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azulirawrites · 3 years

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Favors of A. Blight Ch. 1

Rating: High T/Low M Word Count: 2,821 Contains: Mentions of Drug Use and Abuse, Mentions of Child Neglect, Domestic Abuse, Heavily Implied Character Death by Suffocation (You don’t see the death, but you do see the actions leading up to it) Nobody went outside when it rained on the Boiling Isles. To do so was extremely dangerous, even if one had the proper protections. Needless to say, the residents of the Owl House were surprised when Hooty swung open, announcing, “Luz, that mean friend of yours is here! And she brought friends for me!” On the other side of the threshold, only barely inside the barrier Lilith had managed to conjure that afternoon, were the Blight siblings, huddled together, underneath a massive Abomination.

“Amity!” Luz shouted, vaulting off the couch to latch onto her friend, “Are you ok? It’s raining!” She quickly pulled Amity inside, with Amity’s grip on her elder siblings dragging them in after her.

“Baby Blights?” Eda questioned, “What's going on? Did Odalia see sending your kids out to get mauled by the weather becoming the latest fashion in that busted crystal ball of hers?" When there was no response, beyond Luz shooting her a glare, Eda prodded more, "Seriously kids. What possessed you to come here in this weather? This place isn't exactly 'Blight Appropriate'." As Eda made air quotes, Amity practically collapsed into Luz on the sofa, and so did her Abomination, loosing three bags just inside the doorway as it collapsed into a puddle of goop and boiling water. "Ah, crap. Bug out bags."

"Bug out bags?" Luz questioned, worry creasing her brow as she laid Amity safely on the couch.

"I guess," Edric mumbles, his eyes focused on Amity as he and Emira huddled together tightly.

"How long have you had them?" Eda asks, watching the twins.

"Father packed them," it was Emira who answered, perhaps slightly too loudly, as she quieted her next words, "he gave them to us today. Before he sent us out in the rain."

"Hooty, wake Lily," Eda commanded.

"One Lulu, coming up!" Hooty agreed, almost gleeful as he shut himself.

"Luz, go pour three glasses of apple blood."

"But-" Luz tried to argue

"Now," Eda didn't leave room for argument, and Luz reluctantly got up, casting a look at the gently displaced form of Amity, and then the twins, before making her way to the kitchen.

"We don't drink apple blood," Emira said, before quietly adding, "Mother doesn't allow it."

"Hypocrite," Eda muttered, before saying, "it's not for you. It's gonna keep me up, wake up Lily, and hopefully keep the kid from the worst of the burnout." Neither of them argued against her, though Emira cast a worried look at Amity. "What's going on?"

"I don't know," Edric mumbled, reaching into his pocket, “but father gave me a letter, for you.” He pulled out a plain white envelope with ‘Edalyn’ written on it, in handwriting that almost rivalled chicken scratch in decipherability, extending it to the Owl Lady.

“And I have one for Lilith,” Emira said, producing a similar envelope, with Lilith’s name on it, as Eda unceremoniously ripped open hers with her nail. The room went silent for several moments, as Eda quickly scanned her letter.

The silence was only interrupted by Luz’s entry, carrying three mugs, “I got the apple blood,” she announced, placing the mugs on the coffee table. Eda’s hand quickly shot down, grasping the “30 and flirty” mug and bringing it to her mouth, taking a long, slow drink. Then, she pulled a straw out of her hair, placing it in one of the mugs, a plain black one.

“Give this one to the kid,” Eda told Luz, adding “It’s just to give her bile sac a little boost,” when she saw Luz’s hesitant look.

Luz grabbed the mug,moving to sit beside Amity, who hadn’t moved since Luz had left. “Amity,” Luz said, gently shaking the witch with her free hand, “You need to drink this.”

“I don’t wanna.” Amity mumbled, barely audible, “it smells bad.” She almost burrowed deeper into the couch, as much as she could in her exhausted state.

“Eda said it would help,” Luz promised.

“Medicine?” Amity questioned, her eyes squinting open to look at Luz before shutting quickly

“Yeah, medicine,” Luz agreed, pushing it yet closer to Amity. Amity, seemingly reluctantly, took the straw.

“Disgusting,” Amity commented as her face seemed to pale from the taste, before drinking again as Luz held the mug.

“I paid for that,” Eda grumbled, before gesturing to Edric and Emira. “You two, take a seat. We need to have a serious talk when Lily gets down here.”

“A serious talk about what?” Lilith asked from the hall door as the twins sat down beside their sister. “Why are the Blight children here?” She yawned, leaning against the doorway.

“I have a letter for you,” Emira answered, extending the letter over the coffee table, though careful as to not extend so far as to lose contact with her twin.

“A letter is hardly a good reason to be out at this hour, in this weather,” Lilith said, taking the letter. She looked at the letter, adding, “And I doubt Alador would send all three of his children if it were just to send me a letter.”

“Read the letter Lily,” Eda said, notably somber. Lilith gently opened her letter, pulling out the pages within. The next few moments were silent, broken only when Lilith shifted the papers in her hands. Then again, she shifted the papers, almost frantically seeming to double check something.

“What’s going on?” Luz asked, watching Lilith flip between the pages.

Eda looked at her own letter, then back up to Luz. "I'm not gonna say it twice," she nodded towards Amity, who seemed only present enough to slowly sip the apple blood Luz held for her, "and I think everyone would prefer to be rested to hear it. The baby Blights are gonna be rooming with you tonight."

"Like a sleep over," Luz tried to be cheerful, smiling at the twins, both of whom returned the smile.

"Right, one of those," Eda agreed, "now take them up there." Luz nodded, putting Amity's mug of apple blood in Edric's hands before scooping the exhausted girl into her arms.

"Come on," Luz said, "you can help me make an Amity burrito."

"I don't know what a burrito is," Edric said, following Luz and dragging Emira with him, "but it sounds like it will inconvenience Mittens."

"Shit," Eda said, once the coast was clear.

"That is putting it lightly," Lilith agreed, taking a seat on the now free couch. A moment later, after grabbing her mug of apple blood "What are we going to tell them?"

"Hey kids, we got some good news and some bad news. Good news is Odalia's getting the stick up her ass removed, bad news is Alador's the surgeon?"

"Edalyn!" Lilith nearly spat out her drink as she quietly yelled her admonishment.

"What? We're going to have to rip the bandage off somehow!” “No! Not like that! This needs a delicate touch!”

“That was delicate,” Eda answered, to a shocked look from Lilith, “I’m not telling you the not delicate option because you’ll get judgy.” There was a brief pause, before Eda amended, “Judgier.”

“Take this seriously!”

“Take what seriously?” King asked as he made his way into the living room from the hallway, “Also I’m sleeping in your nest tonight. Luz invited over the cupcake smasher and two new minions and the room is small as is.”

“Crap. That’s right. We’re gonna need a lot more room,” Eda realized, with some frustration.

“For what?” King asked, before noting the three bags just inside the doorway, “Ooh, bug out bags. Did one of your exes figure out how easy Hooty is to bribe again and we’re gonna leave Lilith to deal with them?”

“He can be bribed?” Lilith questioned.

“No, I fixed that when I told him he could take the bribe and still have his fun,” Eda answered, “The bags are-”

“Wait, no, I got it,” King interrupted, “tax collectors found us and we’re gonna leave Lilith to deal with them?”

“Why am I the one getting left behind”

“No, King,” Eda said, “These aren’t our bags.”

“Then whose,” King began to question, before looking at the bags, and then to the hallway, and finally back to Eda, “No. No? You can’t be serious.”

“Afraid so King,” Eda confirmed

“But I don’t want the cupcake smasher here! The two big minions we can put in a shed, but the little one needs to go. I mean, think about how Hooty feels, she beats him up every chance she gets!”

“Yeah, think about how I feel,” Hooty agreed.

“Shut up Hooty,” Eda and King said in unison, causing the tube to grumble. Eda added, “And while you’re here, grab those bags and take them upstairs.” She signalled the bags on the ground, which Hooty began to devour, causing everyone to look away. “Besides, we can’t send them away. Lily’s their legal guardian now.”

“Well then kick out Lilith,” King suggested.

“Hey! I’m right here!” Eda reminded the demon

“I’m not kicking out my sister,” Eda said, “and I’m not kicking out the kids either. Or putting them in the shed.”

“Why not?” King demanded

“Because I said so,” Eda responded, making King grumble and stare at her. Eda returned the stare, and eventually King looked away, making his way back to the hallway.

“As much as I hate to admit it,” Lilith sighed, “the little demon does have a point. There’s not very much room as is.”

“I’m not gonna make you move out Lily,” Eda said, before looking up at the ceiling.

“Alador left more than enough money for a modest home,” Lilith protested.

“Which is more than enough to get the Construction Coven to do some off-the-books work for a lot more space.” Eda suggested, “And I’m sure Hooty wouldn’t mind the expansion.”

“So you want to keep them here so you get a bigger house?”

“Of course not Lily! It’s just… I know what it’s like to have your whole world shaken apart,” Lilith looked down and away from her sister at the comment, “and the last thing you need at a time like that is to have your world shaken more.”

“Edalyn, I-” Lilith tried to apologize.

“Not what we’re talking about right now,” Eda said, finishing off her apple blood and setting her mug on the coffee table, “I’m too sober for more than one serious conversation tonight.” Eda paused for a moment, eyeing the empty mug. “I would have done anything for the kind of stability they can have here. I’m not gonna rip it away from them.”

“Thank you,” Lilith said, adding, after a moment, “I’m sorry for snapping at you. All of this happening at once is… Overwhelming. I would never imagine Alador to do what he says he’s going to. He’s always been more gentle.”

“Withdrawal can do a lot,” Eda commented, “Add in the guilt and all the other emotions he’s got to be feeling. It’s not so unimaginable.”

“Withdrawal? Withdrawal from what?” Lilith questioned, turning to her sister.

“Did your letter,” Eda asked slowly, “not mention anything about it?”

“Obviously not,” Lilith focused on her sister.

“Distraction spell!” Eda yelled, pulling a bag of Hex Mix out of her hair to throw at her sister, and jumped up, only to be caught at the last moment by Lilith.

“Edalyn, that hasn’t worked since I was eight,” Lilith complained, “Now what do you mean by withdrawal?”

“You know how Oracle magic can really start to screw with your head if you’re good at it?” Eda asked

“Yes?”

“And you know how memory wiping potions can help?”

“Edalyn!” Lilith was scandalized, “Those are highly illegal!”

“So is everything else I do!” Eda answered, “and he’s hardly the only person who bought them. I thought he was doing it because Odalia was too uptight to get it herself. I didn’t think he was taking it! Let alone mixing it with alcohol.”

“He was mixing an illegal memory potion with alcohol?” Lilith looked like she was ready to feint from shock.

“Should we just trade letters and see what he didn’t tell both of us?” Eda suggested

“No!” Lilith snapped, “He obviously intended us to keep the letters private. Otherwise he'd have sent only one, addressed to both of us."

"Who cares what he intended? It's your letter now," Edalyn reasoned, "Besides shouldn't we both know everything we can about what we're getting into? I thought you'd agree with the smart thing to do."

"I don't think it is the smart thing to do," Lilith answered simply.

"Why not?" Eda demanded, watching her sister.

"I just don't," Lilith stood her ground.

"You're hiding something," Eda stated.

"That's ridiculous."

"Oh yeah? Then why won't you tell me why sharing our letters is a bad idea?"

"Because it's personal, Edalyn!" Lilith snapped.

"Who cares? Do you think I'm gonna judge you for whatever Alador told you about looking after his kids?"

"Yes!" Lilith said, to which Eda responded with a curious, almost scheming, look. "Edalyn, no!" It was too late. Eda pounced, grabbing at the letter with one hand and using her other to hold Lilith down by her face. Holding the letter out of Lilith's flailing reach, Eda began to read.

(Line break)

"Alador," Odalia called into her husband's workshop, "where are the children?" When no answer came, she proceeded down the stairs, into the workshop proper. "Alador, answer me," Odalia commanded, approaching her husband, hunched over the work bench against the far wall, placing her hand on it's shoulder

"I'm tired, Odalia," Alador's voice called from beside the stairs. Odalia turned to look, seeing Alador step forward from behind one of the workshop's numerous tarps. Odalia took a step towards Alador, but was stopped when her hand refused to move, beginning to sink into the form slumped over the workbench.

"What is the meaning of this?" Odalia asked, struggling to remove her hand from the Abomination as Alador's features melted away from it.

"I told you, Odalia," Alador's voice was steady, "I'm tired." He grabbed her free hand, pulling it away from her trapped appendage. "I'm tired of this life," he told her, forcing the hand deep into the Abomination.

"Where's your coven mark?" Odalia whispered, her eyes fixed on her husband's bare forearm.

"I left the coven, Odalia," he answered simply, "Didn't you already know?"

"What are you talking about?" Odalia's voice grew more frightened, as she failed to recall any such memory.

"We were going to discuss it, this morning," he crouched down, beginning to move Odalia's legs into the Abomination, "And then I gave you your coffee, and you seemed to just… forget."

"Alador, what did you do?'

"What I had to, Odalia!" He shouted, breaking his calm facade, angry tears beginning to well up as he knelt before his wife. "I've spent the last ten years of our marriage forgetting every moment we spent in the same room. I can't stand you, Odalia."

"Alador!"

"SHUT UP!" he roared, "I'm so tired of hearing your Titan damned voice!" He stood up and turned away from her, "I used almost the last bit of my memory potion in your coffee. To get you to shut up and just leave!"

He took a deep, shuddering breath, before he continued, more steadily, "And you left. And I was alone with my thoughts. About you. About us. Our children."

"Alador," Odalia said meekly, "where are the children?"

"Don't pretend to care now," Alador's voice rumbled.

"I'm not pretending!"

"YES YOU ARE! NEITHER OF US CARE FOR OUR CHILDREN!" Before Odalia could respond to the accusation, Alador started a barrage of questions, "What kind of glasses does Edric need? Who's Emira's favorite bard? What is Amity's favorite book series?" When Odalia failed to answer after one second, Alador shouted, "I didn't know either! I spent hours learning about our children by snooping around their rooms to get them what they need! What kind of father does that make me? And what kind of mother, that you've never even wanted to learn."

"I am not a terrible parent," Odalia defended.

"Do you remember our children ever smiling in front of us? At us? I don't, but I can blame that on the memory potion. You can't."

"A Blight doesn't-"

"WHY DO YOU CARE SO MUCH FOR A DAMN NAME THAT DOESN'T EVEN BELONG TO YOU?" The tears of anger rained freely as he shouted at her, "OUR CHILDREN SHOULD MEAN MORE TO US THAN THEM BEING SOME STUPID LEGACY!" It was a moment before he added, "That's why I sent them to the Owl House. I trust Edalyn Clawthorne to look after our children better than us. And Lily."

"I thought you agreed to stop calling her that."

"I lied. She's the only bright spot I have in these last ten years. I'm not giving that up. Not for you."

"Alador!"

"I'm done," he began to walk away, before adding, "Abomination, suffocate."

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spongebob-connoisseur · 4 years

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i wish nick would stop milking spongebob just leave it as the show and movies that’s it, i’m worried all this would come crashing down with all these new shows whether it be burnout with the cast and crew, creative differences, or failure of the projects, i just want spongebob to end soon and have proper good ending, nick should have more faith in their other cartoons other than spongebob and maybe the loud house, just actually green light actual good cartoon ideas, not annoying flashy shows

I have a feeling the show will come crashing down pretty soon. At this rate they're churning out much more then what the show can produce.

Tbh I enjoy the current seasons. They're fun. The show is still the juggernaut of the network. There isn't a need for mini series and extras. I know camp coral is a mini series so it really wouldn't last long but patrick the show or squidward the show? It's a lot of work. Its exhausting work.

You know what's funny is what made nick rise to the top in the 90s was the fact that they green lit a lot of shows, allowed for experimentation. They let their artists have the power and in return got a lot of great shows out of it. And I'm not saying the 90s was perfect and everything trash. But it was one of their core philosophies that they seemed to disregard as soon as they got money. The artists no longer have the right to their intellectual property. Unionizing will easily get you fired. Its a disaster all around.

The 2000s actually had great shows. The problem was the network wasn't willing to give them a chance. If they didn't hit mega stardom in its early season then it got axed. I often am surprised a lot of the shows I liked as a kid got canceled pretty early for no reason. They were popular with the kids I know for sure. Everyone in school talked about those shows so it didn't make sense why they would cancel it but for them if it wasn't massively marketable then it wasn't worth the time.

They will cancel shows with good ratings all the time. No reasons even given to the creator such as shows like Harvey Beaks. Its tragic.

I don't really want to pin all the blame on Spongebob because the show really got screwed over by Nick too. Literally going against everything Stephen wanted and Nickelodeon would have really done this to any show if it had not been spongebob. Literally they were forcing to make Spongebob a hey Arnold duplicate at the time.

It's really shitty though. Nickelodeon really won't end shows easily. When they're done with a show they would just put it on their nick toons channel to die with no ending like the fairlyodd parents when that show could have ended long time ago with the multiple series finales the show has. You know as a kid I used to wonder why fairlyodd parents had so many grand specials and stuff. It was because Nickelodeon often threatened to axe the show so many times so the staff had to make these specials because they were expecting it to be the end only to have Nick resurrect it again.

I don't care for the trash man Butch Hartman but the show got ran into the ground, no ending. It was abandoned on their nick toons channel and faded into obscurity. People only remembering it for the horrible quality of the last few seasons and its an example of what spongebob could become if we allow Nickelodeon to continue this.

All the actors on spongebob are very old now. I remember looking through the art book last night and it had a picture of Tom Kenny when he was younger (not much younger but like during the show) he had brown curly hair. Its crazy because nowadays you can watch him on instagram recreating moments from spongebob episodes and he looks completely different now. Short grey hair and a beard. He looks completely different now. So does many of the voice actors.

They've been doing this since before I was born and now I'm in an adult. Its crazy to imagine. They must be tired. We already had the voice actors for Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy pass away. The show makes up excuses whenever mermaid man and Barnacle boy get brought up and why they're unavailable but we all know the truth of what happened to them.

I'm worried the main cast voice actors will die soon. I don't want that and hope that never happens but the creator of the show itself isn't even alive. The current movie is dedicated in his honor "in loving memory of Stephen Hillenburg" at the end of the movie. It felt so sad.

It's nice his creation lived on to fill people's lives with comfort and happiness. Long after he passed away but it's crazy how badly his own brain child got disrespected and will continue to be disrespected.

I don't really want the show to end soon because I'm attached but also it has to. Its better for it to have a dignified ending then a miserable ending like the fairlyodd parents.

I want it to end with a proper legacy and be treated with the proper respect it deserves but Nickelodeon doesn't seem to have respect for anything. There is no such thing as a just corporation. They don't care about long term quality. They care about what's the most eye catching and have momentary success. Flashy lights that will easily entertain children which is crazy.

I remember their idea in the past was that they cared about what kids actually want to see. Not to put down the intelligence of children, respecting them as individuals and their entertainment would reflect that. It's clear they don't stand by that anymore.

You could argue that I was getting older but they brought in these cheap flashy cartoons in the late 2000s where I was still a kid. I was still their demographic and I hated it. It was hard to watch. Them trying to join in on trends and stuff at the time felt like your parents trying to join in on what the cool kids do. It was weird and hard to watch. They really don't have to do that. They tried doing live action shows in hopes of seeming cool but most kids hated it or were not allowed to watch because it was deemed inappropriate for most kids to watch.

They feel like a mess. I can't even suggest what to so since they're such a disaster network and now tv is dying so they're trying out streaming networks thst are only available in the US thus alienating a large portion of their audience.

I don't see them getting better soon so I don't see the future of spongebob as a whole being bright. I guess all we can do is enjoy the current season episodes. They're funny at least.

#spongebob #spongebob squarepants #sb #spongebon squarepants #spongebob meme #Ask #The spongebob connoisseur

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aziraphalesangel · 4 years

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Special request: where your reply is Hacyon-related, please also give an answer that is non-Halcyon (if possible) B. what’s your favourite fandom to read?E. who is your OTP?F. canon fics or au?G. longfics or shortfics?H. original characters or no?L. favourite fic written by you?P. do you write exclusively fanfic?R. link your favourite fic of all-time.S. link your favourite author.T. when did you start reading fanfic?V. post the last sentence you wrote.X. give a summary of your current project!

B. what’s your favourite fandom to read

So usually I only read one fandom at a time, and any time I read, like, two, is usually when I’m switching over from one to the other. So at the moment, I read the halcyon, but before that was good omens (and a bit of call the midwife, because occasionally I fall back into that, for maybe a week)

E. who is your OTP

adil/toby :P

for non-halcyon, I guess I’d say ineffable husbands, or phryne/jack from miss fisher (I’ve loved them since I was roughly 12 or 13 so...) but I only really have the brain space for a lot of emotion for one paring at a time

F. canon fic or au

generally, I read canon (or canon divergence if the canon is a bit shit) first, because I like reading and writing stuff that fleshes out some of the parts of canon that could have been more in-depth (like toby and adil’s ending feels pretty rushed, so I like exploring that even though it's sooooo angsty) but, au is a lot of fun when going after fluff and just, really funny/random scenarios and figuring out how everyone reacts in completely different situations and whatnot. it’s like a puzzle. so they both have different things that appeal to me :)

G. long fics or short fics

ah, usually short fics at the moment. I’ve had a bit of burnout for the last couple of months (it's so annoying, can my attention span please come back?), and also winter/cold air means I’ve been having more flare-ups, and when I’m in pain I can’t process words at all (soooo boring) but I love a really good long multichap sometimes because you can get completely lost in it and it’s just a lot of fun

H. original characters or no

I really love making ocs up, its fun for practising drawing sometimes. I don’t mind reading it in fics, so long as they don’t take away from the roles of actual side characters, but they can be fun. I tend not to write any in my own fics though

L. favourite fic written by you

ooooooh, I’m still pretty proud of Catch Me which is good omens hurt/comfort (I am a sucker for hurt comfort and I really wanted to read something specific and I didn’t know how to search for it so I wrote it).

I also kinda love Tell me a Story, Tell me a Lie because writing that reminded me a lot of the really experimental writing I did for extension english (literacy/writing etc.) in my last year of high school, and it was really fun to write, but I genuinely was not expecting anyone else to like it because I know second person can be a bit hit or miss,

P. do you write exclusively fanfic

I actually wrote oc stuff before I discovered fanfic was a thing (I would have been maybe 12 or 13), but it got very very dark, and honestly wasn't very good (again, i was like 12 lol). I have written story outlines since, usually for fic ideas that don’t fit a fandom/pairing so I made characters up, which I’d love to flesh out properly, but I’ve never actually written any original stuff at properly since then. I like writing fanfic more though. bonus content!

R. link your favourite fic of all time

I don’t have one???? There are certain fics I come back to first when I fall back into a fandom, but generally I barely have one favourite per fandom, let alone of all time across all of them. like, when I started reading fic for the halcyon again I started from top to bottom until I ran out, because I was mostly just excited that there was actually new fic (and writers!!!)

S. link your favourite author

I DON’T KNOW everyone’s writing style is slightly different, and some days it might be exactly what I want to read and other days I can’t process it at all, which means it changes all the time, but I’ll try not to be a massive baby about this and pick a few...

you (@szonklin) obviously, especially when I need an au fix :P (ao3)

@merefactsandlogic (ao3) who I seem to reread a lot without realising

@santiagosnart was someone I remember from when I lurked back in 2017, and I still really love their fics, and if they ever wrote halcyon fic again I might cry (ao3)

also I’m a massive coward about commenting, I’m trying to be better at that

T. when did you start reading fanfic

I think I was maybe 13? possibly 14? I read shitting hunger games fanfic on wattpad. I discovered ao3 when I was 15 when I got tumblr

V. post the last sentence you wrote

“So he goes up to Toby’s room the next morning, with an apology, an explanation, and a single blood drenched flower.”

(it’s another au I’m not gonna actually turn into a fic, but it accidentally got a little bit too detailed because I decided I was gonna rewrite it oops.)

X. give a summary of your current work

I have maybe 4 or 5? that I haven't touched in months?? (oh fuck the mermaid au) but okay;

so the one (that’s actually gonna be a fic, hopefully, eventually) is another post-canon fic, that sort of focuses more on reactions and processing of what happened in the last ep of the halcyon. I know this has been done a million times before, but like, rather than skipping ahead a few years and then confronting each other, its more about those years that usually get skipped. and they’ll get a happy ending this time (more angst though sorry!)

the not-gonna-be-a-fic thing from the previous question is a hanahaki au, and I’m not turning it into an actual fic because it’s just normal canon except adil has hanahaki. that’s it. just extra drama

(I also have good omens wips which I’m pretty sure I’ll never touch again. I think I might have a couple of marvel ones which I’m definitely never touching again because I’m just not interested in writing them anymore rip)

#ask

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johnsenwade54-blog · 5 years

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Fallout 76 Exposed

The Importance of Fallout 76 Obviously, all series must adapt and change as a way to survive a shifting audience with time. Sometimes once you level up, you earn a complete pack of Perk Cards, providing you with an ever bigger variety to choose from. It's possible for you to search through the perk cards also. Carry weight in Fallout games has ever been a little maligned mechanic, although there are a lot of community created mods developed to tie weight limits to backpacks and other containers. There are lots of things you can do with different players that isn't a comparison with weapons. It doesn't look like Fallout 76 could ever catch a rest, as even something as straightforward as patching out an exploit to prevent item duplication is simply a precursor to some other shoe dropping. On the technological side, the concerted, coordinated effort to deal with the problem could function as a model for handling different circumstances that are sure to arise. Some balance changes also have been included. The development team has opted to release patches first on the PC platform as it is significantly simpler to launch new patches on their very own platform. Don't forget, the aim of a beta is to assist Bethesda identify problems so they can fix them before launch. It has said that it will make an announcement when it wants players to converge online to make the most of the short play periods. It has promised increased performance as well as specific fixes when it comes to freezing while using the Pip Boy as well as removing the infinite load glitch on PC. With Fallout 76however, the thought of mods isn't as well received for quite a few factors. To get perks you need to open a perk pack that has cards you're able to equip to have skills. If you're trying to create a number of the greater level armor in Fallout 76, you will want to track down rarer resources. Literally, the things are called junk. Bethesda will hold several sessions for the whole period of the beta, and thus don't be concerned if you're not able to stay up that late. Obviously, it wants to stop the circulation of unreleased items. Fallout 76 limits the speed at which you may get mutations, so after every mutation is obtained, you should log from the game and back in again (aka server-hop) as a way to find another mutation. Naturally, there's a process involved with getting past the velvet beta rope. Check to see whether you have the mandatory range of good mutations (you should have no terrible mutations). Not just because it is a component of the series I know and love, but due to the possibilities it may bring. The most significant thing though is that you create your own decision and prevent allowing others to create your decision for you. The most probable reply to its success, nevertheless, is it's a newly tapped-into genre with several developers looking on in envy, and several others trying their hardest to enhance the formula, with varying degrees of succeeding. There are different phases of grief you'll experience on the way. There are many strategies to begin making an ever expanding world, the point above is only a region of the tip of the iceberg. If you keep in that world, you can put your C.A.M.P. back down free of charge. Burnout means exhaustion during a long period of time which affects your caring about the grade of the job you're doing. Bethesda should ditch the engine or find a means to help it become better asap since they can't be going in the next generation in this way. If it suffers significant financial loss, it is potentially harmful to others, even non-gamers, as it will negatively affect the economy. The Upside to Fallout 76 With Fallout 76, you're leaving out a massive chunk of your dedicated players due to the fact that they adore the solo adventure the story offers. Put simply, it feels like Fallout, and now you're able to play with your buddies. Whether you're fond of the genre, you will be sure to find a great deal of fun in a Conan Exiles that guarantees a game for a little while.

Sure, it appears somewhat strange not to have NPCs. Ultimately, many players that are engaging with Fallout 76 wish to reside in a wasteland at the place where they can participate in PvP, but it's an underdeveloped system. PvP is sort of optional, simply don't retaliate fire and you'll take barely any damage from enemies. The issue emerges in the simple fact that Fallout 76 attempts to move past the single player narrative and into a game that's shared with different people at the exact moment. As in the other Fallout games a lot of it's inventory management, and you may horde the fantastic stuff. Naturally, you will want to download the Bethesda launcher to access it, but apart from that, all you have to do is install the games. Three hours is insufficient time to acquire a correct feel for a giant on-line game like Fallout 76. In the end, if you would like to continue to keep your Fallout experiences to yourself, you may still play solo. Fallout 4 had 5 distinct endings. If you own a bunch of really great Perception cards, you will want to concentrate on that attribute when you level up. As you can play solo, all the gameplay videos shown so far suggest it would be difficult to survive very long without a couple friends by your side. It's a cool game of assassination in which you receive a target, and should you opt into it you turn into a target yourself. fallout 76 music

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doomedandstoned · 6 years

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Doomed & Stoned Turns Five!

Coinciding with Doomed & Stoned's fifth anniversary, Todd Severin of The Ripple Effect talks to Editor in Chief Billy Goate about this bitchin' lil blog, from its inauspicious beginning in the summer of 2013 as a simple social media platform to bring together lovers of the doom-stoner sound to dabbling in its own music festival, a massive compilation series, podcasting, and of course album reviews and interviews. Touching on both the joys and challenges of coordinating a multinational team of contributors, Billy discusses battles with burnout, the excitement of new discoveries, and the struggle to stay on top of an exponentially mushrooming music scene.

Photo by Chris Schanz

Let's start with the obvious: why Doomed & Stoned?

The name Doomed & Stoned isn't really meant to be edgy, though it does have a nice ring to it. It came to me as a simple way to sum up the heavy vibe that is the heart and soul of our writing: doom metal and stoner rock. I consider those to be the enduring styles of true metal and classic rock 'n' roll, best encapsulated by the music of Black Sabbath. Sabbath played music that was famously downtuned, slow, plodding, and somber, documented so incredibly by those first four albums. Then they had their up-tempo swings that tapped into the feel-good era of the 1970s, "Hole In The Sky" and "The Wizard" comes immediately to mind, as does "Sabbra Cadabra" and a number of songs on Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (1973) -- such a forward-looking album. Black Sabbath is the quintessential doomed and stoned band and it has been, broadly speaking, the stylistic portfolio of music we've decided to hone in on for this venture.

Photos by Alyssa Herrman

As soon as I was turned on to the doom-stoner vibe, I began to notice things happening into my own backyard of Portland, Oregon. At the time, Oregon’s proudest exports were bands like Witch Mountain, Yob, Lord Dying, Danava, and a handful of others that were being signed left and right to labels like Relapse and Profound Lore. Well, I just started documenting everything, because I felt there was something really special happening here, much as there'd been a magical vibe about our sister city Seattle in the '90s when my family had moved up here from East Texas.

It all began with me showing up randomly at shows and shooting live footage, I believe the first was the Portland Metal Winter Olympics in 2014, then Hoverfest. Initially, no one knew who the hell this guy was showing up with his camera, but gradually I became more accepted by the community, which opened up opportunities for doing interviews, album reviews, and a big 75-band compilation of the Portland scene, which kicked off this massive series of scene comps that many know Doomed & Stoned best for.

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Yob at Hoverfest (Film by Billy Goate)

What gave you this crazy idea of promoting the scenes to the rest of the world?

Doomed & Stoned originated out of a frustration I had in sharing discoveries like Windhand, Saint Vitus, Sleep, and Goatsnake with my metal friends. Many wouldn’t give these bands a chance or listened for half-a-minute and gave up. Surely, I thought to myself, there must be others out there who were just as in love with the doom-stoner genre as I am. It wasn’t long until I met Melissa Marie in a metal forum. I told her what I was planning, she was down, and together we burrowed in the heavy underground and discovered a whole community there welcoming us. Melissa was my first contributor and along the way, we made acquaintances with aspiring writers and photographers who really caught the vision and volunteered to document their own scenes. She's since become my executive editor and the organizer of our flagship festival in Indianapolis.

Suzi Uzi and Melissa Marie at Doomed & Stoned Fest

Just like that, the Doomed & Stoned team was born. Roman Tamayo joined the team shortly afterwards, now the Editor of Doomed & Stoned Latinoamérica and I started meeting people from all over who wanted to contribute an album review here, a bit of concert footage there. It all happened very naturally and organically, fueled by simple passion, a mutual love of fuzzy, downtuned riffs, and a desire to document the energy and excitement of what we were all witnessing -- Demon Lung in Las Vegas, Orchid in San Francisco, Pale Divine in Pennsylvania, Pilgrim in Rhode Island. It didn't take us long to discover was going on in the rest of the world and it blew our ever-lovin' minds.

With the explosion in blogging and desktop publishing, we gradually discovered there was a loose network of folks covering the doom-stoner scene all over the world, too. Most of them have been very friendly and we’ve even had the opportunity to collaborate with folks like The Sludgelord, Outlaws of the Sun, The Ripple Effect, Invisible Oranges, Revolver, Blabbermouth, and so many more. There are others that wouldn’t acknowledge our existence -- still won't to this day -- I’m guessing because we were viewed as unwelcome competition in an already small market with a tight circle of friendships. The thing is, we never really wanted to compete with anyone; we just wanted an outlet to share our love of music. It’s hard not to be competitive sometimes, of course. Competition can be positive in that it inspires you to push yourself, try new things, and grow.

Stephanie Cantu, Frank Heredia, and Elizabeth Gore at Psycho Las Vegas

That said, since none of the 20+ contributors to Doomed & Stoned are doing this full-time, we want ultimately just want to have fun and you can’t enjoy the ride if you’re constantly trying to outdo this site or that. We found our niche in digging into local scenes and telling the stories of the bands who may very well be the next Sleep or Windhand a decade or two into the future.

We're now in the fifth year of our existence and I feel we’re becoming known as people willing to give bands and their local scenes the kind of in-depth coverage they deserve. That speaks to our motto: “Bringing you the music and the stories of the heavy underground, with an emphasis on the Sabbath Sound and local scene coverage -- by the underground, for the underground.”

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Disenchanter at Doomed & Stoned Winter Showcase (Film by Billy Goate)

How has the scene grown and changed in the intervening years?

Well, since those bright-eyed early days, the doom-stoner scene has absolutely exploded. We were lucky enough to time our entry, purely by happenstance, to ride that wave just as it was nearing its crest. Right now, the scene is at least twice as big as it was five years ago and it’s becoming practically impossible to listen to all the new albums coming out, even if we limit the consideration to just doom metal, or even a subgenre of doom like blackened doom or death doom. It becomes a matter of practicality to prioritize those albums that are brought to your attention by PR firms and record labels, but I always remember that some of our greatest discoveries have been unsigned bands.

Over the years, we’ve been lucky enough to discover bands like Disenchanter, Holy Grove, Troll, Year of the Cobra, Toke, and dozens of others that have since risen to international prominence. Just to know you were there the moment their demo showed up on Bandcamp. You were among the first to listen to their self-produced CD on the commute to work. You were there to witness them opening for a touring headliner. You wrote their first review. You made that social media post that sparked a fire of interest. You recommended them to one of your overseas blogger pals. All of that is tremendously gratifying to be a part of.

Toke at Doomed & Stoned Festival I (photo by Johnny Hubbard)

We're all the product of our musical past. What's your musical history? First album you ever bought? First musical epiphany moment? First album that terrified the hell out of you?

I was raised by parents who came of age in the ‘50s and ‘60s, so I was exposed initially to a lot of late-‘60s rock, big band jazz, and later the ‘70s radio pop. Mom was fond of playing three classical music albums with a mix of music by Mozart, Beethoven, and Rossini, and that left a very powerful impression on me early on. She also was fond of Olivia Newton John, so I have “Jolene” permanently etched on my psyche and every so often vainly attempt singing it in the shower.

My first vinyl was the Ghostbusters soundtrack, which dad bought for me, and it unleashed a curiosity for the popular music of the ‘80s. Like a lot of my friends at school, I was nuts about Michael Jackson and I remember asking dad if I could have one of those swank red jackets that he wore so famously in “Thriller” (I was denied, though I did get quite good at grade school moonwalking). I distinctly remember the day my family got cable TV for the first time and with it MTV, which brought the music of Metallica, Boy George, Madonna, Aerosmith, and Run-DMC into our conservative Texas household.

It didn’t last long, because somewhere in the mid-‘80s, my family got caught up in the whole “Satanic Panic” movement. They started monitoring my listening habits vigilantly. One day, for instance, my mom was horrified to find her ten-year-old boy singing along to “Nobody’s Fool” by Cinderella during Casey Kasem’s American Top 40 show. From that point on, both rock and metal were banned from the house and my radio was confiscated. It was too late, though, because I was hooked – particularly by metal. Something about it has always moved me in a way that only classical music has matched. My first metal album, which I purchased in secret, was ‘Appetite for Destruction’ by Guns ‘n’ Roses – which at the time represented the pinnacle of late ‘80s heavy metal. People need to understand how revolutionary it was to hear something that “hard” on mainstream radio and MTV. I listened to it and ‘Lies’ incessantly on my Walkman and continued listening clandestinely to FM hard rock and heavy metal.

Since I couldn’t listen to it openly, I started developing an interest in the darker side of classical music, the moodier pieces by Beethoven, Liszt, and Scriabin, and took up playing the piano around 13. My family was supportive of that talent and I would spend hours and hours a day for years playing the piano in solitude. That was my first introduction, in kernel form, to “doom” – especially late Beethoven, when he started growing deaf and began expressing his frustration and despair more poignantly through dark tones. Franz Liszt, later in life, experienced so much tragedy that he begin to write very bleak, obscure music and was one of the first to experiment with atonality.

It wouldn’t be until my college days that I’d come face-to-face with doom at a Saint Vitus show in Portland. From that moment forward, I knew I’d discovered my soul food. Doom metal made an immediate connection, as it addressed the fucked up nature of life and society in a way that felt authentic to me. It wasn’t just anger. It was dark, slow despair and even a blithe kind of acceptance to it all. It was refreshing to have those feelings mapped out in song like that. That triggered a wave of discovery that led to Usnea, Cough, Pilgrim, Demon Lung, Serpentine Path, Undersmile, and others that are now staples of my musical diet.

Drumhead from Doomed & Stoned Festival II

What do you see happening in the music scene today, good and bad?

More people are digging to the doom-stoner sound and the scene is growing exponentially. The internet has democratized music in a way that has made it easier than ever for bands to form, record, and share their music. It’s also made it much, much harder for a band to get discovered. We’re simply oversaturated by it all. We’re reaching peak information and many listeners have just stopped exploring altogether. I think there was a study done some years back that said by the late-20’s/early-30’s the average metal listener typically hardens in their musical tastes. I don’t know how true that is still, but I know that I’ve been increasingly suffering from listening fatigue. 2014 was the last year I felt on top of it all. 2015 was explosive and every year since has found me woefully behind in my listening. I’m still digging through the rubble and discovering incredible records that I share now and then in a series of short reviews I call, “Doomed Discoveries.”

Among the trends I’ve seen in our scene in particular is the increase in female-fronted bands (which we tried to document in our compilation, The Enchanter’s Ball) along with more experimentation with genre blending. It’s becoming harder to find bands who traffic in traditional doom, but that’s fine because I think we all needed more diversity in our playlist to keep us from becoming jaded. For a while, it seemed every other band was “witch” this and “black” that. I’m the last person to judge a band by its name, but it was leading to a ton of criticism from fans -- to the point I’d have a hard time getting doom-stoner listeners to take a chance with a newer band that had the word “wizard” in their name. One thing that seems to be a theme of the doom-stoner scene is a continual drive for excellence and evolution. On the negative side, we tend to expect more of our heroes, as a result -- which is why bands like The Sword and Electric Wizard have been criticized for producing music that would have otherwise excited us if they were a brand new band.

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Holy Grove at Hoverfest (Film by Billy Goate)

What's been your all-time greatest "find"? That band you "discovered" before anyone else and started the word spreading?

It’s hard to pinpoint one band, but I’ve been instrumental in boosting the music of Holy Grove, Disenchanter, Troll, and Year of the Cobra -- all bands from out of the Pacific Northwest. Initially they were promoted through Doomed & Stoned and then found their way to small-to-medium sized record labels and festivals. Over half of the bands that played the Vinyl Stage at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in the inaugural year of Psycho Las Vegas were my direct recommendations. Though I was less involved in the following year, Psycho Las Vegas booked most of the bands that appeared at Doomed & Stoned Festival, such as Merlin, Toke, and Youngblood Supercult. It was a huge confidence booster in Doomed & Stoned’s ability to be a “taste tester.” This is not to say our taste in bands has always been picked up by festivals or record labels. The scene is getting bigger and out of necessity bands have to diversify their reach through a multiplicity of media outlets, because you never know who will read that one feature at the right time and dig your sound. Besides, there’s too much music in the doom-stoner subgenre for any one site to cover right now, so there are plenty of great recommendations coming from a number of amazing blogs and webzines.

What's the last album to grab you by the throat and insist you listen?

Definitely ‘Celestial Cemetery’ (2017) by Purple Hill Witch. I was only a nominal fan of their first album, but their second one was quite convincing, emotionally. There’s an underlying sadness to the record that appeals to me as a person who has long battled depression.

Celestial Cemetery by Purple Hill Witch

What's the hardest thing you encounter in promoting shows?

Convincing people that live music is worth leaving the comfort of our homes to experience, to say nothing of many benefits that come from connecting others in the underground music community. These days, we tend to value how conveniently something can be delivered to us. Audio books have replaced the need to sit and read (and collect printed media), our homes have become veritable theaters so no need to go out for movies anymore, and streaming high-definition music makes us feel like we’re in some sense getting the real deal.

Of course, those of us who go out to shows know there’s just no substitute for the excitement, energy, and sound of a well-produced live show, especially in a small venue. This is to say nothing of the community that comes with it. My best friendships in the scene have come about because I chose to breach my comfort zone and venture out to a show, sometimes merely on a whim. With that said, I admit I struggle with convincing myself to go out. It’s the introvert in me, I suppose. However, I have a saying that I try to live by: “Feel the fear and do it anyway.”

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Witch Mountain -- first tour with Kayla Dixon (Film by Billy Goate)

If you could write a 1,000 word essay on one song, which one would it be, and why? What makes that song so important?

Funny, I actually did write a 1,000+ word essay on Cough’s “Possession” -- the only song I’ve been moved to write an entire piece about so far. I think it’s because it spoke to me during a time in my life where I was feeling such raw, charged emotion and witnessing a personal transformation from being a happy-go-lucky, easy-going dude, to someone emptied of hope and weighted down by a very nihilistic outlook and pessimistic thinking. This was, in turn, keeping me more closed off from other people, because my trust level was at an all-time low.

I’ve always valued music for its ability to commiserate with me in my circumstances. During Basic Training it was Superunknown and Down on the Upside by Soundgarden. In my college days, it was Alice in Chain’s last album just prior to the death of Layne Staley, which fans nicknamed Tripod. In 2016, Cough returned after a long absence, released Still They Pray, and headlined the first ever Doomed & Stoned Festival in Indianapolis. It was a year of transition for me with a lot of upheaval in my personal life and “Possession” seemed to capture my inner storm perfectly, which inspired me to write a few words about it.

Give us three bands that we need to keep our eyes out for.

White Wail: The grooviest psychedelics this side of Berlin are nested right here in Yob country, my hometown of Eugene, Oregon. White Wail is best described as part-Graveyard, part-Radio Moscow, with a special kind of DIY electricity that has made them hands down one of the most entertaining live acts in the region. Their upcoming second album is going to put them on the map for many people, I predict.

I by White Wail

Reptile Master: Norwegian doom-sludge clan with two guitars, two basses, a drum, and one unhinged vocalist. You’ll find none fiercer. “The Sorcerer’s Weed” (opening number off their first LP, In The Light of a Sinking Sun) is positively frightening. I can feel its seething rage filling up my chest cavity like pneumonia every time I listen to it. I believe they’re expecting a new album out in the first quarter of 2019, if not sooner, and I can't wait!

Chrome Ghost: The ultimate contrast of light and dark come to us from a relatively unknown band in Roseville, California. The secret sauce here involves incredible vocal harmonies pitted against massive, crunchy riffs, something that’s done very effectively in their recent EPs, ‘The Mirror’ (2018) and ‘Reflection Pool’ (2017). Now, they just need to take this show on the road so the world can get better acquainted with them.

Shallows by chrome ghost

Tell us about your personal music collection. Vinyl? CD? What's your prized possession?

People think I have a huge vinyl collection, but mine is quite modest, really. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to have a bigger collection and show it off, but unfortunately, I haven’t a lot of money to put into it, really. My most prized records come from bands I’ve supported from their earliest stages, like Holy Grove, Menin, Soom, or Vokonis. CDs have come to dominate my collection, not so much by choice, but quite a few promos are sent to me that way. Mostly, I have a vast digital collection that takes up almost six terabytes of data. Since I’m doing a lot of podcasting, this allows me the easiest point of access to put together my mixes for The Doomed & Stoned Show.

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BelzebonG at Psycho Las Vegas (Film by Billy Goate)

What is it about this particular type of heavy music that makes it mean so much to you?

To me, doom metal and stoner rock has incredible staying power. It’s something I can listen to over and over again without growing weary of it. Add to that the fact bands in this genre take so much care in crafting their live sound and you can go to any doom-stoner show knowing you’re going to have an incredible time, perhaps even walk away with a better experience than the record gave you. I was constantly disappointed by the concert experiences I had while immersed in mainstream metal. It just never sounded as good as the records did. With doom-stoner music, my experience has largely been that a band's show can, and often does, transcend their studio recordings. It’s just the ethic of our scene; we're fanatical about sound.

With BelzebonG

What makes it all worthwhile for you?

That's a really good question. My philosophy is that as long as we’re all still having fun, it’s worth it to keep doing Doomed & Stoned. With that said, it can be very demanding and stressful, especially as we’re increasingly turned to by bands, labels, and PR firms to host track and album premieres. The gratification of a piece well done -- whether by me or by one of my team members -- is ultimately what keeps me going day-to-day. I find a lot of joy in developing talent and even helping writers and photographers hone their craft, gain greater name recognition, and develop the confidence to even branch out on their own as freelancers. Several have gotten gigs with larger outlets like Noisey due to their work here and that just blows my mind.

When Melissa first started, she wasn’t confident at all that she could do an interview. Next thing you know, she’s interviewing Wino, negotiating contracts with promoters, booking venues, and organizing a music festival with international acts. I’ve very proud of the team and everyone who has been a part of it, if only for a season. I'd add to that my relationships with growing record labels and ambitious promoters, who I've been able work with to get bands like Tombstones, BelzebonG, Spelljammer, Vokonis, Cardinals Folly over here to play for the first time in the United States.

With Disenchanter

How would your life be different if you weren't spreading the word about music?

I suppose I’d be spending more time playing the piano, something I’ve neglected more than I’d like to admit since starting Doomed & Stoned. There are some gnarly pieces by Beethoven, Liszt, Scriabin, Godowsky, and Prokofiev that I've half-chewed, just waiting for me pick them back up again. Either way, I don’t think I can stay passively involved in music. I have to be playing it or writing about it, preferably both.

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Usnea play 'Random Cosmic Violence' (Film by Billy Goate)

Ever been threatened by a band or a ravenous fan?

No, but I’ve been doggedly pursued on Facebook by overly enthusiastic bands trying to get me to review their albums. What they don’t realize is that I’ve got a very heavy editing backlog -- it takes at least 2 hours and more commonly 4, 6 or even 8 hours –- to prep a feature length piece for publication. To review a record, I need even more time to let it soak in. I have to find something in it that connects with me on an emotional or at least an intellectual level or I can’t write about it. Because of that, I don’t write very many reviews a years. Maybe a half-dozen traditional, track-by-track reviews, though I do try to write at least one short review a week on our Facebook page.

Part of the blessing and the curse of doing this as a hobby, as opposed to full-time, is I don’t have a lot of opportunity to hear gossip, get into interpersonal dramas, know who's not speaking to whom -- that kind of thing. With that said, I really wish I could spend more time responding to every message I receive and developing deeper level friendships. Perhaps in time I will. My work schedule is so packed right now that it’s very hard for me to tear away and just relax and get to know people. On the positive side, it does save me from a lot of inter-scene conflict and allows me to be more of a neutral party when issues arise between bands, venues, promoters, forums, or fans.

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Saint Vitus Live in Portland (Film by Billy Goate)

In the end, what would you like to have accomplished, or be remembered for?

I’m hoping we can be remembers for documenting this special era in heavy music history. I want to get better at showcasing the bands in their scenes and telling their stories, just like the writers and photographers of the Seattle grunge era were able to capture the imagination of the world with the Nirvana-Soundgarden-AIC-Pearl Jam vibe of that scene in the early-to-mid ‘90s -- what the 1996 documentary Hype! captured so well. I also hope I’ll be remembered for writing interesting, engaging, and relatable music reviews that aren’t pretentious crap. That’s still a work in progress!

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Bell Witch at Doomed & Stoned Fest (Film by Billy Goate)

Many people may not realize the hours you devote to what you do for little or no pay. Is there a day job? If so, how do you find the balance?

This is most certainly not a day job. I have a full time job that I work 40-50 hours a week and I do Doomed & Stoned in the evenings and weekends. Right now, I’m not doing very good with the balance, to be honest. I’m an unrepentant workaholic, if I’m being honest with myself. That said, every other weekend, my mind and body revolt and refuse to allow me to do anything except sleep or just lay around watching movies or doing normal things like, you know, mowing the lawn. If I could will it, I wouldn't sleep more than four hours a night, hit every show that comes to town, review every new release, put out a podcast every week, edit every article within a few days of it being submitted to me. In other words, I'd manage Doomed & Stoned as if it were a full-scale entertainment website. However, I have to remind myself that I started this to build community and to have fun, so it’s okay to operate on a different model.

Filming Elder at Dante's in Portland (Photo by Matt Amott)

What's next? Any new projects?

This year, we’re on a roll with our compilations, thanks to some wonderful organizers who are embedded in their local scenes and are good at rounding up tracks from all the participating bands. We’ve released Doomed & Stoned in Ireland, Doomed & Stoned in Philadelphia, and Doomed & Stoned in New Zealand, Doomed & Stoned in South Africa, Doomed & Stoned in Sweden, and we're coming up on Doomed & Stoned in Deutschland, and our fifth anniversary compilation, Doomed & Stoned in Portland III.

Other than that, we’re in the third year of our flagship festival, Doomed & Stoned Festival, which takes place on October 6th & 7th in Indianapolis. Over the summer, we’ve had two new festivals: Chicago Doomed & Stoned Festival and Ohio Doomed & Stoned Fest. We’ll likely be doing a festival in Portland later in the summer, too, perhaps doing an all-dayer in Eugene, too. These are very much passion projects and we're lucky to break even on them, but the joy of putting on a successful fest that brings together members of the community, that brings bands like Vokonis and Cardinals Folly to the United States for the first time, is totally worth it. This is history in the making. More than that, it's vital therapy for our people -- refueling our storehouses with the power of the Riff!

Finally, other than the music, what's your other burning passion?

I have cats that I love to death. I’m a fanatical collector of B-movies, from the ‘60s and ‘70s especially –- the more awful the movie is, production wise, the more I delight in it. Probably that has a lot to do with growing up on Mystery Science Theater 3000. When B-movies and cats collide with music, I’m in a very happy place (see the band Gurt!). Also an avid fan of vintage comic books -- many of the narratives of the pre-code 1950s comic books were taking chances that rival many of the shocking storylines of Marvel and DC today. Surprisingly, one of the themes that I see recurring between titles is DOOM! It's a delight every time I discover one of these stories. Art, film, and music have a very important, symbiotic relationship and I find it tremendously gratifying to play historian and trace the threads of the past into the present and watch how they continue to evolve into the future.

I've also got a gang of cats that keep me in line and like to be very involved with the production of Doomed & Stoned, so much so that I've had to make cat beds in front of my monitor and in the drawer of one of my desks for a pair of twins I adopted from the pound some years back. They absolutely are enthralled with that desk of mind, whether I'm editing an article or interviewing someone for a show! Best of all, they love them some doom. They sleep soundly every time I've got the likes of Sea Bastard or Serpentine Path rumbling my speakers. Wouldn't trade 'em for all the vinyl in the world.

Meet The Team

North America

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margri3t · 6 years

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Ereri secret santa!

Hello everyone! It’s finally posting time for the Ereri secret santa and I am very excite. I’ve had this fic ready to go for over a month now XD. Basically @thes0ulreader is my secret santa!!! and bc I’m speedy my posting # is #1!

You can read it here on ao3 or keep reading down below!

A week before Christmas and I’ve got the fucking flu. This wouldn’t be a problem if it weren’t for the fact that every year our orchestra celebrates Christmas by holding a concert each day for a week. The turnout is always massive. If my flu doesn’t magically disappear by 2pm, the orchestra won’t have a first violinist. My boyfriend Eren on the other hand seems to have some sort of magical immunity to illness. He was spending the morning looking after me to his best abilities even though I told him time and time again that he should be spending the morning practising Double bass instead. Even if I did enjoy the pampering, there was a 99% chance that Eren would have to go to the concert without me.

“It’s such a shame you won’t be there to help me carry things…” Eren loved to tease me, using if often as a way to distract me from whatever was upsetting me. This meant he could tell I wasn’t happy being stuck at home and wanted reassurance that I was okay. Best way to do that was tease back…

“I wouldn’t have helped anyway, it’s your fault for choosing such a large instrument in the first place. People think you’re compensating for something.” I said with a sniff, grabbing a tissue from the nightstand.

“But you know I’m not!” I could tell from the singsong tone that he was relaxing. Thank god. I didn’t want him to stress over me when he should be focusing on music.

When Eren felt my forehead the previous good mood disappeared. Fuck.

“You’re boiling, I’ll get you a cold compress.”

“No you won’t, I’ll do it myself. Now enough with you, you’ve got two hours until you’ve got to leave. Go practise.” Illness be damned, if he didn’t go practise himself, I’d drag him there.

“If you insist. But please be careful, overworking yourself now will only slow your recovery.” With that Eren stood up and planted a kiss on my lips before leaving.

A few minutes later I heard the soft sounds of music resounding from downstairs. Honestly that man does too much for me, the amount of tenderness in his eyes before he left was painful. Thoughts of christmas started to fill my mind and I thought about the small box that was currently hidden deep underneath the christmas tree. Would he say yes? Was just the ring enough? I had played with the idea of arranging a piece for the proposal before, but never found the time to actually do it. Could it be that my illness was actually a blessing in disguise? I was well enough that I could still play, the only problem keeping me from going to concerts was a fever and coughing fits. Maybe I could use the free time to prepare something special for Eren? He really did deserve to know how much I loved him.

I decided for now it was best to get some rest and let Eren’s quiet playing lull me to sleep. Due to my insomnia I had difficulty doing this especially because Eren wasn’t but my side. Over the past two years we’d been dating I found that he helped me sleep better. But hearing him play helped to some extent.

~~~

I woke up a few hours later to find a note on the nightstand:

Levi,

It’s good to see you’re getting some rest, even if I can’t look after you right now I trust you’ll be okay. You already know this but I’ll be back by 9. Get well soon!

He really was too sweet, it made my heart ache.

With slight difficulty I got out of bed and headed to the music room to grab some blank music sheets. My first goal was to have a loose violin arrangement made for the end of the day. I decided that the piece I’d be playing was the waltz from swan lake. Eren loved waltzes. Every time he heard one he made me dance with him and because my dancing abilities were subpar, it always ended in a fit of laughter and possibly me on the floor.

When I sat down at the piano I started to get extremely cold, so I quickly rushed upstairs to get a blanket. Back downstairs and comfortable, I started writing. Listening to the music and playing a couple notes on the piano before writing what I wanted down. It seemed I’d have to get Eren’s mother in the mix. I needed a pianist and she played beautifully. So after a few more hours and eventually a loose draft of what I wanted, I called her…

“Hello Levi!” Carla sounded as cheery as ever.

“Hi Carla! How are you?” Eren’s mother loved talking so I might as well ask.

“I’m great thank you, but why are you calling me? Is this about your little proposal plan?” I had already asked for her blessing a few weeks ago, earning a bear hug and squealing. After which she bombarded me with questions.

“Well yes. I wasn’t planning to do this but now it seems I have time to, would you please help me by accompanying a piece? It’s short notice and I’m sorry but I know you’re talented enough.”

“Well of course Levi! I’ve got nothing better to do this week and I would just love to see my boy say yes! When and where do you need me?” Over excited as usual.

“Well if you could come by tomorrow at 2:30 we could take a look at it together?” Eren would be gone by then.

“Sounds perfect.”

~~~

Eren was correct, due to the fact I hadn’t been resting, my illness stretched across the whole week. I was upset that I missed the concerts, but glad I could get the extra practice time. So when Christmas came around I was hopeful I could make this a day Eren would never forget. The past five days had been stressful even without the humongous weight of 1000 eyes on you as you play ‘Mary do you know?’. Eren’s mother had the skill but was worried that she wouldn’t have it ready in time, of course eventually she had it perfected (by eventually I mean after a day) that women was a fucking monster when it came to music. No one in the community loomed quite as large…meaning that when she retired, everyone was upset. Her reasoning had been that she ‘wanted to find a way to associate piano with fun again instead of work’ which I could completely understand. Burnouts were far to common in the music community.

Even just playing the song through I could imagine Eren dancing, and it was as much of a distraction as it was beautiful. So I decided it was best to clear my head when I played, thinking of nothing else than how much I loved the man who showed me so much kindness.

~~~

8am, Christmas Day, and a quiet notification wakes me. Eren’s mother is at the front door. I sneak out of bed the best I can and slip on some clothes before heading downstairs. The bolts on the door are far too loud, contrasting harshly with the almost eerie silence of the rest of the house. Eren’s mother hugs me silently and I let her in, immediately she heads to the music room to set up. I grab the ring box from underneath the tree and slip it into my pocket. Afterwards I motion for Carla to come to the kitchen and make some coffee. Nerves are starting to get to me.

My hands are shaking and honestly it’s so terrifying, I’ve never felt this nervous before. But you can’t blame me, I’m about to ask the biggest question of my life to the most important man of my life. My mind started to wander about all the things that could give Eren a reason to say no. We’d fallen out before, just like every couple. But I didn’t think there was anything extreme…Maybe he never loved me in the first place, is our whole relationship just a lie? What if-

I felt Carla’s hand wrap around mine. Fuck. She could tell I was nervous. How was I going to live through this without fucking up? By the end of the day Eren would be gone. I’m sure of it. Even if it really hurts, why would he even bother staying if I can’t get his proposal right?

“Levi, Eren really loves you. I know you’re nervous but he’s not going to care how you propose. At the end of the day what matters is the fact that you want to marry him and he wants the same.” Carla read my mind.

“But what if he doesn’t?”

“If you can’t see how smitten he is with you you must be blind. I can even tell just from his voice! He calls me sometimes and every time it’s ‘Levi did this’ ‘Levi was so cute yesterday’ and so on. Look, don’t tell him I said this, but after just a month of knowing you he told me he thought you were the one.” I would never believe that. Ever.

“Lies and deceit.”

“Trust me it’s true!” Just as Carla said this I heard footsteps upstairs, Eren was awake. Now I was certain we only had 30 minutes till show time. Eren always took a shower in the mornings and normally it took around 30 minutes. I started to shake again.

Whilst Carla and I waited we made breakfast, that way we could have a ‘small celebration’ afterwards. But those were Carla’s words and not mine. We decided to just make omelette as later on in the day we’d be having a big Christmas dinner at Carla’s house. We were done round about 15 minutes later and placed a plate over the food so it wouldn’t cool down too much. Upstairs I heard Eren step out the shower. Fuck. He was being fast today. Carla gave me a look and dragged me to the music room to set up my violin. We started tuning and so on, making sure to listen closely for footsteps upstairs. I knew he could probably hear me, meaning he would be down fairly fast.

Lo and behold, 5 minutes later, there he was…

“Levi…what is this? Why is my mum here?” Damn, questions he’d get answers to soon but still made me question myself.

“I prepared a piece for you for Christmas. So shh and just listen.” My harsh attitude made Eren chuckle which in return caused my heart to flutter. Fuck. Breathing in steadily, I raised my bow and locked eyes with Carla for a moment before beginning to play.

I wasn’t normally one to get stage fright, so the feeling of drowning was definitely new, nevertheless I swam up. Only letting my playing falter for half a second before getting it under control. I had to put all my emotion into this. Let Eren feel how I feel through my music. Funnily enough, it was easy to compare my relationship with Eren to the music I was playing. We had managed to find calm within each other’s arms. All our stresses melting away. Of course there was bound to be problems, just like how the song itself was bound to become louder, but it would always return to a calm. I could see a grin spread across Eren’s face and his eyes flash in recognition. Perfect. Why was he so fucking perfect? Somehow Eren also looked pained, like he was itching to do something. When I saw his foot tap I realised what it was, he wanted to dance. It was hard to dance a waltz alone. Guess I’d have to beg Carla to play again later without me so we could dance.

Eventually I reached the end of the piece, finishing with a flourish of my bow.

Eren looked so happy.

Here goes nothing.

I placed down my violin silently and knelt down on one knee, slowly grabbing the ring box from my pocket.

“Eren you amazing, beautiful, crazy man,” My voice cracked. Fuck. “Will you marry me?” Eren was on the brink of tears, was he upset? Happy? Angry? Levi why can’t you even tell what your own boyfriend is thinking?

“In what universe would my answer ever be no?” Eren laughed and all I could do was get lost in his eyes. Amazing. I didn’t even register the fact Eren was helping me stand until I was firmly standing on two feet. Placing down the box, I grabbed Eren’s hand and slipped the ring onto his finger. It was a simple silver band with green crystals? Gems? I didn’t know. Honestly the only thought I had about the ring was that it matched his eyes amazingly.

“Finally! One step closer to grandchildren!” Of course Carla had to say that.

#ererisecretsanta2k17 #1 #ereri #fanfic #drabble #music au #my fic

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entergamingxp · 4 years

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Mirror’s Edge Catalyst still offers an open-world city like no other • Eurogamer.net

Years ago, EA’s building in the UK was a Foster and Partners number in Chertsey. And it had a handful of interesting features. There was a moat. There were ducks involved, or maybe swans. The front of the structure came off (on purpose) and leaked (not on purpose). From the air the whole thing looked a bit like the letter E. Electronic!

Inside it was pure Bond lair, of course, this being the era which also gave us the doomy concrete spinal excavation of Westminster Tube Station, my favourite building in London because I am a massive child, loose in the world with nothing in my skull but feathers. (Westminster Tube is definitely Bond, but definitely also Brosnan Bond.) Anyway, EA’s place: with oddly angled windows ensuring you never knew which direction the automatic blinds were going to descend from, skeletal staircases and lots of dark surfaces. You can see it for yourself in films like Inception and TV shows like Jekyll. Anything with a touch of horror or unease. The Bond people never actually used it, I gather. The heights were not quite right for it to be truly deathly, but it did a good job of being Deathly Junior. A mausoleum built to the specs of a condominium. EA doesn’t live there any more.

I’ve spent the last few days in another collision of EA and architecture, though. And again, although Foster and Partners were not involved, it’s also disquieting and abstractly villainous and filled with odd features. A lot of people might argue that it leaks, too, or at least that it is not quite fit for purpose. No matter. Mirror’s Edge Catalyst is finally on Steam and I have been running and jumping, diving and swooping across its squeaky world. I’m in love.

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Emad has already made the case that this game is politically and socially a lot more interesting and progressive than most video game sequels. If you only read one piece on Mirror’s Edge today, re-read his! Meanwhile, I’m going to look purely at the game’s landscape – how it affects the game’s atmosphere and how it shapes the feeling of play.

Remember when they announced a sequel to Mirror’s Edge, the pristine parkour-heavy action game from Dice, all shot through with wiry energy and surprising heft, and they said it was going to be open-world this time? I remember thinking: that’s going to have to be a very different kind of open world. The first game was emphatically not open-world, and it’s hard to see how it would have worked in that way. Instead, each level was a sort of white-box Rubik’s Snake of urban design, gloriously sunny and bleached outside, the surfaces somehow chalky, and chalk is just the remains of the dead isn’t it? And then, muddly and fussy and a bit of a migraine indoors.

These places were great, if you ask me. I even liked getting lost in office buildings with the hint button pointing me mindlessly at my own feet when I really needed an exit. But it wasn’t for everyone, which is a phrase that must not delight an outfit like EA. And the idea of exploding these spaces outwards, retaining their intricacy while allowing them to become open-world areas fit for exploration and repeated journeys and multiple purposes – I can imagine the kind of headaches this design would cause. The first Mirror’s Edge bristled with places that gave the careful impression that they connected to other places. But that’s very different to places that actually do connect.

Anyway, the genius of Catalyst – and it is genius; despite the understandably chilly reception the game got, I find it intermittently more than thrilling – is that its open spaces do connect, but also still give the impression that there are yet deeper connections that cannot be accessed. Rooftops, alleyways and ladders! Ducts and open-air business suites, that indoor-outdoor lifestyle everyone’s after in the Valley. All of this. Drainpipes, server boxes, cooling fans that you learn to pause so you can move through them. This is the City of Glass, all but devoid of life and with a skyline that looks like it’ s made from guesswork renders of next-gen consoles. This is a city of paths and routes, but as the name suggests, it’s also a city of surfaces.

What I mean is that I’m dazzled by the sheer number of times I find myself looking through a surface that’s in front of me. There are windows, obviously, giving me views of sterile workspaces or endless iterations of corporate artwork. But then there are vents with slatted surfaces giving a glimmer of what’s beyond. And the floors! You never saw such floors. There are times when you look down and see through the floor, through grills or thin metal rattle-punched with holes, through squeaky clear stuff that is neither glass nor plastic but seems to have been imported from J.J. Abram’s Enterprise. Look down into rooms you maybe can or cannot access. Additional crawlspaces that may or may not be meant for your use.

Then look up. Again, oppressively bleached surfaces and clear light rule in this city. The city is the story here – so cold and unkind and heavy-handed. But the further you go, the more you find missions in which you leave the city itself behind and below with little warning and find yourself climbing through the innards of giant computers. Perhaps the point is that the city itself is a computer, with electrons moving about with more agency than the humans. Certainly more at home with these straight lines and sharp turns than the rare people you sometimes glimpse, looking down through a glass ceiling somewhere, all of them trapped in rooms that don’t seem to have any obvious entrances or exits.

What does this place allow for? It’s surprisingly entertaining really. It looks like an afternoon at the dentist but it encourages zip and flow. The best mission has you going up a skyscraper to remove something rather crucial to its design at the top. It’s the point in the game where you learn the fast-turn move that you may have neglected to buy up until now because it looked like a faff. Suddenly all the things you can do with your move-set link together because of that fast-turn. It reminds me in full pelt of Burnout Paradise, actually, that sense of carving a perfect channel through a world that rushes around you but magically never connects when you most fear it’s going to. Pipes, used for climbing, are suddenly there to allow you to do quick quarter circle moves. The red items of runner vision line up so beautifully that you can forget that this is another game about rebellion delivered by means of following a line from the start to the finish. A rush.

And when you do hit the ground, it’s worth something. I love the moment of impact when you’re left jarred and shaking and looking at your hands on the beautifully rendered floor, and glimpsing all those possible places beneath it. They’re necessary, these heavy stops. They are the weighted price you pay that makes all that gliding and dashing feel fair, feel real. They’re the bill being settled. And they too are built into the city.

Images like this are a bit of a reminder that EA didn’t know how to market this one in a world where they clearly feared everyone else was playing Assassin’s Creed.

Meanwhile, when the flow breaks, this game is the closest thing I have ever encountered to those dreams where you have to do something simple but can’t. For me it’s always dialling a phone number, prodding in the wrong buttons, deleting, starting over, unable to stumble through the area code. It seems like a cold place, even an annoying place. But in between missions I’m finding the City of Glass is surprisingly fun to sweep around and collect doodads in and do the side-stuff. It’s fun to get lost, to get stuck in those nightmare loops. It’s fun just to race about this jumble, always moving up and down, a city defined by a control scheme which really only wants you to think about whether to move up or down in the first place.

And weirdly it keeps reminding me of real locations, much more than a lot of other video game cities ever do. Maybe it’s a narrowing of specifics, but a scattering of specifics. San Andreas is Los Angeles and only Los Angeles. Crackdown 3 is pure cold-filtered Croydon with no added sugar. The emptiness of the City of Glass makes me remember ancient weekends exploring the deserted City in London, or one night, long ago, when a girlfriend and I followed a single dancing trail of white house paint that had been dribbled along miles of the South Bank. But it doesn’t stay in London. It’s fun to wander through the City of Glass and ponder the possible influences, in fact. I wonder about the things that the invisible designers (who seem to lurk, as open-world designers always do, high overhead, peering down, not entirely benevolent) have read that I may have read too, like an old Lloyd Wright Jr plan to turn Bunker Hill in Los Angeles into a kind of book-end necropolis, a giant walled space where different modes of transport were separated out on tracks of different heights and different widths. To be surrounded by traffic menageries that you sensed but would never fully see. That’s very Mirror’s Edge.

What this city has that is all its own, though, and I think that this will be my lingering memory of this game, is those layers upon layers: not-glass, not-grill, not-plastic, all of them slides giving glimpses of the worlds trapped beneath them. And over it all this singular texture that I now realise unites everything while leaving everything subtly unreadable. This gloss. Slick and squeaky – visual and aural noise.

Everything in the city has been coated in this stuff, this gloss, so you will never really know what it is. Plastic, concrete, foam? The rudiments of materials are always beautifully done. But then there is always a sense of a micro-layer on top, a kandy-ing. And like so much else here, I kind of love it.

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/06/mirrors-edge-catalyst-still-offers-an-open-world-city-like-no-other-%e2%80%a2-eurogamer-net/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=mirrors-edge-catalyst-still-offers-an-open-world-city-like-no-other-%25e2%2580%25a2-eurogamer-net

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klaineccfanficlibrary · 5 years

Note

hey there, im very sick and sad at the moment, do you have super fluffy(preferably multichapter) fics?

Hey Nonnie,

Fluffy multichapters? I’ll see what I can do :-) Most multichapters will contain some angst, though, even when the story is mostly fluff.

Here are some virtual hugs for you in the hopes of making you feel a bit better XOXOXO

Marjan

A Month, A Week and Three Days by @it-avi

"Why does everyone take me seriously when I talk about that?" Kurt mused. "My Step-Brother, my Dad, my-" he stumbled over his words for a second. "-Blaine." He finished lamely, his cheeks turning quickly to a rosy, adorable pink.

A Place to Stay by ItsNotEasyBeingQueen

Kurt is a blogger who has reserved a room at a hotel for Fashion Week - a hotel which just happens to be managed by the charming Blaine Anderson. Circumstances force them into each other's lives for the week in a way neither of them expected. What exactly will happen when Blaine gives Kurt a place to stay?

A Universe Where Prop 8 And Other Related Homophobic State Laws Have Long Been Defeated by @rockinhamburger

Fast-forward several years in the future. Kurt and Blaine are navigating the waters of marriage, and everything that entails.

Along for the Rides by @slayediest

AU. Blaine and Kurt get their summer romance on. Mostly fluff, awkward flirting, a side of misunderstanding and some hanky panky.

Another Time, Another Place by elfinder

What if Kurt had met Blaine a year earlier? How would his life have changed? In his sophomore year, during the spring, Kurt Hummel ends up by chance meeting a charming young man named Blaine Anderson, who turns out to be in his own Glee club. The two begin down the road of becoming friends and then the journey that their relationship takes them. Will they be able to face any problems ahead? No matter what they may be?

Black and White by rainjoy

Kurt and Blaine do a crossword. Amongst other things.

Click and Press Send by @loveheartlover

Blaine Anderson is 18 years old and in his final year at McKinley High. His best friends know everything about him- apart from that whole thing where he's in love with an online blogger.

ThreeDomsToRuleThemAll are the best thing to ever happen to Blaine; three friends who post audio and video that more than satisfies his need to submit, and Kimber is the man who makes every Thursday the best day of Blaine's week. It's just a shame that Blaine is little more than another number, another follower to him. He doesn't even know Blaine exists.

Until one day, he does.

This is their story.

Crema verse by @twobirdsonesong

Kurt’s just landed a job at Vogue as Carrie Bradshaw’s assistant. One of his tasks is to bring her coffee in the morning. Enter Blaine, the barista. This is the story of how they change each other’s lives.

Equality by idoltina

Obligatory 'gay marriage becomes legal in New York and the boys react' fic.Also: Blaine just wants a blowjob. His elderly neighbor, Kurt's parents, and a plan that's been in the making for three and a half years all serve as sources to Blaine's seemingly never-ending sexual frustration.

Excited about things by @a-simple-rainbow

"It's not fair because I'll never get to make fun of your pictures!" He whines and Kurt stops dead on his track. The silence is thick and then Blaine sighs and laughs "Relax, I'm kidding." "I'm… I…" "You're gonna have to get used to blind jokes if this is gonna work." Blaine announces, smirking as he leaves the kitchen, glass in hand. (Blind!blaine, Skank!Kurt, FLUFF)

Gourmet Rhapsody by @hazelandglasz

Kurt has been working as a designer in a high-end fashion house but he just reaches his emotional limit.He goes through a burnout and during the time he has been given to recover, he goes back to what has always been his way to cope with stress : cooking and more particularly baking.It acts as an epiphany : why does he keep on working for someone else who doesn’t really let him make the right decisions and put too much pressure on him, if he can try being his own boss ?With Blaine’s support and Adam’s collaboration, he opens “Nibble on”, a bakery that cares about feeding you, body and soul.

How Kurt Hummel Loses His Virginity by @scatter-the-stars

Tired of being a virgin, and not having anybody be interested in him, shy and insecure, Kurt, decides that for his twentieth birthday, as a present to himself, he will hire an escort and lose the big V. Little does he know, that when he meets Blaine, his escort, everything will change.

How Many Days... by @fictionallylost

How many days does it take to fall in love? For Music Producer, Blaine Anderson it’s just another day at the office working on a valentines record for an international, top selling artist; with the idea of love as far from his mind as possible…that is until he meets lead backing vocalist, Kurt Hummel.

In Want of Magic by @trufflemores

3.01-4.01. "I just want my senior year to be magic."

Italian Boy by @kookaburrito

Every Saturday morning Kurt takes the bus to Little Italy. During the ride he keeps seeing the same cute boy who reads Italian books, and decides to learn the language, you know, just because it might turn out useful in the end.

Jump by @scatter-the-stars

It's been over a year since the injury that took away his dream. No longer able to take the questions and concerns, Kurt has escaped to a small town to think about what he wants. What he doesn't expect to find are Blaine and his little girl, who both quickly steal his heart. And it's not long before he has to make the choice of where his heart truly lies.

life is like a song (i want you to sing to me) by @luthien82

Kurt and Blaine have been best friends since college. They would do anything for each other, which Blaine proves when Kurt confesses he has to go home for a wedding - a wedding where everyone expects him to bring his long time boyfriend. The thing is: Kurt doesn't have one. But he has a Blaine, who is willing to help. Enter one group of crazy, well meaning friends, a week full of wedding preparations, and lots of sexual tension and you've got yourself a mix that's just bound to blow up in their faces...

Loving You Is Easy by @mrscriss2012

Single parent Kurt is moving back to Ohio. Having been hurt before, will he ever find anyone to love and trust again?

Make the Yuletide Gay by @razorsharpquill

When the invitation comes, Blaine Anderson is delighted -- he can't think of a better way to usher in the holidays than an impromptu Warbler reunion to celebrate one of their own getting married. Unfortunately that includes ALL of the Warblers, including his ex-boyfriend Sebastian. Avoiding the ex might just call for drastic measures -- and Blaine knows just the man for the job.

Missing Pieces by @sunshineoptimismandangels

Even after living in New York City for three years Kurt Hummel still hasn't found love. He thought that the city of his dreams would make all of his dreams come true, but maybe he just isn't made for romance. That is until Kurt is home for the summer, helping his father run his growing Android Repair shop and getting to know hid dad's latest acquisition, a handsome and sweet android with curly hair, and a kind smile and a love for musicals. Maybe Kurt will discover that love isn't what he always thought it was.

NYADA Crushes by @notthetoothfairy

Kurt doesn’t think it’s going to be a big deal if he posts an anonymous message on the NYADA Crushes Facebook page about the cute guy he just saw fall on his ass in front of the NYADA main entrance. Little does he know that Blaine is going to be his dance TA once the new school year starts, and that Blaine has a history with NYADA Crushes, too.

Operation Secret Santa by @ckerouac

Kurt can't stop staring at the cute guy who comes by the coffee station near his desk every morning, but can never muster up the courage to say hello. Until the assignment for their office Secret Santa is revealed and his reads 'Blaine Anderson'. Written in pieces for Klaine Advent 2017.

Shiftings by @chazzam (check out the entire verse, it’s lovely!)

Shiftings 'verse #1 - The shift in their relationship didn't come out of left field at all. Beneath the surface, things had been changing all along. Set right after THE KLISS. Kind of fluffy.

Somebody to Love by @bazllton

Klaine Coffee shop AU in which Kurt is a barista and Blaine is a dorky customer. Basically just lots and lots of fluff.

Sum verse by flaming_muse

The whole of Kurt and Blaine’s relationship is greater than the sum of its parts. Scenes of two boys in love.

Three Weeks of Summer by @antarcticbird

Kurt just wants to get some work done, Rachel just wants him to relax, and Blaine shows up and makes everything even more complicated than it is already.

Written On My Heart by @gingerfic

Kurt draws Blaine’s name in a massive secret pal exchange at work. He doesn’t know Blaine, and thinks he is giving to a female. Will he decide to reveal himself and actually meet Blaine at the end of the six weeks?Meanwhile, he has started noticing an attractive stranger...

Also, if you don’t mind me reccing one of my own fics:

Catch Me A Catch by lilyvandersteen

Blaine is a hard-working pre-law student and part-time barista, whose brother Cooper has snagged a role in Funny Girl. Kurt is a diligent NYADA student and intern at Vogue dot com, whose roommate Rachel is the new Fanny Brice. Cooper and Rachel hit it off immediately, and then start scheming to get Kurt and Blaine together.

#klaine #klaine fanfiction #fluff #multichapter #fic finder #Anonymous

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smartstartblogging · 6 years

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Top 21 Games I Would Want On A PS2 Classic Edition

Let’s start off by saying that getting a PS2 Classic Edition, in a similar vein to the NES and SNES Classic Mini, is almost certainly never going to happen. Sure, we’ve got the MegaDrive Flashback but the idea of Classic Editions is largely a Nintendo thing. That said, it doesn’t hurt to dream and since the PlayStation 2 is my favourite console ever, the idea of a PS2 Classic Edition would be amazing!

During a recent Twitter chat with Mohammed Fi, we started talking about the idea of a PS2 Mini. That, of course, led to the question of what games could be featured on such a re-release, especially as the PlayStation 2 has thousands of games in its library. So I decided to put together a list of the games that I would include.

This is based entirely on personal preference though, so I would also love to know what games you would put on a PS2 Classic Edition if there were ever to be one.

I chose to do 21 simply because that is the amount of games that the SNES Classic Mini featured.

21. Bully

We’ll start off with a game that was a very different take on the Grand Theft Auto style of gameplay; Bully. In this game, you take the role of a new transfer student to a very posh school. You have to take on bullies, complete missions and cause havoc whilst also going to lessons and avoiding detention. The game got a lot of bad press at the time, even getting renamed in Europe, but it’s a really good game with a strong anti-bullying message.

20. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Next up we have the first in a trilogy of great action games; Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. The combat is extremely fun and the time control mechanic is both extremely useful and embedded into the plot and events of the game. The world is extremely well realised with great graphics for the PS2. The voice acting could have been better, but it doesn’t detract from an otherwise awesome game!

19. Soulcalibur 2

On to one of the best fighting games on the PlayStation 2 now. Soulcalibur 2 featured a great roster of characters, each with distinct fighting styles and weaponry to use. My character of choice was always Tali (pictured above on the right) due to her speed and attack style. However, there is certainly a character and fighting style to suit you, no matter how you want to play. That makes for a brilliant fighting game that anyone can pick up.

18. Shadow Hearts

Shadow Hearts is a game I’ve covered quite a lot, most recently in my PS2 games you probably haven’t played post (here), and now I’m going to include it here as well. Why? Because it is a very unique and different type of RPG that really needs to get more attention and awareness than it did. The storyline is so dark and mature, completely going against the idea of happy fantasy storylines full of bright colours.

17. TimeSplitters 2

I’ve not been a fan of shooters in recent years. They just haven’t felt as much fun as classic shooters, such as TimeSplitters 2. If you haven’t played the games, then just imagine a shooter where you get to visit a bunch of different time periods through the past and future. Weapons, enemies and level designs change massively, creating a wonderful mix of gameplay that you don’t often get with modern shooters.

16. Burnout 3: Takedown

If you ever wanted to play an incredible racing game full of high octane action and completely insane crash mechanics, you can’t go wrong with the Burnout series. Of that series, my personal favourite is Burnout 3: Takedown. The feeling of sheer speed was addictive, and the cars control and handle beautifully. On top of that, there is just something inherently fun to crash and smash into just about everything to see the damage mechanics.

15. Rule of Rose

I had to include Rule of Rose on this list. The game is so hard to come by now, which is a real shame because it is a truly outstanding Survival Horror game that is both creepy and downright sadistic at the same time. If you enjoy the Clocktower series of games, then Rule of Rose is effectively a spiritual successor to it. I can’t really say too much about the game without spoiling parts of it, but if a PlayStation 2 Classic Edition was ever to be made, it would be the perfect time to let people experience this amazing game.

14. Beyond Good and Evil

Another game that would be great on a PS2 Classic Edition would be Beyond Good and Evil. The game became a cult classic after its release and now it is even getting a PS4 sequel (finally). With that in mind, apart from a remaster of the game, a PlayStation 2 Classic Edition featuring Beyond Good and Evil would be a great way to let people play this game in all of its glory. It certainly would be worth it.

13. Devil May Cry 3: Dante’s Awakening

Going back to the action game side of the PlayStation 2, Devil May Cry 3 would be a must for any PlayStation 2 Classic Edition. It is the most popular in the original trilogy, and for good reason. The combat was stylish and very fast paced, whilst the game could offer difficulty and challenge if you wanted it or be set to just allow you to experience the storyline and game quickly if you don’t have the option for long gaming sessions.

12. Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4

Trying to choose between Persona 3 and Persona 4 was actually really hard. However, the reason why I have put Persona 4 on this list is that it improved on the already excellent Persona 3 when it came to dungeon design (multiple dungeons rather than one huge one) and storyline. The general design and visual presentation of Persona 4 is wonderful as well, so it would make perfect sense to put it on a PS2 Classic Edition, if there ever was one.

11. Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal

Do you like Platformers? If so, then I am sure you would agree that including Ratchet and Clank in general on a PlayStation 2 Classic Edition would be the right choice. Out of the games in the series from the PS2, my personal favourite is Up Your Arsenal. It just took the formula that the other games had worked on and made it into a near-perfect 3D platformer. I spent hours on this game and would happily do it again

10. Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly

Going back to Survival Horror, I had to include my favourite game in the genre in a list of games to put on a PS2 Classic Edition, didn’t I? Fatal Frame 2 (also called Project Zero 2 in Europe) is one of the creepiest and scariest games I have ever played. It shows just what a horror game can be if it doesn’t rely on jump scares but focuses on atmosphere instead. If you’re a fan of being scared out of your mind, this would be perfect for you. And a PlayStation 2 Classic Edition would allow so many more people to play it.

9. Silent Hill 2

Continuing on with the Survival Horror games (as we will for the next entry as well), we have Silent Hill 2, a game that really needs no introduction whatsoever. It is the most popular in the Silent Hill series, which is why I put it on this list (even though it isn’t my favourite) and Pyramid Head has pretty much become a mascot of the PS2. Because of this, and the fact that it’s just a really great game, I would definitely put it on a PS2 Classic Edition.

8. Resident Evil 4

Moving on to the franchise that basically started the Survival Horror genre, we have the game that also redefined the genre (for better or worse). Resident Evil 4 was an awesome game that was so exciting to play. Whilst it may have paved the way for some of the worst games in the Resident Evil franchise, RE4 itself is a true gem for the console (even though the Gamecube version looked better). So it would have to be included on this list, wouldn’t it?

7. Ico

Team Ico hit the ground running with this work of art for the PlayStation 2. Despite effectively being one giant escort mission, Ico never felt annoying or stale to me. I was hooked through the entire playthrough of the game, which for an escort mission, is an achievement and a half for the developers. Of course, their more famous and popular game will feature on this list too, but Ico more than deserves a spot as well.

6. God of War 2

What is a PlayStation these days without a God of War game? Seriously… Kratos is one of the most recognised video game characters ever, sitting up there with Mario and Sonic. I don’t think I even need to explain what the God of War games are or why I included one of this list, do I? As for why I chose God of Wars 2; the first game was extraordinary, but the sequel just ramped everything up by 100!

5. Kingdom Hearts

As a child, if you had told me that mixing Disney with Final Fantasy would actually work out well and we would get a good game from it, I would have thought you were crazy. Yet, that’s exactly what happened with Kingdom Hearts. Only, we didn’t get a “good” game… We got an excellent one! The sheer hype surrounding the coming release (finally) of Kingdom Hearts 3, as well as the constant remasters of the Final MIX versions of this and Kingdom Hearts 2 should tell you just why it is on this list.

4. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

Come on, you knew there was going to be a Grand Theft Auto game on this list. What kind of PlayStation 2 Classic Edition wouldn’t feature one of these games? I chose GTA: San Andreas because of its scale, scope and gameplay, as well as the sheer amount of memorable moments that I have with the game. Although, if this ever did happen, I would have they sort out that damn train mission!

3. Shadow of the Colossus

Coming in next is Team Ico’s second work of art, which just happens to be their masterpiece; Shadow of the Colossus. The game is pretty simple in premise; hunt down towering behemoths known as Colossus and slay them. However, the fact that you have to climb on them, each one acting as a puzzle as well, was genius. The ending is also outstanding, with Shadow of the Colossus being the true start of the “video games as an art form” debate.

2. Final Fantasy X

We have another obvious inclusion next, since I tried to save the obvious ones for last; Final Fantasy X. One of the Final Fantasy games was always going to be on this list, but no matter how much I love FF11 and FF12, Final Fantasy X was groundbreaking when it was released. Everything about the game, from the storyline to the battle system felt fresh and exciting (and still does today if you play the HD Remaster). So, naturally, it would be on a PlayStation 2 Classic Edition.

1. Metal Gear Solid 3

The final game in the list should come as no surprise. If we were doing this list for the original PlayStation, then Metal Gear Solid would be on that list immediately. So that also means that Metal Gear Solid is on this list too… However, we’re specifically looking at Metal Gear Solid 3, which added so much to the gameplay, such as a camo system, a beautiful game world and some of the best mechanics in a Metal Gear game to date.

And That’s All Folks

That was my list of the 21 games I would add to a PlayStation 2 Classic Edition, if Sony ever decided to make one. However, there are literally thousands of games for the PS2, so I’m sure you would choose different.

So let me know in the comments what 21 games you would put on a PS2 Classic Edition!

from More Design Curation https://www.16bitdad.com/top-21-games-i-would-want-on-a-ps2-classic-edition/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=top-21-games-i-would-want-on-a-ps2-classic-edition

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