#fun to compare the similarities between art tools and shop tools

[turtle-tanks-biggest-fan]

Bros be workin' on their hobbies side by side

[a-mel-tomelts]

For newcomers to P5R

It’s been barely a month since the release of Persona 5 Royal on other platforms. Officially freeing it from the chains of being Playstation exclusive.

What it improved from the Vanilla?:

You are given significantly more time in the real world compared to Vanilla. Evenings are not going to waste now, because you can spend time inside of Leblanc making it efficient to raise Social Stats by reading, watching DVDs or playing videogame which are available after baying a console from the second-hand shop in Yongen-Jaya.

There is a new place called Kichijoji! Ther eyou can play Darts to raise your Baton Pass level, which now i available from the beginning and doesn’t require the Confidant Rank. Billiards, to raise your Technical damage when an enemy doesn’t have a weakness. Or spend time with Akechi and a new Royal girl, Kasumi.

Thieves Den, or, My Palace in Japanese, is a place which doesn’t add to your game time, is a fun area where you can watch videos, concept arts, customize or play Tycoon. Everything gets open with you moving forward through the plot or raising Confidants. I greatly advice you to raise every Confidant to rank 10 because then on a New Game+ you will get unique interactions between characters. Be it Takemi and Kawakami, Iwai and Shinya or my favourite, Akechi. 

To gain coins to open stuff, you can get achievements or play aforementioned Tycoon. A cool card game that is WORTH. Best game. Bought P5R just for this game. And you can play with your favourite Phantom Thieves!! But fyi, Akechi can’t play with certain character for… plot reasons. You will understand later why.

As for the story, Royal adds a complete new third semester that becomes accessible after reaching rank 9 with the Councillor Confidant, Takuto Maruki. You don’t have to raise Confidant with Akechi, which in the original was automatic, or Kasumi - but it will make the third semester better if you do. Mostly I recommend raising Kasumi’s Confidant if you are going for Royal content immediately. If you want to see Persona’s original ending, then scrap hanging out with Maruki. Kasumi would be a bit of a waste without a third semester but the decision is yours. Akechi though? If you want to make your strangers-to-rivals-to-friends fantasies true, just spend time with him. I swear, even without shipping thing his Confidant is awesome. Rank 8 absolute slayer and keeps bringing me chills down my spine every time. (Althought it’s confirmed he has a crush on Protagonist by one of the developers)

Other few changes: 

Guns are now not limited to Palaces but battles, making them easily accessible at any new battle without worrying to waste them.

New Showtime ability that becomes available along with the plot. Showtime is a special attack of two characters from your party. The best ones involving Joker are the ones available only in third semester which means almost at the end of the game. Sadge.

New portraits for the characters. 

Book for fast reading which allows to read two sections instead of one is now available in your School library instead of Jinbocho bookstore on the first of July(7/1)

A new game, Featherman Seeker is available in Akihabara game shop. I recommend playing all the games but this one in particular after December Palace.

More welcoming interface when crafting infiltration tools.

Grappling Hook. Best thing, thank you Sakurai-sama.

Persona now has traits when fusing or catching them. Traits are the ones similar to Pokemon. An additional passive skill that can strengthen your Persona if you have a build for it. 

A Red Alert for Velvet room which helps itemize shadows for an evolved version of an item and fuse into a more powerful version of a Persona. On the second and third attempt of doing something, though, you’ll get an accident for better or worse and then get kicked out instantly. But then you are free to come back at any time and trigger the Red Alert again with the help of Fortune Confidant, Chihaya Mifune, or by just killing shadows.

Places have been changed for the better and Bosses gained new abilities and attacks. Which I would describe without spoilers as:

Lust is really your sin, huh, Atlus?

BRICK. Cough I mean- BATOP PASS. BATON PASS. BATON PA-

Money money money. It’s so funny-

Pyramid: Press X to win

Hey it’s actually pretty g- *uncanny mr fantastic*

And I think that sums up the whole experience. Lol. Feel free to ask me about the game. I’ll be glad to!~

Ply a reel SMT gam. 

[akiwisfics]

In the Middle Chapter 8

Notes: No longer a crosspost, technically, but chapter already written. If you get annoyed by this, please savior ‘kiwi crossposts’ to save your eyes.

Description:  The war's over, but the mess is still left behind. Kasumi finds herself among the wreckage with unexpected companions and questions that seem almost impossible to answer for. Life keeps moving forward, however, and the surprises it leaves behind aren't always pleasant ones.

Pairing: KasumixSha’ira

--

Kasumi was never a cook. Oh she craved good food like anyone that had the taste of fine life, fine wine-- an opportunity to know the difference between a perfect cut of perfect temperature of steak to scraps left behind from a meal between bored batarian slavers more concerned with profits than artistry and fine dining. But she didn’t have the chance to know how to make it herself. Not surprisingly-- she was a child when she was taken, and by the time that she was freed of her shackles, she was more concerned with the constant burning and itching  at the back of her skull than the differences of various fish filets.

Ah, but soon, she would taste riches, and sometimes, it enraptured her in a way that only art came close to.

But the richest of the rich didn’t know either. They couldn’t until that food was taken from them. No doubt many of those old blood capitalists and tyrants craved now, now that the old system was gone. 

She enjoyed taking samples when she crashed dinner parties, flirting with the idea of being among their elite and making people guess how and where they had seen her before. It was part of the fun. She learned the differences and specifics of turian, asari, quarian cuisine-- the history of different cuts and fishes that once passed alien hands in their own celebrations. She would say it was for research, to keep the guessing game going, but well.

Nothing compared to her grandmother’s cooking.

They only knew each other for about a month or so before she passed, when Kasumi was trying to figure out how to be human in the deepest dark of her despair. At times, she thought on the time and wished she’d been kinder. Spoke more, shared love and affection with her grandmother and aunt more freely. But she hadn’t known how to do it, not after losing someone so tremendous so recently. 

But every day, her grandmother would pull her from the reaches and into their tiny apartment kitchen, the thick smell of salty broth and noodles pulling her back into reality. The mere reminder of it could make Kasumi’s mouth water-- rich, melting in her mouth, leaving a soft warmth behind in her chest.

She would find out over time more specifics of what she made. It was a style of miso ramen, made specifically for the harsh winters in Japan’s northern region. Her grandmother had a restaurant for a time on Earth before moving her family to the Citadel after humanity discovered the Mass Relays and made contact with the rest of the galaxy. She had tried running a few shops there in the Wards, but had retired early to help the family adjust to life in space. 

Her grandmother served them ramen in two large, expensive bowls, chopsticks and spoon-- as was traditional back home. Kasumi would get a fork the first week until she learned how to move the chopsticks with ease (it wasn’t much different than any other work she did honestly; a little practice and a little deft work and it was done). The broth-- a thick combination of miso and fish-- easily overtook the small space between them as it soaked rich wheat noodles. Her grandmother claimed the sliced pork inside was fresh, even if that was probably impossible, topped with sweet corn, sprouts, and plenty of garlic. If she was really lucky, there would be a sliced boiled egg floating on top.

It was divine. A true labor of love each and every day. 

“You’re starting to get some meat on your bones.” Her grandmother had a sharp eye too. She could see the resemblance between them. Thick brown eyes that had been hers once, the same nose and round jaw. Her hair had lengthened well past her shoulders after decades, though Kasumi rarely saw it free from the loose bun she wrapped it in. Much the same reason she had kept her own short-- easy and out of the way of work.

She had carried her age with grace, and in her most optimistic moods, she had imagined herself looking much the same, perhaps with a grandchild of her own lingering in the kitchen, waiting for the ramen to soak like she so often did. 

30 short days, and yet they seemed to have known each other for years.

“Nanami?”

She had looked over the bowl of steam, mirroring a smile that she knew now was a family trait. “Sorry, I just--”

“What were the colonies like?”

Kasumi hadn’t known. What specks of memories she still had about her first home weren’t concrete enough to give. There was similar thick aromas in her father’s kitchen, late nights where her mother returned home covered in oil and grime. Fights and games shared with her sister. A bundle of blankets tightly wrapping around a baby boy, keeping him warm and secured. 

The mines and fields she worked after weren’t colonies. Not the romanticized ones so often advertised over the vids. Sometimes it sickened her so badly that she had to switch the channel-- something that hadn’t been lost by the other two occupants in the home.

“Mom and Dad were happy,” she said instead.

“I don’t doubt it. They would be happy to see us all here again.”

She could’ve asked a million things. What were they like? Why did they go out into the colonies in the first place? Had she kept contact? Questions that another day, another season, Kasumi would have been happy to be occupied in finding out, but as it stood, she was hurting, and as it stood, they never asked her how she came to be there.

She’d been afraid then. Unfortunately for her grandmother, the geth would find her before Kasumi had the strength to ask.

--

Dark fell quickly over their campsite-- clear as the day had been with leftover spring warmth that made it easy for her group members to stay out longer than usually. Many of them mingled awkwardly with their salarian counterparts, though fewer in number as the day wore on. If Kasumi had to guess, they were moving their camp closer. Strength in numbers. Their preoccupation would make it easy to get out, though increased her chances in running into a member or two later on in her venture.

The sea of stars above was stunning with constellations and lights that likely hadn’t been seen on London soil in decades, freed of manmade pollution and electricity. If she had time, it wouldn’t be so bad to make her way to a mostly intact building or two to stargaze. How much time she would actually have though entirely depended on how urgent someone would be to find her though. How much Major Kirrahe actually trusted her to behave.

Considering she was in her catsuit already, the lack of trust was right, however irritating it might have been. It wasn’t as if she trusted any of the STG either. Still, the catsuit felt nice after so long, fitted perfectly and adjusted for whatever tumbles and climbs she would need to make throughout her trip. 

No one was keeping a close eye to her tent. Big mistake. She activated her cloaking immediately and kept her steps quiet as she made her exit. The heavy darkness and night that blanketed the rest of the empty streets was felt immediately as soon as she crossed the perimeter, but the stars and moon were perfect for the occasion. Just enough light to help guide her way. 

There were lots of little signs of life along the way. Nests of different finch birds, a quick sonata of crickets somewhere in the distance-- out of sight and out of mind. She could see holes dug in on old gods where animals tried to make them home. Plants, grass, weeds worming their way through the cracks of broken concrete. The art that would be inspired by this wonderful rejuvenation would be wonderful to see.

The smoke that permeated so much of the asphalt seemed to fade just a bit once she did reach the graffiti wall again, as if the world was also calming down the further she left her little pocket of civilization. There weren’t any more names left on the wall, though the fact hadn’t surprised her. From here, her and Sha’ira had gone about a half-block down, over the fallen reaper. It would be a tight squeeze still, but she could move faster without someone trailing behind. She really should get something to thank the consort. Though Kasumi wasn’t sure what all could be found that was… luxurious in the ruins, there may have been a nook or cranny or two that the Alliance hadn’t touched yet--

And oh. Her omni-tool was beeping. She let the cloak fall for now as she recognized the name on the other end. Just the girl she wanted to talk to.

“Evening!” Kasumi answered into her ear piece, eyes keeping watch of the area around her. Just in case. “I thought you might be asleep already.”

“Bullshit. You wouldn’t have called at all if you thought that.” Khalisah’s voice was groggy. She felt sort of honored that she would wake up just for little ol’ Kasumi. “If this is about the murders, I already planned on moving my camp in the morning. But you know if I get close, STG will be on my ass within minutes.”

Kasumi ignored it. “Do you know about the other groups around here?”

The hissing sigh on the other end was long and exasperated, but she heard her rustling through her belongings, grumbling the entire time. “My notes are around here, hold on… Couldn’t you just ask for this when it’s not in the middle of the night?”

“Where’s the fun in that?”

“You fucking suck,” but there wasn’t as much bite as there was usually. Kasumi smiled. She heard pages (paper? Oh how old-school) being quickly flipped through before Khalisah finally spoke again. “There’s another volunteer group southwest from you guys? Pretty much the same. Only thing that stood out was an older guy with half his face scarred to shit.”

“Yellow armor? Real terminus system vibe to it?” Not ideal, but if Zaeed was close, he might be bored enough to lend a hand. Security detail for a volunteer group seemed a bit low energy for him, but maybe their benefactor had about as much credit as theirs did. 

“Yeah. Figures you’d know the only other shady person in the area.”

“Be nice. He’s just cranky, usually.” And had a lot of guns and explosives on hand. He also was real handy with booby traps. If she could get her hands on another proximity mine, he could tell her something that she wouldn’t know already. Especially if their batarian neighbors were more mercenary than refugee. “Could you do me a favor?”

“I’m starting to think you don’t know what blackmail means, Ms. Goto.”

“I could’ve just let the batarians kill you, you know,” she teased. Good-naturedly. Promise.

Khalisah sighed. “Fine, fine. Whatever. What do you want?”

“Be happy. I was going to keep you up for the night before you told me that,” and suppressed a snort when she heard the snarl. “Make sure it’s Zaeed Massani, of course. And if you would, ask him to come by my camp tomorrow… morning is probably good. Before the others wake up.”

“What? You want me to wake up an angry mercenary now? I’m sure he’ll love the camera light in his face.”

“I have his channel. Assuming he hasn’t changed it anyway.”

“Then call him yourself!”

And risk him getting worked up without confirming anything? Clearly the woman hadn’t worked with many mercenaries before. Kasumi tsked. “I’m busy--”

“So was I. Sleeping!”

“Just send a nice, friendly email saying… ah.” Hmm. What should it say actually? If he was early, she wouldn’t exactly want him asking for her directly. Sure, it was about a 50-50 shot on finding someone that knew who she was at camp at this point, but Zaeed wasn’t exactly quiet. “Tell him Ms. Goto’s looking for him at camp, and if he doesn’t see me, just ask for Sha’ira or Kirrahe. Then wait til I get there.”

“And he’ll just go?”

“If you’re that worried, you’re welcomed to toss 500 credits down for me. Money does talk.”

She hung up on her instead. Rude. Kasumi was going to offer to pay her back, but maybe the message came off a bit strongly. She still sent a quick message off with his channel information, in case the reporter did decide to follow through on the request. If not, he probably wouldn’t be hard to find. Guess she couldn’t fault her for getting antsy though. Since their deal was made, Kasumi hadn’t actually followed through with anything, though in her defense, she was spending that time warning her instead. 

It could and would wait for now though. She reactivated her cloaking device and continued her trek toward the murder scene, mentally wording whatever apology email she’d need to make to Khalisah later along the way. The hushed landscape made it easy to concentrate on it, disappointingly absent of any tracks or evidence of others that may have passed through in the meantime. 

If this was newly staked batarian territory, they weren’t using obvious wider paths. Either they didn’t want to be found, or were acutely aware of the possibility of someone tracking them. Could be both, or neither. 

She shimmied around the dead god’s head, and found little had changed in the last few days. It was still a clearing, shadowed by crumbled buildings, half-shapened concrete blocks-- debris of either the buildings around them or elsewhere. She had spent plenty of days memorizing the reach of reaper lasers and various weaponry for the many, many runs she did for the Alliance. Sometimes, the fact that they had won at all still seemed utterly surreal. They were creatures perfectly suited for Lovecraftian lore, hulking, massive creatures  that extended and did things beyond human imagination.

And yet… they were like any other piece of machinery. Artificial, metal, wires. A very scary thought, that over the years, they wouldn’t just dispose of the pieces, but reuse them. Shape something new out of it. With any luck, Kasumi would be dead before that bit humanity in the ass.

She shook those thoughts away and located the alleyway from before. There was still a blackened spot from where the proximity mine had gone off, stretching out like tendrils toward the slab that Kasumi landed on. Noticeably, however, was that any shrapnel had been picked up. The slab looked clean and dusted off. Someone was trying to cover their tracks.

Just at her feet, another red light stretched across the width of the alleyway. It was so easy to spot now that there was evidence of a previous detonation. It wasn’t meant as a trap then. More like a security measure. The sound would be picked up by any guards in the area, allowing them to retaliate to whoever wasn’t hurt by the mine, or move the group before they were found. Their camp may be close by then, if they hadn’t been spooked by their visitation from the other day.  

Nothing special. Kasumi had disabled hundreds of mines in her lifetime. A quick scan of her omni-tool and it short-circuited, allowing her to pick up the mine safely and quietly. Initial look and it seemed… simple. Looked to be scrapped together with various shrapnel from old signs if she had to guess. The circuitry of the actual proximity program would be hard to see without opening it up, but she doubted there was anything unique about it. The maker was experienced, that much Kasumi was sure. If they had any resources from outside Earth however, it was probably gone by now.

She kept it for now, and made sure to study the alley closely for anymore. None on this side. Rationing carefully then, or just that confident in whatever guards they had in the area to act quickly. 

The alley opened up to an even larger clearing than the one before, in what Kasumi could only figure was a rather nice square before. There was still remnants of old cobblestone, ones that had been there centuries and lived through more wars than she could count. Street ways that had been there once, brushed over by dirt and grime, cracked into pieces where weeds and grass sprouted in between. The fountain in the middle was in about the same shape, once wondrous and calming, spouting water from a jar a… cherub perhaps? Was holding into a pool that had been empty for some time. Much of the smaller details were lost by the throes of time and war. The curvature of marble surrounding it still stood enough to be a tempting seat for weary walkers.

Likely why she found the spatter of dried blue blood on its rim. Sura mentioned Thyra wasn’t much for walking for long periods. Yet she managed to dodge the proximity mine…?

The east entrance was blocked by a section of broken highway, but the west was clear enough to come through it looked like. She doubted their killer would cover the alleyway and not such a wide berth of area. Too wide for a simple proximity trip though. Perhaps more traditional mines? Kasumi would have to check as she investigated then. A good thing Major gave her mods back.

Well, presumably she died there, unless there was another turian victim in the interim. That narrowed the scope a bit. A sniper would want the highest building they could get. Probably wasn’t any building on the other side of the fountain. Then…

Ah. A parking deck about a 60 degree angle. It was a good place to start, though maybe not the easiest to climb. It was structurally sound, and compared to most parking decks found in say the Citadels or Illium, wasn’t too high. Most parking decks on Earth had been converted to top level access only once skycars became commonplace. Valets would take over parking once an individual skycar landed on the roof, and would be retrieved by the valet when the visitor returned. 

However, employees and visitors still needed an entrance on the ground level. That would be the place to start. She brought up her omni-tool once again to scan the area between the fountain and the parking deck, but kept her eyes on the rooftops and upper levels just in case. No obvious red lights, and a glint of armor would be difficult to spot in the moonlight. She couldn’t see any signs of smoke ventilation or fire, but toward the very top, it looked like there was… haphazard plating maybe? Someone covering holes that were left from various skirmishes. The metal didn’t fit the rest of the building. Where she’d find her camp then.

And no mines based on the scan. Made sense if they have kids or just regular people with them. That lended credence to what Darshan had told them before about it being a settlement. Mines were also extensive to maintain and keep from dumb mercenaries from accidentally killing themselves though. They could just have them installed along the openings. If they had a shuttle or skycar handy, they wouldn’t have to walk out of the clearing ever, though to rely on enough clearance to land was risky in a ruined city. 

The actual entrance facing the square looked caved in sadly, but after a few minutes circling the building, she noticed a discreet sheet of metal ever so slightly askewed. A very small crack in the corner. Peeking inside only showed a thick blanket of darkness within. Could be wearing night vision goggles, but more than likely, the lower level here was unguarded. No obvious signs of tampering for a trap or bomb of some kind. With careful hands, Kasumi peeled the metal back.

Sure enough, no guns suddenly pointed in her direction. Risky to leave their entrance unmanned. If they had a sniper on the roof though, they may have noticed the metal moving. So long as she was careful though, they wouldn’t find her. Any explosive trap was unlikely at this point, unless they wanted to risk blowing the support beams with it. They were left mostly intact, but if Kasumi studied close enough, she’d see the beginning cracks of wear and tear. 

Most of the skycars inside were gutted and cut open, eviscerated of their wiring and circuitry. Where they were getting the shrapnel to make the bombs then. Smart. They had enough there to last them a good while. There was a ramp further back, though it took some climbing to get to it. 

Mostly climbing over corpses. Not human, at least… not anymore. The wiring that stuck out of rotting flesh told her exactly what sort of things that were littering this parking deck. … It looked like they were being gutted too. She hoped just for the wires and not… anything else. Husks and cannibals mostly, one brute that she nearly tripped over as she navigated the darkness, it’s jawless turian skull another of plenty of images that she really, really wished wouldn’t be haunting her to her grave.

She had dreams about it sometimes. Sometimes of being forced onto one of many pikes, feeling it rip through her chest and continue to breathe and survive until she was more metal than bone, more wire than flesh. Other times, it wasn’t the reapers. Other times, it was Cerberus. Finding her again, trying to entice her with a contract, only to--

Oh. Hm. Rudimentary, but effective when electricity wasn’t always available. A simple wire strewn across the bottom of the ramp. Likely went up further to the higher levels. Properly paranoid, then. Kasumi could respect it. She had been fortunate to keep several back up generators for her various security systems at both locations that survived the invasion. She stepped over the wire easily, and then noticed the lone light further up the ramp, stretching long and lonely on the asphalt.

Though the cloak would keep her from being spotted, Kasumi still kept to the outer wall, eying the ground carefully for any scattered rocks or pebbles-- anything that might give away her presence to the guard above. The catsuit wasn’t just for style, fortunately, equipped with various sound dampeners from the padding to her shoulders to the soles of her shoes. A listless guard or two would have a hard time picking up muffled steps.

Just one it seemed. Batarian, as Darshan said. He looked younger, fuller face on him with scuffed up navy armor. The vindicator loose in his hands was in good shape, a couple of mods that focused on power and increased ammo in the thermal clip. Trying to make the best out of every shot it seemed. He sat on an old lawn chair with a flashlight by his feet, the harsh shadows making him seem more intimidating than he actually was. Even from her distance though, Kasumi could see those dark eyes drooping, just a minute or so from dozing off. She slipped past him easily.

Fewer corpses on this level, and she doubted she’d seen any on the next. They were making it a home for themselves clearly. Two more batarians sat on crates around a campfire west from their sleepy friend, conversing to themselves. No tents, but sleeping bags it looked like. She ducked behind a gutted car and tried to listen in.

“Dinner was rough tonight.”

“We’re running low on rations. It’d be nice to go out and actually hunt soon, but…”

“Yeah, I get it. At least the salarian had some nice shit on him--”

“Dumbass, that’s precisely why. You saw the datapads in there yourself!”

Sounded like the STG murder was an accident then. They had plenty of resources as far as scrap metal and wiring went here, so why were they bothering with that? Medical and food supplies maybe? Information would’ve been an obvious decision if it’d been on purpose, but.

“... What are we going to do…?”

“... Just let boss work it out. Everything will be fine, Sakul... alright?”

“Guess we don’t have much choice.”

Didn’t seem worse than the run-of-the-mill mercenary group then. Inconsistent armors, so not likely to be from any major organization or anything. She would be reluctant to just kill a bunch of dumb people for the whole mess, but STG would likely disagree. And they weren’t exactly innocent. They hadn’t regretted Thyra’s death. Not yet anyway. 

They would soon enough though. She crept past their campfire with as much ease and stepped over another wire alarm as she continued her trek up. All too quickly, the dim light that was swallowed by the darkness above. Quiet, too temptingly so. She made sure to wait long enough for her vision to adjust to the change in light. As Kasumi suspected, there weren’t any reaper remnants on this floor. The batarians were doing some clean up, at least. With as much work as they’ve done with their security systems, it wouldn’t surprise her if they planned to stay for a while.

She spotted a glint in the darkness though, off in the corner. A quick flash of her omni-tool and she recognized the turret installed there. Seemed to be turned off though. After a few minutes of menial work, taking and pocketing a wire or two, and Kasumi made sure it would stay that way. 

The fourth and fifth floor were set up much the same, blanketed completely in darkness with a few turrets stationed in various corners and hiding spots. It confirmed that the group was small at least, and the area was too large to cover with manual resources. Sneaking past was hardly a challenge, but she hadn’t had one in a while. Not in the technical aspects anyway. Still, it felt… nice going back to normal for her. She really wasn’t suited for civilian life. Too much monotony and people were just strange. Or hurt to see them.

She wasn’t sure how Sha’ira thought she would be okay with it. Being a consort wasn’t nearly as violent or illegal as her job, but it wasn’t normal either. It wasn’t the 9-5, or just trying to pick up the pieces with family and friends. She was meant for something. 

Maybe they could talk about it later. Maybe it would get the consort from prying too much about the greybox. 

She finally found the camp on the sixth level, just one floor short from the roof. Kasumi could understand the choice. The enclosed space protected them from exposure and the higher elevation kept them from running into vermin species that likely still scurried around London streets. Any lights had long since been extinguished by the time she arrived, save for the campfire that was still glowing brightly, right in the center of the halo of tents. They were close together-- any sound from one would obviously carry to others. 

More batarian guards sitting at the actual fire, too quiet to hear as she watched on the outskirts of the camp. While tempting to listen in on their conversation, it was probably too risky with the amount of tents that were around. By her estimate, there were about 20 or so located in the tents themselves-- a rather large camp for as decimated the hegemony had been by the war. 

She crept along the edge of the camp, hugging the makeshift walls facing the square and the outer walls of the tents. No one would likely pick up any movement at this late from within, but Kasumi wasn’t one to overstay her welcome. The firelight danced lazily against the white, offering brief flickers of shadows inside. Most didn’t have cots or personal effects, it looked like-- sleeping on simple bags or pallets made out of well worn blankets and pillows.

Smaller shapes, others a more feminine contour. Women, children. Not many, but enough. Their tents were closer to the fire, to keep the little ones from getting cold at night. 

… Darshan’s story checked out then. That was going to make this a lot more complicated. STG specialized in extraction though, missions especially like this. While she would have trouble kidnapping someone tonight, perhaps they had a few suggestions that wouldn’t end in unnecessary bloodshed. Or they wouldn’t care-- though Major Kirrahe didn’t strike her as cold. 

The other option of course, would be to take care of the sniper herself. She knew how to make it clean and efficient enough-- perhaps frame the scene as an accident to avoid backlash from the batarians. They were already a bit flighty, considering they murdered one person for just going into their territory. … They might put the blame on STG if she did do it though. If they kept them busy for a while,  it would give her the opportunity to get the logs they had on her and destroy them. Hmm. Didn’t exactly avoid the whole bloodshed thing, but, ah shit. Samara knew she was coming out here tonight.

She would have to meet this sniper and go from there, she supposed. 

Kasumi slipped past the camp, it’s final tent about ten feet or so from the ramp that led up to the roof. She was surprised to see that it was in as good of shape as it was. There was some crumbling along the edges, faded lane paint, but it had little in way of debris. If not for her dampeners, her steps would probably echo on such an empty expanse. The moonlight was bright and clear in the sky above, crescent with all the stars and constellations she had admired before. The view of the city alone must be spectacular. It wouldn’t be so bad as a dating spot, honestly. 

One last wire alarm at the top of the ramp, easily stepped over. The roof had been cleaned up about as well as the lower floors it looked like. A skycar or two that had yet been cleaned of materials. A decrepit alcove where steps were before, now resembling more like a jagged spike sprouting on the pavement. 

Her target was laying on their belly, the concrete rim cleared away to allow the sniper rifle freedom of movement. They had a pale lavender sheet over them to stave off the cold. As Kasumi approached, more personal touches became clearer. They had a flashlight off to the side, keeping them illuminated for any other snipers that could be stationed on neighboring buildings. Stench of overcooked varren meat from a plate left abandoned on the hood of a skycar cleaved in two from a reaper beam. Canteen by the front fender. Yellow tulips beside it. Cute.

By their feet, she recognized the model of the sniper rifle. Standard M-98 Mantis, though the scope looked modded for extended range. Whoever was handling their weapons was very familiar with the modding process. Taking it might have some advantages, but she would need to distract the actual gunman holding it. 

She retreated back, and careful not to alert the guard, picked up the canteen. With a quick under-handed toss, she chucked the canteen closer to the ramp, clinking against the hard ground and denting the well-worn equipment further. She ducked around the other side of the cleaved car, just as the sniper’s head shot up.

“What the fuck?!” 

He looked young too. Small. Smaller than the first guard she ran into on the way up the deck. He had plenty of fat left on his cheeks, not quite developing the small hairs and thick folds that signified adulthood in a batarian. The armor, a deep olive green, barely fit him as he stood to his feet and approached the canteen cautiously. His steps were heavy on the pavement, but he stumbled on every third. 

Just the rifle then. Kasumi moved quickly and quietly to his nest. The rifle was easy to swipe from underneath the sheets, same weight as a typical mantis. She folded it to its resting position, ready to holster it to her back.

Then she heard ringing. Her eyes snapped to the ramp, where the boy had bent over and tugged at the wire with two fingers. Then his eyes caught on hers-- or more likely-- the sniper rifle that appeared to be floating in the air. 

She was too greedy for her own good sometimes.

The young batarian kicked off in a sprint toward her position, fast, but only fists raised. Should be easy enough to incapacitate him and split, but now the batarians would know someone came by. She would have to make this quick. She snapped the sniper rifle to her back and stood, quickly reaching for a flashbang grenade in her back pocket. It’d disorient him and hurt, but--

She thought it was a lunge at first, clearly on a fight response already, but as she saw the sheer panic in his eyes as the momentum took him past her, Kasumi realized he tripped over his own shoes. On his own shoes toward the edge. Without thinking, she snapped a hand out, tightly gripping onto the back of his chest armor, one foot dangling in the open air of the square below. 

“I’ve got you,” she hushed as she noticed his slacked jaw as he stared down. His panicked panting, just at the edge of a scream, wasn’t helping matters any. He looked to the empty space holding him up, already too big eyes comically larger in his panic. Just a kid. Any other time, he may not have even known how to use the rifle she’d stolen from him. 

She released the cloak as she brought him closer, back onto safer ground, just as his ear piece crackled to life.

“Hey. We heard the cans from the roof. Everything alright?” much older voice on the other end. Either one of the more veteran guards on the lower floors or maybe Mr. Boss himself.

She pressed a finger to her own lips, “Just want to talk. Don’t do anything that’ll hurt someone. Especially you.”

The boy looked behind him, to the open air he had been just a split second from tumbling into, and just to emphasize her point, she tightened the grip on his collar, locking it tightly in her fingers. He gulped, visibly. “... Everything’s fine. Just accidentally tripped it dropping my canteen.”

“Be more careful, will you? Had about half the building in a panic.”

“S-sorry.”

The communication cut off, and Kasumi released him. His shoulders sagged immediately, though looked a bit lost now without the rifle in his hands. He kept looking at it on her back, as if trying to decide how to pry it off. “... What-- who are you?” though he kept his voice quiet. Smart.

She shrugged. “Oh, I was just in the neighborhood. How old are you?”

The boy hesitated before sitting down on the lavender sheet, rubbing the back of his neck. It looked a bit too warm for spring, with wool like texture. Maybe they nabbed it in the city somewhere. Kasumi was half-tempted to ask where they got it. “... 13.” His eyes wouldn’t meet her, even under the shade of her hood.

“Bit young to be killing people, isn’t it?” Still, she sat down across from him, trying to keep him calmed down, keep him from alerting those below. “How long have you been using this rifle?”

“What’s it to you?” He pressed on his ear piece, but Kasumi quickly held a finger up, tsking.

“Let’s not do that,” and she flashed her omni-tool, just enough to illustrate her point. “Overloading comms can knock out your hearing for a long time.” The boy deflated, arm loosely dropping, knuckles slightly scraping against the concrete. “I appreciate it. And really, I’m not trying to cause trouble. Just need to get a few details before I go.”

“About what?”

“Oh, just a couple things, really. Are you always the one manning this roof?”

“... Me or my dad. We take turns.”

“Do you remember a turian girl that came by a few days ago? Was it your dad that shot her?”

“... Oh…” He turned away from her, stretching out on the blanket as he peered over the edge. Back to her-- one of the worst things anyone could do in the terminus systems. He hadn’t been raised in the worst of it then. “... Figures you’d come for that.”

“Unfortunately, I’m not the worst of it, but I can keep your dad out of trouble,” she tilted her head, trying to catch his gaze. “You don’t have to protect him, and if you can convince him to--”

“I shot her.”

She was afraid he’d say that. On the bright side, STG would handle it better than the Alliance would, she’d imagine. They were a calculating bunch, but they didn’t have as much history as humanity did with them. It churned her stomach to even consider putting some teen in handcuffs though, not when he was just trying to protect his family. “I’m sorry. That’s a lot to put on you. Was that your first time?”

He finally looked at her, and the fragility behind his heavy gaze broke her heart. “... The wind’s different here than back home. I just meant to scare her off…”

“No one’s perfect.”

“... You’re weird for a human.” Still, he seemed pretty calm, and no one else had noticed her yet. Kasumi had located her suspect, but the others didn’t have to know, did they? “Dad said I need to be more careful. Batarians always get the bad rap, so we have to assume the worst and behave the best.”

“He sounds like a smart man,” ah but the fact that he was still alive, “Was he… well, you know.”

The boy’s brow furrowed. “He learned his lesson, if that’s what you’re asking. Said a-- a miskha -- a monster, I think is what you guys say? … Roughed him up real badly. He can’t really move much anymore, so we use sniper rifles instead.”

She’d heard that word before, though from where Kasumi couldn’t quite place. Legends from her old masters perhaps, horror stories they’d share with one another around the campfire as the varrens nipped at her heels and the whispers tugged and pulled at her. It wasn’t a kind word. Heavier than monster. Like a beast, beyond comprehension. 

“... Thank you,” Kasumi said and stood. She had plenty enough to think in any case. Easier to target the dad then. Easier to spin a former slaver back in the business, or… just trying to survive. It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t nice. But she would take a former slaver’s blood over a kid’s any day. 

“Ma’am?” He called after a moment, just before she could really make the move to leave. “... What are you going to do now?”

Talk with Zaeed. See if he had any experience framing someone for murder. It wouldn’t do him any comfort. Telling him the truth, or even bringing up the STG would just hurt him. “Couple more passes around the neighborhood, I guess~. Night’s still young.” She stretched her arms, ready to switch the cloak back on, then heard the click of a heavy pistol behind her.

Oh, kid. Don’t do this. She offered a placid smile as she glanced to his hands. Carnifex, standard model. It was a favorite of hers back on the Normandy. Unfortunately for him, she had assembled and disassembled, modded, and overloaded far too many to be worried about it pointed at her face. 

“You’re gonna tell those salarians right? … I’m gonna die.”

“It doesn’t have to be that way. Don’t.”

Finger too close to the trigger. She sighed and swiped her omni-tool quickly, efficiently. Kasumi had done it hundreds of times at this point. Just a second delay, almost where the boy was squeezing the trigger, before the carnifex sparked and exploded in his hands. 

The jolt of electricity and fire was quick and immediate. The boy screamed out in pain as he threw the pistol aside. The charred, burning flesh nauseated her, a stench that had permeated constantly throughout the war. Please. Let it be enough. 

He dug his heel and charged her. Kasumi braced for the weight against her, but she wasn’t a heavy woman. Her head hit the ground hard as he toppled them both over, burned hands fumbling between strangling her or reaching for the sniper rifle behind her back. She curled her fists tight and threw it as hard as she could against the boy’s jaw, but he just wouldn’t get off. Instead he matched blow for blow, cracking a burnt knuckle against her eye socket.

She gritted her teeth and squirmed best she could for her back pocket for a flashbang, but suddenly felt one of those hands on sleek metal around her waist. The locust!

The omni-blade barely registered before it sank into the side of his chest, sliding perfectly between plates of armor and rib bones. His hands froze immediately, and he slumped against her, blood gurgling from his mouth. Kasumi sucked in a deep breath, trying to soothe the heavy pounding her heart. Let the adrenaline wash out of her. Eyes closed. Counted a few seconds. 

He was still alive, but not for long. Where the omni-blade landed would’ve punctured his lungs. While quick, it would be very painful. Numbly, she took the boy’s shoulders and pushed him off. He flopped like deadweight onto his back. Not much longer. She was sorry. So, so sorry.

She replaced her carnifex when she had left. Swiped a suppressor from a drunk soldier on Illium. That man was probably dead now too. She placed the muzzle on his temple and squeezed the trigger once. Any gasps, gurgles, halted movements of his chest-- they stopped immediately. 

Sloppy. So, so sloppy. So messy.

She took the earpiece.

“Korem?! What’s going on up there?! The guys on sixth said they heard screaming.”

What the fuck was wrong with her?

They would be up there any minute. It would be tricky to get out without a distraction splitting some of the forces. She peered over at the corpse beside her and sighed. 

Korem’s body crunched on impact, red and flesh mingling with the white pavement as it spattered in wild directions. 

“What the hell was that?! Someone go check that! Sixth floor, roof ASAP!”

“Oh, god, I’m sorry--”

Kasumi spared one last glance to memorize the shape of the broken body, his face frozen in horror as he stared unblinking to the starry sky, and tossed the ear piece over the roof with him. By the time the guards arrived to scope out the horror Kasumi left behind, her cloak was already activated, and she walked past-- letting the unfolding chaos and anguish distract from her exit.

--

Someone was calling again.

Somewhere, somehow in her hazy mind, Kasumi found herself sitting atop the graffiti wall, legs dangling over and staring upward. The air had cooled, and her right eye kept tearing. Bruising probably. Maybe some irritation from dirt and grime on that child’s hands. Child. She killed a child. What was she--

“Kasumi?”

Her hand clasped over her mouth as she felt the bile rise in her throat and swallowed, ignoring how the acid burned in her throat. No. Not right now. Deep breath. “Hey…” and she hated how steady her voice sounded. “I thought you’d be asleep already.”

Sha’ira sounded unsteady, as if unsure how to broach the topic. Her voice had more air to it than usual too-- still tired probably. “I couldn’t sleep,” she admitted, “I was worried, but wasn’t sure you would answer a call right now.”

 “I… I was lonely, I guess. I usually don’t.” 

“Are you okay?”

 No. She was going to have to spend the rest of the night trying to find a canal or something to scrub the catsuit while trying not to vomit. She would have to explain her black eye in the morning to everyone, and she would have to explain that one of their big scary killers was a child, and she had just used his body to escape a hellfire of bullets. She wanted to scream. She wanted to go home and hold Keiji, or his image, or just feel something, anything else right now. 

“... Where are you right now?”

“I’ll be back soon. I don’t want you to get hurt. It’s kinda hard to see right now.”

“Kasumi.”

She didn’t want to be alone. But then Sha’ira would see this, and -- “Do you know where the nearest river is? Or like… a body of water?”

No hesitation, no pauses. Kasumi could even hear the smile on the other side. “I’ll bring a change of clothes. Whatever happened… we’ll get through it. Together.”

At least, it’d give her a chance to plan. They would be coming back for her, and she sure as hell wouldn’t fault them for it. 

--

As it turned out, an actual, functioning canal wasn’t super far from there. It was hardly clean, and absolutely guaranteed, she would smell like sewage or worse if she even tried. The canal’s water was moving though, which meant it had a better chance of being sterile than any other body of water that wasn’t an actual fucking river. It was water. It was flowing in a canal that was only holding itself together by the seams. Bridges connecting one side to another completely fallen apart, edges and sidewalks broken, husk corpses-- some of which were not-so pleasantly floating in the water.

It didn’t matter, because the blood was coming off. She had found a spot where the sidewalk had partially caved, providing a perfect ramp to the water. She had stripped off her catsuit with frightening efficiency and submerged the whole thing-- allowing her balled fists to stretch against the leather. The pads would take longer to dry, but fuck it. She didn’t care right now. She just wanted the blood off.

The first time it happened was on Omega, and she was a lot fresher faced and a lot more stupid. Eclipse merc used a hostage. Thought she wouldn’t go that far. Had, and wished she hadn’t. Kiera lectured her for days for how sick she felt. Kids didn’t know better. They couldn’t know better. They were just put in places by dumb adults and then dumber adults killed them. The recovery should have made them more important, but it didn’t and now a thirteen year old was dead. 

She couldn’t blame his father for it. He should have been safe on the roof with six floors of batarians with more experience between. Korem was old enough to want to contribute, and so he did. 

What could, should she tell the others? There wasn’t any framing to do now, but with how she left the place, the batarians would be going after STG next. Convenient for the shit she needed to get back, but it wasn’t their fault. They didn’t tell her to go. They didn’t tell her to kill a kid. And the truth… she wasn’t sure she could admit it. She never needed to the few times it had to happen. It’d been so long. It hurt. It hurt so bad. She didn’t even realize how badly until she was sitting on that stupid wall and that stupid call came in.

She shouldn’t care. It should be easy to just walk away. Take the shuttle, let them deal with the mess, and forget this ever happened. But she did care. She cared before those stupid batarians took her, before she met Keiji, before he died, before the fucking normandy. She wasn’t a monster that could just remove those thoughts and feelings aside. She wasn’t--

“Kasumi, I brought-- oh!”

And to Sha’ira, she probably looked a bit crazy at the moment. It’s not like she had a change of clothes with her when she stripped. So here was the consort, coming to help her friend in the middle of the night and finding her hunched over by a canal in her underwear, scrubbing at a catsuit and mumbling to herself. This was not a great look. Yeoman Chambers would’ve had a field day with that psych write-up. She wondered how she was doing. Probably not great. Few former Cerberus operatives were these days.

“Apologies. I imagine someone in your occupation would prefer some courtesy. I can turn around if you’d like. … I just thought you would be in the water already.”

The stench in her catsuit was going to be hard enough to get rid of. She didn’t need her whole body smelling like it. Did the consort seem a bit flustered? That surprised her. She peered over her shoulder, making out the curvature of Sha’ira back as she faced away and poised as gracefully as ever, and tried not to smile so wide. “The sewage smell isn’t the most appealing,” Kasumi remarked and pulled her catsuit from the water. Most of the blood was off, but a few spots were staining the pads. Ugh. “You can look by the way~. Just no cameras, of course.”

“Promise.” Though the offer was made, Kasumi didn’t really expect her to take it. The turn was quiet, barely discernible, but curious eyes studying her was obvious enough. It seemed fair after dragging her out of camp in the early morning hours, even though the offer had been reluctantly accepted on her part. She kept at her work however, this time finally separating the padding from the rest of the leather. The dried blood and stench nearly made her gag. 

Sha’ira stepped closer, less subtle steps, until standing just above her and studying the fabric that Kasumi was so desperately trying to get the stains out of. “... You’re injured.”

“Oh, it’s just bruising. It’ll be gone in a day or so.”

“Not a scratched cornea?” Probably not. Fists usually didn’t do that… she didn’t think. In any case, she could see fine, even if it was just a little blurry sometimes. What cybernetic work she had usually covered any surface hurt that could come out of a fight. Though the black eye would be hard to explain away once she did make it back to camp. Zaeed wouldn’t give a shit at least. “... I really am glad you’re alright.” 

She was never really in danger in the first place. It’s what she hated about thinking on her feet. Sometimes, Kasumi would come back and find about ten different plans that would’ve been plenty better than whatever stupidity adrenaline put her in. That ability to act, to not be paralyzed by fear or the unexpected, kept her alive for so long. But a great thief would never be in that situation in the first place. 

Sha’ira gripped her shoulder, squeezing once. The touch on her bare skin was temptingly warm, and distinctly, Kasumi remembered how much she craved.

Then she heard clothing shift as Sha’ira stood, and she turned her head back to her companion just in time to spot bare blue skin. Kasumi bit the urge to bawk as Sha’ira tossed her dress aside. “What are you doing?”

“It’s not ideal. I would agree with that. However, I do have perfumes to help mitigate the smell,” she offered casually, and Kasumi tried, very hard, to remember that nudity was more a human issue of decency than an asari one. This was fine. As if to emphasize its casualness and not a continuing symptom of Kasumi’s spiralling madness, Sha’ira stepped to the water’s edge, and without so much as a toe dip to test the temperature, submerged herself in murky depths. 

It was only a second later that she re-emerged by Kasumi’s hands, taking the soft padding between her own fingers and eying the fabric with a critical eye. The water was about chest-level, though Sha’ira hardly paid any mind to how odd the situation looked as she squeezed the fabric, letting the water it held to drip back into the canal. “I may have stain remover back in my tent. Though for blood, I would recommend bleach. I suppose if I had an idea on the material, I could make do with a combination of agents...”

The plain black bra was already soaked through. Kasumi was a bit surprised the fabric wasn’t sheer enough to be translucent from the water. Her freckles extended down to her shoulders, only becoming a lighter dusting as they approached the valley of her breasts. She… wasn’t in shape. It was actually sort of nice to see. She clearly took care of her body, but it wasn’t hardlined of muscle, of scars nicking her skin, and old war stories that never really went away in a person’s head. Her eyes curved easily with her smile, even as it looked odd examining bloodied material. Her hands weren’t calloused, long fingers that didn’t know strain as well as she did. 

Her smile widened just a little as Sha’ira spoke. “You must have a lot on your mind.”

She considered the padding between them and shrugged before tossing it back on the concrete shore. It landed in a rather unimpressive thump, joining the rest of the leather of her catsuit. Then, Kasumi eyed her with a half-hearted skepticism. “If I still stink after your dosing when we get back, I’m going to be pissed at you.”

“In my defense, your hands have already been in the water for a while, but I promise. You won’t leave my tent until you smell like roses, Kasumi.” And she waded herself a few feet back, giving Kasumi enough space to join her in the water. 

She slid in the water feet first and drew in a hiss as the chills ran up her spine. It wasn’t like ice, which she counted her blessings for, but cold water on an even colder evening was not pleasant. And Sha’ira had to have a damn good poker face not let that show when she dipped in.

The consort chuckled as she came closer, though refused to address Kasumi’s discomfort directly. “When was the last time anyone had seen you completely?”

An odd way to phrase nearly naked. “... Not since my partner? I’m sure Cerberus was a bit displeased with me disabling their cameras to ensure that.”

Sha’ira looked taken aback. “I… I can’t imagine you working for them for very long.”

“Oh! Oh no. That was with Shepard. And it was very much in the contract that it was a one-time deal. I just needed some extra help getting the…” Kasumi hesitated, though there was little point in it. “... Getting the greybox.”

“... Your partner was killed then?”

“Yeah. For the greybox.”

Sha’ira seemed pensive for a long moment, clearly different thoughts and suggestions coming together. Some being disregarded, others entertained more. She settled on one eventually though as she reached out, thumb lightly grazing against her bruised cheek before reaching the back of her skull, tracing the horizontal scar gnarled and aged in her olive skin. “... Is that how you got this?”

“No,” Kasumi admitted. “... That one’s been there for a while.”

“It’s deep. How old?”

“Ten.”

There was understanding there, sad but not pitying. It hadn’t surprised her that up close, Sha’ira recognized the scar for what it was. In her worst days, she thought she still heard the whispers and threats to her life if she didn’t obey. Sometimes, it felt like the plate was still there-- burning and itchy. But it wasn’t, and truly, it did make getting the greybox surgery much easier. The pain and recovery was nothing compared to that plate burning into her skin. Nothing compared to that. 

Her hand brushed through the shaved underside, through the short wisp of hair that had grown long enough in the front to brush into her eyes sometimes, and found the long, thin scar across her temple. “And this?”

“Sniper just barely missed. You know you’ll be at this for a while if you do this for everything?”

Sha’ira pulled her hand away, though the hum in her voice hadn’t completely left. “I hadn’t known until…”

“Yeah. My back tends to scare a lot of people. That’s what the tattoos are for.”

“This may surprise you, but you are remarkably well put together for someone that has gone through as much as you have.” She hesitated again, and she could feel her eyes following the path and lines of her skin-- what was undoubtedly a stark contrast to her own. Not just in the color either. Her olive skin had paled even further over the years of being in the shadows, and her skin had toned. Light enough to carry herself through the smallest nooks and crannies, but muscled just enough to get her from point A to point Z without taking the sidewalk. However, learning how to be a thief was hardly an easy walk in the park.

Some were from varren bites, lashes and beatings from old masters. She had the bullet holes and burns to prove her disastrous run-in in Illium, more from small incidents like tonight, others…

The tattoos were meant for covering others. She wasn’t the full body treatment like Jack, but she had a few. It was nice when she was younger and hated the skin she had been left with after so long. Abstract paintings were needled in mostly, splashes of color and whims that an old Omega roommate had illustrated beautifully. They dotted from the back of her neck to her shoulder blades, and even now when she would get the chance to look, she would admire the handiwork. There were other, smaller touches. Rose and thorns-- cliched but sentimental along her other hip, and her most recent addition, ‘SR-2’ on her right bicep. It took a lot of haggling to keep that artist quiet.

Her haircut was something more impressive once, but it wasn’t as if she had access to a hairdresser at the moment. The undercut did enough of a job, no matter how much Khalisah wanted to tease her about it. She used to have it longer, tied up in a bun like her grandmother had done before-- but it was so impractical. A few untimely somersaults and she would have wild black strands getting everywhere. It was a liability more than anything.

It was also very strange being studied like she was. There hadn’t been as much pressure as it was back when Kasumi had enough clothes to cover the most identifying parts of herself. Yet, there was something so inherently benign in the way Sha’ira observed her-- as if natural, as if there wasn’t anything else to do or worry about. 

She tried to lighten the mood. At least a little. “You make me feel like I should be posing or something~”

“It’s not necessary.” And Sha’ira smiled, and oh, there were only a few inches between them. She saw the water droplets slip lazily along the curvatures of her skin, separating in one valley and joining at another. Her hand fit easily along the lining of her jaw, nails lightly scratching as she held her. “... I want to memorize this. Like a rare flower found in the depths of a forest. I know how unique this is.”

So. Kasumi was being pampered. She knew this game too well to be bashful. She held her gaze, letting the smile ease onto her lips.

“Your arms were shaking before,” Sha’ira observed. “This is much better, isn’t it?”

It was hard to say. 

“Tell me what happened?”

“I killed a kid today.” The confession came out without a thought.

She felt the other hand fit around the other side, this time more careful, deliberate. “What happened?” she asked again. Maybe too close. It didn’t matter. The very look dared her to try and pull away. 

“I told him not to, but I freaked him out. … He killed Thyra. He just wanted to live.”

“Was he trying to--”

“I stabbed him and dumped his body over the parking deck.” Didn’t matter what he was doing. Samara would kill her for that alone, and the batarians would assume it was the STG. They didn’t know who she was. No matter how that conflict ended, more people would die and it would be her fault. The boy’s body was a broken jigsaw by the time it crunched against the pavement. If she studied close enough, pulled it from the depths of her own greybox, she could see every detail, down to those empty eyes starring above and how his arms and legs weren’t supposed to bend like that-- wondered how long Thyra’s death had stuck inside him, like every first kill did to someone. 

Maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad if she didn’t remember every detail, fully knowing she always would. She always would remember the exact shape his body made on the pavement, the way he gurgled and suffocated from the puncture in his lungs, from the beginnings of rot and blood overtaking the overcooked varren still left on his plate. She remembered everything because she had to. 

Sha’ira wrapped her arms around her neck and pulled her tight against her. She barely registered her head resting against the crook of her shoulder, but as she felt those same uncalloused hands comb through black hair, soothing and gentle, she let her eyes flutter closed.

She didn’t deserve it, but Kasumi couldn’t find it in her to turn Sha’ira away.

[ryanmeyerart]

Grace Hartigan’s “Barbie”

This essay was written in 2012

Opinion alert — Jackson Pollock is the most famous Abstract Expressionist painter. Fact alert — it was in New York City that Pollock and the other artists associated with this new movement blossomed. The “Irascibles,’ as they were dubbed, began to shake up the art world with their new philosophy and aesthetic. The novelty of Abstract Expressionism was powerful enough from the beginning to draw in a younger group of artists. Helen Frankenthaler, Joan Mitchell, Sam Francis, and Grace Hartigan are a few of the artists known as the second generation New York School. Despite her young age, Hartigan was deep in the Cedar Tavern circle and was considered a friend by Pollock, de Kooning, Rothko, Kline, etc. Curious and observant, Hartigan looked outward at her surrounding physical, social, and political world for inspiration. She began to paint a combination of what she saw and what she felt. Her commentary on daily life is the leading characteristic of her work. Her paintings such as Barbie have been interpreted as feminist precursors to pop art, but in reality, Hartigan did not ally herself with either feminism or pop art. For Barbie the output is a statement about the contemporary ‘60’s society. This painting and the great majority of her other works are musings on life and should be viewed the same way one reads poetry. A complete interpretation can only be accurately made by considering her own words as well as clues from her life’s story.

Hartigan was born on March 28, 1922 in New Jersey. She was greatly influenced by her aunt, an english schoolteacher who piqued her interest in writing and theatre which lasted all through high school. She married at age 18 and ended up in California after she and her husband ran out of money on their way to Alaska. They lived there several years with their newborn son until World War II broke out. They decided to move back east where he was then drafted. She began to take night classes to learn drawing and painting and got a job as a draftsman. She fell in love with Matisse after being introduced to book of his work and immediately began seeking out a way to paint like him. She then began to study under Ike Muse and moved to New York with him after she and her husband split. Not much time passed before she and Muse split also and she began to support herself with a “life of total poverty but meeting all marvelous, exciting people.”1 This is a reference to the collection of artists and writers who patronized the Cedar Tavern in the 40’s and 50’s. She visited Pollock’s and de Kooning’s studios and began the journey headfirst into pure Abstract Expressionism which solidified her status in the group as well as Clement Greenberg’s approval. Her first few works in ’49 and ’50 were very gestural and resembled the flat, all over composition of Pollock’s work. This only lasted a couple years before she began to slowly introduce representational elements that are very similar to the figures in de Kooning’s Woman paintings. A key factor in this change was her growing relationship with the poet Frank O’Hara. Hartigan’s childhood love for literature re-blossomed vicariously through O’Hara who dedicated several poems to her. In 1952 O’Hara gave a series of twelve poems called Oranges, Sweet, a Dozen to Hartigan who then turned them into her Orange paintings. This rebellion against Greenberg allowed her to extend her boundaries and begin to develop her own identity as a painter. Her first step was to look back at the Masters like Velasquez, Goya, and Rubens all the while keeping Matisse and the Abstract Expressionist aesthetic in mind. She then began to look outward in the exploration of her world, New York City. For several decades she painted shopping malls, billboards, vendors, shop windows, and anything else that caught her eye and stimulated her mind. Hartigan was overflowing with material that she felt compelled to paint. Throughout the ‘60’s she pulled out all the stops and painted everything from mythical creatures and gods, Marilyn Monroe, lily ponds, human emotions, and Barbie dolls. The only reoccurring visual elements are the gestural forms that came from her Abstract Expressionist background and the bold use of color drawn from her love for Fauvism. This inconsistency of subject matter is the first clue as to Hartigan’s thought processes.

The mistake that critics and historians too often make is the lack of attention paid to Hartigan’s body of work as a whole. When they step back and get the big picture view, they consider it for a couple of minutes and quickly conclude that, “She has reached for new ideas so often that she has no signature style.”2 Naturally at this conclusion, they are forced to focus on individual paintings or small series of them. Unsurprisingly, the interpretations of Hartigan’s Barbie paintings are straightforward and superficial.

The Barbie doll made her debut in 1959 and it was not long before Mattel, Inc. began receiving criticism for the doll’s negative body image. The doll has often been used as a symbol for the unacceptable image of women portrayed in pop-culture. When Hartigan painted Barbie in the heat of the controversy, many people, both feminists and non-feminists, assumed that she was making a feminist statement. The well-informed researcher might also argue his/her point with evidence that Hartigan originally signed her paintings as “George Hartigan” for her first few shows. This has been taken as a statement of the difficulty for women artists to succeed in the world of Abstract Expressionism. However, both of these arguments can be easily refuted by Hartigan’s own words. She has repeatedly denied having any feminist sentiments and even supported Pollock by saying, “The myth I find most infuriating is the one of Jackson Pollock as brawling, woman-hating, drunk and macho. The man was tender, suffering- an inarticulate, shy genius, but people don’t want to hear that about Jackson.”3 When asked why she signed her work “George Hartigan” she replied, “Because I identified with George Sand and George Eliot — they were my heroes. The real story is I had gay friends who all had female names amongst themselves and I thought it would be fun to have a man’s name.”4

The argument that Hartigan’s work is a precursor to Pop art has greater merit, but still doesn’t go much deeper than the paint on the canvas. Nevertheless, Hartigan did paint an abstract work titled, Billboard which can be compared to James Rosenquist’s work, and a couple of paintings of Marilyn Monroe which invariably conjures Warhol’s ghost. These images in addition to the Barbie doll are unquestionable pop culture icons. One can easily imagine Barbie as the subject of a Warhol painting and should not be surprised that he did indeed use the child’s toy in a series of prints. Warhol’s Barbie is very different from Hartigan’s however. In her essay, which analyzes Hartigan’s work, Melody Davis points out that, “Pop art is typically hard-edged, cool, acrylic-painted, repetitive and de-personalized.”5 This is the antithesis to Hartigan’s work. In response to this new aesthetic, she made an unapologetic statement in the 60’s saying, “Pop art is not painting, because painting must have content and emotion.”6 Similar to the contrast between the quality of a hand crafted table that exudes warmth from the carpenter’s personal touch and the mass-produced particle board piece made by machines and sold in an IKEA store, so is the unfriendly relationship of Hartigan and Pop art. It is not uncommon to see the subject of Barbie in everyday life, but just as Dutch genre painting is not Pop art, neither is Hartigan’s work.

Instead, the individual work is one of social commentary. Referring to the Barbie doll, Hartigan made this statement, “I’m very interested in dolls of all cultures, because a doll is an essence, really, of what society thinks you should present to your little girls, about what they’re supposed to plan for, how they’re supposed to think about themselves. And if you’re supposed to think about yourself as a bride that deserves a $100 dress and you only cost $15 and your husband is a castrated man, boy, that tells you something about American morals!”7 Hartigan painted what she saw around her. When she walked throughout New York City she painted vendors and shop windows. When she studied the masters at the MET she painted the scenes and figures that excited her. When she noticed a changing country she painted a doll that symbolized a part of it. Hartigan was not supporting or criticizing mass production, mass marketing, or mass media. She was taking input, processing it, and then giving output. Hartigan explains, “I try to declaw the terribleness of popular culture and turn it into beauty or meaning.”8 Now a motive fueling her creative machine becomes apparent. By zooming out and viewing the entirety of her life and work, we see that Hartigan takes both the ugly and mundane as well as the beautiful and exciting and gives them a poetic quality. This should not be a surprise, given her love for literature as a child, her very close relationships with the poets who patronized the Cedar Tavern (O’Hara in particular), and her “heroes,” the novelists Eliot and Sand. For the final piece of evidence let’s again consider Hartigan’s own words, “As most painting moves closer to sculpture and architecture, my own work moves nearer poetry…It increasingly must be ‘read’ in terms of meaning and metaphor.”9 Hartigan’s bold colors, gestural brushwork, and expression through abstraction are some of the tools she employs to give emotional life to the content that she chooses to paint. The successful viewer is the one who does indeed “read” her paintings. Poetry and Hartigan’s work are musings on life.

With a creative career that lasted over half a century, Hartigan produced a large body of paintings and prints. She did not stray far from her aesthetic, yet changes throughout the decades are visible and tell her life’s story like rings in a tree. Her experiences at the Cedar Tavern were truly invaluable and would cause envy in any historian. Unfortunately, she has been misunderstood a great deal too much. Barbie should be read as a poem, and not as Pop art or feminist art. Only then can one fully appreciate the creative mind of Grace Hartigan.

Bibliography

Diggory, Terence. “Questions of identity in Oranges by Frank O’Hara and Grace Hartigan.” Art Journal 52, no. 4 (Winter93 1993): 41.Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed November 9, 2012).

Gibson, Ann Eden. Abstract expressionism: other politics. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1997.

Hartigan, Grace, interview by Julie Haifley. May 10, 1979.

Hartigan, Grace, interview by Jonathan VanDyke. February 12, 2000.

Hobbs, Robert. 1995. “Grace Hartigan: A Painter’s World by Robert Saltonstall Mattison: Reviewed by Robert Hobbs.” Woman’s Art Journal , Vol. 16, №2 (Autumn, 1995 — Winter, 1996), pp. 42–44. JSTOR (accessed October 18, 2012).

Jachec, Nancy. The Philosophy and Politics of Abstract Expressionism: 1940–1960. Cambridge [u.a.: Cambridge Univ., 2000.

Kunitz, Daniel. “Gallery chronicle.” New Criterion 20, no. 3 (November 2001): 51–54. Art Full Text (H.W. Wilson), EBSCOhost (accessed October 19, 2012).

Landau, Ellen G… Reading abstract expressionism. New Haven: Yale, 2005.

Lavazzi, Thomas. 2000. “Lucky Pierre Gets into Finger Paint: Grace Hartigan and Frank O’Hara’s Oranges.” Aurora: The Journal Of The History Of Art 1, 122–137. Art Full Text (H.W. Wilson), EBSCOhost (accessed October 18, 2012).

Lord, M. G.. Forever Barbie: the unauthorized biography of a real doll. New York: Morrow and Co., 1994.

Princenthal, Nancy. 2009. “Grace Hartigan 1922–2008.” Art In America 97, no. 10: 142. Art Full Text (H.W. Wilson), EBSCOhost (accessed October 18, 2012).

Robert Saltonstall Mattison. “Hartigan, Grace.” Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press, accessed October 18, 2012,http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T036782.

Shapiro, David, and Cecile Shapiro.Abstract expressionism: a critical record. Cambridge [England: Cambridge University Press, 1990.

[neijayah]

Seoul, day 5 - back to school and they left us (again) ㅠㅠ

Thursday was regular school again. The announced Typhoon 'Kong-Rey' (태풍 '콩레이'), which I heard about first time around Tuesday or Wednesday, sent us rain showers. Regular ones, if I have to compare that to rain showers in Germany. Though, for the southern part of the country they had predicted more than 200 millimeters of rain. Busan had heavy storms at their costal lines. But nonetheless people wandering around in kind of flip-flops....with and without socks, though pavements were wet and with a lot of puddles, they actually walked through. Strange Koreans. The good thing though, you don't have to stay out in the open most of your time. When using the subway, you spend all your time in the underground anyway. Only for getting from the station to your school/working place will be wet. And this also on a minimal basis, as I already said, subway stations have several exits. And the one I'm using takes up about 10 Minutes to get from the entrance to the train itself. You don't even have to leave the station/underground as a lot of them have malls for shopping like clothes, food, accessories, mobile phones and what not. And you can also use them to stay dry. Sometimes you have to use them, to get over big street crossings the fastest.

Unfortunately, mine is set out with a tile floor. The wet weather and the water that is brought in with the shoes and umbrellas makes the entrances/exit areas quite slippery. So watch out.

So after having October 3rd off (National Foundation Day, something similar to the Germany holiday, even on the same date), school was calling again. First class was working online with a provided iPad. Pretty cool actually. I will remember that for my teacher. Maybe we can get excess to that tool, as well. Afterwards communicating lessons in a lounge like class room, than having a break for an hour. So I looked around if one of these small shops like CS, GS25, 7-Eleven have to offer face masks. My throat was still itchy and my Korean teacher from home told me to gurgling with mouthwash, or keep a face mask on, all the time, when you're out in the open. And I actually found some in the one next door. Though I hoped, the rain will wash that stuff away. I was going around with face masks on a daily basis at work already. Didn't need to feel like I was at work here in Korea.

Back to school, with a lesson on listening comprehension and a lecture about the alphabet. Totally not necessary for me, but nice to now the letters names. We also made a small riddle. We had a list of words (short and long) and someone had to name the consonants of each syllable and we had to search for that word. Kinda fun. After that, again at least 1 hour of waiting time, as we had an evening excursion. I took the time to wander around and find that Isaac toast shop, so I could find a way to easily get there. Unfortunately, I wasn't hungry. Otherwise, I would have brought on. They fill you up so bad, that you have to be careful.

The way things are organized here, impresses me really much and other countries could learn from that. Every excursion is announced on the EF app. So you know, where and when things will happen, what it costs and if the event is full or some places are still open. If there are still places open, you can join the event via this app. So they actually know, who will join the excursion/event. Pretty cool. Unfortunately, an event I would have liked to join was a concert on next Tuesday. A K-Pop concert somewhere south of Seoul "World Friends Music Festival". It's for free, you will just have to pay for the transit. And know I see, 3 places are open again. ㅠㅠ The last time I looked up, everything was full. So I didn't mind that the sister of my Korean teacher had to cancel the Wednesday meeting and postponed it to Tuesday. Well, just my luck that I won't be able to join that either. The line up will be iKon, ASTRO ❤️, Momoland and a few more. Really would've liked to see Astro live.

So back to the excursion. Our guide, the lady from the front desk, told us that she'd been out from home for over 12 hours already. Poor thing had to fight not to fall asleep on us while the ride. We talked a bit while the commute. She was also the one doing the Gangnam Street Tour with us on the first day. She told us, that she was still living at home, like most women in their 20s do, just because they cannot afford living on their own.

We went via metro, what else and left at City Hall. This way you just have to walk like 100 meters to reach Deoksugung Place (덕수궁 약사). It was a night tour, which is something you should for every historical building in the city. It looks so stunning and pictures come out even more beautiful, than in daylight. The entrance fee is 1000 Won, approx. $ 1 or less than € 1.

Some strange music was coming from somewhere, we didn't know yet. But the atmosphere at that small place was just awesome. You didn't know, where to take pictures first. You just wanted to take pictures of these buildings from all angles. And the best part was actually the contrast to the modern buildings behind that area.

Then we found something that seemed like a fountain, without water. The light, that shone on it changed the color and gave it a different atmosphere each time. Though we (2 girls and I) were there just like 5 minutes, our group was gone. And we couldn't find them anymore.

We searched the whole area, which isn't really big. But no one was there anymore. I tried to reach out for them via KakaoTalk, but hadn't received any answers. But the internet access in that area, even with Wifi egg, was pretty bad. We left the park and waited at the entrance of the palace and watched the performance going on over the street. A huge tower crane had like 20 people hanging on a rope. First we thought they were mannequins, but it turned out to be real people moving in a certain choreography. And suddenly, right behind them fireworks started. A nice surprise. Due to that, I couldn't hear our guide calling us, via KakaoTalk. But she picked us up a few minutes later. They all were obviously at that Street Art Festival for a while.

After that we continued our tour to get to Gwanghwamun (광화문) via the restorated Cheong Gye Cheon (청계천). The Cheong Gye Cheon used to be a small stream running stream until 1958.

Till 1976 they built a massive highway complex on it, until 2003 the former mayor decided to remove the highway and restore the stream.

You can actually walk for miles, but as it was pretty late already and some of us have a long ride to their guest families ahead, we decided to shorten it and leave the trail at the next possible exit.

She showed us, where to find what metro line, so we all went our ways. One other student joined me on the way home. The only disadvantage of taking line 2 is, that it takes like ages to get to Gangnam station. Line 3 would have been faster, but than you have to change lines, which includes taking a lot of steps.....meh. 😑

We both went into the 'Paris Baguette' store, it's something between store and fast food restaurant....don't ask me how to name it better. I got myself ice creme, as it has gotten so warm again throughout the evening. Though, Koreans are on the extreme sweet side on food and drinks, this was pretty good. Not too sweet and not too extreme in taste, like Germans probably like it. This local is really good, when you want something from your known food list. Especially, when like some students, you're here for half or a full year.

I went to bed like 2 o'clock, which wasn't so bad, as next days' classes would start half past 1 pm. So I could catch up on sleep.

[quicksilversquared]

Hiding the Miraculous

People have finally started to notice that Marinette is always wearing the same pair of earrings no matter what outfit she has on, and she’s worried that someone might start getting suspicious. She has to throw people off somehow.

But how is she supposed to do that?

(AO3) (FF.net)

Marinette had never been one to be very self-conscious about her appearance. Chloe had been the only one to ever make any disparaging comments towards her, and Marinette had known full well not to take her seriously. She was confident in her own design skills, especially after winning several design competitions, and she knew full well that she wasn't at all unattractive (after all, people talked about Ladybug all the time and never said a bad word about her appearance, and she was Ladybug).

But right now? Marinette was feeling more than a little self-conscious, and it was all because Chloe had pointed out (loudly, in a very condescending voice) that Marinette's earrings didn't match her outfit.

"That's not the first time someone's brought that up, actually," Marinette told Tikki as she sat in her room. One hand went up to fiddle with the simple black studs in her ears. "People are starting to notice that I don't ever match my earrings to my outfits. I can get away with it when I'm just wearing casual outfits at school, but it's going to be summer soon and I always wear these fun summer dresses and last summer I wore fun earrings with them. Alya doesn't notice because she didn't know me then, but Mylène and Rose will probably ask."

"You can't take off the Miraculous for that long, Marinette," Tikki reminded Marinette, as though she could forget that. "If they're not on you for too long, or if you get too far away from the Miraculous, your connection to them could fade and even break, and then you could get akumatized if you get upset about something."

"I know, I know, I wouldn't take them off," Marinette said with a sigh. "It's just... how long will it be until someone realizes that I look like Ladybug and that I never take my earrings off? Like, if they put the pieces together, that would be really bad." She slouched and pouted slightly. "...and I know he probably isn't Hawkmoth and all since he did get akumatized, but Mr. Agreste still gives me the creeps, and he was super-interested in my earrings when I was there as Ladybug when Jackady was after him. I didn't like that."

"I didn't like it, either. It's just weird that he has that book and he noticed the earrings." Tikki was frowning. "But what can you do about it, Marinette?"

Marinette frowned. Almost on instinct, she glanced around her desk, looking for something she could use. Her eyes fell on a page of stickers that Manon had forgotten the last time she was over, and Marinette's eyes lit up for a moment. "Oh! I could cover the earrings, to make it look like I'm wearing different ones!" And then she paused and groaned. "Oh, wait, no, that wouldn't work. The stickers wouldn't come off nicely and they would tear and look funny, and even if they did go on and come off nicely, they would probably wrinkle on the earrings and look cheap, and then people would really notice my earrings and figure that I might be trying to hide something, which I am-"

"But you might be onto something with the covered earrings," Tikki suggested. "Could you use fabric, maybe, and cinch it over the earrings? To make it look like you have fabric-covered earrings instead? And maybe you could even decorate the fabric somehow."

Marinette frowned. "Maybe. It could look a bit messy, though. I'd probably have to do a lot of fiddling to do to make it fit really well. Maybe I should try to buy a regular pair of earrings that look exactly the same so I can do fittings on those first, so I don't have to have the Miraculous off for long."

Plan made, Marinette and Tikki headed out. But even after several hours of searching, they hadn't had any luck finding an exact replica of the Ladybug Miraculous. They didn't care about the pattern, of course, but all of the earrings in the stores were a little too domed, or too flat, or too small, or too big.

"This is ridiculous," Marinette grumbled as she put back a too-large earring. It wasn't much bigger than the Miraculous, but she needed it to be exactly the same for it to work as a model. "I've looked everywhere. Seriously, I'm tempted to just make a mold of these earrings and make a model from that. At this rate, it would take less time."

Tikki blinked up at her from her collar. "Do you know how to do that, Marinette?"

"Uh-huh! I had to do something similar for a class project last year." Marinette headed out of the department store and started hurrying towards an art shop. "I have some of the supplies for the mold left over, but I think I need more of the stuff for making the model earring. Besides, I might get ideas from some of the stuff in the art store."

"I like going there," Tikki commented, snuggling down in Marinette's collar wo get out of the wind. "It's fun to see what kinds of things people can make!"

"There is a lot of stuff," Marinette agreed as she entered the store. Her voice immediately dropped to a whisper. "I spend most of my time in the fabric store nowadays, but it is good to come back and see if anything here inspires me."

"Would they maybe have earrings in here?" Tikki asked, poking her head back up now that they were indoors. "They would be cheap, but maybe you could alter them to be more like your Miraculous."

Marinette made a face. "Oh, I don't know. I've never seen earrings here, but I suppose we could check."

So they did. Marinette and Tikki cruised up and down the aisles, looking at everything in the store, but they didn't find any earrings of the right type. Marinette picked up the stuff she needed for her mock-Miraculous four rows in, and spent most of the rest of her time answering Tikki's questions.

"What's water-soluble glue?" Tikki wanted to know as they perused the aisle of glues. Marinette abandoned the sticks of hot-gun glue (she would need more soon, but her supply wasn't quite out yet and she hadn't been using much lately) to come join Tikki. "Does that mean it falls apart when it gets wet? What's the point of that?"

"It tends to be for stuff that isn't meant to last, I think," Marinette said. She picked up a bottle. "Or if they're working with kids. It's easier to clean up."

"Why would you make something meant to fall apart?" Tikki asked, her little brow furrowed. "That doesn't make sense."

Marinette couldn't help but laugh. "I think some performers use it to stick stuff to their faces- you know, jewels and fake hair- and then they can just wash it off afterwards. Oh!" she suddenly exclaimed. "I could use glue like that to stick something to the earrings! Then when I want to transform, I just dip it in water really fast and get the decoration off!"

Tikki gasped. "Oh! Yeah, that would be nice! But Marinette," she added, "you have to remember to take whatever decoration you have off before you transform. If you don't, the magic will just burn it off. That would be good for getting rid of the leftover glue, but it would destroy anything else you put on the earring."

Marinette was already digging through the different water-soluble glues, comparing uses and strengths. She picked out two to experiment with, looking pleased as she did. "I'll just have to carry a bit of water with me, then. And some glue, so I can put the earrings back together after fights." She was grinning now. "This will be so much fun."

  Marinette soon discovered that getting the idea and finding the glue were the easy parts. She really couldn't just slap sequins or other decorations on her earrings and call it a day, because that would cheap and awful and it would be a pain to try to put everything back together after an akuma fight ended.

No, she had to make covers that could have the decorations embedded in them, and then those covers could be glued onto her Miraculous to hide them. And that was difficult.

The first step was, of course, to make a mold of the Miraculous so that she could fit the covers exactly without having to use her Miraculous every time. Tikki hovered over her shoulder anxiously as Marinette made the casts around the Miraculous, worried about the earrings getting damaged. Once the casts were poured and were drying, she spent the drying time anxiously zipping between the earrings and the window, worried about an akuma showing up while the Miraculous weren't in Marinette's ears.

Marinette tried not to giggle at her kwami's antics as she worked on her homework. She had deliberately chosen the late hour to work on this particular project because Hawkmoth only rarely made akuma this late. She hadn't wanted to be interrupted, because the cast material would be ruined if she had to yank the earrings out to transform.

The cast finished drying overnight and her Miraculous came out easily, much to Tikki's relief. While the kwami took a much-needed nap, Marinette poured the material that would eventually become her fake Miraculous earrings. That had to dry for even longer. While it dried, Marinette planned.

She had originally wanted to use some of her old earrings in the new covers- she had made some while others were gifts, and it would be a shame to never wear them again- but that would be too difficult for now. She would have to hollow them out somehow before ever turning them into covers and, well...

She doesn't have the tools or the steady hand with said tools necessary to do that. So she'll have to content herself with making completely new designs.

(That was fine, of course. Now that she was actually thinking about designing earrings, Marinette's found that she is absolutely bursting with ideas based on her summer outfits. She just finished that gold summer dress? White earrings with gold glitter swirled through them would be perfect! The blue embroidered tank top that matches her eyes? Okay, she can just copy the embroidery pattern in the earring cover! That Jagged Stone-style outfit with the leather vest and fishnet tights that she kept designing and re-designing in her sketchbook? If she could make a cover that was shaped like some sort of cool tooth like a lion or a shark, that would be amazing.)

Her first few earring covers didn't turn out very well. The material kept getting bubbles stuck in it, and it was only after a few tries that Marinette thought to whack the cast like her father whacked his macarons to get the air bubbles out of the batter. That worked perfectly, and from there on out it was smooth sailing.

Mostly. She was still struggling a bit with the tooth idea.

"I'm not gonna wear the covers every day, obviously," Marinette told Tikki as she sanded down the rough edges on the first earring cover. "It would be weird if I just suddenly switched over to suddenly wearing a different pair of earrings every day after wearing the same pair every day for most of the year. So I thought that I would change for the first time when I wear something a little fancier than usual."

As it turned out, the perfect opportunity came up only a week later. Alya was having her birthday party and Marinette wore one of her new dresses. She spent longer than she should have making sure that the glittery cover was firmly attached to her Miraculous, and Tikki had finally had to start slapping Marinette's fingers away every time they started inching up towards her ears.

"You put plenty of glue on, Marinette," Tikki said with a sigh. "Stop fiddling with them!"

"It was only a thin layer, though!" Marinette protested. "Because I didn't want the glue squishing out the side and showing up! And if it falls off then it'll attract even more attention and people will wonder why I'm hiding my regular earrings instead of wearing completely different ones."

Tikki just sighed.

"I mean, at least there should be plenty of surface area in contact with the glue since I made it off a model of the Miraculous," Marinette continued, her voice moving dangerously towards babble-range. "But it's not a lot of glue, and I didn't really have a chance to test how strong it was, and maybe I should have tried gluing it to my model first before I actually wore it out and about because what if it's not a very good glue? What if it rains? What if-"

"Marinette! Are you leaving for Alya's party soon?"

"It's time to go, Marinette! Grab your present and stop worrying so much!" Tikki zipped across the room and pushed against Alya's present on the desk. It didn't budge. Downstairs, Sabine called again. "And stop fiddling with it, or you'll actually make it loose!"

Marinette groaned, pulled her hand away from her earrings, grabbed Alya's present, and tore off down the stairs. It didn't take long at all for her to get over to Alya's apartment. Music was already floating down the hallway when Marinette let herself in.

"Hey, Marinette!" Adrien called from where he was chatting with Nino. His eyes dropped to her dress and he grinned. "Did you design that, Marinette? It's gorgeous!"

Marinette couldn't help the rush of heat that filled her cheeks, but she managed what she hoped was a relatively normal smile and a "Thanks!"

Her voice might not have been in the human hearing range, but at least she tried.

Adrien came practically bounding over to her to greet her properly and look her dress. It was pink and white and Marinette was very, very proud of how it had come out. She held her ground as he circled around her, inspecting the dress.

"I love all of the embroidery you've done, Marinette!" Adrien told her. "It's absolutely gorgeous. And- oh!" he exclaimed, leaning closer. "And your earrings match! Did you make those, too?"

Marinette nodded, taking a moment to try to get her voice back. She would never get used to Adrien's compliments, especially not when he got so close to her as he complimented her. He didn't exactly have a good concept of personal space, but she wasn't about to start complaining. "Uh, yeah! I did! I wanted to match."

"That's amazing that you figured out how to do that," Adrien told her, reaching out for a moment towards her earrings before pulling his hand back when she flinched back slightly. "I wouldn't have any idea where to start. And they're so sparkly!"

Marinette grinned. She had positively packed these particular Miraculous covers with pink glitter, and thankfully the material she was using for the cover didn't dull the sparkle too much. She was rather proud of her work.

"Did I hear you say that you're making earrings now, Marinette?" Alya appeared at her side and pushed Marinette's hair aside to look at her earrings. "Oh, those are cute!"

"Happy birthday, Alya!" Marinette half-sang as way of response. She pushed the present into her friend's arms. Now that the "different" earrings had been noticed, she didn't really want people inspecting them too closely. Tikki had said that it looked fine, but Marinette was still a tiny bit paranoid. "Great party!"

"You haven't even seen the best parts yet!" Alya grinned at her, tugging at Marinette's hand. "Come on, come on, come see the cake your parents made for me! It's so cool!"

  Marinette couldn't help but grin as she stepped back into her room. Alya's party had been awesome (if a little cramped- that apartment was not meant to hold that many people), and just as she had hoped, people had noticed her "new" earrings. They hadn't stayed a topic of conversation for long- Rose had asked how she had made them, Marinette had briefly explained, and that was it after that- but it was a good start. If anyone in her class had been thinking that she was Ladybug just based off the fact that she wore the same earrings all the time, they would now be thrown off.

Marinette was so caught up in her own success that she almost missed the screaming.

"An akuma attack this late?" she complained. "Tikki-!"

"You have to remove the covers!" Tikki reminded her as she floated out of Marinette's purse. "The akuma can wait for a minute!"

Marinette groaned and pulled one earring out as she poured water from her water bottle onto a shallow bowl on her desk she dunked the earring a few times and then tugged on the cover.

It didn't budge.

Okay, so maybe it needed to soak a little first. Marinette tugged out the other earring and dunked it in as well. She went back to the first earring, positive that it would be unglued by now.

It wasn't.

"I must have put too much on!" Marinette said frantically as she tugged at the cover. "It's totally stuck!"

"Keep it in for longer!"

Marinette sent a frantic glance at the window. The screaming was getting closer, and now there were car horns and screeching tires as well. "There's no time! You said that the covers wouldn't affect the magic, right? That they would just get destroyed?"

Tikki blinked up at her. "But all that hard work-!"

"I can make another set, it's not that hard. But I have to transform right now, before the akuma gets too close!" Marinette pulled her Miraculous out of the water and stuck them in her ears. There was an unpleasant sticky feeling to them now, probably from the glue around the edges starting to dissolve, but it would probably go away once she transformed, burned off by the magic. She gave the covers one last hopeful tug (she didn't really want them destroyed if it could be helped) before calling for Tikki again. "Tikki! Transform me!"

  Hawkmoth's latest akuma, like so many of the ones that had come before it, wasn't particularly impressive. It didn't take long for Ladybug and Chat Noir to defeat it, and then they were doing their traditional fist bump under a streetlight. Ladybug was about to yo-yo away when Chat Noir's hand on her arm stopped her. She turned around to ask what he wanted, and froze when she saw how close he was. Chat Noir didn't seem to notice, intent on trying to fish something out of her hair with clawed fingers.

"Chat Noir?" What are you doing?"

"Sorry," Chat Noir said immediately, taking a small step back and holding his hands up. "There's just been something sparkling in your hair for the entire fight, and I was just curious about what it was. Do you have glitter in your hair?"

Ladybug blinked, surprised. Glitter in her hair? She puzzled over that for a moment, then realized what her partner must be talking about. The glitter must have been the surviving remainders of her earring covers. She had kind of assumed that Tikki's warning about the covers getting "destroyed" meant totally vaporized, but shattered into dozens and dozens of tiny little pieces made sense, too. Of course, she couldn't say that to Chat Noir, or he might use the information to somehow accidentally discover her identity. "Glitter? I- yeah, actually, I was, ah, babysitting earlier tonight, and the kid spilled glitter all over me. It was a mess."

Chat Noir just laughed at that. "Poor bugaboo. Good luck getting that out." He grinned, reaching over and ruffling her hair until she ducked away. "But don't purr-y too much if it doesn't. Glitter suits you."

Ladybug couldn't help but laugh. Chat Noir was absolutely incorrigible sometimes. "If you say so, kitty cat. If you say so."

  After what had happened with the first set of covers, Marinette decided to be more cautious. She experimented with amounts of glue over the weekend, starting with as little as possible and working upwards in little tweaks, trying to find that sweet spot where she had enough glue to make sure that the earrings would stay on securely during the day but a small enough amount that it could be dissolved and the cover removed fairly quickly and with not too much water when there was an akuma attack.

As it turned out, the thin covers really didn't need much. All Marinette had to do was draw on a light smear of glue all the way around the edge and then hold the cover on for a minute to get them to stay on. She had tested it overnight with success, and it really only needed a little bit of water and a couple of seconds to get the glue to loosen enough to come apart. It still left her Miraculous sticky and gross until she transformed and the glue burned off, but that really wasn't a huge problem. Her earrings didn't need to submerged in water anymore to get the cover off, which made transforming quickly easier but also meant that she couldn't wear the covers whenever it was raining. If she did, they might loosen and fall off when Marinette didn't intend for them to.

That was fine with Marinette. She could wear her Miraculous plain some days without a problem. She just didn't want that to be the only way she ever wore them.

Soon the rest of the class got used to her wearing different earrings several days a week. Alya teased Marinette a bit about her apparent attachment to her "plain old boring black earrings" occasionally, but otherwise people stopped really paying attention to them.

After all, an aspiring fashion designer wearing earrings that matched her outfits was hardly strange. It had been weirder when she didn't match them to what she was wearing.

Master Fu was the only one who didn't agree.

The old Guardian did a double-take as soon as Marinette sat down in front of him. She had chosen to wear her blue tank top that day, and the bright blue earrings with the gold patterning were fairly visible. Marinette beamed at her mentor as she pulled Tikki out so she could play with Wayazz. "Hi, Master Fu! You said that you had news for me?

"I do," Master Fu agreed, looking disapproving. "But that can wait. Marinette, I thought you would know better than to remove your Miraculous! And Tikki- why haven't you said anything about it?"

Both Tikki and Marinette blinked at Master Fu in confused unison. "...what?"

"You are wearing earrings that aren't the Miraculous," Master Fu reminded Marinette somewhat testily. "I understand that the Miraculous are rather plain when they aren't active and it might be tempting to wear other earrings when you aren't fighting an akuma, but it's dangerous to not be wearing them at all times. It would be far too easy for one or both to get lost, and then Paris would be in trouble."

Marinette blinked, then realized what was going on. Oh.

"I am wearing the Miraculous, Master Fu," she assured him. She reached up to tap her covered earrings. "I've just covered them to make it look like I'm wearing different earrings. I thought it would be a good idea, so that people wouldn't think that I'm wearing the same pair of earrings day after day."

"It's very clever," Tikki chimed in, twirling around Marinette's head. "She made little covers to go on top of the Miraculous, and then she glues them on with- what was that glue called, Marinette?"

"Water soluble glue," Marinette reminded her.

Tikki nodded frantically. "Yeah! So then when she has to transform, she just gets the glue wet and the cover comes right off. It's super-cool."

"I see," said Master Fu, who still looked rather puzzled.

"My best friend runs the Ladyblog," Marinette explained, shifting in her seat a bit anxiously. She really hoped that the old Guardian wouldn't tell her to stop wearing the covers, because she was pretty certain that that would draw even more unwanted attention to her Miraculous. "So she knows a ton about Ladybug. And we were worried that she might make a connection between Ladybug's Miraculous and the fact that I'm always wearing the same pair of earrings, even though I want to be a designer and I make other jewelry all the time."

Master Fu chuckled at that. "Yes, I can see where you might want to throw her off of your trail. The Ladyblogger does seem the inquisitive sort. And you certainly tricked me, and I know very well what those earrings look like. I never would have guessed that they were simply covered."

"It does look very professional," Wayazz agreed from right next to Marinette's ear, and she yelped and jumped. She hadn't seen him come up to investigate more closely. "You're very creative and talented. A perfect Ladybug."

"I'm lucky that the earrings are easy to cover," Marinette admitted, shuffling back onto the cushion that she had fallen off of when Wayazz startled her. "They're small and don't really have a distinct shape to them, like your bracelet does."

"Yes, it is harder to hide," Master Fu agreed easily. "Thankfully no one will question an old man wearing an old turtle bracelet from his home country, especially since I have not been active for many years." He smiled. "But I can see where it might be difficult for others to hid their Miraculous. Some in the past have been forced to wear scarves or clothing with high necks to conceal their Miraculous from view."

"Like the fox Miraculous?"

Master Fu beamed. "Exactly! That one is a rather distinctive shape, I think you'll agree, even when it's not in use. Most holders simply tuck it down the front of their shirts. The butterfly, from what I've heard, changes the most. It simply looks like a plain button when its holder is not transformed."

At the mention of the butterfly Miraculous, Marinette sat up straight. "Is that what you called me here to discuss, sir? The butterfly Miraculous?"

"It is." Fu smiled at her again. "I have discovered some important information that I must share with you. I think you will find it of interest."

  Marinette couldn't deny that she was a bit nervous to go over to Adrien's house for their group study session for finals. Master Fu's words rang through her head over and over, reminding her that Mr. Agreste could still potentially be Hawkmoth and they couldn't exclude him from their suspicions. She was nervous to be near him again, though this time she wouldn't be alone. Nino and Alya were both coming to the study session as well, and there was a fairly good possibility that they wouldn't see Mr. Agreste at all.

"Still, you have to take advantage of this opportunity, Marinette!" Tikki said as soon as Marinette mentioned hoping that Mr. Agreste would stay in his office. "If he is Hawkmoth, then you want him to see your earrings when they're disguised! Then if he suspects you, that will throw him off. When else are you going to get that chance?"

Marinette gasped. "Oh! You're right, Tikki, that is a great idea! And you know what earrings would be perfect?"

"Er...no?"

"My lion tooth ones!" Marinette pounced on her jewelry case of earring covers and dug through them. "They aren't shaped at all like the Miraculous. I'll need to use a little extra glue to make sure they stay on so they might be hard to get off if there's an akuma attack, but I think it'll be worth it."

Tikki blinked at her. "Uh, Marinette- but those earrings don't go with your outfit!"

Marinette shrugged. "Then I'll change. The earrings would go pretty well with that tank top I tie-dyed, I think. And I'll put my hair up, too, so it's easier to see the earrings."

One frenzied change of clothes, a quick but careful gluing session and several braids later, Marinette was packing up her bag to head over to Adrien's house. She was pretty pleased with the results of her frantic last-minute scramble. The earrings were hard to miss with her hair all pulled up into a messy braided crown, and with her hair up like that she didn't look as much like Ladybug as usual.

Of course, it would be even more of a pain than usual to get everything switched back if there was an akuma, but such was the price of keeping her secret identity secret.

"Ooh, I love your hair!" Alya squealed as soon as she and Nino spotted Marinette. The two of them were waiting near the walls around the Agreste Mansion. "You should put it up like that more often, it's adorable!"

"I don't have the time to do anything fancy like this most days," Marinette said with a laugh. "But I had the time today and it's so hot, I didn't want my hair anywhere near my neck."

"It does look pretty fab," Nino agreed. "Okay, are we ready to go in? Adrien said he would tell Nathalie about our study group so she wouldn't try to question us." A pause. "But I'm not gonna do it. Mr. Agreste probably still doesn't like me much."

"Also not it," Marinette blurted immediately, remembering the last time she had seen Mr. Agreste. He hadn't been particularly happy with her, though at least he hadn't yelled at her to get out of the house like he had the first time he met Nino. "Alya, you do it."

Alya groaned and grumbled, but went up and pressed the intercom button anyway. Seconds later, the gates were opening and all three of them headed up towards the house.

"Remind me again why we aren't meeting literally anywhere else," Nino grumbled as they headed up the steps. "I'm gonna be all tense worrying that Mr. Agreste is gonna burst in and demand that I leave. Couldn't we go to Marinette's place instead?"

"My place is way too hot," Marinette pointed out. "The heat from outside plus all of the heat from the bakery? Fans can only do so much to make it a little more tolerable."

"And my little sisters are at home a lot, and they would just bug us nonstop," Alya added. "And your family's apartment is crazy hot, and the library is packed right now with everyone studying for finals. Plus, then we can take breaks if we're studying at Adrien's house."

"You say that as if it possible that Nathalie won't be sticking her head in every ten minutes making sure that we're staying on track." Nino paused at the door, knocked, then pushed it open. Adrien met them inside with a wide grin.

Behind him, Nathalie glowered at the group of them as they piled in. Mr. Agreste wasn't there, thankfully, but his assistant had his disapproving look down to a T.

"I will be checking in with you regularly," Nathalie informed them. "If you need snacks, let me know. If you need a short break, let me know first. I don't want to come in to find you messing around."

"Of course, Nathalie." Undaunted, Adrien beamed at his friends and gestured for them to follow him as he headed up the stairs towards his room. "All right, come on! I thought we'd start with Literature first and get that out of the way first, and then we can do a harder class, and then an easier one. That way we don't get super-frustrated with it."

"That sounds like a good idea," Alya agreed. She gaped as Adrien waved her into his room. "Holy hell, Agreste, your room is insane!"

"It's ridiculous, isn't it?" Nino agreed. "And freakishly clean, too."

"It was worse before I got to go to school and I spent most of the day in here," Adrien assured them. "Now I'm too busy to make too much of a mess in here."

"That makes no sense," Alya complained, already poking around Adrien's wall of games. "I'm busy, and my room is an actual disaster zone."

"When I'm busy, I'm not in my room," Adrien pointed out. "And I'm naturally pretty neat, I think. I don't like having to dig through a ton of stuff to find things I need." He pointed to a table in the middle of the room with four chairs around it. "Nathalie had that brought in so we could study better, since my desk doesn't have enough space for all of us."

"We could have just studied on the floor, you know," Nino said, but he sat down at the table regardless and started pulling out his books. "But that's pretty nice of her to get this all set up for us."

"It was," Adrien agreed, grinning. Then his smile slid over to Marinette and he grinned. "And Marinette! Is that something you designed again? It looks fabulous!"

"My girl is too talented," Alya agreed. "You are rocking that outfit, Mari."

It didn't take them long to get down to work, mostly because of the threat of Nathalie checking in hanging over their heads. They took a short break two hours in, and then a longer one after three hours.

"My brain is turning to mush," Nino complained as they trudged their way through the last few Physics problems. Adrien was the only one who didn't look like he was in pain. "Gosh, I can't wait until all of the tests are over with and we can relax again."

"I can't wait until summer," Alya agreed. "The only problem is gonna be that I'll have to take care of my sisters a bunch then, and how am I supposed to do that and go after Ladybug and Chat Noir when there's akuma attacks? It's a pain. My parents won't let me drag the twins along when I go after the akumas, and they don't run fast enough anyway. They'd just get in the way."

"Gee, I wonder why," Adrien muttered to Marinette, making her giggle. "It's almost like it's dangerous to get too close to akumas!"

"I heard that, Agreste," Alya threatened. "Are you volunteering to watch my sisters for me, then?"

Adrien looked suddenly panicked. "I- me? Babysit? No, no, that would be a terrible idea, I don't know how to deal with kids-"

"I was kidding," Alya told him flatly. "I wouldn't trust you to be able to handle them. They would probably run you over and then tie your hair up in a million little braids." A pause. "Actually, I would pay to see that. Hey, Adrien, do you want-?"

"No."

"But I could leave a bunch of pink ribbons with you guys, so they could end the braids in pretty little bows-"

"No."

"Adrien, I need help with the last problem," Nino said before Alya could keep teasing Adrien. "And Alya, stop distracting him. It's almost dinner and we're gonna have to leave soon, and I want to have this done before we get kicked out."

A few minutes later, the four of them were piling out of Adrien's room and down the stairs, completed homework packed away in their bags.. Nathalie and Mr. Agreste were both waiting for them there.

"Ah, I was wondering when you were going to finish," Gabriel commented as they all came to a stop halfway down the stairs. "Will you be getting together again before your tests?"

"Yeah, definitely," Adrien said, glancing at the rest of them for confirmation. They all nodded and his face lit up with a grin. "It definitely helps to study as a group, I think."

Mr. Agreste nodded. "Yes, well, they do say that teaching others helps you remember things. Perhaps next time they can stay for dinner for a longer study session." He glanced at the group of them again. "Perhaps Monday evening? You don't have any commitments after school that day."

"I think so," Adrien agreed, glancing around at the rest of them. They all nodded again.

"But for now, it is time for them to go." Mr. Agreste stepped back so they could pass. His eyes skimmed over them again, though they seemed to pause on Marinette for a moment. She tried not to react, refusing to flinch back under his gaze. A second later, Mr. Agreste's attention was back on Adrien and Marinette tried not to let out a sigh of relief.

If he was Hawkmoth, then hopefully he would be completely thrown off her trail. If not, then maybe he was just taking note of her fashion sense. She hoped- mostly for Adrien's sake- that it was the latter.

Marinette hurried home as soon as the gate in front of the Agreste Mansion closed behind her, Nino, and Alya. Her parents had already sat down to dinner by the time she joined them, and she told them about the study session as they ate and cleaned up.

"I notice that you cleaned up nicely for this study session of yours," Tom teased her as he washed their dishes and Marinette dried. "Hoping to impress someone?"

Marinette turned pink immediately. "N-no! It was just my coolest outfit, that's all. It was just so hot today. And I wanted to try something different. I wasn't trying to impress anyone, why would you think that?"

Tom just chuckled.

Right after the last dish was cleaned, the TV lit up with an akuma alert. Marinette made a fast excuse about needing to do a little more studying, endured a little more teasing ("Ah, she wants to impress someone with her study preparation!"), said good-night to her parents, and fled upstairs.

"Ugh, I liked it better when I could just transform right away," Marinette grumbled as she sprayed her earrings with the small spray bottle she always kept in her purse and then started yanking her hair out of its braid. "Imagine if I had to do this and then fix it after during a school day? I'd be missing from class for forever- ouch! Knot!"

Tikki giggled. "As if you aren't already gone for ages for some of the attacks! But yes, I think you should save the fancy hair for days when people won't notice if you're gone for a few minutes more."

"Yeah. But at least doing the earring covers isn't awful. It's worth it, I know it. It'll help protect my identity even more." Marinette twined one bunch of hair into a pigtail before reaching for the other side. Her pigtails were a little uneven, but it wasn't worth the time or effort to fix them. She doused her earrings again, cringing against the spray, and then tugged the tooth covers off with a sharp tug. Tossing them to the desk, she spun around to face Tikki, Miraculous exposed and gleaming in the lamplight.

"Okay, I'm ready! Tikki, transform me!"

[riverinternet]

8 Hot Apps for Working From Home Pros Use

New Post has been published on https://riverinter.net/uncategorized/8-hot-apps-for-working-from-home-pros-use/

8 Hot Apps for Working From Home Pros Use

Covid-19! The virus that has made every worker start working from home. To many, it was unorthodox and stressful. However, some adapted work at home before the pandemic.

So, how do professionals work at home whilst tackling the fair share of hurdles that working at home brings? Easy! By making use of the available resources, including apps on their smart devices. 

Let’s dive into the realms of productivity with the apps below, and conquer working at home.  

Todoist 

Todoist is a remarkable task manager and is acclaimed as one of the must-have apps among professionals, and individuals also. The app provides an easy to use interface, which is pleasant to look as well. You can enter, organize, and prioritize tasks, set reminders, due dates, share tasks with co-workers, track progress, and a lot more.

Some advanced features include project folders, 7-days view, Monthly view and more. Todoist integrates easily with important apps, such as Gmail, Google Calendar, Amazon Alexa and Slack. 

Pros

User-Friendly

Basic version comes with various features

Karma system

Cons

Reminders require premium

Annual plans only

Few important features not available for free users

See Pricing here.

Slack

Slack is an ideal software for team-based projects, big, or small. The app offers a user-friendly interface, and steps up your teamwork through its state-of-the-art communicational and organizational tools, including instant messaging, calling to a group or individual, sharing and editing documents and more.

Slack integrates easily with third-party apps such as Google Drive, Salesforce, Zendesk, GitHub, Asana, and allows custom integrations with Slack API, that are specific to your firm, such as Statsbot to view how your quarterly goals are going outside to just your Analytics team, Twitter to show user’s response to your brand to your whole company and not just your marketing teams, and you get the idea.

Pros

Bots are very useful

User-Friendly

Doesn’t compromise fun

Cons

Notifications

Gets very expensive as the company grows

Messy searching system

See Pricing here

Asana

Asana is a work management app that allows tracking of your projects at your convenience. It even updates you of your team member’s tasks. You can add to-dos, reminders, ideas & requests, project folders, boards and lists with due dates, followers, files, and task clarification through commenting and questioning. 

Similar to Slack, Asana integrates with your everyday apps, such as WordPress, Google Drive, Harvest, Evernote, timely, and many more. And, it offers API for custom integrations. 

Changes made in Asana synchronize across platforms, including the web app. Asana mobile app works offline, any alteration syncs when you’re back online. 

Pros

User-Friendly

Customizable 

Free comes with useful features

Cons

Limited Features

Limited customer support

Reporting 

See Pricing here.

Zoom

Zoom is one of the most popular video-conferencing apps among pros. Whether you are working from a spare bedroom, coffee shop, library or the lobby, Zoom offers tons of features to help you tackle the work-from-home scenario like a pro. 

You may not get enough bandwidth compared to your office due to Netflix and, chill, Zoom app is optimized to work efficiently in such conditions. Some features that pros use are Virtual backgrounds, sending you to a beach from the comfort of your home, Space-bar to unmute, screen sharing, real-time annotation over content, and more. 

Zoom recently partnered with Otter Live Notes(link), which will allow transcript calls in real-time(learn more about it here). Similar to the apps above, Zoom integrates with Gmail, Evernote, Salesforce, and many more, amore…

Pros

Free plan enough for small businesses

Works with or without Zoom account

High-quality audio and video

Cons

The time limit in Meeting in Free plan

Not ideal for sharing highly-sensitive information

See Pricing here.

Clockify

Good organizations keep track of their employees’ activities during working hours. Under remote conditions, Clockify helps track and monitors the time spent by a remote worker on a specific task, site or app, tracking when they log in and log out, and also their attendance. Clockify enables workers to see their co-worker’s tasks. 

The app easily integrates with 50+ apps so you can track time within your apps to improve project management and increase productivity. It offers custom API integration too.

Pros

User-friendly 

Easy to learn

Free plan sufficient for most companies

Cons

No invoice generation function

Desktop app has more features

Lacks project management tools found in other software

See Pricing here.

GitHub

If you’re a developer then chances are you know about this app. GitHub is the place for companies and individuals to create and share their codes by pushing it on the site. The code can be shared to group members who can edit the code while commenting and communication ensue. As of right now, there are 40 million developers in GitHub. 

GitHub has also decided to raise off its price plans on all of its core features, including for those with free accounts. 

Pros

Broadens social aspect of programming

GitHub’s core features are now Free

Industry-standard Auditing/Collaboration tools

Cons

Lacks first-party support for mobile (no app component)

Searching is good but not great

Conflict management could be improved.

See Pricing here.

Zapier

Zapier is an automation tool that can save you lots of time so you can focus more on important tasks. Such an example: You can automate an attachment you get in Gmail to upload in Dropbox and notify you on Slack when done. The app is a master at connecting a plethora of platforms to work for you.

Pros

Powerful automation app

Supports multiple platforms

Routes information between platforms

Cons

We couldn’t get some zaps to work consistently.

Limited triggers in some integrations

Not too simple to log errors for improvement.

See Pricing here.

Zappy, A Subsidiary of Zapier

The default screenshot tool that comes with macOS is great, Zappy takes it one step ahead. Zappy is a fast screenshot tool that makes communication easier with screen capturing as images, Gifs, and recordings, and on the spot annotations in a few clicks.

[dorotazabawa-blog]

Christmas can easily become a pricey time of year. Buy all the kids something fun, get a new outfit for Christmas day – not to mention the groceries for Christmas dinner! In the moment, free Christmas cards online might seem like the easiest option but Christmas cards are so much better left to the professionals, and we’re about to tell you why.

  Less fuss

Do you remember the days of messing around with Microsoft Word Christmas templates? You found the least cringe-worthy Christmas party clipart and Christmas Word templates and put together something that was at least better than your handwriting – marginally. Apart from the fact that an old school Christmas card template from Word now looks incredibly dated, free Christmas templates for Word are never fuss-free. During a busy holiday season, why not ditch the Christmas templates for Word and embrace a truly stress free option?

Shopping online with a trusted vendor like Paperlust means you are only a few convenient clicks away from a designer invitation or greeting card that you can personalise to your taste. The template is already put together and formatted correctly. All you have to do is plug in the correct information and our designers will make sure it looks ace. You can even customise a design from your phone and one of our copywriters will make edits for you within a couple of days.

  DIY ‘inspired’ – without all the papercuts

Everyone likes the idea of homemade xmas cards. We get it – they have that cosy handmade feel just like your Auntie Elsie used to create. Home made Christmas cards speak of extra effort, making your recipients feel truly special. Searching for Christmas cards to make at home can be rewarding if you have the time and know-how, but while there certainly are elegant homemade Christmas cards, often the end result is not the same as our glorious mental picture. What if there was a way to get the DIY look (the perfect one you imagined) without actually having to waste your time and get your hands dirty? If you love the intimacy of hand made Christmas cards, browse our calligraphy and watercolour styles. We understand that you’re busy, so trust the pros to deliver you the best of both worlds this Christmas.

  More personal than free Christmas e cards

Despite what people may say, Christmas greetings emails still carry a stigma. While a free Christmas email template or free xmas cards for Facebook may seem quick and easy, the effect is similar to sending a bulk xmas email. In other words, they don’t make people feel very special. The difference between putting little time and effort into Christmas email templates versus customising a design online with Paperlust is that with emails, your friends and family know. Make a first class impression with a professionally designed card that in reality took very little elbow grease. All you have to do is plug in your details and we make sure your design looks fab and is ready to go. Christmas ecards can’t even compare when it comes to look and quality!

  The pitfalls of printing at home

Print at home invitations seem like a great idea. You save money, it can be a fun holiday activity with the kids and you end up with a great personal touch. While searching how to print cards and trying to find Christmas templates to print, you may quickly realise that a free printable Christmas card might not be as simple as it sounds. Whether it’s a free printable Christmas template, a ready made Christmas card printable or a search for ‘Christmas invitation templates free printable’, all of these options require more than they seem to at a glance.

Printable Christmas cards templates are often tacky, leaving you with limited options. Merry Christmas cards, printable or otherwise, aren’t very jolly printed in monochrome so you’ll need to make sure your printer is equipped with the correct inks to print in colour. Your free online printable template will take time to edit, print and put into envelopes (as well as address and send). Finding free Christmas cards to print will seem great – until you print 50 invitations with a spelling error. Choosing an established company means that professional designers have your back so your card or invitation looks great and reads perfectly.

  Is free really free?

A free Christmas printable invite, free online invites or a free Christmas letter template sounds great. You get exactly what you want at no cost … right? The problem with free anything is that free usually doesn’t mean free. Whether you want to go themed, you still have to pay for printing costs, which can get expensive, especially if you have to redo anything because of a mistake. Free Christmas backgrounds or Christmas party flyer templates found for free can be surrounded by hidden costs that belie the name. If you want stress free Christmas flyer templates, customise one of our designs with Paperlust obligation free and find the one you like. Every design is checked by one of our professionals and if a mistake is made in printing, we wear the cost, not you. Your friends will be able to tell the difference between an invitation where you’ve hastily tracked down Christmas backgrounds free online and a professional design and print job. In the end, classy and free don’t usually appear in the same sentence.

  Classy Aussie vibes

Australian Christmas ecards sent out en mass, complete with Australian christmas clip art images you got free on your computer, is still a common form of Christmas greeting, though not the best way to strike an elegant note. But if you’re ready to turn away from free xmas ecards Australia, you can discover the stress free Australian Christmas cards that Paperlust have to offer. First find the design you like and then customise the wording with our online design tool without any obligations. Once you love what you’ve created, securely checkout with the peace of mind that comes from our satisfaction guarantee. Australiana can be done so beautifully with the right team on the job.

  A risk-free Christmas card maker

We’ve all been sucked in by promises of free download Christmas invitation templates or a website with a Christmas card maker for free at some point or another. It seems great but the risk of downloading a virus is ever-present. You don’t need that kind of hassle during the holiday season! A truly stress free Christmas card maker to consider is Paperlust’s unique design tool and customisation process. Once you’ve narrowed it down to the invitation you love, whether one with Christmas card photos or a simple illustrated red and white affair, plug in your details and you’re good to go. We even offer complimentary envelopes. Pour all of your creativity and Xmas card making ideas into your design and create the vibe you want for your Christmas party. Choosing a professional vendor means you can avoid printing costs, viruses, internet scams and wasted time. A cheap online Christmas card generator can’t guarantee that.

  Not just invites: we take care of everything

For stress free editable Christmas menu templates, look no further than our site to help you plan the easiest Christmas dinner ever. We know you’re busy cooking away, so rather than having to go the DIY route with a Christmas menu template you found free online or free Christmas menu templates that may have been ripped off a designer, a complete and professional design is the best way to make your crazy Christmas season easier. Paperlust is more than just invites; use us for all of your Christmas stationery, including Christmas cards and Christmas menu templates free of stress.

  To sum up…

Gone are the days of being forced to choose between tacky and tackier options when shopping for Xmas cards online. Whether it’s a Christmas party poster, a sophisticated corporate Christmas dinner invite or a simple Christmas greeting card, Paperlust prides itself on elegant designs that will make your friends wonder where you shop. Browse our collections today to find something that’s right for you.

The post Christmas Invites: Why Choose the Pros Over DIY? appeared first on Paperlust.

[recentanimenews]

FEATURE: Celebrating Kiki's Delivery Service and the Art of Being a Girl Witch

On the 31st anniversary of Studio Ghibli’s Kiki’s Delivery Service debut, I revisited my old childhood classic. My love for Kiki well preceded my awareness of anime, much less any other depictions of witches in media. I was terrified of the evil witch The Wizard of Oz, but Kiki herself was ... different. The most compelling aspect of Kiki wasn’t her magic or eccentric talking cat — it was the way her fantastical life easily blended into casual, day-to-day life. If being a young witch meant anything, it meant being just as susceptible to being human as anyone else. No flying monkeys here.

  In anime, everything is usually bigger than life. Try remembering all the times a character loudly announces their attacks or performs a snazzy transformation sequence. Especially when it comes to fantasy. The magical girl genre, like the long-running Pretty Cure franchise, emphasize young girls with sparkly attacks and transformation. This is typically what people think of when they think of magic girls and anime, where boldness is the point. On the other end of the spectrum, you have an entirely different kind of magical girl: characters like Kiki, diligently studying to become a witch while shopping at local supermarkets and working part-time. If her life is just like ours, then what place does magic really have in a witch’s life — and what does that say about how anime depicts young witches in general?

  Kiki pleads with her mother to let her leave early for her training

  What Makes A Witch?

  Kiki’s Delivery Service begins with Kiki leaving home to begin her training, a family tradition for witches her age. However, it quickly becomes apparent that Kiki isn’t nearly as prepared as she thought she was: once she arrives in her city of choice, she begins running into hiccups familiar to any young person finally living independently. Finding work, a place to sleep, dealing with unruly cats, weird boys. But thankfully Kiki is passionate, and soon enough she starts a small business zooming around on her broom delivering packages door-to-door. It’s peaceful. But one day, Kiki’s magic doesn’t work. Full-stop. She’s unable to fly, much less to speak to her cat, Jiji. She’s stuck not just emotionally, but creatively.

  As a kid, I wasn’t quite sure what this actually meant. Why did she “forget” her magic? My first exposure to the movie was the '90s English dub, which infamously changed part of the original ending. In the 1989 Japanese release, Kiki is still unable to speak to Jiji after rescuing Tombo from the blimp crash. This suggests even though she regains her flying magic, Kiki has also grown-up beyond needing Jiji’s support. Instead, Kiki learns a different way of supporting herself: maturing her view on life as a capriciously creative endeavor. Kiki’s artist friend, a woman named Ursula, informs her that she’s experiencing “artist block” and she simply needs to focus on something else before returning to deliveries. She never “forgot” her magic — this was part of the witch training process all along.

    Kiki encounters another witch returning from training

  If you want to learn magic, you might fail. Even a teenage witch isn’t immune to growing pains.

  Recent series like Trigger’s 2017 Little Witch Academia and manga such as Kamome Shirahama’s 2016 Witch Hat Atelier share a similar message about witchdom. With all the excitement and discoveries to be made with magic, their young characters always end up returning to the same lessons about failure and growth. So, what makes stories about young witches so susceptible to this theme over and over again? Are flashy magical mistakes more fun to look at? Is the spectacle of blowing up a potion or flying on par with awkward adolescence? Do higher stakes make everything else seem quaint in comparison? Unsurprisingly, it’s a little bit of everything.

    Akko is shown up by her peers ready on broomstick

  Good Witch, Bad Witch

  Shirahama’s Witch Hat Atelier is about a young girl named Coco, who becomes fascinated with magic after receiving a grimoire from a masked witch. After learning all it takes to perform magic is ink and paper, Coco accidentally completes a spell that petrifies her mother. Realizing he could've stopped this, a visiting young magician takes her under his wing as a student, promising her that if she continues her studies she will be able to reverse the malignant spell. In this world, magic is as easy as good penmanship — as long as you can write well, you can ascend the magical world hierarchy. Of course, this secret must be heavily guarded and only those trusted enough are given this knowledge. A witch is only as good as the artisan tools she uses.

    Witch Hat Atelier by Kamome Shirahama, published by Kodansha Comics

  Witch Hat Atelier provides an alternative witch-ness compared to Kiki’s more subtle approach. In this world, young apprentices wear stereotypical pointy hats and use wands. In comparison, Kiki establishes that magic is primarily a domestic affair, less "wizarding world" and more scrubbing floors. Other series like Little Witch Academia emphasize a witch’s schooling — one step beyond Witch Hat Atelier by using an academy setting and depicting classroom hijinks not unlike high school anime. Between these three, what makes these depictions unique is how they place a girl witch on a spectrum from daily doldrums to prim and proper academic affairs.

  Akko attempts to earn her wings

  What makes a “good” witch in these different settings depends on how well they fit in. Would Kiki excel at Luna Nova Magical Academy? Maybe not. Would Akko be able to run her own delivery service? Maybe if she got flying down pat. This tension of “fitting in” is exactly the central conflict of Akko and Coco’s characters. Unlike Kiki, whose witch-ness is a family tradition, Akko willingly enrolls as a student with a non-magical background, and Coco becomes one by tragic irony. But despite being placed in magical institutions of learning, neither of them are especially studious. In fact, it doesn’t really seem to matter if a witch is an A-student or a slacker — rather than book smarts, what drives these girls are their raw, creative energies. In other words, they are artists.

    Kiki attempts to fly again in frustration

  A Different Kind of Magic

  When Kiki blunders a delivery and comes home to realize she can’t fly anymore, she’s devastated. There aren't any textbooks or grimoires to “teach” her how to fly again — Kiki’s Delivery Service heavily implies that magic is instinctual, never learned. Ursula, the painter, correctly diagnoses this as an artist's block, not because she only has her point of reference, but because she recognizes magic and painting as having the same goals: to bring something new into the world. Kiki, after all, only decides to move after learning she’s the only witch in town.

    Ursula shows Kiki the painting she's been working on

  Since Kiki’s debut, the depiction of witches in anime has dramatically evolved — doing magic isn’t simply a novelty, but a whole new way of accessing desire. Characters like Coco, who have no choice but to accept the witches’ hat, have a complicated relationship with magic. On one hand, learning magic is one of Coco’s dreams, but on the other, attempting to access it led to disastrous results. Popular series like Fullmetal Alchemist share the same warning that seeking certain knowledge may lead to dramatically different paths in life. Magic for an adolescent isn’t simply a practical tool, but a long process of inductions, trials, and major lifestyle changes. That magic being learned isn’t magic in itself — it’s learning to accept setbacks and make independent decisions.

    Kiki and Ursula hitchhiking

  Even series like Shaft’s 2011 Puella Magi Madoka Magica tease this idea of accessing magic as a means of accepting change. In cases like these, the “young witch girl” archetype and the “magical girl” flirt with each other to tell a far bigger story about responsibility and consequences. Madoka and Little Witch Academia respectively feature occult holidays like Walpurgisnacht and Samhain — and yet are incredibly different in how they channel witches. Wherever a witch falls on this spectrum, from fluffy slice of life to world-ending magical battles, she’s almost always guaranteed to have an incredibly personal, intense relationship to her powers. And if we’re lucky, that enchanting energy might rub off on our own creative lives, too. 

      Blake P. is a weekly columnist for Crunchyroll Features. He thinks Cats (the musical) deserves a proper anime adaptation. His twitter is @_dispossessed. His bylines include Fanbyte, VRV, Unwinnable, and more.

  Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[entergamingxp]

The Touryst is stunning – and one of the best Switch games of 2019 • Eurogamer.net

Quietly revealed in August, The Touryst from Shin’en Multimedia recently arrived on Nintendo Switch and quickly left a strong impression. With its voxelised design, smooth frame-rate and unique gameplay, it’s unlike anything the team has worked on to date – and I think it’s one of my favourite Switch releases of 2019. Beneath its stylised but relatively simplistic visual design lies one of the Switch’s most capable graphics engines – a game that basically never deviates from its target 60fps and never makes you wait more than a second. It’s fast, it’s beautiful and it’s worth checking out.

It’s the latest in a long line of technical showcases from Munich-based Shin’en Multimedia – ex-demo scene coders who’ve managed to extract phenomenal results from all Nintendo platforms, from Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance to Switch. Users of Nintendo’s latest machine may be familiar with Fast RMX – an updated version of Fast Racing Neo originally released for Wii U. Fast RMX offers a whole slew of modern effects and techniques at an unwavering 60 frames per second and despite being a launch title, it’s still gorgeous – and one of the best-looking games on Switch. The Touryst heads in a completely different direction, but it’s equally as impressive – if not more so.

So, what is the Touryst? At its core, this is an exploration-driven adventure game. It’s a game that has you traveling across various islands solving the mysteries below the surface. The concept is simple yet the execution is simply perfect. It’s never explicitly spelled out what you should do in each area but it’s so satisfying when everything clicks. Each island is a beautiful chunk with its own themes and concepts. Leysure Island is one of my favorites – it includes a range of shops to mess around with including a theatre, a music store selling songs from previous Shin’en games and an arcade with three original games.

At its core, all of this is driven by the team’s in-house engine. According to Shin’en’s Manfred Linzner, The Touryst uses a deferred renderer building on the work done for Fast RMX. In order to maintain a smooth frame-rate, the team has once again opted to use a dynamic resolution system. In docked mode, resolution can vary from a maximum of 1080p to slightly less than 50 per cent on both axes. Typically, outdoor areas average around 810p to around 900p while indoor areas stick closer to full 1080p in most cases. Portable mode uses the same technique, with a maximum resolution of 720p and 50 per cent of that on each axis for the lower bounds. It typically jumps between 612p and 720p in this mode.

The Touryst is beautiful in motion – as you can see in this full-blown DF analysis video.

The team has opted to avoid anti-aliasing as pixelated edges fit directly into the visual style. Because everything is presented as voxel shapes, hard edges wind up looking perfectly acceptable in this specific game. It’s clear that these choices were made as a result of the art direction. The engine is mostly deferred but certain effects are forward rendered – that was a choice made that allows for a range of optimisations and increased artistic freedom during development.

Perhaps the most unusual visual element centres on the voxelized nature of the world. The Touryst still uses triangles as its primitive of choice but the way in which the models are created is fascinating. Essentially, the team uses a program known as MagicaVoxel – an 8-bit voxel editor and renderer. I took at a look at the tool myself and it’s possible to rapidly carve out and create unique designs. It’s a fun tool to use and Shin’ens designs are often beautiful to behold – enhanced via Maya and converted into a format compatible with the game engine.

While the overall look is relatively simple, environments still look rich and detailed. Elements like grass, flowers, rocks and animals are placed into the game world. To save on space, these are generated procedurally saving time and space. This ties directly into both loading and file size. The Touryst occupies just 231MB of storage, and almost completely free of loading screens. Traveling between islands and screens is nearly instantaneous. Even the bootup sequence is ridiculously fast. Compared to many of today’s releases, it’s a revelation!

Another key feature of The Touryst is its lighting. Everything is rendered internally in high dynamic range allowing improved contrast between bright and darker regions. Sub-surface scattering is also used on characters despite the abstract design. This is all combined with a strong depth of field effect which lends the action something similar to a tilt-shift appearance. Basically, Shin’en has managed to create a hybrid of stylised designs, as viewed through a more realistic lens, and embellished with a wealth of dynamic light sources.

Over 650,000 measured frames, The Touryst dropped just three. It’s as close to a fully locked 60fps as you get in video games.

Beyond this, I’m a big fan of the material choices. The Touryst omits any sort surface filtering, lending the game a pixelated aesthetic which I think suits the voxelised design. It’s especially effective on the often complex scenery – where a rocky wall can be made up of many different voxel points. It’s quite striking.

I also wanted to emphasise the brilliant mini arcade games included in The Touryst. Firstly, outside the arcade is a character who offers you money if you can beat his high score on all three games. This gives these mini-games a purpose beyond simply toying around – and beating those scores requires mastery of each game.

The most impressive of the three is Fast – an homage to Fast RMX and its prequels – and designed to simulate the look of classic Super Scaler arcade games. The mechanics are surprisingly solid and it’s addictive trying to beat the high score. The machine also uses a shader designed to simulate an old arcade monitor though, for my money, it goes a bit too far – a good CRT appears much sharper and cleaner than this. There’s always the sense the Shin’en go the extra mile. Here, the developer used a music program designed to simulate the sound of older retro hardware – so even the music on these mini-games sounds highly authentic.

The next game involves collecting sticks of dynamite in order while avoiding enemies or gobbling them up with a power pellet. It’s basically Pac-Man meets Jetpac and it’s pretty good fun. Lastly there’s an Arkanoid style block breaker game with a few interesting twists. Outside of the arcade games, however, the general sound design is also wonderful. The Touryst features proper surround sound, unlike many Switch games, and delivers a strong soundtrack with a mix of atmospheric music and more upbeat tracks. I love it.

And mobile performance is just as silky-smooth as it is in docked mode.

To re-cap then: the Touryst looks unique and wonderful, requires very little space on your Switch and loads-up almost instantly and features little to no additional loading screens. There’s a real sense of polish here that extends into game performance – one of Shin’en’s specialities. 60 frames per second locked has long been a focus for the studio with nearly every game it has deeloped running at this frame-rate. The Touryst follows suit: it aims to deliver 60 frames per second and it rarely falters. It’s one of the most stable games of the generation and it’s absolutely on par with the best that Nintendo itself has to offer.

This remains the case whether you play the game docked or in mobile mode – and it’s safe to say that situations like this are rare and interesting. We’ve recently upgraded our frame-rate test workflow to carry out the analysis as we capture the footage (as opposed to capturing, importing, and exporting). It improves the quality and quantity of our data and in the case of the Touryst, we have over three hours of capture analysted. Over 650,000 frames rendered and just three isolated frame-drops over the entire duration.

Shin’en has always been a studio that gets the best out of the target hardware but The Touryst pushes this ethos further than before – I genuinely think this is the best game the studio has made to date and the first to really deliver its own memorable, unique atmosphere. As you visit each island, it’s never immediately clear how you will achieve your goal or what the goals even are but due to the small scale of each island, it’s very satisfying to poke at the game until you start to understand what you must do. It’s nowhere near as abstract as something like Fez but it taps into that same sense of wonder and exploration.

For me then, The Touryst has become quite the surprise – it’s weirdly engaging and fun to play in a way that I didn’t fully expect. Even if you don’t think it’ll appeal to you, I’d urge you to find some way of checking it out. For me, this really is one of the best Switch releases of the year.

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2019/12/the-touryst-is-stunning-and-one-of-the-best-switch-games-of-2019-%e2%80%a2-eurogamer-net/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-touryst-is-stunning-and-one-of-the-best-switch-games-of-2019-%25e2%2580%25a2-eurogamer-net

[fortniteshop3486-blog]

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[zipgrowth]

The 2019 EdSurde Annual Special: Edtech April Fool’s News That Should Stay Fake

Congratulations for making it through the first quarter of 2019! The reward that awaits: Our fine annual tradition of hijinks and horseplay, exaggerations and extrapolations, and all the absurdities not fit for print on any day other than April 1.

We’re not the only ones getting in on the fun. Chegg’s chalked up an excuse-generator to help you weasel out of doing homework, taking tests—just about anything. Duolingo is taking the idea of “push” notifications to a whole new, literal (physical?) level.

Happy April Fool’s. Now, let’s get EdSurde.

WONDERFUL WORLD OF CURRICULUM: Somehow still hungry for more content after acquiring 21st Century Fox, Disney has stooped to gobbling educational publishers to add to its ever-expanding empire Magic Kingdom. As early as Monday morning, students posted photos of word problems asking how many oranges Mickey Mouse has left after Donald Duck absconded with some, and how quickly Spider-Man would meet Homer Simpson if Spidey started swinging from Manhattan at noon and Homer’s Springfield train left the same time going 70 miles per hour.

BACK TO THE FUTURE: Weary of unwanted scrutiny, companies that once described themselves as the “Facebook of education” are now scrambling to disassociate themselves from the beleaguered social network. Public relations firms want to tap into our nostalgic past. Currently up for grabs: Angelfire for Tutors. Geocities for Test Prep. Friendster for Learning. Myspace for Math. (Somewhere, everyone’s-first-friend Tom is smiling.)

HAPPY MEALS, PERSONALIZED: McDonald’s just acquired an AI tech company to personalize the drive-thru experience. Why stop there? Chief Mascot Ronald confided with EdSurge that it is considering integrating that technology with school information systems to tweak Happy Meals based on how well children do in school. Good grades get kids hot nuggets, fries and toys. Being naughty nets a soggy McFlurry.

Coming soon: Naughty Meals

DAZED AND CONFUSED: No idea what personalized learning is? Neither do we! Join us today for the first annual CONFUSION conference featuring vague, stab-in-the-dark definitions and more questions than answers. All attendees are guaranteed to leave with less of an idea of what personalized learning is than when they came. And don’t miss special keynote guest Ashton Kutcher. See you there!

BRAT BOT: Colleges are increasingly turning to chatbots to help students navigate questions around areas such as financial aid or campus events. But some administrators say the tool feels impersonal and, well, robotic. One company is responding with a new approach. Meet Brat Bot, a sassy campus chatbot that isn’t afraid to chastise students for obvious questions. Where’s the dining hall? “Don’t you have Google Maps?” Can I turn the FAFSA in late? “Get real.”

SNEAK PEEK! A stealth San Francisco-based edtech startup offered a glimpse of a “revolutionary” new product. It’s made of organic materials, and lets students move at their own pace. A secret, patented technology reduces eye strain. And it uses the latest in kinesthetic research to get learners engaged physically, through flicks of their fingers and wrists. Did we say it’s also tactile? The company insists it’s not just selling print textbooks.

WHOLE CHILD CUTS: Budget constraints have forced school districts across the country to make difficult cuts to whole-child education programs, leaving many school leaders scrambling to decide which parts are more or less important. Left brain or right brain? The eyes or the ears? The femur or the fingers? For many, the decision may require divine intervention like that in the Judgment of Solomon.

The world’s first whole-child dilemma. (Source: Wikipedia)

HACKED AND HAPPY ABOUT IT: Local authorities investigating the recent data breach in a district’s payroll system announced a breakthrough in the case today. Rather than funneling funds out of teachers’ bank accounts, as was initially suspected, the hackers appear to have deposited $314,159 in the accounts of each math teacher on the payroll. The sum is consistent with the first six digits of π (Pi). Authorities have closed the investigation, and a source close to the math department says the teachers are being simply “irrational” about the number.

AUGMENTED ANGUISH: Augmented reality (AR) has been lauded for its ability to enhance students’ learning experiences. But what can it do for teachers? Don a Wistful Thinking headset and take a walk around the classroom, and you’ll see all sorts of digital delights superimposed on your environment. Brand new iPad Pros on every desk, classroom supplies you didn’t have to pay for, and a thicker paycheck (that didn’t require a week-long strike) are just some of the sensory features offered in this new AR headset. Side effects, the manufacturer warns, include dejection and depression once the headset is removed.

LIFELONG LABORING: If learning shouldn’t stop at age 25, or 65, or ever, why should work? That’s the argument put forth in a new paper which posits that the future of work … will forever be more work. Learning and laboring should extend beyond life as well, it argues. Developments on the horizon include the ability for cryogenically frozen humans to absorb knowledge through “learning fluids,” and a way to convert dead tissues into renewable energy drinks to help your fellow humans work harder.

The future of life and lifelong learning

A NEW DEAL: Sen. Kamala Harris’s bold plan to boost the average American teacher’s salary by $13,500 has hit a snag around funding issues. Among her ideas for Plan B: give every school district an iPad for each student. A senior official at Los Angeles Unified School District has already issued a statement: “Wait. Not this again.”

BECAUSE WE NEED MORE LETTERS: First there was STEM. Then someone decided that science, technology, engineering and math were not enough, and so added an ‘A’ for arts to make STEAM. Still unsatisfied, someone else demanded an ‘R,’ giving us STREAM education: science, technology, reading, engineering, arts and math. (Hey people, that’s called school.)

UNBUNDLING THE ALUMNI NETWORK: Mark Zuckerberg famously dropped out of Harvard, but he clearly benefited from people he met during his brief time there. (His roommate was an early employee). So why not make dropping out of college the plan? A new startup, DegreeLite provides an online network for those who have done a year or two at a highly-selective school but didn’t bother finishing. Members trade opportunities, connections and job listings for a hefty membership fee of $4,000 per year. As the company’s founder said in a statement, “These days, networks matter more than degrees, so why not focus on the networking?”

MALL OF ACADEMIA: With the retail sector increasingly under stress and colleges looking to cut costs, higher education may soon become the new anchor of your local shopping mall. Plans are underway to convert Westfields and similar complexes into classrooms and faculty offices, which college officials say come at cut rates compared with their stone buildings on leafy quads. Turf wars are already brewing between departments over who gets to take over the former Brookstone. No one’s itching for the Abercrombie & Fitch space, due to the lingering cologne smell.

Site of your future Biology 101 class. The 2019 EdSurde Annual Special: Edtech April Fool’s News That Should Stay Fake published first on https://medium.com/@GetNewDLBusiness

[cellerityweb]

Fox N Forests – A Blast from the Past

With their colorful platformer FOX n FORESTS, Bonus Level Entertainment intend to revive the 16-bit era and at the same time build a »pixel pipeline« to be able to produce games of various genres with a pixel look more effectively and quickly – assembly line nostalgia at its best.

Those who remember classics like »Super Ghouls’n Ghosts« or »Wonder Boy in Monster Land«, will know immediately which kind of games inspired us to develop »FOX n FORESTS«. FOX n FORESTS wants to revive the 16-bit era and add many additional elements; not only from the games just mentioned, but also from classic series like Mario, Sonic and Zelda. FOX n FORESTS is a modern 2D action platformer in a 16-bit look with role-playing and puzzle elements as well as a core mechanic linked to them, giving the player seamless control of the seasons by the press of a button. The whole thing is rounded off by a fun story in the style of a fable.

Successful Kickstarter

FOX n FORESTS’ Game Director Rupert Ochsner and Executive Producer Holger Kuchling founded the studio Bonus Level Entertainment in 2016. Together with Independent Arts Software from the German town of Hamm as well as talented freelancers from all over Europe, the company intends to revive the heyday of 16-bit games. For this reason, the developers already think beyond FOX n FORESTS and plan to build their so-called »pixel pipeline« consisting of structures that allow the studio to effectively turn a series of ideas and genres into high-quality software in pixel-style. To get their idea going, the team consisting of long-time programmers and artists ran a successful Kickstarter campaign for FOX n FORESTS, which earned them as much as 107,875 euros in August 2016, clearly exceeding the targeted amount of 95,000 euros.

New interpretation of the  16-bit look and feel

The core mechanic and basic idea of the game is the change of the seasons, which is seamlessly integrated into the gameplay. Apart from close combat and ranged attacks, protagonist Rick the Fox is also able to manipulate the seasons from moment to moment in each level. With the press of a button the player switches from spring to fall, from summer to winter etc., depending on the level. But as enthusiastic as the team was about this special feature, they thought hard about how to transfer the 16-bit look and feel to today’s time. The requirements were clear from the start: Nostalgia, yes, but in combination with modern game design. So, they made sure to exactly imitate the color range of the Super Nintendo and also to adjust the sound to the technical limitations of the 16-bit machine; however, elements like the then predominant ratio of 4:3 had to be discarded; FOX n FORESTS will feature a 16:9 look. There were a lot of other factors which required attention, especially in terms of game design, look & feel and technology.

Game design

If you take a look at the development of the gaming genres since the rise of the 16-bit consoles, you can spot one trend across all genres: A lot of games feature RPG elements, no matter whether platformers, racing games, action-adventures or shooters. Even sports games today include complex career modes. This development is comprehensible since the elements mentioned are a great asset for most of the games as they generate additional depth and, above all, long-time motivation.

This depth can also be found in FOX n FORESTS. The developers have integrated a currency system and created a hub area which offers various shops and where you can learn new moves, find hidden bottles and fill them with potions as well as expand your life and magic meters. As a further adjustment to modern gaming behavior, the classic »Game over« was discarded. The backtracking embedded in the game concept is entertaining and integrated in a contemporary fashion, and the so-called »reward system«, too, follows a modern approach. Ideally, the players are to be rewarded for every single minute they spend with FOX n FORESTS. These rewards include the integration of a number of super secrets, well-hidden secret paths and hard-to-unlock bonus levels. On top of all this, the game still also caters to passionate core gamers who are looking for a real challenge.

Bonus Level Entertainment have a special passion for the 16-bit era. FOX n FORESTS is only one of many planned games in a number of different genres.

Despite all kinds of modernization measures, the retro character is kept up in a lot of other situations, for example through the use of cheat codes which you can unlock via gamepad input in the main menu, or via classic »mode 7« effects (a texture-mapping mode of the Super NES console and the Game Boy Advance handheld, which allows to rotate and scale a background level, among other things), a feature most players will still remember from Super Nintendo.

In order to achieve the aspired fast platformer gameplay in the style of »Mega Man« or »Castlevania« without restraining the change of seasons, the team decided during the pre-production phase to switch between two pre-defined rather than four possible seasons per level. This allows for a number of creative possibilities without causing a »trial and error« feeling in the gamer. The result: The player doesn’t have to stand in one spot for too long and go through all sorts of decision options, but seamlessly integrates the change of seasons in his game. Obviously, there are still a few puzzles, but it’s now more about finding them than taking ages to solve them.

In one world you can change from spring to winter, in another one you can switch from spring to fall or from winter to summer. Water will freeze and thus become passable, fog will clear, wind will blow, rain will put out flames, etc. Animals, too, are affected by the change of seasons: Aggressive wasps sleep in winter, while vigilant crows rather hatch their eggs in spring. So, there are a lot of secrets to uncover, skill tasks to complete, and hidden paths to be found without affecting the fast gameplay experience in a negative way.

Look and feel

One of the basic questions arising from the decision to imitate 16-bit consoles was: »Super Nintendo or Mega Drive?«. The choice was quickly made in favor of the Nintendo console since the graphic possibilities offered more freedom compared to the competition from Sega – apart from the processor. This factor is irrelevant though in case of today’s platforms. Apart from a few exceptions, the team strictly sticks to the requirements of the time back then, like the number of animation frames, the maximum number of color ranges or the customary sprite sizes. So, there are legitimate reasons why the boss enemies in FOX n FORESTs were deliberately animated less smoothly than, e.g., standard opponents. A similar decision was made with regard to the sound: Unlike the Mega Drive sound chip, which was set up like an autonomous synthesizer, Nintendo used soundbanks for the Super Nintendo, which could be fed with imported sounds. Plus, the number of the simultaneously useable soundbanks was limited. Since the team experienced the 16-bit era to a large part also from a professional point of view, it’s actually possible to achieve this level of authenticity.

The targeted change of the four seasons is not only a neat effect, but the core mechanic of the platformer.

For this reason, we also made sure to include a lot of references and easter eggs. One of these elements is the level »Foggy Fable«, which pays homage to the »Ghosts ‘n Goblins« series. Hence, it’s no question why the first chest was placed on the left at the start of the level!

Technology

Apart from the adjustments to today’s standards like the 16:9 widescreen format and a comfortable save game system, technology and programming mainly focused on sustainability and flexibility. This approach was enabled by building the so-called »pixel pipeline«.

The pixel pipeline

For us at Bonus Level Entertainment, the pixel pipeline is more than just a tool chain. In fact, it includes the complete process and structures required to develop creative and diverse 16-bit games as efficiently as possible. FOX n FORESTS is not only a creative dream come true, but also a means to an end – a basis to establish and hone required workflows.

The engine

This decision was accompanied by the essential question about which engine to use. Bonus Level Entertainment works with Unity 5, not only because Unity is supported by all current platforms – be it PC, console or mobile. Apart from the comparably easy port to other systems, it was the long-term experience of the team, the large Unity community and a number of useful tools and plug-ins which led to this decision. For example, there are a large number of competent and especially affordable »engines« for Unity, which can already be used as a solid basis for the development of a platformer, shooter or RPG. You can then build on this basis, without having to develop or program every single essential mechanic from scratch. The tool chain, which was developed thanks to and with FOX n FORESTS, and the flexibility of the joint development between Bonus Level Entertainment, Independent Arts Software and talented freelancers provides the possibility to develop games in a 16-bit style not only efficiently but, above all, simultaneously, thus optimizing quality, time management and budget planning.

The pixel pipeline is therefore not only of a technical, but also of an organizational nature. Once the graphics for a game have been finalized, the respective team members can already start with the pre-production for the next project. The game and level design work similarly. Both are closely linked at Bonus Level Entertainment. Other areas like the sound are outsourced though and processed by freelancers to guarantee economic flexibility.

What comes after FOX n FORESTS?

In addition to a potential successor of FOX n FORESTS there are also plans for a shooter in the style of »Gradius«, »Axelay« or »Super Aleste«. An action-adventure similar to »The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past« is also possible. Thanks to the pixel pipeline, all of these elements were already considered during the production of FOX n FORESTS, which is also clearly visible: FOX n FORESTS contains two shooter levels, which not only exist to add some variety to the gameplay, but also to provide for useful empirical values for future ideas. The RPG elements of the game have similar functions.

From the start, the entire development environment was set up to be able to consider various genres, so the motto of Bonus Level Entertainment – »Reinventing 16 Bit« – could be put into practice as efficiently as possible.

About the Author

    Rupert Ochsner

is Co-Founder, CEO and Game Director at Bonus Level Entertainment

After jobs at Independent Software Arts, Beta Film and Deep Silver, Rupert founded the Munich-based studio Bonus Level Entertainment together with Holger Kuchling (image below). The CEO and Co-Founder is currently working as Game Director on the pixel platformer FOX n FORESTS. Prior to that, the Austrian-born used to work on a number of notable titles like Saints Row, Sacred und Risen.

Twitter: @FOXnFORESTS

  The post Fox N Forests – A Blast from the Past appeared first on Making Games.

Fox N Forests – A Blast from the Past published first on https://thetruthspypage.tumblr.com/

[patricktrimble]

Berliner Weisse Recipe: 4 Ways to Sour a Berliner Weisse

If you want a delectable alcoholic beverage that’s surprisingly low in alcohol, wonderfully tart, and often served with flavored syrup like raspberry, then a Berliner Weisse is right for you. It’s the perfect harmony between yeast and lactic acid, giving it a distinct pale color and cloudy appearance (since the beers come to you in unfiltered goodness). It’s an awesome drink for parties or a relaxing evening in for most Germans.

No wonder it’s making headway in the US, where many homebrewers and bigshots alike are adding traditional and exotic fruit to recipes. Its flavor is striking and bold, with colors that can liven up any festivity. You really do get a different experience drinking a Berliner Weisse.

Bitterness, alcohol, and residual sugar are very low, allowing the beer’s acidity, white bread, and graham cracker malt flavors to shine. Carbonation is very high, adding to the refreshment factor this style delivers.

It’s best paired with aged ham on pretzel bread (for a very German feel), havarti cheese, or cheesecake with raspberries. Alternatively, just drink it by itself since this beer is awesome on its own.

It’s the mix of lactic acid that creates the refreshing and interesting sourness. Yes, sour beer! It may not sound great, but it is. But how do you get this flavor when homebrewing beers? Here are the top four ways to sour your next batch of Berliner Weisse beer.

1. Addition of Lactic Acid

Go straight for the source of that lactic acid-caused taste by adding lactic acid to your wort during homebrew. You can buy an strong lactic acid solution at your local homebrew shop or online.

Doing this is the best way to be sure you remain in control of the sour beer you’ll taste in your beer and you’ll be certain the sour profile won’t change throughout the brewing process or once the beer makes it to the shelf. It’ll taste the same throughout.

However, as stated in the book Brewing Classic Styles, most of the time, using the lactic acid solution method is akin to microwaving a steak instead of grilling it. Microwaving is easier and faster, but reduces the complexity and enjoyability of flavor in the final result. By using a lactic acid solution, you might make a harsh, medicinal flavor that lacks depth.

Sometimes, you could have a fantastic experience and you can’t tell the difference between your beer and an expensive one in a German pub. Who knows? Try it if you want to, but just note the possibility of outcomes.

2. Add Sourness by Corrupting Wort With Grain

Found naturally in the majority of brewing grains is a microbe that can add sourness to your beer. The microorganism in question is Lactobacillus, which will produce lactic acid during fermentation as the name suggests.

To use it to sour your Berliner weisse, use milled base malt and drop it into your mash or wort. Allow that mixture to sit with the grains at 100°F (37.8°C) for one to two days, which will be plenty of time to allow will the bacteria to develop. After that’s done, boil the wort to kill of the bacteria and prevent the beer from getting progessively more sour.

Using this method will create a more interesting tartness profile compared to a Berliner weisse made with the previous method. The only con is that there’s a more risk and variables involved in this method and other characteristics, including off flavors will turn out, especially if it’s your first time using this technique. Your Berliner weisse could be great or not so much. It all depends on mastering the art of homebrew with this particular bacteria.

3. Pitch a Lactobacillus delbrueckii Culture

Another bacterium to utilize for souring beer and it’s often offered in most homebrew shops or online stores. Just pitch it into your wort as you add in yeast for fermentation and you’re set. You’d still ferment yeast, of course, just include the bacterium culture to add a sour character to your brew.

This technique is quite stable in comparison with the grain technique above, but, if you turn the scrumptious Berliner weisse this method could have similar negative repercussions. By using a culture like this your flavor will slowly develop, which can be what you want or not and can also allow you the time to halt the development of unwanted characteristics. However, you’re probably not going to wait to consume your Berliner weisse after making it anyway.

4. Blend with “Acid Beer” (not as fun as you’re thinking)

If a beer is super strong and tastes like battery acid, then you’d call it an “acid beer.” Alone, an acid beer might be too strong for even the heartiest sour enthusiasts, but it can be a great tool to help sour your non-tart Berliner weisse. However, to do this you’ll need an incredibly acidic Berliner weisse, which you can be made with any of the methods described above.

Once you’ve fermented your Berliner weisse, blend in the acid beer a little at a time until you’ve reached your desired sour level.

Potential problems that can arise:

Sometimes, your homebrewed Berliner weisse can taste like the water drained out of a can of cooked corn. Not fun. This can indicate a large amount of dimethyl sulfide, or DMS, in your beer.

Malt naturally contains a flavorless chemical called SMM, which stands for S-MethylMethionine. When heated, the SMM is converted to DMS, which tastes slightly sweet, like cooked corn. DMS is volatile which means that it evaporates from a beer easily when heated, such as during a rolling boil. SMM levels are very much present in lightly baked malts like pilsner malt or other base malts, making them likely to the produce DMS and making it necessary to boil for longer (generally 90–120 minutes) to rid the beer of off flavors.

So, hopefully you don’t spend all that time and money making a Berliner weisse only to have it tasting like cooked corn water. However, if it does, you know the reason and method to stop it.

You’ve just read four of the best ways to sour your next batch of Berliner weisse. All the methods are easy to implement in the brewing process and shouldn’t take too much out of your day or wallet to use. Give it a go next time you want to sour your Berliner weisse. And, hey, maybe add some different syrups and flavorings to make the sourness extra unique. Your next cold one awaits you.

Source: http://www.thebrewerscircle.com/berliner-weisse-recipe/

[aliciamyer1]

Berliner Weisse Recipe: 4 Ways to Sour a Berliner Weisse

If you want a delectable alcoholic beverage that’s surprisingly low in alcohol, wonderfully tart, and often served with flavored syrup like raspberry, then a Berliner Weisse is right for you. It’s the perfect harmony between yeast and lactic acid, giving it a distinct pale color and cloudy appearance (since the beers come to you in unfiltered goodness). It’s an awesome drink for parties or a relaxing evening in for most Germans.

No wonder it’s making headway in the US, where many homebrewers and bigshots alike are adding traditional and exotic fruit to recipes. Its flavor is striking and bold, with colors that can liven up any festivity. You really do get a different experience drinking a Berliner Weisse.

Bitterness, alcohol, and residual sugar are very low, allowing the beer’s acidity, white bread, and graham cracker malt flavors to shine. Carbonation is very high, adding to the refreshment factor this style delivers.

It’s best paired with aged ham on pretzel bread (for a very German feel), havarti cheese, or cheesecake with raspberries. Alternatively, just drink it by itself since this beer is awesome on its own.

It’s the mix of lactic acid that creates the refreshing and interesting sourness. Yes, sour beer! It may not sound great, but it is. But how do you get this flavor when homebrewing beers? Here are the top four ways to sour your next batch of Berliner Weisse beer.

1. Addition of Lactic Acid

Go straight for the source of that lactic acid-caused taste by adding lactic acid to your wort during homebrew. You can buy an strong lactic acid solution at your local homebrew shop or online.

Doing this is the best way to be sure you remain in control of the sour beer you’ll taste in your beer and you’ll be certain the sour profile won’t change throughout the brewing process or once the beer makes it to the shelf. It’ll taste the same throughout.

However, as stated in the book Brewing Classic Styles, most of the time, using the lactic acid solution method is akin to microwaving a steak instead of grilling it. Microwaving is easier and faster, but reduces the complexity and enjoyability of flavor in the final result. By using a lactic acid solution, you might make a harsh, medicinal flavor that lacks depth.

Sometimes, you could have a fantastic experience and you can’t tell the difference between your beer and an expensive one in a German pub. Who knows? Try it if you want to, but just note the possibility of outcomes.

2. Add Sourness by Corrupting Wort With Grain

Found naturally in the majority of brewing grains is a microbe that can add sourness to your beer. The microorganism in question is Lactobacillus, which will produce lactic acid during fermentation as the name suggests.

To use it to sour your Berliner weisse, use milled base malt and drop it into your mash or wort. Allow that mixture to sit with the grains at 100°F (37.8°C) for one to two days, which will be plenty of time to allow will the bacteria to develop. After that’s done, boil the wort to kill of the bacteria and prevent the beer from getting progessively more sour.

Using this method will create a more interesting tartness profile compared to a Berliner weisse made with the previous method. The only con is that there’s a more risk and variables involved in this method and other characteristics, including off flavors will turn out, especially if it’s your first time using this technique. Your Berliner weisse could be great or not so much. It all depends on mastering the art of homebrew with this particular bacteria.

3. Pitch a Lactobacillus delbrueckii Culture

Another bacterium to utilize for souring beer and it’s often offered in most homebrew shops or online stores. Just pitch it into your wort as you add in yeast for fermentation and you’re set. You’d still ferment yeast, of course, just include the bacterium culture to add a sour character to your brew.

This technique is quite stable in comparison with the grain technique above, but, if you turn the scrumptious Berliner weisse this method could have similar negative repercussions. By using a culture like this your flavor will slowly develop, which can be what you want or not and can also allow you the time to halt the development of unwanted characteristics. However, you’re probably not going to wait to consume your Berliner weisse after making it anyway.

4. Blend with “Acid Beer” (not as fun as you’re thinking)

If a beer is super strong and tastes like battery acid, then you’d call it an “acid beer.” Alone, an acid beer might be too strong for even the heartiest sour enthusiasts, but it can be a great tool to help sour your non-tart Berliner weisse. However, to do this you’ll need an incredibly acidic Berliner weisse, which you can be made with any of the methods described above.

Once you’ve fermented your Berliner weisse, blend in the acid beer a little at a time until you’ve reached your desired sour level.

Potential problems that can arise:

Sometimes, your homebrewed Berliner weisse can taste like the water drained out of a can of cooked corn. Not fun. This can indicate a large amount of dimethyl sulfide, or DMS, in your beer.

Malt naturally contains a flavorless chemical called SMM, which stands for S-MethylMethionine. When heated, the SMM is converted to DMS, which tastes slightly sweet, like cooked corn. DMS is volatile which means that it evaporates from a beer easily when heated, such as during a rolling boil. SMM levels are very much present in lightly baked malts like pilsner malt or other base malts, making them likely to the produce DMS and making it necessary to boil for longer (generally 90–120 minutes) to rid the beer of off flavors.

So, hopefully you don’t spend all that time and money making a Berliner weisse only to have it tasting like cooked corn water. However, if it does, you know the reason and method to stop it.

You’ve just read four of the best ways to sour your next batch of Berliner weisse. All the methods are easy to implement in the brewing process and shouldn’t take too much out of your day or wallet to use. Give it a go next time you want to sour your Berliner weisse. And, hey, maybe add some different syrups and flavorings to make the sourness extra unique. Your next cold one awaits you.

Source: http://www.thebrewerscircle.com/berliner-weisse-recipe/

[thebrewerscircle]

Berliner Weisse Recipe: 4 Ways to Sour a Berliner Weisse

If you want a delectable alcoholic beverage that’s surprisingly low in alcohol, wonderfully tart, and often served with flavored syrup like raspberry, then a Berliner Weisse is right for you. It’s the perfect harmony between yeast and lactic acid, giving it a distinct pale color and cloudy appearance (since the beers come to you in unfiltered goodness). It’s an awesome drink for parties or a relaxing evening in for most Germans.

No wonder it’s making headway in the US, where many homebrewers and bigshots alike are adding traditional and exotic fruit to recipes. Its flavor is striking and bold, with colors that can liven up any festivity. You really do get a different experience drinking a Berliner Weisse.

Bitterness, alcohol, and residual sugar are very low, allowing the beer’s acidity, white bread, and graham cracker malt flavors to shine. Carbonation is very high, adding to the refreshment factor this style delivers.

It’s best paired with aged ham on pretzel bread (for a very German feel), havarti cheese, or cheesecake with raspberries. Alternatively, just drink it by itself since this beer is awesome on its own.

It’s the mix of lactic acid that creates the refreshing and interesting sourness. Yes, sour beer! It may not sound great, but it is. But how do you get this flavor when homebrewing beers? Here are the top four ways to sour your next batch of Berliner Weisse beer.

1. Addition of Lactic Acid

Go straight for the source of that lactic acid-caused taste by adding lactic acid to your wort during homebrew. You can buy an strong lactic acid solution at your local homebrew shop or online.

Doing this is the best way to be sure you remain in control of the sour beer you’ll taste in your beer and you’ll be certain the sour profile won’t change throughout the brewing process or once the beer makes it to the shelf. It’ll taste the same throughout.

However, as stated in the book Brewing Classic Styles, most of the time, using the lactic acid solution method is akin to microwaving a steak instead of grilling it. Microwaving is easier and faster, but reduces the complexity and enjoyability of flavor in the final result. By using a lactic acid solution, you might make a harsh, medicinal flavor that lacks depth.

Sometimes, you could have a fantastic experience and you can’t tell the difference between your beer and an expensive one in a German pub. Who knows? Try it if you want to, but just note the possibility of outcomes.

2. Add Sourness by Corrupting Wort With Grain

Found naturally in the majority of brewing grains is a microbe that can add sourness to your beer. The microorganism in question is Lactobacillus, which will produce lactic acid during fermentation as the name suggests.

To use it to sour your Berliner weisse, use milled base malt and drop it into your mash or wort. Allow that mixture to sit with the grains at 100°F (37.8°C) for one to two days, which will be plenty of time to allow will the bacteria to develop. After that’s done, boil the wort to kill of the bacteria and prevent the beer from getting progessively more sour.

Using this method will create a more interesting tartness profile compared to a Berliner weisse made with the previous method. The only con is that there’s a more risk and variables involved in this method and other characteristics, including off flavors will turn out, especially if it’s your first time using this technique. Your Berliner weisse could be great or not so much. It all depends on mastering the art of homebrew with this particular bacteria.

3. Pitch a Lactobacillus delbrueckii Culture

Another bacterium to utilize for souring beer and it’s often offered in most homebrew shops or online stores. Just pitch it into your wort as you add in yeast for fermentation and you’re set. You’d still ferment yeast, of course, just include the bacterium culture to add a sour character to your brew.

This technique is quite stable in comparison with the grain technique above, but, if you turn the scrumptious Berliner weisse this method could have similar negative repercussions. By using a culture like this your flavor will slowly develop, which can be what you want or not and can also allow you the time to halt the development of unwanted characteristics. However, you’re probably not going to wait to consume your Berliner weisse after making it anyway.

4. Blend with “Acid Beer” (not as fun as you’re thinking)

If a beer is super strong and tastes like battery acid, then you’d call it an “acid beer.” Alone, an acid beer might be too strong for even the heartiest sour enthusiasts, but it can be a great tool to help sour your non-tart Berliner weisse. However, to do this you’ll need an incredibly acidic Berliner weisse, which you can be made with any of the methods described above.

Once you’ve fermented your Berliner weisse, blend in the acid beer a little at a time until you’ve reached your desired sour level.

Potential problems that can arise:

Sometimes, your homebrewed Berliner weisse can taste like the water drained out of a can of cooked corn. Not fun. This can indicate a large amount of dimethyl sulfide, or DMS, in your beer.

Malt naturally contains a flavorless chemical called SMM, which stands for S-MethylMethionine. When heated, the SMM is converted to DMS, which tastes slightly sweet, like cooked corn. DMS is volatile which means that it evaporates from a beer easily when heated, such as during a rolling boil. SMM levels are very much present in lightly baked malts like pilsner malt or other base malts, making them likely to the produce DMS and making it necessary to boil for longer (generally 90–120 minutes) to rid the beer of off flavors.

So, hopefully you don’t spend all that time and money making a Berliner weisse only to have it tasting like cooked corn water. However, if it does, you know the reason and method to stop it.

You’ve just read four of the best ways to sour your next batch of Berliner weisse. All the methods are easy to implement in the brewing process and shouldn’t take too much out of your day or wallet to use. Give it a go next time you want to sour your Berliner weisse. And, hey, maybe add some different syrups and flavorings to make the sourness extra unique. Your next cold one awaits you.

Source: http://www.thebrewerscircle.com/berliner-weisse-recipe/