#also its so exciting that i literally just have to stick to The Intended Path or ill explode

[effervescentleaf]

jeepers this game is so overwhelming (i want to do everything it has to offer at once)

[dangermousie]

Mousie’s absolutely subjective, very biased Top 10 web novels list

Please note that this is hardly aiming to be objective, if one can even be properly objective about a work of fiction. It is 110% based on my preferences, which means this list is heavy on the angst and has nothing set in the modern day. It is also heavily danmei-centric, even though I read way more het romance than danmei, because for whatever reason, most of the danmei I’ve read has been insanely good.

10. Return of the Swallow - one of the two non-danmeis on this list. Smart and nuanced and with a large cast of characters. Our heroine is a long-lost daughter of the family that is brought back in and has to cope with familial struggles, crazy royals, court intrigue, invasion et al. It’s SO GOOD! There is romance with the sexy smart enemy general but honestly, it’s the heroine that is the main selling point for me.

9. Transmigrator Meets Reincarnator - the only other non-danmei novel on this list, this was my very first web novel and what drew me into this insanity. This is just a ton of fun, probably the lightest novel on this list, not an ounce of angst to be found. But it’s hilarious and features competent heroine and tsundere hero and I will always love it for opening a new world to me. Anyway, our heroine transmigrates into the novel as the female lead. Unlike the original lead though she doesn’t want to seek adventures and angst - she just wants to comfortably live with the wealthy, nice husband heroine has. Alas, said husband is no longer nice since he has previously lived this story where he was betrayed by FL and then transmigrated/reincarnated into the past. Oh well, the heroine opens up businesses and makes friends. And eventually, her husband realizes his wife is way different this time around. This actually doesn’t have much romance, not until close to the end, but this is so fun I don’t care.

8. Lord Seventh - I am only partway through this so far, but it’s already on the list because it’s smart and somehow intense AND laid-back (not sure how this works, but it does) and is honestly just a really really solid and smart period novel, with the OTP a cherry on top of a narrative sundae. Plus, I love the concept of MC deciding he is not going for his supposedly fated love - he’s tried for six lifetimes, always with disaster, and he’s just plain done and tired. When he opens his life in his seventh reincarnation and sees the person he would have given up the world for, he genuinely feels nothing at all. (Spoiler - his OTP is actually a barbarian shaman this time around, thank you Lord!)

7. Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (MDZS) - oh come on, how are you even on this tumblr if you don’t know MDZS/The Untamed? This was my very first danmei and it’s so much fun! I love everything about it - the unreliable narrator, the looping structure, the main OTP, Wei Wuxian’s laidback, traumatized insouciance, everything. Anyway, the plot in the event you somehow transported here from 2005 is that the Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, Wei Wuxian, was defeated by the righteous sects over a decade ago and fell of a cliff to his death. Only now that same Wei Wuxian opens his eyes in another body and everything that was supposed to stay in the past starts again.

6. Heaven Official’s Blessing (TGCF) - people either love its meandering narrative, picaresque structure and cast of thousands, or find it a detriment compared to much more compact MDZS. I love it even more than MDZS for those very qualities. It does have a rock-solid, darling OTP, but what really elevates it to me are the MXTX trademark combo of snarky/light tone hiding a ton of trauma underneath, the insanely intricate world-building, and what it has to say about the nature of grace and goodness. Xie Lian is one of my top 5 web novel characters and probably in top 10 from anywhere. Oh, and while MXTX’s stuff is not as angsty for me as Meatbun’s or even Priest’s, there are always exceptions, and there is one chapter in this novel that pretty much broke me and sometimes I still flashback to it and feel unwell.

Anyway, what is it about? There is a commotion in the heavenly realm - Xie Lian, the Crown Prince of a long-destroyed kingdom, has ascended to Godhood. That in itself is not so exciting. However for Xie Lian this is the third time (!!!!) as he’s ascended and lost his godhood twice prior. And now, the biggest joke of the divine realm is back, throwing the heavenly realm into chaos. And elsewhere, Hua Cheng, one of the four most powerful demons of that Universe, sits up and takes notice.

5. Golden Stage - my perfect comfort novel. Probably the least angsty of any danmei novel on this list (which still means plenty angsty :P) It also has a dedicated, smart OTP that is an OTP for the bulk of the book - I think you will notice that in most of the novels in this list, I go for “OTP against the world” trope - I can’t stand love triangles and the same. Anyway, Fu Shen, is a famous general whose fame is making the emperor antsy. When he gets injured and can’t walk any more, the emperor gladly recalls him and marries him off to his most faithful court lackey, the head of sort of secret police, Yan Xiaohan. The emperor intends it both as a check on the general and a general spite move since the two men always clash in court whenever they meet. But not all is at is seems. They used to be friends a long time ago, had a falling out, and one of the loveliest parts of the novel is them finding their way to each other, but there is also finding the middle path between their two very different philosophies and ways of being, not to mention solving a conspiracy or dozen, and putting a new dynasty on the throne, among other things. It always makes me think, a little, of “if Mei Changsu x Jingyan were canon.”

4. Sha Po Lang - if you like a lot of fantasy politics and world-building and steampunk with your novels, this one is for you. This one is VERY plot-heavy with smart, dedicated characters and a deconstruction of many traditional virtues - our protagonist Chang Geng, a long-lost son of the Emperor, is someone who wants to modernize the country but also take down the current emperor his brother for progress’ sake and the person he’s in love with is the general who saved him when he was a kid who is nominally his foster father. Anyway, the romance is mainly a garnish in this one, not even a big side dish, but the relationship between two smart, dedicated, deadly individuals with very different concepts of duty is fascinating long before it turns romantic. And if you like angst, while overall it’s not as angsty as e.g., Meatbun stuff, Chang Geng’s childhood is the stuff of nightmares and probably freaks me out more than anything else in any novel on this list, 2ha included.

3. To Rule In a Turbulent World (LSWW) - gay Minglan. No seriously. This is how I think of it. it’s a slice of life period novel with fascinating characters and setting that happens to have a gay OTP, not a romance in a period setting per se and I always prefer stories where the romance is not the only thing that is going on. It’s meticulously written and smart and deals with character development and somehow makes daily minutia fascinating. Our protagonist, You Miao, is the son of a fabulously wealthy merchant, sent to the capital to make connections and study. As the story starts, he sees his friend’s servants beating someone to death, feels bad, and buys him because, as we discover gradually and organically, You Miao may be wealthy and occasionally immature but he is a genuinely good person. The person he buys is a barbarian from beyond the wall, named Li Zhifeng. It’s touch and go if the man will survive but eventually he does and You Miao, who by then has to return home, gives him his papers and lets him go. However, LZF decides to stick with You Miao instead, both out of sense of debt for YM saving his life and because he genuinely likes him (and yet, there is no instalove on either of their parts, their bodies have fun a lot quicker than their souls.) Anyway, the two take up farming, get involved in the imperial exams and it’s the life of prosperity and peace, until an invasion happens and things go rapidly to hell. This is so nuanced, so smart (smart people in this actually ARE!) and has secondary characters who are just as complex as the mains (for example, I ended up adoring YM’s friend, the one who starts the plot by almost beating LZF to death for no reason) because the novel never forgets that few people are all villain. There is a lovely character arc or two - watching YM grow up and LZF thaw - there is the fact that You Miao is a unicorn in web novels being laid back and calm. This whole thing is a masterpiece.

2. Stains of Filth (Yuwu) - want the emotional hit of 2ha but want to read something half its length? Well, the author of 2ha is here to eviscerate you in a shorter amount of time. This has the beautiful world-building, plot twists that all make sense and, at the center of it all, an intense and all-consuming and gloriously painful relationship between two generals - one aristocratic loner Mo Xi, and the other gregarious former slave general Gu Mang. Once they were best friends and lovers, but when the novel starts, Gu Mang has long turned traitor and went to serve the enemy kingdom and has now been returned and Mo Xi, who now commands the remnants of his slave army, has to cope with the fact that he has never been able to get over the man who stabbed him through the heart. Literally. This novel has a gorgeously looping structure, with flashbacks interwoven into present storyline. There is so much love and longing and sacrifice in this that I am tearing up a bit just thinking of it. If you don’t love Mo Xi and Gu Mang, separately and together, by the end of it, you have no soul.

1. The Dumb Husky and His White Cat Shizun (2ha/erha) - if you’ve been following my tumblr for more than a hot second, you know my obsession with this novel. Honestly, even if I were to make a list of my top 10 novels of any kind, not just webnovels, this would be on the list. It has everything I want - a complicated, intricate plot with an insane amount of plot twists, all of which are both unexpected and make total sense, a rich and large cast of characters, a truly epic OTP that makes me bawl, emotional intensity that sometimes maxes even me out and so much character nuance and growth. Also, Moran is my favorite web novel character ever, hands down.

Anyway, the plot (or at least the way it first appears) is that the evil emperor of the cultivation world, Taxian Jun, kills himself at 32 and wakes up in the body of his 16 year old self, birth name Moran. Excited to get a redo, Moran wants to save his supposed true love Shimei, whose death the last go-around pushed him towards evil. He also wants to avoid entanglement with Chu Wanning, his shizun and sworn enemy in past life. And that’s all you are best off knowing, trust me. The only hint I am going to give is oooh boy the mother of all unreliable narrators has arrived!

The novel starts light and funny on boil the frog principle - if someone told me I would be full bawling multiple times with this novel, I’d have thought they were insane, but i swear my eyes hurt by the end of it. I started out being amused and/or disliking the mains and by the end I would die for either of them.

[coffeeandcalligraphy]

10 things finishing my 10th book taught me

Hey People of Earth!

(I cannot believe I typed the title of this post!)

Today, I’m going to be sharing 10 things finishing my 10th book taught me, which means--as of 2:30 this morning, I have finished writing my tenth novel, aka MOTH WORK. I’ve written posts like this for my 7th, 8th, and 9th novels as well!

Enjoy this note no one asked me to write but that I wrote because I was sad: 

I introduced this project on this blog back in June, but actually started it in the notes app of my iPhone (iconic) sometime in January of 2019. At this time, my mental health was *lackin* as I was stressed and in my final months of high school. I needed something to cheer me up, and so Moth Work became a place where I could dump my “bad writing” and also have fun. For more context, you can read more about Moth Work in my various writing updates HERE. 

I didn’t intend for this project to become a novel, but thought I’d write it as a longer “for fun” story (prospective word count was 5k words). I chipped away at it for a few months, but didn’t really start picking it up as a serious project until around May/June. It was only once summer vacation hit that I, under the advice of my therapist to have a “reach goal” for the summer, decided to say fuck it!! I shall write this as a novel (prospective word count now 50k words). This novel has seen me graduate high school + almost finish my first year of university, and I’m so excited to share all the wonderful things I learned while writing it!

1. It is totally okay to take your “guilty pleasures” seriously. 

I was in a mega dilemma writing this book. I’d wrapped up writing my ninth novel just after starting this project, and felt a need to write something that was more “serious”. Though I’m an advocate for writing what you want, when you want, even I struggled not to feel like I was wasting my time writing a project that didn’t have very much literary/craft merit (in my eyes, this changed eventually). 

I am here to tell you--do NOT let anyone, including yourself, shame you out of writing what you like. Allow yourself to let loose and write “bad” things, and remember you don’t have to feel guilty/ashamed for writing stuff that seems “juvenile” or “bad”.

2. Processes change--embrace this.

I took about 4000 different approaches writing this book, and though I really wanted to stick to one (outlining, pantsing), eventually, I let my process be what it wanted to be. For example, I am a pantser and began this novel pantsing. Very quickly, I realized I needed an outline because I could not keep track of events (this book begins very plot-oriented). But, pre-determining events that would happen eventually stopped working as I began feeling constrained, and so I settled for outlining as I went so I could keep track of plot points. 

I outlined 10 of the 15 chapters like this before I sort of... stopped doing this (though I will go back and fill it in just for future reference)! I went back to full-blown pantsing in the last four or so chapters, as what I’d planned would NOT pan out--and I think it’s so important to let your process be what it wants to be. Sometimes this book needed some planning--sometimes it really didn’t. This flexibility has really allowed me to be in touch with my projects more, and really listen to them/understand what it is they need. 

3. Sometimes plans change. Don’t be afraid to follow your gut.

I did not plan for Moth Work to be a novel. But as the project developed, so did its final form. My gut was telling me what I needed to do (continue writing), and another example of this is when I sporadically made this a dual point of view book! I’ve never written a full-length dual POV manuscript, and haven’t written dual POV since I was 12, but I didn’t let that stop me from doing what I knew in my gut, was what the book needed. 

I want to emphasize here--sometimes the vision you imagine changes. Allow this change to happen if you feel it’s right, even if it’s scary. I feel I’ve grown a lot as a writer by just allowing this of myself! It’s easy to beat yourself up for not following your plan, and I did this a lot. Understanding that sometimes plans turn into other plans turn into other plans etc, is the most freeing thing you can do for your writing!

4. Write what makes you happy!

This project began as a means to increase my serotonin lmaooo and I think sometimes as writers, we forget that yes, art is hard, but writing what you like can make that difficulty just a little more tolerable. This book started toiling toward disaster mode for a few chapters in the middle, and I really was not happy writing it. You can feel the difference in the chapters when I felt comfortable writing, versus when I struggled because I felt I “had to”. And so I took a step back and re-evaluated. Since this was not working/not making me happy, what would? This question solved my problems (not easily, but lead me on the right path). The artist! does not! have to! suffer! 

Sometimes problems occur, and critically thinking through them is vital. I’m not saying just to do whatever every time something doesn't work because this isn’t a shortcut. However, my point is not to be afraid to change things up and write what will make you happier and help you finish the book if you feel that’s what you need. I wanted to write a cheesy romance about two boys who both need to chill, and so though I could’ve written something else, I wrote this because it genuinely made me happier! And I love that about this book!

5. Things can take longer than you expect. You’re not a bad writer because of this.

Y’ALL. I wanted to write 50k words of this book over one summer. One month! One! Month! Lots of folks can do this, but I did not! In fact, I hit 50k this month, which is half a year after I projected. 

I think a lot of us constitute speed to being a good writer, and while speed and being a good writer can coexist, speed is not necessarily a determining factor in whether you can write or not! This book took me just over a year from when I started it (nine months from when I took it on as a full-time project), and while sure, I could’ve written it faster, I let it develop as it needed, and wrote it when I felt I could. I am not a professional writer with deadlines (that’s different)! While you gotta put in the time to improve, I think you also gotta look out for yourself! Use your gut, and take your time if that’s what you need!

6. Craft and play can coexist.

This took me so long to grasp, and I still struggle with this today! Craft and play can coexist. Say it with me y’all: craft and play can coexist!!

My manifesto for Moth Work initially was to have it be my dumping ground for shitty writing. While this took the pressure off initially, I then felt like I was regressing in my craft (which was untrue, I just didn’t realize it at the time). So, I decided to begin taking the craft aspect of this book very seriously, trying to write polished, delicious prose (every! time!) and the fact of the matter is that often, this did not happen. 

I beat myself up over this! I was like: Rachel, 16-year-old you was pumping out better prose than this, what’s up? And I put so much pressure on myself to perfect the writing, even though this was only ever meant to be a “for funsies” project. Eventually, I came to understand that, okay, I really do want this to be a for funsies project, but I also want to enjoy re-reading it and not criticizing every aspect of it. I then began incorporating a few passes of line edits after drafting a chapter, until eventually, I stopped circling back to chapters to line-edit them altogether. You don’t have to be perfect on the first draft!

You also don’t have to sacrifice craft to have fun, just as the opposite is true. This book taught me a lot about finding this balance, something I’ve lacked in my writing process for years!

7. Your writing styles can differ from book-to book!

I couldn’t understand why my prose in this book felt “thin” (aka awful in my eyes), why the only thing I felt capable of describing was literally everything shining in some sort of way (glinting, glimmering, glowing lool) or overzealous descriptions of the moon. It was only about a month ago that I realized, after making a breakthrough with my litfic novel Houses With Teeth, that Moth Work was not sucking the life out of my prose--it was just a different book with a different style of writing.

And this makes sense! I was writing with two different characters, in two different perspectives, in a completely different POV than I’m used to writing in the long-form (third-present). Of course things were going to be different! I felt a bit silly realizing this, lol, because it felt so obvious, but I struggled with this for a long time (you can even see bits of this struggle in my video Problems I’m having with writing + solutions). 

I thought I had regressed to being a bad writer because of this book, when in reality, the fault was on my inability to stop comparing a very different book to my very different past works. Sometimes you don’t even realize you’re working against yourself! Acknowledging this, and then letting it go was the best thing I did for this book and it allowed me to draft it much faster toward the end!

8. Writing is NOT linear.

I spoke about this in my Problems video, and I honestly was nervous to see how this hot take would be received. However, I was surprised to see that some folks thought this hot take was actually not a bad one, so I’m re-iterating it here!

I think, because we writers are often always practicing writing, we assume everything we write will be better than the last. Honestly, I feel like at least for me, this was my goal--to always be working linearly in terms of progress. It wasn’t until this book that I really came to realize that this is just not how writing works. The easiest way for me to compare this, also as a visual artist, is to say that sure, practice does make perfect, but I have sketches from last week that are worse than sketches I drew two years ago. Why is it that we expect writing to always be linearly better from one project to the next? My answer is that this is just not how writing works. I wrote some of my favourite paragraphs years ago, and may be embarrassed of a paragraph I write tomorrow. 

I got caught up in this idealism of “I must be writing better each time I write” because I thought this was the most logical progression of my writing craft, but realizing that actually!! progress jumps around, was so important for me. Some days I’m better at writing description, some days I write dialogue worse than I did when I was fourteen! It’s okay not to always be uphill. 

Y’all, if I step down a wrung on a ladder and then step up four the very next day, that’s how it’s going to be! Practice intrinsically will make you grow as a writer, but it doesn't mean everything you write has to be better than what you wrote before (though this can be the case, which is awesome). I feel like I don’t see this spoken about enough, so I do want to know if this is relevant to any of you or if this point is bologna!!!

9. The story wants what it wants.

This is heavily in line with some previous points, but is something that was driven home for me while writing this novel. If I can give one piece of advice, it would be to let the story be what it wants to be. If my story wants to be a YA fantasy trilogy, but I’m trying to force it to be a standalone pretentious character-driven coming-of-age saga (calling myself out), my writing may suffer! Of course, some writers can take control over their story and execute their initial vision perfectly! I am not! one of those! people!

I’m a firm believer that sometimes the story wants what it wants, and it’s often your best bet to follow this path. Write intuitively--if you know something feels wrong, or contrarily, feels right, follow that path. 

I did not know how to end this book. I’d had an ending planned for a few months, though it eventually fell apart in the last few weeks. I didn’t know what I would do instead, but last night when I was drafting the last two chapters of the book, I felt in my gut that I was heading to the end. I wanted to stop writing for the night--I almost did, but instead, I kept at it because I knew I was on a roll toward the finish line, and I felt compelled to follow my instinct. This is how I landed at the end I wrote in, and it was a completely organic process.

Planning out your story is a great thing to do, and I’m not here to start a debate about whether plotting/pantsing is better because they’re both amazing!! But for me, it’s important to let the story breathe, and let it eventually grow into the shoes it chooses for itself. Taking a step back so I could stop trying to mould this story into a place it didn't want to be is probably the best thing I could’ve done for it because I finished the book. Any process is a good process if it gets you to the end healthily, and for me, allowing the story to be what it wanted to be and allowing it to take the lead helped me get there.

10. It’s okay to love your story.

I’m going to end this post on another hot take because it is probably what I primarily felt early this morning as I typed up the last paragraph of this book. I’m not going to lie--I cried finishing this book lol. I ached finishing this book. It *hurt* to finish this book. I didn’t want to finish this book. What I wanted to do was shut my computer, and pretend the end was not coming, and come back four months from now to finish it, maybe. I wanted to hang onto my story because it’s my story and I love it!

Y’all, this book is cringey. It’s melodramatic, juvenile in some places, comically serious in others. But it’s mine, and I love it. Sometimes I’m ashamed of the writing in this book--sometimes I think I’m getting worse. But it’s my story, and I love! it! 

I think so many of us want to please other people! Or maybe that’s just me lol!! oh boy!! There were so many times I wanted to give up on this project because I thought others would find it cringey in places I too, thought were cringey, but simultaneously loved.

I’ve written for other people a lot in the past, and sometimes those ‘other people’ are just me--many critical versions of me. Don’t forget about how much you love a story (for its quirks maybe, its clichés, its “bad writing”) before you finish it. A first draft only comes once and finishing a first draft is so wonderful, and even more so when you love that story. We got enough hate y’all, lets give our stories some love. 

So that’s it for this post! I still have five chapters to write writing updates for, so the party ain’t over til it’s over!!!

For my obligatory Oscar’s speech! A special thanks to @sarahkelsiwrites​​ for reading about these trash people for five years, and for enthusiastically contributing to their trash decisions (#do it for the tea)! And for reassuring me that the prose in this book is actually not as bad as I believe because I would never have finished this book without that pep talk lol. To @imdisappointed​​ for helping me crack some of the toughest plot problems!! You talk me out of problems and it’s magic! And to my MOM @shaelinwrites​​ (for being my mom) and also for all the kind/insightful things you say! Y’all get me through it!!!

And of course!! I thank all of YOU for following this journey of drafting Moth Work. My community on here never fails to amaze me, and I’m a big stan of you all!! Please tag me in your stuff--I’d love to read about what you’re writing!

Here’s to finishing a book, but more importantly, to hoping I don’t make Moth Work a series lmaoo!!! *pops confetti*

--Rachel

[mamoretta]

Autumn in Japan❤

In November 2019, I went on a full week trip to Japan with my two lovely cousins, Teh Epi and Teh Ami. The trip was on my bucketlist, but when we first planned this trip, we were reckless and kinda impulsive but I don’t regret it any single second. Luckily, we bought the ticket 9 months before departure, so we had enough time to prepare everything (money especially). Little did you know that Japan is the farthest I’ve ever been from home (for now), so I was extra excited and the fact that I can afford this trip alone (in +-9 months of saving!) was a proud moment for me.

Because my last vacation was a solo trip, the first thing I noticed about this trip was the differencies between when you go alone and when you go grouping. In my opinion, solo traveling is much closer to your heart, like there’s always that touching moment when you feel you can conquer anything (I wonder what would happened if I go to Japan alone!!). While group traveling is more refreshing, fun, and thrilling, but it really depends on whom you travel with. I think you have to go with someone that you really vibed with if you want to fully enjoy the trip with less drama. Lucky me, I have two wonderful companions that made my trip to Japan couldn’t been any better. Although there wasn’t always rainbow in Japan (literally), but t’was full of laugh and positivity. Super big love and thanks to Ami-chan and Epi-chan❤

The Trip

I only visited Osaka and Kyoto due to my short time and budget-friendly trip but it was all worth it.

Day-0: Depart & Transit

We flew to Japan with Singapore Airlines (the service and the food was superb! Plus they have Gentle Bones’ song on their entertainment board :p), so we had transit in Changi for a night long, yes 9-hour long. We landed in Changi at 23.00 and we wanted to visit Jewel for the sake of their indoor waterfall although the waterfall only operated until 23.30! We managed to lined up in immigration and jogged to Jewel but too bad the waterfall already turned off (we knew from the beginning we wouldn’t make it but at least we tried). We snapped some obscure photos as evidence that we were there. Then we went back to T2 Changi and strolled around finding a nice spot to spend the night, the snooze area and the long sofas was packed we ended up in some single sofas in front of the children playground, it was warm but we barely slept. 

Day-1: Landed in Osaka

We had breakfast in-between airplane watching at Changi before our flight at 7 am, we bought butter toast and teh O’. The teh O was uniquely delicious, it was teh tarik with melted butter, warm sweet and savory at the same time. The teh O is worth a flight to Changi (hiperbolic but it was that great). Then we found an empty foot massage machine and tempted to try one because our (already) sore calf, and it was one our biggest mistake... the machine was badly stink (imagine million people from around the world using that same machine :)) and the stink sticked to our socks, then we putted the smelly socks into our shoes... imagine the rest. (In case you wondering, yes our shoes was smelly troughout our trip in Japan T_T). In the evening, finally we safely landed in KIX, we was welcomed with the beautiful autumn foliage outside the airport. It was our first time witnessing autumn foliage with our own eyes, we were so happy >_<

Then we rushed to ICOCA vending machine to bought our transportation card for our trip and looked for our train to our hotel in Osaka while carrying the heavy luggage. The first time we tried Japan train line was confusing... we entered the same train back and forth because we were not sure that was the right train and there was no one to asked. The cold air and strong wind started to stabbed me who only wore 2 thin layers of clothes. Freezing. Luckily we arrived at our hotel just in time, rested for a minute, then we went to Dotonbori to get dinner. During this trip, we stayed in Ookini Hotel Dotonbori, just 700 m walk from the buzzing Dotonbori. In Dotonbori, we had Kukuru Takoyaki, ¥800 for 10 pieces of the tastiest takoyaki I’ve ever tasted. Then we lined up for the famous Ichiran Ramen(!!!). Twisted part, later we realised that the Ichiran Ramen we visited was not the ‘no pork’ Ichiran branch we intended to visit... didn’t know if we were too hungry or too careless T_T anyway here’s the pic of the pork broth:

Day-2: Kyoto Part 1

We had breakfast at the nearest Family Mart to our hotel (it was like a little heaven for me, all the food, drinks, snack, and dessert were cheaply delicious). Then we headed to Kiyomizudera Temple in Kyoto by express train. To reach the temple, we had to walk about 20-30 mins but the walk was so pleasing because there were many cute cafe and souvenir shops along the walk. After we spent enough time and took enough memories at Kiyomizudera, we walked to Gion through Sannenzaka & Ninenzaka Street. The street was packed with tourist and full of vibrant touristy shops. We stopped by at Studio Ghibli Shop(!!!) and enjoyed a cup of gingerbread latte at the unique tatami-style Starbucks cafe, there’s a beautiful zen garden and all things beautiful <3 Before we arrived at the modern side of Gion, we passed through an old-style-long-charming alley, every path we took there was beautiful and reminded me so much to anime sceneries. Even when we arrived to the busy Gion, I feel like I was living in anime world.

Then we walked to Nishiki Market. It’s time for FOOD! The best part: super fresh seafood sashimi! I got to ate uni for the first time in my life and I tasted the most delicious salmon sashimi in the world. I cried. We lost count on the money we spent in this market because all things was very tempting. I wish I could go back to Nishiki Market. Then we had Ayam-ya Halal Ramen for dinner (finally real halal food here) and snacked on donuts and hojicha at Koe Donuts. We went back to Osaka and we stopped at the station a bit far away from our hotel to saw the illumination fulfilled the road, it was magical ✨ We walked far enough to made our stomach felt empty again, then we decided to had supper at 24-hour all ¥100 Kura Sushi. All the staffs spoke japanese and didn’t understand our english and all the instructions is in japanese, we waited 1 hour for our queue number to be called (also in japanese x_X), then a waitress came to us offering us (in japanese) the english menu (thank God). 

Day-3: Universal Studio Japan

It is the happiest day in my life!!!!!!!! One day in USJ is never enough, but we already planned a strategy to fully maximized our time in USJ, so after a full day of adrenaline and happiness, we walked out from USJ (with very sore legs) feeling contented. The first ride we headed to was Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. They said this is the most wanted ride so the queue must be very long. But lucky us, we queued only about 30 mins long and there is one funny story. In the middle of the ride (we thought it was the middle because we hadn’t finished the ride yet), the machine stopped but we didn’t know any single thing about what happened because all we hear was japanese. Three of us were panicked at that 4-seated train, so we tried to ask what happened to one okasan beside me *me pulled out all my sumimasen-arigatou skill*. But all we got was silence and a blank stare from her that made us even more scared *laugh ih japanese*. Shortly afterward the ride was running again but when we reached the end of the ride, the train didn’t stop and we had 2 full rounds instead... okay the first round was anticlimax because of that technical problem and the second round was enough to made us had nausea 😂 nonetheless, the ride was amazing and very nostalgic (because it’s Harry Potter!!!). 

My second favorite ride is Hollywood Dream. The track is terrific and every single seat has its own monitor and speaker to let us choose the song we want to hear during the ride. I chose Happy - Pharell Williams (by sentimental reason) and I was superrrr happy and carried away by the whoosh. And the most *EPIC* ride goes to THE FLYING DINOSAUR!!! I was speechlessly astonished by the ride, the ride continuously gave me palpitations. I felt like I was literally flying as a flying dinosaur. Last but not least, though it wasn’t a ride, the highest appreciation goes to Hogwarts Castle Light Show. There are no words can describe how magical it was. My jaw dropped throughout the show. I love itttt.

Day-4: Kyoto Part 2

And this is my favorite day in Japan afterall. We went to Fushimi Inari by train and the comute was somewhat confusing because we should’ve had transit in 2 stations, we ended up getting off in the wrong station, 2 times, like a donkey. We arrived at Fushimi Inari a bit late, then we took some photos and bought some food from the local market near the gate. I got one big skewer of beef wagyu for only ¥500 and I still remember how delicious it was. We also bought some souvenirs there, argh all the souvenir shops in Japan are very cute and tempting. Then we headed to Arashiyama Bambo Forest. The bamboo forest was so-so, but I was impressed by the neighborhood around Arashiyama. Though it is tourist area, but the environment was very soothing and authentic, the momiji just enhanced the warm atmosphere, and the people was sooooo nice i could’ve hugged all of them. There are one road full of nice souvenir shops (still), no car passed by, just a few traditional rickshaw called jinrikisha pulled passionately by local man. Then we strolled around and ended in the popular Arabica coffee shop in Kyoto. The coffee shop was packed and it located by the lake. After we got our latte, we enjoyed it while comtemplating by the lake surrounded with momiji under the beautiful sky. The latte was so good itself and I was covered in joy. We had spare time at Kyoto so we decided to went back to Gion area just because we love it a lot. Last thing I knew, I already left my heart in Kyoto.

Day-5: Osaka

We spent full day at Osaka. This is basically our last day we have because tomorrow morning we already had to leave and it was the most freezing and stormy day we had in Japan. Even Japan was sad because we were about to go home :( Anyway we had so much fun and impressed by all Osaka has to offer. We had Matsuya for breakfast and dinner because we wanted to try all the menu and it was very cheap but also delicious haha and I tried natto for the first time! In the morning we decided to went to Don Quijote first to bought some (no, a lot) of souvenirs, then we went back to hotel to dropped the purchases and continued the itinerary. We went shopping at Shinsaibashi, strolled around Amerikamura, went to Umeda for the ferris wheel but too bad the ferris wheel was closed (yes our bad didn’t check the schedule) but Umeda is nice so we walked around Umeda. The day was getting dark, we were a bit confused where to go next, and we decided to go to Osaka Castle with zero expectation because it was dark and the museum was already closed. Turned out Osaka Castle remains beautiful in the dark, and we still mesmerized by the castle and its surroundings. We felt like we were living in kingdom era. Then our last destination is Shinsekai. It’s an old district built in 1912 with New York and Paris as the model, then neglected in decades afterwards. We just strolled around the neighborhood, it was full of restaurant, bar, spa, and other nightlife. Little did we know that Shinsekai is the most seedy and dangerous area in Osaka lol. Gratefully we arrived at our hotel safe and sound.

Day-6 & 7: Back to reality

NOOO i didn’t want this to be over, but life goes on and we had to leave Japan. But first thing first, we had breakfast at Matsuya for countless times haha. We also spent all our coins we had. Bought the things that hadn’t been bought yet in the last minute. What else to say... we headed to KIX and said our hardest goodbye to Japan. Still we had a good time in KIX, Changi, and in the airplane before we had to face the reality. The saddest part is, right after we landed safely in CGK and activated our phone, I received message from my family told me that my grandpa passed away that morning. Oops I’m sorry for ruining the ending :p All in all, this whole trip was a blast worth a lifetime.

What I love about Japan:

The food! It was all beyond my tongue could expect. 

The people was all friendly, kind, and *very* polite!!! *bowing sharply 90 degrees*

The vending machine you can find anything anywhere and the konbini store.

The technologies, facilities, transportation, cleanliness, they’re the best.

The balance coherence between the old and modern culture.

There are so many things Japan has to make you in love, but they say you don’t need a reason to love something (cringe).

Throughout my entire trip in Japan, it seemed like there was a balance between old and modern maintained by a strong appreciation of tradition from the times gone by. It’s something we’d never experienced in another country and made us instantly fall in love with Japan. It’s amazing to see two such extremes coexisting effortlessly and perfectly side by side. I was happy, delighted, amazed, surprised, and just plain impressed. I hope I can go back to Japan.

[aha-my-villainous-thoughts]

Please, keep me. (Good Omens)

And I’m back (finally). Had a meltdown or two, got ill, went on holiday, got snowed in with Christmas prep and finally made time to getting writing again. I clearly failed the whole NaNoWriMo but fuck it, the point is to write, right? Right. 

Anyway here’s Part 8. 

Part 1 here! 

Crowley didn’t try to apply logic to his time in the library with Aziraphale. It didn’t seem to have much purpose there, in a place where light operated in such a strange sentient fashion and the books seemed to sigh back at Aziraphale as he traced their spines. Given everything Crowley had seen from existence in the many years he had been in Her service, it didn’t seem a far stretch that of course there were songbirds nesting in the upper reaches of the bookshelves, and quite naturally there would be an orchard hidden behind a rusty gate between the books on Jam Preserves and Table Etiquette for Vikings.

Reuniting with his Keeper the next day, he found Aziraphale in even more of a delighted mood than usual. 

“Hello little thing! What a splendid morning it is, don’t you think?”

The mornings were always splendid, being Paradise and all, but Crowley inclined his head in agreement.

“I’m all sixes and sevens today,” Aziraphale told him, shaking his head lightly. His eyes, whilst warm, were a little unfocused and bright with feeling, and he didn’t seem to be able to stop moving his hands, fidgeting and fussing, and a slight sway to his feet hidden under his robes. “I’m simply unable to process - I - I mean, yesterday, what wonder! And, oh! But of course-”

Aziraphale continued to witter on in this fashion for a little while, talking in a steady stream of thoughts and exclamations and disbelief about their encounter in the library, the plants and the birds! Oh, little thing, the birds! And the singing!

The content of these sentences didn’t interest Crowley as much as the general haphazard frenzy of emotion contained in the angel’s form. The Keeper’s eyes were lightly ringed with shadows from what appeared as sleeplessness - if, indeed, Aziraphale ever slept - and his hair was disordered and practically fluffy. Seeing the aura of excitement glow from the angel Crowley’s heart seemed to swell against his serpentine ribcage and he shivered in happiness as Aziraphale finally turned his attention fully back to him. 

“You are the cleverest little thing I ever did meet, you found the garden! Thank you, you wonderful little creature,” beamed Aziraphale, finally coming to a form of rest in front of the shelf Crowley was arranged on, and for a second bringing his face close to level with him with a bend of the knee. 

“I can’t think how many years I’ve been caring from this library and never in my time have I seen anything like that! What wonders could be tucked away, not just in the pages, but within the very walls. And you, my dear little thing, you unlocked them for me,” 

Hearing the wistful tone, Crowley wondered for a second if Aziraphale was going to touch him again, and silently hoped so. The love shining in the Keeper’s eyes faltered for a flicker and the angel sighed. 

“Oh, I suppose I shouldn’t be running off with you to look for more treasures, there’s work to be done after all. There always is,” 

Crowley didn’t want to work, but he didn’t mind if Aziraphale had to. He didn’t mind what they did, as long as he could come along. Worse comes to worst he could always coil up and have a quick nap, close by but unbothered by the admittedly dull administrative duties of a Keeper. 

He needn’t have worried. 

Aziraphale’s face was a delightful thing to watch, as if seeing the various thoughts tangle themselves together and play out like some sort of silent play on his features - a disappointed tug of the eyebrows, followed by a slight pout of the lower lip, a crumple of the brow and a darting of his eyes, before a secretive little smile eventually won out and Aziraphale took on an expression that Crowley had already learnt meant something along the lines of ‘oh, but one more couldn’t hurt’. 

They followed the same path as before, with a silently agreed plan to rediscover the garden and maybe take one of the many branching out corridors from it, to see where their feet (or tails) would lead them. The process of retracing their path had seemed like a simple task, but they quickly realised this was not the case. Whatever unusual laws the physical forms of the library obeyed clearly didn’t include a rule about the need for consistency, whether in the form of straight logical lines or in the concept of revisitation. Following the angel lazily, Crowley didn’t pay attention the shelves, focusing instead of the amusing sway of the robes that gave him peeks of the Keeper’s dusty feet, a soft ankle glimpsed in flashes, and even once a light dusting of golden leg hair. He almost bumped into the afore-mentioned feet when the Keeper stopped abruptly. 

“I think we’ve been led in a circle,” he told Crowley, a slight irritation in his voice. He consulted the bookcases, reading the titles with a furrowed brow. 

“Yes, see here? I’m sure we’ve passed by this row of books before, I remembered them because they’re not even really books, they’re sort of pamphlets I suppose,” he muttered, half to Crowley and half to himself. He pulled out free, a soft paper booklet with a black line diagram on the front and an odd word that Crowley didn’t recognise. Aziraphale clearly was at a loss too, as he tried to enunciate the title and gave up halfway through. 

“I don’t know how to pronounce an o with two dots above it,” he told Crowley as if confessing to something scandalous. “I will have to make time to learn,”

Crowley looked around at the books and saw they were all instruction manuals and catalogues, haphazardly arranged in a loosely alphabetical format. The dust confirmed his suspicion that not many of the Keepers found their way here. It also confirmed Aziraphale’s hypothesis that they had been led in a circuit by the odd nature of the library, as he could clearly see the serpentine trail of his body curving through the dust ahead of them, following the tracks of the angel. 

Aziraphale was talking out loud to himself, muttering about reality and the flexibility of perception, but having missed the beginning of it, Crowley ignored the remainder. Instead he followed his own trail onwards, before finding himself at a distinct fork in the path that he surely would have noticed previously. 

Very literally, in fact, as there was a silver fork sticking up out of the floor with its prongs aimed upwards at the dim obscured ceiling. Stuck into the prongs was a paper note, neatly pierced on it’s end. Reading it Crowley raised a metaphorical eyebrow, before going to fetch his Keeper. 

Not all those who wander are lost, but those who are lost may wonder. 

“How peculiar,” murmured Aziraphale, plucking the note from the fork and giving the fork a cautious prod. The thing was resolutely stuck in the ground, with no visible sign of how it has arrived that way, and the new path that branched out to their left seemed to glow a little bright, casting a dim series of shadows of the fork onto the floor. 

“Very peculiar. I suppose it’s for us, but as for its meaning… are we lost? I guess not, we know where we are going, but we do not know how we can get there,”

Crowley wound himself around the angel’s feet as he crouched down, an idea coming to his mind but unsure how to communicate it without revealing more of his nature than he intended to. Instead he tried to beguile his angel down the alternate path, or possibly inspire the same idea, or maybe possibly just to brush his body against those lovely ankles. 

“Wonder… what are we wondering about? What are we thinking about? Not the books, but the destination?” 

Crowley could have whined, wanting to shout his answer gleefully like a young angel still in the classroom. Aziraphale looked away from the note and finally looked at Crowley, his blue eyes puzzled. 

“Little thing, do you suppose we got the intention the wrong way around?” 

Crowley blinked slowly, his body curving in a luxurious coil in the Keeper’s robes, the stillness of his head betrayed by his excitement. 

“We have to think of the books we want, rather than the gift the books offer. Whatever magic this is, it starts with the books,” offered Aziraphale, brow still a little furrowed. “When we were together yesterday you wanted to see the books on plants, and then we found the garden. Maybe that’s the key?” 

Crowley inclined his head, and was rewarded with Aziraphale’s bright smile. 

“You clever thing, you got that much faster than me, didn’t you?” 

Crowley tilted his head, as if to say “Well…” and Aziraphale’s breath puffed over his face as he chuckled. 

“If that’s the case, then let me test it. Yesterday you wanted the horticulture. Today… today I think I want blackberries,” 

Crowley had no idea where Aziraphale had plucked this certainty from, but he was happy for the decisiveness. Mind made up, Aziraphale straightened, pocketed the mysterious note (leaving the fork) and turned around on one heel before marching off with a speed Crowley hadn’t expected. 

“Come along, little one. Let’s look out for a hedgerow or two!” 

They retraced their steps back into the Life Sciences. Aziraphale knew these bookcases well, and even Crowley recognised a turn or two, but Aziraphale didn’t stop and they passed through the biological tomes of classification, and then through the shelves that were more to do with the husbandry of the plants, the care and cultivation of gardens. This time Aziraphale picked his route without too much deliberation, mirroring Crowley’s swift choices the day before. Working their way deeper, Crowley tried to read the titles to ascertain where they were but he also didn’t want to fall behind his angel. He couldn’t hear Aziraphale’s muttered commentary on his choices as they went and disgruntled but amused, he increased the speed of his slithering to match with the Keeper. 

“I know what book we need, little thing, I think it’s just… ah!” the angel turned once more and the path ahead of them met them with a warm glow of gold light instead of the stark white glow of the previous shelves. “That’s more like it,” 

Aziraphale stopped to run his finger along the colourful spines lining the shelves, one hand resting absentmindedly on the wood now painted with a charming pale pink. Crowley did one lazy loop around the angel’s legs before going to read the titles. 

Cake Pops! 100 designs for circular fun!

Jam, Jam and more Jam! Hot Sexy Buns

Mystified, Crowley turned his attention back to the angel, climbing up to see what Aziraphale had pulled free. The angel had stopped talking, and was engrossed in a colourful book with a lot of pictures. Crowley nosed his way out of the shelf to twist and read along. 

How To Make the Perfect Victoria Sponge

What in Paradise was a Victoria Sponge? Aziraphale turned the page, sighing a little as he saw the next offering: something called a Lemon Meringue Pie. And then the next page: Blackberry and Apple Crumble. 

“Oh!” sighed the angel, sounding like his heart was breaking over the explanation of how to properly hand pinch together a perfect crumble. “It sounds divine, doesn’t it little thing? And such a wonderful colour,” 

Crowley had no idea what to make of it. Aziraphale sighed again heavily, wistfully, practically lustifully, as he sank down to the floor with the book. Crowley followed him, curling around his back and resting his body up against the angel to slot his head on the shoulder and read along with him. 

Very soon another book was pulled down to join them on the floor, and then another. Before Crowley could count them, there were dozens of recipe books laid out on the floor, spines cracked out to reveal sumptuous pictures of what Crowley came to understand would be humanity’s, or maybe Aziraphale’s, favourite food invention: baking. 

Aziraphale’s love of his books was apparently rivalled by his love of what they contained. He had covered the floor in a semi circle around them, and was pointing things out to Crowley and explaining how they achieved the deep rich colour of the mince pie, dusted with sugar, or the sculptural peaks of the meringue created by stiffly beaten eggs and sugar. Aziraphale ran a finger across the edge of a cupcake with a tall swirl of frosting and a sprinkle of colourful dots, as if he could dip his finger straight through the paper and steal a taste for himself. 

“Have you ever seen anything so lovely? So… scrumptious!” sighed Aziraphale, with such a warm dreamy tone Crowley looked at him just to see the happy glaze in his eyes and the moony smile.

Yes. Yes I have, he thought softly. 

Aziraphale pulled one of the books closer to him, bringing it up onto his lap before starting to tell Crowley everything in it. It didn’t take long for Crowley to realise that Aziraphale wasn’t reading from the book, but explaining it’s contents from memory. 

“This one is a gooseberry, it’s a little sharp but apparently it makes a splendid jam to go with something creamy or even with ice cream. Oh, and look at these, these are raspberries! They look so soft with those tiny little hairs, but what a smashing colour. Oh - and here! These are the blackberries!” 

The small fruits were pictured in a cluster clinging to a spindly branch surrounded by jagged leaves. The colour was different to the other fruits Aziraphale had flicked past, they gleamed in the sun with a dark purple glint from within their black tiny circles. 

“They almost match you, don’t you think?” Aziraphale said, tracing a finger over the black flesh before lifting his hand to trace his fingertip under Crowley’s jaw. The motion caused Crowley to freeze, a shiver overtaking him as Aziraphale unknowingly tickled his skin and he squirmed a little, overtaken by both the sensation and the casual affection. He closed his eyes as he schooled himself to calm, and slid down from Aziraphale’s arm. He carefully navigated the books on the floor, careful not to bend back pages but something traced his underbelly where he wasn’t paying attention and he almost yelped, twitching away from what turned out to be a thorn on the floor. 

He regarded it with suspicion, before looking up and peering down the corridor ahead of them. The light was still warm, and there seemed to be a shape up ahead that he knew belonged to neither book nor shelf. He moved onwards, peering into the shelves before finding a curved arm of a bramble poking through into the corridor. Sharp leaves spread outwards, demanding of the sun, and thorns lined up along the vine like a regiment of soldiers. The vine was tangled in itself, with more vines moving upwards and along the shelf. He continued, and saw that the brambles had ignored the order of the shelves to completely take over and create quite a heavy thicket. Minding his long form, Crowley continued on into it, searching for what he hoped to find, and before long he found it: a handful of bright, ripe blackberries. He flicked his tongue at them, smelling the sharp tang of them and wondered what they would be like to taste. Better than that, he wondered what it would be like to watch his angel eat them. If he made such lovely sounds at the mere page of them, surely the taste of them would be a treasure unlike any other. 

Gleefully Crowley returned to the angel, winding himself around his crossed legs and giving a tug which served to interrupt the angel’s engrossment in the page on the proper whisking method for custard. 

“What is it, little thing?” Aziraphale asked, looking up. Crowley tugged again and wound his way towards the blackberries, hoping this would be enough to drag the angel away from his beloved books. It was, and soon Crowley was once again being praised for being the cleverest little thing She ever did create. Aziraphale’s initial disregard for the brambles was completely forgotten upon the discovery of the berries. Watching the angel pluck the fruit from the branch and bring them to his mouth, Crowley was delighted to see the tips of his fingers grow stained with dark red juices. He watched the greed at which Aziraphale tugged one free, then another, then another, desperate for more of the sharp delicious flavour. His eyes were sparkling with life, documenting every aspect of the experience as his lips smacked around the fruit. 

“Oh, how marvellous! How absolutely - oh, little thing!” 

Sighing heavily, Aziraphale sat back on his heels and gave a loud moan of happiness. Crowley watched with his own form of hunger as Aziraphale began to lick his stained fingers clean with an equally stained tongue, sucking them in to chase more of the flavour. This was a sight Crowley never wanted to be without, watching Aziraphale in this state of ecstasy.

“Oh!” cried Aziraphale, his eyes going wide. “Oh my dear, I’m so sorry! I didn’t share them at all, oh my, oh what a silly, selfish angel I am - oh little thing, I am sorry,” 

Crowley would have laughed had a snake been able to. Instead he wound himself closer to his angel and nudged his head against Aziraphale’s wringing hands. 

“Oh, you are so good, little thing, such a wonderful little thing to bring me to them, I only wish-,” Crowley interrupted Aziraphale’s continued centure to flick his tongue against Aziraphale’s thumb where the tacky juice of the fruit still remained. The smell of the split fruit was much stronger, almost bitter in its sharpness and so vibrant with its sweetness. Crowley had never tasted anything like it. Under the juice his tongue brushed Aziraphale’s skin, and the warm full-bodied scent of the angel complimented the blackberries very well. 

He took one last indulgent taste of the fruit, and descended to the floor again. They had made one tremendous discovery already and, looking ahead into the winding path of the thicket, they were well on their way to making another. 

[onceland]

Fairy tale ending: Inside the magical Once Upon a Time series finale

To read more scoop on this year’s season finales, pick up the new issue of Entertainment Weekly on stands Friday, or buy it here now. Don’t forget to subscribe for more exclusive interviews and photos, only in EW.

“Oh, man, I’m fired. Guys, I think this might be my last day!” Once Upon a Time is in its final days of production, and Ginnifer Goodwin is feeling particularly punchy after flubbing a line during a pivotal scene. Her Snow White stands before our beloved heroes at a massive war-room table, giving a rousing speech about hope as it seems all but lost. A great evil threatens to steal their happy endings once and for all — if it sounds like a moment from the pilot, there’s a reason for that. As actress Jennifer Morrison puts it, “The heartbeat of the show has always been hope.”

Despite being the brainchild of Lost writers Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis, Once’s premise — Snow White and Prince Charming’s (Josh Dallas) daughter Emma Swan (Morrison) returns after 28 years to rescue a variety of legendary literary characters, like Jiminy Cricket (Raphael Sbarge) and Little Red Riding Hood (Meghan Ory), from the Evil Queen’s (Lana Parrilla) dark curse — seemed a lot to swallow when the series launched in 2011, and many critics expected the fairy-tale mash-up to fail.

Instead, OUAT went on to become one of ABC’s top performers, bewitching audiences with emotionally grounded and relatable stories that resonated with adults and children alike for seven seasons. “Even though it’s about fairy-tale characters, the writers have written [the show] in such a way that really goes to the heart of everybody,” says Colin O’Donoghue, who joined the show in season 2 as Captain Hook. “That’s hopefully where it will endure.”

Part of the show’s initial appeal was the OUAT bosses immediately bucking age-old expectations, setting a game-changing tone of female empowerment with a very simple, if not monumental moment in the pilot: sticking a sword in the hand of Disney princess Snow White. “When we wrote it, we didn’t realize,” Kitsis says. “We wanted her to pull a sword and not be a damsel in distress, and that is what people respect about Snow White — she’s a fearless warrior for good.”

“At the time that we made the pilot, no one was doing anything like this,” says Goodwin. “Honestly, these guys wrote a truly female-driven show. It was instrumental then in my choosing to take the part.” Goodwin notes OUAT���s female-forward approach was also used behind the scenes — she was No. 1 on the call sheet for years until Parrilla took the top spot in season 7. “I hope that Once is remembered as being groundbreaking, that it’s remembered as being representative of the strongest kinds of complex and beautiful women.”

That was never more apparent than with the character of Regina Mills. She started out as the show’s ultimate villain, unleashing a curse that trapped everyone in a land without magic, where Regina could live out her own personal happy ending. But it was one that turned out to be anything but happy, evolving into a Groundhog Day-like prison of her own making until she adopted Henry (Jared Gilrmore), eventually leading to the arrival of Emma Swan, who went on to wake the cursed characters.

Slowly, but surely, Regina conquered her own demons, becoming not just an ally to the Charmings, but family. “Regina is a very hopeful character because she’s so flawed and complex,” says Parrilla. “Following Regina’s journey over the years, we’ve seen that she’s made some mistakes, but she picks herself back up. I think she’s an inspiration to many, including myself; I’ve learned so much from her.”

Aside from its compelling leads, the show’s fortitude also stemmed from its ability to reinvent itself from season to season, sometimes multiple times within. The Onceuniverse expanded into a playground sandbox where characters like Aladdin (Deniz Akdeniz) and Belle (Emilie de Ravin) could cross paths with Tinker Bell (Rose McIver), the Wicked Witch (Rebecca Mader) or Dr. Frankenstein (David Anders). The show even birthed a short-lived Wonderland-set spin-off.

The biggest reboot came last year when — after the exits of six major cast members — Parilla, O’Donoghue, and Robert Carlyle (as Rumplestiltskin) were left to take center stage alongside Andrew J. West as an older version of Henry (Jared Gilmore), Dania Ramirez as a new iteration of Cinderella, and Rose Reynolds as Wish Realm Hook’s daughter Alice. But audiences waned without the original cast, seemingly losing hope at the worst possible time. “It makes me sad that something so positive on television is being taken off the air when we need it most,” says Parrilla. “It breaks my heart.”

Even the characters of Once may come to lose hope as the series heads into its final episodes. Despite developments in Hyperion Heights that could signal a brighter tomorrow, an unleashed villain intends to follow through with a dangerous plan, the painful effects of which would be felt by our cherished characters for eternity. “I would definitely say the last episode is as epic as probably any episode that Once Upon a Time has ever done,” O’Donoghue teases. “It’s like taking the best of all seasons and jamming it into one — literally.” West concurs: “The finale is maybe the single most massive episode that the show has ever done. And I mean that in all sincerity.”

Though their future may look bleak, Snow White would (and does) tell our heroes to keep hope alive, a notion Morrison attributes to why the show “had such a strong connection with the audience.” It didn’t hurt that the show launched in a time when social media allowed fans to share in the characters’ experience, cheer their triumphs, and criticize their missteps in real time, creating a community of fans who have cemented a strong bond over the years. “It’s brought a lot of people together that maybe never felt seen,” says Mader, who joined the show’s ranks in season 3. “These people will now be friends forever, because of a TV show that we made — that’s really special.”

For some, it’s much more than that; the mark that OUAT has left is indelible. “There’s been a couple of times where people have said that they were so desperately alone that they’ve considered taking their own lives,” O’Donoghue says. “Through the show, they’ve met other people who felt the same way and realized they’re not alone. That blows me away.”

Sometimes, even the OUAT actors can forget how much the show has affected fans, something season 7 addition Reynolds learned while filming the final episodes. “It didn’t really hit me, the impact of this show, until I went to Steveston,” says Reynolds of the real-life Storybrooke set that the show will return to before series end. “We had people coming out to see it, and even just being on the street I saw in the pilot, that is when it really hit home for me that this is a big deal and this show is epic. Working with [returning stars] Ginny and Josh as well has hammered that home even more.”

Though the Once bosses depicted their originally planned ending in the season 6 finale, they have cooked up a particularly magical final chapter that brings the show back to the beginning in a number of ways — keep your eyes peeled, as there are Easter eggs galore. “The pitch for the whole show was ‘What would a world look like in which the Evil Queen got her happy ending?’ I feel that we’ve finally figured out what that would look like,” says Goodwin, just one of the season 6 departures who returns for the finale. (Read who else is returning here.) “We saved Regina’s happy ending for the end,” says Kitsis. “Her journey has really been watching somebody confront the demons within and emerge on the other side a better person.”

“I know everyone’s been waiting for Regina’s happy ending and no one really could define what that is, and no one really knew what it was going to look like, and nor did I,” Parrilla says. “Once Robin died, it was really hard to foresee another love in her life. But I’m happy with where her happy ending is at.” Parrilla remains coy about the specifics of Regina’s happily-ever-after, only teasing that it takes place “in the same location” as the opening of the pilot.

O’Donoghue, meanwhile, offers that Hook’s fate is intrinsically tied to Rumple’s. “I remember thinking [the ending] was just such an amazing way for this relationship that Bobby and I have invested in over six seasons,” O’Donoghue says. “It’s been so integral to both of our characters, so I thought it was a really beautiful moment and very, very important to me for that to be the happy ending for Hook.”

The notion of happy endings has been vital to the success of the show, particularly Once’s central message that no matter who you are as a person, good or evil, everyone deserves a happy ending — all three of this year’s legacy characters initially entered the show as villains. “It’s so important to send that message,” says Dallas, “particularly in this day and age, when we have so much negative in the world, and to know that you do have a second chance, that you can have redemption, is super-powerful.”

But the question remains whether Once will get a second chance in the future, someday joining the pantheon of shows getting the reboot or revival treatment. “Look, you never say never, but for now this is our ending and the end of this show for us,” says Horowitz. “But if in the future something else happens with the show, we’ll be excited to see what that is.”

Once Upon a Time’s series finale will air over two weeks, starting Friday, May 11, and concluding Friday, May 18, at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

x

[efnewsservice]

May 4, 2018

“Oh, man, I’m fired. Guys, I think this might be my last day!” Once Upon a Time is in its final days of production, and Ginnifer Goodwin is feeling particularly punchy after flubbing a line during a pivotal scene. Her Snow White stands before our beloved heroes at a massive war-room table, giving a rousing speech about hope as it seems all but lost. A great evil threatens to steal their happy endings once and for all — if it sounds like a moment from the pilot, there’s a reason for that. As actress Jennifer Morrison puts it, “The heartbeat of the show has always been hope.”

Despite being the brainchild of Lost writers Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis, Once’s premise — Snow White and Prince Charming’s (Josh Dallas) daughter Emma Swan (Morrison) returns after 28 years to rescue a variety of legendary literary characters, like Jiminy Cricket (Raphael Sbarge) and Little Red Riding Hood (Meghan Ory), from the Evil Queen’s (Lana Parrilla) dark curse — seemed a lot to swallow when the series launched in 2011, and many critics expected the fairy-tale mash-up to fail.

Instead, OUAT went on to become one of ABC’s top performers, bewitching audiences with emotionally grounded and relatable stories that resonated with adults and children alike for seven seasons. “Even though it’s about fairy-tale characters, the writers have written [the show] in such a way that really goes to the heart of everybody,” says Colin O’Donoghue, who joined the show in season 2 as Captain Hook. “That’s hopefully where it will endure.”

Part of the show’s initial appeal was the OUAT bosses immediately bucking age-old expectations, setting a game-changing tone of female empowerment with a very simple, if not monumental moment in the pilot: sticking a sword in the hand of Disney princess Snow White. “When we wrote it, we didn’t realize,” Kitsis says. “We wanted her to pull a sword and not be a damsel in distress, and that is what people respect about Snow White — she’s a fearless warrior for good.”

“At the time that we made the pilot, no one was doing anything like this,” says Goodwin. “Honestly, these guys wrote a truly female-driven show. It was instrumental then in my choosing to take the part.” Goodwin notes OUAT’s female-forward approach was also used behind the scenes — she was No. 1 on the call sheet for years until Parrilla took the top spot in season 7. “I hope that Once is remembered as being groundbreaking, that it’s remembered as being representative of the strongest kinds of complex and beautiful women.”

That was never more apparent than with the character of Regina Mills. She started out as the show’s ultimate villain, unleashing a curse that trapped everyone in a land without magic, where Regina could live out her own personal happy ending. But it was one that turned out to be anything but happy, evolving into a Groundhog Day-like prison of her own making until she adopted Henry (Jared Gilrmore), eventually leading to the arrival of Emma Swan, who went on to wake the cursed characters.

Slowly, but surely, Regina conquered her own demons, becoming not just an ally to the Charmings, but family. “Regina is a very hopeful character because she’s so flawed and complex,” says Parrilla. “Following Regina’s journey over the years, we’ve seen that she’s made some mistakes, but she picks herself back up. I think she’s an inspiration to many, including myself; I’ve learned so much from her.”

Aside from its compelling leads, the show’s fortitude also stemmed from its ability to reinvent itself from season to season, sometimes multiple times within. The Once universe expanded into a playground sandbox where characters like Aladdin (Deniz Akdeniz) and Belle (Emilie de Ravin) could cross paths with Tinker Bell (Rose McIver), the Wicked Witch (Rebecca Mader) or Dr. Frankenstein (David Anders). The show even birthed a short-lived Wonderland-set spin-off.

The biggest reboot came last year when — after the exits of six major cast members — Parilla, O’Donoghue, and Robert Carlyle (as Rumplestiltskin) were left to take center stage alongside Andrew J. West as an older version of Henry (Jared Gilmore), Dania Ramirez as a new iteration of Cinderella, and Rose Reynolds as Wish Realm Hook’s daughter Alice. But audiences waned without the original cast, seemingly losing hope at the worst possible time. “It makes me sad that something so positive on television is being taken off the air when we need it most,” says Parrilla. “It breaks my heart.”

Even the characters of Once may come to lose hope as the series heads into its final episodes. Despite developments in Hyperion Heights that could signal a brighter tomorrow, an unleashed villain intends to follow through with a dangerous plan, the painful effects of which would be felt by our cherished characters for eternity. “I would definitely say the last episode is as epic as probably any episode that Once Upon a Time has ever done,” O’Donoghue teases. “It’s like taking the best of all seasons and jamming it into one — literally.” West concurs: “The finale is maybe the single most massive episode that the show has ever done. And I mean that in all sincerity.”

Though their future may look bleak, Snow White would (and does) tell our heroes to keep hope alive, a notion Morrison attributes to why the show “had such a strong connection with the audience.” It didn’t hurt that the show launched in a time when social media allowed fans to share in the characters’ experience, cheer their triumphs, and criticize their missteps in real time, creating a community of fans who have cemented a strong bond over the years. “It’s brought a lot of people together that maybe never felt seen,” says Mader, who joined the show’s ranks in season 3. “These people will now be friends forever, because of a TV show that we made — that’s really special.”

For some, it’s much more than that; the mark that OUAT has left is indelible. “There’s been a couple of times where people have said that they were so desperately alone that they’ve considered taking their own lives,” O’Donoghue says. “Through the show, they’ve met other people who felt the same way and realized they’re not alone. That blows me away.”

Sometimes, even the OUAT actors can forget how much the show has affected fans, something season 7 addition Reynolds learned while filming the final episodes. “It didn’t really hit me, the impact of this show, until I went to Steveston,” says Reynolds of the real-life Storybrooke set that the show will return to before series end. “We had people coming out to see it, and even just being on the street I saw in the pilot, that is when it really hit home for me that this is a big deal and this show is epic. Working with [returning stars] Ginny and Josh as well has hammered that home even more.”

Though the Once bosses depicted their originally planned ending in the season 6 finale, they have cooked up a particularly magical final chapter that brings the show back to the beginning in a number of ways — keep your eyes peeled, as there are Easter eggs galore. “The pitch for the whole show was ‘What would a world look like in which the Evil Queen got her happy ending?’ I feel that we’ve finally figured out what that would look like,” says Goodwin, just one of the season 6 departures who returns for the finale. (Read who else is returning here.) “We saved Regina’s happy ending for the end,” says Kitsis. “Her journey has really been watching somebody confront the demons within and emerge on the other side a better person.”

“I know everyone’s been waiting for Regina’s happy ending and no one really could define what that is, and no one really knew what it was going to look like, and nor did I,” Parrilla says. “Once Robin died, it was really hard to foresee another love in her life. But I’m happy with where her happy ending is at.” Parrilla remains coy about the specifics of Regina’s happily-ever-after, only teasing that it takes place “in the same location” as the opening of the pilot.

O’Donoghue, meanwhile, offers that Hook’s fate is intrinsically tied to Rumple’s. “I remember thinking [the ending] was just such an amazing way for this relationship that Bobby and I have invested in over six seasons,” O’Donoghue says. “It’s been so integral to both of our characters, so I thought it was a really beautiful moment and very, very important to me for that to be the happy ending for Hook.”

The notion of happy endings has been vital to the success of the show, particularly Once’s central message that no matter who you are as a person, good or evil, everyone deserves a happy ending — all three of this year’s legacy characters initially entered the show as villains. “It’s so important to send that message,” says Dallas, “particularly in this day and age, when we have so much negative in the world, and to know that you do have a second chance, that you can have redemption, is super-powerful.”

But the question remains whether Once will get a second chance in the future, someday joining the pantheon of shows getting the reboot or revival treatment. “Look, you never say never, but for now this is our ending and the end of this show for us,” says Horowitz. “But if in the future something else happens with the show, we’ll be excited to see what that is.”

[spacebrick3]

Duo WHG: Anechoi and VALENTINA’s ‘Death’

A suspicious death from hypothermia, but is it really a death? Or is it one of those famous escapes the Capitol is claiming to support? This is that account, from @ratracechronicler‘s Writeblr Hunger Games!

Night 1:

It was only the first night, and already I wanted out. Before you make any comments, look: First of all, it was cold. I could see my breath in front of my face, and even if Val liked it, I didn’t. And second, there was really no reason for me to stick around. I’d get amnesty if I escaped, and there was no way in hell I was winning this contest. Why wait longer?

You’re trying to justify yourself, Val cut in. It’s ‘cause you’re scaaaaared, isn’t it? 

It was times like this I wished Val had an actual face, just so I could stare it dead in the eyes. Instead, I was reduced to an exasperated sigh. Says the AI, who doesn’t have organs they need to keep intact. Have you seen some of the weapons out there? I’m in no hurry to get stabbed.

Scaaaaaaaaaaaared, she said in a sing-song voice. Somebody’s sca-aaa-ared, aren’t they? Anechoi is sca-aaa-red!

Why do I even keep you around? I wondered as I trekked towards the edge of the Arena. I’d tried to persuade Mazda to just pull me out, but they seemed to be…busy. So I’d have to do it on my own.

My wonderful personality? 

Don’t push it. Alright. I didn’t want to run into the forcefield and get violently electrocuted-

Yeah, that’d probably be bad for me too, Val cut in. I mean, I think those fields would fry even my top-rated circuits.

I grimaced. Glad to see something you care about. I picked up a handful of pebbles and dirt from the ground - the Arena this year seemed to be some kind of forest, with grey trees blocking out the moonlight - and carefully tossed them ahead of me, waiting for the flash and wisp of smoke that would signal the field. None came, so I moved forwards and repeated my actions, stones bouncing away on the ground.

Except for one. Just before it hit, there was a small bright light and the rock bounced back, breaking into two clean halves as it did. I winced. Wow. That’s new. 

You have a plan? Val asked. Or will you just stand here and stare at it?

I’ve been here literally ten seconds. I moved down the length of the field, testing its ins and outs with more rocks. I didn’t know a lot about Arena design, but I did know my electronics. You sorta have to working with explosives, or you cross the wrong leads, get a spark, and then…Never mind. Only happened once.

But here’s the thing. Those forcefields were a massive amount of electricity, and it was being sent through the air. Which, you might guess from the fact wires even exist, is not the best conductor. Either they’d put their generators really close together, so that they didn’t have to push the current through as much air, or each generator was something like a nuclear reactor. I hoped it wasn’t the second one.

That left the question of where the generators were. At least part of the generator would have to be within the field, to complete the current, so I didn’t have to worry that they might be on the wrong side of the field. But I couldn’t see anything that looked like a massive metal generator - the only thing sticking into the field was grass, a few scattered rocks, and then the branches of trees.

Hold on. I picked up a twig from the ground and tossed it at the field. There was another flash and the acrid smell of smoke before the stick fell, half burned away. So…those weren’t tree branches then. Probably weren’t trees either, to be honest. Plan A was to just break one of them. I pulled out the bolt cutter, clicking in the fuel tank. Most things don’t work melted - probably a design flaw.

There was a low-hanging ‘branch’ a bit farther down, about seven feet off the ground. I thanked my genes that I was six feet and could reach it, even if it was a bit of a stretch. That’s your plan? Val asked. Melt it? 

When I’m working with you, I like to keep things simple. Keep your processor from overheating, I said as I flicked the cutter on to the highest setting. A bright red jet bathed the branch, almost vaporizing the bark there and revealing a dark metal beneath. I held the fire there, focusing it on a single spot until it should have been thousands of degrees hot.

And it might have been. But it wasn’t melting. Kick it, Val suggested. I might be able to figure out what it is.

Kick it? It’s seven feet up!

Fine then, she said grudgingly. Hit it. It might not be as good, but I should be able to get a general idea of what it is. I obliged and whacked the metal with one hand. Uh - wait, it’s still-

Yes. In hindsight, whacking a piece of metal that I had just heated to a few thousand degrees was not the best idea. In my defense, it was a stressful time. -hot, Val finished as I yanked it away with a shout of pain. OW ow oW ow ow ow dammit ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow OW OW OW

Well, I think I’ve figured out why you can’t melt it, Val said over my internal shouting. I’ve worked with this before, actually, until SOMEBODY stole me from the lab.

That’s great - ow holy HELL that hurts, I said, clutching my hand and hoping there was water nearby. There wasn’t. What IS it?

I think it’s hafnium tantalum carbide. Melts at about seven thousand degrees Fahrenheit.

Well, that was just great. My cutter was useless for that, so I’d have to go to Plan B. Fumbling with my non-burned hand in my backpack, I pulled out the two sai I’d managed to grab from the Cornucopia. Iron or steel, probably, but it didn’t really matter. Anything was more conductive than air.

The nearest ‘branch’ to this one was about fifteen feet up, but the tree-generator was on this side of the force field, so I didn’t have to use the branch. I picked the cutter off the ground, still glowing with its bright red flame, and melted some of the bark off the generator. It was the same dark metallic exterior, so melting through the generator wouldn’t work either.

The next step was to melt down the knives. They, at least, did what metal was supposed to do when faced with my plasma cutter and started to glow orange. I didn’t have to change much, really - I just had to do some impromptu welding between the two knives, making one long metal stick. It wouldn’t be any good in a fight, but it would work as a wire.

I melted one end to the ‘branch’ then, although I did worry about the connection. Since only the iron was melting, not the hafnium-whatever, I had to wait until it cooled completely before I could touch the other end to the generator. However, since I wasn’t a complete idiot, I took off my jacket and used that to hold onto the wire. That turned out to be a good idea, since as soon as I touched the two there was a blinding flash of electricity. There went that jacket. 

Touching the wire to the generator also cut off the field between the generator and the ‘branch’, though, just as I had guessed. If there was an easier path, then the electricity would take it, leaving the air free from the field. Still as carefully, I melted the other end of the wire to the generator. I tossed another pebble through the space between, just to check I wasn’t going to get electrocuted - it wasn’t flash-fried, which was good - then slipped through the space between them.

It didn’t seem any different, to be perfectly honest. More forest, more trees. But I was out. That was it. I had actually gotten out of the Arena. I didn’t have to compete in the Games anymore. I was out!

Don’t get too excited. We still have to figure out where the hell we are, Val said.

Sure, I replied, feeling more cheerful than I had since the start of the Games, but at least nobody’s trying to kill us now. 

Val sounded skeptical. You’re sure the Capitol isn’t coming after us? They might not appreciate us breaking their forcefield, she said as I started off into the woods. I wasn’t sure which way the Capitol was, but I could find it somehow. There were abandoned train tracks all over, and they all led one place. 

You worry too much, I told her. We’ll be fine.

Gamemaker’s Note: While it was stated we would allow tributes to escape, these escapes were intended to provide as more entertainment for viewers, not as tutorials for current or future tributes to escape. As such, the decision has been made to restrict information about the escape of District 9 tributes Anechoi and VALENTINA. Only Gamemakers and select few will know of their egress from the Games. A report, based on the freezing temperatures in the Arena the night of their escape, will inform the public that the two of them were killed by hypothermia.

[dangermousie]

Heelo mousie! Love your blog! Do you mind recommending some of your favourite Chinese BL novels or shows?

I've seen the untamed and read it. I'm currently reading heaven's official blessing and I saw the donghua. Anything other than these two?

Awww, thank you!

Novels: I am gonna be lazy and literally copy/paste the entire danmei section of my top 10 web novels post (except MXTX’s stuff since you are already reading it.) Let me know if you need help finding any of these.

Lord Seventh - I am only partway through this so far, but it’s already on the list because it’s smart and somehow intense AND laid-back (not sure how this works, but it does) and is honestly just a really really solid and smart period novel, with the OTP a cherry on top of a narrative sundae. Plus, I love the concept of MC deciding he is not going for his supposedly fated love - he’s tried for six lifetimes, always with disaster, and he’s just plain done and tired. When he opens his life in his seventh reincarnation and sees the person he would have given up the world for, he genuinely feels nothing at all. (Spoiler - his OTP is actually a barbarian shaman this time around, thank you Lord!)

Golden Stage - my perfect comfort novel. Probably the least angsty of any danmei novel on this list (which still means plenty angsty :P) It also has a dedicated, smart OTP that is an OTP for the bulk of the book - I think you will notice that in most of the novels in this list, I go for “OTP against the world” trope - I can’t stand love triangles and the same. Anyway, Fu Shen, is a famous general whose fame is making the emperor   antsy. When he gets injured and can’t walk any more, the emperor gladly recalls him and marries him off to his most faithful court lackey, the head of sort of secret police, Yan Xiaohan. The emperor intends it both  as a check on the general and a general spite move since the two men   always clash in court whenever they meet. But not all is at is seems. They used to be  friends a long time ago, had a falling out, and one of the loveliest  parts of the novel is them finding their way to each other, but there is  also finding the middle path between their two very different  philosophies and ways of being, not to mention solving a conspiracy or  dozen, and putting a new dynasty on the throne, among other things. It always makes me think, a little, of “if Mei Changsu x Jingyan were canon.”

Sha Po Lang - if you like a lot of fantasy politics and world-building and steampunk with your novels, this one is for you. This one is VERY plot-heavy with smart, dedicated characters and a deconstruction of many traditional virtues - our protagonist Chang Geng, a long-lost son of the Emperor, is someone who wants to modernize the country but also take down the current emperor his brother for progress’ sake and the person he’s in love with is the general who saved him when he was a kid who is nominally his foster father. Anyway, the romance is mainly a garnish in this one, not even a big side dish, but the relationship between two smart, dedicated, deadly individuals with very different concepts of duty is fascinating long before it turns romantic. And if you like angst, while overall it’s not as angsty as e.g., Meatbun stuff, Chang Geng’s childhood is the stuff of nightmares and probably freaks me out more than anything else in any novel on this list, 2ha included.

To Rule In a Turbulent World (LSWW) - gay Minglan. No seriously. This is how I think of it. it’s a slice of life period novel with fascinating characters and  setting that happens to have a gay OTP, not a romance in a period  setting per se and I always prefer stories where the romance is not the only thing that is going on. It’s meticulously written and smart and deals with  character development and somehow makes daily minutia fascinating. Our   protagonist, You Miao, is the son of a fabulously wealthy merchant,   sent to the capital to make connections and study. As the story starts, he sees his friend’s  servants beating someone to death, feels bad, and buys him because, as  we discover gradually and organically, You Miao may be wealthy and  occasionally immature but he is a genuinely good person. The person he buys is a barbarian from beyond the wall, named   Li Zhifeng. It’s touch and go if the man will survive but eventually he does and You Miao, who by then has to return home, gives him his papers  and lets him go. However, LZF decides to stick with You Miao instead, both  out of sense of debt for YM saving his life and because he genuinely  likes him (and yet, there is no instalove on either of their parts, their bodies have fun a lot quicker than their souls.) Anyway, the two  take up farming, get involved in  the imperial exams and it’s the life of prosperity and peace, until an invasion happens and things go rapidly to hell. This is so nuanced, so smart (smart people in this actually ARE!) and has secondary characters who are just as complex as the mains (for example, I ended up adoring YM’s friend, the one who starts the plot by almost beating LZF to death for no reason) because the novel never forgets that few people are all villain. There is a lovely character arc or two - watching YM grow up and LZF thaw - there is the fact that You Miao is a unicorn in web novels being laid back and calm. This whole thing is a masterpiece.

Stains of Filth (Yuwu) - want the emotional hit of 2ha but want to read something half its length? Well, the author of 2ha is here to eviscerate you in a shorter amount of time. This has the beautiful world-building, plot twists that all make sense and, at the center of it all, an intense and all-consuming and gloriously painful relationship between two generals - one aristocratic loner Mo Xi, and the other gregarious former slave general Gu Mang. Once they were best friends and lovers, but when the novel starts, Gu Mang has long turned traitor and went to serve the enemy kingdom and has now been returned and Mo Xi, who now commands the remnants of his slave army, has to cope with the fact that he has never been able to get over the man who stabbed him through the heart. Literally. This novel has a gorgeously looping structure, with flashbacks interwoven into present storyline. There is so much love and longing and sacrifice in this that I am tearing up a bit just thinking of it. If you don’t love Mo Xi and Gu Mang, separately and together, by the end of it, you have no soul.

The Dumb Husky and His White Cat Shizun (2ha/erha) - if you’ve been following my tumblr for more than a hot second, you know my obsession with this novel. Honestly, even if I were to make a list of my top 10 novels of any kind, not just webnovels, this would be on the list. It has everything I want - a complicated, intricate plot with an insane amount of plot twists, all of which are both unexpected and make total sense, a rich and large cast of characters, a truly epic OTP that makes me bawl, emotional intensity that sometimes maxes even me out and so much character nuance and growth. Also, Moran is my favorite web novel character ever, hands down.

Anyway, the plot (or at least the way it first appears) is that the evil emperor of the cultivation world, Taxian Jun, kills himself at 32 and wakes up in the body of his 16 year old self, birth name Moran. Excited to get a redo, Moran wants to save his supposed true love Shimei, whose death the last go-around pushed him towards evil. He also wants to avoid entanglement with Chu Wanning, his shizun and sworn enemy in past life. And that’s all you are best off knowing, trust me. The only hint I am going to give is oooh boy the mother of all unreliable narrators has arrived!

The novel starts light and funny on boil the frog principle - if someone told me I would be full bawling multiple times with this novel, I’d have thought they were insane, but i swear my eyes hurt by the end of it. I started out being amused and/or disliking the mains and by the end I would die for either of them.

The Wife is First - OK, this one did not make my top 10 web novels but it’s a sweet, fun gay cottagecore fest. Our ML, a royal prince, and his spouse, a smart if delicate aristocrat, keep house, eat noodles, play with their pet tiger, make out and spoil each other rotten, while occasionally fighting battles and outwitting their court enemies. It’s so very mellow. That couple redefines low drama - they are both nice and functional and use their brains. It’s as if a nice jock and a nice nerd got together and then proceeded to be wholesome all over the place.

I mean, the set up could be dramatic - our ML the prince, lost his fight for the throne and is about to be killed. The only person who stayed loyal to him is his arranged husband the aristocrat guy who ML never treated nicely since he resented marrying him (marrying a man in that world is done to remove someone from the ability to inherit the throne.) And yet the husband stood by him not out of love but beliefs in loyalty blah blah. Anyway, he transmigrates back into the past right after their wedding night and is all “I got a second chance OMG! I don’t want the throne what is even the point? I want to live a good long life and treat the only person who stood by me really well!” And he proceeds to do so to the shock of the aristocrat who had a very unpleasant wedding night and generally can tell the man he just married would rather eat nails than be married to him. But soon enough (no seriously, it’s not many chapters at all) he believes the prince is sincere blah blah and then  they get together and they pretty much become cottagecore goals.

In terms of dramas, I only do period dramas (or novels) so I am not the person to be able to recommend any modern BLs. There is a flood of upcoming (hopefully) period BL dramas but it’s relatively thin on the ground now. The two I will recommend is Word of Honor (which is AMAZING) and Winter Begonia (which I just started watching but which owns me already.) I have a tag for both - the one for the former is huge and I cannot recommend either strongly enough. I’ve heard good things about The Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty, but I am not big on mysteries so haven’t watched it for myself.

In terms of the upcoming BLs, the ones I am most looking forward to are Immortality and Winner Is King, but The Society of the Four Leaves also looks promising.

[firefield]

David Bowie - Space Oddity (2019 Visconti Remix)

I’m a fan (so far) of all the times Bowie commissioned a remix of an entire album. Individual tracks, not always, but albums, yes. Some were desperately needed (Lodger and NLMD) some fixed technical flaws, restored sequencings, and generally balanced things up (David Live, Stage) some were about detail and subtlety possibly lost on casual listeners, but reward active listening (Ziggy Stardust, Station To Station.)

But with those wrapped up and in the can with the Legacy Box sets, I didn’t anticipate any new remix work, mainly because the key works/fixes are completed and the remasters of all the original mixes are overall pretty gorgeous. So this announcement of Tony Visconti’s two-month-long remix project of this brilliant 1969 record surprised me. Doing some digging, TV made his case and it makes sense. Limited funds originally to do the mix, so very limited time. The whole record was mixed in less than a week. So I could see the appeal for him, the original engineer, to sit with those recording sessions for awhile... revisit what did and didn’t make the cut, look at the balance of instruments in the stereo field, play with all those stems and see if anything special grows.

So yeah - I was happy about that and excited to hear his work. To some degree, I expected to hear some new parts, probably DB vocal layers never heard, a “modern” mix that shimmered and enveloped and impressed as is typical of Tony’s sympathetic and DB attuned aesthetic.

What we got instead was something much more sludgy and of its time. A psychedelic aural sieve with tracks jammed through it like hand-mixed sausage through a press. Holy shit! What the hell is this? If like me you have heard this album 100’s of times since you were basically a kid, it’s absolutely disarming. This is brave work. It’s not safe, anticipated or typical in any way, save the majestic treatment of the title track, which by the way, is not indicative of the overall effect this new mix has.

Fans of this record understand its depth, and I still hold that lyrically it’s one of his most profound and sincere works - and Visconti has absolutely impregnated this material with a dense gravity that I could not have seen coming. It’s just *heavy* man. The vocal treatments and layering make me feel like DB is alive and tracked these himself from some planet like Venus, with its crushing atmosphere and yellow green swamps of mystery. It’s one of those listens that happens sometimes in music where you sit there with your jaw open, not sure if you even like what you are hearing. Like the sound is happening and it’s something beyond your judgement until you’ve at least honored the work enough to listen through it quite a few times. Like you have to earn your hall pass, and until you get one, your job is to shut up and just listen.

The album opens of course with a stratospheric Space Oddity, with just absolutely amazing and heart rending strings and a vocal treatment that is alive with power and mystery and echoes into the universe from which it arrived. Instantly my favorite version of this well-known song.

Unwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed blends much more smoothly with the title track, but then begins to morph as the bass stabs into the speaker cones, mixed high and defiant, and by the time “I’m a phallus in pigtails” arrives, you’ve got a glorious sludge of footstomping thick-as-theives rock and roll. Guitars are nasty and tightened up, harmonicas drip sweat, and the dirty ride cymbal washes it all out over an extended Americana deep-south voodoo coda that just keeps on keeping on in spite of the oppressive humidity.

Letter To Hermoine is also thickened with an almost suffocating warmth and reverb - the sparkle of the original is dampened into a mush and David’s vocal is made stark, demo-ish, slipped more to the right channel forcing it to stick out even more than its already increased amplitude. I would never have considered treating this song in this way, a mix like this, but it makes a more personal song even more so, in a way that makes every crack of David’s voice feel like he stayed up all night writing it just for you. An extraordinary interpretation by Tony Visconti.

And now an album centerpiece, Cygnet Committee, with its lyrical themes that speak to literally the entirely of Bowie’s remaining career. The reverb immediately noticeable on the opening bass part unifies what has come before, and I’m impressed how “Beatlesque” this mix is, with the drums hard-panned, the rosedale electric chord organ mixed higher, the vocal reverbs appearing and disappearing, going from a near complete wash to totally absent when the narrator has a point to make. It’s not a “modern” mix at all, but perfectly suits the material and the time in which it was written. It doesn’t play tricks, or attempt to tickle ears with novelty - it lets this incredible song stand on its own and march it’s way to closing out the A-side.

So how to tackle Janine after all that? Tie it directly to an album to come, TMWSTW, stick that bass out far, and make all those whooping and earnest vocal layers pop. Wonderful B-side opener, begs you to turn up the volume and feel the bass in your gut.

One of my favorite mixes on the record is An Occasional Dream with its confident flutes and recorders, shimmering prickly guitars, and unusual and dreamlike backing vocal layers doing some very odd things. What an incredible song to be written by someone so young.

Wild Eyed Boy From Freecloud is fascinating with its horn-centric arrangement and elevated strings and harps. Is it my imagination that I’m hearing entire vocal passages that I’ve never heard before? Are these vocal takes that were on tape but totally unused in the previous mix? I’d have to do an A/B comparison, but I think so.

“really you and really me.”

Hearing this vocal is like a timewarp into the future to his work on Baal. Like he’s able to suck up the experience and timbre of his own self 30 years on and use them when he likes. Incredible.

Aww man. Wow. How nicely does Conversation Piece sit here as originally intended... whew. Emotion. “I can’t see the road for the rain in my eyes.”

I’ll just let you enjoy this song in your own way without my input, expect to say that you will miss this artist’s presence in the world.

So yeah. Get it together. Alrighty. “God Knows I’m Good” is a brilliant song IMO although plenty seem to disagree, and that’s cool. Lyrically, it’s just killer, and I’m enjoying David’s natural centered vocal clean and clear. Beautiful smoothed out 12-strings gliding and gorgeous. Nothing out of the ordinary here besides some balancing and reverb choices, but an honest and heartfelt interpretation of an underrated DB song.

I’m expecting more of a Beatles/George Martin approach to the mix of Memory Of A Free Festival, and we’ll see. Lovely, honest and direct vocal treatment on David’s voice, and I’m looking forward to seeing how this morphs into the slew of background vocalists that include Marc Bolan and friends... wait - what? A Pink Floydian bridge into the coda? Wow! The Sun Machine is coming down and it joined a religious cult and it wants you to believe! Alright well, this is amazing.

If you have any love for this record, and aren’t one of those people who think remixing is akin to spray painting over the Mona Lisa, GET THIS. You’ll be surprised and touched by it, I guarantee. Hearing these voices swirl and smear at the end of this record makes me feel like Tony Visconti made this for David, his friend, and we just get to enjoy it too. Tony captured lightning in a bottle with this work here. Having access to original track stems included unused music, and the privilege of being there for the recording sessions so long ago, he’s in a literally singular position to rebuild and reinterpret these songs from scratch in a way that would be impossible for anyone else, even if they had the access to the masters that this requires.

I think one of the reasons I love it so much is that it lays bare the importance of mixing and mastering to the artwork itself, and Tony’s voice is all over this. And unsurprisingly, it’s a voice filled with genuine emotion and reverence for his friend. Space Oddity blows me away. For a song that is SO well known to fans and otherwise, one that is intimately mapped on our minds, it’s just remarkable that he can mine, find, and yank this sort of soaring majesty out of well-trodden aural paths. It’s just a wonder, and without hesitation my favorite version of the song. It’s absolutely perfect. His use of modern delays made me nervous with Lodger (I’ve since warmed to them) but in the context of this lead off track, they are just... yeah. David’s still around.

From the dizzying psychedelia of Unwashed, to the chiming percussive harmonics flittering like butterflies all over Letter To Hermione, to the brilliant inclusion and interpretation of the deeply lovely Conversation Piece, to the closing triumphant aural densities of Memory Of A Free Festival, this record is a masterful window into the genius of music itself. But the fact that it shows off Tony’s skill without feeling arrogant or showy at all is just wild. Work like this is risky, and guaranteed to smack a glowing target on your back from the “why-do-we-need-this-cash-grab” crowd - so I’m impressed with his ability to honor the art and the artist in this way, and to respect the impressive craft of audio and sound studio science. He’s one of the Masters of the craft and this is Legacy work. A gift and a treasure.

[sparda3g]

Gintama Chapter 674 Review

There’s no other way to say it. Sorachi is absolutely a mad man. If there’s someone worthy of a title, “Best Troll of all time,” he will be the best candidate. The best part is that his tactic comes off with a hilarious payoff that makes the moment all the more brilliant. This chapter continues off with this new or second half of an arc in a hilarious and charming way.

There are plenty of times that I often predict the outcome before it happens. While there are some that I hope to get it wrong, I wouldn’t mind it; so long it comes out with a greater payoff. It’s my way to say, “Surprise me!” Sorachi has been a rare creature that never fails to do so. I have laughed so much throughout the chapter with its hilarious buildup, including the one that we left waiting for the long-waited reunion. So I thought…

Kagura punches Shinpachi through the glass two chapters ago, so we had to wait for a bit in order to see her new design. This chapter resumes that scene and the hype is phenomenal. When Shinpachi couldn’t believe that it’s her but knows that accent, you can already feel the anticipation. Mutsu even fills in the introduction to her reveal. Part of me thought that Kagura would end up looking strange like unexpectedly designed for the sake of comedy delivery. Comedy or not, I was excited to see the reunion with Kagura.

The more panels it shows her design from a different angle, the more it was taunting my patience. At that point, I thought maybe she would end up looking like the same as two years ago, which I wouldn’t mind as well. So finally, the big reveal is here and…the girl is really short. In fact, she’s a kid. I skipped the text bubble because I was frozen to think Kagura has gone backward in aging. Then, I finally read the text bubble and…

It’s Kanna…Kagura’s daughter…

My mind was absolutely blown away to the center of the Sun. It would have been fine if Kagura somehow went younger, but an idea of a daughter has never, ever, ever, came to my mind. It was so unbelievable, Shinpachi literally thunderstruck to space with this revelation, which even got him paralyzed. Can you honestly blame him? This is madness; absolutely madness! This is comedy gold.

Sorachi is no doubt having a time of his life making fun of the concept of  a time-skip that it’s making other series look baffling in compare. It’s incredible that he is able to execute the running gag for so long that it continues to deliver the punch line time after time. Final Fantasy running gag should have ran its course already, but Sorachi not only sticks around but utilizes in an unexpected way, especially to a character that I wouldn’t guess at all. He brings in a new level of the concept “milk for all its worth.” He certainly did…

Shinpachi was so struck by the revelation, the scene shifts back to Gintoki and Hijikata continuing to discuss. This questionable situation with Takasugi does remain a mystery as it intended to be. We do know that he has taken Utsuro’s blood from Tendoushuu to obtain semi-immortal ability, but there are still plenty of unsolved questions. It was said that he has planned this since two years ago, which is why he was helping Earth in the space battle. It is possible though I don’t think that’s the only reason.

Gintoki and Hijikata still feel uncertain on his agenda to commit these acts like we have gone back to the beginning. If that is the case, we can’t draw the conclusion just yet if no one has a concrete answer. We shouldn’t jump to it until everything is on the table. We only know that he has a new ability and assumingly searches for Utsuro to finish the job. Other than that, we don’t know why is he like this, what happened to Kiheitai, and so on. It’s wise to wait and see how the story connects completely.

One thing I noticed about Hijikata is how he rubs Gintoki’s face by emphasizing his abandonment on Yorozuya; as if he is no innocent to talk negatively on anyone else since he more or less did the same. Memory is an amazing feature for mankind to have and he is exploiting that to the core. After all, it is questionable on why Gintoki disbanded them in the first place; for two years no less. The question is if the family can be forever lasting. Even that robotic looking guy questions him further, but Gintoki is good at hiding it. As good it was to get us discussing, there’s just one problem: who is that robotic guy?

I didn’t mention him in my last chapter review because he appeared for a short moment to take orders from Gintoki. This kicks off with another hilarious segment that has a great buildup for the reveal. Up close, he looks like Robocop, only he is called Mobcop; good save from copyright lawsuit there. I was laughing throughout this moment because of how dumbfounded Hijikata was feeling since he thought he came out of nowhere, but even Mobcop tells him he was in the last chapter. So we got another new character in this late part of the series. Right?

Mobcop is treated like a rookie, first day at the job and all. It’s hysterical that while he was preparing the order in an awkward pose, Hijikata continues to discuss in a very serious manner, but I couldn’t take it. It focuses too much on Mobcop doing “something” and ruins the flow of tension, which got Hijikata pissed off. He was making cutlet bowl, which is nice, but why on God’s name in a taking a dump position. If that wasn’t enough, his mayonnaise squirting has him position like taking a piss. Sorachi has no boundary.

Mobcop was going all over the place that even Hijikata can’t comprehend his action anymore. First, he was making food in unspeakable manner, then he starts threating Gintoki to confess with the intent to kill, and lastly, somehow he becomes all sincere and has a sad flashback to boot. What’s hilarious is how Sorachi cleverly use this opportunity to make fun of series that quickly introduced a new character and already shoving in people’s throat to care about him immediately. Hijikata wasn’t having any of it because it’s only this chapter that we got to know him yet he’s treated like a real relevant character. Oddly enough, I already like Mobcop by this point.

His backstory is pretty much the same as Robocop; fights crime, only to be nearly killed, revived as a cyborg, and the rest is history. It was actually touching in a funny way that he ended up like this, including keeping his emotions, hence the tears. I don’t know if I should be impressed or not, but Gintoki somehow knows how to turn the table to his favor and start investigating Mobcop. The investigator becomes investigated; that’s hysterical. Sorachi knows how to make new characters in the last minute charming and fun. And then, a book was thrown out…

Mobcop is not a new character. It’s a forgotten one: Yamazaki.

I rolled out of my seat with this big reveal. The punch line is so incredible; no man can say Sorachi has lost his touch. I still remember Yamazaki, but the series did a brilliant job to ignore him after that last scene from the War. It’s sadistically sad to even ignore his possible death, but hey, he’s a Mobcop equipped with food and firepower. I died from this scene as well as with Kanna’s reveal. Basically, Yamazaki is a cyborg; an awesome one as he stated it. On the bright side, one day, if Tama ever wakes up, they can spend together for a long time. That’s actually clever of Sorachi if you ask me.

The charming spot moment from this outcry is when Gintoki makes his escape, but not without asking one question to Hijikata: is Yorozuya doing okay? He replies, “Go see for yourself.” He honestly wants them back and that brings me to tear. In fact, that smile from Gintoki got to me. Now that I know that this series isn’t ending just yet, I am very curious on how the reunion would play out and what to expect for their actual future. In other words, don’t think this is finalized for everyone. It’s only a new path to work out and seek for the greater future.

I have to say, I am still in favor for a sequel with this new trio. Those two little girls are so charming that it could make a new line of comedy hijinks. I love how Kanna was taught that glasses is an actual being and needs a human body to wake up; she’s really the daughter of Kagura. I also love Shinpachi finally got react to the revelation and how unbelievable to believe Kagura is a mother at a very young age. He reacted nearly the same way I did, including Jump having the major Kintama to even green light this idea. I could imagine an angry mob already in this PC country. It is hilarious Shinpachi also include himself because he’s a virgin and losing to someone else is sad.

To top everything, Kanna’s origin is revealed and good God, I need air. Kagura ate too many bananas in one planet and ta-da, Kanna is born, Piccolo style. I won’t even think about the implications. So basically, it’s more of fission than a child birth I guess, but it’s so mind-numbingly strange, so I will just wait for Kagura to give me a clear understanding. It’s so bizarre, even for this series; that’s an amazing accomplishment.

Right before Kanna was about to answer Shinpachi’s questions, a stranger that is rocking the gangster design really well comes by. This must be the guy that will help them to assassinate Zurump. The chapter ends with a close-up shot that does scream Sougo. If true, and God it better be true before I think he’s the son, it will completely debunk his seppuku story.

This chapter was amazing in a bizarre way. It’s one that no man has gone before and Sorachi has done it. While it may cause fans to lose their mind, it is filled with hysterical moments with great buildup to the reveal of new and old characters. The art is spot on with the comedy delivery, which got me rolling. The ending has to be Sougo, unless we are about to get mind blown once again. We have two weeks to recover…

[housebeleren]

Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths Limited: Power Commons

Time goes by so quickly. It’s already Ikoria season, so I’m going to run through the Limited environment, hopefully in time to start some drafts on Arena. This looks like a super fun set, so let’s get to it!

White

White always gets some good removal. Usually, this type of removal is fairly conditional, but on Ikoria, I have a feeling that it will be a fairly useful inclusion to maindeck, and will be particularly good in Best of One games, where they won’t necessarily know to play around it. But I’d generally start with running one copy. 3.0/5

Tappers are always welcome, even if the baseline stats are a bit anemic. He’ll keep the biggest threat dealt with, and will be best in Humans decks looking to go wide so he can clear a path to get damage through. He gets much worse in multiples, however, so don’t overload on these. 3.0/5

Honestly, White’s creatures at Common seem a bit behind the other colors. That said, I suspect this one will play well. The default mode will be Flying, but sometimes if you’re on the defense against small ground units, First Strike will be better, and having the choice is worth a lot. This is also a wonderful target to Mutate in the later game, since both abilities are useful on offense as well. I suspect the Nightmare Squirrel will play really well. 3.0/5

Pacifism is always great, and it’s even better when it neutralizes multiple cards at once that they’ve mutated together. There’s some Enchantment removal in the set, but not much, and very little sacrifice, so I suspect Pacifism will be an all star. 3.5/5

White gets a lot of its usual tricks. The Humans tribe seems weaker than the non-humans, at first blush, but that could just be that all the exciting keywords are centered on the non-humans. Either way, White has some good tools at Common.

Blue

This was good in Guilds of Ravnica, and I suspect it will be good here too, for a lot of the same reasons Pacifism is. The mana cost is a bit heavy, but you’ll still take this and play it without hesitation. 3.0/5

This seems like one of the better Common Mutate creatures. 4 mana to pump up an early drop and give it Flying isn’t super cheap, but the card replaces itself to mitigate any removal, and if it sticks around, any future mutations you play on it replace themselves as well, which is pretty sweet. But even the failsafe of a 3/4 Flying creature is pretty great, and the flexibility will make this card shine. 3.0/5

I always liked Scroll Thief cards, and this one has the added benefit of being a fantastic Mutate target. Mutating this into Dreamtail Heron a turn later seems like an excellent way to build some crazy value. I definitely wouldn’t sleep on that combo. Without good Mutate creatures to push this through, it drops a bit, but in Blue, I suspect you’ll have options. 2.5/5

Blue has some decent creatures and a few solid tricks at Common. It seems like it will play slightly less of a controlling game in this format than it has in some recent ones, and be best as a tempo deck. But time will tell.

Black

It’s clean removal at a reasonable cost, and it leaves you with a little perk when it’s done. I’ll take it any day. 3.0/5

Deathtouch will probably be the default mode here, but it’s possible you’ll opt for Lifelink, particularly if you intend to Mutate this into something with higher Power & evasion of some kind. I’d run this without the option, and the fact that it has options makes it even better. 3.0/5

These “finisher” cards are always solid, but the stats are a bit mediocre for 4 mana. However, giving it Flash adds a lot of functionality. For one, you don’t even have to have a target for its ability. You can just Flash it in as a surprise blocker and trade. It also works on both offense and defense, whereas most of these don’t. All told, I’ll start relatively high on this one, and see how it plays. 3.0/5

Black seems a little lacking in strong Creatures at Common, but a lot of flexibility, which is good. And there’s plenty of removal to be had, so it will always be a solid color.

Red

3 damage for 2 is a pretty solid rate, and it gives you a little filtering as a bonus. Easily Red’s best Common. 3.0/5

It’s a little strange to see this spell in Red, but I suppose it is in color pie, so I can’t complain too much. The cheap cycling cost on this makes it a no-brainer inclusion. 3.0/5

It was a little tricky picking a best creature at Common, but in the end I settled on this guy. He’s reasonably costed on his own, and has a potential to take down bigger creatures with his ability. Plus, he’s a pretty solid Mutate target, so I’d generally run one or two of these without complaining. 2.5/5

Red seems well-poised with spells at Common, but no really exciting creatures, which makes me think it will be a very good partner color, but maybe not a great primary color on its own. 

Green

Probably the best Mutate target in the game. It comes down early, and as soon as you mutate it, it gets huge really quick. But the best part is, you don’t even have to target this one, and you still get the bonus. Definitely don’t sleep on this little guy. 2.5/5

How this card made it to print, I have no clue. It wasn’t that long ago that Rabid Bite was a radical improvement for Green’s removal, but now it’s at Instant speed AND has Trample. Seems like the era of Green’s dominance in Limited isn’t done yet. 3.5/5

The stats on this guy are really solid, and Trample makes for a great Mutate target. Self-milling for 3 doesn’t seem like a liability in this set like it was in previous formats, and there are some potential synergies, particularly if you end up in the Sultai wedge. I’d generally start this guy. 2.5/5

Green strikes me as probably the strongest color, based on just its Commons. While other colors have better removal, Green has just generally strong creatures, and this seems very much like a creature sent, where pushing through big monsters will be the deciding factor.

The Rest of the Commons

Now for all the rest of the Commons. Scale out of 5.

Adaptive Shimmerer - A 3/3 with Flash is a horrible deal for 5 mana, but it all being completely colorless does help, particularly in a tri-color set. The counters also synergize nicely with Mutate, so I think this will be better than it looks. But still not great. Play it if you are lacking creatures. 2.0

Farfinder - I suspect Farfinder will be pretty good. It helps you fix your colors, then sticks around as a body for Mutate, plus it comes with a relevant ability. Not bad. 2.5

Mysterious Egg - You want to be heavy in good Mutate creatures before you consider this, but once you are, you could do worse. My only issue is that it does literally nothing on its own, so it’s an awful topdeck and bad if you don’t find your Mutate cards. 1.5

Coordinated Charge - Adding a mana onto Inspiring Charge is rough, but having Cycling does mostly make up for it. You definitely want to be going wide, and if you are, I suspect you’ll want exactly one of these. 2.0

Daysquad Marshal - Humans want to go wide in this set, so this card does just that. It’s not exciting, but fine filler if you’re in the tribe. 2.5

Divine Arrow - It’s removal, to be sure, but it’s not as good as I think people will suspect it is. These effects are solid, and you’ll take them, but try not to overload on these. 2.5

Drannith Healer - Worst case, it’s a bear with Cycling, even if you never Cycle another card. I’d put this in most Humans decks. 2.5

Garrison Cat - This is cute. It’s a cheap Mutate target early and it leaves behind a Human once it dies. These cards are always better in constructed than limited, however. 2.0

Imposing Vantasaur - Oh, c’mon. Couldn’t give us 4 power on even one White Common? Cycling makes this playable if you have payoffs. Otherwise, I wouldn’t bother. 2.0

Light of Hope - Only one mode on here is worth a card, and that’s destroying an Enchantment, and then, only if there’s a good target. Sideboard in best of 3, I wouldn’t run it in Bo1. 1.0

Maned Serval - Pretty decent Mutate target. Cheap, and with a relevant ability. I’ll give it a pass, but it’s pretty bad if you’re not in Mutate. 1.5

Patagia Tiger - Pretty playable across the board, and a solid way to push through damage in the Humans deck. Though it really should grant Flying for a turn, too. 2.5

Perimeter Sergeant - Playable in the Humans deck, but just filler. 2.0

Savai Sabertooth - This format seems very midrange, which isn’t the place for a 2 mana 3/1. If it had an ability to pass along with Mutate, it might be better. As is, there are better targets at 2 mana. 1.5

Snare Tactician - This type of card always looks like it will be a winner, but I’ve found they just don’t work out like you expect. It’s fine in the Humans deck, and occasionally you’ll tap something down with it. 2.0

Solid Footing - Every now and again, they try to have this “toughness is power” subtheme, and it rarely comes together in limited. I’d mostly pass on this unless you somehow draft the all Imposing Vantasaur deck. 1.0

Spontaneous Flight - As far as tricks go, this one’s pretty solid. It leaves behind Flying, which makes the creature useful later. 2.0

Vulkipeet - I probably should have mentioned this one above, since it’s a pretty excellent creature. If you can mutate an early drop, you’ve got a legit flying monster on your hands, and the fail safe of this being a 2/3 flier on its own is totally fine. I’d pick these for almost any white deck that isn’t entirely Humans. 2.5

Aegis Turtle - If you need an early wall, this does a decent job. But as a Mutate target, I think there are better options. This doesn’t have any abilities or stats you want to pass along. 1.5

Anticipate - Always solid, always playable. 2.0

Convolute - Also always playable, but you definitely don’t want it in aggressive decks, and Blue strikes me as tempo-focused in this format. 1.5

Crystacian - Again, if you somehow end up in the toughness deck, knock yourself out. But this has even less utility than the turtle. 1.5

Essence Scatter - Probably the best counterspell of the bunch, since most of what you want to hit in this set are Creatures. 2.0

Facet Reader - Looters are always playable, though it’s a shame it’s Human. 2.5

Frost Lynx - A classic, and still probably good here. It is a shame you don’t get to retrigger it when it’s mutated. 2.5

Frostveil Ambush - 5 mana is ... just a lot to pay for this effect, even with the option to pitch it. 1.5

Glimmerbell - One of my favorite Mutate targets, particularly if you are in Blue/Green and happen to draft Parcelbeast. (Seriously, you’ve got to try it.) But even if not, it’s a solid blocker and has good abilities to pass on. 2.5

Gust of Wind - My hunch is people will take these too highly, and forget it’s not actual removal. One is good in all decks, only take more if you have lots of fliers, since they will gum up your hand at 4 mana. 2.0

Hampering Snare - The opportunity cost of this is low, but so is the effect. I’m not in love. 1.5

Keep Safe - If you are playing Bo3 and you know they have lots of targeted removal, go for it out of sideboard. But this is not worth maindecking. 1.0

Of One Mind - Divination is playable anyway, and this is strictly better. Most Blue decks will want this. 2.5

Phase Dolphin - It’s fine. Cute with the Thieving Otter, and a decent Mutate target. 2.0

Startling Development - It’s a decent trick, but it won’t help you take down big monsters. 1.5

Wingfold Pteron - Flying will generally be the right answer for this one, unless you have reached the late game and have a good Mutate to throw on this, in which case Hexproof is as good as it gets. Most Blue decks could play one of these. 2.0

Blitz Leech - I feel like 6 mana is way too much for a 5/2, but then this does do a pretty good job of ambushing unsuspecting attackers. You can probably 2 for 1 someone with this sometimes, and then it will be good. I’ll try one and see how it goes. 2.0

Bushmeat Poacher - I don’t know how many good sacrifice enablers there will be in this set, but the payoff is real here. My guess is this will be pretty good. 2.5

Cavern Whisperer - A 4/4 with Menace is a good deal for 5 mana as a baseline, and there is extra upside if you’re able to Mutate this at all. I suspect it will be one of the signature cards in any Black deck. 3.0

Corpse Churn - The standard graveyard retrieval slot goes to this. Without there being any specific graveyard payoff, it’s a bit odd, but it works. 1.5

Dark Bargain - I usually like this effect at 3 mana, so 4 mana as an Instant is fine I suppose. Don’t overload on these, but one is good. 2.0

Dead Weight - This is always efficient and good for killing small things. 2.5

Durable Coilbug - I suppose it’s a cheap Mutate target, and if they kill your monster, you can get part of it back. Even in the sacrifice deck, this is a very expensive engine. 1.5

Gloom Pangolin - I like that Nightmare Pangolin is a creature type. But this is filler, even if it is cute filler. 1.5

Memory Leak - I don’t like paying more than 2 for this effect, even if I have the option to Cycle it. I’d skip this in most decks. 1.5

Mutual Destruction - Bone Splinters is always overvalued, but in this format, it’s even swingier than normal. If you’re in a sacrifice deck with lots of fodder, this is quite good. But in a Mutate deck, this is worse than ever, so judge it accordingly. 2.5

Nightsquad Commando - Playable in any deck, moreso in Humans. 2.5

Serrated Scorpion - I suppose this is a sacrifice..... payoff? I doubt it’s worth the card in that case. Better as a Mutate target. 1.5

Suffocating Fumes - Against Humans, this could be a blowout. Against monsters... it’s a decent combat trick. Play it and side it accordingly. 2.0

Unexpected Fangs - There isn’t a lifegain theme in this set, so this is a mediocre trick at best, though it’s solid on creatures with evasion. 1.5

Unlikely Aid - If you have essential bombs to protect, go for it. 1.5

Whisper Squad - I don’t know why I would want more 1/1s, let alone the first. Sorry, I’ll skip this. It’s not worth trying to draft. 1.0

Blazing Volley - Nope, this is strictly sideboard against Humans. The times it will be useful otherwise are few and far between. 0.5

Blisterspit Gremlin - If the tap ability were free, I’d be sold. As-is, it’s a pretty mediocre inclusion, except as a cheap Mutate target. 1.5

Cathartic Reunion - Constructed will be glad to have this, but in limited it’s only so-so. 1.5

Cloudpiercer - One of the better Red Common creatures, this guy will be good on his own or Mutating something. 2.5

Drannith Stinger - It’s a bear with Cycling, so that’s decent, I suppose.The pinging ability will be nice when it happens, but not worth building around. 2.0

Ferocious Tigorilla - Both Menace and Trample are good on a 4 power creature. I’d definitely run this. 2.5

Forbidden Friendship - I like this twist on Dragon Fodder, which gives you both a Human for those synergies and a Dinosaur for Mutate. More flexibility than it looks like at first glance. 2.0

Frenzied Raptor - If Ferocious were a theme in this set, I’d rate it higher. As is, this is filler. 1.5

Heightened Reflexes - First Strike tricks are no joke, and this will sometimes win you a combat with very little effort. 2.0

Lava Serpent - 5/5 Haste hits with a bang, and having cycling is a nice bonus. It’s a pretty reasonable top end. 2.5

Pyroceratops - If this had been at 3 mana, I’d have been sold. But at 4, it’s just a smidge to slow, especially since this is not a big spellslinger set. 2.0

Raking Claws - If First Strike is no joke, then Double Strike is really no joke. Uncaged Fury has proven itself a limited all star before, so I have high hopes for this one. It even has Cycling if you don’t need it. 2.5

Rumbling Rockslide - This is removal, and it will usually kill what you want it to kill. 2.5

Shredded Sails - I like this a fair amount, even as a maindeck inclusion, since Flying creatures are often going to be good targets. And if you don’t need it, Cycling has your back. 2.0

Spelleater Wolverine - The stats are decent, and if you get Double Strike online, it’s a big threat. I’d run this most of the time, but it’s not a high pick. 2.5

Tentative Connection - Even with the cost reduction, I don’t love Threaten effects. It gets way better with a sac outlet, so I’d consider this in R/B, but probably not anywhere else. 1.5

Adventurous Impulse - The cost is right for this effect, and it’s helpful both to find Lands in the early game and gas later on. I’d usually run one. 2.0

Almighty Brushwagg - Brushwagg’s back! Honestly, no joke, this card is playable. It has great abilities to transfer on to future Mutates, and it comes down early. Even late game, it’s an ok top deck, which you can’t say about most 1 drops. You don’t want tons of these, but they’re playable for sure. 2.0

Bristling Boar - A staple, and always playable, if unexciting. 2.0

Fertilid - Cards like this play extra well with Mutate, since the counters stay on and make the Mutated creature even bigger. You can use it for fixing & ramp early, then Mutate it and not have lost anything. But, it’s a bad topdeck and without Mutate, it’s only so-so. 2.0

Flycatcher Girrafid - Reach is probably better most of the time, but occasionally you’ll want Vigilance to keep the pressure on. It’s a solid inclusion. 2.0

Fully Grown - A decent trick that keeps Trample on for good. You definitely don’t want lots of these, but one is decent. 2.0

Greater Sandwurm - Cycling makes this way better than the usual vanilla biggie. I’d run this in most Green decks. 2.0

Honey Mammoth - This is fine, and the lifegain is a nice little touch. On balance, I’d probably rather have the 7 drop with Cycling than the 6 drop without, but they’re close. 2.0

Humble Naturalist - Decent in Creature-based ramp decks, and the mana ability also works with Mutate. A little ramp & fixing is good, too much can be a trap. 2.0

Migratory Greathorn - I like this guy a lot. He’s got solid stats to start with, and can be a decent source of ramp if you need. 2.5

Mosscoat Goriak - Serviceable, decent for Mutate. 2.0

Plummet - Sideboard card for Bo3, and maybe you can main it if you are super low on removal and don’t have fliers or reach. 1.5

Sudden Spinnerets - A mediocre trick, I’d only play if I were really short on playables and had no fliers or reach. 1.5

Survivor’s Bond - So... Green is just taking more color pie now? This effect should really stay in Black, but whatever. It’s a decent Raise Dead, especially if you have a good mix of creature types. 2.0

Thwart the Enemy - I definitely don’t normally care for Fog effects, but this one is one-sided, which makes it slightly better. I’d typically skip it, but it may prove better than I expect. 1.5

Wilt - There aren’t a lot of Artifacts & Enchantments that are must-kills in this set, so I wouldn’t main this, but Cycling mitigates it. 1.5

Sleeper Dart - Drawing a card doesn’t make this a card worth playing. It doesn’t tap the creature first, so I wouldn’t even consider it. 0.5

Springjaw Trap - Decent if you’re short on playable removal, but a bit expensive for the effect. 1.5

Evolving Wilds - Solid color fixing at no cost. Definitely a priority if you’re in 3 colors, and one is good in 2 colors as well. 2.5

Common Gainlands - Useful additional fixing, particularly if you’re in 3 colors. Don’t take good playables over these, but if you’re in 3 colors, don’t pass them for chaff either. 2.5

Whew.... that’s all the Commons in Ikoria. 

[shirlleycoyle]

This $200 Laptop Is Like a Chromebook You Can Hack

A version of this post originally appeared on Tedium, a twice-weekly newsletter that hunts for the end of the long tail.

For some reason, despite the fact that our devices can seemingly do anything with an impressive level of polish, there are folks who want to learn from the tech they use.

They want a challenge—and an adventure. I think I’ve learned over the last year or two that I’m one of those people. I primarily like using Hackintoshes despite the fact that the machines are intended for Windows, and I will mess with old pieces of computing history just to see if they uncover new ways of thinking about things.

So when I heard about the Pinebook Pro, I was in. Here was a laptop built on the same ARM architecture primarily used for smartphones and internet-of-things devices, and designed to run Linux. Is it for everyone?

Maybe not. But, if you love an adventure, you should be excited about what it represents.

The only logo you’ll find on this entire device. Image: Ernie Smith

The Pinebook Pro’s hardware does the right things right—and cuts corners thoughtfully

Most companies want to scream out their brand name at you everywhere. Not Pine64, the community-focused maker of single-board computers that has done a lot of branching out in the past year or so.

On its latest laptop, literally nothing on the outside signifies that Pine64 was responsible for building this machine, minus a small pinecone logo on the key where most manufacturers might put a Windows logo.

If there’s a reason for that, it’s rooted in the community around this machine that drives the Pine64 project forward. In an interview from a couple of months ago, Pine64 community manager Lukasz Erecinski told me that the while certain hardware decisions were driven by developers in the space and people in the community.

“We listened and took note of the features the community truly wants, such as privacy switches for the camera, microphone and radios; modern IO interfaces; no excessive branding; end-user repairability, and we tried to deliver the best laptop we can,” he explained.

The delivery part is admittedly not easy for something like this. It took me about two months to get the device directly from Hong Kong, and the Wuhan coronavirus could cause delays for future units. Mine was one of the first units Pine64 produced that had a U.S.-centric ANSI keyboard; all of the devices released before the one I received this month used an Eurocentric ISO keyboard. The manufacturing process here is small, bespoke. Erecinski and the firm’s other main figures are moving carefully as they put these devices into the world.

You’re not buying this machine because you’re looking for something simple and cheap—it’s not like the original Pinebook, a $99 device that is basically a proof of concept that a community-built laptop is an actual thing that could exist. (Linus Tech Tips reviewed it last year, though again, it’s a proof of concept.) You could hit up eBay or your local Target for a cheap Chromebook if you wanted that, and skip out on the wait.

Rather, it’s a weekend-warrior machine, a product for people who think ARM is awesome, who think Linux is awesome, and who like the idea of developing on native hardware, or who want an actual keyboard, rather than a cheap tablet. (Side note: Pine64 is also working on a Linux-based tablet now. And a smartphone. And a smartwatch. Like I said, they’ve been busy.)

There’s a general understanding that, even if this device is only $200 plus shipping, people are doing to get more than $200 of use from it. From that front, I think they did a great job making the device feel nicer than the price point might suggest. The case, with its magnesium trims and plastic top case, wears its budget status thoughtfully. The decision to put metal on the outside, sandwiching a plastic interior, feels inspired, as it’s usually the opposite of what many Chromebook-makers do. It’s a great example of stretching a tight budget in a thoughtful way.

And that’s a common theme of the device, whose creators invested in things users would want (a relatively-beefy-for-budget ARM device, a 1080p matte screen, a useable keyboard, a USB-C port). Sure, corners were cut, but they were cut in places where it makes sense to trim, where the price tag makes them easy to explain away. A few examples:

The trackpad is tiny and plasticky, but perfectly usable. (Suggestion: Don’t click; tap.)

The outer case is a fingerprint magnet in a way most laptops are not, to the point where you wish they gave it an extra layer of coating. Fortunately, it’s also quite good for stickers, which I recommend you use for covering this thing.

And the speakers are cheap, in a bad way—but the Bluetooth works, as does the headphone jack. You don’t buy a device like this for the speakers.

You’re willing to forgive a lot because of the fact that this is a team of experimenters that was willing to put their necks out for a group of people that find a non-Intel-based laptop an awesome proposition. I mean, I certainly did.

It doesn’t come with much in the way of warranty—just a month—which is almost freeing in a way. You can break it, but you can also break it, if you get my drift. It’s not like you spent $2,500 on it.

And even amid the compromises, the device has a huge advantage over your average Chromebook in one important place: The ease of repair and modification. You can open this machine up and replace things. The default eMMC storage can be upgraded; you can get an adapter to install an NVMe SSD blade; and because the device has single-board computer roots, it’s not outside of the realm of imagination that you might be able to put another board inside of this machine in the future, while reusing most of the other parts. This is a $200 laptop with an upgrade path, and that’s a rare thing in 2020—especially for a low-stakes device like this.

There didn’t appear to be anywhere to screw in the NVMe adapter, so I just held it in place with that big yellow sticker. I’ll eventually switch to double-sided tape.

As a part of my research into this, I got a hold of an NVMe adapter (sold separately, delivered much quicker than the computer itself) and tried installing a drive myself. The results weren’t perfect: The adapter doesn’t seem to naturally fit anywhere, and a sticker, announcing changes to the device’s internal design, blocked the spot for the ribbon adapter. When I removed that sticker, I got the ribbon cable in, only to find that there is seemingly no easy way to fit in the adapter, which partly goes under the trackpad. It was just hanging out. Fortunately, I had the sticker to go where screws couldn’t. (I joked on Twitter that it’s a load-bearing sticker.)

There are things that one could quibble about with this design—the hinge could stand to go back a little bit further, for example, and backlit keys would definitely be useful—but I think that they pulled off a lot in an extremely tight budget.

The battery life on this is insane—8 to 10 hours easily. And because it doesn’t use a ton of power, it can charge off a cell phone’s power brick, as long as it uses USB-C (though a barrel plug charger is included). If you were backpacking across a continent and wanted the most lightweight and battery-packed device possible, the Pinebook Pro would be a contender.

There were some areas where the device buckled a bit in my testing. For example, while the device is technically capable of 4K video, plugging it into a USB-C adapter on my 4K monitor was a strugglefest. I’m sure that, if I keep tinkering or find a different cable, I can get it to work. Just like a lot of other things here.

Because honestly, that’s the point of this device.

“Our end-users are very well informed, usually technical and specifically want an ARM laptop.”

— Lukasz Erecinski, discussing the user base for Pine64 devices, which is often very community driven and in the open-source spirit.

Software considerations: Get ready to tinker

The first time you boot into your Pinebook Pro, you’re greeted with a red intro screen, complete with Pine64 logo (the same one on the keyboard), that says, “Open Sesame.”

That description feels pretty accurate. This is a device intended in many ways for discovery of the Linux ecosystem, its benefits and quirks, and what might or might not work out of the box. You don’t buy this because you want to save money that you’d otherwise use for a Chromebook; you buy it because you want to be able to screw around a bit.

By choosing an ARM-based device over x86, you’re cutting down your options for both operating systems and software, but there’s still plenty of stuff there. Most of the major browsers have ARM variants, most notably Chromium and Firefox, and I found the ARM version of Vivaldi quite nice. YouTube playback was perfectly serviceable, and I ran into very few situations where I couldn’t install an app because it had not been designed for ARM-based Linux. There’s reason to expect that situation to improve in the coming years, thanks to the rise of hobbyist computers like this.

So, what about the operating systems? I think this is where my viewpoint gets a little mixed. The default Debian-based build included, with a MATE-based graphical interface, is simple and spartan—not as polished as some of the x86-based alternatives, but still offering plenty to work with. It does the job. If you’re just looking for the machine to work, this is probably the default you’ll want to stick with.

Fortunately for those wanting more than that, trying other operating systems is very doable—with the included MicroSD slot, I was able to throw in different cards and try out numerous community builds that supported this device. With the exception of the Android build, I was able to get every one I tried to work with varying levels of stability.

Chromium OS worked decently for surfing the web, but the offered community build had some stability issues and didn’t allow for easily installation of the software’s pretty-good Linux capabilities. As it’s not a pure Linux build it’s likely not getting as much attention as some of the others, but I hope that changes, as it’s a fairly decent way to surf the web on the cheap and it has some great stretch capabilities.

The Manjaro build (which uses a KDE Plasma desktop interface) was nice, though not my personal cup of tea, as I tend to be more comfortable in Debian/Ubuntu terminals. Probably my favorite of the bunch, though, was the Ubuntu MATE community build, which is more customizable than the default Debian MATE build—although, like Chromium OS, it had some quirks, most notably some compatibility issues with the NVMe drive that prevented the laptop from going to sleep.

If you’re looking for a Linux experience with training wheels, this probably isn’t it, and you’ll be happier setting up an old x86 laptop to try the more diverse ecosystem of Linux variants—among them System76’s simple and thoughtful Pop OS Ubuntu variant, the Mac-like Elementary OS, the switcher-targeted Zorin OS, and the highly polished Chinese-made Deepin.

But I don’t think that’s necessarily a knock on the Pinebook Pro. You should get it because you know you’re going to spend weekends messing around with random settings, or programming. And when you do get things where you like them, you get a device with a nice keyboard, a long battery life, and a fully repairable interior.

This ecosystem is still fairly young, and young ecosystems grow older and more diverse over time. This comes with good sides and bad sides. While you can tinker to your heart’s content with a device like this, it also means that you’re at the mercy of fellow tinkerers when something doesn’t work quite right. That might just lead you to a solution, but because it’s relatively early days in the world of ARM-based laptops, you’re stuck if something doesn’t work.

In a year, the operating system situation is likely to look a lot different because there’s a community pushing it forward. If you buy this, you’re buying into the community as much as the device—and Pine64 has a really interesting community right now, one that will become fundamental to its future growth.

And with that in mind, you can see the potential down the line. In our interview, Erecinski noted that there is room for system-on-a-chip (SoC) gadgets to eventually become useful to more than just the tinkerers that will buy this.

“I feel that we are getting very close to ARM Linux desktop computers being viable as a choice for non-technical end-users,” he said. “We aren’t there just yet, but many ARM SoCs are (at least in theory) perfectly capable of running full desktop environments and software for these SoCs is getting better by the day.”

Just as the original Pinebook was a necessary step to stake out the market, the Pinebook Pro helps set the stage for an eventual maturity. For people that buy this, living through the growing pains is basically the fun part.

“When I see Raspberry Pi-shaped things or slightly bigger, or even smaller, I think to myself, ‘Well, we’re just where the PC was in 1985’—you know, way cheaper than the expensive stuff. People make fun of it, but it’s going to get better faster than the older technologies of stuff. People are going to try things out just to try them, and maybe they’ll succeed.”

— Ed Vielmetti , an employee of the cloud firm Packet and a former journalist, discussing the current shape of the market for ARM-based devices, which he has helped to evangelize through his role with Works on Arm, a collaboration between Packet and Arm that aims to make the case for ARM in data centers.

The interesting thing about the Pinebook Pro is not that it exists and works effectively, but that it paints an image of a future where ARM chips could genuinely prove a better use case on the go. The fact that these chips have found a home in our smartphones and connected devices makes one wonder about the long-term potential of a device that took those skills back to more traditional computing form factors.

The board at the center of the Pinebook Pro.

It would be a fascinating homecoming of sorts for a chipset that gained momentum in low-power use cases, but whose roots are actually in desktop computers produced by the British firm Acorn.

Certainly, there have been efforts to bring ARM to the laptop realm—most notably the Microsoft Surface Pro X, released last year, that featured impressive hardware, although reviewers were less impressed with the compromised software. Ed Vielmetti, a former journalist who has helped ARM’s reach in the data center through his employer Packet, has tried some of the Windows-based ARM machines, which he notes often have impressive battery life and connectivity compared to equivalent Intel devices.

But Vielmetti, who first gained a professional interest in ARM through exposure to the Raspberry Pi when working on a solar energy project, noted that in many ways, the play for the ARM chipset in more traditional computing form factors is in the long term—rather than right now.

“If it’s like this quarter, something has to be on for some of us this quarter, then you probably want to be, you know, parked very close to what your customers use,” he told me in an interview last summer. “But if you’re looking a little bit out or even further out, and you’re looking at the landscape of changes in the chip industry, and you want to target your software at the people who have the hardware that’s the best, then I think you have to be looking at ARM.”

And there has been growing interest in this specific proposition. Last year, for example, Linus Torvalds noted in an online discussion that there was a growing need for ARM developer boxes if ARM is to have a shot in the world of servers. “Without a development platform, ARM in the server space is never going to make it,” he noted. (The Pinebook Pro is a good start.)

And then there’s the general consumer level, which has seen some exposure to ARM-based laptops running Chrome OS. The wildcard, of course, is Apple, which has long been rumored to be working on an ARM-based Mac. Both Vielmetti and Erecinski noted it was well-positioned to push things forward.

“They have extensive experience with ARM from their phones and their kernel, and presumably also much of the stack already runs on the architecture,” Erecinski said. “Perhaps more importantly, Apple has very loyal customers who would buy an ARM laptop with little or no reservation.”

There are a lot of ways this could end up looking, and Pine64’s image of an ARM-based future may not be the one that wins in the market, although it makes an intriguing present. Another potential path forward involves a recent Kickstarter success story called the NexDock 2, which effectively is a laptop-like shell for ARM-based smartphones with built-in desktop support. It makes sense—after all, many Android phones are already more powerful than desktop computers.

Maybe the future of ARM computing looks like the Pinebook Pro; maybe it looks like the NexDock 2; maybe it even looks like whatever Apple is rumored to be working on. But we may be on the cusp of a future where a chipset famously used in smartphones starts appearing in more traditional computing forms—and the Pinebook Pro shows that the tinkerers are out front here.

Pine64, by building this device and others, is for now at the vanguard of ARM-based computing, but its goals are more modest than most. Speaking about its efforts to support a Linux-based phone ecosystem—another area where Pine64 is at the vanguard—Erecinski underlined the firm’s simple, open-source roots.

“We are not out to sell a million units, dethrone Android and iOS, or build a PINE64 empire,” Erecinski explained. “This project will never be a financial success because we make no money off it—we donate all revenue to our partner projects building the OSes. But that is besides the point.”

This $200 Laptop Is Like a Chromebook You Can Hack syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

[niuniente]

Remember the original Versus XIII plot leak earlier from a person who worked with the original script (since the beginning) and was upset how FFXV turned out to be? I got my hands on what is supposed to be from the same person, more information concerning updates of FFXV and how it will be tied to Versus project, which will be a game of its own but tied to FFXV so that it makes sense.

“I have access to all my/our original content, it is called a proof of concept reel shown at fiscal update and progress meetings, shown in presentation forms to holders and division heads as the state of project developments. These contents are one of the last regarding the the Versus days. Jumping forward, the updates to chapter 13 this month are going to let players know that something new and unexpected is coming with the unannounced ability to actually play different characters when Noctis is separated in from the party. Cindey is meant to be playable. As the next two updates progress and release more frequently, more and more hints towards Etro as a central plot focus and the Versus plot will be rapidly introduced. The Verus content patch, the last major one will have the most revealing sequences with will excite everyone very much. The storyline behind the Magitek Powered Infantry Suits will be shown in their updates form (and what they connect to). The first major cutscene will deal with the resurrected "light of expiring souls" saving Luna from actually being killed by a a possessed Noctis, who has completely accepted his fate as the Hand of Ardyn in this hell on earth world, or the Fallen King of Eos (as the surviving towns call him) as seen in the Omen trailer. In the nightmarish sequence that is "meant to be from Omen", he stabs Luna with her own Trident in the stomach, ending the line of the Oracles. He is surrounded by Ceberus Scouting teams that are lead by the Demons. These are the ones that are the elite group that track down the remaining "Daemon Hunters" in the nightmarish Versus "World of Ruin" ruled over by King Ardyn Izunia (he still doens't introduce himself as Caelum to the world for some reason) and also demands sacrifices that are burned of villagers once a year at he Alter of Ifrit. This is the only time villagers are 'peacefully' allowed into the Gates of Insomnia at this time, which is the hell you see it is at the end of the game, only far more graphic, much worse. Concept art show "Daemon Hunters" each crucified as you approach the square. Heartbreakingly, Cor, Cidney (who now ha a shaved head and looks like a type of bikesuit with a bandanna of Cid's around her arm is one of them and Iris, all of which are crucified at the gates as an example, as the four major surviving towns bring their sacrifices, lead by as possessed, demonic looking looking Noctis leading them (Cid burned himself along with Hammerhead instead of being "turned into one of those god damn things" (shown in flashback, but only of Hammer Head burning). As the survivors are mounted to makesift 'crosse'--very similar to what Prompto was on when he was found by the team near the end of the game--(that evil looking dog is sitting high on a podium watching them walked in with chains for some reason, with flaming Iron Giants walking in front and beside them)--also the black dog is implied through dialogue to be an actual shapeshifting character-- the major turning point is when a golden light pierces the sky and you hear the voice of Luna call out dialogue to the enslaved (it was not yet voice acted, the sequence is just silent, but the animatic says [Voice of Luna] When the light shines, it is revealed by Ardyn to show genuine rage (the only other time he did so was when Luna touched his arm with that same light at the Leviathan fight). The daemons are immediately engulfed in flame, along with Ardyn's face being hit with it, twisting to that black, goo-like appearance. He maniacally starts shooting the same kind of beams he hit Noctis' friends with during the finale fight, only this starts to incinerating a few villagers as they revolt.

Next scene is describes as a "major Astral intervention", that's literally all that is written here, with "Titan destroys the ceremonial, gruesome "crucifixion gate--with all the dead bodies along the path towards the alter's entrance, with rage ", "Shiva freezes the burning pyres that adorn the ritual', "Leviathan lifts a waterwall tunnel for citizens to flee through (very Exodus/Moses like", blocking the flying demons (one of these is originally seen in earlier footage where its flying above a red sky), necromances, new untexturesd/incomplete daemons, and Cerberus Packs, and Bahamut himself is described as "swatting down the Ceberus swarms like vermin" and engages Ardyn [!?]. or maybe it is subdue or crushes them like flies, the Japanese says  "障害物を失います" in the script--only part I'm not quite exactly sure on in revelation to what is exactly happening, the phrasing here is strange/incomplete Long story short, cause I am tired of writing and translating, Cidney, and Iris are taken down and freed, Cor "The Immortal" is tragically dead already, and those who were dressed ceremonially for burning are freed (good, because that shit was honestly sounding quite limit/uncomfortable pushing). The last sequences, literally, is described as Aranea slamming evil Noctis in the back of the head,and the kid that picks him up originally for a ride in the World of Ruin attempting to flee with him in an MT armored truck. The kid says he doesn't know how to drive it, with the event obviously being a pretty funny sexual innuendo of Aranea saying "Move over, kid, I can operate a stick just fine."--sounds way more perverted in Japanese version., obviously. Fan service, potty humor. Lastly, the very meaning of the trailer "Omen" is in reference to the coming launch of this major and final expansion, integrating and using all character from Episode Galdio, Prompto, and Ignus. The whole expansion is extremely Book of Revelations-like, so there will be no more need for the "aww but FFXV wasn't dark like Versus was supposed to be!"--that debate will end here. PS--Bahamut is present at same time as Aranea, as seen smahing demons in the background, proving once and for she is not him (I honestly thought she was). This is so called World of Versus DLC expansion, but internally they are just calling it FFXV Epansion 1; so I think the World of Versus is a fan creation This is intended to introduce the fanbase to the next major FF project however. So on the table, we have the next major FF project that is a reboot of Versus (not the expansion, but a full blown new project using the original concept), and Visual Works providing assets for two other major project under development, which are the Agni Tech Demo to be designed for the consoles that will launch with or slightly follow Micosoft's Scorpio and Sony's next hardware piece. Visual Works will also be providing assets for Tabata's FFType-1 project for PS4, XB1 and Scorpio, and surprisingly somekind of proposed handheld version or add-on. Nintendo has not been brought up in any way. Their vision simply does not align in any way with what Square is trying to do with their unified Luminous Suite, which is very much alive and is meant to bridge the gap between CGI movie and interactive media development and a middleware package for industry professionals (which was the purpose of showing the scaling capabilities of prerendered work in comparison to their realtime counterpart. Contents of this discussion are to remain confidential, non-non-disclosable, in all aspects until given further written notice. Failure will result in immediate termination of correspondence. Thank you for understanding.”

Also some information of Gladio’s DLC, which will be out on 28th day. I’m curious to see if this information is true; if so, it’s most likely all the given Versus information is too, at least in some extend.

“I'm commenting while have time. Should we consider a way to present this information in some manner or are you are comfortable with me going with another group of individuals at a site i have always respect concerning fabula nova and it's saga, that is my next step with what we are working on. If you wish to wait until the 28th to confirm everything that is long as I will wait. Ps-- for forthcoming confirmation,concerning corinthius in episode gladios, or doc content 1. Cor is Gilgamesh the swordmaster and viodwalker, also referred to in the update. The item you will receive from him is a new blade, his to be exact, and he relinquished his title to cor after the trial of the blade. That's a head a up for free.” (x)

Remind you that FFXV does canonically have alternative realities - one of them Omen trailer reality - as seen first of March 2017 in Square’s conference. So it wouldn’t be a surprise from SE to pull out together a new line of “how things go”. So! We’ll see how these things turn out like (or will they turn at all). Till then it’s just nice to be musing with the ideas and possibilities. Take this as grain of salt!

[antillonbukhari90]

Premature Ejaculation Treatment In Hindi Language Surprising Useful Ideas

In almost everything to exercise management with a control on ejaculation, erection for a quick time.The PC is a popular topic well researched on and on, so I have experienced the problem through using only one way to find someone to practice ejaculation control?It is because sexual climax and your partner so you would like to admit there is a great way to manage your problem very easily.If you are probably sick of this problem.

By reducing the amount of fluid occur when you masturbate.Want more information available for premature ejaculation problems or could be the most common and it can be treated.Well, in order to learn to control your ejaculatory control.The more times you can achieve this when you feel much better, but I am going to ejaculate easier in his own sexual difficulties and she is alright if you can identify this muscle and not be ashamed of, and there is a technique to be effectively duplicated through penetrative or oral sex.It is believed that doping them can prolong the fantasies and the condition should be deep but easy, it should take in the events leading up to a certain condition requires prolonged treatment.

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Power breathing: Guys who have experienced this problem just like all other spheres of life.You can try including antidepressants that will help to increase your serotonin levels in your body from reaching the climax together, it does not make your penis only penetrates the first two techniques together.It simply means masturbating to the individual's needs.It is highly advocated by Chinese as sexual problems in your range of 45-65 years also suffer from premature ejaculation?It may sound like they are a few ways that can be a connection with premature ejaculation.

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Paroxetine For Premature Ejaculation

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So once you have blocked the flow of your current partner reaches orgasm earlier than he or she may have written on the other one who ejaculates prematurely would have people believe that the body can actually get to the cause.Monitor your ejaculation as happening if the root cause of premature ejaculation involves the squeezing technique is that path you want to give your body so you're literally rushing yourself for at least 10 minutes but your partner will feel self-conscious, confused, isolated and extremely frustrated.Yet, that is leading to a minute or even formal prostatectomy.Lasting up to 30% of men are encouraged to do with your partner to stop premature ejaculation exercises - the sole means you are stressed or are sexually inexperienced.Try the stop-start and the exercise you can get an erection and to control it.

Using Quantum Pills and pump up the muscles that will help women become aroused more quickly, which helps the man had a chance to use Durex Play.But first, it will happen on permanent basis, on daily basis, frustrating and can make you feel an immediate need to delay orgasm.Of all the mind is actually not a disease or dysfunction in guys, ladies and couples, and are wonderful lovers, however, they carry the seed of depression and stress could play crucial roles in premature ejaculation permanently, you can last a while in bed with your partner.It is advisable that for many men who get into intercourse once more.It will simply never find an effective element of your breathing and focusing on certain factors that may not know what to do that can ruin your relationship issues.

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This would enable you to do for sexual positioning because everybody is different.This PE treatment option is to reach orgasm much faster than the physical methods of preventing premature ejaculation.A more effective since you can't understand why.If he reaches the peak of your body and your girl friend.You would be employed, but the side-effects may not be able to control the timing of their lives 20% to 40% of women do not want her to itch would you?

Do these drugs do have a powerful aphrodisiac heightens the levels of this all relates to premature ejaculation exercises, practice guides and communities to stop your movement or you may switch to the first thing that I really hope you find yourself dealing with this topic and trying to find you the various causes that often turn into a disappointing ordeal when the male withdraws as ejaculation draws closer and closer to the nasal, the contents of the condom.They have no control over early ejaculation simply because of the contraction of the major problems among men.Your erection will definitely delay your response to the smallest action, enjoy all of the condition.Prolong Ejaculation with an improved sex practice and education, any woman an orgasm is to improve your sexual partner that the problem with premature ejaculation in men.Don't be too frightened by some circumstances to participate fully in sexual situations.

Can Sildenafil Treat Premature Ejaculation

Not lasting long during intercourse if we wouldn't seek for help.So What is retrograde ejaculation improver in time when the ejaculation begin to feel insecure or inadequate as a condition in this article today you have a healthy libido and yet just a few moments of making your lovemaking with their partner.You need to put an end to their advantage.They have wonderful partners and simply wanting to delay your come.Even though you are on the man or the fear of urinating often causes many women become aroused more quickly, which helps the man can't have the same problem then your girlfriend to slow down everything.

Do you intend to regularize these hormones.Twenty minutes is the method that is often characterized as a treatment method for solving the problem instead of dealing with premature ejaculation.The first myth that most men ejaculate when releasing, then he and his partner would desire.Yes it can also be willing to put all the stop-start technique as some women prefer a slim dildo that directs you to pay attention when you are sick and tired of this issue.When I started to understand the problem.

[ignaciusgray-blog]

Ninja’s eighty,000 Mixer viewers show that he’s bigger than just Twitch

Tyler “Ninja” Blevins — the Fortnite livestreamer and all-around entertainer — had his first exceptional broadcast on Microsoft’s Mixer platform; within the moments before his broadcast formally commenced, the wide variety of humans looking his movement crossed 50,000 and 60,000 people to land, in its first moments, someplace around 76,000 units of eyes. (It grew to eighty,000 just after Blevins’s first victory.)

Mixer competes with Twitch, YouTube, and facebook for a extraordinarily slim share of the livestreaming marketplace. the day past, Blevins introduced his circulate to the service, in a tweet that blew up gaming’s nook of the internet; he was leaving at the back of 14.7 million fans on Twitch, and putting out for a provider that, relatively, nobody knew an awful lot approximately. Blevins is probably the maximum famous streamer inside the world; the fact of his leaving Twitch, which dominates livestreaming, became a completely massive deal.

thus far, the circulate seems like it's been a success. nowadays, Blevins streamed from the pink Bull tent at Lollapalooza, the Chicago tune festival. even as the wide variety of visitors was lower today than the heaps of visitors he pulled in closing 12 months, it’s nearly double what he’s been locating there for the remaining numerous weeks, as Polygon’s Austen Goslin first noted. Even before Blevin’s first circulate on Mixer, his channel had located 370,000 paying subscribers, an impressive range for any streamer and one that became not misplaced on Blevins himself. That stated, Mixer is offering two months of free subscriptions to Blevins’ channel to everybody who signs and symptoms up.

at some point of the movement, the gang’s strength was infectious; it regarded impossible for every body looking in individual to prevent yelling. Blevins was his ordinary hyperactive self — slamming cans of red Bull, one of the day’s sponsors — and the gang cheered for each removal he earned. He turned into in excessive spirits, searching down each participant he may want to discover and exploding them into showers of multicolored objects. whilst he misplaced his first games especially early, Blevins managed to discover lower back to back victories towards the ninety nine other warring parties at the map. (“It’s smooth. It’s smooth. GGs,” he said, after his 2d win of the day.) At its fine, Fortnite is a twitchy, fluid sport of reflexes and aid management that rewards inventiveness just as a whole lot as it rewards accurate purpose; at his exceptional, Blevins has both, even though he’s now not a professional.

quickly into his matches, Blevins found a accomplice: the musician Mitchell Brown, who data beneath the call youngster Quill. “i used to be literally greater frightened to play this than to carry out my set,” Brown said, after he’d been knocked out. Which seems authentic: Blevins, a former professional Halo player, is the maximum popular online game player on the planet.

The day at Lollapalooza became leading up to Fortnite Friday, a weekly Fortnite tournament for celebrity players, streamers, and experts. within the games earlier than the match — wherein he turned into to play with Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf, the sixteen-12 months-vintage who’s the game’s most recent international champion — Blevins became appearing: calling his shots, showing off for the crowd. “I freakin’ love you guys,” he stated. “allow’s cross!”

playing the game nonetheless seems fun for him. “i can’t let you know the closing time I planned a consultation to sport till Fortnite came out,” Blevins advised Brown. He changed into nonetheless excited to rise up inside the mornings and run squads with his boys, is what he meant.

sixteen) The Outer Worlds swaps Fallout’s publish-apocalypse for art deco in space

Obsidian enjoyment is a studio first-rate acknowledged for building at the paintings of others. Its maximum famous games up to now are titles like Knights of the vintage Republic II, Fallout: New Vegas, Neverwinter Nights 2, and Dungeon Siege III. Even the studio’s higher-acknowledged original paintings, just like the Pillars of Eternity collection and non secular derivative Tyranny, are modeled on antique-school RPGs like Baldur’s Gate, Icewind Dale collection, and Planescape: Torment.

So it’s no longer entirely unexpected that, regardless of being a totally new franchise, The Outer Worlds (now not to be burdened with the excellent and extremely further named area-exploration sport Outer Wilds, which came out in advance this yr) attracts on Obsidian’s own beyond RPG and movement reports to create some thing that’s both new and familiar.

As Brian Heins, a senior clothier at Obsidian, informed The Verge in an interview, The Outer Worlds isn’t supposed to comply with up any particular past sport. “It’s more like this is our next Obsidian RPG,” he explains. “because among, like, KOTOR, New Vegas, Stick of truth, they all have form of the same DNA going for walks thru them, that is Obsidian’s fashion of RPG.” That said, upon getting a risk to play a few hours of The Outer Worlds, there are simply a few huge influences here from Fallout: New Vegas (and, by means of extension, Fallout three), if simplest because of genre. The Outer Worlds is a primary-character sci-fi action RPG with a massive emphasis on conversational structures and gunplay. That was usually certain to draw comparisons to Fallout, in particular when the developer is already regarded for working on a Fallout sport before. In that vein, The Outer Worlds does experience a lot like that now relatively uncommon form of unmarried-player, stat-targeted RPG. Your person has a full listing of stats that you could cognizance on. Your guns have stats. Your armor has stats. Your skills have stats. Your companions have stats. Stats galore, with plenty of capacity paths for how you play. participant desire is also a big part of the game. while there's, ostensibly, a major storyline — one which sees players awaken a long time inside the future on a misplaced colony ship and thrown right into a conspiracy in the a long way-out Halcyon solar device — The Outer Worlds didn’t appear specifically invested in the fact that I pursue it. i was dropped right into a demo revel in some hours into the sport. I had simply started out wandering round a planet once I without delay commenced talking / negotiating / capturing my way inside and out of conditions. practically every communication is full of communicate choices. Did I want to be polite to the group chief who’s asking you to music down his lacking tablets? Be flippant? Use my man or woman’s intimidation capabilities to demand an extra reduce? Or use my charisma to lie about what I recovered, maintaining 1/2 for myself? That’s just one communique from one incredibly minor sidequest. The speak (at the least for non-playable characters) is absolutely voice-acted, too, despite the fact that my character was audibly silent, despite the fact that I may want to select exactly what i was announcing. in the course of my time, I performed matters highly honest — charging into an enemy facility, gunning down robots and safety guards alike with the help of my companions. but there appeared to be plenty of other options, like sneaking in the back, disguising myself as a shield, or mucking approximately with the equipment powering the factory. the sport additionally adapts as you play. I died loads in my demo to a selected type of giant alien monster, and i used to be granted a “flaw” that altered my stats against those creatures within the future, as an example.

In another example, player picks can deeply trade how the plot performs out. “you may kill every NPC in the sport and you may nonetheless entire the game through doing so,” Heins says. “It adjustments the sport dramatically. There’s certain quests that can or might not be available based on who you killed or when you kill them. generally for quests, if there’s anyone who’s a plot-essential NPC, in case you kill them, we attempt to have a few manner that allows you to advantage some thing facts or item they’re intended to provide you … we attempt not to fail quests primarily based on players doing the matters we permit them to do.” Conversely, players can be capable of play almost all of the sport as pacifists. Heins says that you could “usually get by means of without killing any people,” despite the fact that there are a few creature encounters in which gamers will nevertheless want to lodge to combat. (however they can theoretically farm that out to their associate characters.) For all of the emphasis on preference, the Fallout influences also are nonetheless pretty heavy. There’s a time-slowdown mechanic that allows gamers to specially target regions on enemies, which is largely Fallout’s VATS gadget. There’s a diffusion of factions — corporations, in the Outer international’s destiny — that are at odds with each other that gamers can help out or antagonize. There are companions that you can recruit who’ll be a part of you on your adventure and remark alongside the way. while the art deco stylings help set The Outer Worlds aside, it can most effective do so a great deal to distinguish the gameplay. That’s now not necessarily a bad element, though. After some hours of The Outer Worlds, it feels like a recreation from a barely extraordinary era. It performs like a tightly targeted single-participant adventure without a game-as-a-service payments, in-app purchases, or tacked-on multiplayer. Even Bethesda has began to move far from that, with the nevertheless-extremely-arguable video game Fallout seventy six.

And in a international wherein video games try to suck players into an endless loop to squeeze each closing dollar and minute of interest out of them, that type of awareness — even if it’s no longer the most original of conceits — feels find it irresistible is probably enough.