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popculturebuffet · 4 years

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Close Enough Season 2 Review! or Josh Murders About 10 People

It's been hard to put into words just how wonderful a surprise this season getting released this month was. For starters before JG Quintel announced it last year shortly after season 1, I honestly was convinced season 2 wasn't happened. Do NOT get me wrong, Season 1 of Close Enough was one of the best parts of last year: It was funny, had a lot of heart, a great voice cast, and a great cast of characters that was throughly likeable and broke sitcom stereotypes, having a doofy husband and more straight laced wife with layers who clearly love and respect each other and BOTH can be prone to taking things too far instead of JUST Josh screwing up. Add in two great fellow leads Bridgette and Alex played by two of my faviorite va's, Kimiko Glen and Jason Mantzokus, whose name I finally learned how to spell, an adorable daughter and neat but out of focus neighbors and supors pearle and randy, and the show was just damn near perfect and felt like an improvement on regular show, taking the same humor and animation style but to an older cast and audience with more nuanced and likeable characters, and far more character development per episode. I wanted to see where the show would go.. but I was convinced given the show was leftover inventory from an animation block that never happened held over to give HBO Max some content it'd be canceled after one season, because I can't have nice things. But....

And very happily so: JG Quintel revealed the show had been picked up for season 2 not long after season 1 dropped, having listned to fans. As it turns out though they hadn't.. they just had a ton of faith in the show as I got ANOTHER bombshell earlier this month. While the show had showed up on the schedule for this month late in January, with no release date on said schedule, I wasn't 100% sure the show was coming back this month or that it wasn't just an error. But once again, I was wrong, it was earth all along, and they merely saved it for the press release for their adult animation lineup: alongside the huge and welcome bombshell they were the ones picking up the Clone High reboot and for two seasons, Close enough not only got two more seasons publicly announced, but fimrly revealed season 2 launched February 25th. LIke they likely had with infinity train the show was quitely picked up for another season, and they simply waited to announce it till the right time. Though unlike infinity train, they had faith in it to become a big hit and while they SHOULD HAVE with infinity train and should've accepted it was already a big hit simply not with the target demographic, it's still nice to see that after all it went through Close Enough not only got renewed but is now the network's flagship adult animated show, closely tied with harley quinn, and will likely go on as long as it wants to.

So naturally given I reviewed all of season 1 in the hopes i'td get renewed, I was happy to make room for season 2 and continue covering it and over the moon it was happening so soon. However I'm doing things diffrently this time: instead of flooding the tag with individual longform reviews, i'm reviewing the season all one go, to see if this format could work for me as I have tons of other shows i'd love to cover in this format that are either heavily comedic like say the Great North, regular show or the simpsons and thus dont' lend themselves to riffing as much and leave me less to do per episode, or more seralized shows like she ra or ones that are entirely complete like Steven Universe or Gravity falls that I could cover alone but this format could help expidite covering. Gravity Falls is also one of my patreon stretch goals if your instrested as is a whole lot of ducktales stuff, link on my blog. It also works with my much larger workload with a much tighter schedule, 6 reviews a week with a flex day in case I get behind so everything comes out as good as it posisbly can be, versus my original method of...

TLDR: One big post with smaller reviews each episode and an overall coverage of what changed this season and how good it is as a whole. We good? Good, then join me under the cut for some delightful sentient presents, couch ghosts, and jim fucking crunch as we get close enough to the heart.

I will never get tired of that image. I want it blown up and put on a banner at my funeral. But death plans aside let's get into the season

Slight Tweaks to a Great Formula: Given it's slice of life format based largely around likeable multi layered characters in comedic absurdity, not a lot has changed nor did it need to. What has are just simple tweaks to make things even better. For starters a natural result of getting to the episodes now produced directly for the 11 minute format means the pacing is much focused, subbing in full subplots for the occasional runner instead, and often only using what characters the episode needs. It will use the main five often, but the lack of subplots for the most part allows stronger focus on one or two characters to give the stories added weight and nuance and often laughs. While i'll always love season 1, this allows for much tighter stories and allows for everyone to get some major screen time instead of mostly Josh and Emily in season 1. It does mean we sadly get less of my boy Alex per episode but it's a sacrifice i'm willing to make if it means the show can grow and take more risks and evolve naturally. Though the former probably wasn't help by two of his three episodes being kinda weak, but i'll get to that.

The other noticeable change is Pearle and Randy. While they were promoted as main characters, even getting profiles along with the rest, they were in practice recurring characters in season 1, showing up pretty frequently but with only one starring episode for Randy and none for Pearle. And givne Pearle has an interesting backstory as a cop who likely had to put up with a LOT being a black woman officer, as well as raising a white redneck, while also being hilarious and having a fun energy to her, I felt they kinda wasted her in season 1.

Here though? Both have been bumped up to main cast proper, getting two focus episodes a piece (compared to the other main adults each getting three, some of those shared, and Candace getting one, hopefully more in the future as it was really good, along with, to my delight, mr.cambell also getting one), appearing far more in supporting roles and generally showing up with the main group a lot more. They still don't hang out with our loveable family all the time, but it makes sense as they have their own apartment and stuff to deal with, but it feels far more like their part of the main group. The show always treated them like this mine, but showing up more makes their friendships with their tenants feel more genuine, as it feels like their part of their lives more, whlie having their own to deal with we get to see now.

So while the series didn't change much, as I said it didn't need to and all of this is stuff is the kind of thing I wanted, especially Pearle getting a larger role and Randy being fleshed out from a dollar store version of muscle man into his own similar but difference character, and i'm happy to have it. So now i've talked about how the seasons' changed, let's talk about the episodes themselves. Grab a snack this is going to take a bit.

The Episodes!:

Josh Gets Shredded:

Our premier and honestly it's a solid one with a singular premise on poking fun at gym culture, though in a nice twist Jim Crunch, the guy who runs the Gym Josh ends up going to to strengthen his core to play with Candace and whose voiced wonderfully by Kevin Michael Richardson is a genuinely good guy and there's no horrifying twist with him. He just wants Josh to get ripped and dosen't know his training is keeping josh from candace. IT's a simple setup of a father doing something for his daughter but getting distracted by it and while not new it works well here and we get plenty of fun gym jokes, including an exchange from Jim and Josh when Josh wants to become an "absolute unit", which in this case ends up meaning turning into the hulk but with the glowing firey eyes of an angry god, feels like it came straight out of the hockey bros from letterkenny, which is a good feeling to have. There's also a nice setup with Candace wanting to play king kong with Josh due to seeing it in class (Specially the Peter Jackson remake, also Candace knows who jack black is which I buy because of who her daddy is. I wouldn’t be surprised if Josh had Saving Silverman on a loop for several days until emily threw it out the window like a frisbee. ), which kicks off the whole thing.. and ends with ultra instinct hulk josh taking her to the top of a building and swatting away helicopters. It’s more of an average episode for the series and the runner about Emily being REALLY hot for buff josh comes off as a weaker version of the plot from family guy where Lois likes a thinner peter, apart from one inspired bit where in order to talk to him about candace without getting distracted, Emily pours an entire bag of ice down her pants.. and subtly after Josh talks about becoming an absolute unit, it’s gone nad rather than animation I like to believe it melted. Still a decent start to a great season.

Meet the Frackers: A Randy Spotlight episode and unlike his season one episode rather than be a subplot in another episode it’s a full episode about him. And the starting incident is great as the gang gets their ancestry results back from costco, with Emily and Bridgette having ancestors in Guadalajara and Kiyoto.. and Josh being white (”Can you believe it?”). Alex coming from a long line of creeps is also pretty funny, those are his actual results by the way.

But what the episodes truly about is Randy finding out his parents are alive in Malibu after Pearle claimed they were dead when he was a kid. She had a very good reason though: Randy’s parents were serial gas thieves, and Pearle nearly caught them one night with the two chucking him at her to escape. And to her credit Pearle TRIED to reach out to them once they ended up in jail for their crimes.. but they again chucked him at her which is hilarious. She simply didn’t want him to feel abandoned. He instead feels betrayed.

His parents are hilariously white trash and played by two faviorite va’s of mine, David Kochner and Wendy Malick, who i’m happy is finally playing a lead roll on Owl House. They drink redneck maragretihas and eat mcribs (As Randy puts it “God’s favorite sandwich!”) every day and still steal gas, just legally now as frackers. Naturally though the two are still assholes and soon use a carnival as a cover to illegally frack and it’s up to Randy an dhis real mom to stop them> It’s a touching story with Randy genuinely wanting to hlep his mom, though I feel it would’ve been more interesting if Randy’s parents hadn’t been scum an dhe had to genuinely deal with having three parents now. Still it was worth it for some great lines from Malick and Kochner , so it works. Decent ep.

Sauceface: Now we come to both one of the best eps of the season, and the series so far, and one of it’s most unique as it stars Candace and dosen’t feature the other main cast hardly at all, only Emily who kicks things off by, in a great bit, breaking Candace’s illusion their rich as “they live in a castle with alex and bridgette”, with her slowly realizing “Were poor”. Which is just a very kid thing to think that your parents are rich when they very much aren’t.

But the episode really is a crime boss parody story, as the title would imply as Candace and her best friend start selling hot sauce, which is banned from the school due to it’s political correctness having gone mad and it being offensive to “sensitive palates” (They’ve also banned general tso’s chicken for mitlarialism and everything bagels for being “too much”). This leads where you’d expect: Candace getting drunk with power and forgetting why theys tarted, wet willies, and an art room brawl, all leading to candace’s friend getting pinched and candace having to use the money to buy Mr. Cambell a pelaton to get him off their backs, which leads to this lovely exchange “YOur letting them off just because they bought you a present?” “This is a 2000 dollar bike”. We also get the subtle reveal Mr. Cambell is gay which given how straight the main cast is, is nice. But this was a great one with too many good gags to mention, a great setup, a great rolling stones song played during the montage I do not know the name of, and I hope we get other candace advnetures at her school in the future, because this was a real delight. Again one of the best episodes of the season.

The House Guest From Hell: Speaking of best episodes, this is probably the best pairing of episodes yet, as both are standouts of the season.

Emily’s old friend Becca drops back into her life, to everyone’s annoyance as Becca is an utter leech who constantly take advantage of Emily’s lack of boundaries with her to constantly talk about whatever drama she’s wrapped herself in and mooch off her. Josh and Bridgette want her to set firm boundaries, but Emily fails to and instead only gets Becca to set boundaries with her boyfriend.. which leads to her moving into the apartment temporarily, and annoying the hell out of everyone. Becca is a great character, being that asshole in the most over the top and annoying way possible, to the point she takes alex’s room, watches tv on a loop and doesn’t seem to realize Emily is married (Despite being part of her bridal party), or that candace is Emily’s daughter and not a tiny butler (Which Candace assumes is a game. )

Naturally for this show things escalate hilariously as Emily finds out she’s pregnant when she tries to throw her out and the pregnancy is escalated.. and we soon find out it’s because the pregnancy is demonic: She has Hecate as her dula (And Alex naturally asks if she’s single, get it guy get it), needs goats hoves, locusts and the blood of the innocent (Which is the only item that trips josh up who hopes they can get it at costco, which made me have to pause as I could not stop laughing). This would be funny enough. .but what takes it into making this episode a classic is when Emily tricks her boyfriend Luke over he’s unsurprisingly a devil.. but also a hilariously over the top douchebag dudebro played by Beck Bennet, who it’s not only nice to see outside of ducktales, but is also just totally game. Luke is so odious it wraps around to being funny, to the point he unsurprisingly hits on Bridgette while his girlfriend is in labor, messily makes out with her and they try to move in, though thankfully Emily cathartically screams Becca out midbirth. Also they end up going to hell, with Luke getting there by doing donuts. Yes really. This episode is a treasure and does the series schitck of taking a relatable problem and escalating it to perfection.

Joint Break:

Another unsurprisingly good one, as Pearle deals with the fact that despite her decades of service, the force’s health plan doesn’t cover her needed hip surgery after she slides over a car wrong (Which also leads to a great riff on the old csi Miami parody). She then finds herself between her oath as an officer and her needs for help as she befriends a gang of saucy old women at water aerobics who are also bank robbers and want to cut her in. And they provide a tempting offer, getting what their owed and ti feels like a genuine dilemma, even if Pearle ends up siding with the police, not that she should. It’s also full of great bits of the old lady gang weaponizing stereotypes about old people, with the three of them dawning classic old lady getups to fool an officer, and having one of them i a walker slowly cross the street to stop an armored truck. Fun stuff helped by their leader being voiced by Jane Lynch, continuing this season’s red hot guest star streak, not that the series has ever been light on them (They got David Hasselhoff and weird al in season 1, so yeah), but this season ramps up the good guest voices to the point there’s one per episode almost.

Cyber Matrix: This one’s okay though the setup is good. Unsurprisingly given both his dale gribble-esque penchant for conspiracies and his hipster holier than thou ways, Alex has never had a smart phone, and has a very old flip hone that’s horrifc to look at and naturally gets destroyed, leading to him getting addicted to the thing.. and this being the show it is fusing with it. What makes this one is the climax, as the rest of the main group scramble to take out the cell tower so Alex’s phone doesn’t upload him to the cloud while Josha nd Alex open everything they can to slow her down. The result is the phone hacking Emily’s and ordering packages, task rabbits to punch her inthe face (With randy taking it so they can go) and outright hijacking a car in a clever chase. The ending though does sink this as suddenly their in veirutal reality again and it just feels weird given the series, while not really using continuity much so far, dosne’t have negavite continuity punch out endings outside of this one ep and I hope this dosen’t happen again. Otheriwse a decent one if sadly not one of Alex’s best and he equally sadly onlyg ets one truly great episode this season, compared to having a good chunk of the best plots last season. Still you can’t win em all and i’m sure my boy will return to form and said great episode, which we’ll get to soon, certainly shows they didn’t loose their touch. They just fumbled a bit and that’s okay.

Haunted Couch: Balancing that out is the fact that Bridgette, who didn’t get nearly as many good eps as Alex or as much focus as the rest, gets some great episodes this season with this one being my out and out favorite as it fleshes her out more and has some really great gags. Josh brings in a street couch (And he and Emily’s argument over it is great including him using the fact she forced them to get a savings account as leverage somehow), just as Bridgette is in emotional turmoil over her latest boyfriend suddenly ghosting her.

Naturally she ends up falling for a REAL ghost, a french couch designer who had a habit of cheating on his lovers, died for it by one of their hands, and his soul ended up bound to the couch. Naturally hea nd Bridgette hit it off and we get a LOT of good stuff in a montage as the two take the couch everywhere, and her friends, minus Alex who surprisingly rather than being jealous, simply dosen’t like the fact there’s a ghost in the house technically haunting them which surprisingly goes nowhere, are happy for her and like him after the initial shock wears off, though Josh still wants to sit on the couch. He and Bridgette even have really good sex using Randy’s body, with him being a willing vesel for Marcus. And i’d just like to point out that an intensely weird comedy show that also has a sentient present, bob vila with saw hands, and dude bro satan in this very season, 2/3 of those to come.. STILL did this better than wonder woman 87, as they actually asked someone to let the ghost of the couple use his body so they could fuck, and he gave full consent to it. And no I sitll haven’t let that go, it was a very bad plotline with nightmarish implications and the fact close enough did it better in a joke, they also have the song from ghost in the background by the by, than a big budget movie from the same company, is a really large bilboard saying:

But while the episode was thoroughly interesting and funny.. it’s what happens next that makes it one of the series best. While the series is amazing at comedy, it’s the character growth slid in between it that makes it so awesome and this episode is a great example. Bridgette turns cold towards Marcus as it’s clear he’s serious, and he’s even moved a tooth brush in. She gets more and more hostile until eventually Marcus calls her on it, and prevents her from leaving with a vortex of furniture.. which could’ve gone bad very quick but instead just means she has to face him.. and is hit with a rather painful relization when he asks “Do you what me to, how you say, ghost you?” (She explained the concept earlier). She says no.. but quickly a series of flashbacks puts the previous breakup in context as the guy she was seeing asked to leave a toothbrush, a simple escalation and she got real nasty real quick without saying what the problem was. We see more of this with a previous boyfriend and hilaroiusly one before that guy who not only had a toothbrush in a ringbox but was also in a hot air ballon she casually cuts the anchors too and has float away. Which does mean Bridgette probably killed a man but that’s one compared to josh’s 10 this season. Yes, 10. We’ll get to that.

Point is she realizes “oh shit i’m the dick”, and has a genuine talk with Marcus, realizing why: “You know how women feign being submissive because society’s taught them to so they don’t get raped or murdered or kidnapped?” “Oui”, best bit of the episode and damn if it ain’t horribly true. But due to tha Bridgette simply got terrible quick to scare guys off when she really just wanted to break it off instead of take things further and breaks it off with marcus.. and is surprised and relieved when he doesn’t want a big fight and takes it acceptably, Marcus having grown from his past of being a women using cad and genuinely wanting to treat them better. For once Bridget gets to have an emotionally mature breakup with someone, and while you could say her relationship with alex is like that, it’s very clear from an upcoming episode it wasn’t a very clean break at first and while their amicable now their marriage was a hot volcano of arguments. This allos Marcus to pass.. if also destroying the couch to Josh’s misery. An instant classic and one of the season’s highlights and one that really fleshes Bridgette out a bit by giving another reason for her relationships not working besides alex that fits the character perfectly and has her grow from it.

Also just a quick sidenote, this episode vaguely reminded me of the Nightmare Time, theater troupe team starkid’s zoomcast I highly recommend set in their hatchetfield multiverse, episode “Jane’s a Car” , which is about a man’s wife possessing his car and also involves an object. Both are very diffrent mind you, Jane’s a Car ends up way more depressing, but its’ stil la story involving ghost fucking though Bridgette found a vesel instead of straight up fucking a couch the way tom went to town on that car. It also involves the lead’s perosnal issues, if far more severe in Jane’s a Car’s case, reflected by their relationship with a ghost. I mean it is a stretch but these are the weird connectoins my brain makes and I mostly bring it up because an upcoming episode in the season goes from kind of similar but only to me to very similar, and a very fun concidence that these two episodes existed in the same year, especially since this happened last year with this show and Ducktales. But first josh doing a murder on some people.

Man Up:

Okay for starters the title man up reminds me of this short lived abc sitcom I never saw but given it was about three guys tapping into their “inner man” it sounds like aresnic somehow took the sentient form of a tv show. This actual poster for it not only proves the point but why it lasted one season if not why the hell I remembered this existed at all despite never seeing it, not recognizing anyone in it and not wanting anything to do with it.

Given I have 8 more episodes to go after this one, I do not have time to disect all the way that poster is a waking nightmare, though i’d love to, and instead i’m going to talk abotu the episode itself. The intro is funny enough, with the Ramierz-Singletons going to a bank for Candace’s first bank account, the Bank of Hollywood. An alien seemingly attacks, it turns out to be a promotional stunt with high budget effects a great gag in of itself, but Josh runs out on his family. Naturally he’s horribly rattled by this, and wants to be a better dad, a John McClane type. So two things: I now want a crossover with this show and brooklyn nine nine along with the hatchefield one in my head and the regular show one most fans want. And the second is that John wasn’t the best dad or husband, and both the original film, the sequel josh saw, and the fourth film all spell this out. The fifth does too but I feel if I wish hard enough a good day to die hard will just spontaneously cease to exist and we’ll all be happier that way.

So Pearle agrees to help him, and we get a fun training montage, with Josh protecting a candace made of eggs Alex made, because of course he did, and an emily made of the same because of course he did, and get punched in the junk by randy in a dog costume, as you do. He actually feels tough and is ready for phase 2, pearle hitting him with something unexpectdly.

Instead what he thinks is Phase 2 is actually a die hard style hyjacking of Emily’s company christmas party, which josh misses due to being in the bathroom after panickily running into corn. As a result.. we get josh killing about 8-10 people not realizing it’s not a simulation but not really caring about that part when it’s revealed. Which granted it is in self defense but he still kills a LOT of people this episode, and I will be forever haunted by the fact that stringbean can REALLY do some murders. Seriously who knew JOSH had it in him. That is terrifying to comprehend. Naturally after he john mclanes his way up, he finds out it wasn’t a simulation panics but instead of running away runs the hans gruber knockoff, whose sadly not very entertaining out of the building and onto some exploding corn, saving the day, earning his family’s respect and cemnting himself as a badass. The reveal of what the text actually was is just.. perfect as it’s just a bat on a string with Alex saying “he’s totally going to shit”. The perfect capper to good ep only hampred by hans being really weak.. seriously he just has a weird sentence sturcture tha’ts hte joke. They can do better. Otherwise a good die hard parody. John would be proud.

Handy:

Another decent one not a standout but it has a truly astounding bit. Randy finds out, after going to Guy Fieri’s flavor diaster for Pearle, that she hired another handyman and he’s not good at his job as as he puts it “I’m going to do what troubled young men have done for years : i’m going to sea!”. Which is funny enough but leads to him stranded on a desert island, hallucinating and then meeting his idols in handy manning who may or may not be hallucinations: Bob Vila, The Ikea Mascot (Who speaks only in pictures and is a fun gag despite never having seen him before this episode) and my favorite tim the tool man taylor, whose tie is constantly pointed up for some reason and who amazingly only speaks in grunts. I didn’t know I needed this so thank you close enough. We also get the three helping with bob turning his hands into buzzsaws, ikea man creating nails and screws and Tim using his head as a tool. All accurate to their original shows and in ikea man’s case brocures. Really good adaptation. But through this he discovers the clog the guy is trying to fix at the house is loadbearing and rushes home to save the house, leading to a fun actoin scene and a weird version of the celebration from the end of return of the jedi, complete with force ghosts. So we also get a tim taylor force ghost which I did not know I needed and as much as that show makes my stomach churn I badly hope shows up in the finale of last man standing. A decent one and givne how I keep sayin ga decent episode over and over you can kinda see why I didn’t review all these. LIke season 1 I simply don’t have a full review in me for every single one of these episodes. We’re now at the halfway mark, only 8 more to go, I envy the dead, let’s do this.

Birthdaze: This was the episode most heavily promoted in the trailer and for good reason as it’s the best of the season. Also relatable as while not having kids I do get how Kids Birthday parties feel and how they often end up weirdly close together. In this case both coalse as Josh and Emily have three birthdays in one weekend, their friends Emily’s friend Trish from “Cool Moms”, who is so far some of the only continuity the series has, but a nice sign it has it, and that we could see Jim Crunch (who rose from the grave after an utterly wonderful funeral) or Dog Boy again. Or this episode’s standout gifty. But we’ll get to that in a second. So Josh and Emily well intentiondly decide to throw a party for the parents at the same time as Candace’s.. but end up neglecting Candace. While their idea is good, to reward the other parents for having to sit through so many parties, putting it at the same time was a horrible idea as giving a bunch of pent up people with low alcohol tolerance booze ends up resulting in drunken antics and them heckling the magicain... and given the world we’re in, that’s a horrible mistake as he makes the children disappear to a world of perptual brithday parties and forces JOsh and Emily to follow him if they want their child back. What results is an utter delightly as we meet the wonderful and incomprable Gifty, a giant living present who works iwth the magician, named sardini, and is voiced by Kate Miccuci, heart eyes> Just.. evey bit with gifty is great, from her genuinely being animated and looking like a muppet, to her casually going demonic to explain if the kids stay too long they forget parents, to as seen up top playing a pipe organ that is apparently made of gold plated clown bones, and her best bit, which I posted on this very blog, where she assures the trapped kids if JOsh and Emily fail their final test, they’ll get to live of nutricious necco wafers before vomiting a giant cloud of them at the poor children. Those things are gross and we now knwo it’s because they come from a giant present’s stomach.

We get a great montage before most of that of our heroes treking through a weird and awesome birthday landscape with too many good parts to mentoin, before finding Sardini who puts them through tests before they can get candace back.. and one of those are you human image tests via the ball from phantasm. As gifty puts it “We have to make sure your not a bot”. But the tests, about candaces faviorite things, help the two realize she liked them because they did it together, and a final talk with candace, as the final test has her ask why theyd idn’t want to spend time with her, with the two warmly apologizing and explaning why they did it but that they went too far. Candace reconclies with her parent,s the kids and our heroes go home, and Sardini finds himself sad no one stayed.. but at least he has gifty... and then start making love to her “Unwrap me!” which is far and away the best gag in the season’s best episode by a mile.

Time Hooch:

Now to talk about two things I hinted at earlier: The only good Alex episode this season and the one that vaugely resembles one of the Nightmare Time episodes. And while their two very diffrent stories with very diffrent outcomes and only one of them involves this guy

And suprisingly it’s NOT close enough that has the eldtrich horrifying goat monster with a goofy cartoon voice who says things like “I’m coming for your ass Teddy Bear!” But both are stories about a sketchy (mildly for alex, entirely for Ted) middle aged man who feels one moment is where his life went wrong then accidently time travels after drinking 80 tons of liquor and decides to use said time travel to save a relationship, and fails at it in some fashion. There’s even a jaunt to a distopian future with robots and cyborgs. So while it’s not 1:1, alex is far more sympathetic than Ted, Time Bastard is dark horror comedy, and it again dosen’t involve a horrifying goat man suprisingly enough, it’s till way too many happy coincidences for me to outright ignore. Also check out nightmare time and especially the musicals it spun off from The Guy Who Didn’t LIke Musicals and Black Friday. It’s good stuff. But I couldn’t help but make the comparison, or now imagine Alex, Ted and Professor Hidgens as some weird diasterious power trio. This is how my brain works now.

But to the episode itself it’s just great from start to finish: Bridgette finds out while rumaging for an old photo in an old box of their stuff that Alex never signed the divorce papers. Turns out he was hoping they’d get back together.. and while not doing it and not telling her was a VERY selfish and horrible action.. you still sympathize with him. He hoped things would work out and they’d get back together, and given they had some close calls with that in season 1, to the point I shipped them, you can see where his sprig of hope came from. But with this he’s realized there probably isn’t any hope and drinks some old moonshine he and Josh made in college. Said moonshine was from a recipie in an old blues record, the titular time hooch that true to form, allows them to travel back in time. And since he was thinking of when he thought the relationship truly hit it’s breakig point, when Bridgette at a sandwitch of his and he’d said in the heat of it he wished he’d never met her, they end up there and Alex tries to use it to help. Also Jason’s delivery of Alex saying what the recipie was “rye, barely, a dead man’s pocket watch, mixed under a full moon (Laughs) okay we probably should’ve seen this coming.

Naturally here’s where it really gets intresting. As you’d probably guess, our heroes are the ones who made the sandwitch disappear and in desperation, alex kidnaps his past self before he can say the fatal words> We also get another spectacular bit where all past alex needs from alex to know he’s really him from the future is what year he was born (1982), meaning he’s defintely older than the rest of the cast. Though I wouldn’t be suprised if he was held back.. like at all. Look i’m not thinking too hard into it this is also a story about whiskey based time travel.

But with that said intresting part takes hold as Josh’s past self reminds him of another fight that made things tense for a while.. and you can see where this goes. Alex keeps going back, and back, and back and back and back and back and back... and back, to try and stop the one fight, only to find a bigger one, leading to a montage.. to the point he ends up at the start of the relationship, the day they met at a college bar. The younger Alex’s have decided screw it it was always wrong, let’s end the relationship.

We also get more of Alex’s backstory as it turns out he’s at a community college rather than UCLA, where he used to teach because of his own dumb actions: He met bridgette, let her enroll in his class and didn’t try to convince her to take another one. Don’t get me wrong the decade age gap and power dynamics are iffy.. but it’s not as bad as it could be. They met before the class, and it comes off more as both being too stupid or too horny to realize how her being in his class came off before it was too late. She got with him entirely on his merits, and yes he has some trust me. Case in point.. Alex realizes a few things. The first is that no amount of time travel can save his relationship. They fought all the time clearly, and there were inherent problems. It’s also clear just from the series itself that while they have chemistry their just not that compatible as people. Bridgette is obessed with image, social media, and herself while Alex just two episodes ago called phones the downfall of society and likes feeling superior to the exact kind of person bridgette is. They have chemistry but sometimes it’s jut not enough. You have to have some common ground or your going to fall in a big hole. It’s honestly feels like a much more tolerable and realistic version of Leonard and Penny from the Big Bang Theory. And yes I know that show’s not the most popular with my core audience, nerds, and I bring it up because mom’s been watching it a lately, and any time I see Leonard and Penny on screen it annoys me into a tizzy as the two just have NO REASON to be together other than boning, and even then he’s apparently not a good partner so why then. They have nothing in common and she mocks and belittles him all the fucking time, mocking his hobbies, finding his job boring, and mocking him as a person. And not sharing hobbies or finding his job intresting would be fine, and still work but it’s the constant teasing about it that comes off far more vitrolic than probably intended that just makes me hope for a divorce. Here it’s not only much milder but they did actually get a divorce because their just diffrnet people and i’m not mad the ship was sunk. It was done in a poetic way.

And part of that poetry is Alex realizing that as doomed as things ended up being, via a very sweet montage of their time together.. he realizes he can’t loose this all together. That sure he’d gain a lot and porbably woudlnt’ be living in a closet, but he’d loose all the good times, and he’d loose a friend. His marriage wasn’t so bad he wants to erase it it just ended and that happens. Naturally the other alex’s don’t feel that way but Alex stops them.. Josh is too drunk at this point to help, and ends up creating a time vortex. The vortex sends our heroes home, where Alex realizes his mistake and apologizes for it to bridgette and signs the papers in front of her. As for the Alexs we get a horrifying and hilarous gag as, given they’ve all commented each other is handsome.. start having an orgy, and are later found in amber and their dna is used to create our alex apparently. How does that work?

Point is this episode.. is a masterwork. It’s emotoinal, hilarious, and really good character work, with Alex having a really stellar arc that shades him in and putts a final button in his and bridgettes relationship. And having seen many ships I like end horribly, it’s nice to have one end in a satsifying way like this. Also we see Alex in his borat thong, and i’d just like to point out how funny I find it that the same year they made a borat joke, specifically on it being from a decade or two ago, we ended up getting a second Borat movie. Very niceeee.

World’s Greatest Teacher: This one was alright. On the bright side we got a Mr.Cambell episode! I”ve loved the guy since first meeting him in 100% no stress day, it was the first episode and that hasn’t changed and he’s always a bright spot when he shows up. So an episode about him dealing with a rival teacher, MS. Lake a twice a week music teacher gunning for his job and his students love sounded made for me. In practice he gets a bit too petty to be symapthetic which takes things down a peg, even if it turns out Ms. Lake really is coming for his ass Teddy Bear, but it has enough good gags to help it still be a fun episode.

The biggest one and the biggest reason I sitll like the episode is Timothy’s coffe mug for world’s greatest teacher.. which naturally comes to life, possibly as a psychotic break possibly for real because of the show this is, and starts speaking in the dulcet tones of keith david. ANd i’ve made no secret I love and am thirsty for Keith David on this blog and never will, and having him voice an abusive fowl mouthed coffee mug is something I dind’t know I need but boy did I always need it my entire life. Yes even as a baby. It’s just glorious every time he shows up. The climax is also great as the two teachers end up bonding over the greatest love of all and george micheal after Candace invites River to a part sh’esd having for her tooth coming out, and end up becoming frinemies, a nice solution i was glad to see. Even if i’ll miss evil keith david coffee mug. Rest in power my dude.

Where’d You Go, Bridgette? The second major Bridgette episode of the season and like “Haunted Couch” this one’s an instant classic. After realizing Bridgtte’s already out of control addition to her phone has gotten even worse, Pearle confinscates it and takes her to detox. This leads to two great plots; Bridgette going into withdrawl, complete with an inspired nightmare sequence about her aps and missing her friends death because she was on her phone and the rest of the cast thinking sh’es been kidnapped because she’s not on social media, which while stupid is DELIGHTFULLY stupid and makes some sense given how glued to her phone she is. They end up calling a true crime podcast over, two egosticial college girls who quickly blame them for it despite it making no sense and their fans torm the apartment, and don’t belivie it when bridgette actually shows up.. It takes an inspired speech from Bridgette, whose developed as a person and after actually tasting a late for the first time sees how good they are, and Pearle posting that speech online to dismiss them and our heroes are saved. It’s an utterly amazing plot from josh being excited about the mob attacking them, to Pearle revealing part of the reason she’s so dedicated to helping bridgette is due to her own weird addiction to six flags, which is just so oddly specific I love it.

The Erotic Awakening of A.P. Lapearle This one STARTED well, with Alex reading his viking erotic to everyone, and not getting that Candace maybe shouldn’t be there, only for Pearle to be the only one to actually enjoy it and be inspired by her enjoyment of his work to submit it to a publisher. The publisher ends up making a valid point that women want erotic fantasy from someone they can feel safe by and alex is well.. alex, so he suggests using pearle as a front. it goes how you’d expect: he wants actual credit, the publisher slowly pushes him out, she regrets it, they fight an army of fans and make them vomit with alex reading the book.. standard stuff. It’s just not very funny or a great insight into either characters, and is easily the weakest episode of the season.. though the next one gave it close compettition.

Men Rock!

This one was a chore to sit through, and is only ahead of the last one because it has some really good josh bits and musical numbers which is more than the last one gave me so hey. In a nutshell Emily is on the verge of quitting her and Bridgette’s music careers as she feels they’ll never be famous only for their latest song Men Rock!, an ironic title for a sarcastic song poking fun at a bunch of toxic masculinty bs that is a good song, has hit it HUGE in a fictonal foreign dicatroship and get invited to go, reclutantly agreeing. If you haven’t seen the ep, you can still guess how this goes: say it with me THEY TOOK IT AT FACE VALUE. So our heroines have to help inspire the repressed women and inspire a bloody cou, helped by josh finding some improisoned femisinists in a bathroom. They also gain a fan. it has a few good gags, mostly Candace trying to remind her dad to help her find a place to pee after he keeps getting sidetracked by being taken back by Emily’s sucess. I’ts just a very bad, very predictable episode with very obvious misogyn is bad jokes. And misgoyny IS bad but other shows, paticuarlly tuca and bertie with one early episode, have tackeld this topic better. This episode did not. Last one.

Secret Horse:

This one in stark contrast is one of the series best and an utter joy to watch. On a bad day for the whole apartment with some santa anna winds, an adorable, poofy mained utterly precious horse gets free and ends up at the apartment. Thus we get a vingettte episode, as the horse has a delightful adventure with each of our main 7, and each up tot he last try and hide the horse badly only for the horse to suddenly sprout up and help their mood.

I do love a good vinegtte episode, with two of my faviorite simpsons episodes being 22 short films about springfiled (Minus kirk dragging MIlhouse away from the bathroom, fuck you you balding asshat, it makes the episode hard to watch) ,and trilogy of error, and this is a classic example of it as we get some fun adventures fro each of the housemates: Candace plays with the horse, adorably so, Josh finds it in the garage as his car breaks down and takes them on an install with him, even stuffing them into a suit and we get a great bit of the horse getting fed sugarcubes and josh money. Brigette gets help living in the now instead of posting about it all the time.

My faviorite comes next as Alex needs new patches for his suit but obviouslyc n’t afford them so he takes the ponyt ot he track.. to help him pick which horses to bet on. It’s just such an inherntly funny idea, especially since it works, and really the horse is just hilarious wherever it ends up. It next helps randy win a skating contest, we get a touching story as Pearle misses her old tragically dead horse partner and uses our boy as a subtitute and finlaly we get emily who needs help relaxing and while she naturally calls animal control she hangs up as she falls for hte horse. The group all fight over the horse in the end, the horse leaves and they let it go home, wonder if it was a hallucination and it whizes on thier car. Overall a really great finale and a wonderful note to go out on.

Overall Ranking I’ve decided eveyr time I do one of these, or a post season wrapup of a show i’ve covered every episode of the season to rank them from best to worst sooo

Birthdaze Time Hooch Haunted Couch Secret Horse Where’d You Go Bridgette? Sauce face Houseguest From Hell Joint Break Josh Gets Shredded World’s Greatest Teacher Meet the Frackers Handy Man Up Cyber Matrix Men Rock! The Erotic Awakening of A.P. Lapearle

And i’d like to note that outside of the bottom two hear.. I enjoyed ALL of these. WHich leads to

Final Thoughts; This season was excellent. It had everything the first season had the heart, the character and the utterly great sense of humor, and fine tuned it to be a well oiled machine I could hardly stop laughing at and with tons of great character stuff. Before it had the potetial to surpass regular show but now it has as despite having a few dud episodes itself, as is intievitble in any show, now, they still aren’t as bad as a lot of RS’s early misteps. And Regular SHow as a FANTASTIC show and really stuck the landing, so i’m only saying this is even better and can only go up from here. And even if it stays about the same quality wise, that won’t be a bad place to be. This season was near damn perfect, i’ll probably watch it again and again, and I can’t wait to devour more and given the current tragectory probably will this year. And I couldn’t be more excited.

If you like this blog follow for more reviews, become a patreon to help reach stretch goals or comission a review outright, details for the latter two on my blog. And i’ll see you at the next rainbow.

#close enough #josh singleton #emily rameriz-singleton #bridget yoshida #pearle watson #randy watson #candace ramirez-singleton #hbo max #animation #reviews

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shanneleighmacasukit · 4 years

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Amazing Architectural Projects of the World

There are some pretty amazing buildings being constructed around the world; some of them absolutely defy conventional human civil engineering wisdom and others challenge the laws of gravity. Every year seems to take the bar higher; pioneers of material sciences, civil engineering, landscaping, interior designing are taking design and architecture to a whole new level with unbelievably futuristic spaces for work, living and play.

Here’s your introduction to some of them.

Jeddah Tower (Kingdom tower), Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

To be built to 1007 metres, the Jeddah Tower is set to be the first building on the plant to breach the kilometre mark! It will have more than 200 floors with the world’s highest observation deck on the 157 th floor (26 floors have already been built up). It will house office space, luxury condos, a Four Seasons hotel and an observatory and is slated for completion in 2019. It has 12 escalators and 59 elevators with 5 of the elevators being double-decker. The architectural style being used for the building is extremely unique featuring an aerodynamic 3-sided design to tackle wind-speeds and gravity. The tapering shape of the building also helps to maximize rentable and usable area. The core of the building is narrow at the top and large at the bottom of the building. The exterior walls are made of low-conductivity glass to reduce cooling loads. When complete, this project would be all set to take over from the Burj Khalifa as the defining tower in the Gulf.

Dubai Pearl, Dubai

Make no mistake about it; the Dubai Pearl is not your average high-rise. With 73 stories in 4 towers rising to 300 m, it’s a unique, mixed-use development with premium offices, residences, dining, retail, leisure and entertainment. Overlooking the Palm Jumeirah Island in the Dubai Technology and Media Zone, the Dubai Pearl is designed to provide residences for 29,000 people. There is a sky-bridge at the top connecting the 4 towers. The Dubai pearl sets new benchmarks in the Gulf for LEED-certified skyscrapers with 56% green space. It has features perfectly proportioned spaces with 51% space for branded residences, 12% for commercial space, 19% for retail and leisure and 18% for hospitality. This is one skyscraper with a difference for sure!

Agora Garden Tower, Taipei

The Agora Garden Tower is a 20-story luxury building that is eco-friendly in every sense imaginable with gardens on each floor. But wait, we haven’t even got to the piece de resistance – the brilliant design by Vincente Callebaut Architecte. Inspired by the double-helix shape of DNA, we are sure you would have seen nothing like it anywhere else. A shape that is twisting from bottom to top, the awe-inspiring design of this building makes jaws regularly drop in amazement, the building seemingly appearing to rotate 90 degrees along its profile as you move from bottom to top. The building is designed to be fully self-sufficient for energy with a couple of giant photovoltaic shades fitted at the top of the building. All the construction will be out of recycled and recyclable materials. The Agora Garden is setting new standards for brilliant design.

Dawang Mountain Resort, Changsha, China

Want never before seen design? How about resort built above an old rock quarry with a 200 feet waterfall rushing down? This project built to span two cliffs, combines an indoor ski slope, a water park and an ice world with a hotel, restaurants and shopping.

Istanbul New Airport

Istanbul is one of the biggest aviation hubs in a geographic region spreading across Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. The new Istanbul airport is projected to handle 150 million passengers every year and is set have a number of firsts. Located 22 miles from Istanbul on the Black sea coast, the airport will have 6 runways and is expected to serve 90 million passengers in a year when completed in 2028. Its duty-free area is set to be the biggest in the world at 53,000 square metres and more than 400 luxury brands under one roof; When the Phase1a of construction ends in 2018, the airport will have the largest terminal in the world (under one roof) with a floor area of almost 11 million square feet; It will also have Europe’s largest car park with 24,000 spaces along with a unique, tulip-shaped ATC tower. Terminal 1 is currently under construction and the use of a slatted, blue-reflecting roof and a vaulted ceiling combine to create a very exciting space inside Terminal 1. When complete, there is no doubt whatsoever it will be the number one airport in the world in every sense of the word.

Dubai One Tower

Next in the line of super-tall buildings being built in the Gulf, the Dubai One Tower will be the tallest residential tower in the world at 711 metres, when completed. To house 78000 residents, the tower will have 885 apartments, an indoor ski slope (you saw that right) and a marina. It will also have a hotel and a shopping centre inside. The indoor ski resort will be largest in the world with an unbelievable 1.2 km slope, believe it or not. The other funky part of the design is that the roof over the restaurants and cafes will be retractable for the cooler winter months. Dubai One will be the next trendsetter for residential high-rise buildings in the Gulf.

Forest City, Johor, Malaysia

Forest City is one of the biggest land reclamation projects in the world, seeking to build 4 new islands from 1400 hectares of reclaimed land in a bay between Malaysia and Singapore. The project is being executed by Country Garden Pacific View and is projected to house up to 700,000 residents after about 20 years of construction. Forest City is a work-live-play integrated zone designed to support about 220,000 jobs in finance, technology and bio-technology. The architectural plan for Forest City calls for the building of a green city with rainwater and storm-water harvesting, solar power, vertical growth and dense foliage. In additional to large park areas, mangrove swamps and a green corridor, an innovative design for a rooftop network of parks and gardens is also planned for (all of which would be interconnected). The Forest City is one development which exemplifies the advancement of sustainable building tech like no other.

Eko Atlantic City, Lagos, Nigeria

Eko Atlantic City is a pioneering development with the use of reclaimed land following in the steps of the likes of the Jumeirah. It seeks to build a new city off the coast of Lagos on 10 million square metres of reclamation. It will be a high-end live-work-play space with marinas and 250,000 units of prime housing when complete. The business district will be a landmark in itself and aspired to be the financial headquarters for Nigeria. The Eko Atlantic City is pioneering in the area of development in flood-prone regions in a time of global warming and rising sea levels. Believe it or now, there is an 8.5 km long wall being built around the development specifically to protect it from erosion and flooding. It is designed green in terms of water treatment and for low carbon footprints by the use of locally sourced material and environment friendly design. The Eko Atlantic city shows the way to the future in terms of the kind of development and design that would need to happen in coastal areas facing the threat of rising sea-levels.

Millennium Village, Tangerang, Indonesia

Millenium Village is a global smart city being promoted in Tangerang off the Jakarta-Merak Toll road. The singular selling point of this development is that office space is located across not one but three high-rises – the 75-story Gateway Tower, the 75-story Super Tower and the 100-story Iconic tower. The Iconic tower is truly an iconic building which will be the tallest building in Indonesia when complete. With colleges, hotels, an art district, a convention center, fine dining, a club, an art museum, a 470,000 square metre mall and a health city, the Millenium Village is truly a Millenium city, not just in name. With 125 hectares of green space set apart within 600 hectares of floor area, green living aspects are well taken care of. Not just that, the Millenium Sky Park sprawls across hold your breath, 25 hectares (yes, you read that right!) of gardens right in the middle of the city. The blend of high-rise living with green development is the hallmark of this project.

Khazar Islands project, Azerbaijan

The Khazar Islands project is a mega venture being developed on 41 artificial islands 25 kms from Baku, Azerbaijan in the Caspian Sea (the furthest island is located 7 kms from shore). Development is planned to occur over 2000 hectares with high-rises in several islands and a truly audacious plan to have bridges to connect built-up areas. Once complete, the Khazar Islands are set to be the emblem of Azerbaijan’s development with the centrepiece of the project being the world’s tallest tower (at that time) – The Azerbaijan Tower. When completed, the islands are expected to feature eight hotels, a yacht club and amazing enough, even a Formula 1 racetrack and an airport! This development will be a trendsetter in the area of development on reclaimed land.

Photo & Description Credits: https://www.beautifullife.info

(For educational purposes only.)

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prune-life · 4 years

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Patience, baby (Samuel Drake x Reader) One-shot

Please read the A/N so you won't be confused, thank you!

Tagging: thank you so so much @missdictatorme for wanting to be tagged in this monstrosity of an attempt of a fanfic

Warnings: Nothing, but the reader has a moment (But, Sammy to the rescue! (Yay!))

A/N: Okay, where to begin? lmao I initially wanted this to be a 1920s AU but it got mixed in with a lot of my ideas so, just take it with a grain of that 100 years old, 20s-70s salt. All the flapper slang will be under the fanfic! Also hi hello hi this is my first time writing a Sam fic and I was disappointed when reading this crap, but I do hope you'll enjoy it nevertheless haha. Thank you for reading! (Also, Sully is a bartender, hope you like it!) Also, also, sorry for any grammatical errors!

✧*。 ✧*。

A suggestive tone picked up when you entered the many familiar rooms within the of yore building. It was no grand, simply striding between the many alleys and rat holes which imitated a classic neighbourhood, including the rats within - the people - giving it an excellent vibe of life and long driven days with thrill and fun.

Despite the early-late chatter and noises that eluded out of the nifty house, it never ceased its lively, but overly relaxing atmospheres.

That is, after all, what you came for.

Artie Shaw's clarinet waltzed, his music coming out of a crooky gramophone near the corner of the counter, where stood the man that you’ve been meeting almost the whole week until now, this glamorous week being more than welcoming to the many ideas and opportunities you’ve been met with. Today was, to your own anticipation, hopefully the same day as the others have been.

“Hell-o, darling. When did you get here?” the hair greying man greeted out of nowhere once you stood infront of his wooden counter, a cigar hanging from the side of his mouth, his frame sporting a white button-up, complimented by a typical black vest with - what appeared to be under the everlasting, golden dim of light – an embroidered rose with a story tale red down the sides of his torso.

His grim hands worked themselves on a glimmering piece of glass, which even from your own position, smelled of the nectar called alcohol.

“Just now, all these nights have me feeling like a lonely dud.” You sighed, slumping your shoulders, the black, thick coat which kept you warm throughout all these nights revealing a white fuzz from the inside. You slipped it off to the crook of your elbow and reached the stool you’ve placed yourself yesterday. And the day before. And the day before that. “What about you, Victor? Still have that cuddle-cootie slat biting on your ankles?”

Sully stopped in his tracks, rising an eyebrow at you curiously, before exhaling, a smile tugging on the corners of his smoky lips. He set down the freshly washed and wiped glass infront of you and turned himself around, reaching for the drink of runny rum, which had the nickname of your 'usual'.

“I believe they had a wonderful... Night. Together.” His gruff voice directed towards you, and he tilted the bottle forward. "Elena is quite the catch, Nate's doing well for himself."

You put your palm onto the ring of the cup, giving him a subtle smile, and he halted.

“Not today.”

Sullivan’s arm spread wide and he slightly bowed, turning around, setting the glass up on its mighty spot, “What will it be, then?”

“Just juice will do,” you whispered, looking around the bar, before giving him a twinkling wink, “only for tonight.”

You continued after he popped open a boring bottle of fruit juice, setting it infront of you like it’s the holy essence itself.

“I’d think that Elena would know better than to... Get it on with a forty-niner,” you took a short sip from the bottle, quickly putting it down, “no offense.”

“Don’t say that to me,” he chuckled, “feathers is much obliged, they might've had a couple too many drinks than was planned,” Sullivan sent you an amiable grin, before you turned around and stood on your feet.

“Going to test your skill on billiards?” he questioned from behind you, tapping his finger on the side of the juice jar.

“As if I ever will,” you smiled back at him from behind your naked shoulder, the pearl necklace hugging your neck tight shifting, “I’d much rather keep it calm this time, had a stressful day.”

“Want to talk about it?” Sully offered.

“Nah, I’m alright,” you sighed, but looked forward and began step-stepping away form the busy man.

Victor exclaimed after you through the loud musica, “No hesitation to talk to me, sugar!”

You smiled to yourself.

I know.

✧*。 ✧*。 ✧*。

A tiny tinkle rung above your head, your shoulders immediately getting the breeze of cold air from the closest window, hair bobbing with the silent wind. Music played, this time in a hum, the people around the table eager and keen, some of them hanging by big cushioned seats under a light that shined in the middle of the pool table, as above, so below, a glass visible inside it, staring almost trimmed back at you with it’s shiny reflection.

The place was a brown green aesthetic, with alcohol and cigarettes flaring up your nostrils, wafting through the air like a swarm of bees. The people were lucky there was a window.

“Hey, dude look at you making a spiffy!” an arm swung over your bare shoulders, the warmth creating a sudden, harsh sensation.

“Hey, Chlo,” you snickered at the drunk girl, her ponytail swimming around from behind her neck as always. Her shimmy moving ignited your alert, her stumbling more than foreign to her usual self.

“I’ll tell you what, I’ve seen some keen molls around gin mills- Jesus,” Chloe followed, before Harry stood up infront of the two of you.

“She’s... wasted,” you laughed gently, grabbing her arm and hoisting her arm up yourself, her legs regaining their balance.

Harry nodded in return, crossing his arms over his chest with a soft, inaudible sigh that you only caught by a grumble.

“Bad day?” you asked, pointing to the girl.

“Bad day,” He nodded, “we all have them.” He continued, chuckling, grabbing the girl by her armpits and quickly striding with her to the closest, unoccupied cushion that could work as her own throne.

You shook your head at the girl, eyes trailing around the pool game.

The silent group of people that orbited the room were engaged in touchy-feely kisser conversations, and you felt a sudden feeling of loneliness run over you.

You decided to pack your loneliness out on the club of crickets that played out by the dumpsters from behind the bar's doors.

Together with the unboxing of your halfway empty cigarette box, the everlasting, sickening strawberry scent piled in a round swiftly sticking onto you and your clothing. Your run down, 20s lighter flickered your cigarette on and you took the deepest breath you have all day.

Alone with your thoughts, finally being able to breathe, your back goosed up from the cold, accomodating with the change of icy temperature. And you enjoyed it. To an extent, it brought you an unfamiliar feeling of serenity.

In this hectic world, it was hard to find this one feeling. Except it was there, for a split second, growing and manifesting into euphoric silence.

Tears suddenly welled up in your eyes, and you took another drag of your cigarette, your exhalation a shaky breath.

Warmth spread on your cold shoulders, and the moment you didn’t budge, a sweet, honeyed voice whispered in your ear.

“’vening, princess,” rough hand slithered their way around your shoulders, gently ringing themselves around you, a subtle contact of the person’s lips sitting atop of your exposed shoulder.

You slightly smiled and blinked the tears away, tilting your head to the side to give better access.

Chapped lips enveloped your skin in tender butterfly kisses, and whilst your bad mood didn’t exactly falter, you felt a strand bit better just because of his presence.

“Hey... Sam, where have you been?” you breathed out when his mouth moved to your jaw and began rubbing his cheek against your own, hugging your waist from behind, front lingering on your back for deeper contact. The warmth of his opened button up warmed up your whole spine.

“Funny story. For another time,” he chuckled slightly, the scarred skin of his temples sitting under your jaw, his hair tickling your side gently, “where have you been?” he asked softly.

You inhaled sharply, but didn’t budge, holding the breath for a little longer, eyes focusing on the lamps of the back alley. They flickered and peppered the scene with a nice glow, and your eyes adjusted only to a fraction of the flashing lights.

Sam suddenly took hold of your wrist and brought the cigarette hanging loosely between your fingers to his face.

Snapping out of the brief trance, your head turned to his side, and your breath hitched in your throat when you tried to take another, without exhaling.

The handsome man stared into your eyes, before he took a slight drag out of the cigarette, smoke slipping past his ever chapped lips upon taking it out.

Just then did you force the breath out.

“What’s on your mind, dove?” he took the cigarette in his other hand and raised his other one to caress the other side of your face with his knuckles.

“There’s alot of things on my mind,” you sighed, closing your eyes for a split second, letting your cheek press onto his knuckles, his bruised skin inching closer into the plush.

Sam remained quiet, straightening up, and your eyes snapped open at his movement.

“Let’s go for a ride.” He said, slipping the cigarette into his mouth, hopping off the stairs, grabbing your hand.

You raised your eyebrows, but smiled slowly and pushed your coat up, reaching your hand out, your fingers intertwining into his.

“Where to?” you asked.

“You’ll see,” his eyes lingered on yours.

You took a step forward, “Alright.”

✧*。 ✧*。 ✧*。 ✧*。

The wind splashed into your face like cold water, each and every single bump available on the road making Sam’s motorcycle jump up and down. The green and yellow hue that blended in with the night created a soothing vibe, and you couldn’t help it when your voice chimed out in an exaggerated yell of excitement the more Sam sped up.

Sam was a good driver, especially on motorcycles, so you trusted him with his skills to not crash the two of you into a nearby dump.

The screeching of tires suddenly stopped your voice, and you fed your sight to the beauty of reflections within a far sea that stretched out into the unknown over its width.

The many shades of purples, blues, greens, yellows and even pinks created a translucent shade which screamed in your face.

“Wow..” you breathed out, stepping off the vehicle, your low heeled t-straps clicking along your speedwalk to the metal fence separating you from the ocean.

You heard Sam’s steps behind you, their sound coming closer and closer, before he was right beside you, his hand flying to your own, fingers slithering their way between yours.

“Do you.. you like it?” he stammered out, his voice a soft snickery, eyes watching your every move.

“Do-do I like it?” you whispered, the cold catching onto you slowly, “Sam, it’s... Beautiful,” you giggled, tapping the fence. “But cold.”

He let out a breathless chuckle, standing closer to your frame, his finger curling under your chin, “Sure is.. look at you, going all shaky on me?”

Your knees slightly buckled and you pursed your lips in embarrassment, gaze flowing down to the waters.

Sam’s finger tilted your head back to face him, your eyes locking onto his shining, hazel ones once more.

Your teeth gently dug into your bottom lip, the plump skin creating a sudden pillow for your ever growing nervousness. His warm fingers spread under either side of your jaw, and before any of you could speak a word, your lips were seduced by his in a slow, starting kiss, your hands trailing up his chest, to the crook of his neck, where you ringed the exposed flesh of it in a slow, lustful motion.

His chest rumbled in a groan when your fingers dug into his scalp, and you tugged back. The tip of your tongue spread on his bottom lip, and he much obliged in twirling his own over yours, slowly and steadily, gaining control over your pace.

The cold pipe holding the fence in place pressed against you, and the coat which provided enough warmth for the time being of your heated moment, turned into pudge, sliding down your shoulders, far off your elbows and fell on the ground, the length now shocking your skin through your thin gown, the frozen material hissing on your lower back.

You squeaked and jumped, Sam holding your hips in place so you wouldn’t fall over, your arms tightening around his neck, lip slightly bruised red from the gentle nibbling he’s been giving you.

“You okay?” he asked, his lips quivering in a held back laughter.

“Oh, oh yeah, yup,” you cleared your throat, reaching down for the coat, putting it over your shoulders hastily, “absolute dandy, swell.”

You looked up at him through a pout, I ruined the moment, what a way to go..

Sam sucked in his lips and licked them, tilting his head and coming down to your height, giving you a quick, breathless kiss, before scooping you up, his strong arms ringing under your armpits.

He took you like a ragdoll, hanging you to his full height, walking towards the motorcycle.

“Well, doll, seems like the clock’s ticking and we’ve got a bit more time to go,” he said in a sing-song voice, plopping you down on the back seat, your form emitting a gentle huff, “and I know just the right way to make you mine throughout all of it,” he sent you a kiss on the cheek, hand on your shoulder, a slight smirk candying his handsome face.

You pursed your lips into a thin line and looked up at him in anticipation, eyebrows rised whilst awaiting his proposal, which you would without hesitation, accept.

“How is that?” you slowly asked, letting a small smile appear.

“With drinks, of course,” he bowed down to you, giving you a smooch on the lips hastily, before he sat on the motorcycle.

You slumped behind Sam in disappointment, but continued on slipping your arms through your clothes nonetheless, giving him your soft, sad puppy eyes that bore into his back.

Sam gave you a side look, before turning around fully, a finger rising up to under your chin.

“Don’t worry, baby girl, I’ll make sure you won’t be able to walk tomorrow.” His slow whisper forced your breath to hitch, goosebumps running up your arms surprisingly, and before you could respond, the motorcycle worked more as a stimulation to your growing nerves than you could’ve expressed to him.

The rest of the night bugged your mind, your eyes always flickering to the clock, counting minutes with Sam only giving in his mischief through those sinful, hazel eyes, the message in them always demanding to you, 'Patience, baby.'

✧*。 ✧*。 ✧*。 ✧*。 ✧*。

Dud - A wallflower

Forty-niner - A man who is prospecting for a rich wife

Slat - Young man

Cuddle-cootie - Young man who takes a girl for a ride on a bus

Feathers - Small talk; light conversation

Spiffy - Elegant appearance

"I've seen some keen molls around gin mills-"

Keen - Attractive or appealing

Moll - A gangster's girl

Gin Mill - A bar

#uncharted #uncharted4 #fanfiction #sam drake #x reader #uncharted+x+reader #samuel drake #sam drake x reader

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howwelldoyouknowyourmoon · 4 years

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Unification Church / Family Federation of America turned into a political machine – Allen Tate Wood

▲ Allen Tate Wood in the front of the line

In the summer of 1969 the Unification Church in America had no more than 6 or 7 centers with a total membership numbering around 150. During that summer Neil Winterbottom, from the national headquarters in Washington D.C., visited the commune. He was English, about my age, bright and well read. He seemed more dynamic than my compadres in Berkeley.

He suggested that I should come to the headquarters in Washington. I came back East to Princeton, N.J., to visit my family, whose skepticism about my new found religion only strengthened my commitment. Their suggestion that this group might be a front for Korean neo-fascism was preposterous. I did not tell them then that I knew Moon was the Messiah. Time was short. The world had to be saved. I had found my work at last.

Washington D.C. – Capitol Of The Archangel Nation

I arrived in Washington D.C. for the second Freedom Leadership Foundation conference. Neil Salonen, who in 1975 was Moon’s right hand man in the United States, was ordered by Moon in the summer of 1969 to found the Church’s anti-Communist movement in this country and to name the organization the International Federation for The Extermination of Communism. Salonen set the Freedom Leadership Foundation as the American Branch of the IFEC. On paper the FLF exists as a nonprofit, non partisan educational corporation whose stated objective is to educate American Youth about the dangers of Communism. From its inception FLF was funded by the Unification Church. At this stage in the movement’s development, the general membership was politically unsophisticated. The idea of a political arm was new and the purists in the movement who believed that a Church should have nothing to do with politics voiced strong opposition. It was pointed out to them that the church in Japan and Korea carried out extensive anti-Communist political programs and that it was the “master’s” express desire to begin political work in the U.S. Thereafter opposition to political work was seen as infidelity to the Master.

In the fall of 1969 FLF launched a public relations campaign against the October 15 and November 15 Vietnam Moratoriums. Unification Church members went full steam into the political operation as well as stepping up the usual witnessing and teaching of the Divine Principle. From this perspective my paid job in the office of Congressman Frank Thompson Jr., democrat from New Jersey, certainly appears odd. “Thompy” was known as an opponent of the war and supported Gene McCarthy for President in 1968. While my “boss” on the Hill was making stronger statements than ever against the War in Vietnam, after hours I was in the streets leafleting for the Master in support of it. In the fall of 1969 and the winter of 1970 Salonen scouted the hard-line anti-Communist groups in D.C. The fruits of his labor were winning the friendship and support of several influential men, including David Martin, the late Senator Dodd’s foreign affairs assistant (later a member on the staff of the Senate’s Internal Security Committee), Dolph Droge and Sven Kramer, Nixon’s special assistants on Vietnam and Charles Stephens, an independently wealthy man in his early thirties, who devoted a good deal of his time to promoting aggressive war policies through ad hoc groups of his own creation on campuses throughout the country. In the fall of 1969 and the spring of 1970 I worked increasingly with FLF.

Partisan Political Activity

In March of 1970 Salonen stepped down from the Presidency of FLF as a result of internecine conflict between himself and W. Farley Jones (then President of the Unification Church in America). Salonen was sent to Colorado to cool off and I was made President of FLF. It was not until a year later that I discovered that my sudden promotion over the heads of my superiors was a result of the leadership’s conviction that I could “easily be controlled,” and that my clean cut American good looks and the gift of gab made me an ideal front man.

In May, Charles Stephens and I, with coaching from David Martin, formed a political lobby group called “American Youth for A Just Peace.” I called Unification Church members from all over the country to assist in a lobbying campaign in defense of Nixon’s invasion of Cambodia and against the McGovern-Hatfield and Cooper-Church bills to limit American involvement. We ran several full page advertisements in the Washington Star and Washington Post, defending military aid to Cambodia, signed with my name as chairman. As a result the South Vietnamese Embassy invited AYJP members on a VIP tour of Vietnam. Eight Unification Church members, Stephens and two of his associates and I flew to Vietnam on August 22, 1970 for a ten day visit crowned by dinner with South Vietnamese President Thieu in the Presidential Palace in Saigon. While we were in Saigon, the Cambodian government invited us to visit Cambodia. We spent five days there. General Lon Nol gave us an audience.

We appeared on CBS national television evening news. Walter Cronkite transported the audience at home in the U.S. to our group digging a fortification ditch around the perimeter of Phnom Penh. Shovel in hand, I begged for more military aid for Cambodia in its struggle against communist aggression. The CBS correspondent described me, I remember, as a spokesman for a group of young Americans who had come to Southeast Asia to “find the facts.” The South Vietnamese government paid for our round trip air fare with the explicit understanding that we would use the information we gathered to fight the Peace Movement on U.S. campuses and to generate support for the war. We were given royal treatment. At each stop the red carpet was rolled out. In Cambodia when we disembarked from the plane there were several thousand people waiting at the airport to greet us. A double row of 100 school girls was holding red roses. I felt like Lord Jim.

We left Cambodia and flew to Japan to visit the Japanese Unification Church and to participate in the World Anti-Communist League’s fourth annual conference held in Kyoto. That was followed by a mass rally of 25,000 people in Tokyo at the Budokan Sports Palace. The WACL conference was sponsored by the International Federation for Victory Over Communism, the political arm of the Japanese Unification Church. Delegates from 53 nations attended. The American delegate was Senator Strom Thurmond and the honorary chairman of the conference was a prominent Japanese industrialist, Ryoichi Sasakawa.

Meeting The Shogun

Sasakawa was a fascist youth leader in the 1930s. The Japanese Unification Church proudly told us that Sasakawa had helped create the Japanese Kamikaze program and that he had been instrumental in the Hitler Tojo pact. Sasakawa was convicted as a class A war criminal at the end of World War II and spent several years in jail. In 1975 he was the president of 13 major Japanese corporations, including the largest ship building company in Japan. He is also head of all Japanese karate schools. Sasakawa, on a visit to the Korean Unification Church, told church members that he was “Mr. Moon’s dog.”

After the WACL Conference we visited Unification Church centers in Japan. They were awe-inspiring to all of us. Then there were approximately 3,000 dedicated young followers who lived in Church centers for 20 to 100 members all over Japan. Seventy percent of them were involved in full time fundraising by selling flowers on street corners 14 hours a day. The rank and file members lived on a diet of rice and bread crusts. Church centers usually consisted of two large rooms with several smaller rooms adjacent. The large rooms served as separate men’s and women’s sleeping quarters. Anywhere from 10 to 50 people would sleep on tatami mats on the floor in one of the larger rooms. The center leader had a room to himself. The atmosphere in these centers was one of rigid military discipline and self-denial. All the Japanese martial virtues were harnessed and focussed on the molding of a group psyche whose sole object was to exalt Moon.

At The Feet Of “The Master”

After 17 days in Japan, seven of us flew to Korea to meet Moon and to visit the Korean Unification Church. We were housed in the dormitory of one of Moon’s Anti-Communist training centers, inside the walls of the Unification Church’s air rifle factory, about an hour and a half drive from Seoul. Now, after praying in his name for 16 months, I was finally to meet the “Master”. From our window in the Anti-Communist training dormitory we saw Moon and his wife approaching across the dry mud field separating the dormitory and the air rifle factory. I, with the others, ran out of the building and raced across the muddy yard to greet them. I saw a dark haired, heavy set man whose receding hairline accentuated an already ample brow. He was wearing a white peasant tunic and dark trousers. He looked as he did in his photographs but older and heavier. His disciplined movements and compact body conveyed a sense of coiled power. Moon shook hands with each of us, smiling broadly. I saw, as he turned sideways in front of me, a large piece of red wax in his right ear. I treasured this excrescence as a sign of his humanity.

My Mission

During my visit to Korea in October I was given a private audience with Moon. I was ushered into a lounge adjacent to his private quarters above the main church building in Seoul. We sat opposite each other on a plain rug separated by a black lacquer table inlaid with two finely worked mother of pearl dragons. For an hour he instructed me on various matters. The only interruption was the arrival of a messenger, a Korean man in his forties who prostrated himself at Moon’s feet before addressing the “Master.” Moon said to me, “You have a great responsibility. It is your job to initiate the work of winning the academic community in America to my side.” Further he said, “The allegiance of the scholarly community is a vital key in my plan to restore the world. Since universities hold the reigns of certification for all the major professions and since universities are the crucible in which young Americans form their basic attitudes and life directions, we must forge a path toward influencing and ultimately controlling American campuses.”

Moon held the Japanese Church up to us as an example of the true pattern of serving the Messiah. It was his intention to shame us into greater fervor and zeal, and his tactic was largely successful. The relative impotence of the American church in comparison with the militancy, power and organization of the Japanese Unification Church was a source of humiliation to us all. Moon told us that he could not come to America until we had significantly increased our numbers, demonstrated a higher level of personal sacrifice, and achieved greater organizational unity. On our return to the U.S. we brought intimations of the future directions of the movement in America.

I returned to the U.S. on October 6, 1970, in time for an early morning press conference with AYJP co-chairman Charles Stephens. Between October and December Stephens and I spoke to civic groups in Washington, issued a bi-monthly tabloid to congressmen and senators, and did all we could to beat the war drum in the nation’s capitol. AYJP was staffed entirely by Unification Church members.

This is an extract from My Four and One Half Years with The Lord of The Flies

Allen Tate Wood on Sun Myung Moon and the UC

Minions and Master

Mis Cuatro Años y Medio con el Señor de las Moscas . por Allen Tate Wood

__________________________________________

Bo Hi Pak declared he was leaving the UC and tore up his membership form in a top leader’s meeting in Korea

__________________________________________

World Domination – Sun Myung Moon’s many attempts ended in failure

Robert Parry’s investigations into Sun Myung Moon

Sun Myung Moon: The Emperor of the Universe, transcript and links

Sun Myung Moon – Emperor, and God

FBI and other reports on Sun Myung Moon

United States Congressional investigation of Moon’s organization

Politics and religion interwoven

The Resurrection of Reverend Sun Myung Moon

Why do so many evangelicals continue to deny that Biden won the election?

The forgotten figure who explains how Trump got almost 74 million votes – The Washington Post

The Tragedy of the Six Marys website

#Allen Tate Wood #Sun Myung Moon #Unification Church

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doublethetheories · 5 years

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Nevy’s Story Dissected by Me: Part 1

I feel like every theory I see only has bits and pieces, or just one of the gifsets, but not the other two, and they all have conflicting opinions. So, here is my interpretation of what happened to Nevy (and her relationships with Wrathia and Pedri, along with her role in society). And yes, this is panel by panel, so the formatting is really clogged up and frustrating but bear with me.

This photo is of Wrathia and Nevy when they’re young, probably tween years or even younger.

Nevy has a crown on in this slide, which not enough people are theorising about for my taste, but I’ll have a separate post eventually about the government/status system in their world. Wrathia also has a headpiece, but hers is thinner and more delicate, falling into the category of a diadem.

This post mentioned their clothing colours in each slide, but I’m going to take that and go a step further by also just discussing the clothing itself. Wrathia appears to be wearing mostly Nevy-esque colours, which shows how their relationship used to have Nevy ‘leading it’, so to speak. Nevy’s clothes are also more decorative than Wrathia’s, adorned with several extra ruffles and pears and linings.

Their positions are also important, seeing how Nevy is sort of pulling Wrathia with her, probably to show her something. And young Wrathia follows her, because they’re in the early stages of a giggly, young-love relationship. Nevy’s role isn’t manipulative or harmful though, as seen by the happiness on both of their faces. This note is important later.

The crown and clothing show that Nevy was a higher social (and political) status than Wrathia in this slide, and the colours and position show that Nevy was also more of the leader in their relationship.

This slide is where their relationship begins to spoil. The girls are ~15 or younger here, and a lot has changed since the last slide. The post linked above mentioned that this is probably the slide where they realised they’re destined to be on opposing sides of a war, and I do agree with that being a very plausible theory, but here’s another one;

Nevy is now wearing Wrathia’s colours. Sure, her outfits tend to vary a lot in this area, but in this particular slide I think we are supposed to make that connection. Her outfit is also more simple now, no longer having the extra cheery pearls and ribbon. Along with all of this, her crown has changed to be smaller and more compatible with Wrathia’s colour.

Speaking of Wrathia, let’s dissect her outfit now. In the exact opposite direction, Wrathia’s clothes have become more fancy, even adding gold jewelry around her arms and neck. Her diadem also now has a second band. (Not that big of a change, but it is a step up.)

Now let’s look at their positions. Wrathia’s hands are holding Nevy’s face in a very.. specific way. Her fingertips are keeping Nevy’s chin up in order to captivate (trap) her attention, while her thumbs are just barely not touching Nevy’s lips in a way that keeps her alert to Wrathia and in a general daze at the same time. This position can mean a lot of things (in normal relationships, this would just be an intimate position), but in this context, I think it’s Wrathia first starting to have (and use) power over Nevy. Wrathia is now in charge of their relationship, and since they’re each other’s first love, Nevy will stand by her through whatever she does until she pushes Nevy away.

It’s unclear whether Wrathia is beginning the manipulation on purpose or on instinct, but I’m certain that she begins to actively trap and manipulate people once she rises to power.

This next slide confirms everything I have been building up to. Wrathia has finally achieved what she’s wanted for so long: Power of her own domain. This is when she starts the empire, this is when she’s upgraded to a tiara/crown, this is when she’s learned how to use her power, for herself and against others.

Her position is a stance of confidence and power, and her expression shows that she has begun to look down upon people who used to be her equals. (Like Nevy.)

Nevy isn’t in this slide because this new Wrathia has left her in the dust. (Though I still think that, even if Wrathia’s heart is no longer able to love, she has a soft spot for Nevy, her first love.)

Her horns have completely curled around by now but haven’t begun to go down yet, so she is around her early twenties in this image. This means that, chronologically, this all makes sense. A young ruler (in old royal terms) would probably ride to a higher position, and marriage, around this age. And Wrathia is ready to start looking for a husband to help her expand the Empire.

And this, as the final slide of this gifset, portrays an early twenty year-old Nevy clutching her head and crying, probably over the loss of her closest friend and lover. Nevy and Wrathia had grown up together, causing Nevy’s feelings to be worse than a normal breakup. A piece of her heart has been ripped out by Wrathia. (And though I believe Wrathia went through the same pain, she covered it up, keeping power and expansion as her top priorities.)

Nevy is back in her own colours as well, in this slide, showing that the two truly have separated. The heartbreak Nevy is feeling in this last picture leads us into the next gifset, filled with much more painful memories for her.

The next two gifsets will be ‘explained’ in a second and third part to this. I also might have a fourth part whenever the next update comes out, since I’m 100% sure it’ll include a Gil/Nevy pact. (And yes I’ve been nerding about all the ‘Nevy is secretly evil’ theories, I can’t stop reading them. I’d freaking LOVE to make my own, but at this point I feel like it would just be me repeating a mashup of what everyone else has said so far. Let me know if you want me to do one anyways though and I’ll try to come up with something original lol.)

#avas demon #webcomic #theory #avas demon theory #theories #theorist #nevy nervine #nevy nervine theory #nevy and wrathia theory #wrathia bellarmina #wrathia bellarmina theory #i just realised i still dont have an icon oof

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derkastellan · 5 years

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BattleTech: The Star League - an exercise in advanced Fridge Logic

“I’ve considered “BattleTech: Star League” an all-time great sourcebook. It tells the origin story of the whole BattleTech universe up until the First Succession War. It also explains the full story behind General Kerensky’s Exodus, a major plot point repeatedly referred to in books, finally detailed.

Back then when I got the book originally in the 90s I might not have really known that this was a setup to follow up with the Clan Invasion era of BattleTech. Or maybe I personally got it after that had already been launched. When it was released in 1988 the timeline shifted into the Fourth Succession War and there had been release referring to that mythical Star League.

Some books don’t fare as well when being re-read decades later, and “The Star League” is not an exception, though I have to admit I might be applying impossibly high standards...

Don’t think about it too hard

One talks of “fridge logic” when you set a piece of fiction aside, go to the fridge, and realize that the inner logic of the work does not quite add up. The point of fridge logic is that it is sufficiently convincing to keep you absorbing a piece of fiction but you might end up taking it apart later.

I’ve also been re-reading the Warrior Trilogy by Michael A. Stackpole and reminiscing about “Heir of the Dragon”. While Stackpole’s novels about the Fourth Succession War lay out a template for other BT novels, they also skew the setting heavily, completely upend its balance. “Heir to the Dragon” contrives as hard as it can to construe a War of 3039 that restore the setting balance long enough for it to persist until the events of 3050 - the Clan Invasion. In hindsight that book is full of fridge logic it seems unfair to call out “The Star League” but here I am.

It’s any author’s prerogative to time situations to maximize drama, to have events happen in a convenient way, to maximize the impact of a work of fiction. If there is too much of that with events happening all-too-convenient, we talk about a “deus ex machina.” The authors of “The Star League” (SL from now on) were trying hard to avoid that and to have a string of logical-seeming events follow like pearls on a chain. But when you look too close, it all comes apart...

Setting and world design can often become subservient to requirements of the plot. As I said, SL tries hard to avoid that, but it doesn’t quite accomplish it. The events I will focus on are the Periphery Uprising and the Amaris Coup (also names of chapter headings). These are part of the climax and are supposed to explain the downfall of the marvelous Star League itself.

What is needed?

The SL was the most advanced golden age of mankind, but the standard setting of BT in the 80s was an era of technological decline and petty scuffles. The challenge for the authors was to explain not only the rise of such a realm but describe its fall in a way that the downward spiral seems inevitable.

The original realm at the heart of human-occupied space, the Terran Hegemony, had to vanish through the course of events because the map of 3025 existed long before the map of 2781. For this to happen it was not enough to let a line of royal succession end, a whole realm had to collapse. Also, the end of the SL had already been blamed vaguely on treachery and so the story of that treachery had to be set up.

Furthermore, the fall from glory was a great opportunity for memorable drama, the end of a golden age, after all, and the preclude for centuries of war.

There was only one problem: the SLDF.

The Star League Defense Forces were not only the most advanced but also basically the biggest fighting force in the BT history, led by brilliant General Kerensky. You cannot set that up and then hand-wave your way out of that setup. But the authors kind of did.

The basic plot points of the Periphery Uprising

The Periphery realms are exploited by the Inner Sphere lords and businesses for their own gain, resentment builds.

The ruler of the SL dies, orphaning his son. General Kerensky is named Protector of the Realm and the young lord his ward, but circumstances pretty much prevent the general from executing any of these duties.

Stefan Amaris, the leader of the Rim Worlds, conspires with other Periphery governments to ultimately achieve independence.

He befriends the future lord of the SL, a lonely minor and orphan. He proceeds to manipulate the young lord and gain influence over him.

A tense stand-off between the SLDF and Periphery rebels develops, including terrorism against the SLDF.

Suddenly 50 full mech divisions of fighting force appear that have been secretly built up and end up destroying almost as many divisions of SLDF forces scattered throughout the periphery. (There’s roughly 100 divisions of the SLDF in the periphery according to the book.) Where they cannot defeat the SLDF directly they drop prohibited nuclear bombs and move on.

[EDIT: To put this number into context: “ At its peak prior to the Clan Invasion, the AFFC represented the largest single military since General Aleksandr Kerensky took most of the Star League Defense Force beyond the Periphery, with over 268 BattleMech regiments.” (from: sarna.net) In the BT universe, according to the same source, a division is made up of 3 brigades, and a brigade of 3 regiments. Even if we assume that only 1 out of 3 brigades in a division is a mech brigade - after all a tank division does not consist entirely of tanks! - we still might be contemplating 150 mech regiments - a bit less than the Draconis Combine at the beginning of the First Succession War. Supposedly the Draconis Combine was involved in providing those mechs. Would they supply as many as they have themselves out of pure greed??]

Meanwhile Amaris’ Rim Worlds are suspiciously peaceful and the young lord calls in Amaris’ troups to protect the Hegemony as more and more troops of the SLDF leave it to fight in the Periphery Uprising.

In the final act, Amaris personally murders the young ruler, abusing his trust, and lets his troops enact a coup, almost completely overcoming the unsuspecting local forces (which they outnumber 2:1).

These are the events that earned Amaris the “honorific” the Ursurper and the events that follow see the destruction of the Hegemony in the liberation campaign, ending with a drive for freeing Earth itself and killing Amaris.

Why it doesn’t work

The bigger a conspiracy is the more likely it is that somebody talks. Supposedly the conspiracy involved...

the governments of all four periphery realms,

the members of dozens of independence movements spread over 1,000s of light years,

the militias and their many thousands or more members,

the personnel of half a dozen major merchant companies,

most of the military of the Rim worlds,

the members of those 50 divisions, and

their mercenary company trainers.

We are supposed to believe that the SL intelligence services were not capable to undermine a conspiracy numbering in the millions, that nobody went rogue, nobody talked. None of the Rim Worlds soldiers ever got drunk and said too much to a local during a night of debauchery of any kind. Nobody ever went to the authorities.

Not only that, all these people either enlisted in the plan or kept quiet for money.

The SL is concerned where certain shipments of battlemechs are going but cannot squeeze it out of a single crew member even though they know who handled the shipments.

Amaris explicitly betrays a major independence movement but everyone else sticks to the plan.

There is enough black money moved around to fund not only the independence movements, but 50 divisions of battlemechs and more. The equipment is bought, so is the silence of those transporting it, and finally these people are trained in the Deep Periphery for years - which means building bases to host them on unsettled worlds beyond realm borders, requiring a constant stream of resources to sustain them.

Nothing of that left a trail for SL intelligence to follow?

We’re talking sums of money probably equivalent to the budget for the SLDF because these troops have to be created anew. In other words, vast amounts. How do the governments change their spending unnoticed? The SL does not do basic accounting? [EDIT: According to sarna.net the SLDF at its peak fielded 125 battle mech divisions. This is the result of 1 1/2 centuries of military spending. The Periphery governments are supposedly capable of creating 40% of that force on-the-fly with a training program hosted by a few mercenary units. How can you effectively train so many soldiers, especially to fight as large formations, without having an organization to match the SLDF or a major house military? It’s doubtful any Inner Sphere lord could match this feet - because they never have. If this was easily possible, why not double your own forces “in secret?”]

And here’s the worst part: It is established that the periphery is actually being exploited by the Inner Sphere for their own gain, so this major spending comes while essentially massive amounts of riches are funneled away anyway, in times of exploitation.

Does this really make sense? Do people take part in a scheme that takes a decade to unfold, including five years of separation from loved ones for many of them? Can the personnel of 50 divisions really be hidden in the ranks of staff of half a dozen transporting companies?

(Also: Take for example the American War of Independence. Roughly a third of the people of the Colonies were Loyalists. Even in occupied populaces resenting their occupiers you would have some people actively collaborating with their oppressors. Even more - many periphery worlds owe the SL for either being settle-able or for making their lives a lot easier through things like cheap water purification technology...)

More fridge logic

Other facts that have been established:

The SL has entrenched its troops in fortifications in the periphery.

The SL doctrine for fortifications is to enable troops to strike from hidden exits, not to lock itself in or simply concentrate its forces.

The prime fortifications of the SL, “Castles Brian”, are under mountains and underground with many tunnels and hidden exits.

So, can the rebels simply drop nuclear bombs on these guys “and move on?”

They can’t. These devices don’t raze mountains. Also you need a delivery vehicle. These fortifications should have had anti-air defenses, but even if not or if ineffective against the chosen delivery vehicle, they are still hidden behind tons and tons of rock.

The popular image of nuclear bombs is of an all-destroying force but this is not accurate. Militarily the stopping power of a nuclear bomb has been established and for use against armored forces like tank divisions the actual kill zone is rather small - like a third of a mile in diameter if I remember correctly. Take then into account that battlemechs are better armored and secured also against radiation than modern armored vehicles and they can even be made to operate in the vacuum of space. (And space and radiation go together...)

Furthermore, given that terrorist strikes have been an tactic mentioned within the same pages I’m covering here, including suicide attacks and a localized nuclear strike, which SLDF commander would not spread his or her forces to the best of their abilities to avoid vulnerability?

Thinking this further, the SLDF is operating in enemy territory - these people are bombing their own land. So they just blow up a few megatons next to their own population centers? Ignore the fallout on civilians that are entirely their own population??

It quickly becomes clear that this “tactic” is more a plot device than anything. These rebels are so unscrupulous and amoral, they can resort to things the SLDF wouldn’t do and therefore best it easily. This supposedly explains away all the advantages the SLDF enjoy - their stockpiles, technological superiority, fortifications, advanced training and doctrines, even the many years of actual combat experience.

The same plot device is used in how Amaris’ Rim Worlds troops eliminate resistance in the Hegemony. Now there’s less inhibition to use such weaponry given these are not their home worlds. But the other conditions still apply - especially since many of the Hegemony worlds explicitly have Castles Brian, and many several.

And regular plot convenience

Other things like the automated defense systems of the Hegemony were simple plot convenience, there to be ironically used against those that hoped to enjoy their protection. This helps explain the bloody and protracted campaign need to win the Hegemony back.

The Amaris Coup’s basic design depends on many things - including...

the greed of the Inner Sphere lords completely clouding their self-preservation. After all they sell materiel to staff 50 mech divisions when originally the presence of a single mech battalion in one periphery realm was almost a casus belli.

the continued cooperation and secrecy of all participants during the decade where Amaris unfolds his plan to win Richard Cameron’s confidence. What was the backup plan if that wasn’t possible?

the complete lack of anyone else caring even a little about Richard Cameron, like Kerensky doing his actual duties during this time period, especially given the fact that he’s supposedly meticulous, dutiful, and virtuous without measure.

the administration of the Hegemony not developing the least of initiative.

that the Kerensky reforms made the SLDF so dependent on his leadership he couldn’t delegate this duty to anyone else. What kind of genius makes themselves unreplaceable and traps themselves in a situation where they cannot serve their duties?

that nobody notices Amaris deploys double as many soldiers to the Hegemony than he originally stated. So nobody noticed the extra beds, extra meals, extra vehicles, extra battlemechs? Did half of them hide in the toilets and get their half-meals shoved under the door? These troops were housed on Hegemony territory and supplied by the Hegemony administration. How do you pull off such a sleight-of-hand?

We’re actually closing in on “deus ex machina” quick. Yes, such big plots are often contrived. But there is a measure, and if you look closely, this book does not come together as well as it seems.

Conclusion

Just as Kerensky’s Exodus, it’s best not to think too hard about how all of this is even possible or all unravels. It’s both disillusioning and concerning that this is still one of the best setting books I have ever read. For all its flaws it creates really a lot of good lore and has an engaging plot.

This is kind of what to expect when the broad strokes are already made and somebody has to fill them in. Kerensky’s Exodus or the sudden fall of the SL were outlined, and filling in the gaps makes kind of clear that this was a tall order. The book mostly succeeds, even. It just has to perform a few sleights of hand too many to get there...

[PS and foot note: I’m currently reading also bits of “BattleTech: Explorer Corps”. When reading about ComStar Primus Simms’ visions I noticed that in the BT universe if somebody has visions they are usually accurate and plot-relevant, linking plot elements without apparent cause. In “The Star League” one Cameron predicts the end of the Terran Hegemony, for example. Such visions usually revolve around elements whose meaning is clear in hindsight, like Simms’ seeing “visions of monsters” who really are the symbols or emblems of invading Clans. If we add Stackpole’s foray into a mystical duel between mech warriors defying scientific explanation (in the Warrior Trilogy between Yorinaga Kurita and both Kell brothers, Patrick and Morgan). From this we can conclude that deep down the BT universe has a supernatural element.]

#battletech #star league #fridge logic

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ryan-the-whisk-taker · 5 years

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New Mission Chapter 17

(Like chapter 5, this chapter will be longer than most other chapters in the story. But this one does not contain any possibly triggering content.)

Big City Livin’

A few months later, Jade, Greg and Steven were on their way to Empire City, so Jade could get a surprise for Garnet. “So, what’s this place like?” Jade asked Greg. “Loud, busy, crowded, fun.”

“Like Homeworld?” Greg shrugged. “I dunno. I’ve spent most of my time here on Earth, but if that’s how you’d describe your home planet, then sure.” Jade looked out the window at the bright lights and sighed. “What’s wrong?” Steven asked. “Well, I guess I’m just a little sad. This place is so much like Homeworld, and I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I kinda miss that place.” Steven looked at Jade with a concerned look on his face. “I understand. Pearl misses space, too.”

“It’s not just space, it’s the entire Gem empire I miss. Sure, Garnet’s here, and so are you and my other friends, but I had friends back there, too… I might’ve even had a Pearl of my own!” Jade took a deep breath. “But, I’m happy here. I have more friends here than I had back there, and I don’t have to listen to a tyrant Gem like Yellow Diamond.” Greg laughed. “I’m glad you like it here. I’ve been here forever, but Homeworld doesn’t seem like a good place to live.” They continued to drive until Steven said, “Ooh! There’s the jewelry store! Didn’t you need some rings or something, Jade?”

“Oh yeah, I did. Um, if I tell you what the rings are for, do you promise not to tell Garnet?” Steven nodded. “I’m planning to propose to her, so I need to buy rings for Ruby and Sapphire,” Jade whispered. “Cool! I’m sure she’ll be surprised, as long as she doesn’t use her future vision to see it.”

“I sure hope she doesn’t see it coming,” she said as Greg parked the van in front of the store. Greg got out of the van and opened the door to let Steven and Jade out. “Thanks for taking me here, Mr. Universe.”

“You’re welcome.”

Jade opened the door and let herself into the store, Steven and Greg following. “Welcome! Are you looking for anything in particular?” The woman at the front desk asked. “Actually, yes I am. I’m looking for two engagement rings, for my girlfriends.”

“Oh! Well then, you should look over here.” Jade followed the woman over to the display case filled with rings. “So, were you looking for any specific stones?”

“Stones?” Jade asked. “Right, I hadn't even noticed that you're a Gem. These are gemstones made here on Earth, but they don't have projected forms like you. We have almost all gemstones here for rings.” The woman handed Jade a list of gems, cuts and ring styles. “Hmm… Maybe, two cubic zirconia rings, circular cut, and this style. Could you do that?”

“Of course! Let me just see how much that'll cost you.” The cashier punched a few numbers into the register, and the price $100 appeared on the screen. “Wow, that's cheaper than I thought it would be,” Jade said. “Would you like to pay now, or after we fit the rings?”

“After. Oh wait, how are we gonna fit the rings if Ruby and Sapphire can't find out?” Steven looked up at Jade. “Can't you just shapeshift your hands to look like theirs?”

“Oh yeah!” Jade proceeded to shapeshift her left hand to look like Ruby’s hand. “I forgot Gems could do that…” the cashier said. “You know a lot about Gems, it seems,” Greg replied. “Yeah, my ancestors were friends with a Green Opal.”

“Cool! I don't know if I've ever met a Green Opal,” Jade said thoughtfully. “So, are you ready to fit the rings?”

“Yep!” Jade held out her left hand, still shapeshifted to look like Ruby’s, and the cashier measured her finger. “Okay, I have the measurements for Ruby, now I just need Sapphire’s.” Jade shapeshifted once again, this time making her hand the same size as Sapphire’s. The cashier measured again, and wrote down both measurements. “Okay! And can I have a phone number? If you have a phone, that is.”

“Um, Steven? Would you mind if I used your phone number for this?” Jade asked her friend. “Of course not! Go right ahead!” Jade gave the cashier Steven’s number. “Thank you! We'll call you when the rings are ready for pickup.” Jade smiled and summoned a stack of money from her gemstone. “Thank you!” She said before she left, Greg and Steven behind her.

“That was easier than I expected.” Jade said with a sigh of relief. “Yeah. By the way, where’d you get all that money?” Steven asked. “Um… Amethyst gave it to me. But I’m not sure where she got it,” Jade answered. “Oh, okay. So, should we head home, or do you want to spend some more time here? I mean, it’s a pretty fun city.”

“I guess we could spend some time here, if you want,” Jade said to Steven. “Okay! Dad, where should we go?”

“Hmm… Maybe we could go to the hotel we went to once with Pearl? I still have plenty of money left over from that,” Greg said to his son. “Okay! Jade, you’re gonna love it there! The room we got last time was huge!” Steven said with a big smile. “I’m sure I will,” Jade said and ruffled up Steven’s curly mess of hair.

Greg pulled out of the parking lot and drove to the hotel he stayed at last time he had been in Empire City. “And, we’re here!” Greg said as he parked the van in front of the hotel. “Woah…” Jade said while looking out the window at the massive building in front of her.

The three of them walked into the hotel, and the man at the front desk recognized Greg as soon as he saw him. “Mr. Greg!” He cried. “Welcome back! I see you brought your son with you. Oh!” The man noticed Jade standing behind Steven. “And who’s this lovely lady?” Jade blushed. “Um, my name is Jade. We’re just in town looking for some rings for my girlfriend,” Jade explained. “I see. Well, I hope you three enjoy your stay!” The man said after Greg handed him a stack of bills and walked away. “Thank you, sir!” Jade called. “Just call me ‘Ricky’!”

“Okay! Thank you, Ricky!” The three of them walked into an elevator and went up to the top floor.

“Steven, this place is amazing!” Jade exclaimed when they exited the elevator. “Yep! It even has a pool!” Steven replied. “A pool? What’s that?”

“Well, it’s a big pit-like thing filled with water, and you can swim and play in it! It’s really fun.”

“Cool! I think Blue Diamond has something like that on Homeworld. Although, no one except her, the other Diamonds, or their Pearls have seen it from the inside,” Jade said thoughtfully.

“Huh. Oh, you also have to wear this thing called a swimsuit, and it’s pretty waterproof.” Steven pulled out his phone and showed Jade a picture of a girl in a swimsuit. “Hmm… Like this?” Jade started glowing, and when she stopped, she was wearing a lime green, one-piece swimsuit with circular cutouts on the sides. “Yeah! Just like that! It’s a good thing I packed my swimsuit, too. I had a feeling we’d be staying here for the night. I’ll go get changed!” Steven said before running upstairs with his hot dog duffel bag.

When he came back down, he was wearing a pair of yellow swim trunks. “Ready!”

“Great! Now what do we do?”

“Well, we can either jump or climb in, or… We could use the water slide!” Steven ran over to the large slide leading to the water and climbed up the ladder, Jade hesitantly following behind. “Are you sure about this, Steven?” She asked. “Yeah! It’s really fun. Do you wanna go before me?”

“Um, sure…? But can you tell me what I’m supposed to do first?”

“Okay! First, you need to sit down, then you push yourself forward and then, you slide!” Jade followed Steven’s instructions, and sat down. “Now I just, push myself?” Steven nodded. “Yep!”

“Okay…” Jade slowly pushed herself forward, and suddenly got caught by the water. Then she slid down the slide into the pool. “Woah! That’s cold!” Jade shouted after coming back up. “Yeah, it takes a little bit to get used to. But it feels nice after a while,” Steven said before he went down the slide. “Wooo hooo!” He slid down into the pool, and swam over to his friend. “You seem to really like this!” Jade said and Steven nodded in response. “I guess it is pretty fun,” she agreed.

Jade and Steven stayed in the pool for about half an hour more, then got out and changed. Steven changed into his pajamas, and walked back out to the main room. “I see you’re ready for bed!” Jade said to her friend. “Yep! I know you’re a Gem, so you don’t need to sleep, but are you going to?” Steven asked. “I’d like to. I mean, I did have a bed in my house on Homeworld. But where would I sleep? From what I’ve seen, there’s only one bed.”

“Hmm… I’m sure you could sleep on the couch in the bedroom, if you wanted to. Dad and I were gonna sleep on the bed.”

“I don’t mind sleeping on the couch. Besides, you two need to sleep and I don’t. So if I wake up in the middle of the night, I hopefully won’t wake you guys up.”

While Steven and Greg slept, Jade sat on the couch, thinking about her home planet. She sighed “Why do I keep thinking about her? I’m a Crystal Gem now, I shouldn’t think about her.” Then she stood up, and walked over to the balcony. “I shouldn’t miss her. She was cruel… Alexandrite is right-She probably just replaced us…” Tears started forming in Jade’s eyes. “She doesn’t care about us… She probably wishes I had never even been made!” Jade yelled and slammed her fist into the wall. The sound of the impact woke up Steven, then he slowly and quietly walked over to his friend. “Jade? Are you okay?”

“N-no… I’m not okay…” Jade said to Steven. “I woke up, and I was thinking about her… Y-Yellow Diamond…”

“I understand. Peridot used to be like that. She still felt loyal to her. I know why you’re thinking about her-You’re still not used to being on Earth, and you still feel kinda loyal to Yellow Diamond. I’m sorry, Jade,” Steven said. “I know you’re trying to make me feel better, but I’m not sure if it’s gonna work. Like I said on our way to the jewelry store, I really miss Homeworld. It’s, where I was made. The first time I had left Homeworld, was for the war…”

“You fought in the war against Mom?” Jade nodded. “Yeah, I did. I was one of the soldiers fighting on Homeworld’s side. I got poofed a few times, and I was nearly shattered by a Bismuth, but everyone said I was a tough fighter.” Jade chuckled. “It was actually kinda fun, fighting all those rebels. I never thought I’d be on the other end of the fight. I was actually there when your mom, y’know, shattered her own Diamond. I didn’t meet your mom, but from the day the war started, I was taught that I should never trust a Rose Quartz. But now, I can.” Steven smiled. “Yes you can. I’m glad you’re my friend, Jade.” He then hugged Jade’s waist tightly. “I’m glad you’re my friend, too, Steven. You’re a better friend than Emerald or Diamond were. Although, if I had completed my mission, I might’ve gotten my own Pearl, like the elites. I had a dream where I got a Pearl, the day before I accidentally, poofed myself…” Steven thought for a moment. “You said a Bismuth almost shattered you. Do you remember what that Bismuth looked like?”

“Yeah, why?”

“I know a Bismuth, who wanted to shatter Homeworld Gems. We might be talking about the same Gem.”

“Did she look like this?” Jade began projecting an image of a Bismuth. She had tattoos of stars, and rainbow dreadlocks. But most importantly, she had her gemstone in her chest. “Oh, my, gosh… We are talking about the same Bismuth! She made this weapon called ‘The Breaking Point’, and she wanted to use it to shatter Homeworld Gems, especially Pink Diamond. She and Mom got in the fight, and Bismuth ended up getting poofed, so Mom bubbled her away in Lion’s mane. Then, I accidentally popped her bubble and she reformed. She stayed with us for about a day, training, watching tv, cooking pizza. But then she showed me the Breaking Point, and I told her that shattering Gems was wrong. She starting saying I lied to her, and that I was actually my mom. I ended up poofing her again, and I told Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl what happened. She’s been in the burning room ever since. I didn’t know that Mom had shattered Pink Diamond at the time.” Steven noticed Jade staring at him. “Wh-what?” He asked.

“You, took down a Bismuth? I could never do that! The closest I’ve ever been to a Bismuth, was when she almost shattered me. You’re amazing, Steven!”

“Heh… It’s nothing, really… I was just defending myself.”

“Still! Although, you are half Quartz, so I guess it shouldn’t be too shocking. But I still can’t believe such a young Gem could take down a Bismuth who fought in the war!” Steven blushed. “Well, she did try to shatter me, but I understand why- She thought I was the one who bubbled her. I’d be upset too, if the mother of my new friend lied to me.” Jade yawned. “I think you should get some sleep, Steven.”

“What about you? You seem sleepy, too.”

“Y’know, I think I will get some sleep. We have a long trip home tomorrow, after all.” Jade walked Steven back to the bed his father was still sleeping on, and gave him a hug before walking back to the couch.

The next morning, Steven and Greg were ready to go by the time Jade woke up. “Good morning, Jade!” Steven said when Jade walked into the main room. “Hmm? Oh, morning, Steven…” Jade said groggily. “Did you sleep well?”

“Not really. I wasn’t too comfortable on the couch.”

“I’m sorry. Maybe we’ll get a second bed if we come here again.” Jade smiled weakly. “Thanks, Steven.”

“No problem! That’s what friends do, right?” She nodded. “Yes, it is what friends do.”

A few minutes later, Jade, Greg and Steven checked out of the hotel and walked to the van outside. “This was nice. Thanks for taking me here, Mr. Universe.”

“No problem! I haven’t gone on a trip with a Gem since I came here with Pearl, but this was fun! By the way-” Greg looked at Jade. “Good luck with Garnet. I’m sure she’ll be really happy when you propose to Ruby and Sapphire.” Jade smiled at Greg. “Thanks. I hope you’re right.” They got into the van and drove back home to Beach City.

#gemsona jade #gemsona blue topaz #gemsona pink coral #steven universe story #rhites stories #new mission story

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queenlawrenceskingdom · 6 years

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The Hunger Games: The Tributes

I recently returned to Tumblr, and with that decision came a thirst to return to the roots of the fandom that got me here in the first place. So here I am doing a reread of the entire thg series, along with some analysis, quotes, and questions along the way! I’ve decided to make posts for each of the three sections of each book, so here goes the first one.

The Tributes

At the beginning of this book, I think it’s only right that we start with Katniss talking about Prim. The entire series always comes back to it, because Katniss time and time again is working to protect her. Whether it be from bad dreams before her first reaping or the horrors later on, Katniss’ central motivator is her little sister. At times she seems to be a little too overprotective at great cost to herself, obviously by volunteering but also by refusing to let her take out tesserae. We meet Gale, and I’ve always wondered how he learned to snare and when he started going into the woods. Were their fathers friends, or did take their children to the woods separately? Did they ever intend to work together, or did they without the kids knowing?

The word “rebellion” is first stated on page 5, which is no accident on Suzanne Collins’ part. In the first 80 pages alone it’s mentioned 6 times, which is more than the rest of the book. She talks about the punishments of rebellion, the rebellion 74 years prior, and her thoughts when Haymitch remarks about how her at Peeta holding hands on the chariot could be seen as rebellious. From the start of the series, Katniss has been instigating rebellion even when she doesn’t mean to. Poaching, refusing children, volunteering for her sister (instead of the “honor”), shooting at the Gamemakers, showing solidarity with Peeta. I’m sure President Snow approves of none of that.

Before Katniss ever goes into the Games, I already have a sense of some mental health issues with her. It would be an easy diagnosis for her, a sudden death of her father, the sequential “loss” of her mother, and the responsibility of head of the household being thrust on her small 11-year-old shoulders. She is very doubtful of people who want to help her and finds it hard to understand how people can be kind and not expect anything in return. With this, she has a soft spot for kindness so maybe that’s why she doesn’t care for it much. I’m not an expert on mental health, but it wasn’t easy for her to take this in such a short amount of time, and there’s obviously some residual trauma she has to deal with. She talks about nightmares of her father’s death, is constantly worrying about anything and everything, and describes herself in negative ways. Some quotes to support my thoughts:

"Gale says I never smile except in the woods.”

“I learned to hold my tongue and to turn my features into an indifferent mask so that no one could ever read my thoughts”

“I’m not the forgiving type.”

“[Peeta] gives my hand hat I think is meant to be a reassuring squeeze. Maybe it’s just a nervous spasm.”

“A kind Peeta Mellark is far more dangerous to me than an unkind one. Kind people have a way of working their way inside me and rooting there”

“He gives me a smile that seems so genuinely sweet with just the right touch of shyness that unexpected warmth rushes through me. A warning bell goes off in my head. Don’t be so stupid... He is luring you in to make you easy prey. The more likable he is, the more deadly he is.”

She has closed herself off so much and never seemed to have found healthy coping mechanisms. Sure she feels better out in the woods where she used to spend time with her father, but inside the fence she hasn’t found a way to be happy in her day-to-day life. This will only exaggerate after the Games.

Katniss’ friendship with Madge has always been strange to me. As the mayor’s daughter you’d think Madge would have been a part of the popular group in school, but she “keeps to herself... [and] neither of us really has a group of friends”. They eat lunch and partner in gym class in relative silence, which just seems awkward even if they are shy people. Madge is originally wearing the mockingjay pin when Katniss and Gale go to sell strawberries which to me marked her as an important character for the rest of the series. Madge’s absence in the films was a bummer because she has such an interesting and complex connection to the story that was lost when they removed her. When she goes to visit Katniss in the Justice Building, we knows she gives Katniss the pin but we’re not entirely sure why. “There’s an urgency in her tone” when she gives it to Katniss, and doesn’t really take no for an answer when she pins it to her dress. It also may just be me wanting to find something, but I’ve always had an underlying thought that Madge has a crush on Katniss. The kiss on the cheek, the silent (nervous?) presence around Katniss, not being part of the “popular” crowd, maybe she was outcast by her peers for this reason. I would be 100% supportive of a bisexual Madge. This was a pretty short scene on paper, but there’s a lot of meaning with the pin that we’ll discuss as we get further into the books.

The reaping itself gave me a lot of questions about how the Games came to be. We learn about the Dark Days and the Capitol extinguishing a rebellion that started the Games, but what were the districts rebelling against in the Dark Days? What was going so wrong that they wanted to rebel, and how much worse did it get with the implementation of the Games and other district punishments? District 12 has a population of 8,000, but we know this is the smallest district by far. Katniss thinks about this on her Victory Tour, but how do they host reapings with larger districts that may have 8,000 kids or more? Is there a protocol if the chosen child wasn’t at the reaping due to sudden severe illness, death, or they had run off across district boundaries like Gale wanted to do? I’ve also always wondered what happens if someone volunteers but the original tribute wants to go in the Games (like in 1 or 2), who decides?

When Katniss takes the stage, this is how I see the rebellion beginning. The silence of the crowd, the district gesture, a solidarity throughout the entire district. The rebels lost the original rebellion because they could not communicate and were fighting 13 individual wars, so President Snow is probably pretty weary of any sort of unification that doesn’t outright support the Capitol. I also love the juxtaposition that she can see the hills of the woods from the platform in the square. As she’s saying goodbye to her freedom, she is also saying goodbye to her freedom in the woods and her relatively safe existence. On a fun note, when Katniss gets to the train station and overanalyzes Peeta’s appearance in front of the cameras, we get our first description of Johanna Mason and her tactics in her Games.

Throughout the train ride and the initial prep, we learn a lot about the differences between how the Capitol and districts see the Games. Effie and Katniss’ prep team are so detached from the actual horrors of the Games the same way Nazis had no issue with seeing Jewish people as less. It’s not their fault, it’s how they were raised being in the Capitol and all they know. They may not realize it, but they see the tributes as subhuman and because Katniss has never experienced this before, she immediately doesn’t like any of them. She already feels like just a piece in the Games even though she won’t realize it for a while. Cinna is her saving grace, because he actually seems to understand how terrible the Games really are. Right away I suspect he is most likely part of the underground rebellion in the Capitol, if he thinks like that yet still wants to work with tributes and subsequently their mentors. When Katniss first meets him he says “I asked for District Twelve” and just keeps going as if it were common to request working with the “least desirable district”. We never get his full story, but I can only imagine what lead him to this life path.

Finally we start to see the beginnings of Everlark!! Katniss knows more about Peeta than she realizes and if they hadn’t been reaped I want to believe they’d still find each other. I could never actually Katniss making it in the mines and they have such history going back to their parents. We get our first flirty feeling from Katniss, even if she doesn’t know what that means. When Peeta complements her after the parade and smiles “unexpected warmth rushes through me”. I’ve always laughed at that remark because she’s so unused to desire and pleasure she has no understanding of what’s happening. They train together, they talk each other up, they have no clue of what’s to come. Katniss barely has a grip on the past when she realizes “I have kept track of the boy with the bread”. Her coldness throughout their training makes sense given her history of distancing herself from pleasure, such as when Prim had to “drag [her] over to admire [the cakes at the bakery]”. If it wasn’t functional she didn’t need it, so having frivolous things for enjoyment (boys) isn’t an option. Only later does she realize she can allow herself these things without harm.

As Effie tries to sell Katniss and Peeta, it’s an interesting slip-up that she says “if you put enough pressure on coal it turns to pearls”, especially when we know the significance of the pearl in the future. Another quote that pops out to me is when she talks about Lavinia, and says “you don’t forget the face of the person who was your last hope”. She doesn’t know it now, but Katniss will be again be the face of hope for people who have nothing else to hope for. While training we see the parallels between Rue and Prim, who are both named after yellow flowers and resemble the same person to Katniss. Someone to protect.

When the interviews come, as much as she tries, Katniss isn’t going to get over her self-doubts just because Haymitch yelled at her so she isn’t very giving. She tried giving herself up, but it’s impossible when you’re talking to someone you don’t trust. When Peeta drops his bomb, we start to understand what his weapon is. While Katniss is lethal with a bow and has hunter instincts, Peeta can read people and moves a crowd with words. In his case, the pen really is more powerful than the sword.

Sassniss and other funny/interesting quotes

“District 12. Where you can starve to death in safety”

Exactly how am I supposed to work in a thank-you in there? Somehow it just won’t seem sincere if I’m trying to slit his throat.

So yes, I can handle a fork and knife. But I hate Effie’s comment so much I make a point of eating the rest of my meal with my fingers.

“Your mentor has a lot to learn about presentation. A lot about televised behavior”. Peeta unexpectedly laughs. “He was drunk,” says Peeta. “He’s drunk every year.” “Every day,” I add.

“Up, up up! It’s going to be a big, big, big day!” I try and imagine, for a moment, what it must be like inside that woman’s head.

One time, my mother told me that I always eat like I’ll never see food again. And I said “I won’t unless I bring it home.” That shut her up.

“Can you hit anything with that knife besides a table?” - Haymitch

It’s hard to hate my prep team. They’re such total idiots.

“With all that alcohol in him, it’s probably not advisable to have him around an open flame.”

Delly Cartwright is a pasty-faced, lumpy girl with yellowish hair who looks about as much like our server as a beetle does a butterfly.

You get the feeling that the knot-tying class is not the Hunger Games hot spot.

“If only you could frost someone to death”

I try and animate my face as I recall the event, a true story, in which I’d foolishly challenged a black bear over the rights to a beehive.

“Thank you for your consideration,” I say. Then I give a slight bow and walk straight toward the exit without being dismissed.

I avoid looking at anyone as I take tiny spoonfuls of fish soup. The saltiness reminds me of my tears.

“Well, Catnip, stealing’s punishable by death, or hadn’t you heard?” he says... Gale’s eyes fastened on the bow. “Can I see that?” I hand it over. “Just remember, stealing’s punishable by death.”

“See, like this. I’m smiling at you even though you’re aggravating me.” “Yes, it feels very convincing.”

#lets have some activity with the discussion questions!#thgreread #the hunger games #everlark #sassniss #katniss everdeen #peeta mellark #haymitch #effie #cinna #madge #this turned out a lot longer than i thought itd be sorry #backtopanem

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iamrheaspeaks · 6 years

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You Owe Me!

I haven’t written shit in years and prose isn't really my genre but this is happening 🤷🏾‍♀️ I’m forcing myself to post. Lightly proofread. But anyway, here’s my little OC! baby...

A/N: Bold italics are song lyrics

Word Count: ~1750

Warnings: None?!

Milly had been running on autopilot all day. Only getting four hours of sleep, and didn’t have time to smoke before work. Plus, she was just sick of being affected by everyone’s negative energy. You could understand why she couldn’t wait to just get home and shower away the filth of all things today. Ishe was still sleep in bed when Milly got in, “Let me tip toe my way into the bathroom”, she thought to herself.

As the hot water from the shower ran over her, Milly started to feel less bogged down from today’s events. Finally letting out a deep breath she hadn’t realized she was holding on to. Her whole body relaxing as the tension washed away down the drain with the suds. After finishing the rest of her shower routine Milly makes her way into their bedroom. Ishe’s now awake, sitting in bed watching dumbass fight videos on WorldStar.

“How was work?” Ishe asked not even bothering to look up from his phone.

“Absolute shit! The fucking AC broke in the whole damn building and there was mandatory staff training today. Being stuck in a room full of sweaty balls, desperation and body heat is a FUCKING nightmare”! Milly recants as she searched through the small pile of clothes on her side of the bed for a specific pair of pajama shorts. As Milly continues to rant Ishe begins to make his way over to the desk in the opposite corner of the room.

“Damn!” Ishe manages to squawk out before silently laughing, suddenly more glad that he was off today. And he would never admit it but it was kinda turning him on, “Imma load up Coral for you so you can get some down time. Sounds like you need it”! He turns to face forward in the seat to continue loading when he adds on, “Plus, I’m kinda scared for my boys” losing focus again and instinctively grabbing his junk with his non-dominant hand. Looking at her briefly through the mirror Ishe begins taking in just how compromising Milly’s current position is. Bent over at the waist totally oblivious to her surroundings, head deep in a pile of clothes that all happened to be varying shades of black, completely nude.

“You should be!” Milly chuckled while rolling her eyes at his half-failed attempt to lighten the mood. Coral is Milly’s three-piece; 3D printed stackable water pipe. Couldn’t 100% compare to the glass piece she normally used but it was a good conversation starter. And the bitch hit, HARD! “Anyway…thank you! I’m probably gonna take a hit or two, clear my Instagram and then come down stairs so we can finally go out and do the food shopping”. Ishe already in motion to the door at this point since he was done with Coral, paused slightly to look over his shoulder back to her with his left eyebrow raised, “Bet!”

“Damn!” Ishe says to himself looking at the time on his phone and realizing that Milly is probably dead to the world. On his way to use the bathroom he peaks his head in the room to see and sure enough, she was knocked out. “Food shopping my ass”, Ishe thought to himself continuing to head to the bathroom. On his way out, after having decided to just go to the store without her Ishe stopped to take in the sight before him. Milly was sprawled out on the bed in nothing but a pair black running shorts with a pink trimming. They accentuated her ass, which made them his favorite. The lack of a top left Milly’s back tattoo on display. Full sized angel wings with the quote “angels speak to those who silence their minds long enough to hear” in script tracing along her spine pulling the whole piece together. Of all her tattoos this was the one that made Ishe worship the ground Milly walked on. It was mostly because of the deliberate imperfections she had the tattoo artist incorporate. Milly was adamant about the wings looking frayed and slightly scorched. Burned even, as if she literally fell from heaven. She had fallen asleep with her phone in her right hand and with her left on the side of her face making it look like she was adjusting her glasses. Feeling his dick twitch Ishe stuck his tongue out, licking his bottom lip while looking to his phone for the time. “Fuck! Let me get this damn store before it get busy.” Ishe thinks to himself running down the stairs. Ignoring his slight erection.

Shameful to say she woke up about 3 hours later to a quite house and messages from Ishe.

Ishe:

You owe me!

I had to go food shopping by myself 😭

I’ll be back soon though. I’m down the street catching up with Ace. I love you miss!

Still kinda groggy she rereads his messages before dragging the screen from right to left so she could see the time stamp. Eyes shooting to the top of the screen at the time, “FUCK!” Milly shouted while sitting up and fixing her glasses. “Did I really just knock out for 3 fucking hours? What the fuck?” She questioned as her fingers hovered over the phone momentarily thinking of what to finally reply to Ishe.

Milly:

I’m sorry daddy! I guess I was more tired than I thought. Love you too! 💋

Milly smiled to herself as the message sent. She then proceeds to grab one of Ishe’s oversized shirts that she’s claimed and made her way the kitchen to find something to eat. Waking up with the munchies is a bitch!

“…I, I'm a do you dirty/ Say you love me now, baby, it's too early/ I, I'm a do you dirty/ You think you love me now, I think you should be worried…” Milly was dancing around the kitchen shoving her face with fruit while singing along to Kehlani’s “Do U Dirty” when Ishe returned home with Ace in tow. Ace was Ishe’s good friend he met a couple jobs ago and they just stayed in touch. Plus, he was pretty reliable when your personal connect was out of town. The three smoked, chilled and blurted out their random stoner thoughts while watching Ridiculousness. And would all slightly cringe every time Chanel laughed uncontrollably.

Milly can’t really register when it happened but eventually she was gone to the point where the only things on her mind were sex and sleep. Thinking to herself “Yup, I’m definitely fucking high”! Immediately after the image of riding the shit out Ishe popped into her head. Biting her lip, her core clamped down on nothing, just as her bundle of nerves pulsed at the thought simultaneously. Making it even harder to push the now intrusive images out her mind.

“…I'm your doctor, when in need/ Want some coke, have some weed/ You know me, I'm your friend…” Curtis Mayfield’s “Pusherman” suddenly blaring from Ace’s plug phone finally broke Milly out her thoughts. She looked up to see Ishe staring at her. Her eyes grew wide as her clouded mind registered that she was squeezing her thighs together. And to make things worse, she was still biting her bottom lip. Ishe raises his eyebrow and glides his tongue across his bottom lip when their eyes meet. The motion causing Milly to shutter in her seat as a chill ran up her spine under his hungry gaze. She could feel his eyes undressing her but couldn’t will herself to look away. Ishe was the first to break the intense glance, to look over at Ace. The sound of his voice made his presence remembered.

“Yeah I got you ma. Give me 15” Ace responding to the person on the phone before hanging up, “Yo, Ishe, I’ll catch you later bruh. This fine girl that found me on Instagram tryna buy a quarter”. “Uh huh nigga. Whatever.” Ishe responds with a half smirk, it’s obvious he didn’t believe Ace at all. “You are such a man whore Ace! Don’t let your bad guy antics rub off on Ishe or we gonna be fightin!” Milly interjected while gathering things for their retreat upstairs since their company was leaving. Ishe and Ace both side eyed each other before letting out a huge laugh looking back at Milly. Ace responding to her threat, “You know I learned everything I know from YO nigga right?” thumb pointing to her beau. Ishe fake gasped and clutched his imaginary pearls before backhanding Ace in the arm catching him off guard, “Don’t be telling my girl that shit man!” Milly just shock her head at their childishness and continued her way up the stairs.

Ishe finally begin to go upstairs after playing Xbox Live with his cousin for a few games of Black Ops. Milly’s knocked out clutching a stuffed elephant from Ikea in the center of the bed with the light and TV on. Abandoning the shorts she looked so hard for back into the pile, now only wearing Ishe’s shirt. Left leg bent at the knee causing the shirt to rise up, leaving her ass fully exposed. The sight alone was teasing Ishe, almost daring him to do something. The buzz from the weed was starting to fully take over along with the feeling of his dick making his pants tight once again. Ishe couldn’t help but to act on the images that flashed through his mind while staring down at Milly from the doorway.

Slowly moving to hover over Milly, Ishe further examined the current state of his lover. Her copper colored skin was begging to be caressed. Her thick thighs untouched by any marks or ink. Full round bottom looking inviting as fuck. Ishe’s hand twitched as the urge to smack it came over him, “Not yet” he thought bringing his slight inner turmoil to a halt. Bypassing what was underneath that shirt for now, he started to make Milly stir underneath him. Ishe showered her with deliberate and needy kisses along the back and right side of her neck. When Ishe gently sucked on that sweet spot right behind Milly’s ear it earned him a sleepy moan right before Milly let out a weak “Mmm?” before scrunching up her face and prying her eyes open. Attempting to familiarize herself with the now pitch black bedroom. Just as she’s starting to come to, Milly’s whole body grows stiff as Ishe leans back down barely hovering over her with his mouth a feather’s touch away from her ear. “I told you...You owe me!” Ishe’s voice deep but barely above a whisper as he slowly inched inside of her…

Final Notes:

I’m a sucker for unisex names with interesting meanings 🙃

Milly- Latin origin: means hard worker of gentle strength

Ishe- African origin: means God, lord or leader

@savagesensitivity @another-imaginesblog @cancerianprincess

#rheaspeaks #my writing #my words #my work #you owe me #original characters #this is longer than i expected #milly x ishe #called out #out of my element #here it is #overwhelemed #i had to force myself to post this #i almost deleted the whole thing #rheaspeaks masterlist

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jennylamb2006 · 6 years

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Decline 45th High School Reunion

I cannot attend the reunion for reasons cited below but rest assured that my spirit will be there.

I remember attending 9th grade home room in the fall of 1969 as a skinny 14 year old not knowing what my future will be at East Paterson High School. Well I am 63 years old and the results are nearly in.

I had just finished 8 years at St. Anne's Parochial School. I had a good friend named George Wolfe who had dated Rhonda Frattolillo. He attended Fair Lawn High School so I felt lost in the new environment.

Growing up on 18th Avenue I had also known Tommy Moriarty. I spoke to a childhood friend the other day. She told me about the passing of Tommy who died at the age of 62. Tommy had down syndrome. He lived with his rather large family on 16th Avenue. My memory is hazy but some of the details of my childhood have stayed with me. We grew up together for the period of roughly 1965-1968. Many hours were spent sleigh riding on the small hill located near Tommy's house on 16th Avenue. One day my family's dog ran out the door and it seemed like at least 20 children including Tommy tried to catch him. Pepper ran into the woods near the Garfield Water Works. Eventually despite the snow and other dangers Pepper was returned. I asked my Mom about Tommy being different and at the time the term retarded was used. My Mom who was generally soft spoken told me that God made all children in his likeness. Soon after this I was standing on top of 16th Avenue hill waiting to sleigh down it. Tommy was there and asked me if I was his friend. We rode down the hill on the sleigh together. Rest in peace Tommy.

At East Paterson High School I remember being called to Dr Varese the Principal's office in 1972. I was nervous but he congratulated me on receiving a New Jersey State Scholarship. I believe my father who was a Veteran of World War II at Pearl Harbor had something to do with it. I did not serve in the military the draft had ended when I became eligible. Besides I had seen enough fighting outside the third wing of the high school to realize that it was just plain stupid.

I was interested in sports especially baseball throughout my high school years. I am enclosing a picture of my high school jacket. I was too nervous to ask any girls to the proms but if I had the nerve I would have asked Roberta Fisher. Please hug her for me at the reunion. She is a good friend and a wonderful lady. I remember wrestling with you and realizing that you were a skilled wrestler. I remember playing one on one Basketball with Tony Zappala and losing but I was not intimidated by his New Jersey All State superior skills. I remember pitching my first inning in Varsity baseball and realizing that my 80 MPH fastball was not enough to win a ticket to the Major Leagues. But I loved the competition and had some meager success to build on.

After high school I attended College and continued to play baseball. In 1974 I pitched a three hitter against the 11th ranked community college in the nation putting our team in first place. I remember Dennis Walling hitting a double off me in the first inning. When I walked back to the bench my coach told me he was a really good hitter and somehow I got him out the next three times I faced him. Walling went on to have a Hall of fame career in the major leagues. But my ego grew really large that day. I wanted to pitch the 2nd game of the doubleheader but the coach thought otherwise.

In 1974 I heard Paul McCartney’s Band on the Run and my life was changed. If you are ever in a bad mood play this song and you will know what I mean.

In 1976 I dated the first love of my life named Linda Lane. Her father was a wealthy businessman from Paterson New Jersey. Linda attended College in Pennsylvania. I remember driving down to see her and wondering what the future holds for me. In 1977 I proposed to Linda at Valley Forge State Park. She said yes if we could resolve our religious differences. This was true love only encumbered by my Roman Catholic faith vs. her born again Christian beliefs despite the fact that her father was Jewish and her mother was Roman Catholic.

I broke up with Linda and decided to take my 1968 Chevy Nova (I had rebuilt the engine in the snow of the 1977 winter) and move to California. I lost the opportunity for inherited wealth for the California dream by humming the Beach boys songs of the 60's as my friend Lamont and I drove to Long Beach California. I also had an Accounting degree from William Paterson College and $5,000.00. I planned to retire by age 40 with $100,000.00. I remember saying that I had no intention of reading another book until I have some fun. While we looked for apartments I found one but when Lamont turned up to sign the papers it was rented. I found another and made sure Lamont was not there to sign papers. There are bigots apparently all of the country. I really hate bigots.

In late 1978 I met a California girl with a golden smile named Laura Lambert that has graced my life for 40 years. That year I also met Ron Beaman from Nebraska. We have been friends all these years which I consider myself lucky. The next 8 years were spent living in a two bedroom apartment one block from the beach playing basketball with about 40 friends every weekend. I owned a small accounting business.

In 1980 I cried when John Lennon died.

In 1986, Laura and I bought our first piece of Real Estate, a one bedroom condo. It was a bit intimidating. By 2008 we bought/sold over 100 properties, so much for being nervous.

In the late 80’s I met the first of two attorneys that I am also friends with. Gene Goldman is a good attorney whose only deficiency is being weak in billable hours. I believe his calming disposition helped me in dealing with homeowners associations.

By 1994 Laura and I had accumulated 10 pieces of real estate and I had obtained real estate Brokers licenses in California and Nevada. My first real estate sale was to a single mom. She cried when I gave her the keys and I did too when I received a check for $2,200.00 for about 4 hours of work. It seemed so easy. At the loan signing her parents apologized for her being gay. I did not know what to say to the assholes. I wanted the deal to go through so I kept my mouth shut. In 1996 my daughter Rhiannon was born (named after the Fleetwood Mac song of 1977).

In 2002 I attended two concerts, Paul McCartney and Bruce Springsteen in Las Vegas. This makes up for not seeing Bruce Springsteen at Mr. D’s on the corner of Market Street and Midland Avenue. I realized that Paul McCartney and the Beatles were God’s gift to mankind. How lucky were we to experience this?

By 2004 I had a million dollars in the bank and 8 properties. I would go down to the Las Vegas courthouse to buy foreclosures. One property I did not have any information on started bidding at $30,000. I knew the people bidding were attorneys who regularly bought so when the bidding reached $400,000 I started chirping in. I bought it sight unseen for $425,000.00. As I paid the lady one of the attorneys said he was upset and wanted it. I drove my Lexus quickly to the property which was in a gated community. It was a fixer upper that I hoped to sell $575,000.00 and make $30,000.00 on. Well in 4 months after remodeling the price had soared to $675,000.00. I had made $100,000.00 on a house bought sight unseen. My ego grew again.

In 2005 at Christmas time I walked into Wells Fargo Bank in Henderson Nevada with my daughter Rhiannon and asked the teller how much the Wells Fargo Stuffed Stagecoach was. She responded by giving it to my daughter telling her that I was their biggest customer. My ego expanded again.

In 2006 Laura and I met Lon and Mary Searle and their fine family. They are mormons that have great values. Of course we do not agree on Joseph Smith.

By 2008 my material wealth had diminished considerably but luck would have it I found out that my ancestors arrived at Jamestown Virginia in 1629 and I was the 12th generation. I decided to take Laura and Rhiannon and move to Williamsburg Virginia. There was no stopping my love for United States History which began reading about Ethan Allen and the Green mountain Boys at St. Anne's in 2nd grade. Sure Kennedy was shot that same year but if the truth be known it wasn't Oswald who did it. There was a severe recession on except I did not notice it because of my families history unfolded before my eyes. I found the original family cemetery and plantation and a historical figure named Dred Scott who did not have his birthplace recognized. I fixed that in a couple of years by connecting two documents 40 years and 700 miles apart. Isn’t history grand?

In 2009 I met Richard Lincoln Francis, clerk of the Southampton County Court in Virginia. He is descended from Abraham Lincoln and I consider him a good friend who is qualified to be President of the United States. He is my East coast attorney, we have had more fun than should be allowed. To give you an example we had a trial over a Hines lucky rock that rivals the OJ Simpson trial of the century. I have taught Rick the 8 things to drive a golf ball successfully. He is a terrible student who has a tendency to make phone calls while teeing off. I believe this violates some rules.

Since moving to Williamsburg Virginia I have written five books. My disdain for reading that occurred after college was over. The second book involving the research to discover Dred Scott's birthplace is being converted into a movie. It is entitled Walk With You, the story of Dred Scott and the Blow Family of Virginia. It is about 8 children 6 white and 2 black that grew up and bonded together to take on the President and Chief Justice of the United States. I have met Hollywood stars including Ed Asner. My time is currently possessed in seeing this venture is completed to fruition.

My life has been blessed by God and living in the greatest country in the world. I have lived the American dream which consists of association with all ethnic groups. My first twenty two years living in New Jersey were great. My next twenty three years in California were better. My next 8 years in Henderson Nevada were living the dream. The next 5 years in Williamsburg were amazing. And the last few years touring the United States with Laura are the best ever. Opportunities if you use education to advance yourself. If these members of our class are among the living: Robert Motta, Robert Hurley, and Joseph Lasica, please give them my best.

Our democracy is currently under attack by a greedy lying moron who has no business occupying the world's beacon of freedom head office. This will change soon. If any of the morons who voted for this clown have issue I will be happy to meet them outside the 3rd wing at EPHS and give them a taste of true Democracy from someone who has lived it. I have had only two fights in my life. I am undefeated and plan to stay that way.

Warmest Regards,

Jeffrey Allen Hines

Class of 1973

#walkwithyou

#neveragain

#bluewave2018

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hwheat2021 · 3 years

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July 24-26 journeying across Lake Eyre Basin

We've been driving over Lake Eyre Basin seems like for weeks and we're not finished yet. The Basin is huge covering almost four States. Within Qld, it covers almost a third of the State and is formed by the mighty Georgina and Diamantina Rivers (around where we've been travelling for however many days) as well as Cooper Creek (which we hope to cross in a couple of months all going well). They all drain south through the Simpson and Strzelecki Deserts to Kati Thanda (Lake Eyre). The region is home to 18 Aboriginal Traditional Owner groups who are responsible for the area’s many important Dreamings and cultural sites - sacred landforms, trees, resource areas and ceremonial and burial places. In spite of being an arid region, there are quite extensive freshwater and wetland habitats which support an amazing variety of flora and fauna. To me it's a puzzling somewhat contradictory landscape but fascinating to drive through.

We have been driving through Channel country and the roads undulated as we drove west to east. For those not familiar with our strange continent, that name comes from the numerous intertwined rivulets, channels that cross the region over 150,00 square Km (and it extends also south into SA). This is a staggeringly mindboggling country!

Beneath Lake Eyre Basin, lies the giant aquifers of the Great Artesian Basin (the largest and deepest in the World) as well as a treasure trove of fossilised remains of dinosaurs, strange marsupial mammals, marine reptiles and more - as well as gemstones! Talking of fossils, unfortunately we missed visiting the Riversleigh World Heritgae fossil fields (can't go everywhere!) but we visited the fossil exhibits in Boulia; they have an excellent Heritage Complex. We had planned, but decided against, a visit to the dinosaur fossil fields near Winton, we’re trying to keep clear of people en masse. And sadly as the NSW covid situation doesn’t look like abating any time soon, we won’t get to our fossil dig in Lightning Ridge next month. However……

The top pic is part of the fossilised remains of a Pliosaur. It had a huge skull and a long snout. It is supposed to have been the largest and most powerful of the marine predators. Second photo is an Ichthyosaur, a dolphin-like creature. They had huge eye sockets which meant they probably had good vision and they are believed to have breathed air. More species of this type of reptile have been found in the Boulia area than in anywhere else in the world. Both shots were taken in the Boulia Heritage Complex.

This is all that remains of the Hamilton Hotel east of Boulia on the old Cobb & Co route to Winton. It was near here that a very rare 100 million year old fossiled piece of tail from a very primitive marsupial was found. It is the oldest marsupial known to date. The significance of this find is that marsupials probably originated in Australia and South America, a Gondwana link which debunks other theories.

The stones edging this small display are calcareous concretions. They were set down as sediment on the bed of the vast inland sea about 100 million years ago. A small fossil or calcite crystal acts as a nucleus. Mineral matter dissolved in groundwater moves through the porous rock and builds in concentric layers around the nucleus, much like the formation of pearls. When exposed on the surface, the outer casing pops off due to the extremes of temperature. These unusual rocks are generally found in the marine sediment outcropping in the east of Boulia Shire. It’s a fascinating and thought-provoking region!

#Boulia #lake Eyre basin #inland sea #dinosaurs

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popculturebuffet · 4 years

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Jake Reviews Stuff: Steven Universe: The Answer

Happy pride everyone and naturally, it just wouldn’t feel like a celebration of pride in animation without one of the frontrunners of LBGTQ represintation in Children’s television, as well as quality in storytelling in general: Steven Universe. Since your seeing this you probably know the gist but as my idol peter parker would say let’s do this one last time: The story of Steven, a 14 year old, though he dosen’t look it, boy with a boundless amount of love, compassion and empathy, lives in beach city with his borderline homeless dad , surrogate moms and surrogate until we find out they actually are kinda related sister: Garnet, a fusion of two gems in love and thus the sum total of both them and their feelings, Peal, an emotional but loving gem who grew from a servant to Rose’s right hand, sometimes lover, and confidant, and Amythest, a gem born long after the war that brought everyone else here who acts like a 20 something or teenager half the time. Steven soon finds himself fighting alongside themt o protect earth both from the monsters caused by the final battle of the war his mother fought to save earth from distruction and let her army live life how they choose, and the gem homeworld as it starts to take an intrest in earth again. And as the fight goes on Steven also starts to see just how flawed his family is and how much they haven’t moved on from his moms death and finds himself forced to help them past it while grappling with his mom’s terrible and complicated legacy, everyone expecitng him to basically be her, and what it means to be a being that’s truly one of a kind. I absolutley love the show: it’s not without flaws; Characters tend to be ingnored for seasons or episodes at a time,some arcs are really weirdly paced and the slice of life episodes can be jammed in the weirdest places. But the show’s strength: a devotion to having emotional resolution be even more important, and sometimes just as powerful animated and framed, than fighting, though the show’s fight scene’s are incredible, incredibly deep characters with fully fleshed out arcs and growth, and a love for tackling deep, heavy subjects through metaphor or even directly, taking on things such as gender identity, societal conformity, ptsd, grief, gender identity and many many more with grace and weight and helping kids with them in the process. The show is also the frontrunner for LBGTQ+ representation in cartoons in the 2010′s. While other shows had bits nad pieces, series creator Rebecca Sugar was the one responsible for making Marcline and Princess Bubblegum ex-lovers and making it obvious as possible without saying it because standards were bullshit, Steven Unvierse decided to say fuck subtley and thus had PLENTY OF gay content: Garnet is a fusion of two women and the embodiment of their love and relationship, and when the two show up their very affectionate with one another to the point of bullcrap censorship in less tolerant countries such as india and russia, while Pearl out and out had a CENTURIES LONG romantic relationship with Steven’s mother who was explictly pansexual, and that’s just the main cast! But I genuinely believe that it’s thanks to Steven Universe that children’s animation is as LBGTQ+ positive as it is now. SU wasn’t the first to have gay leads but it was one of the few kids shows with the balls and, at least in the us, network support to explictily have gay characters as some of the main cast, and I feel the show’s success softend execs at CN and other companies to let more representation too. Since SU”s airing, most CN shows have had gay content great and small, Nick has had gay parents and a bisexual lead, not to mention the korra ending kicking it all off, and Netflix has said hold my beer, having not only multiple gay main characters, but having the finale of she ra be built on a decleration of love between two women saving the universe and being the climax of the entire series. Not that those crews likely still didn’t have to FIGHT for most of that, i’m not bilind and NOelle Stevenson has outright admitted she had to be sneaky about catradora for season 1 as to not get it shut down, but I feel SU”s sucess and Rebecca and crew’s own likely fights put the various studio goon’s reflector shields down and got more representation into children’s media. And that’s a wonderful thing. So naturally the show was a lock for this month and for coverage here.. i’ts just given the show’s heavily seralized nature and the fact it dosen’t really have any long romantic story arcs. Sure ther’es plenty of romance, but it’s mostly either in the past or between an already married couple that’s also a person. The show’s arcs were more focused on worldbuilding and character building, which I do prefer and will be doing one in July. But it did make it tricky to find an episode to spotlight the character I wanted to spotlight: Garnet Garnet is easily my faviorite character, with pearl a very close second: she has a great dynamic, is a decent if flawed mother and leader, and is also damn funny with her deadpanned reactions to things being utterly divine. As well as whatever the hell this is.

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The problem is I also wanted to spotlight the parts making up her: Ruby and Sapphire, their relationship etc as they themselves are fantastic and i’m 100% convinced were the inspriation for one mr mc skat kat and one paula abdul’s magnum opus in steven’s unvierse

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The problem is most rupphire episodes are tangled in bigger arcs. They debuted at the end of the invasion arc, they had the baseball episdoe together shortly after another arc, and their wedding is tied up in the reveal rose was pink diamond and the reception is crashed by the climactic battle with Yellow and Blue that sets up the final arc of the whole series. But thankfully season two gave us The Answer to my problem.. ironically named the Answer, basically Garnet Year One as Garnet tells steven how she came to be, a story so beauitful they made a storybook out of it.. and it’s my honor to present it here after the cut.

We open at the Barn... as a refresher at this point the Gems and Steven have been staying at Greg’s old family farm in order to have the space and suplies to build a drill to stop the cluster from hatching and destroying earth, with Peridot reluctantly working with them. So as such Steven’s sleeping there when Garnet wakes her.. and in a notable departure for her it’s san’s shade, which shows her adorable excitment as she wakes Steven. Turns out it’s his birthday! And.. I don’t really begrudge the show for takin ga break for two episodes to celebrate it: besides being the only time steven went up a year, on screen, it was a nice break from the peridot/cluster storyline for a second, and this and the following episode are pretty great and both add a lot to the world as a whole. It’s why i don’t MIND when SU takes a break from the plot, as long as they do it for good reason.

IN a great callback steven asks if garent’s going to tell him she’s a fusion, as Jailbreak revealed the reason she hadn’t yet is she was saving it for his birthday, which is a good joke and a great callback. Garnet cheerfully tells him know but has clearly found a backup: While steven knows she’s a fusion now.. she never told him how she came to be and how ruby and sapphire met after all. So we journey back about 5000 years to, as we’d learn much later with the pink diamond reveal, the start of the gem war. Earth was to be the next great colony, as we’d learn next season for pink diamond, but something was in the way: The rebel rose quartz and her brutal right hand pearl were causing tons of distruption, so the rest of the diamonds had come to snuff out the rebellion personally. So that’s where Ruby and Sapphire came in. Sapphire is a higher class gem, and befiting her caste is a precog, with Sapphires brought in to tell the diamonds the future so they can either make sure it happens or change it’s course. Garnet neaturally has this ablility too but vastly improved to see multiple timelines. She’s proper and distant. Ruby meanwhile is a shy, if more intellgent then her peers grunt soldier. Rubies as we learned here are basically made in groups to fuse. To homeworld, Fusion is simply a tactic to create a slightly stronger gem out of three other gems, and basically creates one giant person. In Contrast up to this point the series has shown fusion as something important to the crystal gems and requriing more work: It requires all parties to be in sync to even happen much less stay together, and requires an emotional connection; Freindship, romance, kinship... whatever it is it’s needed to hold the fusion together. It’s part of what MAKES garnet so impressive: Garnet is a permafusion, only unfusing either when her two halves are needed. or when thier personal conflict is so great they CAN’T stay fused. It also means due to said emotional resonance and combining the best traits of two gems rather than creating just one big gem, that the crystal fusions we’ve seen are vastly more powerful and versitale.. evne if they dont’ speak much because Rebecca made the mistake of getting big artist to do the role and apparently refused to just you know.. recast? It’s something that always baffled me. There’s no shortage of talented poc performers who can sing out there. Anyways, that’s part of what makes this intresting: up till now, we’d only seen one form of fusion.. we hadn’t seen what homeworld thought of it and used it for, and to the show’s credit it was hinted back during the return arc when Jasper called fusion a “tactic for making weak gems stronger”, since as far as homeworld used it, that’s what it was and it’s a stark contrast to the crystal gems harder to maintain but much more intresting and unique fusions.

We’ll get more into this later. The two front rubies argue about whose going to punch people whie our ruby just points out the obvious: Their just going to fuse into a really big ruby and punch together. This gets her shoved into sapphire, which despite not being her fault gets gasps and monocle pops from the gems around them. And it’s about time I dug into the episodes unique animation style: instead of the usual, only a handful of characters, the rubies, sapphire, and later rose and pearl, are animated normally and even then, at least for the first half, are brightly lit in their primary colors, while the rest of the gems present are just barely animated sytlistic shadows. It’s a really intresting choice and a clever way to save on budget, while still looking gorgeous.

Sapphire, while refusing Ruby’s help getting up, is understanding if monotone, but as w’eve seen in the present, tha’ts mostly just a side effect from seeing where everything’s going, and likely the reason garnet’s own emotional process is much like that; Stoic but willing to emote when necessary. Sapphire however has a reason for brushing her ruby off: the reason she was called here.. Blue Diamond. This is intresting as it’s not only the first time we HEARD of blue, as before this we only heard of Yellow, who’d make her proper debut at the end of this season, but the first time we saw a diamond in any way shape of form. Sure we had murals and such, but given the lack of info about the diamonds this early on it was impossible to tell whow as who and the only giveway there was more than was diamond was the symbols: the era 1 symbols in temples and at the arena showing all 4, hinting at pink, and the modern one shown in jailbreak that was a triforce. We do only see Blue in a hood, covered by her palquin and her voice done by Garnet, but it’s still the first tiem we’d see any of the diamonds in any onscreen form. The Garnet voice is also notcable as every other voice in the flashabck, including characters who aren’t either part of garnet or the same gem type as part of her, is normal.. it’s only blue Garnet does a voice for.. and a clever way of covering for the fact they likely hadn’t cast her voice actress yet. It’s also notable for the introduction of Blue Pearl, who silently stands by her Diamond teh whole time.. it’s weird thinking back to the fact that this was the first time we’d really SEEN other versions of our main cast: other rubies and another pearl. Sure we knew they were all part of one type or another with the obvious exception of garnet.. but this episode is notable, and weird to think about giiven how many variants we see as the series goes on, for being the FIRST time we see this on screen.

Sapphire reveals that while she, and two of her rubies, will poof the rebllion will end here, and Blue is releaved to here this, thanks sapphire and dismisses her. As Garnet explains, Sapphire had no issue with this as she simply saw her life as one straight line: No choice no, option: Fate would just come as it may. Sapphire also muses to Our Ruby on the fact that she finds this planet a wonderful place for a colony.. and that she wishes she could’ve seen more of it. While Our Ruby says theirs more time, Sapphire, while appricating the sentiment gently shoots it down. This little moment is interuptted however as Rose shouts out, signaling her and Pearl’s arrival. The battle has begun. And I do like the clever use of storytelling here.. not in presetnation but in what we’d learn muchhhh later with the big reveal: To a first time watcher, we just thought that it was only rose and pearl for story purposes or it was a small attack. After all the rest of the characters we’d seen were just shadows, so I, and I presume many others just assumed the rest were off screen or failing that this was just a small strike. As we’d learn once we got the full story of Pink Diamond becoming rose.. it was indeed JUST them, and only them at the time. it’s probably why in the future sapphire saw the rebellion ended her: Pink while powerful had to reign it in as not to be found out and pearl, while as we see her is already utterly badass and an ace with a sword as she mows down Quartz soldiers, is still one gem going up against a literal army. Another noticable thing, that hints at when this takes place is the fact that when Rose takes down the fused rubies, poofing two of them and leaving ours to flump to the ground.. she uses her fists. At this point her iconic sword is well established and it’s assumed it was just left out for artistic purpose.. but since we meet who made it next season with Bismuth, it’s another clever hint this is before there was a proper army. Bismuth wasn’t a gem yet so Rose/Pink just had her natural strength and shield to protect her, which wasn’t nothing, but the sword probably made it far easier to hold back.

And thus we come to the moment of truth: Pearl has come back and is about to mow down sapphire.. when Ruby realizes just waht Sapphire meant and waht she’s about to do and thus.. the future changed. Ruby tackles her out of the way. And Garnet is born.

I absolutley love Garnet’s cotton candy design, both as a sensible evolution, as this is a garnet formed in a moment of passion and accidently versus the one we see in the present or even in flashbacks: a person formed by choice and love and thus having a more stable form. Naturally, Rose and Pearl are baffled by this.. and it’s even more understandable.. as the above mentioned pink diamond origin episode explained.. they had never SEEN this kind of fusion before. While i’m sure this isn’t the first time this happend in gem history, any others were likely killed as soon as it were over or went into hiding as we saw with the off colors. And Pink being sheltered and Pearl being created for her, probalby simply never thought of something like this existing. But they also realize this never before seen to them miracle is their cue to skidoo and book it out of there. Naturally Blue is pissed and the court are disgusted as the two defuse and both have about the same reacation.

Before Blue can murder Ruby for you know, doing her fucking job, Sapphire ttakes her by the hand and books it off the sky arena and the two plummet to earth while ruby screams no a lot. The foundation of any good relationship.

They float down to earth.. because she’s Mary Poppins Ya’ll. Ruby reveals why she’s upset: Because as she sees it, there’s dozens of her. She’s not WORTH this. Sapphire has no reaction because for the first time, she has no idea what the future brings, what it means and the future she saw was just shattered. She’s frozen.

Jokes aside I really love that pun. Ruby worries and quickly scoops her up bridal carry style and quickly finds the two a cave. In the cave the two light that flame get that and Ruby continues to freak out over what happened, upset with her self that she’s supposed to save sapphire.. with Sapphire gently reassuring her “you already did.” It’s also intresting as it shows even garnet, or at least half of her, had to go through what peridot did.. it went down a bit easier since exile happened right away, but Ruby still had to shake off the homeworld conceived notion that she was WRONG for saving sapphire simply because it lost them the fight and got them fused and all that. It’s also a nice metaphor for someone whose been told, for a nightmarish rainbow assortment of bullshit resaons, that being gay is wrong only to discover they are and having to realize there’s nothing wrong with who they are.

After a breif flash the two finally talk about their fusion, with Sapphire being suprised considering she figured fusion wasn’t anything like they experinced.. only for Ruby to chime in that sh’es RIGHT: Their fusion wasn’t anything like Ruby’s normal “me but bigger’ fusion.. they lost htemselves.. and both clearly enjoyed it, expressing it through having a third eye for ruby and more than one for sapphi

We then get the utterly adorable musical number: “Something Entirely New”Which takes the so far mildly subtle “This is like two people who had sex with the oppsite gender for the first time “ metaphor.. and just makes it texual as the song basically screams of two people talking over an unfamiliar sexual experince, but in a cute, well done, and intentionally awkward way that’s still approraite for the kids. it’s a real beautiful song and also shows the burgoning couple bond on earth. This is important as a previous episode had garent and out and out say that love takes time and work, accurate and that love at first sight simply dosen’t exist.. and we also see she practices waht she preaches as the montage does show some time past and even before that the two genuiely bonded. Sure they FUSED on the spur of the moment.. but actually loving each other took time and bonding.

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As the song ends, the two dance romantically,deciding to be Garnet for good as we get some nice callbacks to jailbreak: the two hum the tune to stronger than you, now revealed to be their song and spin similarilty to the way they have when they’ve fused, a nice callback that also add’s weight to those previous moments.. and thus two become one and Garnet is reborn.

Garnet narrates as her past self gets used to her strange new form.. and just as she does she falls down a ditch. Eh could’ve been worse.

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Garnet finds herself face to sword with Pearl. Pearl backs off a bit once she realizes who their dealing with, and Garnet panickedly offers to unfuse.. only for Rose to enter. Garnet narrates them as Rose Quartz and her terrifying renegade pearl.

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Truly a force to be reckoned with. Rose dosen’t care about her own feelings though “What you feel is bound to be more intresting” It’s a good moment both because Garnet , up to this point hasn’t had to think about what they are or how they feel.. but more notably... no one but the two gems makingthem up ever cared, not before they were garnet and after all the homeworld gems wanted was to kill her. We also get a great line from garnet: “Why am I sure that i’d rather be this than anything else and that i’d rather do this than anything else i’m supposed to do? “ Rose’s response.. to give a giant grin while saying welcome to earth. As Garnet continues to question things, Rose tells her to never question this, never question what you are... which is a damn good message for a kids show to give out. The metaphor is crystal clear: no matter where you are on that beautiful lbgtq+ rainbow: NEVER be ashamed of who you are, never question it.. just enjoy it. Be who your meant to be and love that person. It’s a damn good message and one badly needed in a medium that for way too fucking long was SCARED to tell messages like this: Of sponsors, of foreign markets, and of idiots like one million moms. it took people like rebecca and her crew to say “fuck that”, to say that queer kids NEED these kinds of stories to know they aren’t alone, they are beautiful how they are. They shoudln’t have to wait to find out what they are.. is okay. And that’s beautiful.

As Rose Tells Garnet that she is the answer, and as we cut back to the present, Steven asks what the answer is. Garnet simply answers: Love. And we close on one great exchange Steven: I knew it Garnet; (wistfully) So did I.

Final Thoughts: While I remembered the episode being good, hence part of the reason I choose it I forgot just HOW great this episode was, especially post reveal. The art direction is goregous, shot like a fairy tail and rightfully so since this episode is told as one, the story is heartwarming and erica and charlene really act their hearts out as ruby and sapphire while Estelle kills it as both present garnet narrating and past garnet, a garnet ENTIRELY diffrent from what we’ve seen but acted beautifully. It’s espcially noticable since unlike the other two lead gems, we obviously wouldn’t see more garnets like we would amythests and pearls, so unlike her contepraries estelle really didn’t get to flex her vocal range as much playing alternate versions as the seasons went on, with this being the closest she got. The episode is beautiful, has a wonderful message, and is just utterly charming and is agian why I DON’T mind that every su episode dosen’t advance the plot: Sometimes it dosen’t need to. And even so this one ended up being WAY more important than I remembered, introducing blue diamond and turning out to be MASSIVELY important once the reveal kicked it: For it was Garnet, and the love dthat forged her that changed Pink’s direction. Before the rebellion was simply a way to stop the occupation of earth and would’ve been snuffed out if not for ruby’s actions.. but seeing garnet, seeing how earth and being free from homeworld’s restraints could positvely impact someone.. it changed rose. Besides bringing her and Pearl together, it also made her realize just what her rebellion could bring to people and what a gem could be and even more how precious her future home was. By forming in an act of Love, garnet changed the entire future of gemkind. By staying that way she did so once more. And that’s beautifully. overall an underated, even by me, little masterwork with once again a damn fine message. We’ll get back to SU soon enough, as I plan to cover the series first full arc as we meet peridot, and see into the souls of our heroines. But first Pride isn’t over yet, and I have one last card on the table as we todd it up a bit with my first look at bojack horseman. Like this if you enjoyed it, comments subscirbe etc etc and don’t be afraid to comission a review for 3 bucks, and until we meet agian, later days.

#steven universe #garnet #ruby #sapphire #rupphire #pearl #rose quartz #pink diamond #blue diamond #the answer #fusion #review #lbtqia #lbtq+#lbtqa #pride month #pride #reviews

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