try to think about the goal which is winning. I don’t try to be good or great in each possession. My mindset was just thinking how badly we needed this win.”

The victory should also keep the Gin Kings in high spirits as they plunge into a 9-day respite.

“We needed to get our morales boosted, our confidence boosted because we are entering a long break. We don’t want to enter that with a loss. Hopefully we can still carry the confidence we got from this to our next game,” concluded Mercado. – Fox Sports Asia

[trilotechcorp]

New Post has been published on PBA-Live

New Post has been published on http://pba-live.com/smb-banks-on-championship-poise-to-disrupt-meralcos-hot-start/

SMB banks on championship poise to disrupt Meralco’s hot start

Picking up from where they left off: With only less than two weeks to prepare, the debuting Beermen recovered in time to flex their muscle down the stretch, erecting a 12-point cushion, led by shooters Alex Cabagnot and Marcio Lassiter, in the last five minutes to which the Bolts found hard to climb.

Starter power: San Miguel’s first five accounted for 87 of their 99 points, with reigning three-time MVP June Mar Fajardo collecting 24 points and 12 rebounds. Cabagnot and Lassiter combined for 39 points while import Charles Rhodes finished with 22 and 12.

SMB Twin Tower: As promised from head coach Leo Austria, the twin tower of Fajardo and Rhodes delivered in their first game, making the life of Meralco import Alex Stepheson a little harder in the paint. Stepheson, though, still finished with 21 markers and 26 boards.

Need bench?: Veteran forward Arwind Santos scored 12 points in the game, which was the only bench point for San Miguel as seven Beermen were DNP while back-up guard Ronald Tubid was thrown out in the game due to flagrant foul penalty 2 infraction.

Amer miracle: Second-year guard Baser Amer continues his rise for Meralco as he put up 16 points, 9 in the final canto, on top of 8 assists and 4 rebounds in a losing effort.

Power disruption: Meralco was poised to hand San Miguel an early reality check, only to falter in the end with their defense allowing the Beermen to nearly breach the 100-mark. The Bolts (4-1) ended up surrendering the top spot to Alaska (4-0).

Quote of the match: “I never thought na we will be playing like this. Especially at the start dahil I’m expecting na mag-struggle kami dito sa simula. it’s very obvious na everybody was so rusty, most of the shot taken in the first half wide open pero hindi pumapasok.” – head coach Leo Austria

Fox Sports Asia