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sonderwrit · 9 months

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C119: Uncontrollable

I Have to Be a Great Villain - Masterpost

Author's 木火然 Weibo post:

Merry Christmas brothers! A strange play (ah? ) Although the young immortal sovereign isn't bad, but [I'm] still looking forward to the adult immortal sovereign! Two more chapters!

*lightning dissipates*

Wang Yi: Hah….

WY: (Scared me to death.) [It was so provoking to recover my memories]

WY: (Although I'm not sure why that little child seemed to be familiar with the plot.)

WY: (But he got hit by the Heavenly Will's "gun" because of us. It's not a crime that deserves death, so I'd help where I could.)

[FLASHBACK: "Hahaha, you central air conditioner!*]

*Wang Yi's nickname from his school days, meaning he's a guy who treats everyone well.

WY: (I keep feeling that other people would laugh at me if they knew about this.)

*[Qin Xian] can't read his mind from behind*

WY: (Where's Sao Ling? Where did Sao Ling go? I even heard the system transmission just then and wanted to ask about a bunch of things.)

WY: (It's all too bizarre.)

[FLASHBACK: S-0 telling Wang Yi it'll be easier for the Main System to find him if he knows too much, and how he's going to erase Wang Yi's memory.]

WY: (He said we had to hide from the Main System's investigation, but another guy came to break the plot.)

[FLASHBACK: The protagonist shou claiming he can see the future.]

WY: (Moreover, he was suspected at the moment of rebirth by the Heavenly Will and caught red-handed before being eliminated.)

WY: (As if…)

WY: (Someone wanted to tell the Heavenly Will… [Here's the bug you wanted].)

WY: (Other than that, what's with those visions occasionally appearing in my head?)

Qin Xian: (Disciple is so quiet.)

WY: (It might be someone else's memories, but it feels related to S-0 and those group of Systems.)

WY: (After leaving the visions, the System Shop's props and their uses all appeared before my eyes one by one.)

WY: (As if I've already seen them thousands of times….they're familiar?)

—

[DIAGRAM:

Heavenly Will > S-0 > Wang Yi

Heavenly Will > A.I. > Bai Mo]

WY: (Logic tells me the Heavenly Will isn't omnipotent. All of "Its" actions costs a certain amount of consumption.)

WY: (Otherwise, it wouldn't need the Systems to act as its "eyes.")

WY: (Or transmigrators to act as its "hands" to complete missions.)

[FLASHBACK: The protagonist shou sobbing that he doesn't want to die.]

WY: (Therefore, as long as you make good use of points covertly, you can prevent the protagonist's soul from scattering away.)

[True Cultivation Treasure: Reincarnation Vessel:

It can take a small piece of soul from a scattered spirit and transform it into a brand new soul. Although it cannot cause a soul to rebirth, it can send them onto reincarnation.

Recommended Use: For worlds with Open or Bad Endings

Recommended Rating: 3 Stars]

WY: (But why do I know about these things?)

WY: (This isn't something I could've figured out through logic alone.)

WY: (This is bad…)

WY: (Why do I feel like I'm brushing the edge of the truth?)

WY: (I can't keep thinking down this line anymore…)

WY: (I need to trust S-0 and Qin.)

Qin Xian: For now, we can't return to the sect.

WY: ?

WY: Master…

WY: (This world's Qin has no memory, so I have to exercise self-control against his mind-reading and maintain my character settings.)

WY: Just then that little daoist incurred an abnormal heavenly tribulation.

WY: Doesn't Master need to tell the higher-ups?

QX: That's for later.

QX: Right now— *digs into his sleeve of a hundred treasures*

QX: Eat this. (Can't trust other's medicine, but I can trust my own.)

[NOTE: Realgar can be used for medicine but also has detoxification properties. It also acts as an insecticide, treats damp and phlegm, and malaria.]

WY: ?!

WY: Realgar…

WY: Master why are you—

QX: Eat it.

QX: There aren't any outsiders right now.

WY: (What does he mean by this? He's feeding me realgar because he suspects my snake bloodline?)

WY: ……

WY: Is Master worried I'm really as that little daoist friend said, here to hurt you and the sect?

QX: Mm.

WY: ……

WY: (It's very normal for him to do this. It'd be irresponsible if he allowed the demonic clan members to infiltrate the sect.) [To avoid the Heavenly Will's notice, I'll have to maintain the character of an obedient disciple for now.]

*I'll need to act a bit aggrieved….*

WY: (But for some reason, I'm feeling pissed off.)

Very pissed off—

QX: ?

QX: (He seems to be..angry.)

QX: (But he doesn't resent me.)

WY: UrrrrRRrrkk— (It's disgusting, I'm dizzy and my vision's spinning.)

QX: Disciple.

QX: How is it, do you have any bloodthirsty impulses that don't belong to you?) [Realgar won't cause real harm to snakes.]

*GRABS*

WY: Hahah….

WY: How do you know that.

WY: (Is this the power of the primitive beasts….my body is shaking, and my fangs and abdominal cavity feel hollow.)

WY: (I'm about to lose control.)

QX: Disciple?

WY: Master, leave quickly— It'll be bad if anyone touches me now….

QX: It's fine, you can't hurt me.

QX: After you show me all your symptoms, I'll be able to understand your bloodline and suppress it as described in the book.

WY: (Is this really the time to bring up that book now?!)

WY: !

WY: (Wait? He said suppress the bloodline?)

*EPILOGUE OF THE BOOK*

WY: (That book indeed tells how the master used various methods to suppress his possessed disciple's demonic energy.)

*unable to control himself*

WY: (Did Qin Xian feed me medicine out of sight from anyone else, not only because he was worried I'd hurt others, but because he wanted to—)

WY: ("Treat" me?)

WY: HuUURrRKKk—

QX: Disciple is being naughty.

QX: (He really grew snake fangs and snake scales.)

QX: (But it isn't so much that it's past the point of no return.)

*garbled noise*

QX: Don't move, I don't want to use too much strength.

WY: (Ah, I think I know why I was mad. Just you wait 'til you recover your memories.)

QX: !

QX: (Has the pain reached a point where he's experiencing hallucinations?)

QX: Sigh—

QX: Apologies.

QX: Usually I'd kill monsters outright after discovering one, but I didn't expect disciple's case to be so severe.

WY: ?

QX: So consider this compensation. *undos protective layer of true qi*

WY: (He removed the true qi shielding his shoulder.)

WY: (Does Qin Xian want me to…bite him?)

QX: Yes.

QX: Come on.

[SPECIFICATION: Realgar's effects on snake demons come from legends, but it's used rarely against snakes in modern times. If you need to (deal with snakes) please take a more scientific approach.]

#i have to be a great villain #manhua #manhua translations #villain 119 #danmei

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bloodelves88 · 4 years

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Fundamental Game Design Problems with Genshin Impact

I’ve been playing Genshin Impact since its launch, and I’ve had some sort of a love-hate relationship with it. On one hand, I love the world, the characters, the story, and how it feels so carefree and beautiful. On the other hand, I really hate its leveling system, its gacha system, and the time-reward ratio of its activities.

I find that there are quite a few issues in Genshin Impact that just doesn’t make sense from a game design perspective. These issues make the player want to play less, or avoid features in the game that should not be avoided, and instead should be encouraged to explore. Coincidentally, the very same game design issues do encourage players to spend real money on the game, so I guess that’s the crux of the issue.

Issue 1: The Resin System

If you play Genshin Impact, we all saw this issue coming, didn’t we?

Resin is basically the stamina/energy that you would know in other gacha games. The problem is that there’s just too little resin, which leads to almost every other problem that I’m going to talk about later.

In short, there’s just too little resin given to the player. The amount of time to recover resin is just too long for the amount of rewards given in exchange.

In Genshin Impact, you can spend resin on ley lines (random fights in the open world that give either character experience or money), domains (instanced fights that give you artifact equipment, or weapon ascension materials), and open world bosses (gives you character ascension materials). Nothing wrong with that, so far so good.

What if I told you that you need to spend approximately 5 hours worth of resin in order to get the rewards from a world boss, and that boss might not even drop the material? Just this past week alone, I spent about 5 days worth of resin on just one boss and nothing else, and I came out with no high tier materials at all. On the bright side, the game does allow you to combine lower tier materials into higher tier materials. This still doesn’t sound too bad... but read on to issue 2 and 3 to see why this becomes a problem that snowballs.

Another strange point is that the weekly quests require you to spend more resin than you can recover. This pretty much means that you must spend real money in order to complete the quest. Totally broken.

Issue 2: The World Level System

In Genshin Impact, there is something called a “World Level”. This determines the level of the monsters in the world, which in turn determines the quality of the loot that they drop.

The problem is, the world level increases as your adventure rank increases. Your adventure rank increases when you do pretty much anything in the game. Completing quests, opening chests, completing domains, defeating bosses, and completing ley lines all give you adventure rank experience.

This means that you will be kept on your toes, and you cannot afford to spend your resin on things you do not need. God forbid that you end up with a high world level with weak characters. You’re pretty much dead if that happens.

I’ve not found myself in such a situation yet, and I have no idea if it’s possible to break out of such an impasse. Too weak to farm materials, and no way to get around that. Big oof.

It’s strange, because this is such a chill and calming game, but the system behind it is anything but.

Ever since I hit adventure rank 30, I’ve avoided doing any random quests that I come across in the open world (game design problem: your players are avoiding quests). I simply do not want to level up! I’m scared of leveling up (game design problem: your players do not want to level up).

Now, why does this happen? The resin system! The player is just not able to farm enough to become strong enough to handle a higher world level.

There is a minor breather for this though. Every 10 adventure rank levels starting at level 25, there’s a trial that you have to pass before the world level will go up. This gives the you an infinite amount of time to catch up and farm whatever you want, and the world level will not go up. However, you will still earn adventure rank experience, which will all be added once you’ve passed the trial. I skipped level 26-30 this way and jumped two world levels because of this. Luckily, I was prepared enough to handle it.

You might think that this trial is there to counter this problem of being too weak in the world level you’re in. Nope. The boss (electro hypostasis) in the trial is one of the easiest bosses in the game due to a lack of an enrage timer (DPS check) and it has very obvious attacks that are easily dodged. So... it doesn’t gatekeep anything.

Issue 3: The Leveling System

In Genshin Impact, your characters level up using character experience cards. These cards are dropped from chests, and are given as rewards from quests or ley lines.

In Genshin Impact, you also control a squad of four characters at a time, and elemental reactions and elemental advantages are a big part of the combat system. So, you aren’t just going to be able to get away with training one character, and I’d say that you would need about 6 characters to cover all your bases.

I’ve personally leveled up two characters to 70, one to 60, two to 50, and one to 40. And I’m all out of character experience cards.

The problem? The resin system! Your main source of character experience cards in the late game would be from ley lines, and this requires resin if you want to gain rewards from it. But wait! I also need resin to farm weapon ascension materials and character ascension materials! Well, too bad. Welcome to Genshin Impact.

The fundamental game design issue from this is that it prevents the player from experimentation. You would think, “Hmm, what would character X be like if I used her in this squad? Oh wait, I don’t have the resources to level her up anyway”. You might think that’s fine, because you might think that you could just go farm some resources to level this character up and try her out. But remember issue 2? Your world level might go up while you’re doing this, which will make all content more difficult to clear. Is there really time for experimentation? What if the character doesn’t work out? Then your main squad hasn’t gained any strength while the world level went up. I guess you’re dead.

I’m not even excited about getting new characters anymore, because I know that all they’ll do is sit in my roster at level 1, and the only time they’ll ever get used is when I send them off to collect materials on expeditions. I have a Venti doing just that. Will I ever be able to train him? Ha! Who knows? Maybe when I’m stuck at adventure rank 45.

So from the start of the game, you have to pick your squad, maybe you’re allowed to deviate and level up two new characters on top of your main four, and that’s it. You got to lock that squad in and never use any other character ever again because you just can’t afford to.

Wut.

Issue 4: The Gacha Rates

In Genshin Impact, the highest rarity (5 star) comes at a 0.6% rate. Compared to other popular gacha games which come in at around 1-2%, the difference is huge.

To me, this alone is already an issue from a design perspective. When it’s too low, it can get people frustrated enough to quit the game (I was planning to, until the last roll I could afford gave me Klee). The amount of money the whales are spending just to get a single character or weapon can easily go into the hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

Another problem that arises from the poor rates is you start to lack important archetypes in your squad. For a long time I lacked a heavy-hitting claymore user (this is important to break shields and rocks), and I also lacked someone good against frost enemies. So I spent all my free gems (six 10 rolls, worth US$180) and finally got Klee, a fire bomb user. The game does give a free claymore user, but I don’t have the resources to train another character (see, resin raises its ugly head again). The game also does give a good free fire character, but she isn’t fiery enough to fight a whole domain of frost enemies.

If Genshin Impact wants to keep its gacha rates low, fine by me. But the game needs to give all players a complete and well-rounded set of characters that can cover all bases. Every element needs to be countered, a healer is needed, and a shield-breaker is needed. And this set of characters need to do the job well. Having complete jokes of a character like Amber is not going to help. Having a difficult to understand/build character like Noelle is not going to help.

-----

I do like this game, and I do want to keep playing it. But sometimes I wonder if I should wait a little and let Mihoyo fix the game before I start playing again.

#genshin impact

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davidjjohnston3 · 3 years

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The trees are straight and true here, and the help comes without seeming harpoons. I considered some insane things which were ‘above my pay-grade’ and as is my wont reflected on the state and implications of my former profession and what old friends and pharons meant to me. Right now think that my core goal in life is not to blow myself up. As a former would-have-been SecState said, ‘I love so many people.’ I am only sad that trying as I did to uproot that carrot of love just now could have resulted in the demolition of an entire root-network, of at least my own excision therefrom.

‘Some people’ want revenge against life for not going their way or not being the color or fragrance or face shape they like or feel it ought to be - ‘no that is not what I meant at all.’ They will never hold a life reliable which doesn’t resemble their ideal, imago, or ‘soul-idol’ &c. The meaning of the name ‘Cordelia’ as in King Lear is something like ‘heart’s ideal.’ I was driving and considering a novel that I feel touched absolute supreme greatness without knowing it or in a way that could mislead some readers Mrs. Mary HK Choi’s Yolk a novel I looked forward for a very long time. I had all these references and fractal coreferences and forgot about actual birds, like what does the chick eat in the egg.

‘Blood is the life’ - I liked etymologies for a long time and my intellectualism caused me acute trouble in Confirmation Class at Morrow Memorial United Methodist Church in about 1998. ‘Pastor’ Gretchen taught us the word root ‘consacramentum’ which comes from dipping the hand in blood in the concave of a Roman shield - those huge rectangular shields which could be used in formation as ‘testudo’ or turtle to stop projectile weapons and allowed soldiers to make pin-point stabbing attacks from a ‘matrix(?)’ of high protection. I forget what kind of animal was killed to pool the blood in the shield but it might have been a rabbit.

I was reading ‘Revelation,’ I don’t recall what everyone else was talking about. Some kind of community service project, interview your parents, buy a wedding-magazine and make a whole plan for how you would get married and how much it would cost (and while you’re at it describe how you would 1) restore a classic Shelby Cobra using newspaper and Krazy Glue 2) drive foresaid drop-top to the Moon).

The Pastor was a pipe-smoker named ‘Painter’ who used the NY Lotto’s ‘Hey you never know’ slogan to describe sth like Pascal’s Wager; OTOH St. Paul teaches us that everyone is born knowing God exists (Romans). The problem is that people fail or omit to glorify Him or subsequently ruin or betray their own best efforts through blasphemy, turning or falling away, cowardice, denial, attachment to certain sins or being ‘yoked unequally’ with non-believers.

I reflected starting in 2008 that I was shy of my ‘first love’ (rather, the woman I fell in love with at 14); at the time I gloried or reveled in the shyness like a Wallace Stevens poem that ends, ‘And not to have written a book.’ I could’ve written a few books by now or walked away from book-writing or changed my mind / specified which kind of book I might have written and for whom.

I remember always admiring the ‘magic’ of literature and feeling sad I had no characters or world of my own to work magic with. Star Wars and my own life and later much else supplied ‘materia poetica’ and till the point that I began to think in fiction and became addicted to interpreting my own in ‘story-ideas’ although that is not to say that what happened around me didn’t happen.

America is trying to become a better country in numerous valences, loving our neighbors, holding each other accountable. ‘Justice’ with or without the marks is important. It is a divine Judgment that Covid fell on the world even if eventually we all shall learn who devised the virus or leaked it or modulated its mutations. I was eager to rejoin the world feeling I might overcome my mental illness but I mishandled specific questions and tests. I ended up turning people against me and creating monsters more than ever as well as perhaps terminally sabotaging any chance I might’ve had of fulfilling a dream or making good on the past. I have a lot of opinions on the CCP but should’ve focused on love and family and personal responsibilities as in the past or at least held to my long-standing feeling that Chinese people deserve better rather than associating myself with hard-liners and racists or those who would simplify issues in order to bring about ultimate victory without temperance or concern for the side-effects.

In Milwaukee where I lived for far too long everyone’s spirit - electric, intellectual, visory(?), informational et cetera seemed to be militating against everybody else’s. There were fake vaccines, radioactive ice cream (or thermogenic ice-cream), gun-battles as usual, lines crossed, all kinds of scores that people tried to settle. I also realized that the police were probably tracking for years my various attempts to obtain weapons from samurai-swords to handguns though the purpose was defensive and I can only trust at this point that some good lawyer will prevent the bad lawyers and cops from presenting the most damning circumstantial case they could. People in Milwaukee own AK-47′s, automatic shotguns, probably all kinds of explosives, improvised chemical weapons and (’our Black brothers’ - Schopenhauer) biological weapons - the cops don’t stand a chance that I can tell and even the National Guard perhaps could get outclassed by retired military. I had told myself for years that it was only the ghetto’s that bore witness to this paramilitary equipage and that the retired SEAL Team 4 member with the ‘Stop Socialism’ and ‘Jobs Not Mobs’ sign on his front lawn would protect me from the Maoist-Covid Night of the Long Knives but I feel I tempted God a lot in the past.

I read all these books and took to heart that people thought I was just entertaining myself with but now as then I should’ve guarded my heart or not begged the question of what others thought about me or saw in me. I literally felt of late ‘I am the anti-Christ’ - good-looking at times, preach world peace, ‘form of godliness,’ want to be friends with everyone, build bridges - and had to rack my brains to come up with an ‘anti-Christology’ and science / concept of the Whore of Babylon just to make sure it was more than me alone. I also wished to simplify my past and help kids ‘get life right the right time’ doing battle with philosophies that opposed this consciously or otherwise but stepped into numerous minefields and also tried running when I should’ve flown over.

Everyone’s trying to get rich and build back better and I profoundly admired the American President for doing, finally, apparently, what presidents had tried to decades even as I remember ‘Flowers 1881′ a poem that implies that basically teachers can do only so much before turning their kids loose in a world no one has yet fixed and which others keep breaking; from a California almanac that also instructed me that the same old debates and cross-fires and burdens plague teachers as always, not that it is an ‘impossible profession’ but honestly that God won’t let us establish Heaven on Earth or at least not me or at least not America or at least not teachers who savor the experience of being a teacher or the beauty of their students more than the outcomes or commitment or intrinsic value of the work or the confirmed identity / vocation / personhood of the instructor. There are always new and old at any rate and different cultures all describe the teacher as needing to keep both alive; as do descriptions of higher education and scholarship.

I questioned my qualifications / background and wondered about re-training but can’t afford tuition anywhere so I am trying to cling to the core of my capabilities / blessings. ABC and XYZ. The glory of the soul or souls.

I kept theorizing Russian literature as well as weapons-systems and ultimate destiny, sailing ships, noble names, divisions, the flaming sword of Archangel Gabriel, the mission of Russia today with respect to the world order. I am also simply trying to be healthy and stop for a while trying to parse out who was the love of my life or what it still left in terms of action or redemption or justice or surrender or mitigation or meeting new friends or propounding the kind of understand with carefulness I have believed in - ‘saving people from themselves.’ Driving up here I remember being distressed at a gas-station in California when I was about 5 or 6 since the pump was leaking, being very upset with my parents and family. In those days I also disliked animal-cruelty though the world today seems so depraved and deprived with respect to human interests I would make no bones about neglecting most all animals outside of military or police use. When I was about 3 I saw white kids set a frog on fire; my mother has a history of running over cats.

I dislike winging it and taking risks. There is a song I call to myself ‘Run Away’ though its title is ‘Paradise.’ I am not a utopian communist for believing in secular justice and its instrinsic value... I wonder whether when I helped people in the past there were always strings attached or maybe I was just trying to close my case and discharge my responsibilities too rapidly without allowing others to gestate or make an abode in my heart besides and beyond what I could get out of them, glorifying myself, or tell others about.

What is motherhood? What is travail? Is there a kind of problematic ‘female gaze’ as feminists talk of a ‘male gaze’ associated with sadism or fascination / fetishism? It’s psychology which is not my first love at all since it appeared pretentious and distracting and retarding (in the literal sense of slowing down).

I also remembered reading various things about Victor Hugo whose ‘93′ is an important novel today due to its techno-utopianism, feminism or ‘new model egalitarianism,’ fusion of revolution and religion, etc. But I had forgotten ‘Les Miserable’ with its themes of ransom or eventual recompense, genealogies, caution, and more none of which is to negate the various complains against me or death-warrant from China or my parents with their partial private readings of Proverbs (’Let’s stone David for embarrassing us / not doing precisely what we want’ - no mention of witnesses, tribunals, questions, mitigation-hearings, actual counsels of judges etc. but just American-German ‘coalitions of the willing’ ‘run and get my gun’ ‘team-building’ etc. which in my experience ends with tanks on the street and military dictatorships as when at the end of the CultRev PLA regulars were gunning down former justice-fanatics who’d been stripping women, kicking pregnant stomachs etc. as in The Vagrants). Naturally having grown up in a family fascinated with Lee Kwanyew and Arnold Schwarzenegger and conflicted about ‘fascism’ I had reservations about the United States’ ability to suddenly dress up and ‘stand at perpetual moral attention’ but I guess my own problems are just that I am poor with a rich kid’s mind and no one really likes me except strangers and faraway friends who were easily spooked and/or just couldn’t be there. ‘King of South shall attack and King of North shall crush them with chariots &c.’ - in the end righteous will prevail whichever side of the line I end up on in the final assessment. I also remembered today a novel called ‘The Old Capital’ about a bad artist father, a virgin daughter, straight and true pines. Some other aspects of this novel are silly as well as criminally problematic and there's a lot of that going on in new-old old news America / Babylon or at least to quote my favorite lawyer / leave lawyering movie 'First let's get out of Milwaukee.' Miss the land of June snow.

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terramythos · 4 years

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TerraMythos' 2020 Reading Challenge - Book 27 of 26

Title: How Long ‘Til Black Future Month? (2018)

Author: N. K. Jemisin

Genre/Tags: Short Story Collection, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Horror, Dystopia, Magical Realism, Steampunk, Cyberpunk, Post-Apocalyptic, Female Protagonist(s), LGBT Protagonist(s).

Rating: 8/10 (Note: This is an average of all the stories -- see below the cut for individual story blurbs/ratings).

Date Began: 9/27/2020

Date Finished: 10/4/2020

I really liked this collection! Jemisin wrote my favorite fanstasy/scifi series ever with The Broken Earth trilogy, and I really enjoyed her recent novel The City We Became. I was in the mindset for shorter fiction so decided to read this collection of short stories. Of these 22 stories, my absolute favorites (9/10 or higher) were:

The City Born Great - 10/10

The Effluent Engine - 9/10

Cloud Dragon Skies - 9/10

The Trojan Girl -10/10

Valedictorian - 9/10

The Evaluators - 10/10

Stone Hunger - 9/10

The Narcomancer - 9/10

Too Many Yesterdays, Not Enough Tomorrows - 9/10

Sinners, Saints, Dragons, and Haints, in the City Beneath the Still Waters - 9/10

A more detailed summary/reaction to each story under the cut. WARNING: IT’S LONG.

1. Those Who Stay and Fight - 8/10

Describes a utopia called Um-Helat that exists solely because no one is seen as superior or inferior to anyone else. Over time we learn it's a future, or potential future, of America. But America today is pure anathema to it due to rampant structural inequality. In order to achieve its utopian ideal, Um-Helatians have to root out and destroy people corrupted by the past.

This story was apparently written as a tribute/response to the Ursula K. Le Guin story “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”. I first read this without context, then went and read the Le Guin story. I definitely see the parallels. Both feature a narrator describing a wonderful utopia in the midst of festival, trying to convince the reader of the place's existence, before introducing something dark that is the price of the utopia. In the Le Guin story, the utopia exists at the price of the horrible misery and suffering of one child, and everyone is aware of it. Most live with it, but a few leave for the unknown rather than continue to live there (hence the title). In Jemisin's story, the price is instead the annihilation of those tainted by exposure to the evils of the past. The choice, instead of leaving, is for those tainted yet capable to become protectors of the new world, or die.

The thesis is pretty clear: that only by abandoning horrible ideologies and refusing to give them any ground or quarter can a utopian society truly exist. I will say that rings clear, especially when one considers Naziism and fascism. Not all ideologies deserve the light of day or debate, and even entertaining them as valid allows it to take hold. I liked this story, though it comes off as a social justice essay more than a story in and of itself.

2. The City Born Great - 10/10

This one is told from the perspective of a homeless young black man who feels a strange resonance with New York City. He meets a mysterious figure named Paulo, who tells him the city is about to be born as a full-fledged entity, and the man has been chosen to assist with its birth. However, there’s an eldritch force known simply as The Enemy that seeks to prevent this from happening.

I've read this one before since it's the prologue to The City We Became. And honestly it was one of my favorite parts of that book. New York City is a phenomenal character. I love that the proto-avatar of NYC is a young homeless black man, one of the most denigrated groups out there. Cops being the harbingers of eldritch destruction is... yeah. It was fun to reread this. The ending is a little different, because in the novel, something goes terribly wrong that doesn't happen in this short story. There is also a flash forward where he is, apparently, about to awaken the avatar of Los Angeles. Makes me wonder if that is ultimately the endgame of the series. But otherwise it's the same thing with absolutely phenomenal character voice and creativity regarding cities as living creatures. I'm glad Jemisin expanded this idea into a full series.

3. Red Dirt Witch - 7/10

Takes place before the (1960s) Civil Rights Movement in Pratt City, AL. The main character is Emmaline, a witch with three kids. A creepy figure called The White Lady comes to visit and steal one of her children.

I love the little twist that The White Lady is a faerie. And the different take on rowan/ash/thorn instead being rosemary/sage/sycamore fig. There is a lot of touching bits about the horrible trials and human rights abuses during the Civil Rights marches (which are unfortunately all too relevant still), but ultimately a hopeful glimpse of the future of black people in America, though hard-won.

4. L'Alchimista - 6/10

Stars a Milanese master chef named Franca, who fell from glory for Reasons, who now works as head chef at a run-down inn. She feeds a mysterious stranger, who then challenges her to fix a seemingly impossible recipe.

This one was fun and charming. I thought the food (and magical food) descriptions were very vibrant and interesting, especially the last meal. I can tell this is an earlier story and it's pretty light hearted, but I enjoyed it. It felt like it needed a little more of.. something.

5. The Effluent Engine - 9/10

In an interesting steampunk take, Haitian spy Jessaline comes to the city of New Orleans to meet one of its foremost scientists. Her goal is to find a viable, unique energy source to strengthen Haiti in a world that wants to see her nation dead.

I really liked this; it's one of the longer stories so there's more time for character development and worldbuilding. And it's gay. I'm not hugely into pure steampunk because a lot of it comes off as very... samey (hyper Eurocentric/Victorian, etc) but I thought this take was fresh.

Like much of Jemisin's work, there is a lot of racial under and overtones; this one specifically goes into the terrible atrocities committed against the Haitians during their Revolution, and the varied social classes of black/Creole people in New Orleans at the time. A lot of this is stuff I was unaware of or knew very little about. I thought it was interesting to bring all of these to the forefront in a steampunk story in addition to the dirigibles, clockwork, action, and subterfuge. Also, everything tries together in a very satisfying way by the end (the rum bottle!), which I love in short fiction.

6. Cloud Dragon Skies - 9/10

Takes place in a post-apoc future where some humans evacuated to space while others stayed behind and took on more indigenous traditions to heal the Earth. The sky has suddenly turned red on Earth, and some representatives from the "sky-people" come to study it and figure out why.

I really enjoyed this little story; fantasy/scifi fusions are my jam, but science fiction specifically told through a fantasy lens is just so cool to me. The cloud dragons were very interesting and imaginative. Also, I love how the opening statement's meaning isn't particularly clear until you read the whole thing.

7. The Trojan Girl - 10/10

This one is about sentient computer programs/viruses that struggle to survive in something called the Amorph, which is basically a more advanced, omnipresent version of the Internet.

Holy fucking shit was this a cool story. Probably the coolest take on cyberpunk I've ever read. The main character Moroe has formed a messed up little family of creatures like him who live and hunt in Amorph's code, but can upload to "the Static" (real life) if needed by hijacking human hosts. The way this is described is so damn creepy and unsettling. I love that while they're anthropomorphized, the characters are mostly feral and compared to a pack of wolves. Soooo much wolf pack imagery. And the ending is so fucking good and imaginative.

This was apparently a proof of concept story that Jemisin decided not to adapt to a longer series, which I'm kind of sad about, but it was REALLY cool nevertheless. The next story is apparently in the same universe and serves as the "conclusion".

8. Valedictorian - 9/10

This one is about a girl who is, well, top of her class in high school, and the stresses that mount as graduation approaches. But while it seems like a familiar setup, there is something decidedly Off about everything, which is revealed gradually over the course of the story.

I originally gave this an 8, but honestly I couldn't stop thinking about it so I boosted it to a 9. It doesn’t become clear how this connects to the previous story until the midpoint. I liked this one because it functions as a nice dystopian science fiction story but also biting social commentary on the modern American education system. I'm not going go say more on it because spoilers. While I personally like the first story more I think this is an interesting followup/conclusion with a more cerebral approach.

9. The Storyteller's Replacement - 6/10

This one's presented as a traditional "once upon a time" fable told by a storyteller narrator, about a shitty despotic king named Paramenter. Desperate to prove his virility, he eats the heart of a dragon, which is said to be a cure-all for impotence. It's successful, but the six strange daughters that result seem to have plans of their own.

Not really my cup of tea-- it's pretty fucked up. But it's definitely cathartic by the end, which I appreciate, and I do like how creepy the daughters are.

10. The Brides of Heaven - 5/10

Framed as an interrogation in an offworld colony called Illiyin, in which a terrible accident occurred on the way that left all the adult men dead. Dihya, who lost her only son to an alien parasite, is caught trying to sabotage the colony's water supply for reasons unknown.

I like some things in this story. I love the trope of alien biology affecting human biology in unexpected ways. I'm not terribly familiar with Islam but thought it added an interesting faith vs practicality vs tradition element to the science fiction. However I found the sexual body horror REALLY squicky which turned me off the story as a whole.

11. The Evaluators - 10/10

Stylized as a collection of logs and excerpts from a First Contact team of humans visiting and studying a sapient alien species to potentially set up trade relations. There's a focus on one team member named Aihua and her conversations with one of the aliens, but there's miscellaneous important hints/excerpts from the survey that hint Something Creepy Is Going On.

This one was BIZARRE and took me two reads to fully appreciate, but it’s a great work of nontraditional science fiction horror. Just... the epitome of "*nervous laughter* 'what the fuck'". I can't say more without spoiling but dear lord. That whole Jesus bit hits different on a second read. Fucking hell.

12. Walking Awake - 7/10

Takes place in a dystopian society in which parasitic creatures known as Masters keep a small number of humans alive to be flesh suits for them, which they take over and trade around at will. The main character Sadie is a human "caretaker" responsible for propagandizing and raising well-bred human children that eventually become the Masters' hosts. She starts to have disturbing dreams when one takes over the body of a teenage boy she was particularly attached to.

This is apparently a response to Robert Heinlein's The Puppet Masters, which I have never read. It's a full damn novel so I probably won't. Google tells me it's about parasitic aliens, but was obviously also Red Scare paranoia about communist Russia. The argument in the Jemisin story is that the parasites are a result of human folly in an attempt to punish/control people their creators didn't like. This went poorly and resulted in the whole world being taken over.

The story itself is disturbing since the victims are innocent children, but it's ultimately about standing up and taking the first step toward revolution. I felt pretty neutral about the story itself; perhaps I would have liked it more if it was longer and I had more time with the world and protagonist. I wanted to connect to Sadie and her maternal relationship the boy who got killed more. Or maybe it's more impactful if you're familiar with the Heinlein novel and can see the nods/digs.

13. The Elevator Dancer - 7/10

A very short story that takes place in a Christian fundamentalist surveillance state. The protagonist is an unnamed security guard who occasionally sees a woman dancing alone in the elevator and obsesses over her.

I like this one but I'm not sure if I really get it. It's heavily implied the dancer is a hallucination, and the narrator gets "re-educated" but it's all a little ambiguous. I think it's about the struggle to find meaning and inspiration in an oppressive world.

14. Cuisine des Mémoires - 8/10

This one's about a man named Harold who visits a strange restaurant that claims it can replicate any meal from any point in history. He orders a meal which his ex-wife, whom he still loves very much, fixed for him years ago.

This one was certainly different, but I really like the idea of food-as-memory, especially because that's an actual thing. This story just takes it to an extra level. Honestly this story made me feel things... the longing of memory and missed connections/opportunities. Jemisin did a great job with emotion on this one.

15. Stone Hunger - 9/10

Stars a girl in with the ability to manipulate the earth who's tracking down a man she senses in an unfamiliar city. It's heavily implied the world is in a perpetual post-apocalyptic state. When she's caught damaging the outer wall of the city to break in and injured/imprisoned, she's aided by a mysterious, humanoid statue creature with motives of its own.

I have to say it's really interesting to see an early beta concept of The Broken Earth. Orogeny is a little different (and not named)-- there's some kind of taste component to it? Though that's possibly unique to the main character? While hatred of orogenes exists I don't think it's a structural exploitation allegory at this point. Ykka + proto-Castrima existing this early is pretty funny to me. People also use metal, which is VERY funny if you’ve read the series. But I was thrilled to see stone eaters were Very Much A Thing this early and almost exactly how they appear in the series (a little more sinister I guess. At least the one in this story is. I think he basically gets integrated into the Steel/Gray character in the final version).

Anyway as a huge fan of The Broken Earth it's inspiring to see these early ideas and just how much got changed. It's hard for me to look at this as an independent story without the context of the series. I think I'd like it due to the creative setting and strange concepts, but I appreciate the final changes to narrative style and worldbuilding, which really made the series for me.

16. On The Banks of the River Lex - 8/10

Death explores a decaying, post-human version of New York City. He and various deities/ideas created by humans are all that survives in the future and they struggle to exist in the crumbling infrastructure of the city. But Death gradually observes new and different creatures developing amid the wreckage.

I liked this! Despite a typically bleak premise the story is very optimistic and hopeful for the future of the world post-humanity. I like anthropomorphized concepts/deities/etc in general. I thought the imagery of decay and life was gorgeous. Also octopuses are cool.

17. The Narcomancer - 9/10

Told from the perspective of Cet, a priest known as a Gatherer, who can take the life of someone through their dreams in order to bring them peace. When a village petitions his order to investigate a series of raids conducted by brigands using forbidden magic, Cet joins the party. However, he is troubled by his growing attraction to a strong-willed woman of the village.

This apparently takes place in the Dreamblood universe, which I have not read and know nothing about. However, I really enjoyed this story. It's the longest in the collection so I felt I really got to know the characters. The dream-based religion and fantasy was captivating to learn about. It was also romantic as hell, but not in the typical way you’d expect. I thought the central conflict of a priest struggling between an oath of celibacy and his duty to do the right thing (bring peace to someone who needs it) was fascinating.

18. Henosis - 4/10

A short piece, told anachronistically, about a lauded, award winning author on the way to an award ceremony. He gets kidnapped, but there's Something Else going on.

Honestly I get the sense this one is personal, lol. I will say I like the disturbing play on expectations, but I didn't connect much with it otherwise.

19. Too Many Yesterdays, Not Enough Tomorrows - 9/10

Follows a group of bloggers who have found themselves caught in isolated quantum loops. Their only human contact is through tenuous online conversations with each other. Styled as various chat logs and emails interspersed with the thoughts and perspectives of Helen, a young black woman who before the loop was teaching English in Japan.

This one is real depressing and definitely Social Commentary (TM). The central thesis about loneliness and disconnect at the end made me pretty dang sad. Good stuff in an ouch kind of way and made me think.

20. The You Train - 6/10

Told from the perspective of an unnamed narrator talking (presumably on the phone) to a friend about her struggles adjusting to life in New York City. She regularly mentions seeing train lines that either don't exist or retired a long time ago.

This is the kind of story I'd normally really like. I think trains are interesting and like vaguely supernatural, inexplicable shit. The one-sided phone call is also an interesting narrative device. But I'm not sure I really got this one. It comes off as vaguely horror-y but also optimistic? I couldn't really figure this one out, and it was too short to feel much investment on top of that.

21. Non-Zero Probabilities - 7/10

Luck has gone completely out of whack in New York City. Highly improbable events suddenly become way more likely, both good and bad. This story follows a woman named Adele and coming to grips with the new ways of life this brings.

I liked this one well enough but I don't have a lot to say about it. I liked how the story looks at how people would adapt to a life where probability doesn't mean anything anymore.

22. Sinners, Saints, Dragons, and Haints, in the City Beneath the Still Waters - 9/10

A magical realism story about a man named Tookie struggling to survive in New Orleans in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. He meets a talking, winged lizard and the two help each other out. But it soon becomes clear there is something sinister lurking in the flooded ruins of the city.

This story was very imaginative and a great cap to the collection. I thought it was an intriguing time period to set a magical realism story in. I love the little details, especially those of omission -- the "lizard" is never called a dragon, for example. I can see echoes of this story in The City We Became, especially the themes of cities as powerful entities, vague eldritch fuckery centered around hatred, and certain people being guardians of the city.

#2020 reading challenge #BONUS ROUND #taylor reads #8/10 #i am posting this Late but i was basically writing this review as i read so it's like. all done lol

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twdeadlysins · 6 years

Text

We Will Rise: Chapter 3

Pairing: Eventual Bellamy Blake x Reader

Word Count: 5,478

Warnings: Slow burn, violence, language, mention of character death, possible typos. The 100 usual.

Summary: The mere thought of going down to Earth never dawned on you until you were put on the exodus ship to do just that. You were skeptical, but decided to enjoy the experience even if the radiation killed you since you were going to be floated anyways. That was until the person you loved the most and abandoned was among the 100.

Author’s note: I don’t own anything from The 100, so all credit goes to their respective owners. This is going to be a LONG series because the reader is inserted in the events that take place in the show, therefore dialogue from the show is and will be used.

If you want to (un)tagged in for this series, don’t hesitate to send me an ask, message me, or comment and I’ll add you. The same goes for any other fics! I’m in no way, shape, or form a writer. Any feedback is appreciated, but hate is a different story. Thank you and enjoy!

The gifs I use aren’t mine, so all credit goes to their respective owners.

Catch up!

We Will Rise Masterlist // Masterlist

“His pulse is 380,” Clarke stated as she used her watch to calculate Jasper’s heart rate. The result made your eyes almost pop out of their sockets as you tore them off of Jasper’s painful state to gawk at the blonde.

After you had defied Bellamy, you chose to occupy your time in keeping Jasper company and assist in any aid that was needed. He wasn’t looking too good and you couldn’t imagine how much pain he was in. If you could ease his pain, take away it, or even take his place, you would in a heartbeat.

Before Clarke had joined you, you were in the middle of stroking a wet cloth on his forehead while humming a tune, trying to lessen his moans and get him to focus on you, but it didn’t work.

Jasper let out another loud moan, but before you could reach out and soothe him, a random guy shouted from outside for him to go back to sleep and then another yelled quiet. It made your blood boil how inconsiderate they were being, did they not give a fuck that a literal spear went right through him, that he almost died?

“Don’t listen to them. You’re gonna make it through this, okay? Promise.” Clarke softly said as she leaned in and caressed his cheek.

You nodded in agreement while tangling your fingers in his hair, pushing it back and away from his sweaty face. “They’re a bunch of disrespectful assholes who only care about themselves. Now you? Well you jumped in a river with a monster in it to save a girl then took a spear to the chest and is still breathing. I bet you none of them could compete,” you whispered, smiling as you looked down at Jasper before peering up to Clarke who had your same expression.

After you stepped back, you glanced over at Monty who was still working on a way to contact the Ark and gave him a sad smile before hearing another shout that made you fume.

“Can he just die already?!”

Alright, you had enough. You gritted your teeth and clenched your fists together as you started to stormed over to the ladder, ready to beat everyone’s ass, but Clarke’s hand wrapped around your wrist, preventing you from doing so. The action made you angrily snap your head over to her and give her a glare, but she didn’t falter and that didn’t surprise you. Clarke knew you could and would do what you sought out to do, that was who you were, but she also knew that you would back down if you had the right reasons. She shook her head and volunteered you to go with her to get some clean water for Jasper. You glanced between her and your injured friend, contemplating whether or not to ignore her and act out your frustration, but you softly nodded your head and made your way down the ladder knowing that was more important than wasting your energy on self-centered douches.

Once you exited the dropship with Clarke right behind, you wandered your eyes seeing a fire was still going as people were trying to go to sleep around it. You could still hear Jasper moaning even from outside and your heart ached at the sound, but seeing that it prevented the rude teens from meeting sleep made you smirk, they deserved it even though it still wasn’t enough punishment.

A sudden scream of protest interrupted your thoughts and you whipped your head to the direction of the noise with a confused look, what the hell was going on? Clarke strided over to the yelps and you followed suit until you made it over to a tree with a little girl moving back and forth, she was having a nightmare.

When your father was floated, you experienced nightmares about that day, it replayed over and over in your mind even when you were awake, but Bellamy had washed them away when he was with you. After the incident that got you thrown into the skybox, you dealt with more nightmares that you never had before like the day you’d get floated or Bellamy screaming at you about how much he loathed you, but not having him there by your side sucked even more than the terrors.

Clarke gestured for you to stand back thinking it would be too overwhelming if both of you loomed over the girl before kneeling down and giving her a little shake. The girl hurriedly sat up, panically searching everywhere before the blonde shushed her and reminded her that she was okay, that it was only just a dream.

“You’re Charlotte, right?” Clarke softly questioned as you still stood there seeing a little bit of yourself in her, the scared, broken girl you once were. If you could cope and get through it, then you had hope she somehow could too.

Clarke had introduced you and herself and asked if she wanted to talk about it. She seemed hesitant at first, but she softly replied that it was her parents, that they were floated and she saw it in her dreams.

“We understand,” you spoke up, your voice cracking slightly at the thought of Clarke’s father and your own being floated like they were nothing, erased from existence like they weren’t even there.

“Our fathers were floated too,” Clarke elaborated which made Charlotte finally make eye contact with her and then she looked over at you before averting her eyes back at the ground.

Clarke had broken the brief silence and asked how she ended up here which peaked your interest, how did she get locked up at such a young age?

“We were taking my parents’ things to the redistribution center and … I kind of lost it. They said I assaulted a guard.”

You scoffed under your breath as you went to go sit against a tree that was across from them, of course they did. The people that were higher up on the Ark and called the shots were idiots, they would say and do anything to reduce the population, so might as well target the underage people and send them to the skybox. Charlotte was griefing and acted out because of it, of course they would ignore her feelings and the fact she lost both of her parents and lock her away.

“I can’t say I blame you,” Clarke said before pausing and looking up towards the sky and pointing, making you and girl look as well. “See that bright star up there? That’s the Ark orbiting above us. I think whatever happened up there, you know, the pain … maybe we can move past that now. Maybe being on the ground is our second chance.”

You absorbed her words and thought about them over again in your head before realizing that she had a point. Not being on the Ark and down on the ground could be your second chance, to move past everything and start over in a sense. You would never forget what happened, but the pain you felt can stay up there on the horrid place you called a home. You could move past the dreadful feeling of talking to Bellamy and finally move past what happened on the Ark, what made things so weary between the two of you.

Clarke had huddled up with Charlotte, making the corner of your mouth quirk up before you reached for your necklace and started to toy with it.

“How’s my favorite girl?” a familiar voice sang as you heard them close your door and their footsteps approach you.

You rolled your eyes and stopped reading the book that was within your grasp and glanced up to see Bellamy with a grin plastered on his beautiful face. “What about your sister?” you jokingly questioned, quirking a brow only to get a playful shrug for a response before he picked up your legs that was stretched out on your bed and laid them across his lap, so he could sit down.

“I guess you and I have a secret now,” he winked while he slapped on your thighs as if they were drums causing you to toss the forgotten book aside and fold your arms as you curiously stared at him with a smirk

“I guess we do. Now tell me, what do I owe the pleasure?”

His laugh tugged at your heartstrings in the best way possible and your smirk turned into a wide grin seeing him like that, it was even better knowing that you did it. The way his eyes crinkled and the smile he gave you as laughter escaped his lips was what you strived to see everyday.

“Just wanted to see my favorite girl, that’s all,” he said in between chuckles as you kept glaring at him with curiosity. After his fit of giggles died down, he rolled his eyes and confessed he did have a reason for visiting.

He squeezed your thigh with one hand while the other reached into his pocket, making you sit up straighter, wondering what he was retrieving. Bellamy had pulled out something wrapped in fabric which made you glance back up at him to see his once elated mood become nervous and in thought.

“Did I forget my own birthday or-?” you joked, trying to ease his tense state and it seemed to work for a second as he let out a breathy laugh, but he kept fidgeting with the mysterious item.

“I just thought- I don’t know. I wanted to give you something and it not have to be a special day to do it. I hope- you know what just here,” he trailed off and quickly handed over the present.

You furrowed your brows wondering what he was so nervous about, but once you removed the cloth, you let out a small gasp and understood why. There within the fabric was a crafted necklace with an uppercase B in a curvy font, it was so simple yet so beautiful.

“The B obviously is for Bellamy or Blake whatever you want to interpret as. I just wanted to give you something that symbolized and reminded you that I’m always going to be there for you,” he explained and the meaning behind the gift made you tear up.

“Thank you, Bell, it’s gorgeous. I love it,” you managed to say as you felt a lump in your throat and a tear escape your eye. After you were done rubbing your finger and admiring the jewelry, you brought it over your head and around your neck before looking at Bellamy. He stared at the metal with a lopsided grin before locking his chocolate orbs onto yours and his smile grew bigger.

“Perfect.”

The memory brought a sad smile to your face and you continued to toy with the necklace as you looked up to the sky, wandering your irises over the numerous stars before glaring at the one you knew was the Ark. You wondered what was happening up there, did they think the ones who took off their wristbands were actually dead and were they going to come down here if they were smart enough to figure out you all had survived? The Ark and the things that occured up there you would eventually get past and start over, but most of the people that inhabited it, you all needed even if the ignorant people down here didn’t think they did.

***

You had slept in the dropship, well to be fair you didn’t get that much sleep at all due to the moaning of Jasper, but you didn’t really care. His well being was a higher priority than your rest, so you mainly kept on eye on him and tended to him knowing that Clarke was much more of an asset since she had plenty of medical experience whereas you only knew the basics. Her mother had taught you a couple of things before you were tossed into the box, but you managed to get some training after class since you wanted more knowledge on Earth skills and medical was essential.

Clake had taken over, so you leaned against the wall and absentmindedly fumbled with your necklace as you watched her work. Monty was still trying to find out a way to get in touch with the Ark and you really didn’t want to help outside. Work with those assholes? No thanks. So being on the side lines just incase you were needed sounded better to you.

“The Grounders cauterized the wound … saved his life,” she pointed out as she inspected it.

“Saved his life so they could string him up for live bait,” Finn said as he stepped back in. What he said gave you chills, you knew that was the reason, but what kind of sick people would do such a thing?

“This is infected, he could be septic,” Clarke said, and that made you stop fiddling with your necklace. How would you treat it? It wasn’t like you all had medicine lying around.

“Any progress on using the wristbands to contact the Ark?” she questioned as she looked over at Monty. You peered over at him when you didn’t hear a response, he was zoned out, staring at Jasper.

“Monty?” you said loud enough to break his thoughts.

He blinked, coming back to reality and gave a firm no causing Clarke to sigh, bringing up that her mother would know what to do. Abby Griffin was a brilliant doctor, but you had faith that her daughter, your friend, could do just as good and save Jasper’s life.

“How’s he doing?” Wells inquired. You noticed he had climbed the ladder to come in earlier, but you chose to ignore him. Yes, you were going to try and move past things, but forgiving Wells didn’t sit right with you.

“How does it look like he’s doing, Wells?” Clarke frustratedly said. You didn’t blame her, it was a stupid question after all and it came from him, the person you both blamed for her father’s death, so what did he expect?

“Hey, I’m just trying to help,” he replied and you couldn’t help, but roll your eyes.

“Alright, you wanna help?” Clarke asked, making you gawk at her with confusion. “Hold him down.”

No one questioned it as Finn and Wells held his legs down while you secured his wrists, but being mindful not to get in her way while she put the knife’s blade in the fire, oh boy.

“I’m not gonna like this, am I?” Monty questioned and you gave him a sympathetic knowing what she was about to do.

Clarke took the red hot blade out and gave you a worried look, preparing for what you all knew was to come, so you gave her a nod, assuring her you trusted her. She then applied the blade to his skin, trying to cut the infected flesh. Jasper moaned louder than ever and you tried not to panic as you pinned his wrists down tighter, shutting your eyes so you couldn’t see his distressed face.

The moaning stopped and you quickly opened your eyes to see that he passed out, making you release a shaky breath that you didn’t know you were holding.

“Stop it, you’re killing him!” Octavia shouted as she barged into the room.

“She’s trying to save his life,” Finn calmly corrected.

“She can’t,” Bellamy said, entering the dropship as well, making you huff and retract your hands from Jasper only to cross them against your chest as you glared at him. He made eye contact with you and you noticed his stone hard expression softened a bit before Wells instructed him to back off.

“We didn’t drag him through miles of woods just to let him die,” Clarke said and that caught you off guard.

“So what? You’re only trying to save his life so your precious time wouldn’t have gone to waste?” you angrily grunted. The expression on her face turned into shock and she opened her mouth to respond, but she was interrupted.

“Kid’s a goner. If you can’t see that, you’re deluded. He’s making people crazy,” Bell sternly said.

You opened your mouth to put him in his place, but Clarke beat you to it. “Sorry if Jasper’s an inconvenience to you, but this isn’t the Ark. Down here, every life matters.” She glanced over to you and you softly nodded understanding that she chose a poor choice of words before. If you were being honest, you accidentally projected your frustration of Bellamy out on to her. If you didn’t have all those emotions coursing through you, you would’ve known she didn’t mean what she had said to come out the way it did.

“Take a look at him, he’s a lost cause.”

Everyone trailed their eyes over to Jasper’s form like they were starting to believe what Bellamy was saying and you weren’t about to let that happen.

“He’s survived for this long, he’s a fighter, if he wasn’t, he would’ve died when that spear struck him. If that you were you,” you pointed at Jasper, starting to get emotional, but you tried to suppress it. “Would you want us to give up on you? Decide whether you’re worth it or not?”

“I’d want you to put me out of my misery.” He stared at Jasper, not even making eye contact with you when he answered because you would see right through him, his eyes always told you how he really felt.

You let out a heavy breath, not believing he would actually want that, he was a fighter too and you knew he knew that. Clarke then told Octavia that she had watched her mother heal people her whole life, so if she says there’s hope, there’s hope.

“This isn’t about hope, it’s about guts.”

“It’s about saving a life,” you corrected, emphasizing every word. You noticed how Bellamy clenched his jaw, but he chose to ignore you when made you even more agitated.

“You don’t have the guts to make the hard choices, I do. He’s been like this for three days. If he’s not better by tomorrow, I’ll kill him myself.”

Your eyes grew wide, “you can’t just put a timer on whether he decides to live or not because your so called people are mindless dicks! He either gets better or … or he doesn’t,” you shouted, stuttering at the thought of losing your best friend.

He continued to pretend you weren’t there and ordered for his sister to follow him, but she refused and got up to comfort you. Bellamy brought his eyes to see you still staring at him with emotion and hurt flooding your features. His expression softened once again, but it turned hard just as quick and he left without saying another word leaving you to blink away the tears before they fell.

“Power-hungry, self-serving jackass. He doesn’t care about anyone, but himself,” Monty said before looking at Octavia and realizing what he said. “No offense.”

Octavia didn’t say anything as she wrapped her arm behind your waist and rubbed your arm while leaning her head against your shoulder. Finn agreed, but said Bellamy did happen to be right which made you finally storm out of the dropship. You had enough of everyone thinking that Jasper’s life wasn’t worth it, things might not be looking the best right now, but he’s still alive and that’s all that mattered, you still had hope. If he did end up not making it, it wouldn’t be because you all gave up on him.

You had your eyes closed, so when you heard footsteps approach and someone occupy the space beside you, you lifted one lid to see Clarke had joined you where you ventured off to. You had decided to get away from everyone, but not too far, just enough to where no one would bother you or at least unwanted company. She didn’t break the silence knowing when you got like this, you didn’t want to communicate with anyone and that was one of the reasons why you two got along so well; she understood you and vice versa.

The peaceful comfortable silence was broken when you heard heavy footsteps come your way and you let out an annoyed sigh knowing it wasn’t Octavia, so unwanted company was now about to invade your space.

“You’re mad,” a familiar voice stated. Of course he followed Clarke.

You let out another sigh before compeling yourself to open your eyes. “Yes, I’m mad, Finn. Not at anyone specific, just at everyone who believes that Jasper is a lost cause.”

“I’m not mad,” Clarke said, causing you to peek over at her. “You want to think Jasper’s a lost cause, go ahead, you’re wrong.”

A light chuckle left your lips because you usually had that attitude, not giving a fuck, but that was mainly about yourself. When it came to your friends, the people you loved, you gave a fuck. If people thought about you as a lost cause, you wouldn’t care, but you didn’t want that for Jasper.

“I hope I am,” he replied.

“Yeah, I hope you are too,” you mumbled, closing your eyes again since you had a feeling Finn came out here because of Clarke. He definitely felt something for Clarke, you saw that back at the river, it was cute, so you were going to mind your business and continue what you were doing earlier.

“Whatever this stuff is, it has to have had antibiotic properties,” you heard Clarke say, making you open your eyes again and reach for what she had in her hand.

Before you could inspect what the plant was, another person was joining you all as you heard leaves crunching beneath their feet and you groaned. “What the fuck, I can never get any peace and quiet around here.”

You turned your head to see Wells and you didn’t stop the urge to roll your eyes, great. Just as you were about to ignore him and go back to surveying the plant, he knelt down and grabbed it out of your palm. “Let me take a look. Before you refuse my help, remember who aced botany in Earth skills.”

“Um, excuse me there,” you annoyedly said as you snatched the plant back into your hand. Clarke seemed just as annoyed as you were as she glared over at Wells. “I had it first and you weren’t the only one to ace botany,” you pointed out. His lips parted slightly, but they went into a tight line knowing he’d lose the fight.

“I’m thinking a tea might be even more effective if we can figure out what it is,” Clarke mentioned as you studied the plant. By the time she finished her sentence, you knew exactly what ‘it’ was.

“Seaweed is the winner of your plant here,” you blatantly said. You gestured your opened hand for them to see, but Wells had took it and inspected it like you were wrong or something.

“No root structure, yeah, she’s right,” Well chimed.

“Of course I am, didn’t ace botany to get something as simple as seaweed wrong,” you frankly replied as you stood and stretched your limbs.

“Right. Well, then there must be a water source nearby,” Clarke said and you nodded.

“Yeah, it would have to have a slow current, lots of rocks. The water would probably be more red than green,” Wells informed.

“Okay, now you’re just trying to show off,” you scoffed, but smirked knowing Wells had always secretly harboured a crush for Clarke, no way in hell that would ever happen now. He opened his mouth slightly with a bewildered look acting as if he wasn’t flaunting. You knew he wasn’t trying to, you didn’t think he even knew he was and that made it even funnier.

“I know just the place,” Finn spoke up.

“Alright, let’s go,” Clarke said as she stood up, looking between you and Finn, but you shook your head.

“Nah, I’m not going. I’d rather stay here and make sure nobody decides to kill Jasper beforehand. You both don’t know what that stuff looks like by the way,” you mentioned as they started to walk off before looking over at Wells who was beside you. “Take Wells … I mean he’s not as good as me, but he’ll do,” you teased with a smirk, earning an irritated look from both Clarke and Wells.

The three of them went out to retrieve the seaweed, so you went to check on Jasper. Octavia was taking care of him while Monty continued to find a way to get a hold of the Ark and helped with Jasper when needed. You stayed with them for a little bit, chatting with Octavia while also trying not to be a distraction to Monty.

“Hey, I’m going to go outside and get some fresh air. I’ll bring back some more water when I’m done,” you said, giving Octavia a smile before patting her shoulder on your way out of the dropship.

Once you exited, you kept your distance, not wanting to gain any attention from anyone. Everyone was chatting and leisuring around, but you noticed something off … where was the other Blake sibling?

You wished you didn’t care, but you did. It didn’t feel like you were in control of your feet as you walked up to a guy who you hoped knew where he was.

“Hey, you,” you called. He turned around and looked you up and down before smirking and asked what you wanted.

“Cut the shit. Do you know where Bellamy is?” you directly asked.

He rolled his eyes and let out a grunt, making you quirk your brows in shock that he didn’t think twice to do that especially towards you. “You’re like the thirtieth girl to ask, if you want to sleep with him, then wait like the rest of them.”

Your mouth was ajar as you continued to glare at him with shock, did he really think that was what you wanted? And girls here actually want to fuck him? I mean you didn’t blame them, but come on, what in the actual fuck.

By the time you were done processing what he had said, he had turned his back to you, so you grabbed his shoulder and made him face you again. “I have no fucking clue why you would assume that was what I wanted ‘cause listen here, I’m not like most girls here who fuck a guy just because they’re high and mighty, hot, or whatever the case may be, got it? Good. Now answer my damn question before I knock your teeth in.”

“Sorry. He left just a moment ago to go hunting and took some guys with him, he said he’d be back before dark.” His apology seemed genuine since you scared the shit out of him and you got the answer you were looking for, so you thanked him and walked off, deciding to go back to the log you were at before Clarke and them left, but something caught your eye and caused you to stop in your tracks.

You cursed under your breath as you quietly followed Charlotte through the woods, what did she think she was doing venturing off out in the woods? Did Jasper getting a spear through the chest not scare her enough? You were sucked out of your thoughts when you heard the sound of oinking not too far away, but Charlotte continued to walk right towards it. You rolled your eyes and tiptoed faster trying to reach her without making a sound before something happened.

There was a sudden crack of a twig and you looked down only to see dirt at your feet, so it wasn’t you. You glanced back up when you heard another sound, only to see an axe sticking out of a tree with Charlotte right beside the trunk followed by shouts.

“Who the hell are you?” you heard Bellamy question.

“Charlotte.”

“I almost killed you,” he said before wedging his axe out of the tree. “Why aren’t you back at camp?”

“Well, with that guy who was dying, I just … I couldn’t listen anymore,” she stumbled and you decided to make your presence known.

“Don’t use past tense ‘cause he isn’t dead and he’s recovering, not dying,” you scolded as you made your way through the tall grass ignoring Bellamy’s gaze.

“There’s Grounders out here. It’s too dangerous for a little girl,” Atom said, but Charlotte disagreed and stated she wasn’t little, that she didn’t need a babysitter and that was directed at you.

“You literally wandered off into the unknown like what a little kid would do,” you irkly stated. “Of course I followed you. I didn’t want to have to find out you died ‘cause then I’d feel guilty since I knew you left,” you coldly shot back.

“Okay then … but you can’t hunt without a weapon,” Bellamy spoke up, breaking the argument as he handed over a knife. You couldn’t believe you were fighting with a child and the fact that he was giving her a weapon. “Ever killed something before?”

She lightly shook her head and that made Bell smirk. “Who knows? Maybe you’re good at it.” What he said made you slightly smile, seeing a glimpse of the Bellamy you had gotten to know and fall in love with since you were younger, but you knew he wasn’t that guy anymore, at least not now.

You followed Bellamy and Atom with Charlotte in front of the three of you, you didn’t want her to be the caboose just incase. Atom offered for him to hold the back, but you insisted on keeping your place.

“Hey, why don’t I get a weapon? We can protect Charlotte, she can’t protect us,” you said, but all you got was silence unless you count Atom looking at Bell for an answer as something.

“Gee, thanks,” you rolled your eyes and scoffed, deciding to push ahead of the two guys as you reached into the pocket of your jacket. “Just seeing if you were still a dick, looks like I got my answer,” you said as you paced passed them, waving the knife beside your head before resting your arms at your sides. You mentally praised yourself for stealing a knife before you left.

You walked for less than ten minutes before hearing a horn being blown from god knows where. The sound made you turn around and look at Bellamy who matched your puzzled expression before your eyes grew wide at the sight of a yellow cloud of mist heading your way.

“Run!”

Bellamy went ahead of you, grabbing your hand and dragging you with him, sprinting as fast as he could, you were surprised you kept up with him. The cloud kept barreling towards you and you didn’t want to find out what happened if it caught up with you, so you trained your eyes forward, tightening your grip on his hand. You darted through trees and jumped over rocks and sticks while thinking of a way to escape because you couldn’t outrun it forever.

“Come on! There are caves this way!” Bellamy shouted, trading hands with you, so he could grab Charlotte’s.

When you finally reached the cave, you were shoved into the entrance, but before you could relax and catch your breath, you heard shouts of Bellamy’s name right outside. He had stepped outside and looked to see where they were, but the fog was already there as you followed him. The air filled your lungs briefly before you raised your arm to cover your face, grasping Bellamy’s jacket and bringing him back inside.

You removed your arm and began coughing like mad, bad enough to where you gagged a couple times and heaved over like you were going to throw up at any given moment. The feeling of a hand soothing circles on your back was comforting and the urge to cough slowly dissipated. You looked over your shoulder before straightening your back and awkwardly thanked Bellamy, earning a slight nod before he went to check on Charlotte.

The more you thought about what that yellow mist was, the sooner you realized what it was. It was acid fog. Whoever got lost in that was a goner for sure. The thought of your skin burning and the acid filling your lungs and doing the same to your insides as well made you shiver.

You looked over at Bellamy and Charlotte before sighing and shoving your head in your hands. Great, not only were you stuck in a cave with acid fog right outside, but you were stuck with the two people who would make you want to run out in it.

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Thank you for reading! What did you think of this part? Any feedback is much appreciated and I would love to hear your thoughts, criticism, suggestions, etc! If you’d like to be (un)tagged don’t hesitate to let me know!

Q: Do you think Bellamy is being a dick or do you think he’s just stating the truth? Is the reader being too harsh or is her attitude justified? Let me know and if you’d like to ask me a question, I’d love to give you an answer!

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@jodiereedus22 @im-a-writer-sometimes @morgannope @littlegirl-fox @bunnymother93 @delightful-pirate @gruffle1 @maddielaurette

#bellamy blake x reader #bellamy x reader #bellamy blake #bellamy #we will rise #the 100 #cw the 100 #the 100 fanfiction #bellamy blake fanfiction #bellamy blake x reader insert #bellamy x reader insert #bellamy blake x you #bellamy x you #bellamy blake x y/n #bellamy x y/n #f.

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kbrown78 · 6 years

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Monthly Wrap Up: September

Looking back, September wasn't a great month. Granted I did read 9 books and 3 of those books were over 500 pages, but most of these books I didn't enjoy. There were a couple highlights and two of the books that I did read were non fiction, both I thought were fairly good. I will also say real quick that I tried to start the last book in the Gemma Doyle trilogy, but I gave up on it because it was the exact same story I had to endure in the second book and I wasn't going to deal with 800 pages of that.

The Defiant Heir by Melisa Caruso: This is the second book in the Swords an Fire trilogy, and I thought it was even better than the first, and I gave the first one 5 stars. First it does build off of what was established in the previous book, with the worlds and the characters. The main conflict is Amalia trying to prevent an internal war while also trying to solve what happened to the missing Falcons. This series is exactly what I want to read, with an amazing intellectual character who knows how to use her smarts to achieve her goals and is someone who tries to do right thing. The relationships are all astounding, female friendships in particular, and I like that Amalia's mother is an active presence who cares about her daughter but lets her do her own thing. The romance is great too, despite the fact that there is a love triangle. The villain is despicably evil, but he's not mustache twirling and while he did have a sad past, that fact isn't even remotely treated as an excuse for his horrible actions. The plot keeps me invested and keeps adding new twists that add to the story. The world is fantastic, with each location feeling well developed and distinct from each other. Seriously the only complaint I have about this series is that it isn't longer. The Defiant Heir received 5 out 5 stars.

Bitterblue by Kristen Cashore: This book was such a disappointment. When I first read the Graceling trilogy, I hated the other two books, and I think that clouded my judgement and made me rate Bitterblue much higher. I do ultimately think Bitterblue is the best book in the series, but after rereading it I realize that it's not nearly as good as I originally thought it was. It's going to be hard to do this review without giving away spoilers, but I'll try. A brief synopsis is that Queen Bitterblue is working to help her kingdom recover and there are those that are trying to stop her. So Bitterblue makes an effort to be a good ruler and do the right thing in difficult situations. She's also book smart, which I usually like that type of character, but she did some really stupid things and was also quite bratty at times. There are two potential love interests, and I didn't really like either of them. One was just brooding, which I never like in a love interest, the other one was a bit boring. The weakest aspect of this book is definitely the plot. There's a sub plot about rebellion in the other kingdoms, but it was pretty irrelevant to the overall plot, and I just wasn't interested in any of the characters involved. This is the part where it's impossible to talk about the book with out spoilers, but I will say this. The struggle's that the kingdom is facing were well written and did a good job of exploring various themes of ruling and recovery. However, the big plot twist at the end that helps resolve their issues is so unrealistic that it causes the entire story to just collapse. The best aspects of this book were some of the themes explored and the art work because there are some beautiful interior designs. I would still say this book is the best out of the three, but looking back it isn't nearly as good as I remember it (although I do in part blame the reading slump I was in after finishing Defiant Heir, but only partly). Bitterblue received 2 out 5 stars and was my pick for the PopSugar promt “book with your favorite color in the title”.

Red Sister by Mark Lawrence: I went into this book with high expectations, and while it did live up to a few, it also disappointed me. The basic summary is this girl gets taken in by a convent of assassin nuns, where she spends her years training. Sounds like a pretty cool synopsis, but every time I hope a book is going to be similar to Harry Potter, with the schooling, it never lives up to that expectation. First I liked the protagonist, Nona. It was nice to have a female character who was a badass fighter, but she wasn't cold. She cares deeply about her friends and friendship and protecting those she cares about are important to her. That's not a type of character I see often. With that established, I do think some of the friendships were well done, like Hessa's, Arabella's and Clera's, because of how much they differ but at the same time feeling like it wasn't forced. Some of the nuns were interesting, but they didn't quite feel fully fleshed out, and one nun I hated because of how mean she was and I'm sick of seeing that kind of adult in fiction. The world building was so weird, and I honestly didn't like it because it felt very underdeveloped and made little sense. The story is Nona's story, but there times when I felt like it didn't focus on her and those were usually my least favorite parts because I was just invested in Nona, not in anything that was happening in the outside world or with any other character. Because of that there were some parts I honestly just skimmed through. I mentioned the Harry Potter thing, and what I meant by that is Nona has classes that she needs to take, and while they are mentioned, I didn't get much of sense of her learning. It was more like she suddenly had these skills, which I blame on both the lack of detail on what she did learn, and the poor pacing of this story, with those parts just being rushed through at a rate I couldn't even discern. So while I liked parts of the story, I definitely didn't love it was much as I thought I would and I'm not sure if I'm going to continue with rest of the series. Red Sister received 3 out 5 stars from me.

The Silk Roads: A New History of World by Peter Frankopan: I was originally going to be reading this book over the entire year, but I decided to just finish it up as some as possible. I didn't tag this book and I won't be doing a full review of it because it is historical nonfiction. Now the premise of the book intrigued me, exploring world history through the Silk Road, and I also though the cover was pretty. The first half of the book really intrigued because I like learning about ancient history, and it was very detailed and I was fascinated by what I was learning. My impression, however, had been that this book would primarily focus on ancient times, but this was not the case. I could have done with history that was all pre-1700s, but the last third of the book focused on history from the 1800s to modern times, and while I tried to pay attention because there was a lot that was relevant to today's world, I just couldn't focus as much as I had in the previous sections. That's not to say it wasn't as well written or well researched as the previous parts, I just wasn't interested anymore. So this book received 3.5 out 5 stars, but that's only because it's a case of “it's not you, it's me,” and I would highly recommend this book to anyone that loves history.

You Are A Badass by Jen Sincero: This was the other nonfiction I read this month, and this was just a real quick self help book. I do think overall it did a good job at identifying ways to improve but I do admit I started skimming through the extra text just to get to the bullet points. So helpful but maybe not presented in the most efficient way. You Are A Badass received 3 out 5 stars.

The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins: Oh man, I was looking forward to this book, but it epicly failed. I read a sample of it and was really intrigued. It felt very mysterious, I didn't know exactly what was going on and I got the distinct impression that these characters weren't entirely human. Then I read the rest of the book and I didn't connect with any of the characters, I found the writing style to be increasing irritating, the story made no sense to me because I didn't understand what was happening and I didn't understand the sense of urgency, and I got increasingly sexist vibes from the story. All I can make sense of is that “Father” was gone missing from the Library and there's a lot of death and resurrection. I can't do a full review of this story because I DNFed it 50% through, I just couldn't take it anymore. I initially chose this one as my pick for the PopSugar promt “book set in a library” and needless to say this book received 1 out 5 stars because I couldn't even force myself to finish it.

Circle of Magic: Sandry's Book by Tamora Pierce: I hoped that I would enjoy this one. I've been looking forward to reading it for awhile. But lately I've really been struggling with YA, and even for a YA book I found this one to be bad. First, there's no plot. Literaly two major events happen in the book and that's it everything else was filler. What I remember of almost all my favorite reads as a child (with the exception being East) is that they got into the action and the plot fast, so I can definitely say that even as child I wouldn't have liked this book. I thought all the characters were pretty flat. I wasn't expecting to get everyone's perspective, I thought there would just be Sandry's perspective, since the book is literally called “Sandy's Book,” and I don't think adding in the extra perspectives helped the story in any way. I also got the impression that the children were acting overly immature but also the audience was expected to be immature. There was one scene where three of the character don't know what the word “kid” means, and it really irritated me. I won't be doing a full review for this one too, because I did tag it, but I didn't take any notes because of how overly simple this story was. I have the next 3 books and maybe they'll get better, but I'm in no rush. Sandry's Book received 1.5 out 5 stars.

The Star Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi: So I mentioned in the previous entry that I have been struggling with YA, particularly YA fantasy. This book, thank goodness, is a very pleasant exception to that. I really liked reading this book the first time through, and second read through, while there were a few things I disliked, I actually enjoyed the story even more. It's always pitched as Hades/ Persphone with Indian folklore, and both parts are so well done. I loved the romance, I loved the story, I loved the characters (most of them). The writing style is gorgeous, it's so flowery and atmospheric. I could see the vivid colors, I could taste the jewel fruit. I love Chokshi's books, and I cannot wait to get to her short stories that are set in the same world. Star Touched Queen received 5 out 5 stars.

Sabriel by Garth Nix: And so we return to the YA slump. I shouldn't be too hard on this book though. There were some very interesting aspects of it, and the first half of the book was good. Sabriel was competent character who was trained to deal with death, and Mogget was this eerie figure that I kind of liked but was also kid of afraid of. I loved the focus on death, and how death is it's own world. The magic system was really cool to, with different marks and the bells. I thought the pacing of the first half was decent too, fast but not rushed. Things took a turn, however, when the love interest was introduced. It was so obvious this guy was the love interest, and the relationship felt so forced and there was insta-love, which I hate. After Touchstone was introduced, the pacing was so much more rushed, there was a lot of telling instead of showing, and there was also quite a bit Deus Ex Machina. Things really fell apart in the second half, and it turns out this was because the first book was going to be treated more as a prequel instead of a first book. Sabriel received 3 out 5 stars.

#monthly wrap up #books #september #the defiant heir #melisa caruso #star touched queen #roshani chokshi #tamora pierce #bitterblue #red sister #garth nix #sabriel #library at mount char

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globalsource-blog · 7 years

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Rotterdam -> Berlin, Part 3

Let’s get straight to the point here, I have taken a long time to serialize this road trip. While I’d like to imagine every one of you reading this has been waiting at the edge of your seat, anticipating the next update as eagerly as I waited for the hammocks I just got in the post, I also recognize I’ve kept people waiting a long time. If this post was a hammock, then if I were you I’d have made a complaint about the shipping time by now. Apologies. In compensation, here’s a great album of African percussion to listen to while you read this post:

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Hand-wringing out of the way, let’s do a quick recap. The characters in the story which we’re resuming are: yours truly, the fighting pride of Pateley Bridge Stan Sands, and Arthur “shall we just do it” Delamare. Our heroes are cycling about 850km from Hook of Holland to Berlin to raise money for Médecins sans Frontières (our JustGiving is still live, if you’re reading this and haven’t donated, the link is at the bottom of the post). They’ve made it through wind and rain on arrival, through the beautiful and pancake-flat fields of Holland, and having eaten a great many cookies and chocolate bars, made it across the border into Germany, land of straight roads, fast cars and logistical efficiency. Just the place for a trio of clueless Englishmen without a map to really show the superiority of ineptitude with flair over po-faced competence.

Would you trust this guy to get you to Berlin? Course you would.

Where we left off, we’d just crossed over into Germany and spent a moonlit night in a stunning little grove of trees just off the side of the road. With Holland behind us, we’d found our pace and were getting good and comfortable on the roads. It was time to knuckle down and kick on; with about 500km left to go, the only motivation we needed was the knowledge that the road was pretty much paved with Lidls and Aldis, and that every one of them was full of hot fresh pastries. What a way to live. Lidl’s that way mate.

The first morning in Germany turned out to be the biggest detour of the trip. We’d run out of ethanol fuel for the Trangia camp stove I’d been using to make our nightly two or three-course meals, and hoping to find some more we did a quick Google Maps search and set course for “Camping World” about 40km to the South-East (bearing in mind Berlin was pretty much dead east of us at this point, this was a bit out of our way, but there’s nothing like the idea of a hot meal to help you rationalise a bit of extra effort). Having spent a couple of hours on the road fantasizing about pasta, noodles and whatever other hot carbs we could think of, imagine our disappointment when we arrived at the destination to find a parking lot full of giant mobile homes. Turns out the German idea of camping is driving an enormous and ugly white bus with double beds and a flatscreen TV to a field full of other people doing the same. Illegal or not, I’d rather go wild camping and take my chances with the wild boar than participate in such ridiculous behaviour.

Anyway, we did eventually find a big green bottle of bio-fuel which turned out to do the trick (I played it cool while lighting the stove despite a slight worry it might explode). Once we’d had lunch and sorted out a flat tyre on Arthur’s bike, we ended up having a very pacey afternoon with the notable exception of doing a 5km circle (and nearly turning back onto it for a second lap) around a windmill construction site; Arthur convinced me and Stan we’d gone wrong and just afterwards we saw the same woman we’d seen ten minutes before, going back the way she’d come, proving his point for him. Despite the detour, we were going so quickly at this point it didn’t cause too much delay.

After covering a good 80km in the afternoon, we pitched up camp for the night in a beautiful spot outside the village of Bramsche, on the eastern shore of a small lake ringed by trees. A three course meal of garlic mushrooms, couscous stew and bread & brie, washed down with a few bottles of outrageously cheap and tasty Pilsner (the surest sign yet of being in Germany), along with a few slugs of some local liquor which Stan brought out with a cheeky smile, and we were ready to hit the sack.

The next morning we ate a crate of strawberries for breakfast, with another golden shot of firewater to get us fired up and ready to crunch down 50km to Minden. Legs pumping, we set out on probably the fastest morning of the trip so far. I remember feeling that the momentum was continually building. We’d all started riding in higher gears and were pushing on further and harder with each rotation. I don’t think either myself nor Arthur will ever forget the image of Stan Sands steaming past us both, in his fake Ray-Bans with his Lycra top unzipped, hips pumping like the pistons on a steam train. We kept up this pace with a continuous intake of sweets and biscuits which I kept in a Tupperware box inside the little red front pannier that spent the whole trip bouncing up and down on my handlebars, full of bike repair gear and snacks- all the necessaries for the upkeep of man and machine.

Having stopped mid-morning for pastries and a toilet break, we kept pounding the pedals until we arrived at Minden. Sweaty and a bit sore, we stopped for lunch in a pretty woodland park.

After a rest and a quick regression to childhood in the nearby playground (highlight being Arthur flying 100 miles an hour off a slide straight onto his arse), we got back on the road. Stan’s knee was giving him a lot of grief so we stumped up a few Euro for some Ibuprofen gel, which we all rubbed into our many and varied aches and pains. After eating a large pack of cookies we got ready to leave Minden behind, but this proved difficult... After following the signs to Stadthagen (the next town along our route), which at no point made mention of the roads not being suitable for bikes, we ended up in a state of confusion and terror on a busy dual carriageway and then turned left onto what turned out to be an on-ramp for the Autobahn. Needless to say, we weren’t interested in adding to the plentiful roadkill lining the sides of Germany’s roads, so we hopped over the roadside barrier and trekked the bikes down a steep hill and through a field to join a small country road, with a synchronised sigh of relief like a short-staffed barbershop quartet. Thankfully we’d all brought plenty of clean underwear.

Following this stressful episode, the afternoon played out like a montage from a film, as we cruised and laughed through farms and villages soaked in sepia tones by the April sunshine. To top it off, we ended the day in a forest carpeted with tiny white flowers, above the town of Bad Nenndorf. After a dinner of fried broccoli and lentil stew, we lay in our tents listening to an owl who cried defiance at the moon and stars, while the bushes nearby rustled with some local critters intrigued by the strange new shapes in their forest.

Waking up early the next morning to take down the tents for the sake of any morning dog-walkers, I whipped up some scrambled eggs (we’d bought a box of ten from a vending machine at the front gate of a farmhouse) with garlic and spring onions; you could tell the quality from the bright orange and yellow yolks. With a tasty breakfast inside us, we checked with Tourist Information for a cycle map, but the bookshop to which they sent us only had one to Wolfsburg (about 120km), at which rate we’d have to buy a new map almost every day. So, we sacked off the idea of a map once and for all, resolving that if three wise men on camels could make it to Bethlehem only using a star, then three clueless Brits using a compass and road signs could cycle to Berlin just fine.

Living up to our established incompetence we set out towards Hanover alongside the Mittellandkanal without any water, with the sun bearing down hot and heavy. However, providence smiled on us as we stopped to ask at the right house; a short and smiling woman named Elka, in work pants and a bandanna, provided us each an alcohol-free beer and gave us a selection of cereal bars left over from her recent trekking in Patagonia. Leaning on the huge pile of firewood she’d clearly spent several days chopping herself, she gave us some travel tips and asked about our journey so far. Given that generally speaking the Germans we’d met so far had been noticeably less friendly than the Dutch, Elka was a welcome exception and more than made up for the suspicious looks and surliness we’d received at other houses. After filling our bottles and directing us the best way through Hanover, she waved us off down the canal.

We stopped in Hanover to charge up two of our phones, so we’d be able to use Google Maps to prevent any more terrifying close calls with the Autobahn like we’d had in Minden. By this point we’d realised we much preferred the open road of the countryside to navigating the junctions, noise and and traffic of urban areas, but thanks to the magic of GPS our way out of Hanover was quick and easy. We spent the afternoon heads-down over our handlebars, pushing through 60km eastwards to Oetze. With arrival in Berlin quickly becoming a reality, we celebrated a good day’s ride with the first and only takeout food of the trip, a trio of generous falafel wraps at a friendly Turkish café where the boss whipped us up fresh chili sauce on request. Despite a hefty language barrier, I managed to make some conversation with the guys behind the counter and explain what we were up to, as well as getting permission to charge up our devices using the sockets around the café. We ended up sitting in a comfortable lounge area drinking bottles of Turkish lager while the boss and his friend played backgammon, enjoying our first time within four walls (besides 20 minutes in a supermarket) in a week.

As we paid the bill, our new friend gave us a generous discount and even the kind gift of a bottle of Martini, which he showed (through basic yet effective sign language) was to keep us warm in our tents. Feeling well-fed, a bit tipsy and very content, we set off on a short and slightly wobbly ride down the road to find a nice spot to camp for the night. However, Stan suddenly fell behind as it turned out he had a puncture, so we wheeled the bikes up to a scrubby set of trees between two roads, pitched up and went to sleep. Waking up with traffic passing within a couple of metres of us, we quickly packed the tents down and set off on our second-to-last day of riding.

We’d decided the previous night that we wanted to cross over the river Elbe before we stopped, which would mean a ride of 140km, but that if we managed it then we’d have an easy final day into Berlin. Knowing this, we’d bought enough snacks to incapacitate John Prescott, and we set off at a roaring pace, blazing through Gifhorn (probably the strangest place name we encountered after Nutter in Holland) and arriving in the industrial city of Wolfsburg by midday. Given the bleak appearance of the city and our need for speed, we decided to keep going until we found somewhere a bit more scenic where getting lunch would be less hassle. We stopped for orange juice and coffee in a village called Rühen, then bought ingredients for lunch at, you guessed it, a Lidl.

Google Maps suggested we follow the ever-present Mittellandkanal once again, so we quickly cooked up lunch on the northern bank and continued on our way. However, we ran into difficulty when the bike path which Google insisted we follow for another 5km simply ceased to exist. We came face to face with a steep grassy bank covered in fallen trees with no path to follow, and decided we’d try to rejoin it after cutting cross-country to the left and then back. We followed a small waterway which led up to the left just before the path stopped, and as we went the noises of the wildlife all around us became ever louder. Frogs, birds and insects all seemed to be within a few feet of us. Suddenly, we all looked instinctively to the opposite bank of the side-channel we were walking down, as something brown shot from the bank into the water with a heavy splash. Beaver? Otter? Boar? Whatever it was, it swam around under the water watching us for a while.

As we came to the end of the waterway, it quickly became apparent we were walking into an honest-to-God swamp. The ground was getting increasingly muddy and then just straight up wet, and we tried a couple of different directions before deciding to follow what looked like an SUV track. Eventually we came to be walking the bikes single file along a marshy stripe of grass with murky water on both sides, rising as we went further in. As it started to look more and more like the scene out Snow White where she gets lost in the forest, we made an executive decision to sack it off for a bad job and went back to the canal. However, we didn’t consider this a setback. Any lesser team would have turned back long before, but I personally look back with pride at the optimistic (if clueless) determination that got us forty minutes into the sunken trees and moss before giving up. Boys, if you’re reading this, there’s nobody I’d rather get lost in a swamp with.

Anyway, we went back the way we came for a while, crossed the canal just outside Rühen and made a loop around for about an hour before rejoining our route about 20km down the line. Turns out cycling is quicker than walking a bike through marshland! We got onto highway 188 and smashed through kilometre after kilometre, watching the numbers next to Berlin on the signs dropping by 5, 6, 7 at a time, going easily the fastest any of us had ever been on a bike. After what felt like only an hour or so, the sun had started to go down and we’d travelled almost another 80km, speeding alongside cars that didn’t seem to be going very much faster than us, with deer parks and forest wildlife reserves on either side. After a long, long stretch of highway-quality road (great for speed) along the 188, through the towns of Gardelegen and Stendal, we finally crossed the Elba at the town of Tangermünder about half an hour after sundown. It was dead quiet as we crossed, the bridge lit up by the moon which by now had waxed to almost full. The other two went ahead of me as I stopped to sort out some loose straps on my bag, and I caught up with them halfway across, looking down in quiet reflection at the wide expanse of the river rushing dark and unending beneath us. We’d nearly made it, and each of us knew it. As tired as we’d ever been, we rolled down the other side of the bridge onto the home straight, with only 80km between us and the finish line. This was it. We were so exhausted we pitched up for our final night in tents just beyond the treeline at the first junction we came to, in full view of the cars whose high-beams caught us like worn-out rabbits, stood blinking, bleary-eyed, holding mismatched tentpoles. After moving further into the woods, we made a quick dinner of rice and veg, and I went straight to sleep while the other two made one last pan of food.

The next day started with the groans and creaks you might expect from a camping holiday organized by a care home for octogenarians, not three young men in the prime of their lives. Despite the pain and stiffness, there were smiles on our tired faces, as we all imagined the relief of a hot shower and a soft bed when we arrived at our friend’s apartment in Berlin. For the record, it should be noted that neither we, our socks nor our tents were smelling all too great by this point. When we reentered civilisation we stopped for pastries and a cup of coffee. As we continued on our way, the kilometres ticked off more and more quickly, with signs for Berlin becoming more and more frequent (we’d startled some dog-walkers pretty badly the day before as we all burst out cheering at the first one we’d seen. On arriving at the town of Nauen, we spent a good forty minutes doing laps all the way up and down the same two roads and roundabout, trying to figure out which way to get to Berlin. We eventually got on the right track thanks to directions from a local football team, whose battering of another local side hadn’t dampened the spirits of the away fans, who were staggering arm-in-arm out of the ground, singing loudly. Surely, fans who are so merry regardless of league standings must be a double-edged sword.

Anyway, to cut what has already been a long story a bit shorter than it might have been, we eventually got to Berlin. Simple as that really, if you cycle for eight days straight then you’re bound to get somewhere, even if it’s only a Lidl. I don’t need to go into the details of the rest of the trip; this post is about the ride itself and to be honest there are probably more interesting things you could be finding out about than the logistics of international train tickets. Suffice it to say that we had a lovely few days in Berlin and then in Amsterdam, after which we got the boat back to the UK from Rotterdam, taking the same Stena Line as got us there what felt like several weeks before. We made it, and we had a fucking great time in doing so. We’d raised a total of about £863 when I last checked, and the JustGiving page will be live for the next few days just in case anyone was waiting to hear the whole story before donating.

If you’re reading this, thanks for sticking with it, I hope these three posts have been interesting enough to make up for the delay in their output. I’ve certainly enjoyed recording and reliving some memories that I know will stay with me for the rest of my life. I’ll sign off here, and leave you with a couple of photos from the last few days of the trip. Peace!

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/standelakersey

#adventure #fundraising #medecins sans frontieres #distance cycling #sore legs #alles gute #alles klar #blogging #lidl #amsterdam #champagne #hashtags #am i a blogger yet?

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michellelewis7162 · 4 years

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Forms Of Woodworker Devices for Accomplish It Yourself Projects

Market contains different kinds of woodworker devices thus creating it hard to decide on the most effective out of all. In order to make a simple wooden dining table you require collection of tools like you need them for assessing, sawing, planning, boring, inspect, honing, joining, mounting and also several other such purposes. Buy the one having higher top quality. While acquiring the woodworker devices you will have to choose if you are actually trying to find woodworking palm device or electrical power driven resources. Bubble Leveller

Types of Carpenter Tools for Do It Yourself Projects

Sculpt

Sculpt is a palm tool that is actually utilized for reducing as well as creating of wood. You can easily have the bevel edge shape, stronger and also paring shape. While getting this check for the blade as well as gripping of deal with.

Saw

Saw is just one of the key tools demanded for every single and also any type of timber work. You may purchase either palm found, electrical power driven or both. Yet the hand saw are more affordable and fix the function. In the group of hand saws you will certainly find the slit saw, cross cut, door, head found, adapting, draw, keyhole, laminate, pole and also back viewed. The cutter of the saw is actually brought in from quick and easy to hone steel that is actually coated along with Teflon to prevent acid.

Screwdrivers

Screwdriver is utilized either for fixing or getting rid of the screws coming from a wood write-up. It may have plastic or even wood manage however need to be non slimy. Plastic manage of the screwdriver is actually made up of plastic that is warmth and fire insusceptible. Relying on the type of screw there are actually various sort of screwdrivers such as cupboard, standard, square drive, star, clutch scalp, almond driver, balance out etc. Some of these possess magnetic recommendation that produces the tightening up or losing of little screws extremely easy.

Hammers

If you are performing any kind of timber job, you may certainly not carry out without hammers. Pound could be rounded paw hammer, plain paw, ball marker, finishing hammer, hand boring, block, woodworker's hammer, drywall, soft-face hammer as well as even more. High quality hammer is actually solid and resilient. It has well established paw factors and safe take care of. While getting hammer check out the balance, intensity of solidifying, eye, claw as well as hold.

Measuring Tools

Mixture square, tape square, attempt builder, square and also amount square are few of the assessing woodworking resources that are accessible in the marketplace.

Buying Carpenter Tools

Carpenter tools create an optimistic gift for the growing carpenter in your family and it does not also need to have to become their special day or maybe Xmas for you to give it to them. These are wonderful presents for any time and any sort of budding carpenter will certainly like all of them as will any kind of seasoned woodworker.

Just understand what amount of woodworking they go to. For I make certain you desire to provide something they are going to make use of. The only problem with that said though is that if you, your own self may not be a woodworker after that just how do you go about selecting the right devices?

It's not as quick and easy as it may appear, and there are a few things that you ought to keep an eye out for. The 1st and first trait is actually to watch out for the Unbelievable Bargain. No such trait exists. If it's astonishing after that there's something inappropriate somewhere. Unless of course they are operating some sort of clearance. Now if you bump into a discount and it's a well recognized brand you should buy the resources promptly. Excellent woodworker resources at good deal rates are actually uncommon, thus receive all of them when you can.

When to seize all of them up and when to manage the various other method, pro handymans will certainly know what the good resource labels are actually and will definitely know. In the case of the naive present customer however, I would certainly suggest following one thing you could be assured of regardless of whether it is actually certainly not at the discount cost you had hoped for. Right here specifically more than everywhere else, the Latin "Caveat Emptor" is true, buyers definitely are careful of what you're obtaining into. Great tools aren't inexpensive and also knowledge woodworkers understand the distinction between an excellent device and also a poor device. So, don't attempt to reckon as well as trick all of them.

If you're buying the woodworker resources for a person who's been at it for pretty a large amount of time after that the final factor that you'll want to do are going to be to give them lower-ranking level woodworker resources. Something which is available in a set could be helpful for the novice that is actually only beginning and also therefore has no crystal clear idea of what they need to have, but that certainly will not provide for the professional carpenter. They require the great resources for many reason as well as indeed one could be for the self-pride.

These woodworker resources ought to be of five-star caliber to ensure that the receiver of your present understands the moment and attempt you take into obtaining the excellent carpenter devices for them. For the novice you can easily purchase all of them something extra innovative when they can easily discriminate in between the tools and when they can easily really feel the variation of holding a great set of carpenter devices in their palms rather than the amateur's set you gave them!

However if you possess problem deciding which collection of carpenter tools to get inquire a welcoming purchases person for guidance and also generally you'll leave behind the store pleased that you came forth with the genuine trait. You may additionally buy a present memory card to their beloved resource shop. You can absolutely understand the recipient of the present will definitely be happy for the extraordinary present you provided.

Distinction And Growth Using The Carpenter's Tools Of Success

One of the significant issues I possess with most of culture's trainings is actually that they perform certainly not educate the whole tale. Currently, there is absolutely no question in my thoughts that this claim has actually distressed some people and also possesses topic me to mock and complaints that I do not understand what I am discussing. Possibly I perform, perhaps I do not. However, truth is actually but one. Hey, that is what reality performs anyways.

In the spiritual mentors, there is a parable in relation to Joseph that operated as a Carpenter and the definition of the Carpenter's Tools. Whether you feel the tale took place or not is actually certainly not also vital. The important part is the significance and also how our team may use the devices of a carpenter to create our very own holy place of perfection.

The woodworker's devices have been used to develop a terrific numerous frameworks. One thing our experts overlook in the social mirror is that these very same devices and also the definition of all of them could be utilized to develop results and also quality in our really personal thoughts. They may be utilized to assist mold your character in to something splendid.

Maintain in mind, the same resources that you can easily make use of to produce excellence and excellence are actually the quite exact same tools that may damage if not utilized effectively.

Right here is a brief passage of a number of the devices in the sessions of your thoughts:

1. The Square - square away the jagged pipes as well as places and also creates the corners of your conduct square.

2. The Compass - use to attract a circle around your passions and devastating wishes to maintain them in the bounds of integrity.

3. The Ax - potato chip and also cut away the knotty, worthless parts of your plant and also maintain your sign symmetrical.

4. The Hammer - use it to deliver the fact up until it becomes a portion of your being actually.

5. The Plane - use to ravel the rough, irregular edges as well as areas of your lifestyle.

The definition of the woodworker's devices is actually one of the most significant component right here, as well as it instructs us, that is if our team reside in the mode of understanding, that our experts possess the devices in our notions, in our minds, in our hearts to end up being everything we all want to become. All too often our team look away from our own selves for tools to help us ponder as well as construct why our team can never possess a strong foundation, our team are actually making use of the incorrect tools as well as we are actually using the resources incorrectly. The great factor is that our company possess the correct devices along with guidelines in the sessions of our thoughts to build whatever it is our team would certainly like to build.

Discover the meaning of the builders devices and recognize that these really significances live within yourself in order that you may construct a holy place of distinction. You don't have to search outside your own self anymore to locate the devices necessary for your results and joy and happiness. Know that they stay in you.

Builder Pencils - Why Do I Need That Old Thing?

What is a builder pencil?

Woodworker pencils have actually been around given that the very early 1500's. A Carpenter's Pencil is huge, flat pencil designed to note timber for cutting. A perk of making use of a woodworkers pencil is the lead is actually just about the same width as a cutter of a hand viewed or even rounded saw. When you are laying out your cuts on the panels, if you don't hone it to a fine factor it works incredibly well to indicate out the size of the blade.

Perform you need to have a builder pencil?

Many of the moment when remodeling your home it actually does not matter what you utilize to denote your hardwood or even drywall prior to your hack it, considering that your collections and also spots are actually normally concealed responsible for paint or even slick. You will definitely discover many of the amount of time though a pencil is also weak, a marker avoids, as well as a felt-tip bleeds excessive. A Carpenter's Pencil repairs each of these problems and also makes denoting most construction things easy. The top lasts, it does not break easily, it's affordable as well as will mark on a lot of property components. The lead is actually very easy to clean off the wood well-maintained, especially if the lumber you are actually utilizing is truly absorptive and will certainly absorb the ink coming from a magic marker simply. I make use of builder pencils a lot. I keep a lots approximately best with my tape measures. When they all obtain blunt I like to use a builder pencil sharpener to develop them, yet you may quickly make use of an utility blade out at the job. I utilize the taper drill to score as well as begin openings and also a woodworker's pencil to score cuts.

Utilizing One

Each kind of timber will call for a various pressure to produce the spot you yearn for. If you are actually making use of want you will not need to use much tension to create your mark but if you are making use of challenging walnut you will certainly have to utilize additional force to denote it. Make an effort the your pencil on a fragment piece first. I utilize the woodworker pencil in combo with a square or direct advantage (leader). I lay the square where I wish to help make the smudge and afterwards draw the tip of the pencil along the side of the square to keep the line straight. Here is an adorable video clip showcasing the most up to date carpenter pencil. Considering that I leave all of them setting all over the location and I would never be able to find merely one pencil, I utilize wood pencils rather of the refillable ones generally.

Which Carpenter's Pencil Is Best For You?

I will definitely let you determine exactly how wonderful of an pencil you require. There are 3 for you to choose from. Basic Homeowner Grade - You utilize it each month or so - Good resource at an excellent rate. Remodel/Construction Grade - You use it every weekend - Better resource, will last you years. Professional Grade - You use it daily - When you merely want the very best.

Buy 6 to 12 at an opportunity for the finest offer if you are getting the wood pencils. You can easily go my site and then order the ideal builder pencil for you. The are lots of companies that sell builder pencils however I merely present you providers to purchase from that I depend on. You understand that my varieties are actually based upon several years of making use of devices both around the house and at the office.

While purchasing the woodworker resources you are going to have to determine if you are actually appearing for woodworking palm device or even electrical power steered tools.

Great devices aren't economical and also knowledge woodworkers understand the difference in between a poor device as well as an excellent resource. If you're obtaining the carpenter tools for somebody that's been at it for rather a large total of time after that the final trait that you'll really want to do will be actually to offer them lower-ranking grade carpenter devices. The significance of the woodworker's tools is actually the most important part right here, and also it educates us, that is if our experts are in the setting of knowing, that our company possess the resources in our thoughts, in our thoughts, in our centers to become all that our company all dream to be. All also often our company look outside of ourselves for tools to aid our team ponder as well as construct why we can easily never ever have a tough groundwork, we are utilizing the wrong devices and our company are making use of the devices incorrectly.

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apkrich-blog · 5 years

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MORTAL KOMBAT Mod Apk Download + Unlimited COINS + Souls + GOD Mode

New Post has been published on https://www.apkrich.com/mortal-kombat-mod-apk-download-unlimited-coins-souls-god-mode/

MORTAL KOMBAT Mod Apk Download + Unlimited COINS + Souls + GOD Mode

MORTAL KOMBAT Mod Apk is a popular action game which brings its trademark Fatalities to mobile, with stunning graphics, and over the top moves! Now you can assemble an elite team of Mortal Kombat warriors. It’s time to prove yourself in the greatest fighting tournament on Earth. This latest version has unlimited coin or money, soul, gold character, diamond pack, weak boss, and many more features. Download this update version and experience the world of FIGHT!

MORTAL KOMBAT Latest Version Features

Now you can build a massive roster with more than 130 Mortal Kombat characters including veterans like Scorpion, Johnny Cage, Sub-Zero, Cassie Cage, Ermac, and many others.

You can easily prove yourself and complete a series of matches to bring new Mortal Kombat warriors to your roster.

This game has Multiplayer faction, which is you can compete with other players in Faction Wars, an online competitive mode where players engage other player teams.

Easy to Unlock unique character customizations in Feats of Strength.

Just Win battles to show off your mastery with limitless combinations of action-packed Victory Stances, insulting Victory Taunts, and champion worthy War Banners in the game.

Now you can send characters on epic Quests to earn special rewards.

Download MORTAL KOMBAT Update Version

This mobile version game has high-quality visuals. So that’s why performance is not optimized on devices with less than 1.0 GB RAM. This is the only online game. But you can play offline in this updated version. Here are some user reviews:

Magde Angelovska: Brilliant game. I’ve been reading the other reviews and I have to say Faction wars it’s not that easy for me (sometimes, let’s say 1 in 3 matches is very hard). The game freezes a bit right after a match is over but only for 3-5 seconds. It’s a bit harder to get souls now. I liked the store better before, but it doesn’t bother me now that is 3 random characters that change after 12 hours. I’m gonna say again that this is a brilliant game, and I don’t think I will ever get bored with it.

Ned Noodle: Excellent gameplay, addictive formula for fun. Not as gory as saying console X and 11. But relies heavily on microtransactions. These are understandable for a game of this size and complexity with the development costs. But the currency in the game costs so much real-world money. Would be better if the prices of microtransactions were tuned down. Still a good play, download it.

hyper viper vapes: best game I have played in a long time, not exactly like a console kombat game but who cares. it has amazing characters and great bonuses. and even chances to avoid spending souls to get badass characters through challenges. with just a bit of time, you can go from bronze to gold and higher tier characters. it is definitely a must play for any age🤘. well done wb and nether realm

xXShadowPhoenix79Xx: This game is really fun!!!! I have been playing since update 1.0 and I always have fun. One thing tho. I would give this 5 stars but I miss the old store for this game. Pls, add that back. or at least bring back the character part back.

nathan wallace: Great game, easy to play, easy to understand. The only bad thing about it is the way to acquire characters where you have to spend premium currency to get gold characters which are easy enough to get even without paying, but you have such a low chance of getting that same character again to keep ranking it up. It would be better if they had it so if you already had the character and you want to rank it up all you would have to do is go to the character card and purchase another with soul coins.

Jaydon Koh: I feel like this game is amazing! I never actually tried it before until 2 days ago and now I’m addicted! I hope that you all will bring the elite and elite pro packs back to the game as I really want to get classic Liu kang as well as other diamond cards.

phoenix basone: I absolutely love this game, the graphics are good and the gameplay is amazing. But with that being said I would love to give this 5 stars but the packs are garbage, the souls are way to much of a hassle to even try to get, and it kind of just feels like they are just trying to bribe money out of their players with this so my only problem really makes it easier to get souls please. Thank you and other than that it’s a great game.

Rossemery Ramirez: I love this game so much I play it every day it’s so addicted. But what I hate is that you cant friend people like if you want to play with your friend in a 1v1. But you can’t friend people because there are no add friends. I saw that the greater of this game put add friends button but take it away. My question is why did you take it away? and can you please put that back again when you release an update again, please.😔

Creative Animators: I especially loved this game. It is similar to shadow fight. I love this game because of fatalities & brutalities. It makes me stronger to fight in my life. Thanks very much, Mortal Kombat.

Amadeus Musique: Extremely fun strategic game the graphics are good and everything is almost perfect, with events and encouraging players to keep playing, but I’d recommend making the X rays look better.

Ahmed MT: it’s really a very very good game, for me it’s addictive, I love playing it all the time and I am unlocking so many characters am very satisfied. and most importantly it’s not a pay to win so it’s the best game in this category thank you, developers.

spider boy: I love this game but lost my account just because I didn’t sign into the web account. Now I have to start all over again. Is there a way to recover an account from google play, or do I have to do everything again now?

SteAm Scopez: Yes, I love this game it is super fun and all but I have completed some of the other ways to earn gems like 7 for beating a tutorial but I add that I should have about 181 souls added from all of the achievements. I would love it if I could have these souls that I have earned. This is why I give this game a 3-Star review.

Download APK

Additional Information

App Download Version 1.10.25 Last Updated April 16, 2019 Apk Size Varies with device Offered By Warner Bros. International Enterprises Category Action Content Rating Rated for 18+ Support Android Version Varies with device Installs 50,000,000+ Play Store Available

MORTAL KOMBAT App Permissions

This app has access to:

Photos/Media/Files

modify or delete the contents of your USB storage

read the contents of your USB storage

view Wi-Fi connections

receive data from Internet

view network connections

full network access

change your audio settings

use accounts on the device

control vibration

prevent device from sleeping

Google Play license check

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cathylee123things-blog · 7 years

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The future of Runescape: the combat upgrade and beyond

I looked at the history of Runescape - the move from student dream to the biggest game developer in the UK - and the present of Runescape -- the 200, 000, 000 user accounts, the 200 servers, the 500 employees. Today (adopts heroic model stance, gazing at horizon), RS 3 Gold today, I look to Jagex’s brave future.

Hello. You're on PCGamesN. We're a new site that combines original journalism, user submissions and the best headlines from across the web. Feel free to comment or follow us on our PCGamesN Twitter feed for regular updates.

In the classic British political comedy ‘Yes, Minister’, a brave decision was one that would lose you votes. A courageous decision was one which would lose you the election. When Runescape’s lead designer Mark Ogilvie tells me that he’s going to fundamentally change the combat system of Runescape, Star Wars Galaxies flashes in front of my eyes, and I mutter out “How... how brave! ”

The changes he’s making are more than cosmetic. “The combat change we’re just creating to the game is the biggest change we’ve made to combat. ” says Ogilvie. “It’s changing everything about the game. It’s influencing everything in fight. Whether it’s equipment, or the engagement mechanic, or the interfaces, or even NPC stats or perhaps risk-reward balances. It’s been a real challenge to make sure we’re changing the right things. That’s why we’re doing it as a beta launch first. ”

“Brave”, I say again “Perhaps... courageous? ” I tentatively raise the spectre of Star Battles: Galaxies’s Combat Upgrade and the flight of angry players afterwards. Ogilvie is confident he’s doing the right thing, though.

“One of the tricky things about Runescape is that it’s quite old and that a lot of the gameplay choices we made were more suitable for a game five, ten years ago than modern day users expect. ” he explains. “I don’t want to change the guts of the game, I don’t want to change the core principles, I want to keep playerbase enthused; but when you look at the game from a design perspective there were some flaws that we introduced really early on, flaws that became gameplay. That makes the game too difficult and jeopardises accessibility when something’s so complicated a new user can’t engage with it. ”

That seems surprising, but not unexpected; Legacy idiosyncrasies, like Planetside’s lag-shooting, are always barriers to entry for new users. I ask Ogilvie what these flaws are, that were destroying the game as well as I’m surprised. It is the standard build he’s targeting, the build that many hardcore players use.

“The Pure build is a problem. ” he says. Cheap Runescape Gold “You see the calculation for our combat level, the number we display on a player’s avatar to indicate their overcome potential, is essentially flawed. We have a defense skill which contributes quite heavily to the combat degree, but the benefit of levelling defense is much smaller than the contribution would suggest. We have another skill in the game, called the Prayer skill, which allows you to put up a protection prayer, that’s far more effective than any level of defense that you could ever gain. Players found it was more useful to keep their combat level low, to appear relatively weak, especially in PvP. A lot of players have built characters around this flaw in the design. ”

This meant that many gankers would develop themselves ‘Pure’, which is creepy-sounding enough, and also hang around the free PvP area of the Wilderness. Here they’d look innocent and weakened, so that when an apparently higher level hero came along and initiated PvP... they’d eat him alive. Given that Runescape is played primarily by kids and teenagers, along with given that death in PvP Runescape typically means your body getting stripped of all its possessions... you’d end up with a lot of very upset players. Because of a faulty level read-out. “You have the potential to gain huge amounts of reward, far more than any other part of the video game, if you’re a really good PvPer. ” says Ogilvie. “The idea that you can trick people with your combat effectiveness is just flawed. ”

So this Defense Upgrade will bring the gankers out into the open, by changing both the rating system and the defective defensive skill behind it. “It grew to become too easy for people to completely ignore that will skill, which made a really interesting problem for me as a designer. ” says Ogilvie. “If one of content updates was organised around the defense ability or gave defense experience, a large chunk of the player base would deliberately avoid that content. ”

So they’ve altering combat in two ways. First, they’re moving away from the totally passive combat at the moment, by introducing active abilities, familiar to players of other MMOs. Many of these are specific defensive abilities that require a shield to be equipped, so will rebalance against the Pures. Secondly, they are linking your armour rating to your maximum life points : so Pure builds simply won’t have as much health as anyone else.

Of course , that’s not everything that Jagex are working on for Runescape. They’ve got an average of 20 content projects - Mark indicated to me that it was currently 25. Of these only, a few are talked about at any one time, presumably because some of them will never see the light associated with Day. Adam Tuckwell, the PR Manager for Jagex, took us through some of them. “Once the RuneScape combat update has been fully launched we will be turning our attention towards another online game changing expansion which will be announced soon. In the meantime, we will soon be releasing Player-owned Ports, where players can create their own port to attract sea captains, crew and treasures. We are also working on a new, yet unannounced talent, which will be added to the overall game next year. ” On top of that, they’re attempting to make Runescape more social, so that players find it easier to use a chat room and to stay in touch with their own friends.

Given Ogilvie’s coherent defense regarding his combat changes, I think it would be churlish to call him courageous. If these types of changes open the sport up to new gamers and prevent the traumatising ganking that the non-hardcore players are suffering, then he’s doing a good thing for his community. A good, courageous thing. http://www.rsgoldfast.com

#Cheap Runescape 3 Gold #Cheap Runescape 2007 Gold

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thejpfdude-blog · 7 years

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A Closer Look At... Tamako Market/Tamako Love Story

Heyo and welcome to a brand new series that hopefully actually becomes a series called “A Closer Look At...”! The goal of this series is to write reviews on anime series and for me to get a closer idea of why I love/hate a show. I’m still sort of tinkering with how I want to structure this, but for now I’m gonna do a standard rundown of the basic categories, you know stuff like Animation/Art, Characters, Story, Enjoyment, and Final Thoughts (that’s a basic category right?). So yeah, let’s kick off this double special with the first show on this list. But first, a WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS FOR TAMAKO MARKET AND TAMAKO LOVE STORY. You’ve been warned.

Tamako Market

First, a question for those of you in the audience. Raise your hand if you thought that Tamako Market would be my highest rated show I’ve watched this year, a show I rate higher than Bakemonogatari and Madoka Magica. Now put your hands down you liars.

Yeah, what a world. This show was many things: a show I’ve been told to trudge through to get to its movie sequel; a show I’ve been told is one of the worst Kyoto Animation works; a show I’ve been holding off on for a while. And here we are: writing a review for it so I can exclaim its praises. For those of you that don’t know about this show, Tamako Market is about the life of Tamako Kitashirakawa, a girl in a family of mochi bakers living her life in a shopping district with her friends. Shenanigans ensue when she runs into a bird named Dera who is looking for a bride for his country’s prince. Dera ends up eating too much mochi, becomes too fat, and cannot return to his faraway home. And thus the story begins.

Animation/Art

I mean it’s Kyoto Animation. That’s all that really needs to be said for this category.

But let me try to dive in deeper. The animation is great: I didn’t notice any inconsistencies with it, other than some weird CG in one of the episodes with the people in the market. Nice to have a show that doesn’t distract from the story with its inconsistent character models.

The character design itself isn’t anything amazing: most of the characters look liked they could have come from a different KyoAni show: Choi and Azusa from K-On was a similarity that really stuck out to me. I didn’t have a problem with it for the most part though: they were still really good looking and the stark similarities were few and far in between.

Color design-wise, the show used bright colors that popped, which reflected the overall tone of the show: happy and bright. Not to mention it helped create the carnival-like atmosphere that I think they tried to portray the shopping district as. Well, not try, more like did. Because it worked.

Overall, the art/animation of the show is a solid 5/5 stars. Sasuga KyoAni.

Characters

Let me start this off by saying I loved all of the characters in this show. Yes, even Dera. Before I started watching Tamako Market I was warned of the “annoying bird” and told that he ruined the dynamic of the show. To be honest though, I think that without him I wouldn’t have enjoyed this show as much. He acted as sort of the butt monkey (err butt bird) for the others and the jokes, which made him less annoying in my eyes. Plus adding him to the cast of “happy” characters prevented a Flying Witch situation where everybody was too happy, something I like to call the “/r/wholesomememes conundrum” (if you don’t know the Wholesome Memes subreddit is filled with people making happy comments and no negativity or even sarcasm, and it creeps me out a lot).

Other than that, yeah the other characters were nice. Tamako was your standard genki girl, Mochizou was cute AF in a good way (and I related to his struggles), Kanna was low-key best girl, and Midori was all right I guess. Then there are the people in the shopping district, who all had their own little quirks with them. Individually they didn’t offer much, but putting them together really helped create the feeling of being in a shopping market, in sort of a village setting. Them helping Tamako with all of her stuff reminds me of that saying: it takes a village to raise a child (or something like that). Characters are super important for me, and for this show they were a solid 5/5 stars. Good on ya KyoAni.

Story

If there’s one thing that this show fell flat in, it’s this category. Not that it’s necessarily a bad thing. In fact, I didn’t mind it at all. This was a slice-of-life show, so the story doesn’t have to be amazingly original or creative, it just has to flow in a decent way so that I can enjoy it. I know for most people it was pretty boring, and that’s kinda true in a sense. The whole storyline of the show is that Dera is finding a bride for his prince, but that kinda doesn’t get prioritized until the last few episodes when they introduce Choi as a character and then when the prince comes to visit. Those last 2 or 3 episodes were for me the weakest in the show, only because it was heavily focused on that plotline. I enjoyed Tamako Market for the shopping market shenanigans, so it was kinda boring with the whole “wow Tamako is a princess??” stuff. And the ending of it seemed... anticlimactic: when the prince already knew she wasn’t the princess but went with the whole procedures anyway, it kinda gave those last 2 episodes no point. Even with that though, it was still a super fun watch, so I don’t fault it too much. Overall 3/5 stars on the story: it was all right for the first few episodes but the whole princess storyline was a bit out there.

Overall Enjoyment

I mean yeah it was a really fun show. I wouldn’t say it would be fun for everyone, but it just hit all of the right notes for me, and I really had a good time with it. A 5/5 stars for enjoyment.

Final Thoughts

So overall, Tamako Market was a pretty fun watch, complete with KyoAni visuals and good characters. Though the story is sometimes meh, it works out overall and became one of my favorite shows. A 9/10 show for me, would recommend to those of you who enjoy slice-of-life shows.

Tamako Love Story

“Haha, you thought it was over? No sir, there’s more.”

That’s what I assume KyoAni said to the anime community when this movie was announced. Because there was absolutely no indication that a sequel movie about LOVE would come out, given how dense Tamako was towards the crushes of both Mochizou and Midori (though the second one is more understandable). But what a great surprise, as this movie ended up becoming more popular than its prequel series. In fact, the movie is how I ended up getting into the show in the first place. So yeah, I was pretty excited to see how it was given I enjoyed the show so much.

Note that most of what I said about the show above is still the same in the movie, so I’ll just be talking about the story and overall enjoyment of the show.

Story

If you didn’t know the plot of Tamako LOVE STORY, then let me tell you. It’s about the LOVE STORY between Tamako and Mochizou. Simple as that. Though even with its simple premise, it executes it super well. The movie kicks off with Mochizou wanting to tell Tamako that he plans to go to Tokyo for college. Stuff escalates as he tells her this plus confesses to her, to which Tamako goes into love shock as she runs away and spends the next few days not knowing what to do. It’s cute stuff, really. But then she decides yes I do love this boy, so she runs off to the train station to catch up with him and confesses via the cup telephones that they used to communicate. And then the movie ends. Yeah, that’s my biggest complaint with this movie: like many anime romances, it ends with the confession, and the actual couple-y things don’t happen. Like come on man, I want some nice vanilla romance in my life.

To be fair, though, it was still really cute to see how Tamako handled her feelings and the whole process in which she accepted them. And I was still pretty dang happy when she confessed (though a bit confused and angry at first when the credits rolled). Overall, though I wanted to see more time between the two as a couple, I can’t complain too much considering it was what the title says: a nice love story. A nice 5/5 stars on the story: simple but well-executed.

Overall Enjoyment

Well what do you think? I think 5/5 stars, would re-watch multiple times.

Final Thoughts

This movie was a joy to the eyeballs, and to the brain as well. Writing about this movie makes me want to go watch it again, and that I will. 10/10 would recommend (but please watch Tamako Market first: it actually is pretty important).

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