#barely making stuff and barely ever being online is a bad combo :)

[reboren]

[linssikeittomies]

Memoir Of A Moment

AO3

I guess the good thing about being an idiot and DELETING ALL YOUR FILES is that you're forced to go through your handwritten notebooks and rediscovering stuff you never fleshed out on the computer. I love Mononoke, the art style is wonderful and the stories tickle me just right. I would've loved to write a casefic, but I just couldn't come up with a good mononoke, and also I'm terrible at writing action and mystique, so I never finished it - and now I think that even incomplete, it could work as a Missed Opportunity type of story. Just imagine the adventure Kayo could've had if she stayed!

--

Figured it would be raining on the one day she was able to check out Harajuku. She had been planning this trip for almost a year, and took it  well before rainy season for this exact reason! Now there were only a lousy few people on the streets, and barely any of them worth photographing! And with such shitty lighting the photos would’ve turned out terrible anyways. Why had she even bothered leaving home? She’d seen the forecast...

Well, at least the trip wasn’t a complete failure. Despite the bad weather, some scattered groups and inidividuals were still around, and let Kayo take pictures. The gothic lolitas had been largely unbothered by the rain under their black, lacy umbrellas and safe from the puddles with their high platform shoes. The small group of ganguros had tried not to look bothered, not very successfully though... With their shorts and miniskirts you could see the goosebumps from the cold right away. Kayo had even seen a few angura kei girls, smartly dressed in kimonos to shield them from the chill. The cafes also let her take photos inside, as long as she also bought something - she was starting to feel ill from all the tea she'd been forced to consume and the excorbitant prices those places charged for absolutely everything.

Who knew when she’d be able to make a more successful trip? With her financial situation, it had been hard enough to scrounge up the funds and free time even for this one-day trip. In the morning, it would be back to work, back to scrolling through fashion blogs and online stores. Never contributing to those blogs or buying anything from those stores.

-o-

As midnight approached, Kayo finally decided it wasn’t worth the effort to keep looking for more subjects - she only had a few hours before her early morning train back home, and she needed the sleep more than she wanted the photos. Sighing, she put away her camera - her most prized possession, a genuine professional-grade DSLR, bought used from a relative who ran a photography studio - and headed for the capsule hotel. Leaving behind the chic, neon-lit fashion highway felt like such an appropriate metaphor for Kayo’s life - ever the visitor in such splendid places, never allowed to stay for longer than a few hours. The dim side streets were much more her place, getting dingier and smellier the further she walked. Only some hundreds of meters from the hotel, Kayo stopped. Ahead of her stood someone with a large wooden backpack, and a colorful haori. Perhaps she had found another subject, after all!  Must’ve been making their way back home from Harajuku, like her, another sorely disappointed fashion fan. Not old-school, with such unorthodox patterns and garish color combos, but clearly taking inspiration from traditional garments. A paper umbrella and geta, paired with what might have been an exceptionally long heko obi, since the ends were long enough to dangle past the knees. Kayo didn’t know that much about obi knots, not being all that into kimono herself, but she knew the backpack had to digging the knot uncomfortably into the person’s back. The only style she ever wore was karuta musubi because it was so easy and flat.

Digging out her camera again, she took one candid photo - only one, that she would ask permission to keep - because the composition of the figure standing in the middle, faintly haloed by the rain and streetlights, the street stretching out behind him, well...  it was just too photogenic to pass up. The shot even turned out well despite the dismal lighting, and some color correction on photoshop would fix the values. She would send a printed copy to her subject, if they wanted.

“Excuse me!” she called out and started jogging up to her target. They must’ve been wearing earphones, not hearing her, since they didn’t turn around. Well, at least they stayed still - a man, it turned out, and a beautiful one at that. But not wearing earphones, and talking to himself silently - so, a weirdo. But definitely a beautiful weirdo. A cosplayer, surely, from the markings on his face and the pointed ears. Very good quality prosthetics, looked completely real. The blond wig was just as good, a naturally plucked hairline and very fine mesh to hide the edges perfectly. This person had a lot of time and made good money. Also pale, flawless skin, and long, elegant fingers, and mesmerizing blue eyes. They didn’t even look like colored contacts, the look in them wasn’t uncomfortably staring at you with pinprick pupils. It might have even been his natural eye color. Half Japanese? If that was the case, then the hair might have been real, as well. His nose also suggested non-asian heritage, as long and pointy as his ears.

It felt like Kayo had been taking in the stranger’s appearance for minutes, him never acknowledging her until he finished his silent monologue. Only his eyes turned to look at her, a small, knowing smile on his already makeup-smiling lips.

“Good evening.”

His voice was pleasingly low and steady, his speech calm and slow. He kept looking at Kayo from the corner of his eye. The markings under his eye and on his nose intrigued Kayo, what was the story behind the character’s design? And the lavender smile, not something Kayo remembered seeing on any other -

“Ah - good evening!”

How rude, she had just kept staring!  Even if he was dressed to be stared at! So embarrassing, getting caught up in her thoughts! Just because someone looked good and strange was no excuse for bad manners. Thankfully the man did not seem to mind, just kept smiling faintly, and slowly lowered his eyes to the camera Kayo was still holding tightly in her hands.

“You are a photographer now?” he asked, not really making it sound like a question, and the now part bothering Kayo. She didn’t think they had ever met before, she was sure she would remember eyes like his even if his appearance otherwise had changed completely.

“Well, yes, not professionally - I came to take photos, but the weather - could I take your picture? Fashion is a hobby of mine.”

 “That never changes.”

Kayo was almost regretting talking to the guy, he might have been high. He was acting weirdly enough, and his halting speech wasn’t exactly helping dispel the thought, either. It was oddly hypnotic though, with his quiet voice you had to stop and listen, and with the slow rhythm you had to keep listening, and with the weird pauses mixed in he sounded otherworldly.

“A photo in exchange for a favor, perhaps?”

He was still calm, the half-lidded gaze not threatening in the least, but no matter how unassuming a guy looked, Kayo was not stupid enough to agree without knowing the terms. She steeled her face, trying to appear as someone you couldn’t bend.

“Depends on the favor. I’m not desperate so don’t even dream of anything pervy!”

The man chuckled softly, his eyes crinkling in amusement. He finally turned to face Kayo directly.

“Some things do change”, he commented cryptically. Kayo decided not to question it, the guy was clearly either on drugs or having a psychosis. Why did he keep thinking he knew Kayo? Maybe she resembled someone he did know, or used to know?

He lifted a finger, pointing with it’s sharp claw to an alley. “Can you see anyone on that street?”

A quick look revealed the two of them were alone, everyone else having opted for the better-lit main streets, and Kayo was starting to feel more nervous. Not that the guy was looking or acting any more threatening, but being alone with a male junkie on a deserted street in the middle of the night  tends to make a girl jumpy.

“No, seems empty to me”, she said in a confident tone, like she wasn’t even thinking of the possibility of being assaulted. A strong girl like her? No one would attack her!

The stranger made a non-committal noise, and his eyes turned more serious. He looked at the alley thoughtfully. “A most troublesome form, indeed. I wonder, why do some see it while others don’t.”

“Was that the favor? Can I take that photo now?”

The amused smile came back.

“Take as many as you like. But I must keep working, do not disturb the scales.” And with a small gesture of his finger, a drawer in the backpack slid open and something flew out.

Okay, it was official - Kayo had gone nuts. First going on this trip even knowing it would fail, then talking to a total stranger in an empty street at night, then not walking away when it turned out the guy was on drugs. Now her madness had extended to seeing hallucinations.

At least the hallucination was polite - a metal thingamajig that looked like an art deco butterfly bowed to her before continuing on its way further down the abandoned alley. Its friends soon followed, a veritable swarm of metal butterflies - scales, the man had called them. Kayo couldn’t possibly say what they measured, or how. By the time she shook off her stupor, odd paper charms had also appeared on the walls out of nowhere. A staticky hum filled the hair, raising the hairs on Kayo. Some form of electricity, maybe.

“Kayo-san, is it? You came here to take photos, and your time is limited.”

A cold wave washed over Kayo. She knew for a fact they had never met in their lives, and there was no way he could know her name. They had come across each other by pure accident... It just wasn’t possible...

“Do you know me from somewhere?” she asked, stupefied, heart skipping beats here and there. This was so odd, scary, and yet she was not nearly as scared as she felt she should be.

“We know each other from several places, but we have never met before.”

“How does that even make sense! What the hell do you mean by that? Which one us has gone crazy here, I don’t understand anything anymore...”

But even so, she lifted her camera and started taking pictures. Of the man, of the scales, of the empty alley. She didn’t even care about angles, lighting, composition, she just pressed the shutter. She ended up with nearly a hundred photos, majority of them incomprehensible, before the man directed her to keep going on her way. She had obeyed without question - the atmosphere had gotten oppressive, the feeling of a storm encroaching.

-o-

All her life, Kayo often thought back to that night. It felt unreal, but the photos were undeniable evidence of the opposite. Sometimes she thought she really had experienced some sort of short-lived psychosis, but mostly she had no idea what to think of the event - of the one time something strange happened in her life, something intriguing. She only talked about it to someone twice on her life - once to her husband, and once to her daughter. She did eventually develop one of the photos into a print - the one she had taken first. The nameless man, standing alone on an empty street, rain streaking the lens. A beatiful picture, a strange memory, and a lifelong regret.

She should have stayed.

[somethingusefulfromflorida]

Dysmorphia

Imagine a man; featherless, bipedal, pretty standard.  This one has pale skin, black hair with a slight widows peak, and eyes so dark he looks like he has nothing but giant pupils.  He has a faceful of freckles which looked much cuter when he was a kid, and two small moles, one on his lip, the other on his neck.

Picture him taller than average, but not exceptionally so; 6′3″, 6′4″ with shoes on, sub-basketball player height.  Now give him a terrible hunch.  He loses a good three or four inches from posture so bad that chiropractors make appointments to see him.  He locks his knees when he stands so his legs curve backwards, which just looks uncomfortable, and he always leads with his gut hanging out; his spine looks like Trogdor the Burninator (sans beefy arms, wingalings, and consummate v’s, of course).

What he lacks in basketball player height he makes up for in basketball player feet.  Just look at those clod hoppers!  He has to order all of his shoes online because most stores only carry up to size 13.  Last he checked he was a 14 and a half, 15-ish, but nothing he tries is comfortable because he’s got flat feet, like a dirty, draft-dodging communist!  The way he walks is just wrong somehow.  He regularly wears out the back of his shoes, right over his Achilles tendon.  He has to pad the worn chunk of plastic and foam with duct tape to make them last longer, because size 15′s are not cheap!

His wardrobe consists mostly of t-shirts and khaki shorts, but these don’t seem to fit him right either.  Sure, he’ll buy nice clothes every year, but they all seem to change size between the mall changing room and his house, or otherwise disappear (his dad probably co-opts them into his own wardrobe, the bastard).  He is somehow both lanky and portly at the same time; thin arms and legs, with a big beer belly paunch over feminine hips, though he doesn’t drink.  His khakis are all too loose and too short; they come to above his knees when he sits, and he has to wear a belt cinched tight to keep them from slipping down to his ankles.

His shirts are comically large because men’s clothes get wider, not taller, when the size goes up.  He has to wear an L or XL, which are the right length, but make him look like he drank Alice’s shrinking potion.  His only other alternative would be to wear a shirt that is the right circumference, but bares his midriff whenever he moves his arms.

His fingers are the stuff of nightmares; the nails are either crack addict long or chewed down to the bloody stump.  He’s apathetic about this, he just lets them grow until they start getting caught on stuff, then he bites them off so short it hurts.  He doesn’t like cutting his thumbnails because they’re thicker than the others and they hurt the most when they’re short.  He has a weird sensory problem so that whenever he cuts them with clippers they feel artificial, unnatural, uncomfortable, so he has to chew them down or go mad.

Left alone for long enough his hair starts looking like Eraserhead; his hair doesn’t get longer, it gets taller, but not in a cool mad scientist kind of way.  It’s super curly and thick, so it never looks good no matter how he brushes it.  Not once in his life has he ever had a decent haircut; every single barber he’s ever been to has given him the exact same Deep South chud cut like one of those beefy dudes who pose with fish in their facebook profiles.  No matter how many times he shows them photos and asks for something different, he still gets the Standard Chud for $15, $20 after tip.  Whenever it’s cut that short, it makes his head look like an egg.  “WE ARE FROM FRANCE.”  His hair always looks best a week or two after getting it cut, but he never takes pictures in that little window because he is oblivious and self-loathing.

The less said about his facial hair, the better.

I’m going to say more anyway.

Both of his grandfathers had long, thick beards.  His father has a long thick beard.  He, however, is incapable of growing anything that looks even remotely presentable.  He can grow a short, coarse, curly neckbeard that looks like pubic hair, a thin pencil mustache like a creep who lives in a van, and patchy sideburns that cover random spots on his cheeks.  His chin is bare save for the thinnest saddest wisp of a soul patch that he can’t see, but he can feel.  Oh, It’s there, mocking him.  Altogether, it could not be a less flattering combo, but he often goes weeks without shaving because in These Trying Times™ he figures nobody’s gonna see his face anyway.  His depression lets him justify his “why should I make my bed if I’m just gonna sleep in it again” argument about his entire personal appearance.  Yikes.

His arms and legs are covered in scars and dark spots because none of his cuts ever heal right.  He would wear pants to cover them, but he lives on the surface of the sun where it’s about a million degrees in winter, so pants are not an option unless it’s a formal occasion, which are few and far between because his hometown is a cultural wasteland with nothing to do and no one to see.  His legs are disproportionately long, so he looks like he’s striding with purpose everywhere he goes.  His normal walking speed is ever so slightly faster than whoever is walking in front of him, so he either has to awkwardly slow down which makes him looks like he’s following them, or speed up to try and overtake them, but he’s not going fast enough to do it quickly so he ends up walking next to them for a few seconds too long which is even worse AAAHHH

Eye contact is weird.  Too much, not enough, he can never tell.  He tries to keep his head down with the prey-instinct that if he can’t see them, they can’t see him, which results in a chronic case of Text Neck.  When he walks past someone, he locks his neck straight forward so as not to make eye contact, which is almost always the WRONG thing to do because it comes off as rude, which he only realizes much later.

He overthinks everything and comes across as pretty sus because he’s trying to judge how everyone else pictures him on the fly; he doesn’t want to be rude, so he tries to leave everyone alone, but more often than not that makes him look cold and angry.  His worst fear is that people of color will think he’s racist when he doesn’t look at them, or looks at them too much, or gives them a wide berth, when in reality he does that to everyone because being seen makes him uncomfortable, and he can’t stop from feeling guilty about living in his own head because he doesn’t want to keep thinking the way he does, which is to say TOO MUCH!

And to round out his insecurities, he has a big gap in his front teeth and his voice sounds like a nasally child trying to compensate for a speech impediment.

But you know what, his grammy says he’s a handsome young man, so he’s actually doing okay.

[burnouts3s3]

Jump Force, a review

(Disclaimer: The following is a non-profit unprofessional blog post written by an unprofessional blog poster. All purported facts and statement are little more than the subjective, biased opinion of said blog poster. In other words, don’t take anything I say too seriously.) Just the facts 'Cause you're in a Hurry! Publisher: Bandai Namco Developer: Spike Chunsoft Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP): 59.99 USD How much I paid: 99.99 USD for the Ultimate Edition. Bundle Includes: 3 Days Early access. Lobby Vehicles to ‘ride around in’ that’s purely cosmetic. Season Pass that unlocks 9 DLC characters to be announced and released at a later date. Rated: T for Mild Blood, Suggestive Themes and Violence Number of Playable Characters: 43. 4 Original characters. 39 Characters from Established franchises. Number of Stages: 7. Each Stage has a transition that changes when a character hits an opponent with a specific attack. Can I play offline: Yes. Controller Support: Yes. It was compatible with my Rock-Candy Xbox 360 controller.  Keyboard and Mouse controls are available but are very awkward and the game was clearly designed with a controller in mind.   How long I played: 18 Hours. 10 Hours to beat the story mode while watching the Cutscenes. UNSKIPPABLE cutscenes. 7 Hours just messing around and playing online matches. Microtransactions: 39.99 Season Pass that unlocks 9 DLC characters to be announced at a later date. Dual Audio: No. Only Japanese Audio with Subs available. What I played on: My PC. Performance Issues: For the most part, I got ‘mostly’ 60 FPS when I was playing online or running around. However, the FPS dips when there’s a cutscene playing to the mid 40’s even the high 30’s. Too bad however beautiful the particle effects are can’t adjust the wooden facial animations and stiff body movements. 3 Crashes within my playtime. My Personal Biases: I’ve followed the saga of Son Goku and friends. I’ve watched Naruto Uzumaki become the Hokage. I’ve watched Yusuke Urameshi journey from boy to man. I’ve watched Gon, Killua and Kullapika go on their various hunting expeditions. I’ve watched Yugi Moto become the king of games. And I’ve watched Light Yagami become defeated by his own hubris. In other words, I’ve been waiting for this game a ‘very’ long time, and have played previous games such as JStars Victory Vs. My Verdict: As much fun as it is seeing characters like Fist of the North Star’s Kenshiro beat the pulp out of My Hero Academia’s Deku, the limited roster, worn out gameplay from the Naruto Shippuden and Dragonball Xenoverse games, the laughable animation, idiotic story mode and the ever anti-consumer practices of Bandai Namco are bogging this game down. If you’re a fan of Shounen Jump, you’ll sure to have fun. But, if you’re patient or you want more characters consider picking up Jump Ultimate Stars or JStars Victory Vs and wait for a sale. Jump Force, a review

In celebration for 50 years, Weekly Shounen Jump has announced a new crossover game. Made with collaboration between Publisher Bandai Namco and Developer Spike Chunsoft, “Jump Force” arrives to bring together various characters found in Shueisha’s long running publication.

Can the game live up to the vast legacy it has inherited? Let’s find out in this review of “Jump Force”!

The Umbra cubes, cosmic cubes capable of granting those great power, have spread throughout the world. Thanks to the villain, Kane, and his lovely assistant, Galena, he has recruited the villains from Shounen Jump and replicated them. All the meanwhile, normal citizens have become “Venoms”, possessed by evil impulses. But just as Frieza fires a laser beam, ending your life, Trunks comes in, uses and Umbra cube and grants you great power to help combat evil.

Jump Force is an Arena fighting game similar to games such as Dragonball Xenoverse or Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm. Players pick between 3 characters and attempt to lower their opponent’s (shared) healthbar to zero. In addition to physical attacks, they can spend the abilities gauge to use a variety of ranged or close up attacks. In addition, whenever players take damage, they fill up the ‘awakening’ bar. Using half an awakening bar will allow players to unleash an ultimate attack, an ability that deals more damage than regular abilities. Using a full awakening bar will ‘transform’ the character to a powered-up state. For example, Goku will transform from his base form to his Super Saiyan form.

The other two characters can be called upon using the left trigger. Simply pressing the trigger will swap the character while holding it down will call them for an assist attack. Unfortunately, you cannot change the order of which characters you switch to and must cycle through said order to access the characters. (For example having a team order of Goku, Vegeta and Piccolo means that Goku cannot switch to Piccolo without switching through Vegeta first). Be careful because if you switch while both characters are on screen and the opponent is able to hit both, you’ll receive double the damage.  

Customizing your character is nothing new for Bandai Namco games such as the various DBZ Xenoverse games and Naruto: Shinobi Striker, but the mechanic remains impressive here. Allowing you a vast customization between characters allows different playstyles and gives your individual avatar the ability to learn various techniques such as Vegeta’s Galick Gun or Yusuke’s Spirit Gun. However, certain techniques, such as anything related to Jotaro or Yugi are unable to be learned by your Avatar character.

Similarly, the defense system returns. Using the mobility meter, characters can dash towards or away from the opponent or teleport out of a combo behind the enemy. Most of the time, using the guard button will block most attacks. But, characters can either grab the blocking opponent or hold down either the smash or heavy smash button to break through the opponent’s guard.

While most of the characters play similar to one another, some of the characters have slight variations. For example, similar to his manga counterpart, Sanji will be unable to deal damage to female characters. Similarly, when Gon connets with an opponent with his Ultimate attack, he will become unplayable for the duration of the match.

Learning said techniques can be used by spending the in-game currency which allows you to easily unlock abilities, skills that aid in battle such as boosting attack power or various costumes for your avatar. In-game currency can be earned by either playing through the story or playing online.

The Story will not win any awards unless the Razzies suddenly announce a video game category. It’s a pastiche of clichés, tired tropes and nonsense as players slog through another world ending plot with stupid villains, stupid twists and characters acting like morons. For some reason, Light Yagami figures out the twist that even the dumbest of us can figure out 5 seconds in. Not helping matters are the rest of the characters acting like complete idiots with Sanji being the focus for some reason.

Say what you will about the current state of fanfiction, bad fanfiction is at least INTERESTING.

This combines the worst of Mary Sue fanfiction with the most boring and bland cliches possible. I understand orienting the game for Western audiences meant having to borrow notes from the Avengers and Justice League, but the characters expositing non-stop about the predictable plotline isn’t helpful. Worst yet, Developer Spike Chunsoft has forgotten a vital component for any story cutscene, the ability to skip them. So, be prepared to watch as characters drone on and on during the cutscenes figuring out the plot.

Just the same, the artstyle is going to alienate some longtime fans. While using the Unreal engine to render things such as particle effects, fire and energy beams is a delight to behold, said delight is replaced by revulsion watching the stiff character faces barely emote when watching a cutscene. These animations make Mass Effect: Andromeda look like the Witcher 3.

Half the time, the characters don’t even talk. RYUK DOESN’T EVEN HAVE A VOICE! What’s odd is that in the non-essential cutscenes, when the characters barely move and don’t have voices, the writing actually improves. Seeing various characters from different franchises interact with each other, brings a small delight to a mess of a game. Watching Zoro tutor Asta while Kenshin watches on or seeing Deku be a student to Kakashi’s lectures is the stuff of fan dreams. It’s too bad these moments are few and fleeting. And while 42 Characters in a base game is nothing to sneeze at, fans of Shounen Jump crossover games have already called out Developer Spike Chunsoft. While more famous franchises such as Dragonball Z, Naruto and One Piece boast a whopping 6 representatives each, more obscure franchises are either not represented or have a meager 1 character, such as City Hunter’s Ryo Saeba or Fist of the North Star’s Kenshiro. Meanwhile, mainstays from previous Jump crossover games such as Dr. Slump’s Arale, Kochikame’s Ryotsu, Bobobo’s Bobobo, D Grayman’s Allen Walker, Reborn’s Tsuna Sawada and Gintama’s Gintoki are all missing (though there is speculation they would be added later as Downloadable Content locked away with a paywall). And yet… God, it’s just such a fangasm seeing characters from different franchises duke it out with one another. Seeing Jotaro fight with Deku. Seeing Asta cross blades with Dai. Seeing Goku trade blows with Kenshiro is just one of my biggest dreams. There’s a germ of an idea here but it’s botched by piss-poor execution. I’m just so sick of games I would’ve loved missing the mark and not reaching their full potential. Caveat: Shounen Jump, Shueisha and Bandai Namco have a rare opportunity on their hands. Having the ability to have a character as old as Seiya have a fist fight with a modern character like Deku is one of the rare privileges a company can have alongside with Marvel, DC Comics and Nintendo. So, it’s unfortunate when Bandai Namco and Spike Chunsoft drop the ball and start limiting the roster, overpopulating it with familiar franchises instead of obscure ones and start nickeling and diming its customers with stupid DLC policies. Say what you will about the (very) imperfect JStars Victory Vs (which was also developed by Spike Chunsoft and published by Bandai Namco), the one thing that game did right was introduce a plebian like me to series such as Medaka Box, Assassination Classroom, The Disastrous Life of Saiki K, Toriko and Beelzebub. And while I did enjoy the extensive customization and gained a sick sense of pleasure whenever I finish off an opponent with DIO’s Road Roller, part of me couldn’t help but wonder when Kinnikuman is going to get the recognition he deserves. Maybe when Shounen Jump has its 55th anniversary, they can give its vast legacy of characters a game worthy of 50 years. We’ll always have Jump Ultimate Stars on the DS. Verdict: Rental or Wait for a Sale

[savrenim]

I keep almost opening tumblr to write a Big Long Post About My Life Because Goddamnit This Place Used To Be My Diary Until Suddenly I Got Involved In The H*milton Fandom And A Whole Bunch Of Strangers Started Following Me, and then, like. suddenly got more self-conscious. as well as better at dealing with stuff in my life so I haven’t really felt the need to vent, when did I become a semi-responsible semi-functional adult. but you know what? what the hell. there are things that I actually vaguely do want to vent about because dear gods has my life Been Ridiculous of late.

I am approximately 3/4 the person that I used to be? which is a dramatic way of stating that I used to be about 200lbs, I didn’t actually know because in theory I’ve aggressively avoided scales since high school because I used to have pretty bad anorexia and then orthorexia and binge eating then, it got better after I decided I don’t care about anything physical and just cut off all thoughts about anything like that and refused to acknowledge anything more than following the rule of eating three meals a day, but in practice I go to the doctor yearly and can access my medical records online and every once in a while can check with a friend and being steady over the last year or two meant that I was about 200lbs.

I was 153lbs the last time I checked, and I’ve been checking weekly just to make sure that I Don’t Keep Drastically Losing Weight, because this has all been since March. not even the beginning of March, the second half of March. I almost definitely lost thirty pounds in a month, a month and a half. and then have at least been losing weight more slowly after that? it has been fucking insane and I hated every second of it, wheeeee. (what happened in March was I got sick with the flu, couldn’t eat for a week, lost a fair bit of weight from that, and then my appetite/taste buds solidly shifted after only eating lentil soup back to super healthy vegetarian rice and beans and what-not that I’d been eating at the beginning of the school year, instead of take-out type deal, and I was actually getting sleep and going to more Tai Chi and every other week my car was breaking down so I was walking places a bunch and sudden lots of exercise + change in diet + not as stressed as first semester and getting sleep actually is a fairly healthy way to lose weight?)

but boooooy did it freak me out when I suddenly fit into jeans from the start of college that I had kept thinking I’d never fit into them again because Holy Fuck All Of My I’m Starving And Am Going To Die instincts kicked in and all of my actual close friends are online friends which meant besides one comment from a Tai Chi instructor directly after I’d been out for three weeks from slowly recovering from the flu (which actually was the nicest way anyone has ever commented on my weight, it was an “oh you’ve lost weight” “yeah I had the flu pretty bad, that’s where I’ve been for three weeks, couldn’t eat for a week and have been slowly getting back to solid meals” “oh yeah that really sucks, happened to a friend of mine last year, I think there are still pictures it’s scary” instead of a well you look good response, Thomas P is great and I love him) but absolutely no one was commenting and it made me feel like I was going crazy and I had no idea how much I weighed so how much I should be freaking out and no data even to compare that against, which was why I eventually broke and got a scale so that I could at least have datapoints and figure out when I was steady again because gods I just wanted to be steady

and, like, that was one of the literal worst parts of losing weight in high school, it was ballooning from 100lbs to 200lbs and all the not-so-subtle judgement from my mother when I came back various breaks during college and the number of times I had to threaten not to come back at all if she so much as commented on my weight so she found other ways of commenting about “why are you skipping aikido tonight, you only have so many times to go to the studio before you’re back east,” and, like, the constant fight of her either deciding to pay for my food or that she wouldn’t pay for any of it because I ate too much of it, and then, like. after having lost so much weight needing to get new bras and honestly some new clothes despite the fact that I haven’t bought fitted clothes since the very start of college because I’ve just been so fucking afraid of my weight ballooning again and not being able to fit into anything, considering I don’t really have money to drop on a new wardrobe as I get everything as cheap as possible or hand-me-down anyways and then wheeee that brought up all the shitty memories from high school where my mother refused to get me a new uniform when I weighed too much for my old one so I spent a year squeezing into skirts that left imprints on my waist and wearing long sweaters to cover the fact that I couldn’t zip them up, and, like. suddenly losing weight also triggered the fear of am I going to gain it all back then more and be stuck with a wardrobe that even though it was designed loose in the first place, still won’t fit me, which is ridiculous because I’m steadying out and it’s not like my diet or patterns are going to change again, just. gods have these past few months brought up a fair bit of past trauma and I a little bit wish more people had reached out to me and responded but I bugged the right people and they hella listened and made sure enough that old instincts and old fears didn’t get involved and, like. I like this body? I’m more flexible and my balance is a bit better and I can punch differently but just as well and I need to get used to groundfighting and throws with it but lack of mass is made up for in other ways. gods I love Tai Chi and it is the one thing that has kept me sane through all of this because no matter what my body looks like the thing that’s been most important to me is that physically, I’m dangerous, and that’s not about weight. that’s about strength, that’s about training, I’m in that studio now eight hours a week because that is the maximum number of classes they have for adults and I can practice on my own and just. the one time that I feel fiercely okay and goddamn happy about the fact that I have a physical form is knowing that if someone messes with me, I can defend myself, and proving it to myself over and over and over.

but yeah that’s been going on.

then there are the kittens can you tell how much my life has been made better by the kittens, I love these kittens so much, the story behind the kittens is that I saw a cat meowing outside, thought it was a stray kitten because of how small and starving it looked but knocked on doors to see if it belonged to any of my neighbors before I just took it to a vet type deal, and it belonged to the woman behind the first door I knocked on, who asked me why, do you want her, which I thought was weird, then said woman shouted at me from her window as I was taking out trash that seriously, this cat just had three kittens, she needed money and to get rid of them, was I interested in buying any of them off her, I was just going to get Talvus and then it was a combo of “she gave me the kitten at 4 weeks which then I couldn’t get him to eat anything because he hadn’t been weaned yet and kittens can’t be separated from the rest of their litter until 12 or 13 weeks or they don’t socialize correctly” that just. waaaasn’t good. as well as the other two kittens were adorable and I’d named them and it seemed for a little while like my girlfriend might be able to take one so I went “listen just give me all three at 8 weeks once they’re weaned and I’ll take it from there”

and I’m so fucking glad I did this

she was keeping all three of them in a cage most of the time, they weren’t using her litter box because she was barely cleaning it so she was surprised to hear they weren’t peeing all over my house, I’m actually taking them to get vaccinated and spayed/neutered which I can only afford because the Friends of Animals program exists but also, holy fuck have I been spending a lot of my savings between kittens and needing to drive everyone everywhere so a whole bunch of tolls and gas money to my fiance staying with me for a bit but that both meant buying more expensive groceries than I usually do because she eats meat as well as a whole bunch of errands to run and little things that add up (and then she got strep and just. it was a nightmare.)

right my car has been breaking down too, that’s been exciting, thank you my grandfather for dying and leaving enough inheritance-wise that I have been able to afford getting a different used car despite wheee leaking money left and right this summer but fixing up this one consistently because if I don’t I’m even More Fucked despite it not being worth it has legitimately burned through a solid quarter of my savings. like. I don’t have the right to say that I’m worried about money because I do still have some savings and a stipend coming in each month from research that pays for food and groceries so it’s not like it’s gotten tight so much as I have had to just deal with savings exist because sometimes emergencies come up and you Gotta Spend Them and hopefully I’ll save more next year and having a car that doesn’t break down every other month is going to help

considering the old car is in now perfect working condition I’m giving it to a friend of mine for $300 with the stipulation that if it breaks down at all over the next year I will refund them any of that $300 that they don’t make selling it to a junkyard because I didn’t want to waste a perfectly fine working car and my friends are even more poor than me I just. also am hemorrhaging money left and right and gods maybe that will help.

my fiance and I figured out that we’re probably never going to live together. from a combination of we have very, very different schedules to she needs so much structure in her life that slowly wears away at my spoons to not even give it to her but to re-arrange my own schedule and contribute to the logistics of her making it happen for herself, like, I can sit at the table in my apartment and work for eight hours on research and pause because there’s food in my kitchen to grab a thing to eat, she needed to go to a coffee shop every morning to be able to concentrate because if it wasn’t going out with a goal of doing something and being somewhere she wouldn’t be able to concentrate and it would mess up the entire day, which, like. wasn’t terrible because I usually walk for coffee anyways and can work anywhere but having that be a Necessary Logistic that I Have To Push For In The Morning Because God Help Anyone Who Tries To Wake The Sleeping Dragon (even though said sleeping dragon prefers to be on schedules where she wakes up at 6:30am, unlike my usual 10:00am, and we tried to compromise for 8:30am but guess who was the one who was always up first because I actually listen to my alarm and then dear gods is it stressful to wake people up)

(as well as this is not all her, it is also me, like. I need everything to be perfectly organized in terms of logistics so if someone hasn’t eaten yet it will bug me so I will ping them every half an hour of “you’ve forgotten to eat lunch, can we make lunch happen for you,” or there is a very specific state of clean that I need the apartment to be, or I’m incredibly antisocial at times, I can’t deal with someone touching me or fall asleep next to them if I’m stressed or if it’s hot so spent a couple of nights on the couch, as well as I’m picky about exactly the way the chores get done so needed to do all of them, the tl;dr is I think I have discovered my ideal living situation is living alone, at least most of the time and maybe having a house to visit on weekends, because I love her and love to spend time with her but also need a lot of space and long periods of quiet to do the work that I need to get done)

which, like

absolutely none of this is detrimental to our actual plans for our relationship, considering our actual plans are “we both are very busy people, she actually does have a group of people that she lives with very very well and that actively work well into her schedule, I have my kittens and my math and my facetime and my weekends with people, and the basis of our relationship is the commitment and the external alliance and the face that we present the world as well as the fun of getting to be gay and go on cute dates every once in a while, it’s not that we live well or lifestyle well together, it’s that we powercouple well together, so pick and choose the things that work and keep those.” which also works really well for she’s thinking of raising kids and I’m probably going to bounce around location-wise in post doc positions for a while before I find somewhere I might be able to settle with tenure, and, like. that’s not a good environment to raise kids in.

(we’re poly. we’re so poly. can you tell how poly we are. it’s one of the things that solidly makes us work, because we don’t have to force the other one to be everything, she’s found someone that she solidly likes that we’re calling prospective duckling papa, I also solidly like this person, so. kids might actually be a thing on the actual horizon, although probably not in the house that I’m spending most of my time, so that’s interesting. and terrifying. and expensive. and hopefully at least five years away.)

and then also I...finally had a conversation with a friend that I’ve been meaning to have for a while? that I really hope and I really think I did get across the whole “I care about our friendship the way that society mostly expects people to care about and be committed to romantic relationships, which is almost why it’s weird to just call you a friend which is why we are having this conversation, not because I Am In Romantic Love With You Again” of basically just “considering I’ve been thinking about and mapping out the actual relationships in my life and the ones that are steady and that are going to stick around, you know that I love you, right, and that you’re one of the ones that I really really want to stick around” and, like

gods do I love this person so much. and just....the role they have played in my life over the years? the way that I can talk to them and the things that I can talk to them about and share with them and math and physics and stories and DnD stories because gods do I rant about that to anyone who will listen and they get it pretty bad, oops, but they put up with it. and just the sum of who they are to me right now? is one of the most important people in my life. and I get so self-conscious of “but do I mean anything back to you at all, of course no one cares about me and this is Entirely One Sided but that’s okay I’ve always been the person who was going to jump in front of the bullet because I go more intense than other people” but, like. besides the friends that actively know that they are surrogate siblings to me. There’s my fiance, that I trust actually loves me as much as I love her, because we are very gay and we talk about it all the time. There’s another friend that is actually one of the few people that I’m physically comfortable with because both (a) he is as asexual as me so I can actually make out or cuddle with him while knowing that there is zero interest in sex happening in the encounter, and (b) has spent years slowly setting boundaries and slowly negotiating comfort levels together and has been an amazing friend and fantastic part of my life in other ways and, like, so yeah, I love him, and he’s well aware of that, and he loves me, and I’m not self-conscious about that, but, just.

there is this part of me that always goes “nope you don’t matter to people” or at least the people that matter to me unless I have Lots Of Data to back it up and you know what I have fucking data to back this one up and this person explicitly told me that they care about me too

and it bothers me to love a person a bunch and then go “but oh gods I need to be so careful and delicate about saying it because what if They Get The Wrong Message and I don’t want to make things awkward on their end” which also is complete bullshit because this person has heard me talk about how I think and feel about things for years so if anyone is going to actually know that I’m not lying or sidestepping the truth in what I mean when I say I love them it’s going to be them but just. I guess time to build up the confidence that it is okay to directly express how much I care about this person the way that I have gotten comfortable expressing the way I care about other people in my inner circle because at least now I have their word that they know, they’re okay with it, they care about me right back too type deal

and that is all the drama that has been going on in my life

[auggie-hunter]

hell was the journey...

...but it brought me heaven;

“i’m done.”

there was a finality to his tone, one he’d never had before when talking to her, and for a second auggie’s heart squeezed at how harsh he felt he was being.

because none of this was her fault. none of this was anything she’d done. not on purpose, anyway. everything that had ever gone wrong between them had been a matter of circumstance. circumstance of time, of their ages, of who they were in the world... all of it... getting in the way of them and what they wanted for themselves and who they wanted to be.

but it had come to a point where he realized he couldn’t do this anymore. he didn’t want to do this anymore. and as he did, he had to replay every moment he’d ever shared with her, every moment that made them become who they were. he had to face everything that would propel him to make such a decision that could mean the end of everything.

-

[i’ll be there if you’re the toast of the town, babe...]

the wig had been so itchy, and the cap wasn’t helping. he was so worried about it, he was too afraid to scratch and give himself away. his glasses combined with the fake mustache he was wearing were probably already doing a decent job of hiding his face, but he was 22 and kind of stupid. that, and maybe her flare for the dramatic was rubbing off on him.

john f. kennedy airport wasn’t exactly full to begin with at eleven o’clock at night on a thursday, and people seemed to be tired and hell bent on getting home. nobody was necessarily paying attention to anything out of place, let alone the tall, lanky kid in a wig and bad mustache. but he was nervous, and so he felt slightly hyperaware of everything. staring down at his phone wasn’t doing anything to help, either.

truth of the matter is they were probably being overcautious.

taking a few slow, deep breaths, he tried to settle himself, realizing he should probably chill so he didn’t look too sketchy and alert airport security. he glanced up at the screen, seeing her flight had, in fact, landed, and felt his stomach churn.

the problem was they’d never done this before. he’d never had to be this strategic for anything. and on top of that, he hadn’t seen her in years! not since they tried to date for like five whole minutes, and everything got messed up thanks to schedules, of all things. at the time, they’d thought to put a pin in it, until they could meet somewhere in the middle. but her world started to grow, and grow further apart from his, and that pin turned into three whole years and no contact.

but then he’d texted her one day in december, on pure impulse, completely unsure of whether or not she still had the same number. but it was her birthday, and he’d been thinking about her, as he tended to do when the date rolled around. and it wasn’t an obsessive kind of thinking, either, just a passing thought to the girl he’d liked so much way back when.

he’d taken a chance and sent the message with a birthday wish, and a six second vine with a ridiculous dance to stevie wonder’s happy birthday. he didn’t think she’d even get it, but for some reason, that felt more personal than… twitter of all places.

but then she answered. amused, and endeared, and grateful for his message.

and then they didn’t stop talking.

it was as if no time had passed.

and at first it was casual here and there conversations, catching up on the last three years. she told him she’d found his vine and two youtube channels, and liked to have the vlogs up in the background while she did other things.

teddy: which i realize sounds super creepy.

teddy: what i mean is they’re edited super well. and not too chaotic that they’re distracting.

auggie: well thanks. happy to be your background noise.

teddy: you and leo are very cute too. you look happy!

auggie: ha! thank you. he’s great!

she noted he hadn’t changed a bit, “in a good way!” and that he needed to be nicer to allie in his videos, even if she wasn’t always very nice to him. he’d told her he’d heard her last two albums and told her how great they were.

auggie: your voice is beautiful.

teddy: i’m cringing to an almost awful degree.

auggie: i mean it. you should be proud.

teddy: thank you. that means a lot.

it could’ve all been more awkward. it should’ve been, but somehow, it wasn’t.

they’d talk here and there, every few days about something random the other had seen online, or something that had happened in their lives. he’d seen she was alleged to be dating somebody, but he never asked. it just seemed like the sort of thing that truly wasn’t any of his business.

he’d send her photos of foods and desserts he’d test for videos for his main channel.

teddy: okay, listen. you need to make those cheesecake cupcakes for a video. i need the recipe and a guide. i don’t have a lot of time on tour, but for this? i’ll make time. please and thank you.

(he made the video, and wore a TEDDYFRESH sweatshirt as a shoutout. mostly because he was excessive. he did get a sponsorship after that, and sends a sweater to her p.o box and a sticker of his logo)

she sent pictures of her brand-new baby nephew, and told him about each of her siblings, and he did the same, as well as his three best friends. he told her he loved allie almost too much, but that being outright terrible to one another was their thing.

auggie: she’s a dick though.

teddy: auggie! that’s so mean.

auggie: it’s not mean if it’s true!

and then the conversations got deeper, less about the superficial stuff like the little careers they were building for themselves, and more about how she hated los angeles and felt lonely. she admitted how if it hadn’t been for her sister, daily, and her best friend, olive, she’d have quit and gone home by now.

he’d admitted he’d been getting ready to break up with leo, who’d become way less kind to him than he appeared to be on camera, and that the fighting had become too much.

auggie: he’s… just gotten so awful. i feel terrible for even saying that.

teddy: i don’t think you’re terrible for saying that. especially if things are happening that confirm that observation.

auggie: i don’t know what happened. one day we were fine and the next we weren’t. and everything started to become a problem.

not even his siblings knew that.

auggie: it isn’t like that. not like how you’re imagining.

auggie: he’s just quick to anger now. there isn’t a day we go through without fighting.

teddy: it’s not making you happy anymore. that’s enough for me.

there was a trust built between them, and a friendship that slowly made him wonder if they could’ve made it work three years earlier.

he didn’t like to dive into those thoughts. not really, not when said thoughts could throw a wrench in all this new whatever they were creating. no reason to try and fix what wasn’t broken with wondering.

and things with leo had just ended a few months earlier. he’d come out unscathed, and it hadn’t gotten as horrible as they could have. and they managed to have a fairly private breakup. no dramatic video necessarily.

she hadn’t been as lucky.

as it turned out, she’d been dating someone, too. someone who wasn’t as quiet as leo had been, and aired out all of their dirty laundry. there were things she hadn’t even told him. not that he’d ever expect her to, but things that clearly weren’t meant to get out to anyone.

her very public breakup that painted her in the shittiest of lights, quite nearly broke her.

he hadn’t heard from her for weeks after that, and outside of a few messages here and there to let him know he was thinking of her, they don’t speak.

until she resurfaced nearly two months later.

teddy: hey.

auggie: teddy. whoa.

teddy: i know.

auggie: hi.

teddy: um. sorry for falling off. this was just... a lot.

auggie: don’t be sorry for that. ever.

teddy: yeah.

teddy: this might be a huge ask but...

and on that day, they talked over facetime for the first time since he’d reached out to her with that silly birthday message nearly a year prior. it had been awkward for the first bit of it as they took each other in and the initial jitters took over. but then her eyes watered, and the near literal floodgates opened up.

they talked for six hours that night, until he’d seen the sun come up in new york.

the conversation ended with a question. “what if... i came to new york for a bit?”

and that was how he found himself at jfk in an itchy wig and mustache combo, hiding in plain sight, to meet his (barely) ex and sorta new best friend. they’d worked out logistics about how she probably wouldn’t be able to make it in without a crowd. the disguises were a joke he made in passing, but she latched on so they could hide in plain sight.

(he didn’t know then it’d become a theme for them, or that they’d love it)

“hey you,” her voice draws his attention, up and away from his phone and he has to smile at the sight of her, short dark wig, glasses of her own. she barely looks like herself, but he’d know that smile anywhere.

it takes him a second to push off the wall, just taking her in after three years without properly seeing her outside of a photo or a phone screen.

“hey ted.”

they didn’t know it then, not as her eyes welled up just as they had on that call, or as he pulled her into a hug that felt like it lasted a lifetime, but they’d created home on that spot in the middle of the airport.

[...or if you strike out and you’re crawling home]

-

they had been so naive back then. so innocent to think they could ever pull off keeping what they’d created. he could almost laugh about it now. they’d spent that week in new york together, as he offered her a safe haven away from LA and the curse that was hollywood. and she came out feeling brand new.

he’d been living with ravi at the time, who’d been upstate visiting his parents, and when he walked into the apartment and ran into him, stopped short with such a force he nearly tipped over.

“aug, why is teddy bea in my apartment?” his eyes were wid like saucers as he eyed them both on the sofa in sweatpants and surrounded by snacks.

“did i forget to tell you we were friends?”

ravi blinked over at them. “um, yes.”

teddy smiled at him, like she knew she’d like him. “so you’re ravi, huh? nice to finally meet you,” she’d said brightly, as if she could’ve known then how much she’d grow to love him.

“auggie, why does teddy bea know about me, and why do i not know about her?”

auggie snorted, sipping his drink. “it might help if you stop talking about her like she’s not in the room, dude.”

ravi coughed, his cheeks going red as he realized his own blunder. he stepped farther into the living room. “sorry, teddy. yes, i’m ravi. nice to meet you?”

she giggled. “you sure about that?” she looked to auggie almost knowingly. “i promise i’m just a girl in sweatpants like everyone else.”

and though it had taken ravi a solid 10 minutes to get over being star struck, he found he liked her. a lot. and when she was gone at the end of the week, less heartbroken than she’d been when she came in, ravi had turned to auggie, his tone as serious as it’d been when they were five and evenly dividing gummy worms.

“you love her.”

auggie nearly spit out his coffee all over the floor of the A train. “don’t dude, don’t even go there.”

ravi looked almost insulted. “i won’t bet money because that feels rather gross, but the ‘i told you so’ will be so sweet.

-

auggie put a crisp hundred dollar bill in a birthday card for ravi the following summer when teddy kissed him on the rooftop of his apartment, both of them a little less than sober.

‘you were right.’

he never knew someone could become your everything that quickly. it’d been like she’d embedded herself underneath his skin, and he’d been certain he’d never get her out.

but he also quickly figured out that he didn’t want to. it wasn’t about anything she’d done, she’d never asked anything of him. it was more so the fact that he wholeheartedly refused to be in a world she wasn’t a part of.

-

[...and i can see us twisted in bedsheets august slipped away... like a bottle of wine, cause he was never mine;]

she dragged him to a house in rhode island that summer. the most stunning place auggie was sure he’d ever been to. a massive place she called the holiday house. “it was a gift for mom and dad’s thirtieth anniversary,” she’d explained once they were inside the front door. “i brought everyone here to celebrate.”

“graham style?” he’d teased, but she kissed him before it could be anything more than that, and led him up the stairs into her room.

he couldn’t place it then in the moment, but there was something so final about the whole thing.

“i’m going on tour in a month,” teddy had whispered in the quiet of the bedroom. the sun was starting to set, and they’d spent most of that day in bed, learning about one another in ways they’d never thought they would. not in the beginning, and certainly not in the last year.

“i know,” auggie nodded, pressing a kiss to her shoulder blade, and running up the soft skin of her back.

she leaned into his touch and turned to face him, lips finding his for a long, lingering moment before pulling back. “auggie, this...” she sighed, and bowed her head.

“what, ted?” he asked. he raised his hand to cup her jaw, gently lifting her face so she’d look at him.

“i don’t know if we can... do this,” she said softly. “i’m booked for almost the entirety of the next year, and i don’t.” she sighed. “i know we just started, but.”

auggie pressed his lips together, trying to find the right words to say to her. but what could he say? it wasn’t her fault she had commitments. he had them, too, even if his were way less constrained than hers were (by a landslide). he wanted to say no. to hang on for dear life and have them figure out the rest later, but that felt like a big ask, especially when their worlds looked like they did.

she sat up in the bed, hugging her knees to her chest still wrapped in sheets. “you surprised me, you know.”

he stayed back, giving her the space she seemed to be searching for when she pulled away.

“i almost didn’t answer your text,” she laughed and sniffled, looking slightly surprised by her tears. “on my birthday, i almost...” she shook her head. “we were growing a lot back then. and olive made a huge deal about people from my past coming to ‘take a piece of the pie’ or whatever,” she rolled her eyes. “i know what she meant, but i don’t know when i saw your message, i didn’t. that didn’t even cross my mind.”

auggie smiled up at her. “i’m glad i inspired some lack of... gold digger-ism,” he snorted, and she shoved him, laughter bubbling from both of them.

“i’m serious! you were just. i don’t know.” teddy grinned and wiped at her eyes. “my point is, i didn’t expect to get here. with you.”

he sat up then, scooting close as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “i didn’t expect it either, you know.” he touched his forehead to hers. “i had a boyfriend and everything.”

teddy pressed her fingers to his cheek. “now look at us.”

“now look at us.”

auggie looked at her for a moment, trying to take her in. it was a lot, for a second, a lot of emotion to take in, especially in such a heavy moment. he decided to kiss her then, soft, and slower than he hand all day. tender and grounding, like he felt she needed in that moment. like maybe he needed in that moment

and with a few words, he tried to ease her worries, and his own in the process. “what if... we hold on to right now,” he offered. “focus on here, and this time, and... hope for more later.”

“hope?”

“hope we can have more later. soon? eventually? i’m okay to hope for you, i think i’ve hoped for you for four years without even knowing it.”

he could almost see in her eyes the moment her heart burst at his words. and he wasn’t even sure if he believed the words himself, but he had to hold onto some version of the story in which he wouldn’t have to let her go.

“okay. we’ll hope.”

[back when we were living for the hope of it all...]

-

they put a pin in it again, leaving things open ended while she went off to make magic across the globe with her music, while life kept going for him. youtube, the death of vine, the move to twitch, the gaming, the sponsorships, the birth of fortnite, and ridiculous amounts of money. their lives go on, and they lightly keep in touch, tethered whether they wanted to be or not.

teddy’s career had skyrocketed with the release of her next album, a transition to more pop music that put her on the map with a different audience and tugged her in all different directions, further and further away from auggie and the little bubble they thought they could manage.

auggie: msg never shined so bright.

teddy: wish i could’ve seen you.

auggie: come over. or i’ll come to you.

they spent more time apart than they ever did together, but whenever she was in new york, they carved a space. when he was in california, she’d find him in san diego. twitch con and comic con made it so easy to hide (even if the captain marvel costume and wig she managed to hide in did a real number on him).

when they managed to steal a moment, it would be the world’s most earth-shattering moment.

they made time. they made it work. without a label because labeling it was what started all the trouble. throwing permanence into two impermanent lives would be their downfall.

it was stolen glances across venues, hurried kisses and more in dressing rooms, hotel rooms, and cars. it was whispered phone calls and falling asleep on facetime. it was texts about little, dumb things, because every time they got into more, it was just more heartbreak. it was promises of somedays and forevermores.

months turned into years, and they thought this was doable. it worked.

at least, it was what he told himself. it worked to get to have her when he could, when her life wasn’t pulling her in all sorts of directions. he could hide in plain sight with her.

it worked when he properly met her brothers and sisters, and her parents. it worked when she met allie, who loved to barge in without knocking on a day she had fiona and freddie in tow for a sunday brunch after teddy had slept over and was bouncing around his kitchen in one of his flannels.

it worked when ravi insisted she meet ben and leslie, and leslie fell all the way in love with her. it worked when he met olive and eliza, and olive told him he wasn’t even a little bit good enough for teddy.

it worked when people in their world knew, even if the outside world didn’t know.

but then they tied her to someone at one point, and there were pictures and videos, and a shit-ton of starry-eyed fans around the world talking about teddy bea and her new love. and his stomach churned at the headline because this is where the impermanence and lack of a label didn’t work.

teddy: i’m sorry.

he didn’t answer.

(she was back in new york, two nights later, and he was fucking her in an elevator.)

but he got the same treatment, and way less notoriety, unless you knew what to look for. (and teddy knew what to look for.)

her name was blake, they gamed together all the time, and blauggie was born on the internet somewhere. she’s lovely, and he does like her, but it ultimately doesn’t go anywhere. she’s somewhere in texas, and he’s still not moving from new york, and long distances were really going to be the death of him.

teddy doesn’t know that though. and she showed up at his apartment in a trench coat with nothing underneath, coated in anger and jealousy. it was angry that night. for both of them.

[...and you know damn well, for you i would ruin myself...]

“i’m done.”

she was doing a secret show in paris at the end of february. a lover show. an extension of valentine’s day. and he only knew because she made it a point to stop in new york before she left to celebrate a delayed version of his twenty-eighth birthday.

except she left in the morning before he could say goodbye. and on the one hand, it hadn’t been the first time she ever had. she moved at such a rapid pace, that it lent itself to that kind of irish exit.

but he wasn’t having it this time. that one stung. before he could even comprehend it, he’d grabbed a backpack and bought a flight on the train ride to jfk.

(his bank called twice)

he texted daily. a hail mary. because if he texted teddy, he thought she might find a way to convince him they could keep doing it like this. that they could keep making it work from a distance.

nothing happened for the first two hours, he sat at the gate, resigned to having to guess and find her by some miracle.

and then, when they called his section to board, his phone buzzed.

daily: i was wondering how much longer was it gonna take you to do this. my god.

he found her.

“auggie, what are you...” her jaw had dropped and her eyes were like saucers. he was jet lagged as fuck after his flight, but had enough sense to gather that she had a show in a few hours. “how did you--”

“i’m not doing this with you anymore, teddy,” he interrupts, tone blunt. for all his exhaustion, he’s incredibly clearheaded about this. “i can’t keep doing this half in, half out thing with you.”

and auggie could gather how insane he must’ve sounded to her in that moment, how he’d jumped out of bed hours after teddy had left and followed her. to fucking paris. in his right mind, he would probably shake himself.

“i love you,” he said softly. “i love you, and i wanna be with you. fuck the long distance, fuck the messes we’ve made. i’ll follow you anywhere if i have to, i just... i’m done, ted.”

it was the most firm, steadfast decision he had ever made. and the weight of the silence and the shock on her face would weigh on his spirit for a little while after that. it was almost too heavy.

“then we’re done, auggie,” teddy said softly, eyes glassy, and voice loaded with emotion. “we’re done with the hiding. we’re done with treating this like anything other than what it is.”

“fuck it.” it’s the most certain he’s ever felt in his entire life, in an apartment in paris that screamed teddy graham and all that she was. “none of it matters anymore, ted. i don’t care about any of it if it means i don’t get to have you.”

she grabbed both his hands and drew him inside, pushing him back against the closed door and pressed her lips. “i love you,” she murmured against his mouth. “i love you.”

they’re married by the end of the week.

[...a million little times]

[yeonchi]

2019 In Review

This year marked the start (or rather, a continuation) of my transition into society. It kind of sounds weird when I put it that way, but the truth is that I have much to learn about how society works and that despite all my time on the Internet, I’m gonna have to face up to reality sooner or later. I’ve never really created a name for myself outside of my anime posts, English dub rants, or even my work on preserving the Sea Princesses series, but I still hope to continue posting online at times.

Where previous reviews were released on New Year’s Eve, this year’s review will be released a bit earlier for reasons that I’ll elaborate on in this post. Let’s begin after the break.

Sea Princesses

2019 has been a big year for Sea Princesses. During the first half of the year, I worked on transcribing the episodes and writing plot details for the wiki, since not a lot of work was put into them since the other admin, Liggliluff, joined the wiki in 2015 and gave provision for them. In the second half of the year, I renovated the character pages, adding infoboxes and story involvement (highlights for the major characters) to them. I also created pages for the (named) animals that appeared in the series. Since the wiki is pretty much complete at this point with the addition of transcripts and episode plots, any further work on the wiki from me (in regards to the animated series) is up to whether I feel like doing any.

After six months of seeing no further uploads on the Mr Bean and Friends channel, I caved and decided to shell out some money on a premium account to download the Amazon Prime episodes someone had uploaded to a website. Six months after that, I found that someone had downloaded the episodes themselves and uploaded them to KimCartoon. I know this was way after everything I had done, but better late than never, I suppose. The sad thing was that a few weeks after that, someone reached out to me on the Lost Media Archive saying that they had ripped some of the episodes from ABC iView and put a link to their MEGA folder on 4chan /trash/ and not /co/, which led to me not realising it until he told me about it. Regardless, the split English episodes and Spanish Disney Channel raws are still in my cloud drive folder.

While working on the transcripts for the wiki, I also wrote a review of the series. After watching it, I found that there were quite a few disappointments here and there, but the series wasn’t as bad as I had remembered it. Also, from July to October this year, artist Princess Rainbow Channel did some amazing fanart of each character in the series (including background characters) that trumps everything I had seen before and possibly after. Feel free to check it out here along with my reaction and her response.

Public opinion of the series depends on where you are; in Brazil, people are still bringing it up in their childhood memories on Twitter (usually in response to the question “what were some cartoons you remember from when you were young”), while in Australia, you barely get anyone talking about the series and even if you did, quite a few of them would be people trashing it. I’d seen a couple of Americans who had apparently seen the series as well; aside from the Latin American Spanish version, I have no idea which channel the English version was broadcast or where, otherwise I’d have known by now.

So like I said, the wiki is pretty much complete in terms of the TV series. As for the Princesas do Mar books, I am hoping to cover them in the long term when I have the money and capacity to do so. If you want information about them now, then I’m hoping that someone (mostly from Brazil) will be kind enough to provide transcripts and/or snapshots of them. There won’t be anything about the books on the wiki (with the exception of Marcela and the titles of the books) until I get that information, whether it be from a kind volunteer or by myself, so the entire thing’s pretty much on hold until then.

One thing I realised - the author, Fabio Yabu, recently published the first volume of the Combo Rangers graphic novel for free on WEBTOON. No doubt about it, Sea Princesses would have been more popular if it had received as much love as Combo Rangers. Maybe it’s time that Yabu showed some love to the series after nearly a decade since the last Princesas do Mar book published by Panda Books - I wouldn’t mind seeing rereleases, a graphic novel, ebooks or a compendium of the ten books published by Panda Books (those are the titles that I’m hoping to focus on for the wiki, everything else is irrelevant). With my current situation right now, if I can’t get transcripts or screenshots, then I’d be more happy to spend my money buying ebooks than printed books from Brazil.

Doctor Who

Right at the start of the month, the release date for Doctor Who Series 12 was announced to be on New Year’s Day with subsequent episodes to air on Sundays. Like with Series 11, I’ll be continuing the Thirteenth Doctor reviews after the episode airs. The prelude post will come out later with more details. In fact, it’s because of this that I decided to release this post earlier instead of on New Year’s Eve. That’s pretty much the only reason.

English Dubbed Game News and English dub rants

In case you guys missed it, I’m fully moving on from talking about English dubbed games. I don’t know if anyone ever saw this coming since the end of the feud a couple of years back, but I guess my promise to stand tall back at the end of 2017 must sound ironic now.

As I explained back in September, I’ve lost interest in video games altogether and had conflicting thoughts on how to deal with the occasional toxic comments on my pages. I didn’t mention this back then, but in case you were wondering, no, all the Vic Mignogna stuff did not play a factor in my decision. I’ve never been a fan of him so I don’t care and to be fair, innocent or guilty, he is really only one voice actor. In terms of Koei Tecmo games, he only voiced two characters in Dynasty Warriors 7 and 8 (Jia Xu/Xiahou Ba) along with two characters in Samurai Warriors 3 (Mitsuhide Akechi/Yoshimoto Imagawa), which, I should remind you, never made it onto a Warriors Orochi game. If Koei Tecmo wanted to replace him when the allegations came out, they would have done it already. Ironically however, they did just that with Dynasty Warriors 9, but with the whole cast because of the voice actor strike.

Speaking of the voice actor strike, I’ve noticed something that I never did back when I was writing the rants; a lot of voice actors are part of SAG-AFTRA and I’ve deduced that Japanese game companies are being cheap and cutting corners in localisation (specifically, dubbing) because they don’t want to hire union actors because of the cost (presumably). Additionally, I’ve also read that union actors can’t openly do non-union work, which leads to them being uncredited officially. I know I’ve supported the union during the voice actor strike, but I can’t help but think that I should have criticised them at some point during my rants because their rules for union actors kind of play a factor in this whole debacle of video game dubbing.

I’ve suggested crowdfunding as a way to raise funds to hire (union) voice actors, but in recent years, I’ve seen them go the way of Western game companies and put out season passes and neverending DLC packs. Anyone who defends game companies for being cheap and not dubbing their games has no right to complain about them being greedy in other areas. I kind of saw it coming myself, which didn’t come as a surprise to me. As far as I’ve heard, there aren’t any loot boxes or pay-to-win gimmicks in Japanese games, so I guess I’m still relieved.

As for my opinion on all of this or Japanese game companies, including Koei Tecmo, they haven’t changed much, although I’ve become more and more apathetic towards them given my declining interest in video games. Much as I hate to admit, I’ve gotten back into playing older Warriors games I still have for nostalgia and because I was bored and wanted to procrastinate. This shows that regardless of my thoughts, I’m still grateful towards Koei Tecmo for the games that inspired me in certain aspects of my life.

I’m going to burn a few bridges here and say some fuck yous to a few groups. First of all is a big fuck you to the haters, namely the dub haters, sub purists and opinion-neutrals (that much is obvious). Next up is a fuck you to Japanese game companies for being cheap in localisation (and by extension, even cheaper in DLCs), then a smaller, belated and ironic fuck you to voice actor unions like SAG-AFTRA for making the rules that lead to Japanese game companies being cheap in the first place and enabling them to keep doing it. Finally, a really ironic fuck you goes to my fans and all other fans of English dubbing - the fact that nobody else had made something like EDGN by this point, let alone before I found and joined the page, is really telling of what little you do to promote dub advocacy, let alone not being aware that things like said page or #NoDubNoBuy exist or supporting them by liking or sharing my posts.

Anyway, the current plan is to finish posting whatever games I’ve got in the backlog before New Year’s Eve and then unpublish the page sometime after. I’m not going to delete the page out of respect to its creator, who despite still being an admin on the page, has never posted anything since I joined it. The games list will be kept up through this link for reference. Despite the fuck you I just gave my fans (particularly the 230-so followers on EDGN), I want to thank everyone for the support you gave over the years and invite you to continue following me on my Facebook and Tumblr pages.

The state of social media

I felt that I should address something given YouTube’s new measures regarding COPPA, not forgetting that they literally said that they have no obligation to host content. At the start of last year’s review, I stated that there was always something that managed to affect my Internet life in stupid ways. I haven’t been affected directly this year, but YouTube’s measures have led me to think about what would happen if Facebook were to follow suit, particularly because Tumblr already banned NSFW content at the end of last year and Twitter looks like it’s about to follow suit themselves.

Sure enough, YouTube suddenly updated their harassment policy, which resulted in the Leafy Content Cop being removed as a result of retroactive enforcement. I’ve got nothing much to say about this except that it just proves what we’ve been suspecting all along. To be honest, around the time of the NSFW ban on Tumblr, I was kind of expecting that the parody I did would get flagged ironically, but I guess it never got near the radar, not that there would be any justifiable grounds for it.

Anyone who celebrates censorship or deplatforming with the same argument that “private companies can do whatever they want” should really look at themselves in the mirror because if any of this has proved anything, it’s that anyone can be censored or deplatformed with or without reason whether they’re following the rules or not. You’re all just sitting ducks and you don’t even know it even though you play by their rules in the hope that you won’t be next.

On a more lighter note, I wonder if I should use paragraph gaps instead of horizontal rules in future posts, given that Tumblr removed functionality for the latter in the rich text editor. Sure, I could manually add them in the HTML editor, but it would mean that they would disappear when I switched back to the rich text editor, regardless of whether I saved or not, and it would absolutely kill me to put them back in the exact same spots when I’ve changed something there.

In regards to Hong Kong

Back in August, I made a post about how I nearly got deplatformed from Facebook by the guy behind the feud because of what I said in my repostings of Hong Kong news. I really want to look back and laugh at it now not only because him doing so made him look like a pro-Beijing supporter, but because a pro-Beijing politician he scapegoated as a dub hater in a parody post to evade my criticism of him as such lost his seat in the district council to a pro-democracy newcomer.

In that post, I admitted that I did use some racial slurs in some of my repostings. Given the escalating violence (on both sides, police and protesters) since the start of the protests in June, I’m just gonna come right out and say it - if I could use one word to describe it and the negative reaction from those against the protesters (around the world), it would be the hard-r n-word. I used that word against said pro-Beijing politician because like many other people, I don’t think he’s a good person in any way. He’s advocated violence against pro-democracy supporters, has suspected links to the triads and commended old men in white shirts attacking people in black shirts at a train station following a protest some distance away. If that third thing doesn’t remind you of white (shirt) supremacy, then I don’t know what will. Let’s not forget that at the time, I reposted some news about him not being admitted as a solicitor in England and Wales, making him a “fake lawyer n-word”.

In case there are people who disagree with my (former) use of the slur, I want to acknowledge something here. I know I’m using the slur towards Chinese people instead of its historical target, namely people of African origin, but if it helps move the focus away from the latter, then so be it. If I could find another (preferably stronger) word to describe it, then I would, but at this point, I should be lucky that I’m able to control my anger and not use the actual word itself. If you don’t like how I used the n-word at all, then fuck you, you missed the point, but of course, you’re free to leave.

I don’t want to talk about the finer details or criticisms of any party involved in the protests, but I’m quite amazed with the pro-democracy protesters’ motto of not splitting their movement, not condemning the violence from the radical side and not ratting anyone out. In my interpretation, the radical protesters know that their so-called “violence” is illegal, but the other protesters can’t condemn them because words have barely had any effect on the government and they know that the radical protesters are the only people who have a chance of making the government cave into their demands or expose the true sides of Hong Kong and China’s governments to the international community, because their failure to do so five years ago was because they failed to keep their movement together. I probably don’t know as much about this compared to Hong Kong locals or immigrants, but I wager that at least some of my interpretation is spot on.

Two years ago, I said on my personal Facebook page, “I hope that the future of Hong Kong and its politics will improve for the benefit of the people, especially the younger generations, given everything that has happened up to now”. I know it may seem ironic right now, but I believe that the future will continue to improve for the better, but if it turns to the worst, then I hope that due justice may be served.

At the start of this post, I said that I was undergoing a transition into society. I’ll be finishing my university course and graduating at the end of next year, so at this point, I’m currently out looking for work. A lot of people make it look easy, but in truth, it’s been quite excruciating for me; because of some government benefit thing I signed up for, I have a quota of job applications that I need to send per month. It sounds easy, but after a while, it becomes so hard when you look at a job you think you’ll like and realise that you don’t have the necessary skills or experience for it. All I can say for myself is that I’ll keep praying for guidance and hope that I can find something that fits with my timetable, at least until I graduate.

See you all on the other side in 2020.

[terribleco]

TOBY HAWN’S PRO SKATEBOARD 5

Against my better judgement, I finally caved and bought Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5 over the Easter Weekend. It is not a good game.

I paid 9 quid for it on the Xbox store, and whilst 9 quid may seem like a bargain for a relatively new skateboarding game, there are so many things wrong with the game that I quickly regretted it.

Something doesn’t feel right. The controls are fundamentally the same, but there’s something noticeably clunky and unresponsive about the controls in THPS5. There are also noticeable omissions from the moveset, such as bomb drops (allowing you to magnetically drop down into a bank or quarter) and freestyle manual tricks. They’ve added a “slam” function which brings you back to the ground quicker, but this actually feels like it was something to fix some of the bad level design rather than a useful addition - binding it to the grind button is a bad choice, as it often slams you down too early if you’re setting up for a grind mid-combo. Special tricks operate differently as well, and appear to be simplified, with you activating “special mode” which makes every trick a special variant.

The levels are bad. With the exception of The Berrics, which is the first level, and probably the game’s only good level, none of the levels really feel grounded in skateboarding or bring anything authentic to the table. School 3, and The Bunker, are weird rehashes of old THPS levels with the good stuff from those levels replaced or removed to make way for weird new stuff (e.g. School 3 is School 2 but without the Carlsbad gap or Gonz rail, Bunker is Warehouse with a bunch of attack helicopter stuff and no half pipe under the secret room). These levels are worse off because of the changes they made to the classic version, and the new levels are just poorly laid out and don’t work as THPS levels or believeable skateparks. Even when old THPS games had fantastical weird levels, they were grounded in skateboarding (e.g. The Bullring from THPS2 is based on Tony Hawk’s part from The End, where he does the loop), but levels like “Asteroid Belt” or “Wild West” are just weird, and even when they attempt to make a skatepark in the “Mega Park” level, the layout of the park seems really poor. It just comes off that the developers don’t understand skateboarding and doubled down on these weird odd levels than recreating actual good skateparks like THPS did with Marseille, or Philly, or Skate Street Ventura.

The game lacks authenticity. Related to my last point, there’s just a real weird vibe here that screams of non-skateboarders trying to describe skateboarding. I’m not saying a game about skateboarding has to be 100% developed by skateboarders, but at the very least THPS and Skate have previously shown a lot of respect for skateboarding (THPS was regarded as the best depiction of skateboarding by many when it was first released). The pro skaters in the game are actually a decent selection, showing old and new faces, and a good variety of street and transition skaters, but there are weird guest characters like Lil Wayne and Tyler The Creator. Whilst these guys skate and are interesting additions, it comes across like some guy who didn’t skate saw a Youtube video of Weezy skating and decided to push ahead with having him in the game, rather than bouncing off the actual skaters to find special guests who made sense. It’s also super weird that The Berrics is in the game, but Steve Berra and Eric Koston (who was actually in THPS in the past) are not playable characters? 

They also put a bunch of useless powerups in the game, that more often than not seem like a work-around for bad level design - the rooftops level has a double jump powerup because without it you’d get trapped and fall off the level, and the asteroid belt level has an anti-gravity powerup that completely ruins your combos. 

The objectives in the game are also incredibly weird, and whilst some are straight up THPS style things like collect “SKATE” or get a high score, there’s some really frustrating and bad stuff like “knock a bunch of objects with unpredictable physics in, or out, of a bowl” or “collect these things whilst you have a large combo”. A lot of these have you fighting the clunky controls to try and do them, and again they lack authenticity and don’t feel like you’re being asked to do something grounded in skateboarding - Even THUG2 had you do stuff that was inspired by Jackass, a TV show with deep roots in skateboarding, and in the age of Thrasher’s King Of The Road being a TV show in the vain of Jackass which almost seems inspired by the story of THUG2, it’s proof that Neversoft still understood skateboarding even after they’d jumped the shark. THPS5, on the other hand, feels like Robomodo had one meeting with Tony Hawk, got a few ideas, and then forgot to get any more ideas or run anything else past him, and then just went wild using old THPS games as a guide for what they should do. If you try and emulate something that was good, rather than understand why it was good, you end up not really sure what it is you’re making and get something like THPS5.

It’s a bad user experience. I get distracted by the game not being true to skateboarding, or not being a good sequel to any old THPS game, but I should also re-enforce that even from a standard of a game released in 2015, seen objectively as a video game, it’s a bad user experience;

Menus are either bare bones and empty, or confusing and information heavy. The character selection options alone just don’t make much sense at all and you have to drill down a lot of menus just to customise a skater. The general flow of completing a mission confusingly binds the A button to “retry”, instead of having that be the button to return you to freeskate - this slows down the core gameplay loop and has you accidentally restarting missions you have completed.

Loading into anything, or restarting missions, takes far too long. It’s bizarre that the loading times are as long as they are. When you mess up a mission and want to restart instantly, the restart is ever so slightly too long that it becomes frustrating. 

I get an impression that the game doesn’t really know what it wants to be; on one hand it’s a retro throwback to old THPS, but then on the other hand you have these current gen features like online co-op gameplay and group chat. The modern features are half baked and that in turns detracts from the retro throwback stuff, making it seem outdated. I feel like they just stuffed in features that didn’t need to be there out of fear that they’d get shit from players if some modern gameplay features were missing.

The game is really buggy, and not just in a fun “oh that character has ragdolled in a silly way” buggy. I’ve encountered loads of infinite loads after finishing missions (where the game becomes stuck in an unresponsive loading state). The game constantly disconnects from the lobby you’re in kicking you back to the main menu (an example of the new modern features not working properly and detracting from the “core” of the game). I also reliably reproduced a hard crash on The Bunker level, where the game completely freezes up and shuts down if you grind the helicopter’s rotors several times within a 2 minutes run (something about the helicopter’s animation or audio must cause a memory leak that bricks the game if you do it too much).

I wanted to like this game - I wanted to look past the bad reviews, and the negative press, and just play the game and enjoy it. I felt duty bound to like it because it’s a THPS game. I started skateboarding because of THPS2, and I feel genuinely sad, as a skateboarder, and as a game developer, that THPS5 turned out the way it did. I have an insight into how hard game developers work on these things; and I feel for anyone who put their time and effort into this game to make it good. 

At the end of the day, every game developer wants to make a good game, and especially in this day and age, with a drought in good skateboarding games, something like THPS5 should’ve been a fantastic idea. I’m not sure what exactly went wrong, but the game we got is unfortunately not true to the legacy of the past THPS games. Now that Hawk’s contract is up with Activision, we’ll likely never get a true return to form for this series. For now, I’ll plug my PS1 in and play THPS2, and re-live the nostalgia of discovering skateboarding through video games.

[xtremedespair3d]

Anime Fall 2018 Final Impressions + Plans for Winter 2019

We’re now at the end of the Fall season and 2018 as a whole, but for now let’s focus on the shows I’ve seen this season:

Normally I would write my warning that these lists may contain spoilers but surprisingly they don’t feature spoilers here (or probably haven’t been featured in the previous lists, to be honest). I also noticed there isn’t an ongoing from Summer, so that’s kind of surprising too.

AOTS #1-A: Gakuen Basara: I’m no Sengoku Basara person but I had a good time with this show, the animation is not the best, but the humor was gold. My only complaint is that it was broadcast on October 4 (my birthday), raw torrents were nowhere to be found and I had to wait until the next day and I watch the show on Fridays instead of Thursdays, well, at least I had Zombieland Saga. Despite the schedules and poor animation (like gratuitous CG background people), Gakuen Basara is everything I wanted it to be for a school parody anime since Attack on Titan: Junior High. (Maybe I should binge the Sengoku Basara anime sometime...) 8/10 - Rank: A-.

AOTS #1-B: Zombieland Saga: One of the best original anime I’ve seen yet and a solid birthday anime, and I barely see this as a Cygames IP as I kept watching it. Amazing performances, especially Mamoru Miyano, maybe his character is his best one yet.

I genuinely want a second season, the tease at the end is too good to pass on becoming a full storyline (or subplot), and I don’t care if it’s going to be as shit as Rage of Bahamut: Virgin Soul, I just want it, already. 9/10 - Rank: S+.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 5: FIGHTING GOOOOLD!!! Another solid part of JoJo, my only complaint with the JoJo anime in general is that I’m not fond with the voice actor changes, some of them are good, some of them aren’t, the thing is that I’m mostly associated with the games like All Star Battle and Eyes of Heaven, it’s a little weird for me but it’s true. 9/10 - Rank: S.

Goblin Slayer: It may have caused quite a controversy from the first episode alone, but overall, does the anime adaptation even work? Parts of the animation, like action scenes and all, aren’t that great, even Goblin Slayer is animated in CG frequently, but everything else looks decent even by White Fox standards (see Re:Zero, even that one looks way better than this). 7/10 - Rank: B-.

SSSS.GRIDMAN: I’m no tokusatsu person but this was a solid tokusatsu-based anime, and a solid Trigger show post-Franxx, speaking of which, seems like I haven’t seen a lot of hate like it did with Franxx, so I guess the reception for GRIDMAN is positive at best. Also, my Twitter timeline is always full of Rikka and Akane lewds, mostly Rikka’s (but I prefer Akane because I’m a boobs person). 8/10 - Rank: A-.

Gaikotsu Shotenin Honda-san: This one wasn’t in my radar until I kept seeing tweets of the old man buying a yaoi book for his daughter, that made me watch the show and it’s pretty good. This reminded me why I like going to the bookstore from a shopping mall. 7.5/10 - Rank: B.

Golden Kamuy season 2 (+ overall review): Everyone seems incredibly disappointed and offended with how the Golden Kamuy anime turned out, especially CG animals, but I found it fun and decent to make up for it. 7/10 - Rank: B-.

Senran Kagura Shinovi Master Tokyo Youma Hen: Aside from the fan service (which, not gonna lie, is something I always look for), I felt like I wasn’t a big fan of this storyline but I guess it was alright. 6.5/10 - Rank: C+.

Ace Attorney season 2: I had originally dropped the show at episode 5 but later I caught up until at episode 9 and I kept watching it. It was pretty weird for me to watch the entirety of season 1 but not watching season 2. 6/10 - Rank: C+.

Tokyo Ghoul:re season 2 (+ overall review): This second season is probably Tokyo Ghoul Root A 2.0 but much worse. Even if I haven’t read the manga, I had no idea what the fuck was happening. I genuinely prefer the first season more than this one. Once again, Pierrot fucked up. Season 1: 7/10 - Rank: B/Season 2: 5/10 - Rank: D.

If Sui Ishida were to make another manga (if he chooses to), I hope it could be adapted by a better studio than Pierrot. But to be honest, he seems better off working as an illustrator than a mangaka, just look at some records that the Tokyo Ghoul fan base was wild.

Dropped:

Bakumatsu: I don’t need to explain this one much since it’s a show that came out on my birthday, whatever show I watch, if they don’t convince me enough with the first episode, I’d drop them, and it’s basically what I did here.

Onto the show itself, this genuinely reminded me of Touken Ranbu with the time travel stuff, but everything else, eh... not much of my thing. The funniest thing I can highlight is that the characters have their factions imprinted on their hair lighting.

Honorable mentions:

Angels of Death: ...Yeah, there’s a good reason why do I have to bring Angels of Death like it’s some sort of ongoing, but it’s not actually a two-cour series, it’s actually 16 episodes, the 4 ONAs to end the series.

Honestly, I thought they were going to leave it at episode 12 on the TV broadcast and the final episodes should have been on Blu-Ray but they’re available online or something (They’re called ONAs for a reason...). At least they didn’t shoehorn 12 episodes of rushed story like Pierrot with Tokyo Ghoul.

You can read my final thoughts on the show overall on the previous post about the summer anime shows here.

Hiatus:

Attack on Titan season 3: Yeah, AoT somehow disappeared off the air... until Spring 2019. That’s the most baffling moves I’ve ever seen, but there has to be a good reason for it.

There might have been some sort of production issues or something, but it’s so weird that I’m gonna have to wait a long time to watch the second cour.

Now that the manga is gonna end, either there’s gonna be a 12-episode season 4 or WIT might rush to the finale or make an anime original ending or something.

At least they gave us the weirdest teaser for the second cour ever.

Now, let’s move on with my plans for Winter 2019! (Should really write down what shows to watch and when they’re coming out because I tend to forget some, I’m 19 and I got bad memory...)

The Promised Neverland - January 10th: While I don’t read the manga, I’ve always been following DemizuPosuka for her gorgeous art style, from what I’ve seen from CMs, the art style seems pretty faithful, I’m interested to see how this goes.

Mob Psycho 100 II - January 7th: I’m really happy it’s getting a new season, I wish One Punch Man S2 could have been a Winter anime so I could have a ONE combo but OPM being on Spring and Mob Psycho 100 on Winter is the closest I get to a ONE combo like I wanted.

I wonder if this season will adapt all the way to the finale, but if it’s going to be a one-cour season, I don’t think Bones would skip a ton of chapters and rush the story to the end a la Pierrot with Tokyo Ghoul, it may adapt the middle of it and if it gets a third season, that’s where it would adapt the final chapters. (Hasn’t read the manga at all.)

Kemurikusa - January 9th: With the departure from the Kemono Friends franchise (no thanks, Kadokawa), I wonder what would have been Tatsuki’s fate of making new anime (other than doing shorts and posting them on Twitter), but it seems like they were working on an anime project and it turns out to be an all-new series of the original multi-part web series. One question I’ve always had for a while was if this was a prequel or a reboot of the series, but we’ll find out when we start watching it and go through until the end.

Kemono Friends season 2 - January 7th: This one is either something I’m really not looking forward or cautiously optimistic, either way, I just want to see how will season 2 perform without Tatsuki. Many people are most likely gonna be boycotting this or definitely gonna watch it but for a different reason, being that the animation looks better than the first one (Please, don’t disrespect Tatsuki and the charm on studio Yaoyoruzu’s animation).

As of the writing of this post (Dec.11), the teaser trailer currently sits at 49k dislikes over 5.5k likes and over 8k comments, and at the same time, there was a BTS (Behind-The-Scenes) photo and from what I’ve seen in the replies, the reception is surprisingly positive albeit one Japanese person with the “Bring back Tatsuki!” mood, I do mean it because I thought it would always have negative press, but I think the teaser trailer is its own thing with negativity.

Still gonna watch it, regardless, because I’m on a mission to keep an eye on the future of the Kemono Friends franchise post-Tatsuki, at least on anime like the Japari Park short series, because games, like the Picross game released on October 4th (my birthday. Thanks, I hate it, Kadokawa) for the Nintendo Switch because I don’t own a Switch.

Kakegurui season 2 - January 8th: I’m still baffled how it’s getting a second season after the anime original ending from the first one. I really wonder if they’re gonna follow up from the anime original ending or they’re gonna retcon that ending and redo it with whatever went from the manga from the Yumeko vs Kirari match (Still haven’t read it and I’m lazy to do so).

Boogiepop wa Warawanai - January 4th: So I guess this is Shingo Natsume/Madhouse’s next anime besides One Punch Man season 2, huh? Regardless, seeing trailers of it, looks really nice, but then there were reports that the illustrator of the light novel series wasn’t really happy with the look of the character designs in the anime and it was all Kadokawa’s lack of communication, basically Kadokawa is back doing some property damages but not as scarring as Kemono Friends, so I think things are still gonna turn out alright.

Ikki Tousen Western Wolves - January 3rd: Kind of surreal there’s a new Ikki Tousen in this near-2020 age, as of the writing of this (Dec.10), I need to start binging the series now (even if there’s so many god damn seasons to get through and it’s gonna take me forever).

Manaria Friends - January 20th: This one seems interesting, it was in development since 2015 and it was supposed to come out in 2016 but for some reason it was put on hold, it was originally produced by studio Hibari but now it’s gone completely reworked by a brand new anime studio from Cygames called CygamesPictures. I never actually followed the news of Manaria Friends, so learning about it now feels kind of cheated.

I always thought it had the Rage of Bahamut in the title but it must have been removed (or maybe moetron always tweeted with the Shingeki no Bahamut title with it).

Regardless, after Rage of Bahamut: Genesis and Virgin Soul (the latter which is the most hated, I’m still confused why it is the worst season if I can even process what did I just watch, whateverl, like I care), Manaria Friends seems like it’s going to be a better Rage of Bahamut anime, I may be exaggerating but it could really be. (I’m not really a RoB person so can’t say...)

W’z - January 5th: This is GoHands’ next anime project, it’s going to either make or break as much as Hand Shakers. After the HS flop, I ironically want GoHands to succeed with new ideas and stuff besides the K series. Also, how the fuck do you pronounce W’z?

Mini Toji - January 5th: Thought I’d give up on Toji no Miko after the base show? Apparently not. This one’s a chibi spin-off and it’s going to feature the characters from the game, so it sounds interesting. At least this one is going to be 11 episodes long, instead of two-cours like the base show.

BanG Dream! season 2 - January 3rd: This one’s 50/50 because, first of all, I’d love to watch a new Sanzigen anime because I need more Sanzigen in my life, second of all, Bandori isn’t much my thing (I’m lazy to binge the first season and I got other anime to binge too).

...Despite what I just said, I think I might really consider watching it, after all and the third season in October, I don’t really need to watch the first season, I guess. (I lied, I might binge the first season now)

The thing about Bandori S2 and S3 being full CG is like a Monster Strike situation where the first season was 2D hand drawn and the second season went full CG, but the third season came back to be hand drawn with a bit of CG, it’s weird and inconsistent for Monster Strike, at least Bandori will remain CG.

Virtualsan Looking - January 9th: Okay, what the fuck, I did not expect this to exist out of the blue. I genuinely never expected an anime centered on VTubers, particularly centered on known names like Mirai Akari, Siro and others would one day exist and that day is here (No Kizuna AI and Kaguya Luna here, strangely).

On December 18th, the trailer, a preview of the opening and the website were launched (see thread by moetron). As for the opening, I felt like they could have chosen the hand drawn animation as shown in 5 seconds because I want to see a full series with the VTubers fully hand drawn animated, but oh well, maybe they would be faithful to their 3D appearances (but Tsukino Mito is kind of Live2D-ish but she was turned into 3D at some point).

Speaking of the trailer, it doesn’t show what the story is about or anything, it just focuses on the VTubers featured in it.

I mean, the concept of a VTuber-focused anime is a good idea and something I didn’t know I desire, but this one, even with its vague teasers, it has potential, could be fun or could be hot garbage, just saying.

Lupin the 3rd: Goodbye Partner - January 25th: I genuinely forgot this existed after it was revealed last month, but hey, there’s a new special happening. I still want a new season of Lupin the 3rd, hopefully as good as this year’s season or even better.

This concludes the list of what shows did I watch this Fall season and what I’m looking forward next season, in the next post, my New Year’s post, I’ll address my overall list of my personal best anime of the year, stay tuned and happy New Year.

Twitter: @HKomaeda.

[bloginstantmooncollector-blog]

Brockway Pennsylvania Cheap car insurance quotes zip 15824

"Brockway Pennsylvania Cheap car insurance quotes zip 15824

Brockway Pennsylvania Cheap car insurance quotes zip 15824

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Brockway Pennsylvania Cheap car insurance quotes zip 15824

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What is the average cost of car insurance?

What is the average cost of car insurance?

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I am doing an essay on distracted drivers and I just wanted to know the statistics.

What used 4 door sedans are cheap on insurance?

Im 18 years old, turning 19 in december and need a car for college, what would be a good 4 door sedan, 4 cylinder, that is good on gas, cheap on insurance and cheap on repairs, reliable. What would be a good first car? Im not staying and living at the campus, im coming back home everyday.""

Is there anyway to avoid paying my 1000 dollar deductible on my Car Insurance?

I recently changed my deductible to 1000 dollars on my car insurance, and sure enough, got some dents on the front of my car sliding into a tree during bad road conditions. Is there ...show more""

Ok I don't udersrtand why for car insurance!?

I add my own details on car insurance, no accidemts etc and my quote is 190. i add my partner as an extra driver with a speeding fine and it goes down to 152""

What kind of insurance do used car dealerships have and how much does it cost?

I looking to start up a small used car dealership. What type of insurance do I need and what would it cost me Im only looking to open a small lot with about 5-8 cars at a time thanks

What are the consequences of driving without car insurance in florida?

What are the consequences of driving without car insurance in florida?

Insurance. What do I need to sell Term Insurance in California?

Insurance. What do I need to sell Term Insurance in California?

Saving on insurance...own or finance?

What is cheaper to insure a car that is being financed or a car that is owned? I haven't decided how to pay for my new car and since I am getting 0% it wouldn't cost more to finance, I do have the cash to buy it. I am just trying to see ways to lower insurance. If you know of any other ways to lower insurance I will take that advice too. Thanks""

Brockway Pennsylvania Cheap car insurance quotes zip 15824

Brockway Pennsylvania Cheap car insurance quotes zip 15824

St. Johns Insurance Company?

Does you have any positive/negative expierences with St. Johns Insurance Company?

Car insurance and driver's license in Belgium?

I would appreciate some information on how to get a driver's license in Belgium. 1) Will I be able to use a US license to drive around and if yes then for how long? 2) Will I have to pass any tests, written or driving, in order to get a Belgium license or will I be able to simply show a US one? 3) How much would I pay for an insurance (basic: damage + liabilities)?""

UK. Do you need insurance to learn to drive with your parents car?

i have my provisional Is the insurance expensive?

How can i find out how much my insurance on a car would be?

I'm barely 18 & I'm trying to find out how much insurance would be on a car if i buy it. I know insurance would be kind of high since it's my first car. My mom is gonna buy me the car but she's picky about how much the property tax is & the insurance on a car would be. Well to be any specific, the car I'm looking into is a 2004 Mitsubishi Galant GTS. I know the insurance my mom is on but I want to know if I just call them up & tell them I'm wanting to know what would the insurance be on this car if i bought it. Any idea???""

CAN YOU PLEASE HELP ME?

I have been 18 for a few months now and I'm planning on moving intomy boyfriends parents place in about two weeks. The reason i am waiting is because my grandfather wont let me take my car until i switch the car into my name with my own insurance policy. He has allstate, and i am about to start working at a new job. I will be graduating in june from high school and i live in Virginia. My grandfathers wife (step-grandmother) treats me badly and i need to move away. I have waited 6 years for this since my mom passed away in 2003. I know that none of you will know exactly how much insurance will be but could you give me some insight or a range on how much a month ill pay on insurance and the best policys. I am driving a 2002 Dodge Intrepid, 4 door. I drive everyday about 15-20 miles each day. I am a female, 18 years of age. (19 in september). I did have one traffic light accident that was MY fault but plead no contest and got away with one days worth of driving school. ..if you could please help me that would be great. And much appreciated. Im not sure if you need anymore info, but thats all i can think of right now. AND PLEASE DONT ANSWER IF YOU AE GOING TO ASK how are we supposed to know? BECAUSE I UNDERSTAND THATU DONT KNOW ME AND THAT U HAVE NO WA OF KNOWING. I JUST WANT TO KNOW A PRICE RANGE PER MONTH AND HE BEST POLICYS?? thank you, amber.""

How can I learn how much money do I have to pay for short term disability insurance?

I am going to start a business. And , I have 11 employees . I would like to get short term disability insurance plan and long term term disability insurance plan for my employees, and life insurance too . How much much money money do I have to pay for this?""

Teen Car Insurance Question?

I am looking to buy car insurance for my son who will be 16 1/2. Will it be cheaper than the average premium to have him drive a 1995 truck? also... if you have a teen driver how much did it cost to add them to the policy? thank you

Cheap car to insure mpg above 25?

Looking for a car that you may have had experience with that is cheap to insure, with decent mpg. I was looking at '95 and '97 civics because they are older and I thought might be cheaper to insure and get pretty good mileage from what Ive heard. Mainly looking 4 doors not too shabby low insurance and decent mileage. Thanks in advance for responses everyone""

What is the point of insurance?

I've just graduated and will be going out into the real world now, and a question I've had for years is why people seem to get insurance? To me it makes more sense to save the money you would have been paying myself instead. Am I wrong here?""

California Minimum Insurance Requirement?

Stated from the California DMV website: The minimum amount your insurance* must cover per accident is: * $15,000 for a single death or injury. * $30,000 for death or injury to more than one person. * $5,000 for property damage. Now when I signed up with Progressive Insurance and I don't elect uninsured motorist coverage it makes me sign a statement that I elected not to do so and is below the state minimum. Do I actually need uninsured motorist coverage?""

""What is a good but cheap body shop around the riverside, CA area which will work on an nissan altima?

i wont use insurance on it so it must be very affordable. theres alot oof scratches

Which insurance company is the cheapest for a new UK rider?

Which insurance company is the cheapest for a new UK rider?

Is there some sort of reason that Car Insurance costs so much more in Nevada than it does in California?

Im looking into moving, and I cannot help but notice that the quotes I am getting are, well, DOUBLE what I pay in California. Granted, I am a 23 year old male and have a decent driving record, it is kind of shocking to see liability only coverage quoted at $250/month for my two 8 and 12 year old cars, when Im paying $125/mo. as of now in California for the same 100/300 coverage. Can someone explain this? I have some friends that have moved to Las vegas, with the same shocking increase in premiums... (And yes, I need the 100/300 since I own a home)""

Cheapest place to insure a peugeot 106 1.1 or a peugeot 106 quiksilver?

Im getting pissed off with the prices of inurance for my car the cheapest i can get it is 3200 fully comp (third party is more money for some reason?!?) and ive tryed all these compare websites and they are utter bollocks i might aswell not have passed my bastard driving test with these prices, i may have to wait another year for my insurance to go down. Btw im 19 year old and have been passed 4 month, can anyone help me im sick of ******* looking at insurance websites, thanks""

Will affordable health act help or hurt people who want to retire early?

Say you are in your late 50's or early 60's and wants and have enough money to retire, but was waiting because of health insurance issues and was going to wait till 65. With the affordable care act most likely going to proceed, will this help those people who probably have pre-existing conditions and of course old get a better deal on health insurance if affordable care act was not passed? To my simple mind, I would have to say yes. And I imagine a lot of people are going to take advantage of this and retire early.""

Does the Year of your Car affect Insurance Prices?

Does the Make of Your Car Affect How Much you are Charged for Insurance? Does the Year of Your Car Affect How Much you are Charged for Insurance? Does Having 2Doors Always Rise How Much you are Charged for Insurance? No Baby Answers.

1999 Chevy Cavalier convertible insurance price?!?

I would like to know how much the insurance for a 1999 Chevy Cavalier convertible would be for a 17 year old driver with no tickets or accidents! Please help me out.

Car insurance renewal & no claims certificates?

My car insurance is up for renewal soon, I had 1 year no claims before the current policy (but no certificate to prove it) and havent claimed during it. When I renew I like to look for the best price which may mean not sticking with my current insurer. If I change insurer and they ask to see proof of my no claims how can I prove I have 2 years? Will my current insurer issue me with a certificate saying 2 years (1 year with them added to the 1 year beforehand) or just 1 year? The other issue is that surely this certificate will arrive AFTER I want to begin my new policy?? Any advice would be much appreciated""

How do i get affordable health insurance in new york?

I make 40k a year but i live in nyc so i cant afford a standard plan. Just need for myself 37 yr old male Thanks

What to do with car insurance if i won't be using my car for 4 years?

I'm heading off to college (by plane) and i won't be using my car and well i don't see a reason to pay car insurance on a car that's just sitting in the garage. I was wondering what i should do in this situation.i'm probably going to use it after i graduate but not anytime earlier. so would it be wise to keep the insurance, cancel it or are there some other alternatives i could possibly do?""

What is the best insurance company for a 21yr old with a bad driving record?

car insurance for nj drivers

Are there any good arguments for requiring health insurance. Ive only heard arguments against it?

Ive heard the car insurance one, not very solid. I also have heard there will be hardship exemptions and certain levels of income earned that will determine how much help will be given in purchasing insurance. Just looking for somethings to note when someone brings up this part of the bill""

""CAR INSURANCE FOR A 17-YEAR-OLD, 5000 quotes. Genuinely can't find any quotes less than 5000?""

1.3 KA 2002, immobiliser, no tracker fitted yet (intend on). Not bought the car. 17-year-old as the main driver and owner, passed a month ago (roughly). I know it's obvious, but KAs are the easiest cars to buy, the car is valued at 995 (the one in mind). I can literally find 5000 quotes. The car is worth less than one fifth of this. And yes, I know that car insurance will be expensive, but reading over forums etc, some people have managed to get it down to 2000. I've tried Diamond, elephant, comparethemarket, gocompare, literally everywhere. Admiral won't give me a quote and places like Tesco will only quote 18-year-olds. I will literally LOVE anyone who knows of any quotes around 2000-3000. Any less, I believe is impossible. And I realise that insurance companies take the Michael, but please don't state the obvious with a comment like Insurance will be expensive - 5000 is about right , surely it can't be, I've found so many forums of people saying they have quotes from 2000, but not telling me where from. ):""

Vauxhall Astra 1.7 cdti Insurance?

I'm 17 soon so i'm looking for cars to get, and I've been looking at a 1.7 cdti Vauxhall Astra (100bhp) 3 door, and i can easily afford a decent 2005-07 model but its the insurance I'm worried about, i don't want to buy a nice decent first car and not be able to insure the damn thing, and all of the quote websites I've been on are giving me stupid answers so I'm just wondering if any of yous have had one of these for your first cars and how much it cost to insure it or if you just have a good idea on how much it would cost? thanks.""

Insurance for a 1994 camaro?

I am 16 and have had my liscnse for almost 7 months now and have had no accidents. I want to buy a 1994 camaro but not sure what insurance will be. It is a v6 3.4L. About how much will insurance cost me? What about if the car is under my parents name?

Brockway Pennsylvania Cheap car insurance quotes zip 15824

Brockway Pennsylvania Cheap car insurance quotes zip 15824

Insurance on a car? How much??

How much would it be to insure a car in UK, do I have to see a site? Eg, Ferrari, BMW, how much?""

How much do you pay for car insurance?

i pay $130 /month and i think its too much

How can I find affordable auto insurance quote online?

How can I find auto car cheap insurance quote?

Question about my car and insurance?

My car payment was due on may 1st well dident have the money to pay it so how long do I have tp pay it before they try and repo it, and also my car insurance is due sat. and said if i dident pay it it cancels at 12am sat. so how long do i have to pay it before they repo my car or if they even do that, Im almost a month late on paying my insurance? Thank You""

What is best in LIfe Insurance?

How to choose the best insurance conpany.. This website says many which one can i prefer http://www.insurance-assurances.110mb.com/

What does depreciation cost mean when it comes to home insurance?

filed a claim to replace my floors.getting a check in 5-7 business days.it says i have 180 days to replace the floors,to cover depriciation cost.what does that mean exactly?""

Are minors required to have car insurance in California?

I'm reading the drivers handbook and it doesn't mention anything about that, it only says if you are emancipated that they require it.""

A question about car insurance?

We own three cars and have insurance on all three. If my daughter moves to another city and takes one of the cars, will the insurance still cover her? Typically the rates are based on where you live. Thanks for any advice!""

Is canadian car insurance valid in the US?

if I want to rent a car in the us will I have to purchase the rental car company's insurance?

If car insurance goes with the car technically does that mean an uninsured driver can drive an insured car?

I have a license but no insurance. I drive my dad's car which is insured in his name. If he is aware that i am driving the car and i get into an accident, does that mean I am insured?""

Which insurance company should I chose? Which one is better State Farm or Liberty Mutual? ?

Which insurance company should I choose Liberty Mutual or State Farm? It's mostly concerning claim payouts and handling.

Do you know which insurance company is cheaper for a first time driver?

I live in florida and i am now just getting my car. Thank you.

How Fast Does Car Insurance Start?

Can I buy insurance today and have it ready same day or next day or is there a long process before it starts. I want to buy a car tomorrow, get insurance, and drive the car to my job by Friday.""

What is the age limitation for life insurance?

what is the age limitation for life insurance? I mean in Europe, Canada, or the place called.. , austitralia.""

Just broughta motorhome o2 fiat where cheapest and best insurance?

Just broughta motorhome o2 fiat where cheapest and best insurance?

How much will average insurance be for me.?

I am 17, just passed my driving test and I am considering buying a 1997 AUDI A3 1.6 Sport.""

What is a cheap good health insurance company in CA?

hi im 15 years old and i need health insurance for sports and i also need doctor check ups and dental maybe even eye check ups, my parents and i cannot find a company that is cheap and just for me. what is a cheap but good company to go with for health insurance in california?""

""Does anybody know of the cheapest car insurance company in Hamilton, Ontario?""

Getting car insurance these days is getting ridiculous...I've gotten quotes for $500, etc. but there has to be something cheaper out there. I'm getting an old car, so just basic insurance would be fine, so I can legally drive. Does anybody know of the cheapest car insurance company in Hamilton, Ontario?""

Is it bad not to have health insurance?

Is it bad not to have health insurance?

Nissan GTR Lease & Insurance Cost?

Approximately, how much is Nissan GTR lease and insurance cost? Thanks.""

Cost to insure 2000 bmw 318?

Im 18 and currently live in Iowa. Im looking into buying a used BMW but dont want to pay an insane amount for insurance. I was just wondering what I would pay for a 2000 BMW 318. Sedan v6. Estimated price? Compared to my 2001 4cyl Honda accord sedan? Thanks

Car insurance groups 17/18 year old?

well im from London, 17 years old and will be 18 in about 1-2 months and i should have my full license by end of summer. I've been looking to buy a VW Golf 1.4 S mk4 as first car which is group insurance 4. I just checked on GoCompare for quotes but its giving me 6.5k per year for third party! WTF? and i tried on under my dad's policy quotes (frontin) and it only droped by about 250 quid... so about 6.25k. Why is it so high? do these prices sound right for group insurance 4?? i mean i know im young and i might give boy racer image to them but wow... if it doesn't sound right what am i doing wrong? what things does drop the quote? i put stuff like locked in garage an anything i could think of.""

Will my insurance cover the wreck & my car?

My boyfriend was driving my car and he's not under my insurance plan only me and my mom are and someone thought we were riding their *** so they slammed on the breaks and we slid right into their car and he rolled down his window and laughed and cussed us out then drove away. and my car is totaled. will i have to pay all repairs? or will the insurance cover it even though someone else was driving my car? (i know if the insurance pays i will have to still pay a deductible)

Will my insurance go up?

will my insurance go up if i got a ticket for carless operation? the officer said there wont be any points on my licence but if will my insurance go up? and will i get points on my insurance?

Explain why auto insurance costs are so high for young drivers?

please EXPLAIN in the longest way possible

Brockway Pennsylvania Cheap car insurance quotes zip 15824

Brockway Pennsylvania Cheap car insurance quotes zip 15824

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-much-do-you-pay-car-insurance-does-cover-both-other-norman/"

[ghozt1ng-blog]

Chapter 5 - From the Horse’s Mouth

Naomi didn’t like to brag to others. Bragging was a tactic of those who were unsure about themselves.

    She was brilliant. She was already doing college work on the side, while fending off offers from some of the most prestigious universities both in and without the United States. She had taught herself how to speed read by the time she was nine years old. But beyond that, she had gained a near photographic memory. With these two abilities, she had read so many classics and contemporary works of art, she was better read than most professors trying to gain her patronage. She like to watch three shows, or read three online articles all at once. She had done it many times when she had free time; just set up three screen, her phone, and she was ready to go. Naomi did admit it to herself that the combo was kind of unfair.

    She also loved to take things apart and put them back together. Ever since she could crawl was she into everything. By eleven, she had already begun building her own computer. But she didn’t like being cooped up for too long, either. So she enjoyed running and camping when the occasion permitted. She memorized trails, smells, animal prints, the clouds in the sky, and more. Eagle Scouts wept at her amazing prowess.

Though she could work people or read them as well as Trick, she knew psychology and cool logic. She knew how to handle herself in social situations. Naomi could also lie her way out of Sing Sing. Seventeen years old, with another year of highschool to go, and she was already a walking PhD candidate in so many areas and a budding diplomat. Yes, she down played this a lot, much to her mother’s frustration, but she didn’t want to be seen as an absolute freak.

But why then!?

Why did being around Trick make her do and say dumb things? Like getting lycan and lichen so wrong!? But her pride refused to let her back down from what she had said. How embarrassing…

And also…

Why did this Brandon guy have to get her so flustered and upset!? He put shivers up her spine, and not the good kind by a mile! She could barely think with him around. He wanted to be so close to her. Touching her. She couldn’t understand why, though she knew the answer was staring her in the face. Why couldn’t she think this easy situation through properly?

This had to do something with Trick! She was going to slug him good for this!

For instance, she knew that everything that she was looking at from these manga volumes, and from the excerpt of the show she saw, everything was a fake. But they were brilliant fakes! So well done, that whoever was behind it was master forger. And all good forgers worth their salt wanted to be found out. There were important clues in every drawing and video. Why had it taken her so long to then demand that copies be made!?

At least they were going to where the adults could now steer the entire process and hopefully bring her back to clarity of mind. Ah yes… See Stacey Miles had that power to elicit a sense of aggravation powerful enough to snap her Naomi out of her funk.

Whew! Even if this next part is a waste of time, at least I’m beginning to think clearly again, even if just a little, and Brandon’s siblings are now making copies of what we have. I’ll happily go through all the clues later. Naomi thought. I know a lot about these different shows and serials, it should be a piece of cake to find where the discrepancies and the forgeries begin, and why they do what they do. Knowing that bit is key to understanding their presence in this house in the first place!

The agents sat patiently with a recorder and notes across from Mr. and Mrs. Jackson at the dining table. Naomi dove for a chair next to Trick’s mom and Managed to pull Trick into the chair next to her before Brandon swooped in to claim it. The proportionally challenged teen huffed and drew out a chair to sit behind Naomi. She closed her eyes and concentrated on not turning around socking him in the face. When she cracked her eyes open a moment later she was glad to see that Trick seemed to be struggling with the same impulses.

Conturbatio began. “Brandon, we’ve talked with your parents about the curse that you claimed to have followed you to the theater. Just how long has this so-called curse been going on?”

    “Oh, it’s so-called, is it?” The teen fired back.

    “Son,” his mother warned dangerously, but Brandon only pouted.

Trick nudged Naomi and shot her glance and a quick jerk of the head back to Brandon. She wished she didn’t understand then. He wanted her to pose the question to him. Conturbatio had hoped that Brandon would open up to Ben, but it was clear that wouldn’t happen. Trick knew that he would, however, answer to her. She sighed.

You owe me, Trick!

“Brandon, please, tell us how long this has been going on. That way we are done and over with this thing,” she said tersely.

“Oh, well, it’s been going on for about three months now. It was small stuff at first, but then things started getting weird and everything started changing! Still, I guess it wasn’t too bad until the things that were changing tried interacting with us! Like characters in a TV show turning and trying to address the people looking in on them. Or emails without addresses asking us to save them from a war. And even… Even shadows of stuff moving and hiding in the corner of our small house. Well, with you here Naomi, we’ll get to the bottom of this,” Brandon said quickly.

He laid a hand on her shoulder and she felt his fingers trying to massage her. Naomi shuttered. Trick’s hand suddenly swept behind her, knocking Brandon’s hand away, and then tapped his mom back.

“Does this sound familiar to any other strange cases from the Q Files,” Trick asked.

Susan Brown shrugged, but Agent Miles answered, “Oh, there are many elements that are similar to dozens of cases, but from what we’ve heard from the Jackson, this is something else entirely.”

“And it seems to revolve around you, Brandon,” the Sphinx said earnestly. “We need to know everything. Every little detail might help us to better understand and stop this odd phenomena. Because whatever it was originally, it is clearly becoming mobile and violent.”

Brandon was enraged by having his hand swiped away from Naomi’s shoulder, for which she was grateful. But she knew that she would have to the one to coax the rest out of him. She turned around and with a straight, bored face, began to grill Brandon for details. Naomi couldn’t tell if the guy was spilling the beans because he really liked her, or because he was intimidated, or if he because he finally wanted to get everything off his chest.

As he had said, things had started off small at first, amanga changing here, an episode of show being slightly off there. Then everything began changing. Video games started coming to life behind the screen, and the characters started doing things outside of their programming. They even talked to the players, talking to them about a war that was coming. And then emails started coming, telling Brandon and his family that the senders wanted to come to their home. They spoke of ways that the family could bring them across. Some of the processes were nothing short of disgusting and terrible.

Conturbatio and the other agents shared meaningful looks at this knowledge. It reminded Naomi of the door…. They had never found out what exactly created that portal, and the case files had mysteriously vanished a few weeks back according to her mom. She had even heard rumors that the Q Files were banned from further investigating the case. She wondered how the agents were holding up. Was that perhaps really why the Sphinx was so keen on coming here to Utah and pursuing this oddball case? If so, he might have just hit a gold vein of a new lead.

Brandon continued to explain, at Naomi’s insistence, that the phenomena, or curse as the Jacksons had come to call it, was first only centered around the house. But then the night came that he went to the theaters to escape the insanity for a bit. But then the dinosaurs came to life and attacked people.

Naomi asked the Jackson, “And you didn’t think of moving earlier? Whatever this is, has clearly latched onto you!”

    “We live around Mormons,” Mrs. Jackson said, as though this explained everything.

    Everyone else gave her blank stares so her husband explained further, “We didn’t want to be the subject of gossip.”

    Agent Brown nodded her head, “I have heard of that. Not all Mormon are like they are in Utah. At least I have been told; a completely different culture.”

    “Sounds fascinating,” Trick yawned.

    “Hey Trick, we have that strange episode we telling you about,” Tiffany called to him.

    Trick made to get up, but Naomi grabbed his arm and shook her head frantically. She did not want Brandon to position himself next to her. It had been hard enough to have him and his stale breath in her face.

    “What is this episode,” Conturbatio asked curiously.

    “It’s an episode of Star Trek that daddy recorded and then got all messed up,” Tiffany explained.

    “I don’t think the agents want to see that,” Mr. Jackson said, clearly uneasy about the whole situation.

    “Nonsense. I think that this might be vital evidence to the investigation,” the Sphinx said pleasantly. “May we please see it?”

    Mr. jackson was sweating profusely, but he nodded his head. They went to the entertainment center and Tiffany popped the VHS into an old player connected with the Blue-Ray player. Soon, the family and agents were watching a bizarre episode with Captain Picard leading the Enterprise into battle against a very, very confusing enemy made of shadows. What made it all even weirder was that Stitch was at the helm of the Enterprise. A velociraptor in heavy armor loomed over Picard and talked about people and worlds Naomi had never heard of. The Enterprise itself looked as though reavers from Firefly had had their way with it, and now it sported massive cannons all over it, perfect for destroying multiple ships. All kinds of space stories were present and helping combat the shadows. It was intense, nonsensical, and very violent.

    “Could this be the war the messages are talking about,” Stacey asked her partners.

    “Based on limited evidence and leads, I think it is a safe assumption to make for the time being, but I would not make it my leading theory,” Conturbatio answered. “We need to know more. We need to know more about these doors, and especially how they might connect all of this. Everything I am seeing here are works of fiction. But what we encountered last time was way too real to be something out of a TV show for the late 80s.”

    “It could be that whatever is behind the doors, is trying to speak to us through our stories,” Trick’s mom suggested. “This might be their best way of communicating.”

    “That is another strong possibility,” the Sphinx admitted.

    “Wait just a moment,” Naomi suddenly said. “There the Tscheapwhetzar. That strange guy with red eyes and a hood cloak who was in a couple of the changed stories!”

    “The what now,” Stacey asked.

    “I’m not sure, but it is someone who has been referenced in multiple changed comics in Brandon’s room. What if he is what connects them all?”

    “I’ll have to have a look at these,” the Sphinx said. His curiosity sounded to Naomi as though it had been replaced with sudden clarity. She wondered why that was, but her thoughts were interrupted.

    “Hey Naomi,” Kyle said as he came into the room. “I was making the copies you wanted, but then a strange message came over the screen of my computer and the copies were halted. You guys might want to have a look at this.”

    “You were making copies? Good girl,” Conturbatio praised her.

    “Let me have a look at this,” Brandon said, puffing out his chest.

    Naomi was not pleased when he snatched her hand pulled her along. The rest of the household followed, and Naomi felt like she was being humiliated. Once in Kyle’s room, they saw there was a message with an intricate Z above it.

    “That looks like the Legend of Zelda,” Naomi said.

    “Oh, you do know it,” Brandon said, evidently pleased at her knowing something that ought to have been common knowledge. “Let’s check it out.”

    “Hey! Let go of me,” Naomi now fumed as he hauled her along.

“Hey pal, listen to her. She’s already uncomfortable as it is,” Trick protested.

“Butt out,” Brandon snarled.

“Son, your behavior so far as been very unacceptable,” his father warned.

“Well what do you expect?! He gets it from your side of the family you know,” Mrs. Jackson huffed.

“Brandon, I don’t think you should touch that keyboard,” Susan Brown said, suddenly looking very intense and alert. “I can’t explain it, but something feels off.”

“Oh this is nothing,” Brandon said, still holding onto Naomi as she struggled with his grip and he pressed a key.  

An odd sensation coursed through her body and the computer screen lit up brightly. The next second, she was pulled through the screen, along with Brandon.

Trick could only watch dumbstruck as his friend and the potato kid were pulled into a computer. While everyone else looked dumbstruck, he ran for the computer and screamed to no one in particular.

“I’m going to kill Brandon for this! Naomi? Naomi! If you can hear me, I’m going to get you out!”