#also now those of you who are new followers know where the DQ in my name comes from!

[retphienix]

Oh nice!

So I had planned on breeding a new team before tackling them again, but I also decided to do my grinding IN their castle for a little bit before doing the breeding (and then after, obviously) and when I got to the boss room I noticed it retained the second form.

So I figured "Oh, I can probably just beat the second form, I'm in a much better position now. Let's try." and I got it pretty cleanly :P

The fight itself is pretty good; Definitely one of the best I can remember in this game but I won't sugarcoat it- my mind wasn't so focused on boss encounter design in a DQM game where you basically zerg your stats up to a billion by breeding :P

That said- heavy melee attacks, a couple debuffs, and every few rounds they toss an AOE that can be dangerous- that's something to counter! Pretty nice!

After we knocked out the boss everything is happy go lucky~

There were a couple lines of dialogue I rather enjoyed- like the framing of the orbs of Loto as being a title granted to the brave who will save/lead this world (a repeat of DQ stuff around Loto) but following that more specifically with "That is why it targets children since they are the future" was pretty cool- I liked that- especially in the context of the DQ spinoff that's always been far more focused on the younger group of DQ fans, I like that :)

Everything's good and great and we're heading home and then we see a spooky image of eyes in the darkness where the spirits are, yippee!

Also I really enjoyed the little credit sequence showing some of the little "scenes" we've had on this adventure. I have mixed feelings on the efficacy of those scenes but I like it! Also smiled at the caravan camp scene but it also just made me wish there wasn't a limit on the camp because GIVE ME MY SUIKODEN STYLE BIG CAMP!!

So. Here is where I am at an impasse. I need to summarize my thoughts on the game (got a good amount of them) and I need to confront that ending scene since I've already admitted I know what comes next.

So here's what I'm going to do. I am going to explain my thoughts on the game As Of First Credits Sequence (now). Then, I am going to ATTEMPT the "second quest" orb collection part of the game.

I say ATTEMPT because I don't know how.... invested, I am.

From the sounds of it it's the "Do you want to grind nearly forever to get level 3 caravan members and max out your monster stats" mode. It SOUNDS like that- and *I* don't *want* to do that in this particular DQM title. But it also has a definitive goal- you're aiming to get the orbs, fight the thing, you get a second credits scene- then you can fight the dragonlord from DQ as a victory lap. I also think there are boss fights against each of the spirits and I do not know if those are challenging or bonus or required or anything about them.

I will ATTEMPT the orb quest, and if it feels too tedious- if it feels like I HAVE to seek out a level 3 sage for teleport just to keep my sanity with all the back tracking (it sounds like a LOT without teleport)- basically if I don't enjoy it after a few hours of trying, I'll cut it there, I'll admit my defeat, celebrate having beaten the main game because this is objectively the main game, the orbs are post game "Max your team!" stuff, and that will be it!

So then, my thoughts on Dragon Quest Monsters: Caravan Heart.

Altogether. It's alright.

This feels experimental as all hell. It's trying to mash a lot of ideas from main DQ titles in a way that I feel is... not altogether working here.

Mainly for me it comes down to two things.

The Caravan aspect is under-utilized, it's a weight around your ankle for the first few hours of gameplay and then it's just kind of "there" for the rest of the game with no real relevance.

Caravan members DO matter, except they kept the basic DQM monster aspect and arguably even buffed monsters to be better than before since their stats seem to explode MUCH faster than in prior titles- so it's??? Kind of just another layer to the gameplay that doesn't feel like it needs to be there and doesn't feel like it adequately adds to anything I'm doing... Kinda.

Early on you're struggling to breath and are excited to find new members that can alleviate your various caravan needs, then you learn better skills and get a decent income and all of a sudden caravan members are just "Here's some bonus damage, here's some bonus healing, here's a map"

Perhaps in the post game where you get stronger variants of each job they will begin to be much more impactful on play, but in base game eeeeeeh.

I do not hate it though. I think it's a failure because the primary impact it had on my gameplay experience was making the beginning hours worse, but, I think the strength of DQM titles is in team building prior to fighting rather than the fight itself- and the caravan is explicitly an expansion of that idea. You have no (real) control over the caravan in combat- so pre-planning is essential to getting the most out of them- this aspect I don't just like- I LOVE.

It's just I pretty much ended up with just "Here's some warriors to hit, and uh... the rest of my caravans sure do have members." because my options weren't too interesting and my monsters far out-performed anything they could do.

The reforming / breeding system is just fucking god awful compared to previous entries, and it does NOT make up for it in any meaningful way on its own merits.

The core issue comes down to the frequency at which you're allowed to interact with the system. Breeding in DQM games is one of the coolest parts of the entire experience- mashing skill sets together to make a new one, mashing monsters together to constantly get new mons you've never seen before- it's THE most fun part.

Not here.

In DQM:CH they retained the level 10 minimum requirement, but then limited your max amount of monsters PERIOD for the entire experience. You get 3 monsters, TOTAL, in the main game, 1 monster in a side quest, and apparently 1 more monster (I think that's it?) in the post game.

I had 4 monsters TOTAL to do breeding with.

Now for proper context, you don't breed the 4 monsters you have together- you collect hearts from random encounters and loot (the random encounter part is "pretty much" how it worked in previous games) and mash 2 hearts into your 1 monster to make that monster become a different monster.

The thing is, the monster limit matters, a lot. Your backup monster does NOT level up, so they can't be bred at all unless you swap to them which you're given practically no reason to ever do that, and you breed, I repeat, by mashing 2 hearts into 1 of your monsters.

This means you HAVE to level up your core 3 party members to 10+ to breed and you can only breed in ways that include your 3 party members.

The problem is hard to describe without an example from a prior game; In previous games "hearts" were just monsters- you had a farm full of monsters. Monsters on the farm leveled up as you leveled up your party (at a reduced rate). And every time you wanted to breed you just mashed ANY 2 monsters (party or not) together.

This meant in previous titles you could go to the starry area and breed 10+ new monsters all at once, having fun exploring the combinations and deciding who you wanted to make your new team out of.

In DQM:CH you breed your main 3 and that's it. There is no way to combine hearts to see new combinations for fun, you preview it on top of your current monster and then decline until you find the 1-3 breeding combinations you'll be doing today.

The severe limitations put on the quantity of breeding you get to do SEVERELY hampers the fun, like entirely- I had no fun breeding in this game. That sucks.

Now the system in place Works. They made the stats you retain more apparent and they made it so when you breed you don't start from "0" and instead you get to keep your skills from level 1 instead of re-learning them. Those are "nice" adjustments, but then where's the fun part? I had no fun.

Moving on though.

DQM:CH overall felt, interesting. The caravan aspect is something I think has potential but it doesn't really do much with it, and the breeding system is revamped in a way that entices you to explore it- only to find you're not really allowed to play with it much to explore it much so it falls flat too.

The game beyond those two features is kind of a "bland" DQM story. While DQM1 was all randomly generated zones, it had 2 things to keep it grounded a bit- each zone ended in a beautifully designed reference location to previous Dragon Quest games which gave each zone a little memorable scene- and Great Tree itself was a fantastic hub world that evolved as you progressed and gave the entire game a lot of identity.

DQM2 repeated the hub world sense of "life" with Great Log, but also gave each of the zones you explore a little mini narrative to solve along with their unique aesthetics like the desert world and ice world etc.

DQM:CH on the other hand is like.... a really low budget retreat of Dragon Quest's hub. No place feels like it has any real life going on, no place feels real, the whole game /feels/ like "overworld walking" with nothing going on. Perhaps part of this is how towns were handled, but in general the feeling was omnipresent. You get a basic goal at the very start and then just sorta walk forward until it says you won, I don't know, maybe I'm being a hater but I didn't really get the same charm I see in the prior 2. No place to consider my caravan's home*, no location that evolves over time in meaningful ways and gives you a reason to talk to anyone, nothing beyond "Walk forward until you finish" pretty much. :/

*Speaking of home, the camp just felt like a missed opportunity. I keep bringing up Suikoden but I mean it, what a missed chance to let us make a big dragon quest home base with tons of classes! On top of that, the camp isn't a fun place to be. Great Tree and Great Log are fun- they have tons to explore and they have interesting changes over time. The camp can get a couple buildings added if you recruit specific jobs. That's it. No one has anything interesting to say, and you're forced to return A LOT despite that.

And every time you return you do the same few things. Save the game through a ton of dialogue at the church tent. Talk to old lady or merchant to restock rations through a TON of dialogue. Sometimes talk to the camp dude to reorganize your caravan through a TON of dialogue. Sometimes breed your monsters through a reasonable amount of dialogue. And then when you want to leave you just go- wait- wait no you don't. You can't just go. You HAVE to go talk to Luin who will ramble for a calendar year about hints of your current quest EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. Before asking if you want to leave, or leave and bring the camp along.

Going to the camp sucks eggs.

Anyways, positive stuff, the gameplay kinda hits the mark. You do get "too strong really quickly" but that's okay! It's fun leveling your guys and forming your party around roles and (when it lets you) breeding some new monsters, and the quest is straight forward the whole time- almost always "Hey, there's a dungeon to tackle and it's kinda tough, go do that" or "Hey, can you collect these 5 things? Go find em" and that's chill since every quest is located in a relatively small zone.

The biggest zone is the end game where you suddenly get the whole world to explore.... except it's for nothing because the end game is just "Go to one of the spirit's homes, come back, okay there's the castle" so- a little weird- but alright.

The straight forward-ness is a bit lacking for excitement, but I was invested the whole time. I was enjoying playing with my monsters and completing each spirit's task, I'd say it worked out!

Anyways I typed too much. My take on DQM:CH is that it's......

mid.

It's experimental and I am giving it some slack for that purpose. It's really slow to start, it's not very charming compared to the previous, it messes some stuff up, but it gives you reasonable tasks and some toys to play with and then you win. It's Alright.

I wouldn't play it again, beyond the bit I plan to try of the Orb Quest. So I GUESS that makes it my least favorite DQM title so far, Joker 1 was more interesting than this one I think.

But being the worst of the series (so far) doesn't make it a terrible game I don't think. Especially considering what sounds to be a pretty meaty amount of post-game stuff to do. Definitely not bad.

Not a fan. 💜

[darewolfdq]

Wow what’s this you might be asking yourself. Well this here is Dare Wolf! They are practically the first OC I ever made and acted as what would now be known as my persona for years back when I was a wee one. I outgrew them when I was 13 but I kept the name for all these years :) I was rummaging around through my old Drawquest files and found a decent reference image of them. So here they are again, redrawn 10 years later! Undercut are some bonus sketches and also a message for any Drawquesters that might see this {:)

Hi! Are you someone who used to use Drawquest before the shutdown occurred? Me too! Back when they pulled the plug on our little app I ended up losing everyone who I considered a friend back then. In 2019 two of my friends ended up finding me and now we have put together a discord server to try and get into contact and reunite as many people as we can. We don't have many members right now but please please please consider reaching out. The channel acts as a sort of database of users so you can come in and see if you recognize anyone / see if anyone recognizes you. You don't have to be an active user in the discord channel if you don't want, to we just ask that you at least put down your old user name from Drawquest and maybe some of your old art if you have it (to make identification easier).

[vrisrezis]

Another silly fast food related one: Reader (any pronouns) hanging out with Ichimatsu, Karamatsu and Jyushimatsu. Getting some sw-sw-sweetsu at DQ. Perhaps they bring the other three something back.

You hung out with all the matsuno brothers fairly often. Nothing new. Today was rather boring today, no insane matsuno drama or bs. Just a normal day. You decided you’d go get something to eat, this boredom was making you hungry.

You decided to ask the boys if anyone wanted anything, Osomatsu and Todomatsu just simply said sweetsu. Ah, now you know where you must go! The two boys were far too lazy to wanna leave with you, but it’s not like you minded.

However, ichimatsu said “I’ll come with you.. I.. don’t know what I want yet” he lies.

“I wanna come too!” Jyushimatsu butted in, much to his older brothers disappointment, ruining his chances at being alone with you… again.

“I shall come to accompany you on your journey as well!” The blue brother also said, making ichimatsu groan as you just nodded with a smile. “Sure, cmon!”

And you were out the door.

Choromatsu was out and about, doing god knows what. It’s likely he’ll be back home soon though, you should probably get him sweetsu too, you thought to yourself before ordering for yourself and the boys.

The three you were with thanked you as they got what they wanted, eating away. It wasn’t often you spent time with these three specifically, now that you thought about it. You’d like to think you’re equally close to all the brothers, but you found yourself spending time with just ichimatsu and jyushimatsu a lot more. It’s not like you choose to spend more time with them! It just kinda happens. It was interesting having karamatsu now in the mix but he certainly wasn’t out of place. After all, this brother in particular showed how good he was at having a conversation with you because it always catered to you and your interests or just him simply making your ego bigger which was always nice.

“My dear! You are so pretty today” he said grasping onto your hands, “thank you! You look good today too” you said with a smile. He couldn’t help but blush, “a-ah! No need to flatter a sinful man like me!” He says, and ichimatsu agrees “seriously, shittmatsu is ugly” “h-hey!” Karamatsu retorts, “wouldn’t that be calling yourself ugly?!”

You mainly talked to Jyushimatsu as those two idiots argued.

Thank god you both liked baseball and had shit to talk about.

“Hey! Here’s a flower!” Jyushimatsu said, giving you it. You couldn’t help but blush, something that didn’t go unnoticed by the other two brothers who had all of a sudden gone quiet on the bickering.

It was a sunflower.

“It reminds me of you! Bright like the sun.. brightens up my day.. light of my life… makes me happy.. really pretty..” he went on with that bright smile on his, but suddenly started to feel nervous upon realizing karamatsus and ichimatsus dark gaze.

“Thank you..” you smile with pink on your cheeks. “I’ll keep it!” “Hehe! Good!”

“How the HELL does a weirdo like Jyushimatsu woo them better than we do?!” “Seriously, I’m the sexy brother, it should be me” “shut up shittymatsu”

And they were back to fighting.

Finally you guys arrived home.

“We’re back~” you said in a singsong voice, hearing Osomatsu get up from his seat and run to you guys “finally!” He said, taking his food from you, totty following behind with a “thanks cutie!” before going back to his seat.

You heard some scolding towards Osomatsu for being so rude, how you were nice enough to get him something and he should be more grateful, that’s when you realize Choromatsu was back.

You heard Osomatsu yell a “sorry! Thank you y/n!” And you smiled, “your welcome!” You yelled back, “oh! Choromatsu here!” You said handing him his food and he blushes a bit but smiles. “T-thanks!” He squeaks out.

“Fappymatsu gets a hard on from them buying him food” ichimatsu mutters, “he’s the worst” karamatsu muttera back, “seriously” Jyushimatsu nods in agreement, as Choromatsu blushes more “I do not have a hard on asshole!” He harshly whispers.

You sit in between totty and Osomatsu, unbeknownst to you, the others were glaring at the youngest and eldest, as they just gave them shit eating grins.

You could be so oblivious sometimes, thankfully it works in their favor this time.

[musings-from-mars]

I would like to request even more rosebloom au please. I really like this au

Rosebloom AU - Part 3

So yeah, Weiss really hadn’t been to DQ ever in her life. Even if she hadn’t said so, Ruby could tell by just how unfamiliar Weiss was with the menu. She ordered a burger and fries just fine, but Ruby had insisted they get Blizzards, and now Weiss was struggling to pick one. “How are there so many options?”

“It’s just ice cream with different toppings,” Ruby explained, then blushed when she realized that Weiss was being rhetorical and her answer was completely unneeded. She had already ordered a strawberry one, but Weiss seemed very indecisive. “How about chocolate. Do you like chocolate?”

“Of course I like chocolate,” Weiss said, still staring up at the menu board like a lizard basking under a heat lamp. Yeah, she looked pretty tired now that Ruby had the chance to really look at her.

“Would you like my suggestion?” The poor cashier in a red polo shirt and a black visor asked.

“Yes, that might help,” Weiss said with a nod.

“M&M’s Blizzard. Best of the best,” the cashier said with certainty.

“I’ll do that then.”

Weiss insisted on paying for their food despite Ruby trying to reason that she could cover it since Weiss paid for the Uber. Weiss seemed adamant about not wanting Ruby to have to pay for it, so Ruby conceded. After a short wait, their order was ready, and Weiss seemed to almost have a heart attack when the worker turned their Blizzards upside-down in that way they do. Ruby couldn’t help but laugh at her reaction. Weiss seemed embarrassed and was red all the way down her neck, which Ruby found really cute.

They sat in a corner booth across from each other, and Ruby broached the subject she’d been eagerly waiting for the right time to bring up. “So...Red Hallow Manor...”

Weiss chuckled at her as she ate a fry. “You seem to really really like it.”

“It’s kinda my whole life,” Ruby said with a giggle. “Well...that sounds weird, it’s not my whole life, it’s just...a big part of it.”

Weiss nodded. “I’d love to hear what you know. I’m sure you know more than I do, so teach me!”

I could kiss her right now. “Just...go off?” Ruby asked as if to make certain. “I’m warning you, I ramble easily.”

“Ramble on,” Weiss said. “I’ll just eat while I listen.”

I could marry her right now. “Okay okay, so...you know about the creator, right?”

“I know he’s English.”

“He is, but also...” She then proceeded to delve into details about the RHM creator’s life and how those aspects factored into the main character’s storylines. Here and there Ruby paused to check to make sure Weiss was still following along or to field a question from her, but for the most part, Ruby just kept going, talking about the thematic shift between seasons one and two, her favorite fanartists, including showing some fanart to Weiss on her phone, this whole fandom drama that when down after the season two finale which Weiss delightfully agreed with Ruby about how all of the discourse seemed like bullshit...Ruby was insanely happy right now. So happy she didn’t even realize how happy she was because her mind was racing like a locomotive, unstoppable and resilient.

It wasn’t until a while after Weiss had finished her food and ice cream that a store employee came over to their table and informed them that the dining room was closed.

Ruby snapped out of her state for a moment and looked around, and sure enough, she and Weiss were the only customers left in the restaurant. “Oh. I guess we’ve been here for a while, huh?”

“It’s only been an hour,” Weiss told her, yawning despite how interested she had seemed in what Ruby had been talking about.

“A whole hour?” Ruby asked, in shock. “It didn’t even feel like half of that.”

“You talked about a lot,” Weiss noted, then giggled. “I’m impressed. You’ve given me a whole new perspective on the show.”

Yeah, but we sat here while I talked for an hour about some dumb podcast and I don’t even know anything about you, Ruby wanted to say, but decided to just be glad Weiss had let her infodump and didn’t once make her feel bad about the whole thing. Ruby could make herself feel bad about it instead, thank you very much.

Weiss stood from the table with her tray in hand. “This was fun. Thank you for taking me to see the Queen of Dairy,” Weiss repeated Ruby’s joke from earlier with a laugh.

Ruby stood with her, rubbing the back of her neck nervously. “Yeah! I had fun too...” As Weiss carried her tray to the trash, Ruby stammered out what she’d been rehearsing in her head for a while now. “Would you maybe want to like, hang out again sometime? And I promise I won’t go on and on about RHM.”

Weiss threw her trash away, then turned and smiled at Ruby. “Sure. Monday after school maybe?”

“Oh, actually I have anime club after school on Mondays,” Ruby said before thinking it through, then died a little inside. Just keep outing yourself as a weirdo social deviant with no life, great plan!

Weiss didn’t seem phased, still smiling at her. “How about later, then? Monday evening?”

Ruby nodded. “Sure! If you want, that is.”

“Your place?” Weiss asked.

My place? Where Yang and Dad will be? To tease me and embarrass me and ruin my friendship with this pretty girl? “Uhm...what if we went to your house? Since, you know...I kinda rambled for an hour and didn’t let you talk and I still don’t know much about you so that way maybe we could...” She realized she was rambling once again and went silent.

Weiss’ smile went away as she looked down for a moment. “I, uhm...” She then shook her head, smile returning. “Sure! My place after your anime club meeting.”

Ruby smiled with relief. “Okay!”

They left the restaurant and stepped out into the chilly evening air. Weiss had hailed another Uber to take Ruby and her home, but Ruby soon received a text from Yang: “Need a ride?” Ruby answered back with a no, she would much rather ride with Weiss. The problem with that was the approaching sound of a motorcycle coming down the road. A moment later, Yang rode up to the DQ parking lot and stopped in front of the two girls. “‘Sup! How was the Queen of Dairy, you two?” She asked as she flipped the visor of her helmet up.

“It was nice,” Weiss said with a nod, smiling pensively at Ruby, who sighed and walked over to Yang.

“Nice!” Yang said.

“Yang,” Ruby muttered to her just loud enough to be heard over her idling bike. “I wanted to ride home with her.”

“Oh, don’t waste the girl’s money, Rubes,” Yang said with a forward flick of her wrist. “Yuber is free, after all.”

“Yuber?”

“Yang Uber!”

As if speaking the company name three times summons it, a gray sedan with a blue Uber light in the windshield pulled into the parking lot.

Ruby looked to Weiss and smiled sadly, waving at her. “See you Monday.”

Weiss smiled and waved back, then Ruby put on her helmet, and Yang pulled away and started towards home.

After Yang parked her bike inside the garage at the Rose-Xiao Long residence, Ruby took her helmet off and quickly got off the bike. “Yang, I texted you saying I didn’t need a ride.”

“I’m sorry,” Yang said as she put her helmet away as well, then stretched her arms over her head. “I didn’t see the text until after I got there.”

Ruby looked down and sighed. “I don’t want her to think I’m weird. I don’t need rides from my sister.”

Yang chuckled, cocking her head to the side. “At least I don’t drive a mini van, right?”

Ruby didn’t know how to respond to that, so she remained in a silence that burned her cheeks.

“Do you like that girl?” Yang asked.

Ruby gritted her teeth and shook her head. “Don’t ask me that.”

“Huh?” Yang reached out to hold Ruby’s shoulder, only for Ruby to turn toward the door to the house. “Rubes—”

Ruby shut the door behind herself before Yang could say anymore, leaving the older sister alone in the open garage, worried and confused.

[gamergirl929]

I Hate You, I Love You (Becky Lynch x Reader)

Anonymous Request: So I accidentally deleted the request. >.< BUTTT, basically the reader and Becky are far from friends, that is until the feud between Becky and Charlotte starts, Becky then gains an unlikely ally in the reader. 

The sound of Becky’s music playing throughout the arena had you rolling your eyes.  

The pair of you had known one another since back in NXT, and to say you were less than friends would be an understatement.  

You couldn’t stand one another, at least that’s what you wanted Becky to think.  

In all honesty, you’d actually looked up to the woman, or The Man rather, someone who’d come from being an Irish Lass Kicker to become the face of the company, but of course, you wouldn’t let her know that.

You also wouldn’t let her know that you were hopelessly in love with her, in love with her cocky smiles and her brash attitude, in love with the way her eyes shined every time she talked about what she’d been through to get where she was today, but of course, again you weren’t ever going to let her know that.

You’d watched, jealously coursing through you at the relationship Becky had with Bayley and Sasha Banks, but your luke warm blood came to a boil when it came to her relationship with Charlotte, the two were attached at the hip, inseparable and it made you jealous, jealous that you couldn’t have that with her.  

So, when Becky had turned ‘heel’, something that really didn’t go the way WWE planned considering the fans only loved her even more, and attacked Charlotte, you were more than shocked.  

Her persona change had thrown you through a loop and you absolutely loved it, The Man, would live on in WWE for decades.  

So here you find yourself, standing stock still back stage as The Man is circled by not only Charlotte Flair, but her new buddy, Lacey Evans.  

You close your eyes tight, teeth clenched.  

“Don’t do it. Don’t do it.” You repeat over and over until you let out a groan that has everyone turning your way and you run through the backstage area and slip through the curtain.  

Your music hits and everyone isn’t sure what to do, especially Becky, Charlotte and Lacey, the trio staring at you with wide eyes.  

Becky’s eyes grow even wider when you slip in the ring and stand at her side, your posture ridged as you look from Charlotte, to Lacey and back.  

Becky shrugs, the crowd cheering as the two of you stand, ready to attack whoever comes into the ring.  

Though, of course in perfect heel fashion, Charlotte and Lacey make their retreat, backing up the ramp in confusion as they look at someone they’d known for a fact that was far from a fan of Becky Lynch.  

The two make their way backstage and you turn, your Y/E/C orbs locking with Becky’s.  

The Man stares at you, eyes narrowed and brow furrowed.  

You give her a simple nod before wordlessly slipping out of the ring and heading into the backstage area.  

                                                           ***

“What was dat Y/N?” You hear Becky ask as she approaches you later into the night and you shrug.  

“Maybe I just wanted to make it a fair fight.” You shrug and Becky scoffs.  

“Ya hate me, I get it ya know. So why did ya come out set?” She throws her hands up and you turn to her eyes wide, it’s then you realize that a cameraman is standing right behind her.  

You shake your head as you take a step towards her, your eyes locked with hers.  

“I don’t hate you.” You say, voice barely above a whisper before you turn and walk away, leaving a confused Becky behind you.  

                                                           ***

Your relationship had remained the same, you had Becky’s back and Becky had yours, even coming to your aid when Charlotte and Lacey had targeted you.  

The two of you had started to grow close and were growing closer with each passing day.  

You’d quickly become one of Becky’s good friends, something you wouldn’t admit, that you’d always wanted.  

“Hey, Y/N.” Becky says as she walks towards you backstage and you push yourself off the wall you were leaning against.  

“Sup Man.” You smirk and Becky playfully rolls her eyes.  

“I need ya tonight, Charlotte and Lacey versus me and you, ya in?” She asks and you grin cockily.  

“You’re damn right I am.”  

                                                           ***

You’re in the ring, standing side by side with Becky as the crowd cheers, happy with your win against Flair and Evans.  

You hold Becky’s hand in the air, grinning proudly before turning and throwing your arms around the woman, much to the surprise of not only the WWE Universe and Becky, but yourself, the obvious display of affection making your cheeks burn.  

Abruptly, you pull back, rubbing the back of your neck nervously as you grin widely at Becky, who shakes her head with a grin.  

You’re at the top of the ramp when Becky returns the hug and you couldn’t be any happier.

                                                           ***

“Ya ever think da two of us would be roomin together?” Becky asks as she flops back onto her bed and you shake your head with a snort.  

“Never.” You grin as you fall face down on your bed with a groan.  

Becky shakes her head as she watches you with a beaming smile.  

“Ya know, I never would’ve known you were such a dweeb if ya didn’t come out der to save my arse.” Becky laughs and you roll over, glaring across the room at her.  

“I am not a dweeb.” You grumble, earning an arched brow from Becky Two Belts.  

You grab your pillow and chuck it at her, missing the champion when it goes short, landing right in front of her.  

“Yer not getting dis back now.” She smirks, sticking her tongue out as she hugs your pillow.  

You grumble as you roll over, not realizing you’re at the edge of your bed, rolling completely off of it and onto the floor.  

Becky throws her head back with a cackle, her arms wrapping around her middle as she laughs loudly.  

“Shut up.” You grumble from your place on the floor, making Becky only laugh louder.  

“Ya, yer a dweeb.”  

                                                           ***

Again, you fall on the bed with a groan, but for a different reason entirely.  

Your body is been in welts, the welts now a dotted red lash across your back, courtesy of a kendo stick from Lacey Evans, who had bum rushed you backstage.  

Becky walks towards your bed with a sad frown, placing a hand on your back.  

You inhale sharply, your body stiffening.  

“It’s okay.” She whispers as she runs a gentle hand down your back, the feeling of pain ebbing away slightly in favor of the feeling of excitement, your heart racing and the butterflies in your stomach excitedly flittering their wings.  

“Take yer shirt off.” Becky says suddenly and you sit up, eyes wide and cheeks red.  

Becky shakes her head, her own cheeks flushing as she motions towards you.  

“I know how ta help, trust me.” She says before she heads towards the bathroom.  

Surprisingly, you follow her orders, removing your shirt and laying face down on the bed to expose your bruise covered back.  

Becky makes her way back into the room moments later, carrying a wet, cold towel.  

“It’s cold.” She whispers, eyeing your bare back for a second before placing the cold towel on your lower back.  

“I need ta, unhook yer bra.” She says, cheeks hot and red, thankfully for her, you can’t exactly turn around to see her.  

On the bed, you’re no better, eyes wide and face blood red as you nod.  

“Okay.” You whisper into the sheets.  

Becky, gingerly unhooks your bra biting her bottom lip, her cheeks blood red as you let out a sigh.  

Becky drapes the towel over your back and you inhale sharply, humming afterwards as the cold towel soothes the aching marks on your back.  

You let out a groan as Becky presses the towel against your back.  

“Did I hurt ya? I’m sorry.” She frowns and you shake your head.  

“No, it. it feels good.” You mumble, cheeks darkening further, Becky’s cheeks also flushing.  

“So just, keep dat on there for a while.” She stammers before making her way to her bed and you grin.  

The two of you remain silent for the rest of the night, sharing soft smiles and glances until the two of you eventually sleep.  

                                                           ***

Unfortunately for you and Becky the backstage attacks don’t cease and soon you’re both back at the hotel tending to one another’s wounds.

You let out a whine as Becky places the cold compress go the side of your head where you’d smacked your head on a box backstage.

“We’ve gotta do somethin bout those two.” Becky says angrily as she paces the room, her own lip split after an attack by Charlotte Flair.  

“I know I’m sick of them hurt…” You pause midsentence, causing Becky to turn to you, brow arched.

“Tired a what?” She asks and you glance away, cheeks tinged pink.

“I’m tired of them hurting you.” You whisper, cheeks now blood red.

Becky’s eyes widen before she takes a seat on the bed in front of you.

Ever so gently, she cups your cheek, her thumb running along you cheekbone.

“I’m tired of em hurtin you too.”  

                                                           ***

The something you did about the two of them was literally beating them down backstage.  

You and Becky snicker as you look at your handy work, Charlotte and Lacey moaning and groaning loudly, refs racing towards them and putting themselves between the two pairs of women.  

Becky looks at you with a growing smirk, you shrug the two of you grinning cockily as you make your way further into the backstage area.  

It was later that night that the match had been made official, a no disqualification match, Y/N and Becky lynch VS Charlotte Flair and Lacey Evans.  

“We ever going to get away from those two?” You grumble and Becky shrugs as she leans against a nearby wall backstage, one title around her waist, the other on her shoulder.  

“Maybe after we throttle da little weirdos?” She shrugs and you grin.  

You move to stand beside her and throw your arm around her shoulders, the Irishwoman blushing.  

“And throttle them we will.”  

                                                           ***

And throttle them you did, weeks of pent up aggression, weeks of backstage attacks, and now you had them in the ring, No DQ, and you and Becky had the made the best of that situation.  

Though you hadn’t escape unscathed, meaning you were both back in your hotel room, lounging around as a random movie played on the hotel’s television.  

Becky literally throws an ice pack at you, it hitting you in the chest, leaving a wet make on your shirt.  

“Ass.” You snort, taking the ice pack and placing it on your ankle with a growl.  

“You alright?” You ask Becky who’s lying face down on the opposite bed. She lets out a grumble and you snort, leaning back against your bed’s headboard.  

The wet spot on your shirt, combined with the ice packs makes you shiver, so without a second thought you take your shirt off and throw it towards your luggage, leaving you in nothing but a sports bra.  

Becky just happens to sit up in that moment, eyes wide when she sees what you’d been hiding beneath your ring gear, but with the new skin revealed, it’s then she sees the damage done to you from your match with Charlotte and Lacey.  

Your torso is covered in reddish purple welts, along with the occasional scratch here and there.  

Becky stares for a moment, her cheeks flushing as she traces your defined muscles with her eyes.  

Meanwhile, your eyes are as wide as saucers as Becky shamelessly ogles you, your chest flushing under the woman scrutiny.  

Brown orbs eventually lock with Y/E/C ones.  

Becky’s brown orbs widen, cheeks reddening.  

The two of you both bashfully look away at roughly the same time, sure to look at anything in the room but one another.  

Boldly, you turn back to Becky, grinning when you realize she’s also turning back to look at you.  

Becky throws her head back with a groan and practically leaps off her bed before jumping in yours. She shuffles towards the top of the bed until she’s sitting right beside you, her back against the headboard.  

“Hey.” You smile, cheeks dark red as Becky sends you a beaming smile.  

“Hey.”  

First, it starts with her head gently moving to rest on your shoulder, and before you know it her hand is taking your own.  

You intertwine your fingers and Becky’s cheeks flush.  

Bravely, you turn, nuzzling into the top of Becky’s head, earning a giggle from the Irishwoman that makes your heart stutter in your chest.  

“Are you okay?” You whisper against the top of her head and Becky nods, her eyes lids fluttering.  

You close your eyes, pressing a kiss to the top of Becky’s head that has her face nearly splitting in half thanks to the size of her smile.  

The two of you, once enemies were now something more than that, you were friends, friends who would soon become a lot more than just friends.  

[sinceileftyoublog]

New Bums Interview: Married Couple Vibe

BY JORDAN MAINZER

Unlike the mathematical approach of Six Organs of Admittance or the wound jangly pop of Skygreen Leopards, Ben Chasny and Donovan Quinn’s New Bums is like its name: contemporary slacker vibes, loose playing, easy, gorgeous tunes. The band’s first record, Voices in a Rented Room, came out in 2014, and almost immediately afterwards, they started recording its follow-up. It wouldn’t be released until this March, as the more layered but just as lackadaisical Last Time I Saw Grace (Drag City). Both Chasny and Quinn write songs, and each plays off the other one’s style as much as presenting their own. For instance, on the energetic “Oblieration Time”, which juxtaposes soloing and acoustic strumming, Chasny attempted to write lyrics like Quinn. As for Quinn’s lyrics, more generally, Chasny’s instrumentation shifts them. “One of the great things about songwriting [is] the way the lyrics come across versus what they actually mean,” Quinn said on a Zoom call earlier this year with me and Chasny. “The same words can be funny, sad, [or] ironic depending on the instrumentation behind [them]. It’s really fun to see what Ben does.” Chasny agrees that instrumentation matters, not citing a general philosophy but rather a YouTube video with almost 10 million views that overlays a scene of Darth Vader visiting the Death Star with a snippet of Spandau Ballet’s “True”.

Indeed, the buddy quality of New Bums shines through when they’re in the same room--even a virtual one. They laugh and play with each other and finish each other’s sentences, having been friends for a long time. But such a laid-back feeling wouldn’t be possible without each member’s distinct personalities. Chasny, knowing I was set to interview Chris Corsano later that day about his and Bill Orcutt’s excellent Made Out Of Sound, had me communicate an inside joke to Corsano, with whom he shares a band, Rangda. (The joke? Telling Corsano that he should make a pack of beats called “Chris Corsano’s Breakbeats,” to which Corsano cackled and replied, “You’ve been talking to Chasny.”) Chasny’s also self-deprecating: “I’m not a very good violin player, but the last song has me on the violin,” he shrugs about Last Time’s “Follow Them Up the Slope”. And he forgets the titles of the songs, facetiously chalking it up to the album’s lyrical themes of decay. Quinn, simply, is humble and go-with-the-flow.

Underneath it all are some serious aesthetic and instrumental chops from the both of them, a mix of guitars, harmonium (the circular “So Long, Kus”), violin, and keyboards. Opener “Billy, God Damn” is twangy and layered. “Onward to Devastation” features tasty riffing following the lilting folk of “Marlene Left California”. “Wild Dogs” shimmers, while “Hermitage Song” stuns with deep string textures. All in all, Chasny and Quinn talk about these songs with the same exuberance they do their other projects, or music by Corsano and Orcutt, or even legendary records by 90′s German drone artists. Music fans make music makers, and music bums never fade.

Read my conversation with them below, edited for length and clarity.

Since I Left You: What’s unique about Last Time I Saw Grace as compared to Voices in a Rented Room?

Donovan Quinn: I think both of the records come from the same place. A buddy record is the way I would put it, where it grew out of me and Ben in a room, playing two guitars, talking about ideas and records we admired. This one, we built the songs up a little bit more, added some layers to the songs with overdubs, and really added some depth to a lot of the compositions with vocal and guitar work and different synths, whereas the first one we tried to keep it as barebones as possible.

Ben Chasny: Yeah. I would say the first one was more slopdog, like a mutt running wild, and this one isn’t showdog level, but trimming up the dog a little bit, teaching it a couple tricks.

SILY: Maybe album 3 will be showdog. 

BC: Yeah. I think it’ll probably take a poop right in front of everybody, but it will still be up there.

SILY: Those layers are what I noticed from the get-go, on [opener] “Billy. God Damn”. Is that why you decided to have it first on the record and release it ahead of time?

BC: We ran through a number of sequences on the record. It just felt like a good one to start out with. There are definitely more vocal layers on this than the other record we did for sure.

DQ: Yeah, I don’t have a clear memory of recording a lot of these songs because we did it over a long period of time, and “Billy God Damn” is one of those songs. I think we put it first because it set a good tone for the rest of the record.

SILY: The sequencing definitely struck me. It goes back and forth between more up-tempo tracks like “Obliteration Time Two” and more lilting tracks like “Marlene Left California”. Is that something you had in mind when ultimately deciding on the order of the tracks?

BC: I think so, yeah, trying to balance it out without having one of the sides of the records being too much one direction.

SILY: I love records like this where the palate is mostly vocals and guitars but you throw in a wildcard like the harmonium, or the cello on “Street of Spies”. It makes those songs stand out.

DQ: “Street of Spies” has our buddy Jason Quever on cello who has a band called Papercuts. I work a lot with Jason and he was kind enough to put some cello on that one.

BC: He did the drums and some of the strings on the first record, too.

SILY: You could say the whole album has a loose quality, but on that song especially, you kept the false start and the countdown from the live recording.

DQ: We do like that kind of sketchbook vibe with our records.

BC: [laughs] I have a feeling I know what you’re gonna say, Donovan.

DQ: I’m not gonna say what you think I’m gonna say...Me and Ben have known each other for so long, it’s a married couple vibe where we know what the other person is gonna say or is thinking...With the way you can record records now, it’s pretty easy to really get things lined up and cleaned up. We thought with New Bums, it would be kind of a nice contrast to not do that, to keep things a little bit frayed.

SILY: It goes with the aesthetic suggested by the band name, too.

DQ: Yeah, exactly.

SILY: Did anything inspire the lyrics specifically?

DQ: Not anything specifically, but over time, both me and Ben writing, we kind of developed a sense of a type of record lyrically, and it seemed to be a lot of songs about decay and certain kinds of desperation. We built from that, not totally consciously, but everything seemed to gravitate towards it.

BC: I will say, when I wrote some of the lyrics to the song “Obliteration Time”, I was actually trying to write songs like Donovan’s band Skygreen Leopards, and I was hoping he would pick up on it. I was like, “Did you pick up on it?” He was like, “No, I didn’t at all.” That was what I was trying to do.

SILY: In some ways, you still have a ways to go in your marriage, then.

BC: Yeah, a lot of ways.

SILY: What were you going for on the first line of “Street of Spies”, “Who gives a fuck about clemency?”

DQ: You know, I don’t remember. And when we were listening back to different vocal takes, there was one that was so unusually angry for me that Ben was saying I sounded like Rage Against the Machine or something, so we changed it. I don’t know. It’s just meant to have the language contrast the mellow vibe of the song. I like that style when if you have a mellow song with lyrics that contradict that feel.

SILY: What’s the inspiration behind the album title?

BC: It’s a line [on the album]. When you listen to [the] song, you realize it’s the name of a woman, Grace, but in context on the front of the record, it has a different meaning, which we thought would be kind of fun. You listen to the record, and you realize, “Ah, I see what they’re talking about.” 

DQ: That was kind of a last-minute title. I think we got lucky with it. It fits really well with the kind of themes developed in the record: decay, desperation, etc.

SILY: Is Grace a real person or just a character?

Both: Just a character.

SILY: What’s the inspiration behind the cover art?

BC: Donovan had the concept behind the art.

DQ: We were gonna see if anyone noticed this, but if you look at the first cover and the second cover, it’s basically the same elements, but we took things away. The first one has the two triangles, and it’s pictures of me and Ben, and this one doesn’t have any pictures. The idea is for every album to have the same basic design that takes elements away to eventually have nothing at all.

SILY: What are you gonna lose on the next one? One of the triangles?

BC: Possibly. That’s when I get kicked out of the band.

SILY: Or it’s self-titled, and you can use New Bums as the band and the title.

DQ: The other day, something cool happened that reminded me of the cover and the two triangles. It doesn’t totally work, but I did this video that heavily references ZZ Top. For the video, we bought a couple of ZZ Top magical keychains, and I was trying to open a box with it, but the fucking thing broke! But the two extreme points of the keys broke off, and what’s left looks a lot like the two triangles.

BC: The original record cover from the first record was based on one of my favorite records, pretty much a tribute to it, a band called The Black Vial. He did a record called Frozen Morning in maybe the mid-90s. He did 300 of them, this German guy, Liebried Loch. They were wrapped in black electric tape, and that’s what held the photograph on. This really gorgeous looking record, one of the most dark, depressing records I’ve ever heard in my life. It’s just droning on electric guitar on a practice amp, really distorted, singing songs like, “Black crows, flying no more!” We based the original artwork off that record and then modified it.

SILY: Have you thought about doing a live stream or socially distant show?

BC: We should try to figure out how to do it together. We still have to figure out Zoom. We may not do Zoom a lot. We’re more Google. We know technology.

SILY: You’re not Luddites?

BC: We have most of our meetings on Google Hangouts. 

DQ: New Bums has a lot of meetings, and we spend a lot of time together, so it’s surprising it’s taken us 5 years to do two albums and two tours. 

BC: We do have some great video footage from that tour a couple years back filmed at a bookstore in San Francisco called Adobe Books, and I think we’re gonna put that out for people to check out.

SILY: Were some of the songs from this record performed there?

BC: Yeah, we [did] “Cover Band”.

SILY: Anything you’ve been listening to, watching, or reading lately that’s caught your attention?

DQ: I’ve been watching a lot of movies more than anything else. I have the Criterion Channel service, so I’ve been finding a lot of inspiration in that. I was just recommending the movie Close-up to Ben, if you want to feel that doing any kind of artistic endeavor might have some meaning, it’s worth it.

BC: I’ve been watching a lot of Poirot. That guy’s great. His relationship with Hastings is quite similar to Donovan and me, though I won’t say who is Poirot and who’s Hastings.

Last Time I Saw Grace by New Bums

[buttdawg]

On my way to work this morning, I listened to a F4WO video about how this week's Raw had the worst-ever rating in its history, beating out the previous record, all the way back in... last Monday, because holy fuck Raw is doing really shitty in the ratings this year.

The big problem, according to Big Dave, is that they tried to book Extreme Rules to get people to tune in on Monday, and it did not work. At all. And even if a PPV can't help the ratings, what will? And what happens when they're going head to head with the NBA? And even if they could get the ratings up a bit, they would still be in trouble, because that's how bad the current ratings are. It's like being in the bottom of a 12-ft pool and doing everything you can to swim a few inches higher.

Dave's like "I don't know how you turn this around," and I see his point, because even if WWE created a new star or started a hot new angle, how would anyone find out about it? There's no live crowd, and there's fewer people watching on TV now than ever before. It's like how Impact ran all these crazy angles and signed all these big stars and the needle barely moved. What should they do?

I'm pretty sure it doesn't matter, because even if they had the answer in front of them, Vince wouldn't go for it because that's how out of touch and incompetent he is now. He seemed to think this "Rey loses an eye" thing was the answer, even though a) it wasn't and b) he couldn't even follow through with it, so why would anyone else have been impressed? Vince McMahon Is The Problem, and as long as he's still around the problem only gets worse from here. And even if he went away, that doesn't undo the damage.

Still, I thought about it, and imagined what I'd come up with if they asked me how to fix things. I'm probably not even remotely qualified to save a tanking wrestling show, but here's what I came up with:

1. Vince McMahon retires as publically and as transparently as possible.

Basically, there's only one star left from the Attitude Era, and it's Vince. And there's only one message WWE can send that will matter to lapsed fans, and that's "No more Vince." And Vince resigning would actually get some mainstream attention. Remember when his limo exploded on TV and people thought it was real? Remember when he sold Raw to Donald Trump and people thought that was real?

So use it, not as an angle, but acknowledge it on TV, the way they made a big deal about Undertaker retiring. I don't mean a big Vince Tribute Show. That's the last thing we need, but don't keep it a secret. The word on Raw is that Vince is done, and no one knows what happens next. In the real world, Vince should remove himself from WWE business as completely as possible, and this needs to be done in a way where it's very, very provable to skeptics. They need to show a paper trail that Vince really isn't in charge of this anymore and never will be again. I don't care who takes over when he's gone. Triple H, Stephanie, Bruce Prichard, whoever. But Vince is truly stepping away. That needs to be the message and they need to follow through on it. Then people will at least consider checking out Raw to see what happens to it.

2. Build a fucking babyface and book him strong.

This is something Vince hasn't been able to do since Cena's heyday, so committing to this would convince curious fans that it's not just the same old shit. Pick a guy and fucking stick with him as long as possible. Drew McIntyre seems like a proper choice. If he gets into some scandal and they have to get rid of him, then okay, but immediately set up someone else. Don't screw around deciding, like they did with Roman Reigns. Pick a babyface superhero and go. Have him destroy Brock Lesnar, not just upset him in a four minute match. Have him face the Fiend in one of those bullshit "Cinematic Matches", but he turns the tables on him and wins. Have him beat Big Show in a retirement match. Have him beat Triple H in a retirement match. Maybe save Randy Orton for a later guy.

3. Steal a page from AEW's playbook and never do DQ or countouts.

Every. Fucking. Match. Ends with a pin or submission. Every. One. Don't even do cage matches or ladder matches for the next year or so, or any other gimmick where there's a screwy way to win.

Seriously, what always captured my fancy about ECW was the implication that DQ's and countouts were impossible because every match was hardcore. I didn't want to see hardcore matches all the time, I just wanted to see someone win without a lot of horseshit. AEW achieves the same result sinply by not booking DQ's in the first place. WWE desperately, des-per-ate-ly needs to prove that they get it: There's no point watching a wrestling match where no one wins.

4. Make a cool-ass heel stable with cool-ass merch.

Note that this does NOT mean bringing back DX or the nWo, or signing ex-Bullet Club members in the hopes of reverse-engineering whatever makes BC work. They need to make a NEW thing, because they need to prove that they can. Down the road, if Kevin Nash wants to manage a new nWo squad, that might be a decent idea, but first they need to prove that they can make it work without a nostalgia pop. The Inner Circle proved it can still be done, and Bullet Club is still going strong a decade later, so we know there's a way to keep these things going. But don't just chase a nostalgia pop. The original nWo sure as hell didn't.

5. Trim down the roster to guys you actually plan to use. I saw Eric Young saying that Raw was a "broken show" because it's 3 hours long and yet they couldn't find five minutes for him to be on it. He's right, they should have either made him a fixture on Raw or they never should have hired him in the first place. WWE's goal should have been to hire guys that would make Raw better, but instead they hired guys to keep other people from using them on other shows. And maybe that was a smart business move, but it also took their eye off the ball. They were so focused on spiting their competition that they failed to notice their own show sucks ass. Nobody needed all that talent to compete in 2019 because Raw sets the bar so low. No disrespect to Eric Young, but AEW managed without him, and WWE is crumbling whether they have Eric Young or not.

6. Don't bother with talent raids.

In the 90's, WWE could get guys from WCW to jump ship and make waves. Someone probably thinks that could work today, and maybe it could, but that shouldn't be an end unto itself. WWE already has a big, talented roster. They need to prove that they know how to use it. Right now, the only reason I see for a wrester to sign with WWE is for the money. That's great for the wrestlers, but it doesn't do me any good as a consumer. If they pay a guy a shit ton of money and he barely gets used on TV, it only makes the promotion look dumb.

Instead, they need to prove that a guy like Drew McIntyre made the right call by signing on. Book him in a way where other talent will see hin succeed and decide they'd like a piece of that pie.

That's all I got right now. Maybe none of this would work, but it sounds good to me, anyway.

[darkcloud-kcalifornia]

You know, I think it’s time for me to try watching that there new video game movie.  Based on a real old game too.  What was it called again…?  Ah yes, Dragon Quest: Your Story.

 What?  Why in the world would I wanna watch a Sonic movie?

 * This opening is not filling me with confidence for the rest of this movie.  I mean yeah, there’s a lot of story to cover in Dragon Quest 5 if you’re making an adaptation, but that’s, like, why it’d be better to not try and cover all of it.  Like, one movie for childhood, one for young adulthood, and one for fatherhood. Instead we’re skipping past almost all of childhood with a whole lot of exposition thrown in quite clunkily and through game footage.

* Well, give the movie some credit here, they’ve introduced Dr. Agon a bit earlier so as to establish relevance (and yet more exposition…), and he doesn’t have the indignity of Luca and co. having to rescue him from a runaway mine cart.

* Well I’m not entirely sold on character appearance, and the dialog seems to be sped up often to match mouth flaps, but some of the scenery shots are downright gorgeous.

* Suspicious slime is suspicious.

* Aw… no Harry falling in love with a cute nun?

* Man, this whole thing is pretty much on fast forward.  I don’t like it.

* Well, interesting change about the sword being the one in, um, the rich person’s care (look, it’s a long name and I’m horrible with those, alright).  Although this makes me thing that they’re going to skip the rest of the Zenithian equipment and focus on just the sword.  Because if not, well, Luca’d be claiming the sword right about now.

* OK, the metal slime scene was pretty good.  As was Luca being stocked about the cash drop from the Goodybag and Mimic.  Because let’s face it, if there’s two things every Dragon Quest player is familiar with, it’s the frustration of trying to kill those slimes and being short on cash.

* And again we get the ludicrous fast pace with him suddenly getting Gootrude and Purrcy on the team.

* OK, as much as I love the DQ theme and for all that it makes sense for a “starting off on the journey” choice, ending with the triumphant trumpets as Luca comes upon a recently burned city?  The amount of dissonance here is unbelievable.  Who directed this?!

* Um… I don’t think you need to translate the subtitles into English when the subtitles where there to translate something written in English.  Also, they’ve changed the marriage quest to demon slaying rather than magical wedding ring retrieval?

* I know this awkwardness between Luca and Nera is supposed to be cute.  But it’s not.  It’s really not.  I’ll admit though that I might have had a bit more emotional investment here if their previous interactions as children wasn’t brushed past in 3 seconds of sprite work!

* Gootrude has the sword! She must be the Heavenly Hero! …Dang it, I was making a stupid joke, but now I can’t help but wonder what her and Luca’s kids would end up looking like.  Stupid generational plot.

* Alright, time to give the movie credit again.  The failed attempt at drawing the Sword was pretty funny.

* Oh come on, at least let us see Bjorn in the party!

* Again, the supposed emotional connection would be a lot stronger if they didn’t skip past the adventures as a kid with Bianca too.

* Well, if Luca owes Bianca half the reward I guess she’s marrying Nera too now.  Rather naughty of Nera, trying to get two spouses like this. Well OK, to be fair this is more her dad’s decision.

* Bianca is three sheets to the wind.  How old is she supposed to be right now again?  I mean, medieval society, different standards for drinking and all. I just hope that Luca and Nera don’t mind her tendency to get hammered occasionally.

* But seriously it’s a little late to be pulling the “which one will Luca marry” thing after he’s already popped the question to Nera.

* Man, they are seriously trying to push the Bianca possibility with now having a pushy fortuneteller.  I mean not that I’m complaining about the ship, Bianca was my bride of choice in the game, it’s just, well… he already proposed and is quite happy with his choice. There’s a point where it’s a bit too late to indulge in this plotline!

* Although it would be kinda funny if drinking that potion showed him a vision of Deborah completely dominating him.  Never mind that Deborah hasn’t been in this movie yet.

* “Refusing to drink a strange glowing potion given to you by a very pushy magic woman obviously means you’re in denial!”

* *Luca falls into his subconscious*  When did this become a Kingdom Hearts movie?

* Alright, while most of the wedding plotline wasn’t very good, and Luca changing his mind after proposing was kinda infuriating, the old woman being Nera in disguise was a nice touch.

* Only one kid? Before Luca finds out about and reclaims his kingdom?  There’s supposed to be royal twins!

* Also kinda weird how they changed the two-bloodline thing needed for the hero to just having even more Zenithian blood.  But then Bianca was captured rather than petrified, so really we’ve pretty much almost completely jumped the plot rails at this point.

* Ah there’s the petrification.

* Yeah, this version of the years in petrification is kinda sad, but honestly I found Luca being placed in the garden of a family as a supposed protective spirit, being there to watch the family’s young boy grow up, only to be helpless to do anything when the boy is kidnapped my monsters to experience they same kind of horrific slavery he did, the father yelling impotently at the statue he purchased and pushing it over, only for even more years to pass, to be far more poignant. I mean, that scene wouldn’t have even taken that much more time than this one did.

* OK, I kinda like the monster just being able to follow Ollice’s Zoom spell with one of their own to be pretty good.  It’d be nice to see that in the games at some point.

* And the drawing and first use of the Zenithian Sword was definitely cool.

* “That’s just how it is this time around.”  Wait, is Dr. Agon suggesting multiple timelines here?  And that he’s aware of them?  You know, that would be one way of handwaving all of the discrepancies between this movie and the game.  Or even the differing versions of the game.  Different timelines and realities.  Or that could apply to the different games in which the Zenithian Dragon appears; rather than a continuous timeline which wouldn’t make much sense due to the massive differences in the landmasses and lore of the settings, it could be different realities that the Zenithian Dragon has been appointed over by the Goddess, and thus has a split awareness.  …Which in turn suggests more realities through multiverse theory on which girl Luca marries.  The timeline here just got incredibly complicated.

* This… this time travel plotline is being bungled so badly.  And Luca was the one who gave himself relationship advice in the past? Uuuuuuuugh.

* It’s Mada!  Mada is dead!  OK, honestly that one isn’t different at all from the game.

* Sudden reinforcements? OK, I’ll admit I was kinda hoping that Bjorn would show up, but I wasn’t expecting Harry.  At least not after the battle has already begun.  Like, if they were going to toss this one in wouldn’t it have made a lot more sense to have the heroes gather forces before the big battle than have them show up out of nowhere during the big fight?

* Well that’s… odd. I’d crack a joke about the movie crashing, but I have the feeling that plot point isn’t out of the question here.

* OK, so, the movie really is a game world, and “Nimzo” is a virus that was inserted into the programmed final boss, so now everything is going absolutely haywire.  Well I guess that’s what the “Your Story” title is about. It’s the story of the player of the game.  And as Luca is the player avatar, he’s the only one still with any kind of awareness. But Dr. Agon and Mada seemed to have some awareness of the nature of their world, hence their reference to “this time around”.  It’s “this time the game is being played”.  But if things were changed about the basic nature of the game, some of the plot points and so forth, that makes me wonder if the reason for those changes is because this isn’t the base game, it’s actually a ROM Hack. One that carried a virus in it.

* So I was mistaken. It was a remake for a VR system. Oh crap, the virus is going to try to do a mind hijacking, isn’t it?

* No, just a nerd pissing match.  Man, this thing got strange.  And kinda disappointingly shallow for big bad motivation.

 Well, that’s the movie. I guess they wanted to try and do something of an examination of nostalgia and gaming?  But honestly in the end even that plot point was rushed, and even if there were a few hints at something being off that still felt like it came out of nowhere.  Points for effort?  But this was not a good movie.  At all.  I can see what it was trying to do, and that could have made for good storytelling if enough time and care had been devoted to it.  But there just wasn’t.

[hazyheel]

WWE Smackdown Live 9/17/19 Review

Despite the fact that this wasn’t the strongest episode in the world, I actually liked it a lot. The segments that bookended the show were both pretty strong, and we saw a huuuuuuge announcement for the upcoming debut on Fox. Big stuff happened here, and the matches were pretty good. Unfortunately, it was dragged down by some stinkers. Just a few, but boy were they bad. Here is my full review of this weeks edition of Smackdown Live!

New Day vs. The Revival & Randy Orton: Holy crap, we started with a match! Wild, it feels weird but good. Big E started out with Dash Wilder, and immediately started to beat down the heel with clubbing blows to the chest and a splash on the apron for a near fall. Kofi was tagged in, and after some swift bending the rules, the heels took control and beat him down a bit. However, the New Day hit some of their tag team offense on Orton, with Woods and Big E taking down the Revival. During the commercial, The Revival isolated Woods and started to work over his knee. At one point, Woods tried to hit his slingshot DDT, but Wilder caught him and tossed him out over the top rope, which Orton followed up by back body dropping him on the announce table. We went to commercial again, and Kingston received a hot tag as we came back. He Took down everyone, before giving Orton an SOS for a near fall. On the outside, Big E flattened Dawson with a lariat, while Wilder nailed Big E with a tornado DDT and then swept Woods’ leg, only to eat a dropkick from Kingston. He went for a suicide dive, but Orton intercepted him and gave him a hangman’s DDT. The heels then went for the RKO machine, but Big E pulled Orton out and pushed him into the post. Woods then took out Wilder with a Limit Breaker, and Kingston pinned Dawson after a Trouble in Paradise.

As the New Day celebrated, Brock Lesnar showed up! Things were very intense, but the crowd didn’t pop big. Lesnar and Kingston stared each other down, and Kingston told Woods and Big E to leave. Heyman then got on the mic, and said that Lesnar wanted to challenge for the WWE Championship, and they booked it for the Friday Night Smackdown premier rather than for a pay per view. Kingston accepted, and Lesnar gave him an F5, which was sold beautifully. 

Grade: B+. The match was good, some fun action to open up the show. Love to see this show open up like that. Plus it was a pretty decisive victory, and feels like the feud is probably over. I was only going to give this a B, but I was really excited for the challenge from Brock Lesnar, although the crowd gave 0 craps. I think it was really fun, and is a huge main event for the first Fox show. Very good opening this week. 

Sasha Banks & Bayley Interview: Banks responded to Becky Lynch’s challenge inside Hell in a Cell.  Then Baylyey hopped in and said that although Banks was fighting Charlotte tonight, she didn’t want to talk about it. This promo was weird and kinda overdone. It was odd, just odd. 

Erick Rowan Sit Down interview: They gave Rowan his first name again! Fun. Michael Cole conducted the interview. He asked about Luke Harper, which Rowan responded to by saying if he wanted to know his story, talk to him. Then Cole asked about the attacks on Reigns, to which Rowan said he wanted to scare him. Cole loudly exclaimed “You tried to kill him!” And Rowan told him to watch his tone. Rowan then said that he was sick of being disrespected, so he took the chance he needed. Cole asked about why Rowan betrayed Daniel Bryan, and Rowan said that Bryan disrespected him. This was short, and all I could think about was how Cole was asking super biased questions. I know journalism, and this was bad journalism. 

Ali vs. Shinsuke Nakamura: Before the match, Sami Zayn demanded respect for him, since he is in a lot of pain. He hyped up Nakamura, and introduced him. He then told Ali that although he beat Nakamura a few weeks ago, he’d lose here. Ali was very nervous as Nakamura and Zayn surrounded him. Ali attacked Nakamura first, but Zayn held his leg and allowed Nakamura to attack him. Nakamura took Ali out with a Kinshasa. The match did not start. 

Grade: B. Fun little fight to get Nakamura over a bit. He and Zayn are fun together. This was effective and short, very efficient. I liked it, But it sucks that Ali had to be sacrificed here. 

Shane McMahon backstage: Owens walked into the building, took a seat in the audience. Shane was going to take care of it, but one of Owens’ lawyers served him. Huh, alright. 

Shane McMahon promo: Shane came out wth a whole bunch of security guards, and the papers. Shane told Owens to get in the ring and tried to settle it there. So Owens walked to the ring, but security stood between him and Shane. I guess the lawsuit was wrongful termination, worth 25 million. Shane called the case weak, but Owens said that it was strong. Owens pointed out that when he was fined for attacking a referee (Elias), but Shane didn’t fine himself when he attacked Owens’ last week, while he was the ref. He then said that even with the ref in his corner, Shane couldn’t win, and tapped out. So now, Owens just wants to hurt him, and wants to hit him in the wallet. He also said that part of the suit was that if he wins, he will be able to fire Shane. Then Owens walked out as Shane looked at the suit. 

Grade: C-. Why is Owens supposed to be badass, and yet he solves his problems with lawsuits? If he was a tough as nails son of a bitch, like Steve Austin who they are desperately trying to model him after, he would’ve walked right through security and beat Shane’s ass. A lawsuit isn’t awesome or exciting. But given that I enjoy soap opera stuff, I can’t bring myself to give it lower that C-. I think this is damaging to the badass Owens, but I’m kinda intrigued. This could be an interesting storyline, but I doubt anyone else will agree. 

Charlotte Flair vs. Sasha Banks: Some guy come out, who I guess was a rapper. I think he is the Ric Flair drip guy? Maybe? I dunno. He just brought out Charlotte, and then fist bumped her. Bayley came out with Banks, and actually helped distract Charlotte and gave Banks control early on. When we came back from commercial break, Charlotte started to fight back with a series of kicks and chops to banks, finishing with a fall away slam. The two continued to fight, and Flair locked in a Boston Crab, but Banks pulled her into a rollup for a near fall. Charlotte then put Banks on the apron and kicked Banks to the outside. She then climbed to the rope and nailed both Banks and Bayley with a moonsault. She tried to capitalize, but Bayley held her foot, which got Banks a rollup for a near fall. Banks then tried for another, but Charlotte rolled through and went for the Figure Four, but Bayley ran in to attack for the DQ. 

Bayley and Banks continued to beat up Flair, but Carmella showed up and superkicked Bayley, who looked shock. Flair got the last hit in on her, and the faces stood tall. 

Grade: B. Another pretty good match, but I bumped it up just a bit into a B because of them establishing Bayley’s next challenger. Carmella makes sense considering how much the fans like her after the R-Truth stuff, but that doesn’t mean the match will be great. We will have to see about that. But I think that Charlotte should’ve lost here, just to give Banks some momentum. People need to get wins to get over, and Banks could use a real win. 

Baron Corbin Coronation: He put on the whole getup as Corey Graves raved about him on commentary. Corbin then got on the mic and put himself order. Then he brought out Chad Gable, and made some short jokes. Corbin said that he was just like the fans, because he will always come up short. Gable then slammed him through the throne and beat him with the scepter. Gable then ripped up the cloak and smashed the crown. 

Grade: D+. I really wanted to like this more, but I am worried about what destroying all the props means. They may just ditch the king gimmick this time around, and that would suck. I also hated the short jokes, those are stupid. I’m fine with these two feuding, and I’m fine with the one short joke where he “dreams big but comes up short,” but the rest of it was bad. I really hope that King Corbin is still a thing, because that’d be a waste of a tournament. 

The B-team vs. Heavy Machinery: Tucker and Curtis Axel started things off. Tucker just tossed Axel around for a bit, and the B-Team (who I think are heel now?) double teamed him a bit and tried to keep him on the mat. Knight got the hot tag after rolling over Bo Dallas’ back and delivering a huge lariat. Otis then got hot tag, and he was in trunks, which looked very.... different. He beat up Dallas a bit and they hit the compactor for the win.

Grade: C+. Squash-o-roony.

Daniel Bryan Promo: He quickly crapped on the fans for accusing him of attacking Roman Reigns. He said that he still didn’t attack him, and declared himself exonerated. Then he said that he saw Rowan and realized that he had talent and took him under his wing as Tag Team Champions. He saw Rowan as his equal (yikes) and treated him as a friend. Rowan then came out, no Luke Harper in sight, with a mic. He said that he never felt like an equal, he felt like a puppet. Bryan never asked what he felt about things, and said he wouldn’t be disrespected. Bryan then told him to do something about it, because he already destroyed their friendship, and he couldn’t do anything worse. So, Harper ran in from behind and they kicked Bryan’s ass a bit, but then Roman walked down as Bryan was hit with an Iron claw. He dodged Harper and gave Rowan a superman punch and beat him down, but Harper quickly got ahold of him and they beat Reigns up together. They double powerbombed him into the post, and tore up the padding to expose the concrete. Security tried to stop them, but Harper kicked their asses. Then Rowan grabbed a section of the barricade and nailed Reigns with it, before clearing the announce table and giving Bryan a double high cross through it. The heels stood tall as they closed out the show.

Grade: B+. This was a fun segment that was pretty exciting, and seems to show where things will go from here. This is almost a Daniel Bryan face turn, but I don’t think he has fully turned face just yet. He is gonna probably be kinda heel until he and Reigns have a tag match against Rowan and Harper. This was a really fun segment, and I’m looking forward to seeing where it goes. Highlight of the night. 

Overall Grade: C+

Pros: 6-man tag; Nakamura beat down; charlotte vs. Banks; ending beatdown

Cons: lawsuit angle; coronation

[sawthefaeriequeen]

Top Ten Books Read In 2018

1) The Last Summer of the Death Warriors by Francisco X. Stork

I picked this up at a book fair, read the summary, and figured I'd surprise myself with this author I'd never heard of before. It's about the friendship between DQ, a guy with terminal cancer dealing with his complicated feelings for his estranged-but-conciliatory family, and Pancho, a guy who's biding his time until he can get revenge on the person who's killed one of his family members. I like that both boys are raw and real and people—Pancho obviously has messed up emotions, but DQ can be plenty bitter and angry too: he's not an Inspirational Cancer Patient stereotype.

2) The Sherwood Ring by Elizabeth Marie Pope

Girl moves into her uncle's old ancestral house sometime during the 18th century and gets immersed into the past lives and loves of the ghosts that thrived there during the days of the Revolutionary War, their paths often crossing each other's. I swear I have never seen more delightful ghost characters in my entire life.

3) The Unbound by V.E. Schwab

So by the time I'd picked this up, I was having mixed feelings about V.E. Schwab – on one hand, she'd always written worlds that engage me almost instantly with their creativity. On the other hand, I'd just recently been horribly disappointed by the ending to what's been her most popular series so far: I thought her final Shades of Magic book did a most spectacular job on dropping the balls on everything good about it. Up to reading it, I'd thought the author's hype was deserved. But after, well…

So when I picked this up, it was with much trepidation. I'd loved the previous book, The Archived: the big old house setting, the grim closed-off girl/sweet sunny boy dynamic the lonesome warrior setup, all were like catnip to my id. I didn't want it ruined by a bad sequel. Fortunately, this book took everything I loved about the book and turned it up to eleven. It upped the stakes, it intensified the relationships, and it also added a mental illness angle that I personally found very meaningful.

The author is still kiiinda on notice so I'm not sure I want a third book. If there is one, dear God, please be good. *crosses fingers*

4) Turtles All The Way Down by John Green

I remember thinking, as I was reading this: this is really, really working for me but will it work for someone neurotypical? 2018 was hell and I was just so desperate for the people in my life to get it, and so I kept hopping on trains of thought like this.

Anyway, this book was spot on in what goes on in the wirings of my anxious brain. Green's usual turns of phrase took an incredibly frenetic turn at times, which, I know, is exactly what it's like to have a mental illness. This is not a book about "this is what to do" it's about how it IS or how it can GET.

I'm still really grateful for that quote about the spiral – how it tightens, but also how it eternally widens. When I first saw the cover, I thought it was kind of blah; now I look at that spiral and see something different. I see the hope of creating a new 'normal'.

5) The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

This was so readable it surprised me. I thought I'd go slow on it because: war story where it's a foregone conclusion that it ends tragically for the leads? Yeah, I'm not in a rush to reach the end of that. But I blazed right through this book. There's something really addictive about Madeline Miller's storytelling and how she brings her characters together and follows their blossomings and downfalls through the years. And then, the course of the Iliad and the inevitable sadness for Achilles, Patroclus, and Briseis was more like the slow turning of the tide rather than getting hit with a tidal wave. Anyway, not only was it readable but I'm finding myself eager to re-read it.

6 ) The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley

Part of my Read Everything Robin McKinley Writes mission that began last year. I'd liked the sheer escapism and the desert setting in The Blue Sword, but that whole white savior thing kinda put me off from enjoying Harry and the book more fully than I would've liked.

It was not so for this book, thankfully! Who knew that reading about the nitty-gritty of slaying big scaly beasts could be so satisfying? That's classic Robin McKinley, as I'm learning – you love what the protag loves. And then I really dug how the dead dragon's ghost haunting Aerin acts as a metaphor for mental illness.

(As I continue to wrestle with my diagnosis, I continually appreciate all the depression/anxiety metaphors I encounter in media. Maybe one day I'll make a post about it) AND ALSO: a love triangle that's actually well done and that serves our heroine's identity and character rather than taking away from it? Yes. Yes, thank you.

7) A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb

Yeah so, this book killed me. It's about two twenty-something ghosts with unfinished business who find themselves in the bodies of two teenagers whose souls appear to have completely vacated theirs. They find themselves falling for each other and trying to find out what happened to their 'hosts' and what went on in their past lives. They also find themselves battling to survive the hostile home lives that their 'hosts' left behind. It's all very beautiful and kind of twisted and also a love letter to words and probably my most unexpected book of the year. And I have NO idea to rec it to people. "Read this, it's kind of fucked up but gorgeous but also can get triggery so step warily?" Uh.

8) Deerskin by Robin McKinley

See warnings above. Oh God. But really, I totally respect Robin McKinley for going full-out faithful to how utterly fucked up fairy tales can be while still creating a survival story. I'm not just talking about Lissar surviving spoilers incestual rape and miscarriage (indeed, I'm not qualified to talk about it) but how hers is a story of healing: by surviving the elements, by nursing living things back into life, by building herself up into a legend without even knowing it.

9) Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor

Just an incredibly satisfying ending to a duology that at the same time echoes that quote from Michael Ende's The Neverending Story: "but that is another story and shall be told another time." I love when something ends with that sense of: "there are even more stories and adventures for our beloved characters out there than you can possibly fathom, and you are now free to make up them yourself."

10) Autoboyography by Christina Lauren

I was intrigued by the premise: a half-Jewish guy and a Mormon guy fall for each other over the course of a writing class. And upon starting it, I could tell straight (heh, straight) away that it was going to be a favorite. It's an unabashedly kilig romance about falling for the wonderfulness in each other,and both mains are fucking adorable, and made me want to give them both a ton of hugs. Oh, and this book further reinforced my belief that the key to first-person writing is having a good voice.

Another thing is, I basically never see YA books that deal with growing up in a religion and actually-loving it and having it be an inextricable part of your identity… and then having to deal with the darker, prejudiced sides that you really wish would be excised from it altogether especially if they are opposed to who you are. To deal with it sensitively and touchingly, not only in a YA book but in an m/m romance? Well done.

honorable mention!

-The Secret History by Donna Tartt

I was reading this on the bus on the way home to the province for Christmas and I could not stop laughing and I had no idea to explain to my very curious sister that it was because half the protagonists were high as a kite at the funeral of the friend that they all killed and one of them had just very noisily killed a bee in the church vestibule and it made the loudest sound on the planet and they're all gonna have to ~aesthetically grieve and pallbear now even though THEY killed their friend and w o w it's like Nuwanda from Dead Poets Society was cloned five times.

Sometimes "pretentious people murder someone and somehow it is hilarious" is just exactly my cup of tea.

and a couple of series binges!

Almost 10 years ago (god, what the hell), I had a "YA Paranormal Romances I Might Actually Like" list, and the two trilogies below were on it. There's something gratifying about finally crossing off books on your TBR that have been there for ages:

-The Shade Trilogy by Jeri Smith-Ready (Shade, Shift, Shine) This series came out on the tail of the Great YA Paranormal Romance boom and I really wish I'd picked it up then (I also really wish some of the covers it got weren't so damn off-putting. It's like Animorphs all over again) because it's such cut above so many of the books that were being churned out in those days.

The premise is: what if there was a global paranormal event that left the portion of the population born after a certain year with the ability to see ghosts? I really like that the author thought this out thoroughly – it's not just a oooh spooky ghosties gimmick. Everything is affected: the educational system, the police force, politics, technology, travel, you name it.

The heroine was smart and truth-seeking and had nuancedrelationships with lots of female characters (bff, mentor, aunt who raised her, mom who died… ), the Betty love interest was a total sweetheart who also didn't seem too good to be true and who was capable of making major teenage fuck-ups, and the Veronica love interest was a rock-and-roll ghost who had the post-life character arc that I sadly wish Maggie Stiefvater had given Noah Czerny. I kind of loved them all a lot and one of the reasons I wish I'd read these books as they came out was so I could've been un-jaded just a little bit about Those Pesky Love Triangles.

(Someday I…really ought to make an analysis about why I dislike love triangles in general and what exactly was up with the ones that DID work for me.)

-Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy by Maggie Stiefvater

I read the whole series toward the year's end. It was precisely the cold-weather binge I was craving. I may have my quarrels with some of her writing decision, but really few people can do atmospheric, poetic writing the way Maggie Stiefvater does. The romances were a bit too YA for me in this one, but I ended up really sympathizing with every single POV character anyway. And I mean, cold and poetry and family and books and wolves-as-family*.

(*One day, I'll have the emotional armor to watch Wolf's Rain again. )

[admiralkatcornwellfan]

for @ejc74656 who Sent me prompt #158'this is awkward'

from the prompt list https://admiralkatcornwellfan.tumblr.com/post/178440529455/nearly-200-writing-prompts-feel-free-to-reblog

'This is awkward'

wasn't the first thought came to Kathryn's mind when she literally bumped into Chakotay on DS9. but after initial greetings and smile that felt stretching too much instead of being genuine , Kathryn began to feel the sheer awkwardness of this situation.

He was alone, of course. And she wouldn't even think of the awkwardness if she managed to bump into..well,both of them.

Not that it would happen anyway, according to the scuttlebutt of Voyager (which was functioning at optimum capacity even after the abrupt return to Alpha Quadrent) she had left Earth for Vulcan, for a prestigious position in Vulcan science Academy. and for him , he had disappeared from Earth not a moment to soon their three month debriefings had ended.

Not even B'Elanna knew where he was and Kathryn didn't had the need or the energy to dissect the emotions and feelings his sudden departure made her experience. Instead, she bent her head down, posed for Starfleet propaganda, her own promotion as a vice Admiral and worked until she forgot she ever left Earth in the first place. Not that it worked anyway, if her all too familiar night terrors and Panic attacks were any sign.

It hurt like hell when she was 'not so gently' told by her own charming future self that he was with her, of all people he could choose to be with , he chose the one that hurt her most.

Kathryn Sometimes wondered if he did it by purpose, a move to hurt her back , after all the pain and heartbreak she caused him through years. She did want to forget she wasn't to be blamed but her guilty conscience reminded her too often the look in his eyes when she was with Kashyyk or 'the-alien-of-the-week' and she Never missed the jealousy undertone of his amused voice , when he told her to have 'fun' with Michael Sullivan.

All the thoughts she mulled over countless glasses of wine in Quiet evenings for past 8 months came back to her in a rush , and it was overwhelming , so to speak.

She didn't know what to feel; anger, sadness, betrayal or happiness that he hadn't blown himself up with another shuttle. So she choose awkwardness. that was way better and she had an image to uphold.

Even in a place like DS9, Face of the golden girl of Starfleet was never going to go unnoticed and to add up to it, she was in her full uniform as well.

Chakotay tugged at his ear and Kathryn knew he was feeling the same thing and she also knew the water under the bridge was far too Deep when it came to their relationship. Or lack thereof.

But how much she missed him, oh God how many times she turned to her left to say something to him and found the cold empty space instead of the familiar warmth and strength his presence provided? or the dinners and lunches he would drag her into, despite her protests but she'd thoroughly enjoy nontheless? Or the comfortable silence inbetween them while they worked, sipping their favorite beverages and Chakotay breaking the silence to tell a new rumor he heard via the scuttlebutt (how he get to know all that, she never knew) or just stories from his Academy days and she'd join in with a full laugh or a small story of her own. Gods, she missed her best friend, and she was determined to get back that, at least.

So she found herself almost dragging him to her VIP quaters and what a sight that must've been. The Hero of the Delta Quadrent , a vice Admiral , dragging her former first officer, a tall, dark ,handsome civilian , dressed in black leather through Quark's bar.

Chakotay followed suit, never even questioning her once.

And once they were safely inside her darkend quaters, and the door shut behind them, she turned to get a good look at him.

He was much leaner than when she last saw him, his face gaunt and a few new lines added here and there, the skin turned to a darker brown instead of the golden hue she was used to.

She could feel the roughened palms of his underneath her own softened ones, and she could take a clever guess where he had been over all this time.

'Have you finished looking, Kathryn'?

he asked finally, amusement evident in his voice as he smiled at her, full dimples on effect.

Kathryn found her face was getting more heated that she liked and almost felt annoyed at herself for being this responsive to him. She was never immune to those beautiful dimples for all the years in DQ and it seemes she was still the same , despite the long absence Between.

'Have you'? she countered his question with her own because she knew and already felt his gaze lingering on herself and as always he was a gentleman in that as well.

'Never will be'

His answer gave her more questions as now she followed him to the couch and almost flopped on it, a defeated sigh escaping her lips.

'What do you want from me Kathryn? I'm not saying that seeing you here is a thought that crossed my mind. but I want to know .... ' he ended in a softer tone , unsure how to procede,because this scenario was not even in his mind by lightyears whenever he thought about his meeting with Kathryn. He was prepared for a cold shoulder , heck even anger. but not a Marathon through corridors of a Deep Space station and ending up in her quaters. Not that he minded anyway.

Kathryn licked her suddenly dry lips and swallowed a knot that was in her throat (which came always when she thought about him) along with her pride and answered quickly. Janeways were Never cowards and they were all 'straight shooters' but she had been a coward for far too long when it came to him. And all technicalities and semantics aside, she owed him the truth.

'I want you back , Chakotay. I need you in my life. I missed you so much and I'm so sorry...' her voice failed her as she avoided his gaze, stood up and walked to the viewport to look at the still-stars outside.

Chakotay was shell-shocked for a moment, unsure of what he heard. Kathryn Janeway he knew, had a hard time admitting her faults and expressing her vulnerabilities. Just when he thought he figured this woman out, she just can surprise him with a move he Never even anticipated from her. He was thinking about going to Earth, staying with Parises for couple of days and then going to find Kathryn to at least salvage what was left of their friendship.

but here he was in DS9, just an hour after his shuttle from Dorvan landed, listening to a confession from the person he didn't even dreamt of listening to . In his mind, he had dishonoured a vow he made , despite what ever she did, he swore to stay by her side and bear her burdens. but what did he do? In guilt and shame over his actions, ran to the furthest corner he could think of like a kicked puppy.

He sighed and almost smiled as he stood up to join her at the viewport and placed his hand on her shoulder.

Startled, Kathryn almost jumped but relaxed when she realized it was just him.

'It is I who should apologize to you. I promised that I would be there for you and look what I did'. he chuckled humorlessly.

Kathryn looked into his eyes and saw a myriad of emotions swimming in Those dark depths she always found mysterious and intriguing. And just then she knew she didn't want to be part from him for another day. She waited for 7 long years for this, to be free of protocols an regulations that strangled her.

'we both have lot of things to point out if we are going to do just that. but I don't want to waste anymore time, Chakotay.

Are you with me?'

and he replied with the answer she was well used to hearing from him before finally gathering her in his arms and kissing her on the lips.

'Always'.

Also on Ao3 ( for some reason I can't link it)

[pamphletstoinspire]

What Biblical Reference Is There That Shows That Mary Assumed Into Heaven - Part 1

Chapter 1. The Assumptions of Elijah & Enoch

"The Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory" (Pius XII, Munificentissimus Deus 44).

But can we prove this using Scripture? Also, who else was assumed into Heaven according to Scripture? And how do these other assumptions point to Mary?

Let's start with the obvious: Elijah. Elijah rode his fiery chariot in Heaven at 2 Kings 2:

And as they still went on and talked, behold, a chariot of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them. And Eli′jah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Eli′sha saw it and he cried, “My father, my father! the chariots of Israel and its horsemen!” And he saw him no more. (2 Kings 2: 11-12)

This last phrase also points to another assumption, namely, that of Enoch.

Enoch's assumption occurs in Genesis 5, where the descendants of Adam are described:

When Enoch had lived sixty-five years, he became the father of Methu′selah. Enoch walked with God after the birth of  Methu′selah three hundred years, and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him. (Genesis 5:21-24)

The two phrases match: "And he saw him no more" & "and he was not."

Some modern Biblical commentators understand the descriptions of these scenes merely as euphemistically describing the deaths of Elijah and Enoch. But ... there's a big problem with that interpretation! This is contradicted by the rest of Scripture (maybe those commentators haven't read the rest of the Bible).

For example, check out the following from the Letter to the Hebrews, chapter 11, where the author is describing faith through the examples of Abel, Enoch, and Noah:

By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he received approval as righteous, God bearing witness by accepting his gifts; he died, but through his faith he is still speaking. By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death; and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was attested as having pleased God.

This passage directly refutes the idea that Enoch's death was described in Genesis. It actually says that Enoch was taken up so that he "should not see death."

So there's the New Testament proof that Enoch was assumed into Heaven, but where's Elijah's proof?

WHERE DO WE SEE ELIJAH IN HEAVEN IN THE NEW TESTAMENT?

Or, another question, where do we see Jesus in Heaven in the New Testament and WHO IS WITH HIM?

The Transfiguration, of course! And who is beside Jesus at the Transfiguration? Elijah and ... Moses. Wait, Moses? Hold onto that thought for a second.

We know that Elijah is in Heaven because we see him there! And with Jesus, of all people!

That's not the only time we see Jesus in Heaven in the New Testament?

Where else? At Christ's Ascension, right? And again, who do we see beside Christ? Two men. See, for example, Acts of the Apostles, chapter 1 (also Luke 24)

And when he had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:9-11)

These two men are in white robes, just like the "dazzling white" of the Transfiguration. To read more on why these two men in white robes are Moses and Elijah (or two angels), please check out St. John Chrysostom’s homily as noted below:

http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/210102.htm

and

http://ltdahn-stluke.blogspot.com/2006/11/two-witnesses-moses-and-elijah.html

and

https://books.google.com/books?id=9Uqbhvte5XsC&pg=PA29&lpg=PA29&dq=two+men+in+white+robes+at+the+ascension+moses+and+elijah&source=bl&ots=tdHVBIwnI7&sig=5RjPShxF0KjIhZLCFiyFw_KpnMw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjiu6TP_fHSAhWZ8oMKHShhD6AQ6AEIMDAD#v=onepage&q=two%20men%20in%20white%20robes%20at%20the%20ascension%20moses%20and%20elijah&f=false

SO, WHAT'S MOSES DOING IN HEAVEN?

At the Transfiguration, we see Elijah in Heaven beside Jesus and Moses.

This is taken as further proof of the Elijah's assumption into Heaven described in 2 Kings 2. But, if this is proof of Elijah's assumption, does that mean Moses, too, was assumed into Heaven? YES

[darkspellmaster]

E3 2018 Thoughts on Nintendo

So Nintendo over the years has learned to show only what’s coming out soon rather than bait fans with a teaser for a game that is way out in production (Looking at you Sony and Microsoft). In addition, they used their direct this year to push forward the versatility of the Switch as well as give a huge show of appreciation to the Smash Pro community that pretty much built itself from the ground up.  I will give Nintendo this much, their booth this year, while not as cool as the Mario one last year, did have a lot going on and the game lines for just Smash and Let’s go Pokemon were over 4 hours long. They had to cut them off on all three days and set up areas for people to watch others play on big screens.

Also both of their tournaments did strong numbers this year, showing that Splatoon and Smash are still hitters in the E-sports area. Though now I hope Arms gets in there because that game is fun.

Dameon X Machenia reminded me a hell of a lot of the Super robot Wars games that come out for Gundam and other series. Yet this was very different. Flying robots to fight what looks like monsters/mecha seems like a fun way to pass the time. Also, based on the Tree house showing, there’s a customization element going on not just with the avatar (which you can chose your gender) but also the robot itself and it’s weapons. There’s also an area that looks to allow online play along with a single player campaign. Again, mixed feelings, unless you can invite people into the server that you want playing with you so that you know no jerks will just jump in and ruin the game. Over all I like what I see, but it’s a ways out. Nice of them to start with something exciting.

Super Mario Party looks amazing. So apparently we can have four players to one switch via the tv set up, but also two switches can be made to change up the board, which brings up the question, can you have more than four players playing if you have three or more switches? It’s Mario Party so most people know the drill for this one. I do like that they kept in a lot of things from the older titles and apparently we’re going to have Bowser as an option to play. This should be interesting to see, and probably will be a buy for me once I’m done with my back log of games.

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Torna the Golden DLC. This could practically be a game in and of itself given the way that the story is taking shape here. It looks really interesting and is certainly filling in gaps in the story that we had from XC2. What I’m wondering is if Xeno will rival FF, Tales and DQ in the future with the story telling and now the world building. I should note too that the Challenge mode brought back in Shulk and Fiora from the first Xenoblade Chronicles story. Visually the game looks amazing and really got me excited to buy the DLC, and, apparently there is a second edition that let’s you get both the DLC and the original game. Similar to the FF XV Royal edition.

This one is the one that I’ve personally been waiting for. As a Fire Emblem Fan since way back from the Game Boy Advanced Version, it’s exciting to see an new FE show up on the Switch. Fire Emblem Three Houses showed up and wow. Since this is clearly an incomplete game there’s things that need to be worked on, but from what we saw I would say it’s really visually amazing. Reportedly the artist that did the art for the Uta wa no Prince Sama series is providing the art here. Though I don’t know because others are saying it reminds them of the artist from the Persona Series. I will say though that the character’s look amazing, and the fact that it’s not an Avatar in this game means that a lot of the story and depth of the story will rely on the characters interacting with one another. Another cool thing was the system where you can train the characters in different triangle weapons, which can become useful. From what we’ve seen there appears to be an open world aspect of this, and you can run around. Also units now have warriors with them and can create formations based on what you need. Over all this looks fun and the animation for the cut scenes are top notch. I won’t lie I’m a bit biased on this one.

Fortnite was a good move on the switch’s part, and the fact that they showed it in a way that is different than how Sony, Microsoft, or PC shows the game means that they can pull in players that normally may not want to play this. The vibrant color had me going “Wait…is that Fortnite? What the hell? Is it really that goofy?” as most version I’ve seen have had people wearing serious clothing rather than the goofy stuff that you can get. Honestly, if I was good at shooters and liked them, this trailer would have made me pick it up. I hope that people playing on PC and Xbox are having fun with Nintendo players…Sony, I know you were burned in the past by Nintendo, and have issues with Microsoft and for some odd reason hate PCs, but come on…stop locking people out of playing with others. Sheesh!

Hollow Knight, another interesting showing here. Hollow Knight I heard was a good get for the switch, given that it’s a fan favorite. Mix of platforming and fighting will work well on the switch. To be honest while it’s cute and all I’ll have to see if I want to get it.

Killer Queen Black is a surprise for some people, as it was a small arcade game that had a loyal following but was believed to not be able to be put on a console system. Apparently they did it. It seems to be a timed exclusive so it may not stay just on the Switch. Looks like fun, but I’m not a bee fan honestly. But it looks nice and I’m sure that other people will love to play it.

Overcooked 2, I can’t wait to get. It seems like an awesome game and one that I will be playing a lot with friends. Reminds me a bit of dinner dash but with puzzle elements and strategy. Should be a good buy for people that want to have something a bit more relaxing to play in it’s own way.

Octopath Traveler showed up again, and mentioned a new Demo. Square later went on at E3 to say that they’re going to make a division for the Switch so that’s a promising thing. The game’s demonstration at the tree house has made this a day one for me, which is rare outside of again, Fire Emblem. So this has me very excited and I hope to see more games like this and others from Square Enix on the Switch.

Let’s Go Pokemon: Pikachu/Evee. Pretty much seemed like Pokemon Yellow. I mean, you play with Pikachu following you around rather than in the ball, and it combines elements of pokemon go. On top of that you can transfer pokemon from go to the game, and you get a mew in the new pokeball add on...although I wish the price was a bit lower for that pokeball. Sheesh! 

They had a quick run down of games coming out including: Octo Expansion, SNK Heroines Tag Team Frenzy, Dragon Ball Fighter Z, Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate, Ninjala, Paladins: Realm Royale, Roller Coaster Tycoon Switch, Starlink: Battle for Atlas, Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition (may have shown this it went fast), sushi Striker. 

Smash Brothers Ultimate, I know some were disappointed that this took up so much time, but there’s something that has to be said. This is really, outside of maybe the bigger tournaments, that Nintendo has shown that they have been paying attention to the pro scene for their fighting game. With all the tweeks that they did to this game, and allowing the characters in there the way that they did, they’re going to be a contender at larger game tournaments like Evo and the like. Back when the switch was first show in 2017 there was the whole E-sports section, and I think that Nintendo is actually looking into that with some of it’s games. The various things, like the one on one fighting being made to be more devastating when you have solo fights means that, for pros, the game will move faster. Having the different stage styles also means it’s better for the competition scene so that the game can be played there.

I’m glad to see Ice Climbers back, all my Fire Emblem characters are still there, Wii Fit is back, the amazing Pit is there still, I love that we now have Daisy –my girl –as a character to play as, and we finally got Ridley –after all this time… Now Sakurai, please put in Takamaru from the Mystery of Muramasa castle as not an assist and I will praise you to the high heavens. Oh yeah and Proto and Base (Bass?) are in Megaman’s smash now. (Proto as an echo fighter please? Or Zero?)

As for the other games that are coming out to Switch, while they didn’t show them all…here’s the list from E3 2018 of the games that are coming:

Adventure Time: Pirates of the Enchiridion

Bomber Crew

Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy –Rumors are going around that Spyro may also be coming too

Dead Cells

Defender's Quest: Valley of the Forgotten DX

Dragon Quest XI –apparently yes it is coming for the switch.

The Elder Scrolls: Legends –tired of this being on your phone…use it on the Switch on the go.

Fallout Shelter

Fate Extella Link –Hey what do you know…the Fate series is now on the Switch

FIFA 19

Freedom Planet

Gal Metal –music game that has an interesting story

Galak-Z: Variant S –You like Gundam? You like arcade games? Well this is right up your alley

Harold Halibut

Just Dance 2019

Kingdom: Two Crowns

LEGO DC Supervillains

Little Dragons Café –What if you could raise dragons in the world of Harvest Moon, same creators

Mario + Rabbids DLC

Mario Tennis Aces –This was kind of interesting to see in the Tree house, making me consider getting it.

Mega Man 11

My Friend Pedro –Yeah the gag game that is coming to PC from Digital Revolver, it’s on the Switch.

My Hero Ones Justice –For those of us who want to smash things with Lord Murder Explosion (Bakugo)

NBA Live 19

Planet Alpha

Raji: An Ancient Epic

Shining Resonance Refrain –Kind of wish this one was shown, but Sega does what Sega does…

Spintires: MudRunner –basically you want to play with all terrain vehicles…then here you go.

State of Mind

Super Meat Boy Forever

Team Sonic Racing

Trials Rising –wish they would have shown some of this

Valkyria Chronicles 4 –Sega….you should have had your own direct…seriously

'V-Rally 4

Wargroove

Arcade Donkey Kong

That’s a lot of games coming out for the Switch…most of these would be fun to play…and that’s not even listing the ones that were already out prior to E3.

Over all, for presentation regarding the use of the Direct, I’d say A- to a B mostly because of the variety. Though I do think that they could have elongated their direct to give more showings of the games that weren’t Smash that were coming to the Switch. 

[bahamutgames]

Afterthoughts S: Definitive Edition

Game: DRAGON QUEST XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age Definitive Edition (September 27, 2019)

Console: Xbox One (Via Xbox Game Pass)

Hey, it’s me again! It feels like it’s been forever since I last beat a big game with a lot of stuff to talk about. But the last time was actually only a month ago with New Super Lucky’s Tale. In the mean time I’ve been playing a couple of smaller games, tiny indie titles, a few fighting games. But nothing that I couldn’t summarize in a small twitter thread (which you can follow my twitter here if you want to see my art or just support me shilling my other accounts.)

Anyway! Just got done with another major RPG! After Nier Automata, I knew this was a game I really wanted to play before my Game Pass subscription expired. And after toiling away at it for the past month, I’m finally ready to give you all my thoughts on Dragon Quest 11!  As always, this isn’t meant to be review. But just a general throw up of my thoughts and feelings after beating the game, because I love talking so much. As such, this shouldn’t be taken as a serious critique of the game, and shouldn’t be expected to be well written or thought out. Please do check out the game if it interests you at all!

SPOIL WARNING FOR DRAGON QUEST 11 AHEAD! GONNA TALK ABOUT THE WHOLE PACKAGE HERE, AS A FAIR WARNING

Opening

Prior to this, the only Dragon Quest game I had played was DQ 8: Journey of the Cursed King on Nintendo 3DS. I liked it, and thought it was pretty good. But wasn’t perfect and felt a little unnecessarily tedious to get through. But when 11 came out, I saw a ton of people saying it was an amazing RPG. People I followed who weren’t really into RPGs (as far as I knew) were raving about it. So I was really interested to give it a shot myself, but didn’t have the chance until I got game pass.

Stuff I liked

Where to begin? This is a 60 hour game so there’s a lot to talk about. I think first and foremost I just wanna gush about how pretty this game is! The graphics are amazing, I love how the environments are realistic but super brightly colored and saturated, making for ton of gorgeous areas that I couldn’t stop myself from taking pictures of. And Akira Toriyama’s just being placed in these beautiful worlds look so good and amazing. Without a doubt, especially considering its more on the realistic side, this is one of the nicest looking RPGs I’ve played.

Speaking of which, I really loved the character designs. Toriyama does fantastic work that I really like with pretty much everything, but his work on RPGs always tend to be my favorites. The designs for all the main teammates looked super good and all the monsters were really cool looking too. He really knows how to design cool looking dragons, this guy just gets it. On the same not of characters, the characters are fantastic. I really love everyone on the main team (my favorite was probably Serena.) They’re all super fun and I love the way they interact and really seem like a group of good friends. It was great to see how they all interact and work together. A scene that particularly sticks out is when they all forge a new sword of light together, which was fantastic.

I also thought the story and world was cool. Similar to my thoughts on DQ8, the story is pretty simple and easy to follow, but that doesn’t take away from it. It kind of feels like a fairy tale told on a grand scale. I love the idea of the Luminary, and Serenica being reborn into twins is awesome, Erdwin’s Lantern was a cool idea. And of course, Yggdrasil being a huge ass tree flying in the sky is absolutely the best thing ever, that’s so cool. ALSO, I have to give special shoutouts to Mordegon’s Sword of Darkness, coolest thing on the entire planet, I love swords with freaky giant eyes frantically looking around on them.

Lastly, I really liked the gameplay and combat of this game. I thought the way battles are set up as still being traditional turnbased combat but with the ability to freely walk around the field and look at the arenas was awesome. And getting to walk up to teammates to see their thoughts mid battle is super cool. Of course I loved all the different spells you can learn, and all the abilities you get through level ups. A new feature in this one (at least it’s new to me) is the Pep Up state, which is also cool. Particularly because it allows for Crossover Attacks between teammates, which is always the best thing an RPG can include, but most RPGs just choose not to. But DQ11 has it in spades and it ROCKS, there’s so much cool and genuinely useful crossover moves I didn’t even get to see all of them. And a final cool piece of the battle system was the ability to actually change equipment and teammates mid battle. I’m unsure if I’ve ever played a game that allowed for this (though I know they exist) but I thought it really made it feel like you could make use of your whole team and all your equipment. Being able to change teammates and what weapons they use for appropriate strategies was super fun.

Stuff I didn’t like

And, I did really like DQ11. I think I might even like it more than 8. There’s a ton of improvements. I feel like it’s less stingy with EXP, I feel like it was all around just easier to navigate and handle. But I still had a fair amount of issues with the game. Particularly in the- say it with me if you know what’s coming- post Yggdrasil content!! Prior to Yggdrasil, the game was buttery smooth. I flew through the whole thing and loved every second of it with minimal roadblocks (as opposed to DQ8 which roadblocked me at every boss.) And by the time I reached Yggdrasil, I realized I had been playing for 30 hours and didn’t even realize it! That’s awesome and pretty impressive considering I’ve played shorter games that felt like double that.

So, the game starts to crawl a little bit before Yggdrasil in my opinion. Once you have to start looking for the orbs, the game just kinda teeters for a bit there randomly. Like, the orbs are meant to be kind of a big deal, and yet the purple and whichever one you find in the bird dungeon thing (lol) basically get no fanfare. It felt like they were forgotten about and just had to be thrown in at the last second. Now, you could argue that the whole mural thing and the bird boss were those orbs’ fanfare. But it still felt so odd to me. Then, Yggdrasil falls.

I liked the post Yggdrasil stuff, I really did. I thought it was all pretty great from a story and character point of view. And getting to see the world that was so beautiful be corrupted and filled with powerful monsters was neat. I loved Sylvando’s whole parade thing, and every one else’s was cool too. But that’s kinda it. The whole section just drags along as you play with most of your team just gone and it goes so slow. And a lot of it really felt like it could have been condensed down a bit, I mean they don’t even show you what happened to Serena. Which I guess was because of what happened to Veronica but, still?

Again, it’s good story content and I don’t necessarily want any of it removed. But damn man, it really grinds to halt. And I also felt like it got really brutal during this part for no reason, kind of out of nowhere. The skeleton spectral sentinel, Gloomivore, and Booga were MASSIVE hurdles for me to get over randomly. And it got so bad I genuinely considered dropping the game because I just didn’t have the patience. It felt like an NES game again out of nowhere. Now, I do want to blame this on maybe not use the character builder right, or something. But still it was just so annoying out of nowhere. Thankfully I found the perfect strategy of Oomphle on Hendrick, Sap on the enemy, then have Hendrick spam Unbridled Blade, which was foolproof and beat every boss after that.

Thankfully once Serena joins your team again, and everyone is there (minus one aha) the game really picks up steam again. Everything after that was a breeze and went by without any issues. I think I hit one roadblock afterwards and it was pretty easy to just grind past. So I don’t know what happened there. The only other part I have a problem with is I do feel like the game ends rather abruptly. Like, not majorly. But I wouldn’t have minded seeing more about what happens between Eleven and Gemma or something. But that’s what the post game content is for I guess!

Some other nitpicks are that, I didn’t care about the music again. I think I liked more music in this one than DQ8, but still I’d be hard pressed to actually remember any songs from this game. I’m listening to the OST as we speak and other than the battle theme, I feel like I don’t remember what they sound like at all. And that’s probably cause I hate the composer but hey what can you do? I also wish it was easier to find Metal Slimes. I know they’re meant to be rare but I would’ve appreciated some appearing in the overworld just anywhere outside of the dragon chase scene? Weird to me you have randomly encounter them on the side of other enemeis.

Outside of that, uh. I think the Tockles were SUPER tick-tocked onto the game? It seemed like they were going to be massively important, but they just weren’t? I felt like you could’ve removed them and it would have made no change. I also thought there was gonna be WAY more time travel stuff. The scenes where you see the past are some of the best imo. Meeting Chalky from the past, playing as Rab in his kingdom, helping Eleven’s dad pass on. But these don’t feel enough to name the game “Echoes of an Illusive Age” if that makes sense? It just felt like there was supposed to be way more stuff with the Tockles and Time Travel stuff that just didn’t happen. 

Now that I’m remembering it, it felt like there was TONS of stuff built up that just didn’t really go anywhere. Another big one is the whole deal with Erdwin’s lanter? Who was the guy who cut it in half? What was the deal with the lantern? Why did it fall? What was up with the dark Tockle? Wanna give any information on that? No? Okay. But if I had to guess, these all are explored heavily in the post game content, which is cool but sadly I did not have the time to play it. Maybe one day I’ll pick up a copy of the game and play through it fully.

Final Thoughts

Yeah it was good.

I am a huge fan of RPGs, but Dragon Quest just hadn’t fully clicked with me. I played 8 and liked it, but wasn’t blown away. I wouldn’t say I was blown away by this one either, but I am certainly very impressed and am eagerly anticipating whatever Dragon Quest 12 ends up being. This series is super founded in tradition (even if that tradition is detrimental to the gameplay imo?) but this game felt like a true evolution of that tradition while still holding onto it in the right ways. Are there ways to improve the game? Oh yeah, tons! But this is already a good step in the right direction. I will certainly be visiting the series more eventually (particularly 3, 4, and 5 are ones I’m curious about.) But I will probably emulate them to cheat when I run into roadblocks again.

After playing this, I also went back to play as Hero in Smash. They are still one of the best, if not my favorite character in the game. I think they are so fun and I love the randomness element that comes with them. Their stage is great too!

Also, seeing this gorgeous RPG with Akira Toriyama art in it made me REALLY want a new Blue Dragon. Like, REALLY bad. Please Microsoft if you’re listening PLEASE give us a new Blue Dragon. I don’t care what genre of RPG it is just give us a new one please I’m begging. Make it look like DQ11 and it will be the best game of all time.

Okay but enough of that. Thanks for skimming through or just letting me talk for a bit. For some reason the longer I held this one off, the less and less I felt like talking about it? Which is strange cause it’s a big game and I felt like I had tons to say during it. The only reason I even finished this and decided to post it was cause I already started it. Basically what I’m saying is that don’t be surprised if I just start making REALLY teeny tiny posts here instead of big rambles like this one.

But until then, I have work to do. I played through the Ty 2 HD remake on Switch recently and loved it all over again. I will maybe talk about that later. At the moment I’m playing Tales of Vesperia. Thanks again for putting up with me ramble about games, see you next time! Play something you love that puts you in an adventurous mood!

[placetobenation]

Are you ready for the busiest week of the year in the WWE? That’s right, it’s time for WrestleMania week where the WWE has something going every single night for the WWE Universe.

On Monday, it’s RAW. On Tuesday, it’s the WWE Hall of Fame Ceremony. Wednesday and Thursday bring the live NXT TakeOver: Stand & Delivery two-night event. Friday brings a special SmackDown with the return of the Andre Giant Memorial Battle Royale. Finally, on Saturday and Sunday, it’s the extravaganza we know as WrestleMania back in front of live fans at Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium.

Damn, I’m tired already. So, before we recap the week that got us this far, let’s see where the cards stand as of Saturday morning.

WrestleMania 37 – Updated card:

Night 1:

Bad Bunny vs. The Miz

Seth Rollins vs. Cesaro

Steel Cage Match: Braun Strowman vs. Shane McMahon

RAW Tag Team Championship Match: The New Day vs. AJ Styles & Omos

SmackDown Women’s Championship Match: Sasha Banks vs. Bianca Belair

WWE Championship Match: Bobby Lashley vs. Drew McIntyre

Night 2:

The Fiend vs. Randy Orton

Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn

RAW Women’s Championship Match: Asuka vs. Rhea Ripley

Intercontinental Championship Nigerian Drum Fight: Big E vs. Apollo Crews

SmackDown Championship Match: Roman Reigns vs. Edge vs. Daniel Bryan

Expected to be added: WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship Match: Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler vs. TBD (winner of night 1’s four-way match between TBD)

NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver updated card:

Night 1:

NXT Women’s Championship Match: Io Shirai vs. Raquel Gonzalez

NXT Tag Team Championship Match: MSK vs. The Grizzled Young Veterans vs. Legado del Fantasma

NXT North American Championship #1 Contender’s Gauntlet Eliminator Match: Leon Ruff, Isaiah “Swerve” Scott, Bronson Reed, Cameron Grimes, Dexter Lumis, LA Knight

NXT UK Championship Match: WALTER vs. Tommaso Ciampa

KUSHIDA vs. Pete Dunne

Night 2:

NXT Championship Match: Finn Balor vs. Karrion Kross

Unsanctioned Match: Adam Cole vs. Kyle O’Reilly

NXT North American Championship: Johnny Gargano vs. TBA

NXT Cruiserweight Championship Unification Ladder Match: Jordan Devlin vs. Santos Escobar

NXT Women’s Tag Team Championship Match: Ember Moon & Shotzi Blackheart vs. Candice LeRae & Indi Hartwell

For sure, there will be surprises along the way over the next 7 days. If I’m the WWE, I’m starting off the event with something that will make its first live crowd in over a year pop so loud it will feel like a packed crowd instead of about 25,000 fans at Raymond James Stadium. Yup, I’m starting WrestleMania with Sasha Banks vs. Bianca Belair. They’ll get the night off to an awesome start and set a standard for all those to follow. Now, will the WWE do it or will they save them for the main event? Time will tell, but as those that have fought in the ring say, if you’re not last, you want to be first.

Finally, before we get to the show recaps, let’s talk about Friday’s shocking announcement from the WWE: Chris Jericho is going to be the next guest on Steve Austin’s Broken Skulls Session Podcast Sunday, April 11th immediately after night two of WrestleMania. That’s a jaw dropper my friends. After all, Jericho is currently one of the founding fathers of All Elite Wrestling, the WWE’s main rival these days and he’s been none-too-shy about blasting the WWE at any given chance since leaving the company to embark on his journey through New Japan Pro Wrestling and AEW. It will be fascinating to watch and yes; I applaud Vince McMahon for letting it happen on his watch.

RAW

RESULTS

United States Non-Title Championship Match: Sheamus defeated Riddle

Braun Strowman defeated Jaxson Ryker

WWE Championship Non-Title Match: Bobby Lashley defeated Shelton Benjamin

Xavier Woods defeated AJ Styles by DQ

Naomi defeated Shayna Baszler

Drew McIntyre defeated Ricochet; McIntyre defeated Mustafa Ali

Needless to say, RAW felt a little flat for me with just under two weeks to WrestleMania.

As far as @Sheltyb803 and @CedricAlexander go, The #HurtBusiness is OVER.#WWEChampion @fightbobby is looking out for no one but #TheAllMighty on The Road to #WrestleMania! #WWERaw pic.twitter.com/KFyCjxWPiY

— WWE (@WWE) March 30, 2021

King @BaronCorbinWWE of #SmackDown shocked everyone by showing up on #WWERaw to take out @DMcIntyreWWE! pic.twitter.com/kWnAPj6lOg

— WWE (@WWE) March 30, 2021

I didn’t quite understand the need to break up The Hurt Business before the PPV. Pitting Cedric Alexander and Shelton Benjamin against WWE Champion Bobby Lashley doesn’t make much sense to me. Who knows, maybe it’s a big rouse by MVP. And speaking of Lashley, if he’s such a badass, why does he need the help of King Corbin, fresh off SmackDown, to beat down Drew McIntyre to end the show. Now, while we’re at it, why would it be Ricochet and Mustafa Ali as the ones to take a shot at McIntyre and not a guy like Braun Strowman, who was just begging for a title shot a few weeks back. A little thing like a match with Shane McMahon shouldn’t sidetrack him.

Want more?

Why have Rhea Ripley and Asuka fighting as a tag team less than a week before their RAW Women’s Championship match? Well, because that’s what the WWE does – put all their challengers in a tag team with each other. Done. Too. Death. Oh yeah, it’s also because the Women’s Tag Team Champs, Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler have such little interest, they’ll just throw a bunch of teams in against them with no storyline. YAWN.

Need a US Title Match? Here’s Sheamus to beat Riddle.

Want more? Need to fill a few segments.

Well, here’s The New Day Game Night and a DQ win by Xavier Woods over AJ Styles to whet your appetite. How about seeing Omos actually wrestle ONCE in a ring before WrestleMania? Nah.

The less said about The Miz and John Morrison’s “Hey Hey Hip Hop” music video the better.

The same can be said about McMahon’s report card flashback to make fun of Strowman. Damn, Shane, you can’t even read the words that are on the card to match the screen. It’s amazing that the WWE, with all its anti-bullying messages allows this storyline to go any further.

NXT

RESULTS

Cameron Grimes defeated Roderick Strong

NXT Cruiserweight Championship Non-title match: Santos Escobar defeated Tyler Breeze

Candice LeRae & Indi Hartwell defeated Gigi Dolan and Zeda Ramir

Raquel Gonzalez defeated Zoey Stark

Xia Li defeated Kacy Catanzaro & Kayden Carter

LA Knight wins NXT North American Championship Gauntlet Eliminator Battle Royale

Needless to say, NXT is the show that I hoped RAW would and could be. Instead of the non-sensical booking and wasteful segments, NXT was all business Wednesday night with the go-home show before the historic two-night NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver event coming up this week.

Cameron Grimes vs. Roderick Strong turned out to be a case of two guys going in opposite directions. Grimes has his money on his mind and distracted Strong just enough with that The Undisputed Era armband to get the victory. Yes, Roddy’s been down lately and it looks like he’s walking away.

Kudos to Santos Escobar and Tyler Breeze for continuing to raise the bar in the cruiserweight division. Breeze proved more than just a warm-up match in Escobar’s Open Challenge before his unification match against Jordan Devlin at NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver.

I don’t think I’ve ever been more impressed by someone losing three matches than Zoey Stark. In dropping decisions to Io Shirai, Dakota Kai and Raquel Gonzalez the past three weeks, Stark has looked up to the task and the moment’s not too big for her against some of the best in NXT. There are good times (and wins!) ahead for Stark.

Xia Li continues to be a badass, that’s for sure. But, what’s also evil is Tian Sha and the stronghold she put on Kayden Carter before blowing that mysterious mist into Carter’s face. Whatever that force is between the two, I’m ALL IN! Li gets the win in the ring over a returning Kacy Catanzaro while her friend gets taken out on the ramp. This story gets better and better each week.

This brawl does not, and will not, end.

#WWENXT @RaquelWWE @shirai_io pic.twitter.com/UvGkbfHIDX

— WWE NXT (@WWENXT) April 1, 2021

The third time definitely was not the charm for Io Shirai. All night long, the NXT Women’s Champion tried to attack Gonzalez heading into their NXT TakeOver match, but all three times, she got the worst of it including finally being thrown through a wall to seemingly end her night. Yet, still we get Shirai in the ring to end the show, flying off the top rope to take out Gonzalez and most of the women’s locker room as well. Beware of the female giant Gonzalez, my friend. She’s coming for your NXT Title!

It's GOOD to be LAST. #BattleRoyal #WWENXT Wednesday's Night 1 #NXTTakeOver: Stand & Deliver #GauntletEliminator Order: 1. @LEONRUFF_ 2. @swerveconfident 3. @bronsonreedwwe 4. @CGrimesWWE 5. @DexterLumis 6. @LAKnightWWE pic.twitter.com/XOErxHZz8M

— WWE NXT (@WWENXT) April 1, 2021

How about that Battle Royale? Can we make Austin Theory look any sillier with that elimination of himself? Dexter Lumis made it to the final six by standing in the corner like a statue. Heck, he didn’t move until the final 3. It’s a shame that KUSHIDA and Pete Dunne eliminated each other to miss the final six. But at least we’ll get a solid match added to NXT TakeOver night 1 between them. I like LA Knight getting the win, taking out Lumis after going through the middle ropes instead of over-the-top rope like Lumis did. Now, it’ll be Lumis and Knight starting off the gauntlet match Wednesday night to see who fights Johnny Gargano for the NXT North American Championship on Thursday night.  And oh yeah, is Roderick Strong really leaving? He didn’t even make it into the battle royale as expected.

That Prime Target setting up Adam Cole vs. Kyle O’Reilly was intense! It’s definitely worth a watch if you missed it and a second look if you saw it live.  

What’s up with the dog? Well, it’s the debut of Taya Valkyrie folks! Or should we same Franky Monet?

SMACKDOWN

RESULTS

Otis, Chad Gable, Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode defeated The Street Profits & The Mysterios

Natalya defeated Shayna Baszler

Bianca Belair defeated Carmella

Street Fight: Daniel Bryan defeated Jey Uso

The road to #WrestleMania hasn't been easy for @WWEDanielBryan, but he makes one hell of a statement after his victory tonight to @EdgeRatedR AND @WWERomanReigns! #SmackDown pic.twitter.com/BsHDdQPboa

— WWE (@WWE) April 3, 2021

I’ll be honest, when I saw them previewing yet another Daniel Bryan vs. Jey Uso match, I was like again, really? But a street fight with one week to go before WrestleMania isn’t a terrible idea. It lends itself to an anything can happen atmosphere. Granted, it wasn’t as brutal as it could’ve been but it left no doubt that it lifted the stock of Bryan. First, he gets the win over Uso by making him tap out. Then, he knocks some sense into Edge, banging his head into the ring post before taking aim at the Universal Champion himself by putting Roman Reigns into the YES lock to end the night. They’re doing a really good job at building this triple threat match into one that we have no idea who’s the favorite going in and coming out of Tampa.

Good job by the tag teams to start the night. Otis got the flying bulldozer on Montez Ford to get the win for his team of Chad Gable, Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode over The Street Profits and The Mysterios. They made me believe that anyone can walk out as champions when they face off in a fatal four-way on the night before WrestleMania.

What’s the point of having a 30-second match between Shayna Baszler and Natalya when you know it’s only there to set up the post-match melee between all the women tag teams? There’s got to be a better way. Speaking of a better way, how do Carmella and Bayley NOT have a match at WrestleMania? At the very least, put them together to win the titles.

Good to see Cesaro given a bit of mic time in the middle of the ring against Seth Rollins. Here’s hoping the push continues even after next weekend.

All @SamiZayn wanted was a calm red carpet experience with @LoganPaul. @FightOwensFight wasn't about to let that happen! #SmackDown pic.twitter.com/5z0WjSc0rG

— WWE (@WWE) April 3, 2021

Justice for Sami? More like Stunner for Sami! That Red Carpet Premiere with Logan Ryan didn’t exactly go how Mr. Zayn planned did it? Either way, we’ll have Ryan at WrestleMania in the middle of the Kevin Owens/Zayn match.

Can Corey Graves drool over Carmella any more on the mic? Just admit they’re a couple off camera already! In the ring, Carmella held her own but couldn’t avoid being pinned by Bianca Belair, who then shielded off a surprise attack from Sasha Banks. At this point, there’s nothing more to be done between these two, let’s get to the match.

What exactly is a Nigerian Drum Fight? Looks like we’ll find out when Apollo Crews takes on Big E for the Intercontinental Championship.

Parting shots:

So long Charly Caruso, we’re going to miss you! With Caruso’s WWE contract expiring and a full-time move to ESPN announced, it’s the end of the line to Caruso’s time in wrestling. It’s a shame that Angel Garza and Charly never got to take things a bit further than their backstage flirtation. Now, she gets more time to hang out with Stephen A. Smith and the gang at First Take.

Coming up this week:

RAW: WWE Women’s Tag Team Non-title Match: Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler vs. Asuka & Rhea Ripley Drew McIntyre vs. King Corbin WWE Championship Non-title Match: Bobby Lashley vs. Cedric Alexander

NXT: NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver Nights 1 & 2 (Wednesday and Thursday)

SMACKDOWN: Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royale SmackDown Tag Team Championship Fatal Four-Way Match: Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode vs. Chad Gable & Otis vs. The Street Profits vs. The Mysterios

Thanks for letting us share our thoughts! Shoot me an email at jcrowe567@gmail.com. We’d love to hear your comments and suggestions! You can also check out my blog, The Crowe’s Nest as we delve into more pro wrestling, sports entertainment and the World of Sports. My apologies ahead of time – I AM a Patriots, Red Sox, Celtics and Bruins fan! If you’re not down with that, I’ve got TWO WORDS for you… NEW ENGLAND

[stone-man-warrior]

December 9, 2020: 5:16 pm:

I just returned from errand run in Dystopia, Grants Pass Oregon.

I went to Walgreen‘s.

I am going to give an example of how to read unspoken terror comm presented on the road, in the parking lots, at the stores, by people who use visual communication to say a message, rather than spoken or written words.

The comm that I can explain a little bit of, is about yesterday after the terror doctor appointment, at the Dairy Queen, when that extra large size woman shot me with the .25 caliber custom made gun and the bullet bounced off my coat. After she shot me, I defended, but I left that out of the report yesterday. The gal that shot me lost her head. I don‘t remember all of the details, so, that’s part of why I didn‘t say more than “she left in a hurry”. The last thing I recall, is that woman was slung over the DQ service counter, and her head was on the floor on the hamburger side of the counter rolling around, and I was on the customer side of the counter. The woman was sort of in between, over the counter a little bit as I left.

The man who I explained was way over qualified was right there, he drew my attention away from that extra large size woman, in the opposite direction and continued to draw my attention away from that woman with the gun even after the fighting. He stayed away from the head on the floor, and walked away from where the woman was on the counter leaning over it, dead. My recollection is about that man, I kept my eyes on the man that was way over qualified the whole time, even as I was fighting the woman with the gun.

He said: “He caught it”, then repeated that again: “he caught it, cut her head off”.

That was whispered to someone on his communication device. I think his perception was that I had caught the bullet  in my hand, because I set it on the counter after it hit my coat, he saw me set the bullet on the counter, and that is when he said: “he caught it”, which I suppose I did do, sort of, as it bounced off me.

So today, I went to Walgreen‘s. I was followed by others who needed to know that that woman lost her head, and a series of communication was rolled out along the way, I could see some of it, I’ll explain, it leads to:

Basically:

“She’s head”

“She’s dead”

Then there is a missing part to it, but more leads to, basically:

“Pirate ship repair”

“Boat repair”

“Garbage Barge Venetian Blinds Repair”

Here is how some of the comm was presented:

At Winco Foods parking lot, clearly visible from Grants Pass Parkway, as you pass by:

A hot chick, blonde, long hair, about 30 y/o sitting on the tailgate of a black pick-up truck bed, while holding and waving around a black rubber looking tubular shaped thing.

You read that as a sexual, passion event, exposed, out in the open, a sale (sail)... “ a port in a storm”... and other ways you can just tuck that into your thought while on the way to the Walgreen‘s, where other terror event will take place, you are a pirate who does not know exactly what went down yesterday at the terror doctor Sturgeon Hit From Denmark Chapter of Vatican Choir HQ, getting the message along the way, from other supporting pirates who learned what happened, and can inform you.

Then along the way, comes some bad news in the form of a specialized looking service truck that is turning from M street where you can see that it’s a specialized service rig, one of a kind, very unique, is custom made for doing very special work. It’s a big Ford Cab, F-500 or something, has Blue fenders, white cab, red super duty rear crash bumper, different color doors, and hood, is a flat bed w/service boxes, has a “Yard Arm Boom”, yellow, a welder is attached to the service bed box, and there are a lot of non-specific parts of stuff in the bed. You look at that, and say:

“Pirate ship repair mobile service rig headed for the dock”

(different color fenders and doors and hood, means: “SDA Cannibal Pirates”)

Then, at the Walgreen’s, in the aisles, some woman with two others says:

“Cocktails” loud enough that you can hear it. That reminds you of the “hot chick in the tail gate bed w/weenie at the Winco Foods”

You look around for other clues now, you know there is something wrong, you are a pirate, and are there to do some pirating, but there is bad news going on, so, have a closer look.

There is a divider at the Walgreen’s pharmacy counter, it separates “Express Card Special Customer Counter”, from “Regular Customer Counter”. That thing is made with the kind of rope separator and some posts that you see at movie theaters... those red ropes at the theater. These ones are black though, Walgreen’s are pirate ports, so, black. There is another, bigger post. is aqua color, for the end part of the black theater rope, that post is leaning over. So, what you do, is pretend that the pharmacy counter is a docking port where boats come, park for a minute, load up, and then go on their way. That Black Rope, and that leaning post then become Piers and ropes at the shipping port dock.

“Some big ass boat must have crashed into that shipping dock pier, that’s why the thing is all leaning over like that. Maybe that’s what the Pirate Ship Mobile Repair Rig we saw is for, to come to fix a smashed up shipping port at the Walgreen’s.” you say.

Later, we have to wait for the prescription, so, to the parking we go, maybe there is more to the message. So far, there is a passionate sail, a weenie, a bed, a hot chick, some repair cannibals, smashed up shipping port, and cocktails. There was also some misplaced Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup Miniatures on the chair at the Pharmacy waiting area, that can‘t be good.

Then, the glue for all of that happens in the parking as we watch the traffic go by while waiting for prescriptions. There is a familiar Range Rover, very pretty off-road British rig, is never going to get any dirt on it, ever, but that one is very special, looks like a offroad sports car. I think it’s called Land Rover Sport, and older one, looks brand new. is rust colour (oxidized iron, Burnt Sienna, metallic). Those come new from the factory with Oil Leak, and plaque on the transmission hump that says “By order of the Queen, this car shall leak oil (Oil Tanker Jargon built into the British cars) That, we know is special because we see that one at the Walmart RV parking sometimes, and, is not where it’s supposed to be, that one belongs at the Walmart parking lot, RV area, not on Union Ave crossing Williams Hwy.

“Holy shit! what is that doing here?” you say.

You’re Canadian comrade says: “Sacre Bleau!”

The next thing is that there are two people, a young man, and a young woman, having a conversation very close by, so, we notice. He said this, she said that, then, she said, she said some more, then, she just kept saying.

“He said. She said” happened right there, we saw it happen, there is no question about what happened, “He said... She said” happened.

Mostly, it was “She Said”

Those were Reese’s Peanut butter cups, mini ones.

“Reese head she’s head... he’s said... reese head.... she’s head...”

Uh Oh. That means our terror pirate large size .25 assassin at the Dairy Queen was decapitated.

Just then, a fifty foot trailer big-rig truck, Olive Drab Green cab and trailer, goes by on Williams, headed for 7th Street. The trailer, looks like a Russian Missal Silo on wheels, has a lot of heavy duty support rings wrapped around it’s tubular shape, was not a pressurized liquid or air-gas trailer, was some other Russian Hoax Mother going down the road. Very special, unique, one of a kind.

Over to the left. port side, we see an official looking truck is backed into a parking slot (slip), it has the word “Mountain“ on the door. There are two orange cones, one at each front corner of that Mountain truck. That, is RCMP Boat Ramp security saying there is a hazard at the Walgreen’s Shipping Dock. The man in the truck, is only there to observe, has some cones, for safety at the banged up port.

Then, there is a very long crew cab pick up truck, it has a service bed, an empty lumber rack, and a very special custom made. unique, one of a kind, extension to the service bed tacked onto the back. Looks just the same as a scuba boat where the divers get into and out of the dive boat. Must be a Submarine Dive Boat Search Crew. Bad news to see those.

A man moving swiftly on a bicycle went west on Union Ave towards the Les Schwab, theater, and Crisis Resolution Center, he had a black & white dog with him running fast at his side, no leash, along the edge of the traffic, heavy traffic, against the traffic.

That goes by, at the same time that a man across the street at the Industrial Door Shop is filling up a flat bad trailer trash barge boat with a lot of heavy looking Venetian blinds, very big ones. That means the cover is blown.

Then, the man, bicycle and black & white dog came back, still moving swiftly, but on the correct side of the road this time, turned the Williams Hwy corner, and began to go against traffic again, even heavier traffic, as the dog is running almost in the lane, no leash, fast.

We have to go back inside now at the Walgreen‘s Shipyard, they said 45 minutes, it’s been about 30 minutes, so, we go back in there. The terror pirates are all looking very sad in the parking area. One on bicycle brushed closely by as he walked his wheeled dingy near the door of the car, so, it’s getting dangerous to stay right there anyway. Head for the door, there is some jockeying of cars going on, looks unnatural, staged, one car just sits right in the lane, between me and the door of the Walgreen‘s as the thinnest man in the world comes out of the store, slacks, matching dress shirt, bright red tie, belt, patent leather shoes, and walks somberly away. “FBI must be spread thin around here” is my read about that. I suspect some V-8 happened to them. Bad news there.

The Pharmacy Tech says: “Throw the last four of your phone number into that card reader, and we’ll get you all set to go”.

no other comm is noted after that. I purchased a 1/25 scale toy collectable Chevrolet Camaro for $5.99, I already bought the two Ford GT’s they had, a 1964 GT 40, and a new Canadian made Ford GT, 2020 model, recently.

Parking lot was desolate on the way out, just a few people, was full and active upon arrival.

So, that, and some more stuff, is basically how to get from not knowing what happened to that extra large .25 caliber assassin at the DQ, to knowing that she lost her head there, was killed, and the cover is blown at some high British places of terror leadership.

End Walgreen‘s shipyard search crew report: 6:50 pm.

==

12-10-2020: 1:17 am:

One other notable observation from today’s Walgreen’s Port Authority Submarine Pirate Search and Repair at the Boat Dock before I get some sleep:

On the way to all of that, on the freeway southbound just south of Mile 66 was a Kia Mini Van, white. The thing looked pretty cool to me, I saw it was a Kia, looks just like a Dodge Caravan. So I went to have a closer look, sometimes the terror bastards change the emblems on the cars they drive, for confusion service.  , The closer look still was that It said Kia, looked like a Caravan. I passed by, driving that Kia Caravan was someone who looked just exactly like Ann Wilson of Heart.

Terror is way bigger than anyone is willing to see it.

=======================

7:56 pm:

Some unrelated additional thoughts that may be helpful to understand the enormity of the Vatican parts of the terror monster:

For the older people mostly, think through your life about the things you enjoyed collecting, or were otherwise enthusiastic about. Think about how others interfere with your interest in those things, such as when you like cars, any kind of car that is cool to you, but, some asshole insists that you need to stay with the Ford. You must be a :Ford man“, could be a Chevy they insist you are loyal to, or a MOPAR product. If you say you like all three, they hassle you when you are young man enjoying something, make you feel like you can only choose one thing, you can‘t have a Mustang, and a Camaro, they say you are a kook if you do that. Same idea with motorcycles vs surfing, if you are a high school kid in 1979 and want to surf, then you are a “surfer”: If you have a motorcycle, you are a “Biker” but they hassle you if you ride the motorcycle in the evening after you went surfing, you can‘t be both without outside pressure hassling you.

Brand Loyalty, and the label that goes with it, has been thrust at us for a long time. Those people are the Vatican operatives who train people to only have one thing they are loyal to, just one. One text, one thing, they started doing that to us long ago, subliminally.

Just something to think about to get a perspective of the size of the terror, and how long they have been training the people to behave the way they need us to, makes us easy targets, and primes us towards the Church, where the pressure comes from.

One of thousands of ways we are “altered” that way, is that when we become caged into a single interest, even with something simple like hobby preferences or collectable interests, is that we are trained not to explore beyond realms of singular interests. We are confined in so many ways, that brand label way, or club affiliation way, is only one way. It’s good to explore, but not to invade. Balance is something we don’t easily learn when confined. Somewhere between exploration and invasion, is balance.

========================

8:55 pm:

At the Monroe Offensive Surveillance Travel Trailer next door, they are setting up for the part where they claim I raped the girl who is inside the trailer. There is a ongoing thing that happens, many thousands of times, where I step out for a walk, they spy on me all of the time, see that I went outside, then a whole bunch of lights are turned on so the the innocent young lady can safely walk from the house in front to that trailer that is way in the back in the woods in the dark. There are about six bright lights that the young lady turns on as she progresses her way through the darkness to the trailer, all of them are done at a time when I just get right there on my walk, and the lights are there to make sure that I can see that there is a young lady walking through the darkness, innocently, to the trailer. I think sometimes there is a stack of bibles that she brings there for a bible study before bedtime.

So, that is happening now, again.

They listen and watch everything I do, then use that to attack me. Later, there will be some asshole that comes into my house when I take another walk, the sheriff gave them keys to my house, so they come right in as though they own the place, then. they claim they do own the place, and that I am the intruder. Since I went to the Walgreen‘s today, there is a lineup of different people who will be there to do the same thing tomorrow after I kill this one tonight when she comes into my home and I need to defend. It goes on, and on, and on, same thing repeats almost daily, more often after I go to Walgreen’s.

So, please send a funeral wreath to Monroe’s in advance for the dead young lady and her bearded friend, who is staying out of view in the creek for now. He is hiding there waiting for me to take another short walk. They need to make arrangments with the sheriff for the phone call to happen when I come back from my walk and the young lady gets on the phone to say I came into her house. She will use my name, to say she is me. I have a girls name, so, they make the girls do the dangerous part, to come in and call the sheriff to say I am raping her. And of course that is when bearded friend boy will come to her rescue, spring into action, come out of the creek to save the girl. The Sheriff only shows up after all of that is completed, to handle the paperwork for the self defense report.

So, two funeral wreath’s over to the Monroe’s within the next thirty minutes or so could save their lives with a small message that says a lot.

Otherwise, I keep doing as I always have done, stay on my side of the fence, and defend myself and my home from the Monroe terror cell attack when they come into MY house.

===================

Some Russian Mother of all Hoaxes Fractal Zoom:

There was a time when someone sent a reward to me, it got hijacked, sent to Joan & Harold Phillips at 507 Jackpine. The reward was a real Ford GT, a trailer to keep it in, and a truck to pull it with. I don‘t know who sent the car. But whoever did, was told that information I provided stopped all of the terror or crime or whatever they were told. That was quite a long time ago, I wrote down the information about a day when I saw the trailer with the Ford GT in it going to somewhere on Jackpine. So, that is here on this account, it just says I saw a trailer with the words Ford GT on the side of it and that small amount of information was written on the day I saw the trailer with those words on “Ford GT 40″.

Later, I saw the car on Jackpine one time. Then, later again, I saw the car pass me on the Freeway, go to the rest stop at around mile marker 64 or so, southbound. That day, I went to AM/PM Lukes Arco, There, Arnold Schwarzenegger came into the store there, approached me, and told me that some fool sold him a Ford GT for $50,000, that his people were at the rest stop right then, saw the car, and had told Arnold that the car was good, so, he bought it in the time that it took me to drive to AM/PM. There was confusion. I did not know why Arnold Schwarzenegger thought he needed to approach me, or tell me any of that. There were thugs, and a fight, and Arnold Schwarzenegger was killed in defense that day at the AM/PM Lukes Arco. They pretend he is still alive. There is a man from YouTube fame called “Exoman“ who does some of the Arnold sightings that need to happen sometimes for that.

So, the fractal zoom part, is that I have always sort of secretly wanted a Ford GT. Only a few people know that I talked about that. There was once, at about that time, a toy Ford GT at the Walgreen‘s, and I bought the $5 dollar toy car to put on my desk. That car was used in some phone calls that happened, where I was asked if I like the Ford GT. Of course, it was just a toy car as far as I was concerned, but later, I learned that the people on the phone call were talking about a real Ford GT.

Some asshole came and stole the toy $5 Ford GT from my house on one of the attacks here. They demanded I give them the Ford GT, so, it was a toy car, I gave them the toy $5 Ford GT from the Walgreen’s and they left.

My son was still alive back then, he came by, asked me where the Ford GT is. I went to show him the toy one, and then remembered it had been stolen, I told him about what I remembered, he was confused, then I was confused.

Somewhere in all of that, where a real Ford GT was stolen, one I never touched or saw up close, and was sold to Arnold Schwarzenegger, who died over that, and the inclusion of a toy Ford GT, that was also stolen, is Fractal Russian Hoax Zoom that can be looked at by people who know what the fuck really happened. I don’t know what really happened beyond seeing that trailer with the words Ford GT printed on it, and seeing a Ford GT on the road twice, once on Jackpine, and once on the Freeway. I also saw that trailer go to the Phillips residence more than once, it was just a trailer as far as I could see, it was the printed words on it that got my attention. “Ford GT 40″ on there. small words on the rear corner of it.

So, I have purchased two toy Ford GT 40′s from Walgreen‘s in my lifetime, so far, and one Canadian Ford GT 2020 Model toy cars, and one of the Ford GT 40 toy cars  was stolen from me at about the same time that the one Arnold was killed over while defending from his thugs at the AM/PM.

A “Ford GT“ and “Ford GT 40″ are Le mans style racing cars. not Mustang’s.

The driver of the car I saw on the Freeway looked like Sean Sparacino’s son, who was about 16 years old at the time. That is who Schwarzenegger was going to buy that car from. Someone else has the car, I would look at Jay Leno’s Garage first to find it, and Monroe’s barn second. I suspect the car is stashed in a barn locally to be honest about that, but I am certain Jay Leno knows exactly where it is. Maybe it’s still in the Phillips garage at 507 Jackpine, inside of the car hauling trailer that was made for it.

Fractal Zoom of Russian Hoax is like that, a real car, a toy car, both are stolen. Then, confusion GT is bonus, with Wesley Crowel of 549 Jackpine, who suddenly had a brand new Ford Mustang GT at about that same time, and keeps getting new ones every year on trade in.

Important parts of that Ford GT 40 Russian Hoax is the phone call, and the work that went into setting up the phone call when I spoke to some unknown person on the call, which was buried within a phone call to my son, with use of a Stingray or Kingfish or Huawei knock off surveillance unit. The work for the set-up to that call included that there would be a toy Ford GT 40 at the Walgreen‘s, and that my attention was drawn to a selection of toy cars they had there. All of that had to be in place before the person who bought and sent that reward could be spoken to on the call, so that I would have a Ford GT 40 to talk about. I recall that when I said the car was a toy car, that person on the phone seemed very disapointed, and I am sure that I was made to appear as a colossal unappreciative asshole in the eyes of that very kind and generous person who sent a real Ford GT 40 as a reward. The problem is that the terror had not been stopped, it was advancing, and the whole episode that included that car is part of ongoing terror attack, where that person was singled out, fooled, taken advantage of, and probably killed as a result. There is a lot there to look at, maybe some records were kept, Mock’s Ford of Grants Pass may have been called upon to help obtain and deliver the car, and, the Monroe’s are almost family to the Mock’s Ford dealership, as Deb Monroe was married to Donny Mock of Mock’s Ford when the Monroe’s moved in next door about 5 years ago.

Donny is dead now.

That’s good news.

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11:19 pm:

Lye. Departments of Building & Safety takeover, Earth Movers & Paving Contractors, and Rogue Valley Public Storage:

This I learned in around 1989.

While working for J & C Construction of Southern California, owned by a man by the name of John Homes, who’s wife was the licensed contractor he did his contracts under as a Union Employer of Carpenters for residential and commercial framing.

A commercial job where we built a very large shopping center, many structures, I was job foreman with eleven man crew.

There was a time where I saw that there was some kind of bullshit happening at that jobsite somewhere in Orange County. The paving contractors were doing everything bassackwards. It took them forever to do the paving of the parking area at the shopping complex, and the work was fouling up all of the other tradesmen at the job. The parking was tore up for weeks. They were constantly digging it up, then grading, only to dig it all up again, and grade some more. Truckloads of lye were brought to the job, all of the lye was distributed evenly around in the very large parking area. All of that was dug up, turned, tilled, mixed into the earth at the site.

“What the heck?” I said.

They said: “The building & safety inspectors say that we are not getting the compaction results necessary to pass inspection, so, we put lye and lots of it, mix it in, stir it around, and grade it, over, and over, and over again, and the keep telling us that the ground is not compacting to the required standards.

“Ok... Is it ever going to be finished” i said.

They said: “It will be done when the compaction is the way the Building inspector needs it to be, until then, more lye goes in, turn it, grade it, roll it, inspect it, until they pass it.”

That is something to look at, I don‘t know why it is, it just is. The lye in the soil is some kind of bullshit story. It’s either the paving contractor trying to get some help by saying “Lies are every where”, or, they were putting the “V-8″ into the parking, and I didn‘t notice that part. I did notice that part on a different jobsite in Downtown Los Angeles where J & C Construction did the framing there at some subsidized housing apartment units, a very nice set of units too I should mention. The “V-8″ was put into the cement finishing work around the community access buildings there, some conference rooms, or, event rooms, big ones, were part of the apartment complex. I met Mayor Tom Bradley there, it was a big deal, the apartments were a news item, featured handy cap special units, and community gathering areas. Very large jobsite, many acres of land, I have no idea where all of that land came from in downtown Los Angeles there, at that time, in around 1990, not far from the Coliseum Sports Arena.

The “V-8″ is ground up people, they put the people into the earthwork at construction sites sometimes, other times, they use it as Erosion Abatement and the contractors make a prophet from the State Hwy Department of Transportation work they do when they grind people into pulp, add some seeds and water, and spray that onto the roadsides. Red Hydroseed is what they call it after the grass seeds are added.

Maybe that shopping center in Orange County is the same way, where all of that lye was added to the ground.

Over here in Grants Pass, there is a project going on for about five years so far, it’s only a five acre or so size jobsite, but took about three and one half years just to do the grading work there at a construction site that is very close to the Club Northwest Gym. You can see it from the freeway. I saw them put the sign on the buildings today, I think it said Rogue Valley Storage.

The thing about that place is, that they already built to whole fucking thing, then tore it all down, and have been slowly building it again in the same place, with teh same design as what was there, then torn down, now is there again, ten years or more later.

There is Cement contractors there, wood frame contractors, block work contractors, metal frame contractors, and iron worker contractors all on the same fucking nightmare over there. Every kind of construction technique is incorporated into the design features of a public storage facility.

That’s because it’s not a public storage like most people think about for their storage needs, that place is a killing field. I suspect they have been advertising for help wanted in fare away places to lure some victims from all of the trades to work on that thing.

The ground work I have been seeing over the course of it’s completion is such that there were big heaps of gravel, those were obscuring the view of other work that was going on beyond them, where booms were used to pump a lot of concrete into places that did not seem to make sense about why there needs to be three concrete pump boom trucks there extended and pumping concrete all at once. Those are expensive to rent, so, three of them at the same time on a job that is already taking three years to do earthwork before any building of structures was stated just is not right, there is some giant size bullshit happening there. The kind where under ground tunnels and passes, under ground chambers and unseen terror facilities are being hidden with a Public Storage. You have to understand that the people who are constructing that cannot be allowed to live after the work is done, the tradesmen will all be killed if they know of the underground tunnels they are building. That is how it works around here. There are many underground places, chambers, passages, facilities for Global Domination advance here in Josephine County, and, in Medford.

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12-11-2020: 7:38 pm: The construction site is called “Cascade Public Storage”. I went by today, and that is what it says on that monstrosity. That means I have some GLUE!

Try Cascade Block. It’s a place near the fairgrounds that sells block. Somewhere over there between Redwood Hwy and Redwood Ave... I think. Talk to Diane, the owner. She will have all of the answers. Used to drive a green very small Fiat sports car, a Spider, two door, convertible coup, best to my recollection. Very dangerous place though. Bring US Military for that.

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South Medford Interstate 5 interchange is all hollow. There are chambers inside of all of that, some are marked with artwork of dolphins on the structures there.

There is a place on Crater Lake Hwy at Delta Waters near the International Airport that I suspect is all hollow under it, with tunnels that extend from the airport to the hospital areas around Barnett and Black Oak where Asante Hospital is, and Asante has taken over just about all of the medical facilities of all kinds.

Asante is some of the worlds worst news you could ever get. There is no way to survive a hospital visit here in Oregon. They grind people into V-8 liquid pulp, spray them onto the roadsides to help stop the mudslide from occurring in the rainy season.

Terror is way bigger than anyone is willing to see it.