#biggest possible yikes @ she's a bug

[intermundia]

i love how the revenge of the sith novelization is able to provide so much vivid insight into anakin's mental state, with stover giving words to what hayden's pained scowl and wet eyes are able to imply.

we see how far he's already gone, how close violence is to the surface of his thoughts. this is the first time in the book that in any way he has been a threat to padmé, instead of desperately trying to save her. he's really teetering on the edge, like "a bug he could crush beneath his heel and keep on walking?" the biggest possible yikes 😬

but, in a moment that expands what is shown in the final film, we see him pull himself back from that space:

we see how he's not gone yet, how he's teetering on the edge, but how he's aware that he's on the edge. it's not just that he's not the jedi he should be, it's that he's in free fall in the dark. he doesn't know how to orient himself, who to believe, how to behave. he's detached from all the bonds that keep him stable, keep him sane. the order, obi-wan, now padmé? palpatine has been relentlessly and successfully alienating him from everyone, playing him perfectly.

the problem, and why his maniuplations work so well, is that because deep down, anakin wants to be played. for all his confusion and panic, he wants what palpatine is offering, he likes the way palpatine flatters and encourages him. he's close to the edge, so close, and about to leap off, because he can. these last moments of self-awareness, self-recrimination, we see the man he used to be tugging impotently at the man that he's become. he's already lost control in so many important ways and it's so painful to see haha

[papersasquatch]

Fiona and Cake Rant ahoy:

I’m gonna say it straight out: Fuck HBO, fuck Fiona and Cake.

(Tl;Dr Fiona and Cake is inherently transphobic in nature and the fact that they’re making a cash-grab spin-off from it really rubs me the wrong way)

Distant lands was a good continuation because the show clearly had more to offer after quickly getting dropped and losing out on many planned episodes before the finale had to come out.

The fact is that HBO max is beating a dead horse by attempting to continue Adventure Time at all beyond Distant Lands, and maybe I wouldn’t have such an issue with it if they weren’t dragging back the most cisnormative and mildly transphobic episodes they ever released (which were even iffy back in the early 2010s) into a full spin-off.

Beyond gender-swap episodes just being plain cisnormative in the first place (assuming that everyone is either male or female, and that they can evenly swap into the “opposite” gender even though AT has cannon NB characters), the amount of hypersexualization Fiona in particular undergoes in the spinoffs is unreal.

By the first Fiona and Cake episode, Finn is 13-14. He is chubby and wears normal clothes. Fiona, who we’re also supposed to believe is 13-14, is drawn to emphasize her curves and straight up put in a bunny outfit reminiscent of playboy magazines??? Another issue is the Ice Queen, and how she is also depicted as younger, curvier, and more hypersexualized, and Cake who often suffers the same issue (but since the cannon versions of these characters are adults, it’s not as big of an issue, but still the pattern is there.)

Idk what these more hypersexualized designs says about the makers of F&C, but the issue of painting transitioning (even in the case of “gender-swapping”) as more sexualized than the non-gender swapped narrative, ESPECIALLY IN THE CASE OF A LITERAL MINOR, it paints actual transitioning as sexual which is one of the biggest misconceptions that fuels hate towards transgender people in the western world, and it really urks me that even just subliminally, Fiona and Cake continue this trend.

And with the recent reveal of NB Marceline (their pronouns were announced to be She/They by crew), the fact that her “Gender Swap” appears exclusively masculine is another big yikes. Even if their regular form is relatively femme, she’s still often portrayed as GNC, and the fact that this doesn’t translate to their “gender swap” (if that would even be possible in the first place??) is another thing that bugs me.

Either way, Fiona and Cake was probably seen as more acceptable at the time because there wasn’t much available for trans people to see themselves in. I will admit, the original episodes are quite eggy, and can be something that a lot of trans people at the time enjoyed and related to. The issue is that with increasing leniency for proper representation in kid’s media, there is no excuse to continue pushing an over-sexualized genderbending narrative to the front lines. The fact that HBO is making this as a spin-off show since it has no impact on the original series proves that it is nothing but a cash grab, and sadly, one that will prey on the lovers of the original F&C, especially those who’s eggs were cracked with it.

In conclusion: No more Fiona and Cake. Society has progressed past the need for Fiona and Cake.

[etraytin]

Quarantine, Day 154

August 12

LOL my computer won't show me my pin login screen unless I press the soft boot keys first, that's not a bad sign, is it? 

Anyway, another day of entirely kittens! Three hour feeds means breakfast starts at 6am, bright and early! Second breakfast rolls out around 9, just in time for a nice lunch at noon. Second lunch is at 3pm, followed by early bird dinner at six. Fashionably late dinner (attended by all the same diners, of course) is at 9pm, then we all have a midnight snack that is in fact a full meal. A 3am top-up finishes the day's menu, and everybody gets one more nap before breakfast. Whew! In the middle of this, the weanlings also get fed on their own, slightly less rigid schedule consisting of "We have finished the food, human! What the hell are you playing at?" 

The good news is that eight daily feedings are paying off in terms of baby weight gain. All of the teenies are up by at least 20g over yesterday, which is an excellent daily gain equivalent to the weight of about four US quarters. Given that they were very underweight to start with, rapid gain and good suckling are very encouraging signs. Orphan kittens always have a tough row to hoe and things could go wrong, but it's a great start. They also have names nowI I ran the two sets of names by the coordinator and she okayed the Harper Hall set, woo-hoo! Without further ado (or photo editing to make these pics smaller because I am exhausted), meet the Harpers! 

First off is Menolly, of course. She is white and black with a mostly white body and a white blaze on her face (her first given name for my notebook was "Stripe"). Menolly is the smallest of the kittens by just a few grams and earned her name by being the loudest and most energetic yeller by an order of magnitude. She always gets fed first, because she is apparently always STARVING. Menolly was also the first kitten to escape her bin; I found her snuggled up next to Audiva this morning and had to put binder clips on the towel cover. 

Next is Audiva, the other female, and much less obvious of a naming choice. If she'd been bigger or louder she might have been Silvinia, but she's pretty laid back and mostly enjoys snuggling in with her stuffed puppy fake mama and sleeping on her back. (She was "Dot" to start with, because she has one black spot on her back and the white stripe on her face wraps around her ear to make the black spot a round dot.) 

Sebell has facial markings that are not dissimilar from Menolly's, but where her body is mostly white, his is tuxie black. (He was "Blaze" to start with becausse of the white blaze up his face and chest.) Sebell just about gave me a goddamned heart attack this afternoon by not only slipping out of his bin but leaving the bins entirely and going a few feet away to a place where I could easily have stepped on him. I like to think I would've noticed him before I did, but luckily the kiddo was with me and quickly pointed out the wanderer. Yikes! There is such a thing as living up too much to your name, journeyman. 

The final kitten is Robinton, the biggest and most distinguished of the kittens thanks to his handsome white mustache! (He was "Stashy" in the book for obvious reasons.) Robinton is possibly the most businesslike kitten I have ever encountered. When I pick him up he pees and usually poos as well, lets himself be wiped up, then latches onto the bottle like it's going out of style. He's gained 30g already and has a handsome portly tummy to go with his handsome face.

  The little kittens did well today, but Zuko lost some weight and I'm not sure why. I'm hoping the tick we pulled off him isn't making him sick a few days later. I penned him up with some food to make sure he'd get enough, but all he did was cry, so I pulled him out, snuggled him, and then syringe fed him meat mush through a luer lock with no tip in it. It was messy work, but he ate some! I'm going to keep on keeping an eye on him, but he's certainly been very active. The others are all gaining well and eating well. The kiddo has been spending a lot of time taking Aang into his room and playing with him whenever I say he can. It's probably just as well if these kittens depart this weekend; we cannot get another cat if we want to keep fostering and I don't want him to get his little heart broken when it's time to say goodbye. 

In non-heartbreaking news, I proved my Minecraft chops and general motherly acumen today when I fixed the kiddo's bugged game by successfully typing /gamemode creative into the text window in the very few seconds between respawn and death after the kiddo accidentally redrew the borders of the world to exclude the place where he was. He'd been getting a little wound up worrying about it but all's well that ends well, and I showed him how to back up his game to prevent future disasters from being ruinous. It's funny because I remember back when he was maybe two or three years old and my motion sickness wasn't so acute, he'd like to sit on the arm of my recliner and watch me play Minecraft. It was fun, but it added difficulty because he unconditionally refused to let me kill the cute animals for food or materials. Suffice it to say he has gotten over that qualm and is now a first rate hunter and farmer. 

The only other real thing of note today was our trip to the thrift store. The thrift store was closed for many months during the pandemic, and we've only been back a couple times since they opened despite it being one of my favorite places. Today's trip was ostensibly for the purpose of acquiring suitable fake mama animals for when the teenies inevitably pee or poop on the ones they have, but we found many other goodies as well. They put all their pet, garden and summer stuff on half price sale, so I got a Topsy Turvy planter for a buck, a couple of blue ice cooler packs for less than a dollar each, and a really startlingly nice crate-style cage for small animals for just three dollars. I am betting it was probably 40 at the store and it looked new, so I'm very pleased. We're always looking for crates for transfering kittens or friendly ferals without taking up our scarce box traps! I also got six or seven appropriately sized stuffed animals for the non-hypothetical kittens. 

The kiddo got into a bin of 50 cent electronics toys with no batteries, sold take-your-chances style, and got a little ray gun, two Perry the Platypus walkie-talkies, and a bluetooth speaker. Everything but the gun worked, so it was a heck of a good deal even though he did wind up getting his finger stuck in the ray gun while disassembling it and needing a good spritz of cooking spray to release him. My best find was probably the nonstick Pampered Chef two-handled skillet in great shape for five bucks. I couldn't find the exact pan online because it's probably older, but I don't think PC sells any pans for less than like 100 bucks, so I was quite pleased. It's a great size for omelettes, stir fry, eggs, whatever. Every time I move, I have to go through and get rid of most of my pans, and every time I settle down again, I rebuild my collection. It's the circle of life! 

[cheryllcher]

one little kitty up on the roof...

can you hear my heart crying in the distance?? yep and today it brings some preeeeeetty long angst cuz I’m writing out everything + my own ending :) it’s in chat blanc’s pov most of the time, so yes, spoiler alert, but there’s also a little from marinette and bunnyx’s perspective and I also added “lyrics” to the song that chat blanc sang hehe sooo gonna wait for the tears to come in the corner of my room since I’m torturing myself with this one :> (yikes… even after cutting scenes and making some as short as possible it’s extremely long but I swear it is a one-shot and i don’t wanna make it a 2-parter ://)

Blue. That’s the first colour he saw. His vision cleared, and he realised he was underwater. He fully awoke from his restless unconsciousness, where he dreamt that he razed his home to the ground with a huge ball of Cataclysm, along with his family and the love of his life. However, what he saw in front of him confirmed that his nightmare was a reality. His eyes widened. So it’s true, I did this to them. This is all my fault.

He swam, away from the last of his family, away from the girl who had captured his heart. He didn’t realise that he could breathe underwater, only focusing on running away from his mistake. He proceeded to scale the familiar TVi building, seeing as it’s the only building that is standing. He ignored the pounding of his head, a voice screaming for him to go back and somehow get the magic earrings in his possession. He felt like he no longer had a sense of purpose, due to the strings that controlled him being cut off from him forever, but the power and the hopelessness and the mantra of Get the Miraculous for The Wish! still remained running through his mind, his body, his heart.

He knew everything about someone who he had locked up in his heart, and the only thing he knew about himself was his name and what he did.

My name is Chat Blanc, and I just made the biggest mistake in the history of mistakes.

Seconds turned to hours turned to days turned to months. He wondered around the building he was stranded on, rolled around the roof that he had so many memories of. He looked at the moon that stayed up in the sky all this while with a small portion of it exploded, yet another reminder of his mistake. The sun was nowhere to be found. His sanity slowly slipped away, disappearing till the rogue power that was left in him took over, yet somehow it mixed with a small part of the other person inside him. He now spends his days idly waiting, the need to make a wish to fix his mess growing desperate.

—

Chat Blanc was sitting on the edge of the roof, staring past his feet into the water below as he had been doing every few hours now. His white cat ears drooped against his white hair, which would have camouflaged if not for his hair having silver streaks from the reflection of light. His body stood out against his blue surroundings, his white silhouette an indication of him being the only living thing in this world.

“One little kitty up on the roof, languishing on it without his lady…”

He missed the voices behind him while he was lost in his thoughts, but later one of those voices managed to cut through the fog in his head.

“Chat Noir?”

The cat ears perked up, not believing what it heard. He turned around to take a peek, hoping to prove to himself that he wasn’t being delusional. He was pleasantly surprised to see that the melodious voice of his Princess was real.

“My Lady? I thought I lost you! I was so depurressed that you were gone.”

It pained him to see his love back away from him slowly, fear evident in her bluebell eyes that he loves oh so much. He heard her ask him what happened, but backtracked and told him not to tell her anything before claiming that they were going to fix the mess that he caused.

“Well, of course we’re going to fix this now that you’re back and that you’re going to give me your Miraculous!”

She kicked him away just as he was about to touch the object of his desire.

“My Miraculous? What’s going on with you Chat Noir?”

“I’m sorry if I come off as rude. Please give me your Miraculous my Lady. Chat Blanc has… made a few mistakes.”

Then as she came closer, something flared up inside him. A voice, a voice he had trapped away for so long was surfacing, taking control of just a moment. Save me my Lady, save me! A single tear slipped out the corner of his eye as that voice managed to get a hold of the voice box. 

“Save me…”

This little kitty made a mistake, please let him fix it, and bring back his love…

—

They’ve been playing cat and mouse for a while now, after Chat Blanc took over again and failed to swipe the earrings once more. He had managed to shock her though, speaking her true name, addressing her as the person behind the spotted mask.

How did you manage to find out her identity? Bunnyx thought to herself after getting over the initial shock that one of her closest friends was the one who entrusted her with her Miraculous. She went back in time to a few minutes before she went to get Minibug, and to her horror saw Ladybug leave Adrien’s room just as he entered. He saw her. 

“Oh no, just what have you done, Marinette?”

Her anxiety increased tenfold when she found what happened after a completely different story from that of her memories. She picked up the unicorn plushie that she had acquired from Rose all those years ago to see it disappear. Aw man, I was supposed to return that to Rose today. You have to fix this, Minibug!

She went forward by a few seconds, to discover Adrien and Marinette… together? “It’s worse than I feared. You have to hurry Ladybug!” Desperation was clear in her voice as she went back to where the actual Ladybug was.

Chat Blanc used a Super Cataclysm against Ladybug, but she managed to dodge it. The TVi building did not have the same fate though, crumbling down to join the rest of Paris. The world around Bunnyx shook, and she quickly went though the altered timeline to see Marinette and Adrien’s relationship blossom for a few months. She went back to the world Chat Blanc was in, trying to look for clues to obtain the answer to this mystery. She returned to the alternate timeline to find a nightmare brewing.

All this time… Adrien was the cat, and Hawkmoth had been under our noses… I want to murder Gabriel Agreste!

She kept watch on Chat Blanc and Ladybug, grimacing as her leg faded away, and hoped that the heroine would be able to save them all.

The Butterfly had threatened his Bug, and the cat had failed to protect his Princess…

—

Chat Blanc had been caught completely off guard when Ladybug collided into his back and took his baton. He had long since figured out that this Ladybug was brought from the past by Bunnyx, and was probably watching from wherever she was. The evil power laughed in delight, still trying to push away the other voice who has become very persistent.

“Try again, my Lady!”

He threw more of his destructive power at her but she kept running further away, till she was trapped at the edge of the fallen Eiffel Tower. She still refused to cooperate and even called her lucky charm, so he decided to try a different tactic. Fine, if she won’t understand, then I’ll give her answers. 

And so he cataclysmed the ground below her and sent her plummeting into the water. The trapped soul screamed in pain. No! Marinette!

—

Marinette would have appreciated the beautiful colours around her if she was in a different situation. She dove deeper into the water with the help of her yo-yo for oxygen, finding statues of herself and Hawkmoth. The answer to the question had been revealed to Bunnyx.

They crashed though Hawkmoth’s lair after figuring out it’s location. They were ready to take him down, but the villain addressed Chat Noir by his civilian name and revealed his missing mother to be in a glass coffin behind the man, shooting an arrow through the young boy’s heart.

“I’m doing this all for her, Adrien. For you. For us.”

“F-Father! Why? Why? WHY?”

The boy got angry, his powers going out of control. He was a millimetre away from cataclysming his body when he stopped, and the villain took advantage of it by hitting him out of the lair and straight into the metal of the famous Parisian monument, the Eiffel Tower.

“We can save her with your Miraculous, and with hers,” Hawkmoth said as he stalked closer, his son moving away with each step.

Then Ladybug arrived and tried to reason with her partner, which ultimately failed when the butterfly Miraculous wilder sent an akuma out to his own blood and flesh while he was distraught. And when his son succumbed to his power after a long resistance, he forced him to obey him and destroy his sworn enemy so that they could get the jewels that she possessed. It backfired though when the now white cat villain hesitated and ended up using it on himself. As the white ball of destruction grew, Ladybug reached forward towards her kitty in concern while Hawkmoth cowarded and tried to shield himself.

“My Lady…” “My Adrien…”

Ladybug returned to the surface, determined to put an end to all of this. She needed to save her kitty, her partner. He was extremely uncontrollable now though, his power growing in his hand, with a threat on his lips. He was going though a fight internally, one side trying to be the dominant one. 

No! You can’t do that!

Yes. I. CAN!

“You don’t love me anymore, so I’ll destroy everything! You, me, our memories, everything that’s left!”

He was going to cause the end of the world.

The kitten’s in pain, he’s out of control. Please save this kitty, dear Marinette…

But then, she admitted defeat and was going to surrender, coming closer till she was a breath away from his lips. His heart swelled with love for her, the locked away soul reaching out to her. Save me…

“I’m no longer Chat Noir, Princess, my Marinette. I am Chat Blanc.”

“But to me, you’ll always be Chat Noir. I know he’s in there somewhere. Please, my kitty, my chaton… Please come back to me…”

Pain. Pain everywhere while the internal conflict flares up from Ladybug’s plea. Chat Blanc bent down on his knees, head pounding in pain as he tried to fight the akuma residing within his bell. Tears were streaming down his cheeks as the voices in his head screamed. The trapped little soul of Adrien fought with all his might to go back to his love as Ladybug held him, whispering words of encouragements and hopes for him to come back. Adrien won in the end, the corrupted akuma flapping out it’s target in the form of a pure white butterfly.

Chat Blanc is very sorry… Please forgive him, my dear Ladybug…

—

The Miraculous Cure may have fixed everything and saved the future, but Chat Noir remembered. He remembered every detail, every time he tried to inflict hurt on her. He remembered the identities, how his father had not shown him any mercy. He was going to have nightmares, that was for sure. 

Ladybug, who currently sat beside him with her head on his shoulder, had said that she had forgotten most of what had happened, only what had happened before she time travelled. But he was not going to let her know of the pain, not going to let her see how much she had actually suffered, so maybe it was a blessing that she forgot. They were going to take Hawkmoth down though, since Chat Noir revealed his identity, but refrained from saying he knew hers. That is for after everything is over.

For now, they will just enjoy their company for a bit before planning starts.

One little kitty up on the roof, watching the sunset with his Lady… bearing the pain and guilt deep in his heart…

[annakie]

An Annotated Mass Effect Playthrough, Part Five

Will we make it off the Citadel in this update??

List of Posts: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Flux is my favorite bar in all of the first game, I know there’s not many to choose from, but I like the music best, everybody’s clothed, everyone’s having a good time, there’s slots upstairs for entertainment, there’s dancing, and plenty of space to chill out in.  Also the color scheme is great.  It looks particularly great now with the graphics mod improvements.  

Doran gets a nice glamour shot here.

I’m a tattle tale who always turns this guy in.  I agree with Kaidan...

Also I really love Rita’s quest with her sister.  She loves her sister, Jenna  wants to be helpful, even Doran’s like “Hey I’d love to give her her job back.”  Everyone here is pretty wholesome.  And Jenna gets one of the best surprise appearances in ME3 if you do things right.  ME1Recalibrated fixes the bugs with her quest, too!

Speaking of bugged quests, Hello Conrad!  ME1Recalibrated fixes Conrad’s bug, and even if it doesn’t, ME2Re does.  The only bad thing about that is it makes his apology for accusing you of something you maybe didn’t do make no sense.

Everyone else was sure Conrad would turn out to be evil, too, right? Instead making him into just a big lying dummy with an advanced degree was a great move.  I was kinda hoping he’d show up in the Citadel DLC.   

Harkin is JUST the FUCKING WORST.  I’m always tempted to let Garrus cap him in ME2 because what a waste of air he is and doesn’t learn his lesson.  

This is also maybe the most overt place where FemShep experiences sexism.  I mean, don’t get me wrong, there’s some pretty shitty sexism sprinkled throughout the games (as discussed a bit last post) but ugh this guy, if I could shoot him this game, I might.  At least on renegade playthroughs.

Speaking of Garrus...

Finally, an alien who wants to hang out with us.

As primarily a Kaidan-romancing gal, who tends to keep up with the Kaidan Alenko tag, especially back in the heyday of tumblr, for a while, loving Garrus was... difficult.

In October, when I was finishing up my latest ME3 playthrough and also cleaning up my blog, and also rewatching Doctor Who and thinking a lot about Rose Tyler and Martha Jones, I posted a long thing in a post about Kaidan and Garrus and badly behaving fanbases, which I don’t feel like typing again.  Here’s the whole thing, but I’m going to pull a part of it into here.

I love Garrus, so much.  And I was thinking with this whole parallel DW rewatch / Mass Effect replay think I’m doing right now how both Rose Tyler and Garrus Vakaraian are characters that were ruined for me for awhile due to their respective… overly enthusiastic fanbases who a small percentage of were dicks to people who loved other characters.  The Kaidan tag (and from what I understand Thane got some of this too, but not nearly as bad) was a pretty hostile place for awhile (and yeah I used to regularly check the Garrus tag too and there was a small amount of tag-invasion there but uh, like 5% of what the Kaidan tag got) which made loving the character of Garrus a lot harder for awhile.  But when actually watching seasons 1 & 2 / the end of 4 of Doctor Who, or actually playing the ME games, those characters are awesome.  

Fanbases can be amazing or terrible, and time and time again I think you start to realize that no matter how great a fandom is, there are going to be a few people who can only enjoy themselves by feeding on drama, or on lifting up what they love by stomping on other people/characters/plotlines.  

It’s not fair to characterize everyone who loves a popular thing as someone who does this.  It’s also hard to avoid completely because there will always be jerks, or young/new people who don’t realize what bad form they’re showing.  I did learn by trying to fight it for a year or two, that responding might help that one person not do it again, but it’s not going to stop overall.  

Anyway, don’t be a dick about the things you don’t like.  

It’s sad that even thirteen years past the release of ME1 and eight years past ME3 some people still need to have this fight online.   It’s basically impossible to enjoy like, any non-curated Mass Effect space online because of pissing contests or people spouting the same boring opinions.  Which they’re entitled to.  I’m just real tired of “Kaidan is boring!” “Ashley is a racist!” etc with no further depth of thought being given.

The ability to mute / block people and get away from the worst of it is one of the reasons I’m still on tumblr.  Especially always mute/block “confessions” blogs.  Yeesh.

---------

I’m glad Garrus is here, and I’m glad he’s on the team.  What’s funny though, is that people tend to forget that Garrus like, wasn’t really all THAT popular of a character before ME2.  I know I was only in the fandom for a year before ME2 but I dug in pretty deep in that time.

It wasn’t until he gets his face blown off and starts talking about Old Times that a lot of people started to REALLY like him.  He’s still great in ME1, but not like, elevated to god-tier that so many people did post ME2 release.  But in ME1 he IS neat because he’s really malleable.  Probably the companion who can have the biggest personality shift depending on your choices.

Also, I remember a time when the people who wanted to romance Garrus were like... outliers?  I remember thinking “GARRUS?  As a romance?  That’s... weird.  Who would do that!?”

OH HOW I WAS WRONG.  But that was before reach and flexibility.

Hey I even have a Shep that romanced Garrus in ME2 and ME3.  And I loved it!

Were I to replay a different Shep, she’d be my first choice.

So yeah, I love Garrus, I keep Kaidan in the squad all the time in ME1 and the other spot I try to rotate everyone else somewhat evenly, but you’ll see plenty of him.  Then ME2 he’s by my side most of the way.  And an awful lot in ME3, too.  But I’m happy for him to get crushed on by Dr. Michele and glad to see him and Tali find happiness in ME3.  SO that’s the path we’ll be going down if we get that far here.

I love the Destiny Ascension flyby moment on the Citadel, and it’s so easy to miss.  Also really hard to get good screenshots of.  Thanks Flycam.  Don’t pay attention to the untextured wall in the first pic, just look at the pretty lights!

Let’s go get another squadmate!  This time, a not-as-initially-friendly alien!

What an amazing entrance for Urdnot Wrex.

“Do you want me to arrest you?”

“I want you to try!”

Hell.  Yeah.

Here’s where the somewhat in somewhat evenly comes in.  I probably do favor Wrex and Ashely in the squad in ME1 a little because... well you know what’s coming for Ash and Wrex you get the least amount of time with by far of the other companions.  Also, he’s just... great?  A tank, with some biotics and a shotgun... okay well so am I as a vanguard, but Kaidan has just enough tech powers for us to muddle through where we need to when Wrex is in the squad and he’s so much fun to have around.  His “Fuck you, I don’t care” attitude is great, and his growth story throughout the trilogy is one of the best arcs a character gets, imho.  I just really love Urdnot Wrex.

This is a real nice flight control office you’ve got here, C-Sec.  It would be a shame if someone planted a bug in it later, since literally anyone can just walk on up here uncontested.

This entire area really is so pretty though.

I always pump points into Paragon as much as possible from as early on as possible, and saving these poor guys’ lives is one of the big reasons.  They don’t need to die.

Ash usually still stays in the party up to this point, though sometimes it’s Garrus.  Fist is still a dick in ME2 but he doesn’t need to die here, sorry Wrex.

...raise your hand if you still occasionally forget to pick up Emily Wong’s evidence and have to reload.  I remembered!  ...once I was almost out of Chora’s Den and had to turn around this time.

Kaidan?  Kaidan my love?  My darling... perhaps YOU shouldn’t be the one standing in the middle of the corridor with no barrier or protection?  (I suppose I could scooch over but then I’d look less badass for these screenshots.  Naaah.)

It’d be a shame if someone properly lit the corridor so we could see what’s going on.

But hey... TALI!  Tali Tali Tali!  The first quarian we see, and only one for... awhile?  Is there another quarian in this entire game? I’m trying to remember and seriously can’t think of one.

Anyway, I love Tali, but another character you really need to ignore their most rabid fanbase portions of.  Yikes, Talimancers were really something back in the day.  The biggest problem I have with Tali being in the squad is that normally she’s REALLY useful against Geth and... not so much against just about anything else.  She gets sidelined on my team more than I wish she would.  Especially since she doesn’t show up until very late in ME2 and late-midway through ME3.

Finally, the proof we need.  And the game continues to introduce new concepts to us with the Conduit and we hear the word Reapers for the first time.  We also get a loredump on the quarians and the geth.  

Tali’s voice doesn’t have quite as heavy of an accent in ME1 as it does in 2 and 3.  I guess we can assume she’s lost part of it while on her pilgrimage?  Picking up the local dialects a bit?  The next two times we see her she’s just spent a lot of time with her own people.

Tali’s suit and omnitool look SO GOOD with the updated textures.

I swap Ash out and Tali in at this point, and usually finish up a few more quests along the way.

Ah, Septimus.  You lovesick fool.

Honestly, the very best thing with Septimus is to bring Garrus here if you’re gonna romance him, have Garrus laugh at him for coming undone for love and then... well, ME2 and especially ME3 happen.  But still.  Septimus... always needs a kick in the pants but will get around to doing the right thing.

Hey here’s a cool thing ME1Recalibated does -- Morlan carries a Squad Iconic Armors stock, so you can always find tier-appropriate default look armor for you and all the squad.  Very cool of you, Morlan.  You are currently my favorite store on the Citadel.  Now stop sending me spam, I didn’t sign up for your mailing list.

Look, I have questions about what exactly Xeltan told the consort and how... all that... works... but... I don’t think I actually want to ask them.  Just.. let’s all shut up about all of it, it’s over now.

BTW, according to one of the novels, Councilor Anderson finds Ambassador Cayln super annoying.  I need to re-read that book.

OK fine... I’ll go talk to the Council.

Coming at ya with Actual Proof and a quarian tagging along to back up the claims, the Council is ready to listen.  And while not surprising that it’s finally time to become a Spectre, the actual ceremony is really well done.  With the swelling theme music blaring, and all three councilors stressing what a big deal this is and what will be expected of you, you really feel the weight of this moment.  People take notice.  Although apparently later, Kaidan or Ash get an entire televised event around becoming a Spectre, I guess there’s no time for that right now.

It definitely feels like the game so far has been building towards this moment, not only with POUNDING it into your brain about who Spectres are and why they’re so important and letting you know you’re being evaluated... but it feels like there’s been a shift in the game after this moment.  It’s A Big Deal.

I didn’t finish all the sidequests on the Citadel yet, they can wait, I’ve been here long enough.  Let’s go check out the new cool stuff we can buy.

ME1Recalibrated adds in this Spectre Armor.  Eeehhhhh... no thanks.  We’ll stick with Onyx.

I did cheat myself in a bunch of credits and picked up Spectre weapons though. This ain’t no tryhard playthrough.  

Well OK, we can finish ONE more quest.  Thanks, startlingly loud and triumphant music queue that’s never used again!

Man, this would be SUCH a good pic of the Normandy if... the airlock didn’t go straight through the ship.

We’ve got a ship of our own!  And most of our squadmates to put on it!

Sucks for Anderson to be sidelined, though.  We already love you, Anderson!

It’s cool to get a bit more of the Saren & Anderson backstory here for real.  Still, I enjoyed the book more.  Maybe I’ll do a re-read of all the ME books here soon.

Udina... just keep being you, I guess.  

WE HAVE A SHIP!!!

Okay, whew... we made it off the Citadel.  Now I gotta actually play some more to have more updates to post.  Might be a few days.  Have to actually go back to work tomorrow. :p

Let’s probably do like one sidequest then go get us an Asari!!

[sweetcircuits]

Chinmay Week Day 5: Mechanical

I actually didn’t write this specifically for today - I had it sitting in my wips document for longer than I’d like to admit (probably at least a year, yikes). I thought of it when I saw the prompt list and decided now was as good a time as ever to post it. It was originally a little longer but I edited it for clarity and stuff. 

*      *      *      *     *      *      *

Annie D. Roid

Chiro felt his vision tinge red. He suddenly knew how Sparx felt when Nova was the one in danger. “I’m going to ask nicely one more time. Let her go,” he growled, voice low and menacing. “She isn’t yours. She’s not a thing. She’s a person with people who care about her. Drop her, and get out of here.”

*      *      *      *      *      *      *

Jinmay was terrible with directions. Whenever her gps malfunctioned she always, always, always got lost. It figured that her gps malfunctioned within twenty minutes of their search of the unfamiliar city. Of course Otto could fix it in less than five minutes, but that didn’t help them now.

“Chiro?” Jinmay’s voice rattled out from Chiro’s comm.

“I copy. Jinmay, what’s the matter?” Chiro stopped short and landed on the nearest rooftop.

“My stupid map system broke again and I can’t see anybody’s locations. Where are you?”

Chiro groaned. This was the third time in two months. He wanted to just chalk it up to overuse, but it was just too inconvenient for it to keep breaking like this. When they got home, he was going to have to ask Otto to check Jinmay’s operating system and see if it was a bug in her programming.

“Chiro?”

“Ahh! Sorry!” Chiro searched around him for some landmark that would help her find him. “Fly as high above the rooftops as you can and look for a big glass building with a billboard on the side.”

There was a few moments of silence before she replied. “I see a glass building but no billboard?”

Chiro swooped around the sides of the building and confirmed that the billboard was only on one side of it. Whoops.

“Wait, I think I see something moving, flying, over there. Is that you?”

Chiro released a blast of Monkey Fu aura.

“It just turned green. That is you!”

Within moments she had tackled him from behind, grabbing him around the waist. He grabbed her and hugged her. “Okay, so I guess we’re gonna stick together from now on,” he chuckled.

This worked well for all of a half an hour until the trail they were following split into two. They looked at each other and their hands slowly slid apart.  They looked at the twin paths disappearing down identical streets.

“I guess we have to split up?” Jinmay said, more of a question than anything.

“Guess so,” Chiro replied unenthusiastically.

“I’ll follow this one,” Jinmay pointed to the left “and you follow that one,” she pointed to the right.

“What if you can’t find me?” Chiro mumbled, more to himself than to her, but she heard anyway.

“Um, if my path doesn’t lead to anything, I’ll follow it back to the ‘y’ right here, then I’ll follow your path to find you.”

“Okay.” He kissed her on the temple.

She broke apart from him, blushing, and ran down the street following her assigned trail. Chiro started down his own, searching carefully.

A few moments later, Jinmay’s voice rang from his comm again. “The trail stopped. The street keeps going but the trail’s ended. What do you think I should do?”

Chiro thought for a moment. “Does it go up like a ladder or a window or anything? Or up onto the roof?”

“I don’t see anything, even with my best ultraviolet vision.”

“Hmm. Well, go down to the end of the street and if you still don’t see anything, turn right around and go back the way you came and find me, okay? Do you want me to backtrack and meet you in the middle?”

“That’ll just waste time. We’ve gotta hurry and find the Chronometer.”

Chiro sighed and pressed his back to the alley wall. He pulled his comm off of his shirt and stared at it, as if by force of will alone he could keep her safe. “Please be careful,” he begged.

“Don’t worry. I’ll see you soon.”

“Okay. Chiro out.”

He stuck the comm back to his top button and turned down the alley again, looking for any clues, anything at all. Minutes and minutes passed and he wondered if he was even in the correct place. Gibson’s instructions had been surprisingly non-specific.

A scream rang out in the alley and Chiro jumped, the hair all over his body standing on end. It took him a moment to realize that it was coming from his comm.

He ripped it from his shirt and yelled into it. “Jinmay! Jinmay, do you read? Jinmay!”

“Chiro! I can’t…!”

Then there was a burst of static and for a long moment he couldn’t hear anything. This was followed by a loud buzz and an unfamiliar voice.

“Yo, grease, an android!”

“A pretty damn sexy one too. She’s gonna be worth a lotta money.”

“Hey!” Jinmay’s voice shouted.

“Ey, Annie, where’s your bolt?”

“My what?”

“Yer bolt, yer… eh, yer restrainin’ bolt. Ah, maybe you ain’t got one. That’s okay. It don’t matter. We were gonna take you anyway.”

“You can’t do that and my name’s not Annie!”

“Sure it is. Yer an anne-droid, ain’t ya?”

There were whoops and howls.

“When Chiro gets here, he’s gonna rip you guys apart!”

Damn right he is, Chiro thought, already dashing back down the alley the way he had come.

“Who’s Chiro? Is he your owner? Your master?”

More howling laughter.

“No! Hey! Stop it!”

“Careful, babe. Those nets are woven titanibur. Short-circuits all the weapons. Don’t wanna scratch the merchandise.”

“Get close to me again and I’ll claw your face off myself!”

That’s my girl.

“Grease, I don’t like this Annie’s mouth!”

“Lance her then. Only one dose though. Gotta keep her sorta coherent. Better yet, start pulling out wires and try to turn her off. That’ll keep her quiet.”

Chiro had his comm out, trying to follow the pink dot that indicated Jinmay’s position. How was she so far away?

There was another loud buzz and a screech and more static, which was followed by a piercing scream that rent him to his core. His heart thudded painfully in his chest.

“What’s this thing?”

“…no… not…”

Jinmay’s voice was the last thing he heard before the comm went silent and her pink dot disappeared. “No, no, no!”

It took nearly fifteen minutes and three panicked calls to the rest of the Monkey Team for them to triangulate her position. But they succeeded. Thank goodness for the Super Robot’s advanced radar systems.

Chiro peeked around the corner and saw Jinmay—thank gods—but she was curled up in a ball on the ground and that didn’t mean anything good. What was more, she was surrounded by a group of thugs, maybe seven or eight of them. Many of them had weapons, mostly knives. Chiro chewed on his bottom lip. He was pretty durable against blunt injuries—he’d been hurled against walls and fallen from not insignificant heights and not come out terribly worse for wear. But there was probably no way the Power Primate could protect him from a knife stuck between his ribs.

He did want to go back to Shugazoom sometime this week.

And preferably take Jinmay back with him.

He rolled his options over in his head. He could run in there and maybe knock a couple of them out before they could injure him. He could Monkey Fu them from here but then they could just run away. If he pulled out his Inner Primate aura they’d definitely turn tail and run and he was trying to avoid that. Maybe… maybe he could start with his lowest powered ability. Something he’d learned in tactics with Antauri was that he could always start small and escalate from there, but if he started with the big guns, there was not much going back from that. He took a deep breath and released his Hyper Form transformation, turning back into normal jacket and jeans.

Chiro turned the corner and dashed toward the end of the alley. He was stopped short by a thug and the knife that was pointed at his chest. “Jinmay!”

She was bound in a net of a brown rope-looking material. Titanibur, they’d called it. Her eyes were wide and filled with pixels instead of iris and sclera. She looked as terrified as one who probably wasn’t fully conscious could possibly be.

“Untie her! Let her go! She’s mine!” Chiro yelled.

“We found this little android in the gutter, and ya know what they say, finders is keepers here,” one of the thugs drawled.

“She’s not just an android,” Chiro said. “She’s my teammate, my friend… my… my girlfriend. She doesn’t belong to you. Give her to me.”

“Chiiiii…rrooo…Chiiii…ro…” Jinmay articulated unsteadily.

Chiro tried to run at her but was stopped again by the switchblade that was aimed at him. “If you touch her, if you break her, if you hurt her, I will turn you inside out so fast you won’t know which way you’re going!” He didn’t know where the words had come from; yelling at them probably wasn’t a great idea. But there was Jinmay, lying on the ground, probably broken somehow, and his blood ran hot and cold and hot.

“Touch and break her, huh? Guess you don’t want us to do that because you want to do it yourself, huh, kid?”

Anger and embarrassment pricked at his cheeks. He was seventeen. He could handle a couple of jerks making rude assumptions about him. He clenched his fists. The thug with the switchblade looked at him uneasily.

“You look like a clean-cut, respectable typ’a kid. Never woulda pegged you as a robot-fucker. Ha!”

“Chi…ro… Chi…ro… so…rry… got… lost… Chiro… got… lost…” Jinmay’s voice wavered out once more.

“Kid, she’s tellin’ you to get lost, so get out of here! Yain’t welcome here!” One of the thugs jabbed her in the side with a prong of metal. Electricity laced through her and she fell silent.

Chiro felt his vision tinge red. He suddenly knew how Sparx felt when Nova was the one in danger. “I’m going to ask nicely one more time. Let her go,” he growled, voice low and menacing. “She isn’t yours. She’s not a thing. She’s a person with people who care about her. Drop her, and get out of here.”

The biggest thug laughed. “Oh, look, this kid thinks he can boss me around in my own end of town! Forget it! And I think you’re the one who needs to get out of here. No telling what can befall a hapless child in these dangerous streets.” Two other thugs advanced on him, one with a laser pistol and a second one with a knife.

All right. Negotiating hadn’t worked. Time to pull out the party tricks.

“You may think that this is an ordinary street in an ordinary town, and that I am an ordinary person. And you’d be wrong.”

Starting with the soles of his feet and moving up, he worked his Hyper Form transformation. But instead of using light, as he always had, he used fire. The Power Primate often manifested itself as a flame, and as such, it was only an illusion. But the looks on the faces of the thugs as he slowly lit himself on fire was a treat he’d savor for a long time to come.

“This is an ordinary street in an ordinary town, but I am not an ordinary person.”

As the fire came to his face, he made his eyes to glow green as he filled himself with the power of the Power Primate. “My name is Chiro. I am the Chosen One. I brought balance to the universe. I defeated one of the greatest evils the universe has ever known at the age of fifteen. I control energy and lightning.” He summoned a Chiro-spear-o that was as tall as he was. It waved and sparked in his grasp. “Let her go… and maybe I won’t fry you until your skeletons are crispy and golden.”

That was good enough for all of the thugs. They dropped their weapons and Jinmay and promptly got the hell out of there.

Chiro dismissed the lightning bolt and changed back to his normal clothes and snorted. He kicked the knives out of the way distractedly as he made his way over to Jinmay. Then he picked one up and cut the knot holding the net closed. With his heart in his throat he noticed that one of the panels in her neck had been pried open and there were loose wires. Those creeps—!

Jinmay didn’t move until he’d untangled her from the net and put his hands gently on her shoulders to help her sit up. When she felt his warm hands on her cool skin, she blinked. The pixels in her eyes wavered. “Siro.”

“I’m here, Jinmay. It’s me, Chiro.”

“Siro.”

Chiro ignored the fact that she was getting his name wrong and attributed it to the fact that her system had suffered severe shock. “You were really brave, Jinmay. I’m sorry I couldn’t get here sooner. When your comm broke, I couldn’t locate you and I panicked but Sparx was able to find you and I’m glad I got here before anything really bad happened.”

He helped her to her feet and she wobbled a little. “Come on, Jinmay, let’s go. We need to get you fixed up.”

He looked around the alley and realized that one of the shock-lances was still lying on the concrete. He picked it up, clicked it off, and shoved it into his inside jacket pocket. Maybe Gibson could reverse-engineer how to fix Jinmay if he had one of the weapons they’d used on her.

His rocket pack was in the garbage can at the end of the alley where he’d left it, thank goodness. He put it on his back and clicked the buckle over his chest. The pack fired up and he zipped up almost to the rooftop when he realized that she wasn’t following him. “Jinmay?”

She tilted her head at him and tried to walk toward him but her foot dragged and she almost fell. She got up and stepped on the side of her foot, tripping again. Chiro raised an eyebrow. “What’s the matter?”

She didn’t look up toward his voice, didn’t get up again, only blinked once very, very slowly. Chiro wasn’t even sure if she’d heard him. “You know what, if you can’t fly, I’m just gonna carry you.” He scooped her up princess-style and activated his rocket pack again, setting off back toward the Super Robot. She tucked her head against his chest and was quiet. He thanked any and all gods, spirits, lucky stars, and benevolent cosmic beings.

“Chiro to Hyperforce. Chiro to Hyperforce.”

“Reading you loud and clear, kid.”

“I’m on my way back with Jinmay. She’s malfunctioning and acting weird and she’s gonna need some repairs.”

“’Kay. I’ll get Otto. Are you okay, kid?”

“Tired. More relieved than anything. I feel bad though, I got distracted by Jinmay getting lost and I wasn’t very much help finding the Chronometer artifact.”

“Don’t worry about that, Nova found it.”

“She did?”

“Yeah, while Gibson and I were trying to track down Jinmay, she called us saying that she found it. Antauri’s meditating over it right now.”

“Phew. Good. Oh, I see the Robot. Hang on, I’ll be right in. Chiro out.”

Chiro flew into the chest hatch and landed in the main room. Sparx and Nova met them. “Chiro, I’m glad you’re back,” the yellow Monkey said, relief etched plainly on her face.

“Glad to be back.” He shifted Jinmay’s weight in his arms. “Hopefully Antauri can figure out the date with the Chronometer.”

“If he can’t we’ll figure something else out,” Nova said. “Come on, Otto and Gibson are waiting.”

Chiro laid Jinmay down on the examination table and Gibson plugged the back of her head, her chest, and her thigh into the main computer. “These readings are so strange,” the blue Monkey said. “It’ll take me a minute to pinpoint what exactly needs repairing.”

Otto moved Jinmay’s arm so that her hand rested on her stomach and took a look at her neck as Gibson tapped on the computer’s keyboard. A yellow lightning bolt icon flashed on the screen. He tsk’ed and turned back toward the robot girl. “Otto, don’t touch her wiring—”

“Ow!” The green Monkey shook his hand and stuck out his tongue.  

“—yet.”

“She’s live,” Otto complained as he wiggled his fingers gingerly. “Did she get infused with electricity or somethin’?”

“Oh yeah.” Chiro took the lance out of his jacket pocket and placed it down on the other table. “This thing. Those creeps who were gonna kidnap her, they had a bunch of these and they stuck her with them. I think they called it ‘lancing.’ I think it overloaded her system and maybe that’s why she’s acting weird?”

Gibson turned a bit pale. “How many times did they lance her?”

“Two times that I know of. Maybe more. I lost contact with her for maybe fifteen minutes before I found her.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “I don’t know. I really hope she’s going to be okay.”

“Oh, dear.” Gibson shook his head. “No wonder she’s unconscious. Well, in any case, I cannot fully connect her with Diagnostics until the excess electricity is drained out. We don’t want the current to feed back into the computer as that would cause a significant amount of damage.”

Chiro sat down on the other table, a sick feeling pooling in the pit of his stomach. She was damaged because she’d gotten lost without him, because he was in too much of a hurry to stick with her, because her map system was broken…

“Otto, is there any chance you can check her system and fix her maps and gps? Permanently? I don’t want this to happen to her again.”

“I’ll see what I can do, Chiro,” Otto said, smiling at the boy. “Don’t worry about it, it’ll be okay.”

“Well, it’s easy enough to drain the excess electricity,” Gibson said. “Sparx! Sparx, get in here!” he yelled out the sick bay door. “I could use your help.”

Sparx stuck his head around the edge of the door. “You need my help?”

Gibson waved his hand. “I just need your magnets.”

“Oh, just my magnets.”

Gibson looked over his shoulder at the red Monkey. “Jinmay received a severe electric shock and her body is live with electricity. I need you to drain as much of it as you can in order for us to be able to commence the rest of the repairs.”

“Got it.” Sparx pulled out his magnets, aimed them at Jinmay, and concentrated. A slight hnnnnnn arose in the room as Sparx drained crests and crests of electricity from Jinmay’s still form. After a few moments he stopped and Otto touched Jinmay’s wiring again, this time without damage.

“Chiro!”

Chiro snapped his attention back over to the red Monkey. “What?”

Sparx’s magnets had taken all Jinmay’s excess electricity and had formed it into a rolling red ball of electricity. “I can’t just dissipate the energy. Give me something, anything, something small, doesn’t matter, I just need to… to…”

Chiro’s fingers closed around something narrow and threw it in Sparx’s direction. Sparx’s Magno-Ball hit it in midair and there was a resounding szash. Particles rained down on everyone in the room and Chiro covered his face. Gibson and Otto leaned over Jinmay, covering her.

“Aw, that was my favorite wrench,” Otto said mournfully.

  Gibson blinked. “Use a bit more care next time, Sparx. I don’t need you to set off the Robot’s alarm systems.”

  Sparx turned his magnets back into his hands and glared in the blue Monkey’s direction.

Gibson’s expression softened. “But thank you.”

Sparx crossed his arms. “Yeah, you’re welcome.”

Otto looked over at Chiro. “Chiro, you don’t have to sit here and watch us. You can go check on Antauri and we’ll tell you when we’re almost done, okay?”

“You sure?”

“Yes, please, go,” Gibson said, pulling down his zoom goggles. “This could take a bit of time.”

An hour or so later, Chiro entered sick bay again, the door hissing closed behind him. “How is she?”

Otto had his zoom goggles on and was tinkering with something tiny in the side of Jinmay’s neck. He looked over at Chiro. “She’s much better now. Those guys really messed her up.”

Chiro’s adrenaline rose and his hands clenched at his sides. “I’m gonna go back and snap their necks,” he grumbled to himself. I let them off way too easy by just scaring them off. I should have beat them up when I had the chance. How dare they hurt her!

When Mandarin had gotten a hold of her, he’d ripped her head and body apart and had searched through her memories, looking for something. He still remembered the way Mandarin had chortled about it afterwards. …oh, how I enjoyed examining the sweet circuits in her head, and THAT had pissed him off like nothing ever had before. She’d been reprogrammed by one of the Five and the biker guy was lucky that he hadn’t been there when he’d done it or he would have broken every bone in his body three times over. Jinmay screaming as her programs were overwritten and her circuitry was rearranged and her systems ran out of her control was his ever-present nightmare. No one, NO ONE was allowed to touch his girl’s circuits without her permission.

“Gracious, Chiro, you’ll do no such thing,” Gibson said. “She’s all right. We were able to mitigate the damage and repair her accordingly.”

Chiro knelt to the floor with a thmp and took Jinmay’s hand. Her eyes were closed now, and if the wires in the side of her neck weren’t still exposed, he would have sworn she was only sleeping. “What did they do to her?” he asked quietly.

“There were a number of things,” Gibson said. “You must have noticed that some of the wiring in her neck and shoulders was exposed when you brought her in.”

“Yeah.”

“A number of wires were pulled loose and one of her circuits was removed in order to make her more docile. Luckily Otto was able to replicate the missing piece.” Gibson turned to the other table. “That tool, the lance. Those are actually illegal on twenty-seven worlds because of the damage they can do to sensitive machinery. What they do is to emit a low frequency alongside a certain voltage of electricity. It is supposed to shock the robotic system and shut it down, not unlike a taser, but it also short-circuits certain centers in an inorganic brain.”

“That’s why she couldn’t say my name right,” Chiro replied, putting his chin on the table.

Otto pressed her neck panel shut with a tiny click. “I’m done. Just gotta reboot her and she’ll wake up fine.”

Chiro gripped her hand tighter as Gibson went on. “It’s not the worst damage we’ve had to repair,” the blue Monkey sighed. “It was easy enough.” He turned back to the boy. “But Chiro, I don’t want you to go out and cause trouble. Everything worked out accordingly, we found the Chronometer and Jinmay is all right.”

“I’m just really worried about her,” Chiro mumbled. “I hate when these things happen to her. This is like the third time. I hate when people think they can just dig around in her head whenever the heck they feel like it.”

“It’s an occupational hazard of being inorganic,” Gibson said, laying a hand on Chiro’s shoulder. “She is a little more vulnerable because of it, and we all need to be more careful because of it, but she’s all right now and that is truly all that matters.”

Sparx wandered back into the room. “How’s Jinmay?”

“Almost there,” Otto said, unplugging her from the computer.

“She needs a few moments for a system reboot, and she will be in perfect health,” Gibson said.

Sparx walked up to Chiro and put his elbow on his shoulder as they both waited for Jinmay to awaken. There was a low pnnnnn and then a louder ping and Jinmay’s eyes opened. They glowed red for a moment before settling back on mint-green irises. Chiro was so relieved he wanted to cry.

“Chiro?” she grunted. She swallowed and tried again. “Chiro?”

Chiro slid her fingers between his and squeezed tightly. “I’m here, Jinmay. You’re okay. You’re back in the Robot.”

Jinmay sat up very slowly. “Easy, Jinmay,” Otto said, helping her up gently with a hand between her shoulder blades.

She looked at the green and blue Monkeys. “Thank you so much. I’m sorry for causing so much trouble…” She looked down at her lap dejectedly.

Chiro leaned over her lap. “You’re okay, and I’m really, really glad for that.” He took her cheek in his hand. She leaned into it and smiled, and her smile was like soothing ointment for his aching heart.

“All your systems seem to be operating at full capacity,” Gibson said from the computer. “You’re good as new, Jinmay.”

“What happened?” Jinmay asked, rubbing her head. “I remember those thugs, I remember yelling at them, and then they shocked me the first time. Then everything is fuzzy, I remember being dragged along the ground. Then I saw you, and I tried to call out to you, and then they shocked me again… and I don’t remember anything after that until Otto rebooted me just now.”

“Well, I scared those creeps off, then I picked you up and took you back to the Robot so you could get fixed up. It wasn’t much.”

Jinmay nodded. “I’m okay now, Otto?”

“Yeah, you’re good to go, Jinmay. I think I fixed your positioning systems for good this time, it shouldn’t break anymore,” the green Monkey explained. “There was just one error that was messing it all up but I cleared it so you’re fine now.”

“Thanks, Otto. You don’t know how much I appreciate that.”

Otto beamed like sunshine.

She turned toward the blue Monkey. “Thank you, too, Gibson.”

“Of course, Jinmay. It wasn’t a problem at all.” Gibson crossed his arms and smiled.

He turned back to the computer and Jinmay hopped off the table. Together with Chiro, she waked out the door and out into the main room. Sparx had already wandered off somewhere. Chiro pointed upwards and Jinmay nodded. They took the tube upstairs to the top of the Robot’s head and sat down next to the antenna.

Jinmay leaned her head on his shoulder. “I’m so sorry, Chiro.”

He laced his fingers between hers. “You apologized already, and you didn’t even need to apologize the first time. It’s okay. I’m here. We’re all here for you.”

“I feel like I’m always the one that’s getting kidnapped.”

“That’s not true, remember that one time it was Sparx? And that one time it was Otto? And you and Nova did get kidnapped together that one time so it wasn’t only you.”

“Yeah, okay. But it would still be nice if I had to be the one to rescue you, instead of the other way around.”

“Don’t say it. Now it’s gonna happen, and it’s gonna be your fault.”

She laughed, which made him laugh, and then they were just rolling in hysterics for a good few minutes. It felt so nice to laugh. They didn’t get to do it nearly enough.

After the laughter tapered off, they just sat together for a few minutes. Jinmay snuggled up to Chiro’s side and sighed. He was so warm. Warm and soft and safe.

Chiro exhaled as Jinmay slid her head under his chin. She was cool and solid and grounding. His heart beat a bit faster as she entwined her fingers with his. The sun began to set across the skyline, bathing them in its last golden rays. The Power Primate hummed contentedly in his chest and he smiled. And without even looking down at her face, he knew Jinmay was just as happy as he was.

[matazz]

entries

diary entries of roy endoza

here’s some journal entries of roy endoza that i wrote for the duration of the campaign. for the most part, i kinda wrote these in my twitter drafts just to write down roy’s thoughts. sometimes to remember events that happened, and sometimes just to vent out roy’s feelings to myself. i ended up saving these on a document for safe keeping and i’m glad i wrote these.

‪entry 47‬

‪i miss milo so much. his laugh, his eyes, his smile. i would do anything to have that back.‬ ‪i know its my fault he’s gone. its only been a few months, but i’ll fix that; all of it. no matter how long it takes, no matter what happens. i’ll find some way to do it.‬ ‪entry 53‬ ‪i’ve retrieved a letter from a dream telling me to visit latham and retrieve a key. i’m curious, so i’ll check it eventually. it was definitely odd.‬ ‪entry 55‬ ‪i met a young boy. his name is fox. he’s some sort of shapeshifter. he’s quiet, but his presence is nice company. he also received a similar letter to mine. i have a feeling we’ll be travelling for a while.‬ ‪entry 62‬ ‪we retrieved the key & met some other ppl with letters too. we’re heading to a trinket store back in origin now. i dont wish for them to know of my life so i’ve found a way to steer them as far from possible to finding out about myself. i’ll probably visit ma too.‬ ‪entry 63‬ ‪an elf woman named leera attacked us after i told her i wasnt going to give her this key. i dont like her. she seemed very cocky.‬ ‪entry 65‬ ‪delilah is kind.. i feel like i’m able to trust her. i asked her a question about my goals, vaguely, and it turns out that ayce asked a similar question. based on the message in his later i get the feeling he’s undead.‬ ‪entry 66‬ ‪i told ayce the biggest con in all of history.. but i confirmed he’s undead. i have more hope in my goals now that i know its possible. he hugged me bc he thinks we’re similar. i dont usually allow people to do that but i’m sad for him. i wish i could ask more about him. ‬‪entry 69‬ ‪i’m getting closer to ayce, unexpectedly, but good for me. i need his information.‬ ‪he talks to me a lot about his life; i think he’s become dependent on me which is easy for me. its hard for him to see i’m using him when i lie to his face.‬ ‪entry 72‬ ‪we’re travelling to copper coast now for another key. if it werent for ayce, i wouldnt see any other reason for me to come. fox is still around, but i feel like he's doing his own thing. the other two arent big presences for me to care about.‬ ‪entry 73‬ ‪atlas is a werewolf? i didnt think those were real. this group keeps getting stranger. first a shapeshifter, second an actual living zombie, third a werewolf.‬ ‪ive continued my lie to the rest of them. they all seem to have believed me, strangely enough‬ ‪entry 74‬ ‪copper coast was very pleasant. i wish to come back someday.‬ ‪entry 88‬ ‪this trip to clandesteine has been a disaster.. what the honest fuck‬ just happened ‪entry 90‬ ‪fox told everybody about himself, finally. i feel this huge sense of pride?? i’m very proud of him. i dont understand why i feel so attached to him but i adore him so much‬ ‪entry 92‬ ‪((incoherent scribbles, kinda like “vsdjfsasifwnqkosdkv”)) i think i accidentally implied to ayce that i love him romantically and i think he loves me too... i’m freaking out and i dont know how to react... i think he thinks i’m cool and romantic but i didnt mean to be. ‪entry 93‬ in all honesty, i just wanted to tell him he needs to be more cautious of me. a part of me wishes he could figure it out himself so i dont have to tell him. ‪seriously! i dont know how i did that! i do love and adore him too but i feel like shit.. i dont deserve him, especially considering who i am. on the other hand, i hope he never finds out the truth about me.‬ ‪entry 94‬ ‪oh my god. atlas killed a man and ayce and fox proceeded to tell the guards. i feel sick. i’m currently at home but if they say my name at witness testimony i’m royally fucked. i dont know. i might just run for it and live in myr’s peak. maybe no one will find me.‬ ‪entry 95‬ ‪the group managed to get bailed out using ty’s name. benefits of being friends with rich people?‬ ‪fox found my poster though, so he saved my name during eyewitness testimony. i told him the truth. its been the first time i told someone how i really felt. he wants me to tell ayce but hes the last person i can tell. ‪entry 97‬ ‪we’re in lunarden! it feels nostalgic to be back.

i want to go back to every place i miss. i took ayce to that me and nori used to go to back in high school. i think shes currently performing in solardome? i miss her‬ entry 97.2 ‪i came up with a few different ways to complete my goal. i have a few more probing questions, but i will have to ask later. i think i’m getting closer to the answers‬ entry ‪97.3‬ ((scribbled out)) ‪i havent had sex in a while. i’ve wondered this before but realized it was an inappropriate question to ask. i wonder if ayce’s dick works? it probably doesnt. this is so sad. i dont know how i’m going to fuck him if thats true.. yikes‬ ‪entry 98‬ ‪i’m planning to get completely smashed once we get to solardome. i feel like i deserve it.. ive been pretty stressed and havent got laid. i’m crying remembering that ayce might not even be an option.‬ ‪entry 98.2 ((lost)) ‪i love ayce so much, and its confusing. am i just sexually frustrated? am i just lonely? am i just sad? i feel guilty because it tears me apart. im confused because i love milo still, too. i know i should tell him the truth, its whats right but i know he’ll hate me. i dont know what to do. (extra note inbetween the pages, torn out: to mom. i love you venhfrhdy mcuh. thank you fir everhything. yes. roy.) entry 98.3 what happens if i succeed? i hope ayce doesnt kill me. entry 100 ‪good morning. ayce & i are officially dating. were in solardome atm; i dont remember much of last night but i remember thinking he‘s beautiful. is it wrong to fall for him?‬ ‪entry 101‬ ‪good evening. i saw ms winters. she was undead, just like ayce. she died a year ago. her soul was lost though. i killed what remained of her undead corpse. i assume she was trying to remain in this world.. i’m scared that this will happen to him too. maybe ill have to do the same to him. entry 101.2 i hope ayce's soul is able to sustain in his body for longer. i cant afford to lose him. entry 101.3 ‪the blackness on my fingers has risen up more than it has before. its almost hard to write with my hands anymore. i assume its bc the gods know what i'm doing & are against it, so they're trying to give me more recoil than usual. but the last time i killed an undead corpse was in my house 6 months ago, and i promise that the last time i will use it is when i bring milo back. (torn note inbetween the pages: hi ayce. its unrealistic you'll ever find this but there's some things i want to say. back when we first met, i lied to you as a reflex when you asked me why i'm dealing with necromancy. to be honest, i could kind of gather you were undead, but i still lied anyway. my story is personal, its hard for me to be honest. i know i'm an idiot, and i'm sorry i used you. to be truthful, i still am a horrible person and for the entirety of our relationship i've already known that i was using you and i've felt so guilty about that. my feelings are complicated, but i've never lied when i said i loved you, and i still do; but i still want to bring milo back. i made a mistake and i want to fix that. the truth is that i still love him too. i know you deserve better. i'm sorry about lying to you. roy) entry 102 a dragon made us experience our dreams and nightmares. jade's scared of blindness and bugs. a valid fear, in a way. and she was dreaming of doing shows. i think it was supposed to display a feeling of happiness and joy, but it was just spooky since we all experienced her dreams with no sound. i never realized how scary it was to be deaf until i experienced it. atlas' was morbid. people were dying and there was so much gore. then there were people saying they owned him. i knew he was a bad person but it was scary to see all of that again. he dreamt of a workshop with a girl and a young boy. it seemed sweet, with a tinge of nostalgia. i would have never expected him to have dreams. he just seems like a horrible person with no sympathy to me, but i guess he has feelings. i still think he should go to jail, but i feel like he'll just try to kill me if i say anything instead. fox's was sad. we got thrown into a void

of empty space where we were surrounded only by dopplegangers and a vaguely humanoid figure. he seemed so lonely and upset. he's scared of being forgotten by us and that made me so sad. i adore him, and he's grown a lot since we first met. i gave him a hug when we went into his dream sequence. i hope he knows i will never forget him. his dream was sweet. he just wants to save people and hang out with us still. i think he'll go far, and i would love to be there for him still when all of this is over.c (the rest of the pages with entry 102 are torn out) when i saw milo in the old house again just being his happy lovely self i felt miserable and happy at the same time. i love him so much, and i knew i missed him already but seeing him again just made me feel so much love for him all over again. it just makes me miss him more. it's hard not to cry thinking about what i've done to him. i wish he could come back. ayce's was hard to watch. i witnessed myrkul force ayce to choose between killing me and quri. ayce cried as he couldn't make up his mind, and then i watched as i fell into a void. i felt sick and i wanted to puke. i thought ayce found out about me. i thought he knew that i was using him for necromancy, but when i asked him about it, he told me that he thought i killed him with quri. i... personally don't have any reason to ever kill him so that was a bit sickening to think of. i dont ever want to kill anyone. i dont even have anyone i hate enough to want to murder. the only person i hate enough to want to kill is me. i know based on what i said before i guess it might have seemed that bad; but haha... i would never ever want to do that. putting people down at hospital was rough. god, putting ms winters down was rough and she was already dead. i love him, but it's probably better if we end the relationship and just stay as friends? he's already witnessed me still loving milo, and he thinks i murdered him... i'll try to clear up his misunderstanding, but it'll be hard to without giving more of myself away. this relationship has so many problems. entry 103 a new discovery. the world isn't flat? the god's are using their powers to “lock off” the rest of the world. apparently sanctuary is only a small part of the world. that was a really weird discovery to find out? it's kind of hard to believe, but at the same time, not. apparently they keys we've been collecting hold the respective power of the gods, and they're used to “open” the gateway. i have no idea what that means. apparently beshaba wants to use our keys to do exactly that. and also they can kill the god's? entry 112 when we came back to lunarden we discovered that delilah and allen were kidnapped by atlas’ syndicate. i knew atlas was trouble. i hate having to associate with him. we’re going to save them yet it makes me nervous. entry 114 i feel like i almost died in there. we saved the others and no one was hurt though. we’re going to trip back to lunarden and then travel through the travel gates back to origin to try avoid people. allen mentioned something about strange readings. i have a feeling i know what it is. i’m going to ask lathandar questions. entry 115 nvm we encountered leera. this group genuinely scares me. I’m travelling with people who are down with murder. i should seperate. she uncovered my posters to them and i want to die. she also mentioned the last key at a ball. i need to bounce. lathandar also confirmed my suspicions last night. entry 116 fox left before i could. i feel bad. like maybe it was my fault. i miss him. we have to continue though. entry 117 its so hard to find a bag of holding. i just want to have this spirit stone around without having it in the open. entry 118 we’re in origin now and delilah let me rent out her bag of holding. an absolute kind soul. we bought tickets to the ball. so expensive. i wish i didnt do that. entry 123 i’ve done so much in preperation of whats to come. Soon. i hope it works. i’m going to travel to solardome and investigate those readings. entry 124 suspicions

confirmed. miss winters is alive. she captured my biological father. a strange way to meet him. i cant see him as my father. i told her about the key, and we’re going to rearrange our circle. we’ll still use the spirit stones, just as a backup. i’m scared. i’m terrified. i dont know if it will work and i dont know what will happen if it does. i know the gods will be mad but i’ll deal with the consequences when it happens. i’m sure i won’t be a champion anymore. we’re doing this on friday evening, which means i’m no longer attending the gala. they don’t need my assistance anyway.

[esseastri]

Megan Reads Oathbringer (part 7)

blerg, I wanted to hit page 500 in the last chunk o’ liveblog, but alas. We continue on. This book is just too dense, the liveblog posts are too long and I will continue to mention that in every one of these posts, ‘cause it’s wild just how much is in here!

Part 7 encompasses pages 476-557 (previous parts)

OOOOOOOH JASNAH POV!!!!

hey, her art bubble is the old Shallan art bubble. that’s...boring. why doesn’t she get her own?

I’m emotional about Taln forever and ever

Jasnah being paranoid about her safety and assassins and stuffing her ventilation shaft with cloths is...so... You don’t expect Jasnah to be scared, but here she is. It makes perfect sense--she got stabbed through the chest, of course she’s scared--but she’s so poised and in control, you just don’t expect it.

OMG Jasnah had back up files of her notes!!! That’s brilliant.

spanreeds are so cool

do we know which type of spren Ivory is? if we do I don’t remember.

just keep reading, Megan, they’ll tell you. Inkspren. ...of course.

also, I’d been wondering how Jasnah was “broken”--since all the Radiants are--and somehow I never expected childhood illness. that’s a logical breaking point, but I never even thought of it.

THERE WAS A JASNAH AND HOID’S MOST EXCELLENT ADVENTURE!!! THERE WAS!!! I’VE BEEN ROBBED!!!

but also, wtf did she learn, what did she learn from him. I’m guessing it’s the same thing the Stormfather refused to tell Dalinar... about all ten orders returning.

god, I really, really hope that my theory about them replacing the Heralds is wrong. I don’t want that. ..

(It’s a good theory though; the first new members of the ten orders all make a new Oathpact at the end of the fifth book. the back five are about their first time breaking and the first Desolation post-this one. It’s awful and I don’t want it, but you gotta admit, it’s an interesting theory, at least in a meta way.)

also I’m sad no one likes the honorspren. Syl is such a good. then again, she’s different than her peeps, she always says.

gaahhh, the Moash chapters are killing me every time I see that patchless shoulder I just die a lil bit inside

“Compared to bridge duty, this was paradise.” I’M CRYING??? This is so, so much the ‘I did that, so I can survive anything’ mentality and I’m cry.

okay, but can all of the Fused use all of the Surges? or do they all do different things? Do they have the equivalent of radiant orders?

(I’m going to be so excited if Moash gets a spren, but I feel like he maybe has to take responsibility for his actions first...)

aaahh Moash is taking the Kaladin route of “I don’t care about these people but storm it, I’m helping them anyway”.

OH SHIT Those are the ones who Kaladin helped, aren’t they... they brought “a false god” that was Kaladin shit shit shit they are getting punished for him. He would die if he knew, oh god.

AAAHH MOASH IS A GOOD “You’re becoming like us” Ohhhh goooddd yep. yep. wow. Be better. Do better. The theme of this book, and I love it. I LOVE MOASH AAHHH

punk!Dalinar not being allowed to fight is wild.

OOOHH THEY DIDN’T TELL HIM HE’S BEEN HURTING PEOPLE?? WHY!!!!?? YOU GOTTA TELL HIM HE’S DESTROYING PEOPLE’S LIVES BY BEING A BLACKOUT DRUNK AND FIGHTING PEOPLE

THAT’S NOT A GOOD THING AND HE SHOULD KNOW THAT

his name means “born unto light” oh my god that’s delightful oh my god

ohno. you should not send Dalinar back to war, u should keep him at home and maybe find him a therapist to talk to him about the Thrill...

FLYING KHOLINS AHOY!!

“something profoundly disconcerting about being out on the ocean” disconcerting? You’ve misspelled exciting.

They are holding hands while flying that’s adorable

I love that it’s “Elhokar’s team” when we all know Kaladin will end up in charge, much to Adolin’s chagrin...

No comment on what Dalinar’s hair looks like all windswept, obviously that means he’s been windswept into full greaser-style pompadour.

“shellheads” really? wtf. you didn’t call them that before. it’s only after they gain sentience that you give them derogatory nicknames?

High King Dalinar founding his own kingdom is wild to think about...

All of Navani’s scribes and engineers are so excitable. I love it.

Dalinar sneaking about without guards is nervewracking. Pls be safe, buddy.

“what else were important lighteyes going to do with unmotivated children?” Uuh...motivate them? Don’t just throw them aside to the church and expect them to drain resources by doing nothing for the rest of their lives? Find some way for them to be productive members of society? Why is this such a hard concept?

Fucking lighteyes

“He was RURAL Alethi he CAN’T be a HERALD” fuck off, Kadash. Kaladin is from a backwater and he’s a Radiant. And Taln wasn’t a king. We know this.

“No spiritual basis for rule” seems like a good thing to me...separation fo church and state and all that...

Something I’m not surprised that Vorinism sucks ass at caring for the mentally ill...

Yeah, ok, but who cut Taln’s wall from the outside? one of the other Heralds? Someone who still has their honorblade? Or some...Diagram/Ghostblood/SonofHonor mofo who realized before we did that Taln is a Herald? I’M CONCERNED FOR MY ANCIENT BROKEN SON

“Lately, he didn’t much like himself.” Noooooo, Moaaaashhh!! I still like you! A lot!!!

I am absolutely delighted that the Fused point their toes when they are flying. My synchronized swimming ass is just...DELIGHTED

“You don’t farm an apocalypse.” heheheh

The tavern is called the Fallen Tower? really? Dalinar’s army fell at the Tower... and Bridge Four saved them. really.

omg noooo noooooooooo no

nooo

nooooooooo

that’s

a lumberyard. and

ladderruns. that’s the same damn thing oh god

no, I don’t want this.

Let Moash Live 2k17

There’s a weird trend of swapping PoVs in the middle of a chapter. I’m not used to it.

“They acted like they owned her already.” I mean...they kinda do, Shallan. You kinda fucked up with them.

“without her having to remain at the meeting” hon, you are needed at the meetings for reasons other than your mapmaking skills??

“I am my own woman” teeeechnically, you’re...what, Taravangian’s subject now? Right, he’s in charge of Vedenar.

Evi deserves better than punk!Dalinar. Him yelling at her because she invaded his manly man-space is gross and he should stop

Navani just chilling with Evi and Ialai is wild. I legit can’t imagine them all getting along.

Also, I love that Renarin’s name is just a name. I love the convoluted meaning of nothing. it’s great.

Evi is a Good and she! deserves! better!

oh god babies

tiny, tiny babies

Evil flying chulls!! Tiny Adolin is too cute oh god

Just writing down that page 519 is the glyph alphabet. That’s important, you know. :)

NanKhet’s list of assassination attempts and then his like... banquet of executions. is some Greek mythology shit up in here. That’s #yikes

Pastry chef scholar man! I love it! I love that there aRE people in Vorin lands who don’t adhere to Vorinism’s gender roles, people who think gender roles are for squares.

Hello Darkness My Old Friend has waaay too many names. Nakku, Nalan, Nale. This is why I just still call him Hello Darkness.

“Did you misplace her?” One does not simply misplace Lift.

They keep talking about how Thaylen City was super wrecked by the Everstorm and that’s fair, but like...has anyone heard from Shin? Talk about being unprotected for a wrong-way highstorm...

Jasnah reflexively sucking in Stormlight the second Amaram appears in the doorway is Big Mood.

“Other than the fact that you are a detestable buffoon who acheives only the lowest level of mediocrity, as it is the best your limited mind can imagine? I can’t possibly think of a reason.” GOD FUCKING BLESS.

“Give me an excuse. I dare you.” BIGGEST MOOD EVER OH MY GOD

yeah, you run away. fucker.

“The Windrunner” “the flying bridgeman” “brightlord broodingeyes” HE HAS A NAME, LADIES. He has a name.

I’m super tired of everyone--especially Jasnah--underestimating and disregarding Renarin.

And then he goes and does COOL SHIT LIKE FIND THE RESONATING LIBRARY!!!!??

Also, Jasnah can infuse gems with light? wacky fun.

oohh LIghtweaving isn’t just light it’s “and various waveforms” Renarin’s LIghtweaving is super different from Shallan’s isn’t it!!? I can’t want to see MOAR SURGES

Nooooo, Moash.... you gotta do the Kaladin thing! You can’t let go! Look at you, you are already helping the people he helped. You can’t stop yourself any more than he could. You’re not here to let go. You’re here to remember how to care.

Moash bby, I know you are prone to stupid decisions, but please...please don’t do anything stupid...

.........like that.

okay, creepy flying in charge lady. is creepy.

Okay, teaching the parshmen how to spear is good? sort of? from a certain point of view.

Ooooh Rlain pov!!! That’s new and interesting.

you know why is he here? How did he not get eaten by the first Everstorm?

HECK YE ALL FIVE LADY SCOUT WINDRUNNER SQUIRES HEEECKKK YYESSSSS

THEMS MY GIRLS

“He loved them because they did try.” Aaaahhhhh

“That’s like...extra manly.” I’m not sure that’s how being gay works, but I’ma roll with it. :D

“I guess it’s just a thing men say. Can you tell me how it feels?” “I can try.” KALADIN IS A GOOD WHO IS TRYING VERY HARD AND RLAIN IS ALSO A GOOD WHO IS TRYING VERY HARD AND I’M EMOTIONAL

I am so glad they are Trying Together.

That is an interesting question...did the magic stagnate them? stop people from being interested in finding non-magic ways of doing things? not just steel, but like...idk, indoor plumbing and better ways of farming, or anything that a Soulcaster can do. Why would you need better ways when you have the magic way?

It’s a very Harry Potter Wizard Wolrd mentality, tbh.

Oh shit, the Recreance was 2k years AFTER the Heralds bugged out and broke the Oathpact? That’s a long time for them to keep going without their leaders? and then to suddenly stop after all that time? whyyyy

what did they learn? about their spren? Jasnah knows.

Oh no!!!

nooo

he can hear the spren dying!!!???? OH NOOO

OH SNAP

WHAT

WHAT

NO

UM??? WHAT

THE FUCK?

HOW DID HE HACK DALINAR’S VISION?? WHERE DID HE COME FROM? HOW DID HE GET HERE? HOW DANGEROUS IS HE IN THIS FORM? HOW IS HE HERE?

WHAT

IS

HAPPENING

god, how many times did Dalinar rely on the Thrill? that’s got to leave some kind of bond, some connection. Something Odium can exploit.

God, it’s still really weird to think of Odium--the bad guy--as light, gold, white. it’s refreshing, but also wtf

Ah, fuck off, you’re not a god. The Shardholders are not gods. They’re just dudes with extra powerful magic. Ask Sazed.

God, okay, the STormfather is so. scared. wtf.

Oooohh, he hasn’t gotten Cultivation yet. She’s hidden and he’s bound--not very well if he’s here now, but still.

Can she help us?

Why does he...have to kill people? Is it because he’s the avatar of hatred of something else?

...interesting. Passion.

..........interesting that the Thaylens worship the Passions.

Also, I resent that if he’s All Sorts of Emotion/Passion, there’s the implication that all emotion eventually leads to violence, and I RESENT THAT SO HARD

oh snap, Cultivation is the Nightwatcher? What? I did not expect that...

goes further to the None of the Three Shards Are Good or Bad

though Odium might be lying...

what the shit

was that the Odium hell planet?

Did....did Lift just... scare him away?

I’m increaingly thinking shes got a bit of Cultivation in her. She’s not just a kiddo, and not just a Radiant, there’s something funky going on with her, and I think it’s something powerful enough to scare Odium.. hm...

EEEEYYYYY END PART TWO!!!!!

eww gross, Taravangian AND Venli? Bad interludes are bad. Where’s Szeth? I miss him.

[aristocratlegacy]

Chapter Sixty-Five: Purge Scouts Retreat

Lucky: “Hey, kids! What’re you guys up to?”

“Eh”

“Nothin”

“Who’s askin?”

Lucky: “Why don’t you kids go outside! Call one of your cousins, you can go and play!”

“Eh”

“No thanks”

“Who?”

Lucky: “This used to be an extended legacy- y’know? You kids barely even know your cousins! Spares are the supporting cast and you only really know Three.”

Chloe:“Vincent”

Lucky: “What?”

Chloe: “The purple kid on our show. Your nephew. Uncle Dusty’s son. His name is Vincent, not Three.”

Lucky: “Oh. Huh. Well, then maybe I’m at fault too! You know what, we should get back to our roots a little.”

Vivien: “Oooh, are we going to get even richer?”

Lucky: “No! I mean our roots. Real roots! Tree roots!”

Pierce: “What...are you saying?”

Lucky: “When I was a kid I was in Purge Scouts with my siblings, and I think it’s high time we get you and some of your cousins together and go on a camping trip!”

Chloe: “....What.”

Vivien: “Literally why?”

Pierce: “I’m busy that day.”

Lucky: “Oh come on guys, it’ll be fun! Won’t it Courtney?”

Courtney: “Camping? You know I can’t go camping, hon, I’m allergic to all bugs. You remember”

Lucky: “How are you a veterinarian? Fine! I’ll be the Scout leader, you stay here and look after the business that we still run, and I will take these kids camping!”

Pierce: “Don’t do this.”

Chloe: “This is a spectacularly bad idea.”

Vivien: “Please think about what you’re saying.”

Lucky: “Yay! Camping trip!”

Lucky: “Alright, Scouts- huddle up!”

Lucky: “Even though we’re all related, let’s have a little refresher on names and relations just in case one person here doesn’t know and thinks it’s been too long to ask.”

Vivien: “Why is she staring at me?”

Lucky: “Alright, this is Lacy and Winston, my big sister Taffy’s kids Lacy is a veteran purge scout and she’s gonna be my second in command out here in the woods, isn’t that right, kiddo?”

Lacy: “Sure is! Instead of a straight intro why don’t we play some getting to know you games?”

Lucky: “Alright, I like that enthusiasm, but let’s hold out on that for as long as humanly possible.”

Lucky: “You all know my kids, Pierce, Chloe, and Vivien.”

Lacy: “What did you kids do to your uniforms?”

Chloe: “Improved them.”

Vivien: “I thought that was obvious.”

Pierce: “We wouldn’t be caught dead in those duds. Lucky: “Nice! I love that creativity!”

Lacy: “Oh, Aunt Lucky, we actually strive to keep our uniforms, well, uniform, and-”

Lucky: “Ugly? Sorry, sweetie, the opportunity was right there. Anyways, moving on. This is Vincent, who’s name I do know.”

Vincent: “So I’m not Three anymore? Nice.”

Lucky: “I was encouraging method acting, don’t worry about it. And don’t tell your dad.”

Lucky: “Last but not least, this is Houston, your Uncle Milo’s stepson.”

Houston: “Hi guys! I’m excited to get to know you guys on this trip!”

Vivien: “Like...I guess.”

Lucky: “So, who wants to go into the woods?”

Lacy: “Oh, um, Aunt Lucky- it’s actually really dark, and the ranger is coming to give us a safety demonstration, we should probably wait until tomorrow to start hiking.”

Lucky: “Safety demonstration? Why? I already know everything I need to know about the woods, I have this swiss army knife.”

Lacy: “Um, right, I’m a certified Scout Big Sister and I just thought-”

Lucky: “Look, honey, I really appreciate your help with wrangling all these kids, but I’m an adult. I’m in charge. Don’t worry about it.”

Lacy: “Actually Mrs. Aristocrat I really think we should-”

Lucky: “Woohoo! Camping! Yeah!”

Chloe: “Lacy’s right, we shouldn’t go out there right now. Can’t we just go to bed?”

Lucky: “Camping! Follow me, scouts!”

Lucky: “So, as you can see here, this is a tree, and this is also a tree….this is a tree too.”

Pierce: “Once again, our mom declares herself the master of a new profession without any training whatsoever.”

Chloe: “I really hope this phase runs its course before this hike is over so that we can go home.”

Vivien: “We could probably work to speed that up, if we try.”

Chloe: “Explain?”

Vivien: “Scare her out of the woods.”

Pierce: “What?”

Vivien: “It’s the middle of the night, we’ve been out here for like an hour- just one of us starts making spooky noises and she’ll turn right around.”

Chloe: “I don’t think she gets spooked much anymore since she died.”

Pierce: “Yeah, when you go to bed she stays up and watches slasher movies. I once hid behind the couch and it scared the shit out of me, but she was laughing the whole time.”

Vivien: “She lets you stay up late?”

Pierce: “Not the point. The point is that once you see your mom giggle at a dude getting double-decapitated and then going ‘pfft. As if you could ever be scarier than the departure from this mortal coil. Fuckin’ coward’, you know for a fact that she could probably wander around the woods at night without getting spooked.”

Vivien: “Yeah…..but have you ever really tried?”

Chloe: “She has a point.”

Pierce: “Does she, though?”

Chloe: “I’m tired and going through a phase. Let’s really let her have it.”

Pierce: “Alright, then. Do we recruit the others?”

Vivien: “Winston is a snitch if I’ve ever seen one, and I definitely don’t trust his sister. Vincent would probably be on our side, and the jurys still out on this Houston character.”

Lucky: “Hey, Lacy,”

Lacy: “Yeah, Aunt Lucky?”

Lucky: “You’ve been a Purge Scout for like 5 years right?”

Lacy: “Yeah.”

Lucky: “Cool, then you’ll know how to get us out of the woods, right?”

Lacy: “What? You haven’t been keeping track of where we are?”

Lucky: “Um...no? I figured, y’know, the birds would guide me.”

Lacy: “Um, what...exactly qualified you to lead this trip?”

Lucky: “I paid for the uniforms. Ok. You take the lead, I’m gonna go distract the kids.”

Lacy: “O-okay”

Lucky: “Aright, Kiddos! We’re gonna play a game called ‘who can find the biggest rock!”

Chloe: “Ew! I’m not touching those! They were on the ground!”

Pierce: “Mooooom- can’t we just go home?”

Vincent: “Yeah, Aunt Lucky, we’re tired!”

Houston: “It’s scary out here!”

Lucky: “We can leave when you find the biggest rock in the forest! Ready, set-”

Scouts: “NO!”

Lucky: “Rocks, keep on looking. Just grab as many as you can.”

Lucky: “Lacy- any closer to finding our way home?”

Lacy: “Maybe? It’s too dark to really tell, maybe we should just set up camp here and wait until morning.”

Lucky: “Don’t be ridiculous. We’ve only been hiking for like an hour, we can’t be that far from the house.”

Vivien: “She’s not budging on her own, guys. I think it’s time to try my plan. Pierce, tell me all about that scary movie you watched together.”

Vivien: “Hey mom! How are you?”

Lucky: “Great, sweetie! So great!”

Vivien: “Did you hear that?”

Lucky: “Hear what?”

Vivien: “It sounded like….a chainsaw?”

Pierce: “I hear it too!”

Chloe: “We’re all gonna die!”

Lucky: “Ahhh! Lacy- how do we get out of here? How do we get out of here?”

Lacy: “Aunt Lucky- you need to calm down.”

Lucky: “Everybody- Run! Follow me!”

Lacy: “Stick together don’t run!”

-----

Chloe:Ok, forreal though you guys heard that loud thump, right?

Pierce: “Yeah, I heard it too.”

Lucky: “Hey guys! Good news- I found the cabin! Bad news, I have a concussion. Beep! Beep! Beep! Follow my voice and you can make it through the forest!”

Lucky: “So...uh...that was…”

Vivien: “Yup.”

Lacy: “Sure was.”

Chloe: “Oh yeah.”

Pierce: “Does this mean we can go home?”

Lucky: “Maybe. Everybody, go to bed, let’s recap in the morning.”

Vivien: “Yikes.”

Chloe: “Yeah.”

Vivien: “I mean, it was enough- right? She’ll definitely take us home tomorrow and never make us go camping again, right?”

Chloe: “Oh yeah. Mom gives up on everything. I saw her get bored making breakfast the other day, and the just turned the oven off, ate a granola bar, and walked away.”

Vivien: “So...you don’t think I should go hide under her bed and make ghost noises all night?”

Chloe: “Is that you doing that at night all the time?”

Vivien: “Not always!”

Chloe: “Unbelievable.”

Vincent: “Why can’t we just go hoooome?”

Pierce: “She’ll take us home before breakfast, and we’ll get Dunkin on the way, I promise you.”

Lacy: “So these main legacy folks sure are…”

Winston: “A whole lot to deal with?”

Lacy: “I was gonna say extra, a word I have never used or felt the need to say before today.”

Winston: “So extra.”

Lucky: “Morning kids! Breakfast!”

Kids: “Mornin…”

Lucky: “So last nights nature hike got a little out of hand. It was a little longer than I anticipated. But today it’s light out and we’re gonna go for a walk and look at some plants?”

Chloe: “What?”

Pierce: “We’re not going home?”

Vincent: “But it’s raining.”

Lucky: “And you all have raincoats!! Let’s go campers!”

Vivien: “I told you, Chloe. I told you I should’ve hid under her bed.”

Chloe: “You were right.”

Lucky: “See, kids!? It’s not so bad!”

Lacy: “It’s thunder and lightning, I don’t know if it’s safe…”

Lucky: “Lighten up kiddo! Get it? We’re going fishing!”

Lacy: “That’s definitely not safe.”

Vincent: “What if we just…”

Pierce: “Would she notice?”

Vincent: “We could try.”

Lucky: “See, kids? Fishing is fun!”

Vivien: “No. It isn’t.”

Lacy: “Everybody is wearing rubber boots right?”

…………………….

Chloe: “Can we go home now?”

Lucky: “Not until we catch something!”

………

Vivien: “Fishing straight up sucks.”

Vivien: “I caught something!”

Lucky: “Fucking finally, uh, I mean...let’s go make a campfire!”

Chloe: “What?!”

Lucky: “S’mores and roasted fish! Yay!”

Peirce: “How…”

Winston: “I don’t think you can cook a fish that small.”

Chloe: “Wet s’mores. Yay.”

Lacy: “Aunt Lucky, can we please go back to the cabin?”

Lucky: “Fine. Fine! I try to make this whole thing fun, even though we got lost-”

Vivien: “We were lost?”

Lucky: “And even though it rained- all you guys wanted to do was stay inside and play on your phones!”

Vivien: “You confiscated our phones when we got here!”

Lucky: “But who cares, because nature just isn’t fun. We know that now. So c’mon, let’s go back to the camp.”

Vivien: “Finally!”

Peirce: “Mom, wait.”

Chloe: “What the hell are you doing dude.”

Peirce: “It is fun let’s just… all have one wet s’more before we go in. Since mom worked so hard?”

Lucky: “Thank you, Peirce.”

Peirce: “I love you, mom.”

Chloe: “I didn’t realize how cold I was until we were inside by the fire.”

Vincent: “If you think about it, we could’ve just had s’mores inside.”

Lacy: “That’s a fire hazard.”

Lucky: “Vincent, you are so clever, let’s do that right now!”

Lacy: “No!”

Lucky: “Right. Scouts, I just wanted to say that I’m sorry I got a little overzealous today.. It was a real Aristokids situation, wasn’t it?”

Chloe: “Definitely.”

Lucky: “Well, we can go home tomorrow, and I think that we, at the very least, had quite an adventure.”

Vivien: “That we will never go on again.”

Lucky: “Absolutely not! Cheers!”

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

That’s all for now! Thanks for reading- and if you liked it, leave a comment!!!

Also- if anybody wants me to upload the custom scout uniforms I made I can do that, I just want to make sure that somebody actually wants it before I do lol

[thewanderlees]

Nong Khai, Thailand

Saturday, March 14, 2015

At 7:00am Saksay came to get us and drop Colette and I off at the van depot so we could travel with Nong to Udon Thani and then on to Nong Khai to meet up with him and the four girls who went in his car. We paid 160 baht each (about $7.50 Cdn) to make the 3.5 hour journey north to the border and what would be the first glimpse of the Mekong River.

This was very exciting for me because I have known Saksay pretty much for as long as I can remember and I my limited understanding up to this point is that his family had escaped across the Mekong River in 1974 to get away from war torn Laos. I have a much better understanding of his trip to Canada now and am so much richer for getting to know this side of Saksay. He is an amazing person and I can only say that what he is doing to show us around is not easy for him and that it is a very self less thing he is doing. Traveling by yourself is one thing...adding another 6 people into your winter "escape", like he is doing...is a whole different experience.

He brought us to a little alleyway right behind the walking street where the night market is held each Saturday evening. We walked down and found a guest house that was able to accommodate our family of six in a traditional Thai house. It came complete with two king size bed's, so we are tripling up in each bed. I unfortunately have Colette and Madeline in my bed… Which makes for a pretty rest less night! They are definitely the two most interesting sleepers in our household and I'm stuck with them!! LOL. The cost of this little slice of Thai "paradise" is 1000 Baht/night ( about $40).

Time for an epiphany from Colette and I quote her words. "We are definitely learning to adapt to a whole different set of standards, in order to do the things that are becoming important to us, to make each of our dreams possible. " I must remind her of that the next time we have another livestock scare...oh... here is more, she wanted me to add this also.

Also from Colette "I think the biggest thing we are seeing & learning on this trip, is how people here live happily with fewer possessions , they spend their money very wisely, and they use whatever skills they have to earn money, every little bit counts. When we see what, as little as, 50 cents can buy over here, it really makes you see the value so much more. I've also gotten used to living in conditions that I first thought to be very uncomfortable and I now have a deeper understanding for how lucky we are in Canada." Erik's interpretation..." WOW, life is going to be more appreciated when going home...no bugs...and I probably won't buy anymore stuff because I am so happy with what I have" Hee Hee LOL. Probably get in trouble for this!! JK

Colette is right. We have learned how to be content and happy wherever we are. With much or with little. I am so impressed with all my girls and how adaptable we are all becoming. Other than the stress that accompanies trying to get 5 women moving out the door I believe we might be starting to squabble less. I definitely can say that we are one close family and that we are having a ton of fun with Saksay and Nong.

Back to our Nong Khai trip. After we got settled in our guesthouse and had a bit of a rest we went to have lunch and see the indoor covered market. More rest and then we ventured back out in the evening to see the night market which had absolutely taken over the walking street. This is where we ate our supper, managed to snag about a dozen free Pepsi's and watch some entertainment. Some was good, some was just bad. I will post a video of the "good" and just explain that the bad takes English humor to a whole new level of sexual perversion that would have been best left in someone's head!! The Thais seemed to flock to the "bad" and Saksay said it is comedy!! Let's just say I fear Peter Saunders may have enjoyed it!! Yikes.

After that it was off to bed because Saksay said he would be here to get us at 8:00 to go for an outing. True to his style that was the understatement of this Nong Khai trip. What he did was ferry us (it takes two trips in his Opal Swift (Geo Metro) to take us anywhere) to one of the most amazing thing I may have ever seen. It was right up there with my trip to Casa Loma in Toronto. We went to Sala Kaeo Kou and it was amazing. Things are so different here. Where else could your climb to the third floor of the museum part of the temple and see the mummified remains of the person who put this together.

Here is the story I was told...I probably will not Google this but choose to believe this account of Sala Kaeo Kou (which is probably correct). The wealthy Laotian man responsible for this had wanted to build it in Laos but was not allowed so he came to Thailand and created it. The communist Laos party had him killed before he was able to finish it (I don't think he intended to ever really finish it, given the magnitude of what he was creating) and the Thai government chose to keep it in this unfinished state. They charge about $.80 Cdn to help with the upkeep of the grounds. Absolutely astounding. For those of you following us @ our https://instagram.com/thailand_adventure_2015/ page you have seen some of the pics already.

Here are the way the workers were cutting foliage out of one of the monuments. They had first set up a ladder barely high enough to hack off the first tree that had started to grow out of a part of the monument before finding 2 VERY long pieces of bamboo that the worker was going to tie himself off to and shinny up to the very top to get the last tree hacked back. I estimate it was about 6 stories high...definitely not up to Canadian safety standards. Not that I am at all in favor of the ridiculous rules we have at home but this may have been easier with a lift of some sort!! We left before I was able to witness the (I hope) successful accomplishment of this task.

After the two trip ferrying of the Lee's ( and Nong) back to our guesthouse for a nap Saksay had another treat up his sleeve. He took us to the big Nong Khai night market over by the train station where we bought Hailey a new pair of Crocs and another soccer jersey and short set. She looks absolutely adorable in these and now has 2. Her crocs were to replace the set she was wearing which had a hole worn right through the bottoms...yes she has been walking ALOT.

He wasn't done yet though and for the foodies out there this one would have been right up your alley. We went to a traditional Korean BBQ where we were totally out of our comfort zone to start with. They put a propane fired grill/cauldron on the table and you go up to the buffet and grab whatever you want to cook yourself. It would not be an exaggeration to say that we only recognized a third of these "potential" ingredients...but with help from our benevolent tour director we were soon on our way to creating a masterpiece of supper. I was the most adventurous trying a lot of the available food, including shrimp, stuffed squid, 3 types of mushrooms (including the apply named pigs ears that grow as tree fungus), bacon wrapped straw mushrooms, side pork, chicken, beef, glass noodles, Chinese spinach, cabbage and to finish it off...self serve hard ice cream. Why don't you comment and ask Emma what it feels like the morning after when you eat 4 bowls of ice cream!?!

2 Opal trips later and home we were to get ready for the monumental VISA run. Monumental because this is officially a milestone in our trip. We have been in Thailand for exactly 2 months. What a blessing to be able to experience this trip.

Well I think Colette will write the blog entry for our trip to Laos tomorrow so stay tuned...

Hailey's quote of the day, "Here dad let me give you a kiss...(smack's a kiss on my cheek)...there now I'm married." To who I ask. "Daaaad,to you of course!!"

[lalka-laski]

Another Day, Another Dollar (and a survey to pass the time)

Coffee mugs, teacups, or water bottles? I collect kitschy mugs, most of which were souvenirs or gifts (for example, my sister’s boyfriend got me a mug with the ENTIRE script of Shrek printed on it. Amazing lol!). But I also love pretty teacups and I have several scattered around my apartment as decor. I even have this BEAUTIFUL tea set, hand-made and painted in Poland, that I’ve been meaning to display.  Bubblegum or cotton candy? If we’re talking flavoring, then NEITHER! The idea alone of bubblegum or cotton-candy flavored shit makes me gag.  How did your elementary school teachers describe you? I was quiet and not very social, but an exceptional student. I spent most of my free time reading books or writing my own stories. Pretty much an elementary teacher’s dream student!

Do you prefer to drink soda from cans, bottles or cups? My top choice across the board would be a cup with a straw. But I LOVE regular Coca-Cola from a can. It tastes so much better than Coke from a bottle or fountain machine for some reason. It’s sweeter and smoother with less of that painful carbonated burn.  Earbuds or headphones? Earbuds, just because headphones make me look like a dork. 

Movies or TV? TV shows are easier to fade in and out of, which is my preferred means of watching something.  Favorite smell in the summer? SUNSCREEN! It’s such a distinct and familiar smell that’s contained to only a teeny sliver of the year. I love smells like that.  Game you were best at in P.E./gym? It’s not a game but I was weirdly good at rock-climbing when we did that unit in high school?  What do you have for breakfast on an average day? Nothing. I love breakfast food, just not at breakfast time.  Name of your favorite playlist? I have this one playlist whose title is simply the sparkle/star emoji (creative, I know). It’s a lot of vibey, atmospheric jams that are the perfect soundtrack when I have people over just chilling and drinking.  Lanyard or key ring? Keyring, but a lanyard might make my life easier.  Favorite non-chocolate candy? Sourpatch Kids or any other type of sour gummy.  Favorite book you had to read for school? Dude. I was an English nerd who later became an English major and at one point in the semester was averaging 2 novels a week. I could never pick a sole favorite from all my years in school and I’d struggle to even pick a favorite from each class. But for the sake of this question I’m gonna rattle off a few that come to mind. From middle school through high school I loved The Outsiders, The Westing Game, TKAM, anything by Steinbeck, Jane Eyre, The Poisonwood Bible, The Virgin Suicides. 

AAAAAND I just started mentally listing my favorite books from college but got too overwhelmed. So I’m moving on to the next question now, thx!

Most comfortable position to sit in? Uh, I’ve never put much thought into that. 

Most frequently worn pair of shoes? It depends on the season. And to be honest, I’d rather go barefoot whenever possible.  Ideal weather? A little cool but sunny. I do love the rain but it hinders plans (and hair & makeup!) so I lean more towards sunny, dry days.  Pencils or pens? PENS ONLY. Pencils gross me out.  Obsession from childhood? Most of my childhood obsessions have carried over into adulthood: whimsical fairy tales and princesses (specifically Sleeping Beauty), the color pink, collecting diaries & journals...  Favorite crystal? Rose quartz, if that counts?  Favorite activity to do in warm weather? Swimming or laying by the pool/under a tree with a good book. And of course, I love me some day drinking on a summer day! Favorite activity to do in cold weather? Staying cozy inside, also with a good book and a good drink. See a theme here?  Five songs to describe you? Thursday’s Child- David Bowie She Talks to Angels- The Black Crowes Paradise- Coldplay Never Get You Right- Brandon Flowers Silver Lining- David Gray

Best way for someone to bond with you? Music and literature are my favorite ways to connect with a person. There’s nothing more intimate (and I mean that both in a romantic and platonic sense) than listening to a song or reading a poem/passage with someone and then discussing what it means to you.  Top 5 favorite Vines? I have many! “Road work ahead” is of course a fave. And there are so many more that I can’t think of right now.  Ads you have stuck in your head? None atm

Average time you fall asleep? Depends entirely on the night  What is the first meme you remember seeing? Yikes, I can’t remember. I’m sure it involved a cat?  Suitcase, duffel bag, or backpack? Suitcase with wheels  Lemonade or tea? Lemonade is my favorite non-alcoholic drink ever. I even named my childhood teddy bear “Lemonade.”  Last person you texted? Glenn  Jacket pockets or pants pockets? Jacket pockets, I never carry things in pants pockets. Favorite type of jacket? Jackets are my favorite item of clothing, so I’m a hoarder of cute jackets, blazers & coats!  Favorite scent for soap? Lavender & cedarwood from Bath & Body Works.  Sci-fi, fantasy, or superheroes? I don’t care much for either.  What clothes do you sleep in? Usually just a comfy tee shirt  Favorite type of cheese? Extra extra sharp cheddar (preferably white). So sharp it makes your jaw tingle!  What saying or quote do you live by? I’m trying to ask myself lately “What can I learn from this?” or “What can this offer me?”  What are you currently stressed about? For the most part, I’m in a good place. I feel aligned and centered and a HELL of a lot better than I’ve ever felt. My biggest struggles currently are related to body image, envy & self-worth, which is a lifelong battle for most, no?  Favorite font? Cabria or something like that?  What did you learn from your first job? Speaking up for yourself is difficult but it’s one of life’s necessary evils  Favorite fairy tale? Sleeping Beauty, of course! It’s an obsession.  Favorite tradition? That’s a difficult question because I’m SUPER sentimental and I have tons of personal & family traditions.  Talent you’re proud of having? Empathy

If you were a video game character, what would your catchphrase be? "Stop it!” exclaimed in disbelief or surprise.  If you were an anime character, what genre of anime would it be? I have no clue Character you relate to? Elle Woods (on my best days).  Favorite website from your childhood? I loved gurl.com and Alloy. I just checked to see if either still exist.... gurl now links to Seventeen (another favorite in my teen years) and Alloy links to Youtube? Odd.  Any scars? A very faint one. Actually it may not even be there anymore.  Favorite flower? Chrysanthemum  Any good luck charms? Like I said, I’m a very sentimental person. So I have several!  Least favorite flavor of food or drink? Well a question from earlier in the survey reminded me how much I ABHOR bubblegum or cotton candy flavored things. I’m also very picky about lemon. I love lemonade or lemon candies, but can’t stand the flavor in desserts or savory  dishes. So maybe I just like artificial lemon flavor?  Left or right handed? I’m right handed but always wished I was left-handed just because I thought it was cool.  Least favorite pattern? None come to mind immediately  Worst subject in school? Math of any sort. Chemistry was also wicked hard for me.  Favorite weird flavor combo? I don’t think anything I eat is that weird or abnormal  When did you lose your first tooth? No clue Favorite potato food? Hashbrown patties or curly fries. Not a huge fan of regular french fries, although that doesn’t stop me from eating them whenever the opportunity presents itself...  Gas station coffee or grocery store sushi? Weird options. But I don’t eat sushi and I actually love gas station coffee so there’s a clear winner here. 

Earth tones or jewel tones? Jewel tones Do you call them fireflies or lightning bugs? Fireflies

PC or console gaming? I don’t game

Writing or drawing? Writing Podcasts or talk radio? Podcast, I suppose. But I rarely find podcasts I enjoy. Most of the time it just seems like a person who likes the sound of their own voice rambling, or two or more people having a conversation that doesn’t need an audience.  Barbie or Polly Pocket? Barbie but Polly Pocket was still that bitch

Fairy tales or mythology? I’m partial to fairy tales but that doesn’t mean I find mythology any less fascinating. 

Cookies or cupcakes? Cookies all day Your greatest fear? Death or losing a loved one Your greatest wish? To find inner peace and happiness, to live a long life with my loved ones Who would you put before everyone else? My loved ones^ Wow I’ve used that phrases a lot in these past few questions.  Lamps, overhead lights, fairy lights, or sunlight? Fairy lights!!  Nicknames? Lil Bit/Libit, Lala, Enebis, Lala, Liz, Lizzie, Ela.  The name “Elizabeth” lends itself to a hell of a lot of nicknames haha!  Favorite season? Fall, probably. But I’ve grown to love Spring too as I’ve gotten older. Which is weird because it was always my least favorite growing up. I used to find it depressing but now I think it’s inspiring.  Favorite app on your phone? Snapchat probably  What is your desktop background? I’m on a work computer right now so it’s just our company logo How many phone numbers do you have memorized? Uhh.... very few.