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wandering-the-worlds · 4 years

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hi if you're here to not see spoilers for

FINAL FANTASY FOURTEEN!!

IN STARS AND TIME!!

ULTRAKILL!!

fnaf, mrd, gf, hk/ss, like every loz game, tsp, utdr, uhh theres um. lots. plus fandoms i'm not even actually in but saw pretty art. just assume there's anything and everything in here

my oc lore[play my part to perfection*]

i reccomend you steer clear of this blog because I DO NOT TAG SPOILERS! so disclaimer ect ect dont yell at me if i ruin endwalker for you

2024: I WILL [STILL] NOT TAG SPOILERS FOR DAWNTRAIL. SO WATCH OUT!!!

HOWEVER. it will probably be a bit before i get around to playing it so i will change this again when i actually do. there is your additional dawntrail warning on top of the other one. If I end up liveblogging it i will probably tag it #t speaks .

ok other stuff

fr = wanderingworlds / 515074

scratch = LadySummoner

everything that isn’t a reblog here and here

oc ask blog? art side blog? at @ketupa-zeylonensis. look at my art im proud of it. and send me questions.

can and will tag things as blorbo from my shows/games/ocs you get the point

DO NOT repost/use my art without my permission.

i trigger tag things with just #thing

thats it. enjoy or don't up to you byeeeee

common blorbo tags/oc lore stuff below cut [not updated]:

"mintverse" or "btscf" is my story about a bunch of hk vessels that are all alternate timelines of eachother stuck in a time loop, mainly featuring:

Hare [killed radiance with future her[saffron]'s help and later traded her dream stuff for cool nightmare fire stuff]

Finch [adopted by pk. lady of shades. contentious relationship with hare]

Sparrow [killed radiance then adopted by pk. doomed by the narrative]

Nightjar/NJ [even more doomed by the narrative she isn't even here lmao]

Mouse [ended up in flight rising. she's fine]

Saffron [from the previous loop. trying to get revenge on/save the others from mint]

Mint [the person in charge of the time loop. lives in flight rising. normal about trying to hold onto rach whatever ways she can.]

Rach [the very first of them. was dying, combined with thorns to form mint]

Thorns [a stray hand from the vast empty. combined with rach to form mint]

"solverse" or anything relating to the "castledwellers" is my story about a minecraft bird who's putting the god of fate back together. overlaps with mintverse a lot. mainly featuring:

Solace and Remnant [the minecraft bird and the shattered god of fate. sol is dead and remy is the only thing keeping her alive and she intends to repay that. by whatever means possible.]

Virion and Vrallo [they're literally just chilling. sol's favorite mortal and voidling who take care of fates's castle while she's gone. anything that refers to "bq/birdquest" is referring to when they all met, btw.]

Dearth and Scribbles [sol's ex-partners who sold their souls to multiverse satan and got mad at her about it. can you believe that?]

Sum [killed sol?? but they're cool now. lives with mint in flight rising]

Pastel-Purple [wol but time loop about it. mutual seething hatred with mint]

Tarlind [she's not really a castledweller i just love her forever. the real azem out of these wols]

Helpingway [also not a castledweller but whatever. loporrit wol!]

Dark-Blue [she's also literally just chilling. not even in the castle.]

Blue Lights [the cooler dark-blue. official chronicler of fate but actually mostly does super cool gaming streams all the time since nothing much happens there. also my sona]

"gfwda" or "pre-cascade" refers to anything that happened before sol died and "post-cascade" anything after. i'll have better names for it eventually probably

and other general multiverse stuff:

There are beings which lie outside of the cycle once set by Fate. These are the three Voids, Fates itself, and Axolotl, as well as anyone borne from or chosen by them.

Light and Dark, The All-Expelling and All-Consuming, The True Voids, whatever you want to call them, are the Empty and the Darkness.

The Empty just hates everything and wants to be left alone forever. This isn't going so well. Its children are the Audience, the Actors, the Stagehands - All different names for one kind of being, in the end.

The Darkness wants to eat everything but no one wants to help it so that isn't going so well either. Its children are the Souleaters, and every dark voidling is descended from it as well.

Order and Chaos, Code and Flesh, and whatever else they choose to present with at the time, are Fates and the Corruption.

The Corruption wants to take over the multiverse but all the other gods hate it. ESPECIALLY Fates. Its children are the Guides, Puppeteers, and Watchers, and every other awful tentacle monster in existence.

Fates got murdered lol. It's not very happy about this. It was in charge of arranging and maintaining dimensions/timelines. It did a lot of plagiarism.

The God of Gods, Axolotl or Xotl or any other name, the Obscured, is just, like, chilling.

Dimensions are generally split into two categories; codeworlds and fleshworlds [name pending. i hate it]. I'm sure you get the gist of that I'm not explaining the specifics here

After Fates was shattered, the loose denizens of the multiverse took its shards to create great cities where all could live in peace. This actually worked out pretty well [for everyone except Fates].

One of these is the City of Origins, aka the Minecraft city. Darkie ate it lol. Sol is from there.

and that's the lore!!! yippee!!!!

oh yeah and 🌌 is the blorbo tag for when i don't feel like sharing who the blorbo is

also, my flight rising lore and ffxiv lore take place in the same dimension. this is why mint and pastel hate each other

*i might change it again

#pinboard #and i am definitely not a rogue wizard. come closer fellow magic users.#last edited july 28th 2023 #last updated june 27th* 2024 #all caps

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themostexpensiveboningknife · 4 years

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2020

Failed party, money in drawer, communicate, move house, move boxes, drive in van, walk to shops, buy noodles, think it’s the end, see whole bus of soldiers in Beijing, new area, walk in darkness, think about leaving, leave, think its temporary, in taxi, post stupid photos, check and check again phone, think people with goggles on my plane are over reacting, take off my mask to eat, keep taking off to loosen, arrive back in London. Tube. Cold. Pub. Party at WeWork. Exhibition at Dulwich Gallery. Farringdon. Drugs and drinks. Brockley, South east London. DJ. Ethiopian food. Morley’s Peckham. Walking on the River. Photographer friend’s house. Canal cycle. National Gallery. Car crash, Dalston. Omar Souleyman. Corsica Studios. Meet girl, back to my friends, back to hers, sex. Morning up to mum’s best friends birthday, Covent Garden restaurant. In a van, Sunday roast. Chisenhale Gallery. arebyte Gallery. Getting worse in China, seems nice and easy and calm in England. Camberwell beers and more. Second-hand book shops, Charing Cross Road. Courtauld. Leafed through a book about a man who lived his entire 86.5 years in East London. Still talking to the same girl back in China. Both believe I’ll be back soon. Chicken wings. West London, meal. South London pub. DJing somewhere inside. Kent, see grandma. Rave, Bermondsey. Friends from Israel and Germany arrive. More drinks, more drugs. Mixing friends. Gay bar in Bethnal Green for old friend’s birthday. Acid, confused and hilarious. Tate Britain. Serpentine. Cranes on the bridge. Liverpool Street film screening. Feels shallow, but good. Begin regular E Pellici sojourns. Primrose Hill with Dad. Beer festival with Keaton and co. Peckham, school friend’s house, bad vibe. More drinks, more drugs. Working on first music compilation with Slowcook and Fafa. Begin watching all of the Studio Ghibli movies. Watching Breaking Bad. At some point have huge argument with my brother, it went like this: He came home from work and I was sitting watching Breaking Bad, he asks, “Have you been like that all day?” I either took it in the wrong way or picked up on a sly dig. It was probably me, but at this point I was pretty self-conscious and worried about going back to China and whether or not I would have a job back there. Was getting surprisingly pissed off with my brother mentioning his work, felt like an affront to me. Weird. He goes crazy (he has a short fuse), punching a wall, ready to fight me. My mum is pretty upset. A few days later I go into his room and try to patch things up. Turns into a deeper chat. He feels like I haven’t been a good brother to him, he gives the example of not looking out for him on his first days of school. I say I’m sorry, it’s because I’m a bit scared and insecure. In retrospect I regret a little laying so much weakness on the table, seems his interactions/ways of acting around me have changed a bit. Still not sure how I feel about it all. Considered getting a gold tooth with Matthew. Play with cats, enjoying them more and more. Rave in Dalston, good music from Asia and beyond. Looking at magazines. Not doing much work at all. Being out and about instead. Go to Norfolk. It’s beautiful, but get way too drunk on first night, sick everywhere, wake up naked in sick. Massive fucking shitshow. Majority of people there have no choice but to act weirdly around me now, which is understandable. Still some nice aspects. One girl there surely hates me a lot. Tate Modern. Art stuff by self is good. Corsica Studios, semi-art, semi-music event. Mr. Bao for first time of many. Radio in Tottenham. Take drugs. Pubs. Drive to Asda with brother to stock up on food. It’s March and the reality of the pandemic is hitting. More canal cycling. First and only group chat on Zoom. BH Funk. Probably have taken cocaine and messaged one of three or four girls numerous times by now. If there’s one, in the cold light of day, horrible and disgusting thing I’ve done too much this year it’s this. Incessant messaging of poor girls that I know will react (although increasingly they don’t, I manage to alienate even close friends in this way). Southbank and The Mall with Nick. Reading about Wuhan. List of good texts. Continuing to do some writing. Making WeChat posts for guī WeChat, including mix series and miniessays. Greenwich park with Matthew. Grime quiz online. Delivering food regularly for my mum’s school. Hackney Marshes with Luan. Epping Forest with Mum and Dad. By this point probably have woken up feeling sorry for myself in Ludo’s flat, after untold amounts of alcohol and cocaine. Online rave. Beijing artists only mix. Go to Switzerland, pass through Italy on the way. Its breath taking, the mountains, the expanse of scenery, not used to it. Climbing up mountains with no one around. Rolo and Patrick and Rita smoke too much weed. I really, really, really still hate smoking it. Feel a bit annoyed how long we spend sitting around while they smoke, but this is way outbalanced by the uniqueness of where we are and the beauty all around. Producing more and more, actually getting somewhere. Cooking more and more food. Reading more and more, like: Black and British, The Corrections, Real Fast Food, Bass, Mids, Tops, Zadie Smith, Olivia Lang, Graham Greene, JG Ballard, Monica Ali, Mo Yan, Jenny Zhang, John le Carre, Naked Lunch, Nabokov, Bukowski, Zora Neale Hurston, Wiley, Bitcoin, Murakami, Judith E. Butler, The Painter of Modern Life, Maupassant, Chekov, Video Art, Gravity’s Rainbow (couldn’t finish), Anaïs Nin, The Net Delusion (couldn’t finish), The Establishment and how they got away with it (couldn’t finish), Roddy Doyle, The Secret of Scent, General Intellects, Women In Love, The Intelligent Investor, Lyndon Johnson. Victoria Park more often than I can remember. To Chrissy’s house. Mile End Park. Very regularly sitting on the river in Wapping. Bring the chessboard and play Ludo sometimes, people smile and look at you differently when you’re playing chess and drinking beers versus just sitting and drinking beer. I May Destroy You. Industry. The beautiful wide expanse of Hackney Marshes. My incessant quest to reach 1000 followers in Instagram. More cycling, and I hate to say it but it really was: Here there and everywhere. Margate with my Dad to see my grandma in hospital and saw the Turner Prize exhibition. Light blue like scrubs, the sky and sun felt eternal. Swimming in dirty water. Make a DJ mix of old 2000s Road Rap. Eat cheese in Peckham. Cycle along the canal north, keep going and going through Tottenham, past Enfield keep going, it’s mad how quickly it becomes quiet fields on all sides, arrive to some kind of lake, swim and then back to the centre of town. Outside a Hawksmoor church in Shadwell ate chicken with Karim and Ludo. DJing. From my bedroom window saw a big crane in the middle of the night sitting on the canal. Begin developing the second DCCY compilation this time with BULLY magazine. Go to a house in an old school in Camberwell. Discover new secret riverside spots in East London. Finally give up my apartment in Beijing. Mile End park. Cycle further and further East to a pedestrian bridge I didn’t know existed. Get onto the beach and into the Thames water. Interview Akito. Begin writing more, after few months of wiling away the summertime. My friend Emmy gets married in Rwanda, I give him some money as a wedding gift which he tells me he used to buy his wife’s dress. Protests in HK always on TV. Get more into finances, crypto and trading, and just saving in general. Had sex with an old friend. Now meeting a girl I first knew years ago in Beijing. More secret river spots. Keaton has his baby, Noah. More times on Hackney Marshes. Barbican conservatory. Watching more films, try to watch all the films of some directors including: Jia Zhangke, Bong Joon-ho, Edward Yang, Wong Kar-wai, Apichatpong Weerasethakul. Decide to watch all of the infamous lauded series, go through Breaking Bad, The Wire and The Sopranos. Go to the seaside for a few days, camping also. Henry Wu album launch in a car park in Bermondsey. Go to visit Keaton’s baby for the first time. Good photography exhibition at Photographer’s Gallery. Go to Wallace Collection again. August. Go to Berlin. Swimming in Berlin lakes until I get an ear infection. It makes me drowsy and lethargic, but still seems to spend all my time cycling around the city. On one night cycle for hours to a rave on the outskirts of the city. Like a lot the abandoned airport in Berlin. Oh yeah, vaping. Found a dead bumble bee. Speak with Nevin about projects. Write a piece about the future of the art world for a magazine being started by Nevin’s friend in Canada. Go to Lithuania. Walk around Vilnius, get too drunk by myself. Get to the Curonian Spit and Nida, beaches and new friends. For the Nightlife Residency project. For a short while life is like on a desert island of new food, new people, new locations, quiet and new meaning. Go to the Russian border on the beach. Cycle to the road boarder and get stopped by the police. Go nude on the beach for the first time. Sauna, sand dunes and forests. DJ out for the first time in ages, this time with Nono. To Kaunus and try nice and stodgy Georgian food for the first time. Hackney Wick back for party. Meet a ginger girl online and go on a date. Wallace Collection again. Free beer and pizza. White Cube. National Gallery, Titian. On BBC Radio London with my Dad. Riverside beers. Saw a lost swan near my front door. Meet Keaton near his work, one of many times. Making more and more music, getting better. Decide I need more organisation and clarity, put everything I’ve done on a blog. More or less long since given up on my job at M Woods. But don’t really begin looking for anything new because it’s still sunny. At some point I start getting benefits money. Go to see La Haine in the cinema. Someone blocks me on WeChat because of me. Some pub somewhere. Sunday walks and breakfast with my parents. Go to an exhibition in Woolworth Road with Muzi. Realise how nice it is to run to Victoria Park along the canal. Vicky Park in general. Dinners at friends’ houses. Museum of London. Walking with Michael in some countryside near London, surprising how quickly things turn green. Break onto a pier in Wapping with Jack. Battersea Park. Tate, Bruce Nauman. Old Street Weatherspoon’s with Keaton, drugs. Central London cemetery. Chinese in Camberwell. Chinese in Aldgate. Italian in Camberwell. More and more exercise, running, weights and yoga with my brother. Sadie Coles. Nick, Central London. Gucci Mane. Hampstead Heath more because Ludo and his flatmates are nearby. Ludo’s now house more for days and nights of you guessed it. Borough Market more, with Emma. Alexandra Palace walk and famous sandwiches after. Tate Britian new lights. More time at Muzi’s. Signing up for cycle courier. LYL Radio show. Shave head. Take acid and it hurts my stomach. Camden Arts Centre with Muzi. Christmas party with friends. Birthday. Cake with Muzi, presents and Indian takeaway from family, walk in Vicky Park with Ludo and Karim plus battered sausage and chips. Christmas at home nice and warming meal. Evening to Ludo’s place with more friends. Boxing day with Matthew, pints and then more at his house in Peckham all night long. Next day is tough! Giant turkey sandwiches, turkey soup, turkey curry. Buy first NFTs. New Year’s Eve stay in at Muzi’s, one drink and a cake.

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vlovers19 · 4 years

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Hello

I will contact you again. You have already answered my question and I realized you thought I was a Vkooker or Jkooker which is not the case.

I am interested in Vmin for personal reasons.

I also thought a lot about shipping. Ultimately, I came to the conclusion that this does not really have to do with real VMINS (i.e. with Kim Taheyung and Park Jimin).

It has to do with V and Jimin as Bts members, as jobs as idols and performers on stage.

Why do I think that?

I thought of a year ago when BTS came out of vacation and was preparing for Bon Voyage 4.

One thing that was crucial for me to believe that the KT and JM are what, was a statement or a retrospective question from the camera operator; he said to KT; do you pack Jimins bag yes or do you pack jimins things.

so why should KT pack his things? In the room was JK (with the shipping according to jimin has a relationship) ??????? nobody but really nobody was worried about JM things although he came out of the holiday at night. It was obviously clear to everyone that Taehyun did it!

When JM finally emerged from the bathroom, he came straight to KT and found that he was packing her bags. Then lay down in his arms and nobody but really nobody (not even Jk who was sitting on the arm of the sofa right next to you) reacted as if it were the most normal situation ever. He hugged his KT leg and held his hands !!

You felt that the KT was very burned (because of JM vacation) but that's another story I heard from a Brazilian and Japanese Amry.

There are several things that occurred to me; JM knows that KT has a skin disease and is worried that he will get a skin stroke after washing it off. He also asked if he should take his medicine or if he should give him his medicine. He knows that KT does not tolerate spicy food, that he does not like to drink, that he does not like coffee ... etc etc. He checks whether KT has enough water to drink (also because of his hk)

he covered KT when he was asleep or when they were flying, he listens to him, he feeds him and takes care that he does not hurt himself, he knows things that the others do not know.

Just like TK is against Jm, they care, they know things about themselves .....

I think that's the fabulous !!!!! How do you know? well because they are close, because they live close to themselves, because they spend time, maybe living together I know ...

JM massages KT's ass, he wanted to look at his genitals when KT got a ball because of his game. They want to take a bath together, take a picture of themselves in a bathtub because of JM and KT is sitting on the floor next door and both are watching a series. KT has nude photos of JM! The famous kitchen scene at BV4 as JM repeatedly tried to touch KT, he often does it in a completely different way than usual. The way you slept close to each other in contrast to other members

They hold hands at the airport (I'm sure JM thought nobody sees them) they hug each other as long as no one is around with a camera and then when they enter aeroport's main house KT immediately turns them off. They often come together to the airport. After the festival concert Jm drove away with JK (yes yes Jikooker had evidence for their sipping) but nobody noticed that the menager from KT had 2 bags and one was JM bag! Jm came out of the building without a bag, had nothing with him because his had already left with KT. The JM drove with Jk was pure coincidence; Jk even immediately went to the Hobis car, but there was already RM with Hobi in there and had to drive with JM. So people only see what they want to see.

I thought KT had a slight back injury at the concert, could not walk properly and probably wanted to go home immediately (all that can be seen on youtube there are enough videos with the departure) There was even someone who brought packed food and drinks .

RM is always near and watch out! Whole band knows, Jk of course also (it bravely plays the Vkook and Jkook because he likes V very much) This year things have happened; I think the song Freundes (should be called something else) is such a security tent for Vmins. I know it should never see the light of day but now no matter what happens you are the eternal friends soulmates and nobody cares.

KT posts photos in bed, recommended gay songs by Jm, both wear red threads around their wrists and he should know about it. (I mean the LGBTQ + community)

They talked to their audience about 7 mln ago at Vlive, JM was very upset they saw him, he spoke with high esteem about KT with hope and was lovingly the KT when he said that they just look into his eyes and know what the other thinks ................. my dear man, wow!

The relationship is not for the camera, it is too valuable and is very private

that's my opinion about Vmins. OPINION not just establishing my personal opinion

i love your blog, you should know that.

--------------------------------------

Hello dear, you have no idea how sorry I am for misunderstanding you. I hope you can forgive me for that. Also, I don't really understand everything you wrote but I get the gist of what you are saying and you are right about a lot of things. Vmin's relationship is really truly unique and the fact is that it steadily grows. They keep getting better and better and keep exposing more than they would like to whether they know it or not. You can't keep a secret forever. Like the origin of 4'O clock. The truth is still bound to come out one day.

One interesting thing is that they are never at a standstill and over the years, their relationship kept changing either for good or for bad. There's just something always happening with vmin and most people don't realise what is going on right in front of of our faces.

Everything is well kept and managed under the mask 'friends'. Sort of like a protective shell to shield them and keep the focus away from them. No matter how loud they get, no one really cares till the extent that they sing a song about being each other's soulmate, asking each other to stay and no body minds, posting a bed selca, holding hands. Posting weird things on social media, They are so good at this which is why they can get away with pretty much anything right now. They'll keep testing the waters and when they see everyone doesn't mind, they'll get more bolder. For their sake, I think it's perfect just the way it is right now.

Anyway, thanks for loving my blog and telling me your concerns and opinions. Sorry once again for the misunderstanding. Purple you 💜💜💜

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atamascolily · 4 years

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Lily reads Star Wars: Red Harvest, part six

In which EVERYTHING IS ON FIRE (and no, I do not exaggerate). Eat your heart out--oh, wait, sorry, eat someone else’s heart out. My bad.

(If you’re just joining me, check out the “Red Harvest” tag on my blog for previous posts)

We left off with Darth Scabrous waiting for Zo in the library. There's the obligatory villain monologue with some much-needed backstory.

“This library,” he said, “is the oldest part of the academy, older even than the tower itself. It was constructed over a thousand years ago by a Sith Lord named Darth Drear. He founded the academy, back when the planet itself was young. The ancient writings tell about how he used his first students as laborers. For hundreds of years, the Masters at the academy believed that a good many of those students died down in these very chambers, using the Force to move hundreds of tons of snow and ice and dig out these corridors and chambers to house Drear’s vast collection of … specimens. It was thought that Drear worked the students until they died from exhaustion.”

Blah blah blah Sith holocron blah blah blah eternal life. The usual stuff.

“Before he died, Darth Drear wrote of the final stage of the process—the step that he himself was never able to achieve. He dispatched his sentries to a nearby planet to abduct a Jedi and bring him to the secret temple underneath the library. After ingesting the elixir, in the final hours before his body gave in completely, under exactly the right circumstances and conditions, Drear planned to use a ceremonial Sith sword to cut open the Jedi’s chest while he was still alive, and eat his heart. Only then, with that final infusion of midi-cholorians still warm from the Jedi’s blood, would the decay process be held back—granting the Sith Lord his ultimate immortality.”

I TOLD YOU THEY WENT THERE.

The plant!zombies show up again - turns out they weren't really dead! They carry Zo down to the Secret Sith Basement at Scabrous's command, where the sacrifice is to take place. But don’t worry, not!Qui-gon is in hot pursuit! The tree librarian grabs not!Qui-Gon and dangles him in the air. I am LIVING for this. “No need for your weapon here,” the voice said. “Not in this place of learning. We are both learned beings, are we not? Enlightened and informed by the written word. No need for the encumbrances of physical violence.” It uttered another bulky, dusty chuckle. “Look upon me, if you like. Seek my face.”

There's a bunch of book avalanches. not!Qui-Gon goes into the tree!Librarian's head at his own urging and sees his memories

It was the librarian’s name, Trace realized, his patronymic, and somehow he knew that on his home planet it meant “lover of knowledge,” a perfect choice for—

HOW DID HE END UP ON A SITH PLANET AS THE SITH LIBRARIAN IF HE WASN'T ACTUALLY EVIL?? Sadly, we don't get answers.

Also, more relevant to the plot, not!Qui-Gon sees the secret Sith basement being built and gets caught up on all the backstory that Scabrous already revealed. Then everything catches on fire and not!Qui-Gon uses the Force to retrieve his lightsaber and create an air bubble to ward off the flames.

He looked at the lightsaber, laboring to evacuate every other thought from his mind. At the Jedi Temple, they had taught that it was never a matter of manipulating the object, but of eliminating the space that separated you from it. Yet at this moment, the object in question had never felt so far away....

The timing of what happened next was critical. Deactivating the bubble, he opened his hand, and the lightsaber flew into it. Its handle was almost too hot to hold, but the solidity of it had never felt better in his life.

I like this attention to detail in my Star Wars.

Not!Qui-gon gets pulled down to the basement via plant zombies for the final showdown as the library burns around him.Good-bye, Tree Librarian -- you may have been evil at the end, or perhaps this whole time, but you were fucking rad.

The mechanic is still alive and in hiding. He gets lured out by Kindra's pleading, only to reveal it was a trap by the zombies and she's a prisoner. The zombies rip her to pieces but the mechanic gets away. I’m so mad because even though I knew it was a trap, and I knew she was going to die, I hoped she got a more badass ending. Sigh.

Meanwhile, the bounty hunter and the newly liberated HK droid discover the zombies are hiding INSIDE the Tauntauns, a la Aliens and it's gross, and now we have zombie tauntauns, too. Turns out the HK droid hates the Sith too! But the bounty hunter got sprayed with tauntaun spit so now he's infected. Good thing droids can't get this... right?

Scabrous tries to kill Zo but not!Qui-gon makes a dramatic entrance and stops him. Not!Qui-gon gets murdered while Zo watches in horror and... I guess he really has more in common with Qui-Gon than I initially thought!

Scabrous transforms into his final form, but the orchid wakes up just in time, and Zo tells it to grow while she starts going to town on the Scabrous and slaughters him with his own sword. It doesn't take, so she switches to her brother's lightsaber, which does better, since it actually cauterizes.

She climbs out of the pit after Scabrous is dead, only to find the rest of the zombie horde waiting for her. The bounty hunter and droid rescue her, but they're attacked by the academy's perimeter cannons, so everthing gets worse fast. The droid jumps out and turns to the lasers on the tower, destroying everything - including the orchid if it's still alive? I'm a little fuzzy on the details here. Fortunately, the mechanic is flying the plane and he's okay.

Zo goes into the trophy room, only to find that the bounty hunter is now a zombie, but he locks himself in a cage before he turns and tells Zo to send him out the airlock, which she does--along with the entire grisly contents of the room, and a last zombie stowaway. FINAL GIRL VICTORY.

Zo returns to Jedi Greenhouse Planet, traumatized but alive. Turns out the guy who we thought was dead in the bounty hunter attack at the beginning of the book is actually alive, so that's good. There's a new orchid waiting for her:

You were with my seed-brother, the orchid said, arching toward her. Is that true?

Yes, I was, she told it, and thought about the voice of the first orchid, the one that she still heard in her mind. I still am, in a way. He saved my life.

Really?

Bennis smiled again, the indulgent smile of a proud parent, and gave the orchid a small pat.

D'awwww. Wait, so the original orchid isn’t really dead? She can still hear him even though it’s gone and they’re separated? Did I miss something in the tumult of the finale?? Or is Zo being metaphorical here?

Also, I’m so curious how the Jedi just... got another orchid so quickly. In our world, orchids can be clonally propagated in HUGE batches, so the AgriCorps could potentially be churning these things out at a massive rate. This raises WAY more world-building questions that this book is NOT going to answer, and it frustrates me, but I doubt the author knows much about actual orchids, so... *shrugs*

But cuteness aside, Zo decides she'd rather study on the Jedi Temple at Coruscant (the mechanic will take her) because she has too much PTSD. Also, this means that if anybody else tries to kidnap the new orchid, they won’t get Zo! I don’t know why the Jedi are even raising these orchids, given that they’re in demand on the Sith black market. Didn’t Zo explain they were the critical ingredient for an awful zombie plague?? DID NOBODY LEARN FROM THIS EXPERIENCE??

This is supposed to be a happy/hopeful ending, and it kinda is, but Zo apparently doesn’t know / the author forgot that the Jedi Temple was destroyed when Corsucant got sacked eight years earlier (as Trace tells us in his introductory scene)... which means she's walking into ANOTHER haunted temple nightmare and doesn't realize it yet. We'll call it.. Red Harvest II: Coruscant Nights, or maybe just Blue Harvest. How about that??

Frode would be waiting for her with the ship, ready to take her back to Coruscant, and whatever might be waiting for her there. The mechanic would be good traveling company, she sensed—there was a low-key air about him that bespoke dozens of untold stories, events that had made up his life and taken him to the unlikely destination of Odacer-Faustin. She felt herself already beginning to trust him.

Wow, I was not expecting this dude to survive, but okay. Also, he got tagged in the beginning as kinda greedy (scuttling the engines of the other bounty hunters to sell) and kinda lazy/stupid/opportunistic/desperate (for ending up as the mechanic for Sith Hogwarts in the first place). But okay, whatever, I guess.

And the moral:

The future was scary, but you couldn’t avoid it, anymore than you could outrun the past.

OR A MASSIVE ZOMBIE HORDE, AM I RIGHT??

Wow, that was a trip.

I feel like this was better than I had any right to expect from the premise, but still felt like a B-grade horror movie. I like the tantalizing hints of what world-building we do get, and I think this novel is excellent fodder for future horror/Halloween fics. Otherwise, I’d skip this unless you are a “must read everything in Legends” purist, enjoy Sith shit, enjoy watching Sith die in horrific ways, and/or a diehard plant nerd like me.

RANDOM TRIVIA: Wookiepeedia says the first draft had a character named "Middish Sunblade, modeled after Holden Caulfield, but Sunblade was removed from the rewrite because he was whiny and nobody could stand him," which is just too true and too funny for words. Also, an actually-in-character Holden Caulfield expy would last approximately 30 seconds at Sith Hogwarts before being stabbed... I’m just saying.

#star wars #red harvest #space orchids #space botany #lily liveblogs

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remembermemorablememories · 6 years

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Tuesday, January 22, 2019

post #379

main points:

- breakfast muffin

- binge another few episodes of the punisher + sandwich for lunch

- asia trip planning with dimitri

- dinner with chris eric and mylinh

- finish season 2 of the punisher

- hang out with sheena

today i:

- woke up at 10:30am and snoozed a bit until 11am again. the construction guy wasn’t here today cause we haven’t gotten the countertops in yet, still waiting on the other company to do that. mom was working from home though

- i went downstairs and ate the last banana nut muffin + some milk. i finished half of it and then wanted something salty. so i made a sandwich. just a plain old whole grain + ham + cheese. LOL. our toaster and microwave are still functioning while there’s renovations so that’s all i could really make. i didn’t wanna wash the dishes too if i used cooking utensils. so i just kept it simple. ate it with another bag of chips

watched 3 episodes of the punisher from S2E9 to S2E12. i was engrossed in the series it was reaaaaaally good. i feel like there were some plot holes though. or kind of felt like it. but it definitely kept up the action as well/was still entertaining. also i finished the second half of the muffin at some point as my mini dessert

- around 4:30pm dimitri messaged me asking if i wanted to do planning now instead of tomorrow. cause we were gonna call tonight but then i had dinner plans so i couldn’t so i pushed it back to tomorrow. but he got off work early so i was like sure why not, i’m not really doing much anyway :p

- we planned out all of the lodging for shanghai, HK and thailand. all that’s left is beijing and we should be set. we looked roughly into what we might wanna do in HK and thailand, but were more so focused on getting housing. but since housing kind of goes hand in hand with lodging, it also made sense to at least consider it. we were on facetime for maybe two hours until like 7pm. we also just kind of chatted a bit about smash and personal finance. dad gave me the chase debit card that came in

- at 7pm i had a small bowel movement (second one of the day) and then went to a wings place where they have specials. i met up with eric chris and mylinh. they had gotten there earlier, picking chris up at the train station and anticipating a line wait. but they got seated right away. we were supposed to meet up at 7:30 there but they were already there at 7:15. so i rushed over and got there at like 7:35pm. i hadn’t seen eric or mylinh in like a year which is wild. we all caught up a bit about what we’re up to / working / school / career stuff. then we talked about CSGO and fortnite. and smash 4 and melee, zero, leffen armada. a bit about the superbowl coming up. eric talked about the controversial pass interference call in one of the championship games. we all shared some tater tots and then got two orders of fries and shared those. everyone got 10 wings. i got bbq and finished them all. and most of the fries. omg i was bloated. jesus. it was my second time ever there. the first time was last year when i met up with mylinh and eric :p

- we left around 9pm and i got back around 9:30pm. i came back and finished the final episode of the punisher :O S2E13. that was a really interesting ending... almost kind of anti climactic... although i don’t really know what i was expecting, maybe a flashier bigger battle...? oh well, still a really good TV show

- went to check in on sheena and she seemed a bit upset :/ i talked with her a bit and then got the giggles and couldn’t stop laughing which got her laughing a bit :p but she also wanted to be left alone so that she could let out her emotions. i didn’t want her to be sad/cry so i kept staying with her in her room. she said i was like baymax from big hero 6. then eventually she left and walked downstairs and i followed her. and then we hung out downstairs for a while, me bothering her and her just wanting to be alone... :s and then we went back upstairs. i told her i’d leave her alone and take a shower so she stayed in her room and i showered for 20 minutes. then i went to check in on her and she seemed better / started to work on her two essays

- i chilled with her from 12:30am-1:28am and i’m about to go to sleep. i was catching up on yesterday and today’s blog posts. whew so tired. gonna wake up tomorrow at 8:30am to hop on a call with walter

also health update. i tried to apply the hydrocortisone deeper by using a laying down position and it just might’ve worked... cause i’ve been having maybe 2 or 3 loose watery stool tonight after i got back from wings dinner... maybe it’s inflammation of the rectal area because of the medicine? or maybe it’s just cause the tip of the applicator wasn’t properly cleaned... who knows. i guess we’ll see

okay i’mma go to sleep GOOD NIGHT

the end

#post #normal #january #2019 #health #family

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calaycay · 6 years

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Calay Indochina Trip (April 17-22, 2018)

Jealousy is something that needed to be addressed for a better relationship. So when my Tatay got jealous of my Hong Kong trip last October 2017, I acquired insomnia. My mind can't stop thinking of the best place where my Tatay can get a great experience with a very small budget. Thanks to Colz’ post in DIY Philippines Facebook Group about her Indochina Trip, I finally got some sleep. They day after the long peaceful sleep, I immediately invited my friends who I know love to travel also. Fortunately, I convinced my Baka-chan, Reinee, and Johnrey. This is the start of our failed and unsatisfying but definitely unforgettable Indochina trip that we will surely laugh about when we get older.

Planning for Indochina Trip really needs a lot of research. Imagine going into one country after another, one should really know everything that he/she needs to know.

DAY 1

Thanks to Traveloka, we were blessed to find an Airasia seatsale going to Ho Chi Mihn, Vietnam with connecting flight to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. So we automatically had an additional country aside from our original Vietnam-Cambodia-Thailand travel.

We exchanged our peso to Ringgit in NAIA just to be sure to have a money to spend enough for DAY 1. It is better to change your money in NAIA than in any airport of the country you are going into.

We depart from Manila around 5:30 PM and arrived at Kuala Lumpur by 9:05 PM. KL's airport is really big. We rode Aerobus going to KL Sentral and their Rapid KL (counter part of MRT here in the Philippines) going to Masjid Jamek Station - the nearest station to our accommodation. We didn't have data so we weren't able to locate our hostel easily. It took us a lot of walking. People pointed us to places everywhere. They can barely understand us and we can barely understand them as well. Fortunately, Rajid (a staff from China Hostel) helped us to contact our hostel and booked a grab for us. (THANK YOU RAJID!) Finally by 2am, we were able to get some sleep.

I experienced the same in my HongKong trip. So I suggest to book an accommodation nearest to a landmark. Also, ask the right person so you don't need to get lost even worse.

We booked a night stay at Grand Mountbatten Boutique Hotel through Traveloka as well for P1750 for 5 pax 350 each - very cheap.

Day 1 is like Day 0. We weren't able to go anywhere but our hotel.

DAY 2

We woke up by 6am and started our journey by 7am. Our first stop is Batu Caves. We got lost because apparently KTM Kumuter is not working, and we do not know how to get there via other transportation. So we asked, and rode a free bus up to KTM Sentul Station, from here we waited for more than an hour before it departs to Batu Caves. This is the heartbreaking part. We weren't able to take into consideration the waiting time of the departures because we have a different itinerary. Some things really don't go according to the plan.

at Jamek Mosque

We enjoyed Batu Caves, especially for me and my Tatay. I just love natural things. I prefer going to these tourist destinations (just like Ngong Ping Village in HK) than in the city. The monkeys and doves are everywhere! You can even get a shot like you're in Rome with those doves. And my Tatay experienced getting his polvoron rubbed by the monkey. It's so funny. The Big Buddha is really enormous. It's amazing.

Inside the Batu Cave

You need to climb 272 steep steps before reaching the cave. But the fear, hunger, and effort are totally worth it. It's a huge cave. They have a small temple inside it. Again, the monkeys are everywhere.

Just a reminder: do not wear shorts or skirts above the knee. You will be asked to pay 5 MYR for the cloth which they will wrap around your waist.

We went back to the KTM Komuter by 11am. This is where everything messed up. We weren't able to eat breakfast and lunch because of the hectic schedule. We weren't able to go to Petronas Twin Towers (yeah I know 💔💔💔) And the worst part is, we missed our flight going to Vietnam. Yes we idiots did.

We got no choice but we are still blessed. Flight from KL to Siem Reap, Cambodia is cheap. So we decided not to go the Vietnam and just go straight to Cambodia. And we booked our accommodation in Cambodia through Agoda for PHP 2265.59 each.

We spent the whole day at KL Airport and waited for our 7am flight to Cambodia. We are so broken that we didn't even talk about going back to KL Sentral for Petronas Twin Towers and we are too afraid to miss the flight again.

DAY 3

We arrived at Siem Reap, Cambodia by 9AM. Took a tuktuk ride from the airport to Kok Meng Lodge. The Inn doesn't allow us to check in yet because it's too early. So we had no choice but to go to Pub Street without taking a bath. We just walked straight from Kok Meng Lodge to Pub Street, it is just 5 to 10 mins walk away. It is a very hot late morning. We are all sweaty and sleepy.

We ordered a sharing food for lunch. Johnrey bought a booked from a disabled vendor. We talk about our frustrations in this trip.

We went back to the inn ( Kok Meng Lodge ), took a bath, got some sleep, and went out to take a look of Siem Reap. We intentionally didn't go to Ankor Wat because it will be unfair to Baka-chan's friend who was left in Vietnam.

Upon walking, we bumped into a tuktuk driver and asked him where we can go.

But before anything else, James, our tuktuk driver took us in a street restaurant to eat meryenda.

Yes, these heavy meals were our meryenda. And yes, we were that hungry. XD

He took us to the War Museum, Tatay and Johnrey obviously enjoyed it in different reasons. Tatay is into guns and other war equipment, there were tanks! And Johnrey is really interested in history. War Museum has a lot to tell.

After the War Museum, James Peter, our tuktuk driver, took us to one of Angkor Wat temples for free! This is because you can enter Angkor Wat Complex after 5pm for free.

We just went to Pre Rub, amazed by the work of men, the sunset and took beautiful photos.

Early discovery of talent

The complex is so peaceful. There are a lot of trees, and a lake. I love the environment.

When it got dark, we decided to go back to Pub Street and end the trip with this Pacquiao-fan tuktuk driver. James is really accommodating and pleasant. He only asked us 12 Dollars for the whole trip. Thanks James! I hope to see you again!

[I’ll insert James’ calling card here, I just need to look for it.]

We booked a bus trip from Siem Reap to Bangkok Thailand via HANG TEP TRAVEL CO., LTD. for 20 Dollars. Just to make sure that we will get to Thailand.

We finally experienced the Pub Street life. And took a mandatory shot in Pub Street sign, ate dinner, look for some souvenirs, and tried fish massage. That was a great night. And that's the best night in our trip. Cambodia is the best that happened to us.

DAY 4

We were supposed to go to Angkor Wat but the group realized that it is a waste of money going to Angkor Wat for just one hour because we booked an early trip going to Bangkok. Yeah, this is another heartbreaking story. We came here to see the Angkot Wat, yet we failed again.

By early 7AM we took the bus going to Thailand. Reached the border by 12pm and the next 4 hours was hell. We lined up in the immigration for 4 hours! We were on an open space covered with a high roofing, the line was very long. It was a very hot afternoon. And we didn’t have anything in our stomach but water. It was a very painful experience. This was the point that I realized that I need to tell you these guys. INDOCHINA TRIP IS VERY EXHAUSTING. YOU'LL EXPERIENCE HUNGER, TIREDNESS, AND DIZZINESS.

Line in Cambodia Immigration Office, Krong, Poi Pet

When you see this Arch, this means you are in the border of Cambodia and Thailand already.

This is the line in Thailand Immigration Office, Aranyaprathet

And this was us, in front of the line after hours. They just called from the line and prioritized us, maybe our bus guides did the work. Thanks no thanks. They’re too late.

We departed from the Cambodia-Thailand border by 4pm and reached Bangkok by 9pm. So Day 4 was spent in the immigration and on the road. We headed straight to Khao San Road and exchanged our dollars to baht. Finally, we were able to eat our first meal of the day. We had just some peanuts while on the bus. So yes, dinner was our first proper meal of the day. I thought I was gonna die out of hunger, imagine how my 62 year old father suffered. I'm sorry.

We tried the famous Pad Thai with Shrimp and egg. It tastes good actually. Go ahead and try it.

Nope he didn’t eat it.

We stayed in an airbnb very far away from public transportation so we got no choice but to ride the taxi all throughout our Bangkok stay. So don't make the same mistake. Book an accommodation near public transport or your desired destination even if you pay more because it is just the same booking a cheaper accommodation then spending in grab and/or taxis plus the hassles.

DAY 5

This was our last chance to make the most of our Indochina trip. We woke up early and started the day going to Damnoen Floating Market. We took the grab going to Southern Bus Station and ride the bus going to Damnoen Floating Market for THB**. It was a 2-hour ride. Make sure to enjoy the view going to the South of Bangkok. Upon reaching the pier, there were offers going to the actual floating market for THB 1,000 for the 6 of us. Grab it. I know that some blogs would say not to fall for it. But based on a recent experience, for that amount you get a free 1-kilometer ride. This is the distance from the pier to the actual floating market. But we declined this offer.

Then, a van offered to bring us in the second pier. There, they offered us THB 300. We still didn’t agree with the price because based from the blogs we read the 300 THB is supposed to be for all of us already. So what we did is to walk from the bus stop to the floating market. It was a long and hot walk.

And upon reaching the actual floating market, the fee is 200 THB. The floating market is a little bit crowded. There are many boats. It is really a floating market. Vendors are selling products in the boat, although some are on the riverbanks.

We bought Chinese soup for breakfast for 60 THB, and mango shake for 65 THB. The Chinese soup is okay, and the mango shake is satisfying. The vendor of the shake is also very beautiful, she’s like a Korean.

Going around the river, we also saw some local houses. We also saw lizard-like creature – I don’t know what it is called. It was swimming in the water. It’s kind of scary but just fine because it didn’t swim towards our boat. The sailor of our boat asked for a tip. So you better budget also for these miscellaneous expenses.

Going back to the bus station, we rode a yellow jeep for THB 10. We took a grab going to the City to go to the temples. This is where the second most heartbreaking part of our trip comes in (first is our missed Vietnam flight).

She is making a pose for me :)

I said that DAY 5 should make up this failed trip. We started the day right but ended up scammed. Upon reaching the city to visit the temples, we looked for the pier where we were supposed to ride the boat going to the temple.

Then there’s this some guy who offered us help maybe because we were obviously lost – we can’t find the pier. He instructed us to ride the tuktuk going to the pier, so we did.

Remember this man’s face! He is a scammer! ALL THE HATE ON HIM!

The tuktuk brought us to a pier. A lady in the pier was charging us, if I remember it correctly, 1600 THB each for the boat ride, then we bargained it down to 600 THB which was supposed to be, if you go to the right pier, 15 THB only. So you see, we were scammed, they didn’t even give us a ticket.

At first we kinda like it.

But then, we just went around a shallow and unpleasant canal.

And after the 1 hour (which was really less than 1 hour) CANAL boat tour, all the temples were already closed. YES they were all closed, so we didn’t got the chance to enter at least one temple. :(

We just went around and took some photos with other temples.

This day gets from worse to worst, even the Chatuchak Market was already closed when we get there so we also didn’t have the chance to do “Bangkok Shopping”.

We just went back to Khao San Road and had some decent dinner.

The next day, (DAY 6)

We went to the airport and traveled back to the Philippines. And our pasalubongs? We bought it from the airport because that’s the only choice we had.

THAT’S IT. Our Indochina trip just went like that. Spending five days on the road and having an unworthy experience. If I could only correct everything. I guess we just need to charge this to experience. At least we got 9 passport stamps. (Yey!)

I would like to take this opportunity to apologize to my travel buddies – Tatay, Reinee, John Rey, Baka-Chan, Babes ni Baka-Chan – sorry guys, I know that this is not what we wanted. I hope to travel with you again next time, and by that time, we will finally enjoy our trip.

Indochina Trip is not always like this. It’s always different for all of us. It’s just that we got to experience the opposite of anything that you can call good. I suggest you allot longer days for this trip, then for sure, you will have a blast.

Bonus:

I prepared an excel of our expenses. Click here. :)

Cheers to travelling the world! Meow meow!

#indochina #calaytravels #claireyfly #thailand #bangkok #vietnam #malaysia #kuala lumpur #siem reap #cambodia #travel #travel blog #experience #culture #wander #wanderlust

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cutiecrates · 4 years

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Cutie Reviews: KiraKira Crate Nov 19

This will be my second-to-last KiraKira Crate review. For anyone who might not be familiar with the blog, I’ve decided to cancel my subscription for a few reasons. I’ve described this already in a few past posts and will probably bring up again at least two more times from now.

This months theme: Fall into relaxation

Relax away this fall with November’s collection of beauty goodies! Start off your day or end your night feeling super moisturized!

Yuzu Facial Mask

Our first item is actually a repeat, a face mask based around the not-so-sweet but still nicely scented Yuzu fruit; which always makes me think of a lemony orange, or an orangey lemon when I look at it. This specific mask has a sort of lemon ice tea scent, like the image on the package demonstrates.

♥ ♥ ♥

This is a simple 10-15 minute mask that is easy to apply and feels nice on the skin. It’s moisturizing is about average, in that you feel a difference but I didn’t feel like it lasts very long. Its was also very hard to open the pouch <_< you’re better off just using scissors.

Rose Bath Set

This cute little package consists of a bath salt + face mask. Use them together, or individual, or even gift it to someone who might like it :3

♥ ♥

I love roses, and I like the idea behind this set; but I did have a couple of complaints...

Firstly, the bath salts didn’t really smell like roses. It smelled more like a rip-off floral perfume someone sprayed on a tree in the woods, and the color was neon yellow! I thought it’d be more like pink or white, or maybe even red? I wasn’t very impressed by it.

The face mask smelled leagues better, exactly like rose. But the mask was kind of... huge in terms of the holes, so it fit a bit weird. It wasn’t that much of an issue though.

Guasha

Our next item is this fun item known as a Guasha, which is a trendy new type of beauty tool. This specific Guasha is in the shape of a cat that you rub around the various curves of the body (like around the face and arms) to stimulate the blood flow.

♥ ♥ ♥

Well for one thing, I think this is adorable ♥ but... I feel like a total fool for being unable to tell how to use it. Like I get what the images on the back show, but they’re also a bit vague so it can be a little difficult to determine exactly which part/side goes where. BUT, I’ve tried it a couple of times in various spots and I can kind of feel a difference? So I do believe it works. It feels a little odd using it on the face, but my face felt sort of... not-so tight/tense after, so I like it.

Menthol Lip Balm

Our next item is perfect for the cooler months of the year when the lips are more likely to get chapped or dry out. This thick, creamy substance by Hkalip is mint-scented and comes in this cute little tube, and it will not only leave your lips feeling fresh, but moisturized and shiny. It can be worn on its on or over another product.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

The problem with these products is that they are very goopy and sticky, so they can be unpleasant if you’re not familiar with the texture or particularly enjoy it. But it smells good (although you can’t really taste it sadly) and it has a cooling effect. It remains on the lips for a good long while after application, as does the scent and cooling.

HK x Kikumasa Lotion

This is our final item, a Hello Kitty liquid lotion from the famous brand Kikumasamune, known for their sake moisture lotion that contains sake (rice fermented liquor) and ceramide (moisturizing ingredient) to hydrate, soothe, smooth, and brighten the skin.

The scent to me reminds me of an average skin-care products scent, nothing to special. But I do really love its packaging! The bottle is my favorite shade of pink, the bubble-like cap, plus the cute hello kitty on the front~

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

My skin feels very nice after using it. A little bit sticky, which I don’t like very much but it soaks in very quickly so it doesn’t last all that long.

♥ Cutie Ranking ♥

Content - 3.5 out of 5. I had very little to complain about and I enjoyed all of the items pretty well. There was nothing really spectacular or amazing in the box this month though. I especially have problems with moisturization so I liked that the box was themed around that, but I feel like nothing was really all that helpful for my problem areas; just temporary solutions.

Theme - 4 out of 5. I get the theme exactly, but I sort of wish maybe the items were actually more... Fall/Autumn-ish?

Price - 3 out of 5. Like last month I feel like the items aren’t anywhere near 30 dollars, but I might just be sounding stingy or something. But out of the box only 2 items are reusable, and they were all pretty small.

Total Rank: 7 out of 10 Cuties. It was a decent box. Maybe not the best they ever had, but the items worked and were fun to use, kinda cute, I didn’t outright hate anything.

♥ Cutie Scale ♥

1. Cat Gausha - As confusing as it can be to use it felt really nice when I tried. It’s also really cute to look at.

2. Lotion - I wish it had a nicer scent but its not a bad one, I love its packaging design~

3. Lip Balm - I love its cooling mentholness, but I’m not big on the goopy sticky textured products like this.

4. Yuzu Face Mask - It smells good but its a repeat item, so it didn’t hold my attention.

5. Rose Bath Set - As much as I loved the smell of the mask, my minor complaints towards it made me rank it as the worst item in the set.

#cutie reviews #kirakiracrate #hello kitty cosmetics

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tocinephile · 6 years

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Ada’s Top 10 Films of 2018

In tandem with this post, I’ve also recreated this list in Letterboxd.com, you can find it at: https://letterboxd.com/palindr0me/list/adas-top-10-films-of-2018/

Between Christmas shopping, baking a couple hundred cookies, and rewatching Bad Santa every December, I try to take a peek at critics’ lists of the top films of the year (even if I myself manage to procrastinate well into February to compile my own list each year). On December 31st a good friend and fellow writer published his list, the opening sentence of his blog proclaimed 2018 was the best year for film this century and that’s when I began to panic.

Though I was far from finalizing my list, I had thought 2018 to be one of the worst years for film in recent history! I immediately starting chasing all the award season favourites plus other talked about films at TIFF 2018, and spent as much of January in front of a screen as possible. I hoped against hope that I somehow missed all the good films of 2018.

A month later I will say this: 2018, it wasn’t as bad as I thought! However, after much brainstorming and revisions to the order of my list, I will say that not a single film stood out for me as the year's best, which is very rare. So here are 10 films (and then some) in not much of a particular order that I think should be talked about for 2018.

Qualifying films for Ada’s Top 10 Films:

• any film that screened at a festival that I attended in 2018 • any film with a Canadian theatrical release dated in 2018 • is listed on www.imdb.com as released in 2018

1. Widows 2. Hotel Mumbai 3. Destroyer 4. Capernum 5. The Hate U Give 6. Love, Simon 7. Isle of Dogs 8. Pick of the Litter 9. Shadow 10. Transit

Honourable Mentions:

• Shoplifters • Free Solo • BlacKkKlansman • A Star is Born • Vox Lux • Everybody Knows • The Other Story

1. Widows

I firmly believe Widows film came in under the radar considering all that it embodied. In a year of diversity in film, Widows is made by a man of Caribbean descent (Steve McQueen), written by a woman (Gillian Flynn), starting FOUR women - 3 of which are of a visible minority (Viola Davis, Michelle Rodriguez, Cynthia Enviro, and Elizabeth Debicki), and Daniel Kaluuya portrays one cold-blooded villain. And on top of that, Widows is good entertainment! I may have a soft spot for heists and ass-kicking women, but I’d like to think I know a good thriller when I see one. I feel that Widows didn’t get the love it deserved and so I'm mentioning it first.

2. Hotel Mumbai

I saw Hotel Mumbai last year and it is dated 2018 across the web, but it is coming to theatres soon and I assure you it’s good entertainment for your buck. I saw it in the midst of back to back films and long work days during TIFF 2018, worried that I’d accidentally nod off. Instead, I couldn’t close my eyes if I tried. Again this ensemble cast film is more about entertainment value that cinematic artistry, and I never compared the story on screen to historical facts, but what I took in was enough to stay with me and rank it amongst one of the best times I had in a movie theatre in 2018.

3. Destroyer

Destroyer is fresh in my mind having only seen it a few weeks ago. Due to the nature of my volunteer work with TIFF, it was one of the films this year that I kept walking into mid-movie (much to my dismay). I purposely avoided the ending of the film and then had no opportunity to see it again until recently, giving me lots of time to forget anything I might have accidentally absorbed. Fully aware that it was going to be a dark, depressing watch, I quickly found myself engrossed in the story reminiscent of the HK police dramas that I grew up with about divided loyalties and double agents. Director Karen Kusama pushes Kidman's character well past the point of likability but the story keeps you invested in the events as they unfold. That's when you know you've got a good story.

4. Capernaum

Also fresh in my mind is Capernaum, a Foreign Film nominee in this year's awards season. This film that looks at extreme child poverty from Lebanon is at once heartbreaking and endearing. The film follows young Zain but is supported by a host of complex characters, ch with a detailed back story of struggle and survival. Together they give the film a fullness and weaves a world where although individuals' actions fall into a decidedly grey area, no explanation is required to justify them. It is a world unknown to the majority of people who will see this film, but it is utterly engrossing.

5. The Hate U Give

This was a last film on my list of 2018 movies to watch before compiling this list and I'm really thankful I didn't get lazy and skip it. While there's no single aspect to make it truly stand out in awards season, it's a shame that The Hate U Give isn't getting quite as much love as Green Book nor BlacKkKlansman because it delivers a similar powerful message, from a different angle that actually made it the differentiator for me. The story comes from the eyes of young black teenager girl named Starr, wonderfully portrayed by Amandla Stenberg, and addresses an aspect of being a visible minority that speaks volumes to me: assimilation. Compared to other common themes (oppression, profiling, etc)

6. Love, Simon

When I think of light hearted, entertaining but impactful teen-targeted, coming of age tales, I like to compartmentalize them by the decade. Now maybe I'm getting too old, or maybe it's become so ok to be and do whatever you want that no individual story can resonate anymore, that I don't have too many examples from the 10's, but Love, Simon is definitely one of them. It's not heavy nor gritty, rather glossed over in fact (the main character even admits it), but the message shines through and it's a really fun film that I think will remain a crowd pleaser for years to come. There is a place in our hearts for movies like this one, it's easy to go over the top or fall flat in this territory but I think Love, Simon really hit the nail on the head.

7. Isle of Dogs

Wes Anderson + endearing tale about dogs, I mean, come on! None of my defenses would be strong enough to dislike this film! I wish I'd had a chance to rewatch it so that I offer you more than just a rehashing of all the things I love about Wes Anderson's style and trademarks.

8. Pick of the Litter

Perhaps 2018 was truly the year of the dog, not just in the Chinese Zodiac but in film as well. Pick of the Litter was my most memorable documentary of the year, I did not make it through the intro without tearing up (it was really embarrassing and thank god the friend I went to see it with was sniffling harder than me) It was truly a journey, and insightful too, it goes way beyond humour and cuteness, and believe me there was a lot of cuteness. The thing that hit home most about Pick of the Litter for me besides the idea of guide dog named Phil (and we still always wonder how Phil and his human are doing!) as how invested I became in the litter's story through the course of the film.

9. Shadow

Ok, here's my Chinese film of the year. Joke aside, Zhang Yimou's Shadow is not on this list merely because I need an Asian film to fill a quota. With the possible exception of Isle of Dogs, the films on my list this year were selected largely based on story over style... Except this one. This is all style, it's a visual stunner that really puts the director back at the top of his game. He devotes the film to a steely palette that's at once cold but exciting. Come to the think of it, the story wasn't bad either.

10. Transit

If you haven’t seen Transit, I have some advice for you. This is not a spoiler so please take it into consideration. Transit is adapted from the 1942 novel by Anna Seghers with a few modernizations that calls for a leap of faith. As an audience member, be prepared to suspend believe and it will make all the difference in your enjoyment of the film. I wish someone had told me this beforehand so that I didn’t spend half the movie trying to make sense of details that had little bearing on the plot. I spent days after the fact trying to decide whether I loved the film or it didn’t make any sense. Thankfully the conclusion I came to was that Transit is a lucid tale of love, loss, longing, and humanity. Characters and story mirror each other in early meanderings that creates an almost surreal existence contrasting against the harsh realities of events taking place around them. There is profound sadness, but there is also beauty.

Honourable Mentions:

You'll note from above my list of honourable mentions is getting to be almost as long as the top 10 itself (in fact it was probably just as long until I trimmed a few films off... You don't need me to tell you about Avengers: Infinity War and Black Panther)

I saw Destroyer, Capernaum, and The Hate U Give quite recently, but until I had, Shoplifters and Free Solo had firmly been in my top 10.

I'm typically not a fan of Japanese cinema, but there are always exceptions and Shoplifters was definitely one that defied the odds. It broke from the often tiresome mold (to me) of demure characters, restraint, and complicity that's often portrayed in that country's cinema. The message of making your own happiness and family being those that loved you most regardless of genetic ties was heartwarming and resonating.

Free Solo ranked amongst the fictional narratives on my list for thrilling and edge of your seat viewing. It takes a lot to keep me wide-eyed griping the arm of my chair in the theatre in anticipation and fear for an hour and a half. I love heights and I was scared witless.

BlacKkKlansman and A Star is Born are seemingly award show favourites, though not winning as many awards as they might have hoped, both have strong scripts, powerhouse talent, skillful direction for the former, and one of my favourite songs of the year from the latter. They truly are amongst some of the best films made in 2018.

Vox Lux is one of those films that warrants a discussion after viewing, at least for me. Though it feels like the film scored points neither with critics nor audiences, there’s a part of me that’s drawn to intricate explorations of the selfish and narcissistic. Natalie Portman was great in the role in my opinion. To make an unlikable character worth watching is not an easy feat, especially when the possibility of redemption isn’t really on the table. Like Destroyer, it takes one hell of an acting performance and skilled direction to pull this off. I guess this is where some thought Destroyer nailed it, and pretty much no one thought Vox Lux did.

Everybody Knows (Spain, thought director Asghar Farhadi is Iranian) and The Other Story (Israel) were also amongst the most enjoyable foreign films I watched in 2018. I'm not sure if The Other Story got Canadian distribution but Everybody Knows is playing at TIFF Bell Lightbox right now for those who want to see it. Both are dramas centred around families.

We're well into 2019 films now and I'm really hoping for some standouts this year, at least in my eyes. I mean, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood does have a July release date after all! As well, we're about to wrap another decade in film so even more lists charting the best of the last 10 years. But first, we got some more movies to watch!

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sarahinzhuhai-blog · 7 years

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A day on the town: 拱北 and 公共汽车

Today started off great--I'm feeling much better and no longer have to hit the WC (that’s my new word) every thirty minutes. I woke up at a normal-person-time, and then my dad (who I still can’t understand) made me some noodles and urged me to eat another banana. I also tried this pork sausage that I liked because the taste reminded me of txorixo. I told my dad it was similar to a Basque meat and I think he said they’re going to buy some more. A bit later, 笑笑 woke up and my mom went somewhere, so I practiced piano for an hour and then chilled on my phone, which I do a lot. I feel bad cause I’m always on my phone, but I’m not sure what else to do–they always urge me to go in my room because there’s AC in here...hopefully after classes start I can be more productive. I tried reading Harry Potter in Chinese and that worked out alright. 笑笑 and I talked about how we both cry when we read the series and I found out she’s never seen the movies!!! I’m going to see if I can get hold of a copy to watch with her before I leave. // Lunch was a big spread of this really good beef, cooked greens, cucumber and egg/tomato (which is a thing here)–so delicious! I mostly ate broth and rice because my stomach is still recovering, but it was still 👌. Then it was time to go to Gongbei!//We all met at a really swanky hotel lobby and let me tell you, it was SO nice to see friends (and tbh, speak English for a few hours). Some kids are really happy with their host families, like me, and some are having a really bad time and sliding down the W curve pretty hard. After almost all 20 (21 if you count Grace, which I do) of us showed up, we were off! 走吧！// We spent most of our time in Gongbei in the underground market. By that I mean, this whole market was literally underneath a square. There were dozens (hundreds? I'm not sure--it was like a labyrinth) of shops packed in there, selling everything from 小笼包 to knockoff Rolexes to drones. Everything was very cheap (or could be bargained down). We split off into groups–some were trying to get knockoff versions of fancy brand items. After some group switching, etc, I ended up with Shayley, Sydney and Lexi. My groups goal was to find as many shirts that said nonsense things in English as possible. Our key find (which Lexi ended up buying after we got Grace to help us bargain down) was a shirt that said: “ACTION PURPLE PROVE WHO CAMERA” …if that doesn’t speak to you on a deeply personal (metaphysical, as Grace said) level, nothing will. Other notable finds included: a dress that said "BASIL", a brown camo shirt with pink letting that said "horny," a waterbottle reassuring us that “Tomorrow Will Be Sexy” and a phone case that read “UNI F***” (without the asterisks). All in all, I had a fun time but my fun was tempered by the large crowds, back pain and questionable bathrooms (although at this point, I’m proud to say I’m well acquainted and comfortable with squat pots). One of the coolest things was these ladies dressed in really elaborate blue and white dresses and headdresses to advertise for their store. I took a picture with one of them (which felt like a role reversal since people often stare at us here since we are foreign or ask to take pix with us, although no one has asked ME for a picture yet), but it’s on my actual camera, so that wont be on this blog until much later. // After a while, our groups reconvened. While I bought nothing but a very confusing milk tea, some people had bought knockoff shoes, bags, glasses, watches, and the works. A lot of us were very tired, so we went outside to the square above the market and sat for a while. It was really beautiful–there were big golden characters above a building that said Gongbei Port (I think it's all fancy because that’s the entrance to Macau…we were just yards away from the border but don’t worry, we stayed safely within the country limits!) and some pretty fountains in a reflecting pool surrounding these black stones with more golden lettering about Gongbei. We (me, Shayley, Grace, Maya, Anthony, Alec, XY, Lexi, Richa, Josh, Sydney and maybe others) hung out on the steps after checking out the 7-11, which carries stuff very different to that which you find in America, until it was time to go. Some kids stayed later (and I had been given permission to stay out until about 7 or 8, specific instructions were “come home when you are hungry”), but I was tired and didn’t want to go back in the market, so Alec and I headed off to find the bus. // To find the bus. Haahahahahahhahaa...Such an innocent phrase until you realize you don’t know where you’re going and have a command of the Chinese language worse than the average six year old. We went to one stop and couldn’t find the right line. Then we asked a police officer and he was saying words I didn’t understand, so I had him write it on my phone. Then I understood the word but I still had no idea what he was saying, so we nodded and then crossed the street to find someone else. Next station wasn’t the one we were looking for but had the right line. However, it wasn’t showing up on the app, so we asked a lady and again could not understand. We got nervous about it not showing up on the app, so we headed down toward where the station we were supposed to be at was supposed to be. We asked a DIFFERENT police officer, understood (finally) and FOUND THE STATION! Success!!! It was so hot I was winded just from power walking. We boarded the bus and set off. // Since this stop was the first of the route, me and Alec were both able to sit down. A few stops later when Alec had already gotten off, the bus was so crammed it felt unsafe. By the time we got to my stop, I wasn’t sure I would be able to get out. So I did my most assertive stand-up-and-push-through-the-crowd and made it out! Then I successfully got home without getting lost (win!) and had a very confusing interaction with my dad (I believe he asked me: “I thought you weren’t getting home until 8. Did you come alone? Ok eat a banana” and then sort of just disappeared). My first successful public transport experience in China! Take 2, 3, 4, etc will be going to school every day. // A few minutes later, my sister came home and gave me a water bottle--it's so cute!!! We hung out, she gave me some math problems to solve while she studied for her exams, and then we ate dinner. Everyone was very shocked when I put a little bit of this pepper paste in my broth because it is VERY spicy (辣辣的!)but it was very good. After dinner, I gave my host family their gifts (the photobook pages got totally warped from my mosquito lotion exploding in my bag! I’m so sad!), went for an early shower and now it’s time to sleep! I'm exhausted after a great day with friends, but excited for classes....First day of school tomorrow! ✌️️ (PS My phone is being temperamental and won’t let me post pictures from HK, of my family, etc so use your imagination for now, hopefully I’ll be able to post them soon)

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swtorramblings · 8 years

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On Vaylin

I am re-posting this, my rough draft of a post that I wrote to my main blog when I found that my annoyance with certain game events aggravated me so badly I needed a place to publicly vent. I tried to move it here and broke the whole thing, so lost some of the edits and other information (I’m still learning the ropes). I still want to have it up, but I am also not putting in the tags it used to have. I am trying to be more positive, now, though I will have one more negative, but somewhat calmer, post on the subject in the near future, because even after a month and a half it still gets to me.

I am going on a rant about the SWTOR expansion, Knights of the Eternal Throne. I don’t think anyone is likely to see this that, 1. Cares about SWTOR, 2. Cares about my opinion of SWTOR, 3. Doesn’t already know the plot of KOTET. If I’m wrong, note that there are spoilers ahead.

Too long, didn’t read: Vaylin’s fate is for crap, a badly told mess even if the basic plot of “man and woman enter, only man can leave” wasn’t already a problem.

Note: I’m not really looking for debate. I’m just venting. But, if you must, keep it civil. My ire is meant for Bioware and for the people who have approached disagreements on this subject rudely.

Now, my therapy will begin.

I will be up front about my core bias: I have seen enough stories where a man and a woman fulfill similar roles in the story, have similar experiences, and, in this case, commit similar crimes (of type if not of scale), but the man survives and the woman doesn’t. I was never, ever going to like this plotline. Give us the choice to save both, give us the choice of which one can be saved (Bioware loves that), or don’t let us save either. All would be better, though I prefer the first two.

I fully understand that she was written without those little moments of remorse that he was. I do understand what Bioware was going for. It’s not difficult to see, it was unsubtle. It was also hamfisted and obnoxious. So don’t tell me how obvious it was that she was too far gone and like that: I’m well aware. I just don’t find it to be a good story, especially with so much of how it was handled. They chose to make her that way, they did not have to, and even in making that choice they could have done better.

Finally, I recognize this is a game. It is also, however, a story, and how we tell and share stories is important to me, and this one was awful. Bioware tried to tell a tale of tragedy and familial abuse and mental illness and brainwashing, in an action game with a trinary response, and the lack of nuance didn’t do them any favors. If they couldn’t tell the story with care and sensitivity, they shouldn’t have told it at all.

Vaylin irredeemable. Why? Because mummy and brother can’t find any good in her with their Detect Good spell? Please. Because daddy says she is like a wild animal? Please squared. They should get no say whatsoever.

I swear, whether or not Vaylin ultimately must die I wanted the option to tell them all off. When they say something like that, I want to say, <point to Senya> “You feared her and abandoned her.” <point to Arcann> “You neglected her and killed her brother. Out of everyone living outside of my head, you two are the most responsible for what she has become. Neither of you have any say in how we are going to handle this. And we’re going to do what we can to save her. Period. And if you want any more reason than she’s your family, or the horrible things you both allowed to happen to her, or your own empathy, Valkorian is telling me she has to die, and I refuse to do what that monster says. Are we clear?”

Oh, and that bit where you get the option to tell her that Valkorian wants you to kill her? To try to talk her down? That’s the Light option, Bioware. You’re irredeemable is the neutral option. How hard is that to figure out?

Because she’s a threat to your troops? No. The moment you tell them that Valkorian wants her dead, they should be changing their blasters to stun settings. Well, if those exist in TOR, if they haven’t been invented yet, someone should get on that (and if they do every single light side character should carry one, even if they are clumsy and random, for situations like this). But your troops know what he is, and should be willing to help you out here.

Because she killed a lot of people, including your buddy (speaking of hamfisted story telling)? Arcann killed HK-55 (but, you know, droid, and anti-droid bigotry is certainly a thing in Star Wars, even with otherwise light-side types) and almost certainly many times as many people. I do hope you don’t have him with you if your reason to kill her is because of her crimes (and if you executed him for his, congratulations, you are more consistent with your actions than the game company known for its awesome stories. I say, without irony, good job).

Because she’s killed your buddy and you want revenge? Point. I have no rebuttal, but then, I don’t really have a problem you being able to choose to kill her, here (aside from my “Bioware created an awful and poorly told story of familial abuse where you have to/get to kill the victims” thing), my problem is that you have to kill her but you can save Arcann.

Because she slaughtered her troops with her force powers when they annoyed her or just to show off? Again, hope you haven’t saved Arcann after halving his own forces. Just because she does it herself doesn’t mean he’s less heinous, and magical force powers healed him.

Because she’s too broken to live? That’s really the crux of what Bioware was going for: her mind was crippled by Valkorian and can never be gotten back to what it was. Her sanity can never be restored so we have to kill her because of the combination of her powers and her madness. Well, even if I fully accepted this, I want to be allowed to show sympathy within the game. Yeah, I can pretend that’s what the Outlander is really doing, but some things I’d like explicitly stated, and this is one of those. Just say you’re sorry you have to do this before stabbing or shooting her. I wouldn’t like it, as I said, but it’s a small step up, anyway. And they couldn’t give us that option.

Mock her like a villain? You can. Ask her to surrender? You can. Show sympathy and offer help? No, not really. Not use the command phrase, or even show a shred of sorrow or even embarrassment over its use? Nope, and you’re going to expose it to the galaxy, her shame, her lack of control, the awfulness of her parents! I can’t imagine why she hates you so much, especially with her awful family around you, but you did that to her

This is an abuse victim. Further, she had directed attempts to break her mind, body, and spirit to make her into something else. These things happened. The fact that you walk up to her, close enough to touch, with what sounds like whimpering and fear being the only sounds she’s making, and stab or shoot her is disgusting. If she’s supposed to be just Pure Evil, at least let her be ranting at the end. If she’s supposed to be Irredeemably Broken, pretty much the same. That bit of whimpering both makes her seem like someone not really all that dangerous and someone that I want to save. She made the same noises when you most recently defeat her, while she’s on her hands and knees before you, too. Shame you couldn’t have acted before she bubbled up, hero. Perhaps irrational, but there it is.

Because she doesn’t ask? Because she doesn’t want to be saved? Uhm, and? Bioware tried very hard to present her as completely gone, and why. She doesn’t get to choose whether the people around her are going to at least try to help her. Does that take away her agency as a character? Maybe, but I’d argue that her agency was already taken away by her father (and, by extension, the writers) a long time ago. In fact, note in Chapter 9: “Choice. I could get used to that.” At that point, after death, she has agency. Shame she couldn’t have gained some before that, like, by the Outlander trying to save her.

I actually think she was borderline suicidal. She fought beyond what was reasonable when already defeated, there at the end. When, after you continued her abuse by using her command phrase, she retreated and tortured herself, she shouts out not that she doesn’t want to die, but that she doesn’t want to die “in this place”. Scant evidence, since “not like this” is something people that don’t seem otherwise to want to die sometimes say. But, combined with what she has been through and her constant control by others (I’m looking at you, Outlander), it seems at least plausible. I don’t think it’s what the writers were going for, but I can’t unthink it, and it makes “she didn’t ask to be saved” take on a very different, and much worse, meaning.

Because she’s too dangerous? Maybe. There are some signs of it. She’s certainly been defeated often enough, but, yeah, her power is unlocked! Oh, wait, you beat her again. But, now she has that bubble thing, maybe it’s just going to keep going, burning her out and blowing up your base, if she’s not killed. Maybe her rage would drive her troops forward, even if she was unconscious or, say, in carbonite. It would be nice to have one of those explicitly stated before killing her, because at that point the decision to do that rather than try to take her alive makes more sense.

You had to kill the suicidal woman because she was going to kill everyone around you and it was the only way to stop her? Fine. Show some remorse that it came to that, lightsider. Show some empathy. Really all I want given the choice has already been made by the writers that she must die.

Honestly, there’s an episode of Justice League Unlimited where Batman sits down with Ace while she is dying and just stays with her. A moment like that would have been so much better for the nice characters. Instead, “You’re irredeemable!” stab/shot in the gut.

Maybe you just don’t have a non-lethal weapon. Maybe you should get one, we have them on Earth and can’t even break the speed of light or form light into a solid cutting tool.

Because it’s too risky to try to save her, long term? If you wanted the easy way, you’d have used the Emperor’s power every time he offered it, but you didn’t do that, even to save Lana, did you? But, then, accepting his advice and help is probably a bad idea. What did he tell you to do with his daughter and other family members, again?

Because she was always evil? Many of the things I’ve griped about are open to interpretation, this one included. There were moments when she could be interpreted to have a vicious streak as a little girl. She smiled when the guards died (I still believe that the guards should be hurt, not dead, because Senya should have talked about this instead of the crippled guard if Vaylin killed her sparring partners, but I digress). I interpret that as her happiness in showing off her power, and the moment after that as her guilt realizing what had happened. But, sure, the Dark Side could be interpreted as there, even then.

But that bubbly little girl, bouncing up and down with excitement while her big brothers spar? She’s evil? No. Just no. I fear I have no cogent argument to give on this subject, but I don’t accept it, anyway. They can’t all be gems. My entire diatribe is about how the Outlander should have been portrayed as more emotional, if the player so chooses, and I’m not immune myself.

Conclusion: I’m not happy that you are forced to kill an abuse victim, a mentally disturbed woman who, yes, has committed heinous crimes. This isn’t the right venue for such a story, if any venue is. I am doubly disgusted by the way it was approached, with the hero of the story mocking her and taking advantage of her weakness forced on her by the villain for tactical reasons. You don’t use the command phrase to capture her, or even really to save people nearby: it was always your plan to reveal the results of her abuse to the galaxy. I don’t like that you don’t appear to try to help her until after she’s dead, and are unable to choose to show any kind of remorse for what you must do. They took a story that would have annoyed me and made it into something really grotesque. Good job, Bioware.

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revisingpotato · 8 years

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1:28am thoughts [pt.1]

academic and personal goals for the year, also plans for the future and uni in general?

i was going to do a first ib finals report bUT i figured i’d wait until i receive all my scores + sem 1 report..... so far my grades are v nice but whenever someone mentions uni i’m left in a state of ~utter confusion~

p.s. my studyblr is going to be in semi-hiatus mode? because keeping up with actual schoolwork is more important than studyblr-ing lets be real (add in cas, ia + ee proposals, ah the beauty of being in ib....). it’ll also be less reblogs and more personal quality posts. feel free to unfollow me if you’re just looking for aesthetic reblogs ahh the sole purpose of this thing is to document my academic journey, maybe, somehow (?)

p.p.s. studying japanese intensively for this year so my blog is now a mix of studyblr + japanese langblr ;; and in the next few months, i feel like it’ll be an appblr as well.... :’)))

so i just finished adding my appblr page to keep myself accountable!

this might change in the future but yes....,, my heart is dead set on the monbugakusho scholarship ;_; it’s highly coveted, and out of thousands of applicants each year, less than a hundred is chosen. HOWEVER it covers full tuition fees, living costs, monthly allowance.... cherry on top is that you can go anywhere in Japan. fully funded.

studying in japan is a lifelong goal for me. however the requirements to just get pass the screening of this scholarship is either pass national exams with an average of 8.4 - THIS IS WHERE I GET FUCKIN scared because i’m already used to ib-style questions. aka. what are multiple choices!!!1! and how do i do a math paper without a calculator!!1! what science exam should i take bc i’m doing ess!!!

on top of that... the added stress of doing national exams AND ib exams simultaneously. life is looking Good /laughs dryly/

going back to the ‘either’ - if in case i fail (oh God no BUT) national exams or decide to not take it, i can submit a JLPT N3 certificate (pass obvi). THIS is my way to go because hey,, i’ve been studying japanese for 2~3 years now,, and getting the jlpt would be an edge when applying and living in japan later on!! however.... HOWEVER....

my school would usually make national exams prep classes compulsory AND even if i decide to not take it, i’ll still study, so...

national exams are FREE tbh if i have studied (such as the case above) might as well go for it...

JLPT is paid. the exams are only run twice a year. NO WAY I CAN FUCKIN GO FOR N3 RIGHT IN JULY, so december would be my way go. i’d already be in ib2 right then, drowning in apps and coursework... dec 2017 is my only chance.....

my jlpt level. self-evaluating, i’m an n5 right now. jumping a level would not be an easy task FFFF

jlpt n3 in ~10 months is actually pretty realistic but then i have to intensively study ;__;

and this is more of a First World Problem but guess who’s parents doesn’t let her daughter take jp tutoring... so i gotta rely on all the jlpt prep books and free resources HUFFFHJD

i might do n5/n4 in july 2017 though. for the taste of it before n3 OTL

after the screening itself, there’s still a scholarship test WHICH is probably similar to nationals... so national exams would be a good training as well

are u even still following me at this point because i am Probably Not

anyways there’s a huge chance i don’t get the scholarship... not that im pessimistic but realistically looking at myself. my grades are nice. but I REALLY DONT POSSESS LEADERSHIP QUALITIES N STUFF THOSE SCHOLARSHIP PPL LOOK FOR. so i’m working on it. and EXTRACURRICULARS TOO. GOD FKDdkjf

in the end of the day, here’s my tentative Masochistic Plans of 2017

take JLPT N5/N4 in july 2017. PASS THAT SHIT. also for the experience

take JLPT N3 in december 2017. PASS THAT SHIT TOO.

take national exams.

i’ll ganbarimasu in order to not die thx

there are other scholarships i’m eyeing, this time from hong kong. hk is near japan, it’s a nice place!!!

and this time there are two pools - HKSAR and Belt&Road. they’re both like monbugakusho bc they cover full tuition costs; not sure about the living costs and monthly allowances though.

Belt&Road is especially something i shouldn’t miss BECAUSE THE POOL IS B/N MALAYSIANS AND INDONESIANS IN HK... it’s smaller...

the thing is;; there’s not much information about these scholarships that are comprehensive alike monbugakusho. but i’m sure they’re looking for leadership traits, extracurriculars, yada yada

so here’s another tentative list of Being A Well-Rounded Student in 2017. one of my goals is to finish my CAS requirements this year because by 2018 i’ll be drowning in college apps and exams

CAS i’ve done : career day volunteer, isci picnic organizer

CAS ongoing : learning japanese, practicing yoga

CAS i’d like to do :

something that’ll demonstrate leadership hhHH

business competitions!!

debate stuff

yearbook....,,

VALENTINE’S BAKE SALE. let’s make this happen again

participate in environmental activities

volunteering @ smth more meaningful ahh. give back to local community.

be part of a publication (applying to a zine rn CROSSES FINGERS)

i’m sure with this i’ll be able to do all the 7 learning outcomes fucking thrice and probably come out as a good scholarship applicant yeh

about universities, personal goals and other things

it’s actually half past 1 am and im sleepy so,

i’ll be continuing this post tomorrow lmfao.

- an original Haiku

#hahahahaha what is this even #shitpost

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piilokarsastus · 5 years

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End of the year ask game - 2019

1. Favorite book you discovered this year? Not sure if I’ve started any new books this year

2. Favorite movie that was released this year? It seems I also didn’t go to the movies this year apart from one time but the movie wasn’t that good

3. Favorite TV show you discovered this year? Fargo

4. Favorite artist you discovered this year? I don’t really do “artists”

5. Favorite music album that was released this year? The kind of music I listen to doesn’t come in albums but Veli Kujala’s Violin Concerto “Auseil” has got to be one of the greatest modern pieces of music I’ve heard.

6. If you are using a music streaming platform that provides you with stats about this year, post them! I’m not

7. Favorite memory of this year? Maybe the time I went biking with a good friend in July

8. Favorite song this year? It’s so hard to pick favourites, but Grieg’s Jeg elsker dig always has a special place in my heart

9. Post a selfie from January of this year and one from today. I literally haven’t changed at all so no

10. Favorite travel destination of this year? I didn’t really travel much but our short excursion to Lappeenranta was fun

11. Did you make new friends this year? How? Yeah, I’ve made a lot of new friends in university, and also one of the students I hung out with during my work period at OUAS in 2018-2019 has since become a close friend. I got many other friends of varying levels there but she’s the only one I still see and talk to regularly.

12. Did you lose a friend? Why? Well not really, but kind of. We’re still officially friends and we recently even texted each other for the first time in months but I just can’t bring myself to connect with her more since I have this feeling that she isn’t really interested in seeing me because I had a crush on her a year ago. The fact that she never texts first doesn’t help either.

13. Any deaths in your social environment this year? My grandpa passed away in September at 83

14. Any newborns in your social environment this year? no, although my cousin and his wife have a baby under way

15. Favorite concert you´ve been to this year? This one concert of new music in Oulu, in October

16. Favorite festival (music or other) you attended this year? Uuden musiikin lokakuu (see previous question)

17. Did you quit a job/an education this year? I didn’t exactly quit, my work period just ended as scheduled

18. Did you start a new job/education this year? Yeah, I started university

19. Did your relationship status change during the year? If it stayed the same, did your perception of this status change? nope, still single

20. Any new piercings this year? no

21. Any new tattoos this year? no

22. Any other body modifications this year? no

23. Favorite clothing item of this year? I just got a really cute shirt for Christmas, so I’m choosing that even though it’s only been in my life for a few days :D

24. Favorite person this year? that would be a certain HK. Funnily enough those initials can refer to two people, both of whom played an important part in my life at different parts of the year: one in December-February and the other especially from May onwards.

25. Favorite place to be this year? (can be a city or just a place like a library, home, a certain forest and so on…) Ever since I moved out, my old home (at my mum’s) has been my favourite place since I come there on holidays to do nothing except relax and enjoy life.

26. Any dreams you fulfilled this year? Started studying in the university I wanted to study in and now I finally have a genuine friend squad who actually do fun stuff together outside of school and we just have a really great group spirit. It’s something I’ve always wanted to have but never had. I’ve mostly just had singular close friends and all the friend groups I’ve been in before rarely did anything outside of school or just weren’t very close friends to begin with. I did have a small group completely separate from school in 2014-2016 but we hung out quite rarely and have since lost touch completely even though I really enjoyed my time with them.

27. Which was your happiest month? Why? I can’t decide on one favourite but the happiest times for me were January (when I had recently met someone special and was heavily crushing on her and life seemed great for a while), July (when I spent a lot of time with an aforementioned friend) and then October (or any month in autumn because I’ve had a great time in uni)

28. Which was this years worst month? Why? On Feb 27 the preceding period of happiness ended and my dreams were crushed, and that sadness was present for the entirety of March and for some time after that as well.

29. Anything you started this year? (sports, drawing, tarot…) university, as I’ve already mentioned more than once.

30. Did you move this year? If not, did you change anything about your place of residence? Yes

31. Did you change anything about your look or your style during this year? Not exactly, but I can feel that change is in progress in a way I can’t yet describe. And last winter (starting already in late 2018) I did start preferring sweaters to button-ups

32. On a scale of one to ten, ten being the best: how would you rate this year? a solid 8,5

33. Any political scandal in your country this year? yeah our government fell after barely six months in office, but as a result we got an even better one with the worlds youngest (and female!) prime minister.

34. Any global event that happened this year that had a strong impact on you or your way of thinking? I can’t remember whether it was this year or the year before but the IPCC reports have certainly made me more aware of how doomed capitalism is

35. Anything you did for the first time this year? (Bungee jumping, drinking alcohol, traveling by plane ….) nothing I can think of

36. Any big mistake you made this year? yyyeah about that Feb 27th thing... I confessed my feelings to someone I was really really interested in but nothing good ever came out of that decision and my self-esteem hasn’t been the same since

37. Favorite Youtuber this year? muyskerm probably

38. Favorite music artist this year? didn’t we go over this already?

39. Favorite hobby this year? making music, same as always

40. Relfect on the year: what are the strongest memories? In the first half of the year, I had a great time at OUAS and there were many memorable moments in that job. My favourites were maybe when I was teaching aural skills classes and when I worked as an accompanist for the opera ensemble class. In May, a large-scale piece of mine was finally performed after I worked on it for the entirety of 2018, which was a big milestone for me as a composer. And finally, in August, we had a super fun orientation day at uni and it was the first time I spent some true quality time with my new squad, sitting in a dark corner talking about music :D

41. Which goals that you had for this year did you reach? Come to think of it, I’m not really a goal-setter.

42. Which goals that you had for this year did you not reach? it would’ve been nice to get into a relationship or even just have sex at least once

43. Any injuries or major diseases you had this year? no

44. Did you have to go to the hospital this year? yeah, but just for a root canal treatment

45. How much/how often did you travel this year? not very often, mostly just between Oulu and Helsinki

46. Did you spend most of your time alone or with others? If with others, who was/were this persons(s)? Well I lived at home until August so my parents, I guess

47. Any new blogs you made on tumblr? yeah, just a private place for a new kind of aesthetic

48. Any blogs you deleted on tumblr? no

49. Any social media that you started with that year? Well I finally got into tiktok but I don’t make content there

50. Favorite food this year? pizza, as always

51. Favorite sweets this year? chocolate, as always

52. Favorite drink/beverage this year? water, as always

53. Any celebrity you really looked up to this year? nah

54. Tell us a quote that inspired you during this year. I’m not a quote person

55. Any new device you bought this year? no

56. If you are wearing makeup: Did your makeup style change during this year? makeup isn’t part of my current style

57. Are you looking forward to next year? I kind of am actually, not really for anything specific but I just have a good feeling about things

58. What are your goals for next year? to learn a lot of new things, discover a lot of good art and basically just continue rebuilding my identity and self-esteem and make myself into the best person I can be. And yeah that girlfriend would be nice too :(

59. What would your biggest dream for next year be? To have a private lesson with my favourite musicologist who will be a visiting professor at my university next year

60. What do you hope will change on this world withing the next year? can we like finally eat the rich, please?

61. Any changes within your own life you have planned for next year? I’ve considered starting working out again since I haven’t done much since school started

62. What are your fears about the next year? that school’s going to be even more stressful since I have more classes

63. How and with whom are you going to spend new years eve? alone and with my mum, currently am

64. Any song that is connected for you to new years eve? no

65. Any new years eve traditions you practise? no

66. Any travels planned for next year? no

67. What do you want to focus on more during the next year? I’d like to make more art but we’ll see how much time I have

68. Any release you are looking forward to next year? a number of tv shows are set to release a new season

69. Any behaviour you want to get rid of during next year? I wish I could stop dwelling on the past

70. Do you think this year changed you? Why? Definitely, I can’t really put it to words but I’m on my way to feeling a lot happier being who I am

71. Do you think next year will change you? Why? hopefully for the better

72. Any changes planned for next year already? (moving, job change etc.) no

73. What major changes happened for you during this decade? In the beginning of 2010 I was year 4 in primary school and now I’m first year in university, so there were a lot :D Biggest ones were maybe starting puberty and my parents splitting up in 2013, starting to compose music seriously in 2014, getting my first girlfriend in 2015 and my second, longest-to-date relationship in 2017, as well as said relationship ending in 2018. And yeah, in 2019 I moved away from home.

74. Post a picture of you from 2009 and one from 2019. lol not going to happen

75. New people that came in this decade into your life? pretty much all of my friends except for like 3

76. People you lost during this decade? Grandpa I lost literally although we weren’t that close, and there are several friends who are still friends but who I’ve lost in a way since we just don’t stay in touch anymore and we just aren’t as close as we used to.

77. Dreams you fulfilled during this decade? When I downloaded musescore in late 2013 and typed in my first, cringey attempts at composition, I could only dream of being able to write music like Mozart. And here I am now, pursuing a career as a composer.

78. Favorite music artist of the decade? I still don’t do artists

79. Favorite movie of the decade? there are so many

80. Favorite TV series of the decade? you could just ask me my favourite tv series altogether, it’s equally impossible to decide

81. Favorite book of the decade? Does this mean books published in or books I just read this decade? I’m picking the latter: while they’re perhaps not the best books of all time (although still really good), nothing has impacted my adolescent years more than the Harry Potter series.

82. Favorite music album of the decade? I’m just going to say Mozart, okay?

83. Favorite celebrity of the decade? The idolisation of celebrities is a phenomenon I don’t really endorse but the Justimusfilms guys are a precious bunch of idiots I’m always happy to see whatever they do

84. Favorite author of the decade? I haven’t read nearly enough and diversely to consider this a valid assessment but of the few authors I have read, Herman Koch seems like a really interesting one

85. Celebrities you admired that died this decade? Christopher Lee, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Alan Rickman

86. Favorite actor/actress of the decade? I find it hard to name a favourite, I don’t really enjoy a particular actor but rather the roles they play if they’re written well and played convincingly

87. Favorite travel desitnation of the decade? Italy (2011) and St. Petersburg (2017)

88. Any changes in believe this decade? no

89. Did your main occupation (student, working fulltime etc.) change during this decade? it did for one year but now I’m a student again

90. Favorite memory of this decade? I’m happy my life has been meaningful enough that this question is entirely impossible to answer. Besides, there are two very distinct periods in this decade, late childhood and teenage years, which are hard to compare

91. Hobbies you gave up upon during this decade? violin and badminton

92. Hobbies you started during this decade? piano, writing, composing... and violin and badminton

93. What new did you learn during this decade? (Languages, arts, crafts…) basically anything I’ve ever learned after 4th grade, including, but not limited to, the Swedish language, music theory and composition, and how to boil potatoes

94. On a scale of one to ten, ten being the best, how would you rate this decade? Since I’ve only lived through two, I don’t really have much to compare it with but I’d say 9. Overall I’ve had a really nice and happy youth but there are things I wish went differently especially in middle school.

95. Favorite quote during this decade? “yolo swag” -Albert Einstein

96. Which body modifications did you get during this decade? none

97. New dreams you gained during this decade? all of them

98. Dreams you gave upon during this decade? I once thought of becoming an author but music took me in the end

99. Worst year of this decade? Why? 2012. the end of sixth grade was pretty okay but seventh grade sucked tbh + atmosphere at home wasn’t the best. Meanwhile I was still a kid so everything was hard and I didn’t control anything that happened in my life. I did start writing that year, which was nice.

100. Best year of this decade? Why? I’ve thought about this a lot. I remember 2010-2011 being nice with many lovely memories of playing with my best friend of the time. Many of those adventures are the basis of my eternal WIP novel and I have a special nostalgia for those years but they were so long ago and I was so young that I can’t really tell them apart as distinct years and I still think I can’t compare them with the other years since I’m a very different person now.

2012 sucked ass as I’ve already discussed. 2013 wasn’t as bad but not great either. Some of the shit from the previous year carried over, along with my parents separating, but on the other hand, I had my first date ever with my crush (even though she rejected me) and it was the beginning of my teenage years with many nice moments.

2014 is a strong contender: I met some new friends at confirmation camp, started gradually enjoying middle school and started hanging out with the girl I would eventually start dating. There’s not much bad to say about 2014 but overall nothing very big happened.

2015 was both the end of 9th grade (where I had a lot of fun at school since our group spirit was amazing) and the beginning of high school. I was doing well in life, got new friends and I also got into my first-ever relationship and that, along with the events leading to that, was a time of great happiness for me. Although our breakup in November kind of ruined the end of the year for me, 2015 has got to be one of the best years of the decade.

For some reason, my mental image of 2016 isn’t very distinct. I spent the better half of the year feeling a bit depressed because of the breakup, but there were happy times especially from May onward when I started growing closer with a good friend. That summer we texted literally every day, we basically just became best friends and I also eventually fell in love with her. From August to the end of the year I have nothing but good memories and I’m very nostalgic for that time.

Which leads us to 2017. I went to prom with my crush (which itself was really fun) and we started dating in March. I was so so happy, especially in the summer. I also had some early break-throughs as a composer and made some of the best pieces I’ve conceived to date. School was fun too, and generally I just enjoyed high school a lot.

2018 is a year I’m very divided about. I was still in a relationship and had some of the happiest times with that person in April-June. Then again, we had some communication issues and I had a recurring paranoia that she just doesn’t want to be with me anymore, which was a constant source of anxiety in January-March and July. The breakup did come in August and of course for the rest of the year it weighed me down quite a bit. However, generally speaking I was somewhat more fine than with my first breakup since I had new exciting things going on in my life such as my work at OUAS which helped keep my thoughts away from the loneliness and also introduced new friends into my life. And in December, I had what was probably the best date of my life with a new, interesting person, which ended 2018 on a positive remark.

2019 was a year of change, even more so than the previous one. A lot of things changed for the positive, although there is also a certain sadness to leaving old things behind. I was happy at work and now I’m happy at school, but I’ve also felt lonely and unattractive, especially after getting rejected in February by someone I had such high hopes for. Suddenly I was back to the preceding sadness and my self-esteem dropped drastically while I was left wondering why I wasn’t enough. Still, I’ve had so much fun with friends and so much personal and professional growth that 2019 is still up there in the top 5.

As you’ve probably noticed already, I suck at picking favourites. Every year had its moments, some of them more than the others. Overall, I’ve been very happy especially in 2014-2019, but of all those years, 2017 was maybe the coolest and had some of the best memes as well.

#Random info about me #rambles

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atamascolily · 4 years

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Lily reads Star Wars: Red Harvest, part five

This book summed up in one sentence: "Hello, naughty children, it's murder time.... specifically, YOUR murder!” *evil laughter*

In which the students at Sith Hogwarts meet something that’s even creepier than they are... and they like it. Some of them. For a bit.

(If you’re just joining me, check out the “Red Harvest” tag on my blog for previous posts)

Cut to not!Qui-Gon, his cloak billowing in the wind.

“You landed on the wrong world, Jedi.”

Trace turned and faced him directly. The man was a Sith Master; that much was readily apparent—perhaps an instructor at the academy.

Okay, fine, but how do you know that, Trace?? What does a Sith Master even look like? Is their a dress code? Is it his presence?? This explains nothing. But that’s totally in character, because Rojo Trace is a Jedi of few words and never explains anything.

“I am Shak’Weth, Blademaster here on Odacer-Faustin. I can only assume that you came here seeking humiliation and an unpleasant death.”

“I’m here on other matters.”

“Ah?” The Blademaster cocked his head slightly, looking marginally intrigued. “But you’ve found me instead.”

Their duel is interrupted by a zombie attack, allowing not!Qui-Gon to escape and the Blademaster to die a horrible death.

In case we needed the reminder, the Whiphid bounty hunter is also a horrible person, as Zo learns when she tries to read his mind:

Normally her telepathic abilities weren’t particularly strong when it came to non-plant life-forms, but the Whiphid was what she thought of as a relatively easy read. In fact, from within, his mind resembled nothing so much as the trophy room aboard his ship where she’d first awakened: a place of death, a de facto display space for grotesque trophies and old kills. Some were alien species that she’d never seen before. Others were human. All were brought together in universal expressions of pain, desperation, and helplessness that they’d worn as the bounty hunter had delivered the coup de grâce. His mind had become a storehouse of their dying moments. This crypt of suffering, this reliquary, wasn’t just what he carried around in his head every day—it was his head.

He does not take kindly to Zo poking around in his mind. Zo is freaked out because she saw Scabrous watching her in there, too. They take shelter in the Tauntaun stables (because this is set on not!Hoth), and it turns out that the bounty hunter is a softie for them. Then the animals start screaming and the lights go out.

It turns out the Sith students love being zombies. Who would have ever guessed.

He saw it with two sets of eyes: the ones he’d had when he’d been alive, and the strange new vision that the Sickness had given him. On some intuitive level he understood that the first set was fading, going blind, and that was fine with him, absolutely fine. The Sickness had given him everything he’d hoped for, everything he wanted, power and strength beyond all imagining. It had altered the midi-chlorians in his bloodstream, telescoping his natural abilities, enhancing them exponentially.

...The newly dead were rising slowly, shuffling to their feet. Rising up with them, Lussk stared into their faces, faces that he recognized from the academy, now contorted into something utterly new. He felt no fear at the sight of them, no sense of foreboding—only a slick dark fascination.

I’m looking at my future, he thought, and shivered with anticipation. It was a good future, he realized, an endless future, a place of unfathomable possibility.

But there's a price. Of course there is.

The Sickness wanted his soul.

No, Lussk told it. It’s too much. Even for what you offer, even for immortality itself, the price is too high.

A Sith with standards? Say it ain't so!

I will make you the last one, the Sickness promised. Of all the others, you alone shall endure. That is what I have to offer you.

No.

The Sickness paused within him, considering. That is too bad, it said finally, because you no longer have a choice in the matter.

Yeah, it doesn't go well.

Also, turns out the zombies have a hive mind because the Sickness is controlling them all. So that's creepy, too. I’m not sure how all this works because this isn’t the sort of book to go in for explanations and world-building mechanics, so we’re just gonna roll with it.

The remaining students find the inevitable secret Sith weapon stash. The one female Sith, Kindra, is about to murder the asshole of the group, who's trying to off her in a power struggle because she won't give him a lightsaber, when they get interrupted and... you know what, I'm on her side here (inasmuch as I sympathize with any of these characters).

The Big Bad orders the tree librarian to use Psychic Plant Power to pretend to be the orchid and lure Zo to the library and bites him when he doesn't immediately comply. Zo and the bounty hunter fight zombies, and it all seems hopeless, but Zo hears her big brother's voice in her memory, and it powers her up for a big fight scene in bullet-time.

The tree librarian goes mad and sets the library on fire because the bite is infected with the Sickness. It's super metal.

Old fool, it had said, foolish old creature, your life has been wasted here among your books.

The Neti had tried to respond, to tell it no, that these scrolls and texts were his life, but the Sickness hadn’t shown the slightest bit of interest in that. It had more to say, and the Neti realized that he was a captive audience.

It’s not too late, the Sickness said. I have given you new life, and a new purpose, and you will know it if you seek my face. Will you, old tree? Will you seek my face?

What is it? the Neti asked. What is your face?

Mine is the face of blood and fire.

... The flesh is our fuel, the Sickness counseled, and its voice was like thunder now, and the books are our fuel, and this planet is our fuel, all things are fuel, they exist only so that they can be consumed by us.

Yes, yes—

They are meat for the beast.

Yes.

And the beast is you.

Yes.

This is literally how the virus thinks about everybody and everything and that's absolutely terrifying.

The Sith students get attacked, again. Interesting tidbit:

only Sith Masters can use Force lightning, how—

A bunch of zombies get electrocuted by Force lightning when a Sith Master shows up to "help". One of the students get injured, and turns into a zombie and gets electrocuted by the master.

The bounty hunter abandons Zo because she wants to go to the library because she thinks she hears the orchid calling her (we know it’s the now-evil Tree Librarian under Scabrous’s orders). So he goes exploring on his own instead.

The students must have used this place, he thought—some wit had left a handmade sign painted over the entranceway. It read:

WELCOME TO THE PAIN PIPE

Tulkh looked around. It appeared to be some kind of training simulation chamber, a wide, high space full of elaborately machined devices that protruded from the floor and walls, even down from the ceiling—pillars, pinions, retracted coils, and battering rams. But that quick impression was all that Tulkh was able to absorb before the hatch burst open behind him, allowing the flood of bodies to come spewing into the space with him.

Not without a sense of the absurd, thought:

Teenage Sith zombies, Tulkh thought—how in the moons of Bogden had it all started? Every so often, the universe must just get bored and decide to really cut loose.

UNDERSTATEMENT OF THE YEAR. Especially ironic since none of this would have happened if Tulkh hadn’t brought the orchid here, but I guess he’s not in a position to appreciate that.

Anyway, he finds Scabrous's droid:

“You’re an HK model.”

“Confirm: A Czerka Corp HK series, yes, sir, but—”

“You know what HK stands for?”

“Response: It’s an industry term, sir, but—”

“Hunter-killer.”

The droid made a scandalized chirp. “Correction: Respectfully, you’re mistaken, sir. I am a protocol droid. Proficient in millions of galactic languages and—”

“Czerka built you special to get around local laws banning assassin droids.” Tulkh was gritting his teeth now. “Those flip shields over your eyes—that’s a combat modification. When Scabrous brought you here, he put a restraining bolt on you, but if I do this—”

He yanked the bolt off. There was a brief, hissing sizzle as the HK’s processor muzzle shorted out. Tulkh felt his skin tighten, his fur standing on end. He cast a grim look at the droid. “Remember now?”

Wait, so the HK droid didn't realize it was an assassin, it thought it was a protocol droid? OH MY GOODNESS, THAT EXPLAINS SO MUCH, and I totally didn't catch that earlier. Okay, this is gonna be good, and by good, I mean, incredibly violent and probably full of explosions.

The asshole student wants to kill the one female student because he's an asshole. They make her strip naked to prove she's not infected, because they're assholes--only for the master to reveal he's been infected the whole time. The asshole dies, Kindra survives, and shanks the one other survivor so the zombies will get him and not her. #PowerMove. Zo is going to be the Final Girl, but Kindra's made it surprisingly far. I bet the librarian is going to kill her, though, because of that conversation they had earlier.

Meanwhile, Zo is looking for the orchid:

Tulkh had refused to follow her here, leaving her to go alone. When she’d confronted him about it and said, Let me get this straight, you’ll walk into a Sith Lord’s tower, but you won’t go into a library, he’d merely nodded and planted his feet, telling her that he knew a trap when he saw one.

#accurate, since Darth Scabrous is waiting for her in the library. He's a medical monstrosity, because his face is still falling apart, but the Sith alchemy is keeping the Sickness at bay--for now. (Or is it?)

#star wars #red harvest #book reviews #lily liveblogs

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