#he was very nice to have early on for exploration with his little air boost

[ipcearn]

Started wishing on Cyno today

At first I didn't want to, but then I did his test play and holy shit, he is so much fun??? I love him so much already

Sunk my 50 saved wishes into him, which did get me all the three boosted 4 stars, which coincidentally were all characters I was missing so far - now I am only missing Beidou and Gorou when it comes to the 4s (and now with Sayu home I have all Anemo characters released so far)

But no Cyno so far

I have the vague hope of maybe winning the 50/50 for once, but that seems unlikely

[allmoshnobrain]

𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐫

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

part 29 of 35 | masterpost

word count: 2563 | ao3 link | fic's playlist

I wasn't ready for any of that. The wounds from losing Dave were still too raw, to the point that acknowledging the desire I felt for James made my heart tighten with regret. What the hell was I thinking? I'd chosen Dave. And yet, he’d left me. What I wanted didn't mean shit in changing anything. How could I want anything from James when the very feeling I had for him had wrecked everything I held dear?

✦ summary: After reuniting with her friends, Nore is compelled to confront the conflicting feelings she still harbors for James.

✦ on this chapter: dave mustaine x female!oc, james hetfield x female! oc, oc is cliff's cousin, +18, language, slice of life, angst, love triangle

✦ a/n: Hello! I've talked about this previously on my blog, but as we're headed into the last stretch of the story, I would like everyone to know: while the next few chapters are gonna dive into James and Nore's feelings a bit more, Dave will be back! His story with Nore isn't over yet. Also, we'll have an epilogue that is still on the works. I've wrapped up the main part of the story and I'm hosting a poll to see if you guys prefer I keep posting new chapters once a week or if you're up for me posting them twice a week. If anyone wants to vote, here's the link. Hope you enjoyed the read, any feedback is welcome! 🖤

✧ There's something hanging in the air, I won't say shit 'cause I'm too scared / I'll just pretend we're two lovers not destroying each other / And you don't want me to go, and I just can't say no ✧

I met with Cliff and the guys at Los Angeles airport a few days later. I have to admit, the idea of reuniting with my friends after all those weeks left me a bit on edge, and not fully in a good way. However, catching up with Cliff and Leanne, and then with Kirk and Lars, did ease some of that tension. On the flip side, seeing Pat and James hanging out together didn't really help my state of mind. I couldn't help but wonder how, in just two months, they had become so close that she got an invitation to join the tour. Then it hit me with a pang in my heart that I hadn't needed much more than that to fall completely in love with Dave after meeting him.

I didn't really chat it up much with James. Seeing him with Pat kinda brought back all the wounds from that rainy weekend a few months back. But, he did give me a hug the moment he spotted me, holding onto me for maybe a beat longer than needed before whispering, his lips right by my ear:

"Missed you so much."

Hearing that sure didn't make things easier.

Seeing the guys all pumped up about the trip gave my mood a little boost. None of them, except Lars and me, had done the whole international travel thing before. The flight to Amsterdam was gonna be a marathon, so I had plenty of time to catch up with Leanne, who picked the seat next to mine. We mainly talked about everything that had happened in San Francisco during my absence; Leanne didn't ask much about me, which I was genuinely thankful for. It was nice having her around, but I wasn't really up for diving into how the last few months had been a rough ride. We kept the chatter going deep into the night until fatigue finally caught up with us, and we crashed.

We rolled into Amsterdam about twelve hours later, and man, we were wiped. Headed straight to the hotel, and lucky for us, the producers only snagged double rooms. Since we had an odd number and sharing a bed with Kirk or Lars wasn't my jam, I lucked out with a double bed all to myself. Honestly, better than I thought it'd be.

When night crept in, the guys and Leanne hit the town for some drinks and city exploring. Pat and I, though, opted for a chill night in, catching a few movies on the TV. Not that I wasn't up for hitting the streets, but all the hours spent on the plane did a number on me, more than I expected. Pat called it a night and went back to her room early, but I left the TV humming in the background, not really paying much attention to what was on.

It was well past midnight when I heard some heavy footsteps echoing down the hallway. My curiosity kicked in as a few deliberate knocks hit my door, and I pondered for a moment, debating whether I should bother answering. But the knocks persisted, and my curiosity won out. With a sigh, I rose from my spot and opened the door. My heart quickened when I found James leaning casually against the door frame.

"Mind if I come in?" he asked, a faint smile playing on his lips, though his voice betrayed a touch of uncertainty. I sighed, feeling warmth spread across my face. Having him so close made my heart flutter in a way I hadn't experienced in a while.

"This isn't your room," I mumbled, stupidly, my ability to think straight suddenly on vacation. He chuckled softly, a quick, dry laugh.

"If you hadn't said anything, I would never have guessed. Can I come in or not?"

I hesitated but eventually stepped aside, letting him in and closing the door. He stretched, shrugged off his jacket, and tossed it on my bed before settling down, kicking off his shoes. I furrowed my brow.

"You should head back to your room. Pat's probably waiting for you."

"She can wait," he said, finishing up with his shoes and pulling out a hair tie from his pocket, using it to secure his hair into a ponytail. Oddly, the sight made him even more attractive. I couldn't help but wonder if the hair tie belonged to Pat, who would often wear her hair tied up, and if he was picking up some habits from his new girlfriend. He stood up, seeming totally oblivious to my thoughts, and casually opened the mini-fridge, grabbing a Coke and popping it open. Then, he lifted his serious blue eyes to me. "I wanted to see you."

"Why?" I questioned, feeling my face warm up and my heart race, a million butterflies in my stomach going wild at his words. He sighed, a faint bitter smile playing on his lips.

"I missed you," he said, his voice low. "Last time we met, everything went south. I thought you hated me. Yet, when I saw you today, Nore..."

"James, please stop," I murmured, my voice trembling. He furrowed his brow, looking away, seeming hurt by my words, and I felt my heart squeeze uncomfortably in my chest. "You shouldn't be saying that."

"Oh, really?" He stood up, placing the can he was holding on the table before coming closer. I took a step back, feeling my face burn as I caught the storm brewing in his blue eyes. "And why’s that?"

"You have a girlfriend, don’t you?" I questioned, my voice holding accusation and hurt. "You brought your fucking girlfriend, so maybe you should just head back to her..."

"You make it sound so simple," he growled, taking another step closer, prompting me to lift my head to meet his gaze.

"And isn’t it?" I shot back, my tone bitter. "How aren't you ashamed of this?"

"Ashamed of what? Of bringing the girl I started dating to try forgetting about you?" he scoffed, clearly pissed now. "Tell me, Nore, what was I supposed to do? Just watch you reject me, again, and again, and again, and then act like you loved me just to mess with my head?"

"This isn’t fair to her!" I blurted out, all worked up, my voice getting louder. "This isn’t fair to me!"

"And what about me? Is it fair what you're pulling on me?"

"I don't get why you thought bringing her along was a genius move..."

"It didn't have to be genius. When you bailed on LA, I called you for days. You were the one who wanted nothing to do with me."

"You're such a jerk!" I spat out, my irritation cranking my voice up more than would be okay for past midnight, but honestly, I'd stopped caring about that ages ago.

James growled, getting suddenly closer, gripping my waist with one hand and pulling me against his body, forcing me to look deep into his eyes as he pressed his forehead against mine, his breathing erratic. His other hand cupped my cheek, his thumb tracing my lower lip. All the anger I had seemed to spill over at that moment; I wanted to punch him, to kick him out, to yell I never wanted to see him again, but I couldn't. Not when his lips were inches away from mine, his blue eyes locking onto mine with a fiery passion that made my whole body warm and vibrate inside.

"You fucking love me," he murmured, a smug smile slowly creeping across his lips. "Things would be so much easier if you just admitted it."

"Shut up, James," I growled, my heart doing a sprint in my chest, blood pulsing with fury in my ears, my hands clutching the front of his shirt and yanking him towards me. I needed him to split; I didn't know how much longer I could trust my anger to hold back the temptation of surrendering to his arms.

"Tell me you don't love me, then," he said, throwing in a sarcastic laugh. "Say you don't love me, and I’ll forget all this and leave you alone. You can't, can you? Because you fucking love me, damn it," His words buzzed with almost unrestrained joy, his grip on my waist tightening enough for me to let out a muffled moan from between my lips. Damn, I wanted him to kiss me. For the first time since all that mess had started, I wanted him to kiss me, to touch me, to make me forget my own name.

"Leave," I shot back, the defiance in my voice wavering as I sensed his body against mine. He let out a low chuckle but stepped back, his eyes ablaze, a smug smile on his face. I rested one of my hands on my chest, feeling my heart thudding against my fingertips, and noticed I was shaking. Gripping the doorknob with my other hand, I turned it but hesitated to open the door. "Just... Go, James. Please," I whispered, the adrenaline of the moment wearing off, and the old pain flooding back to fill my chest as my eyes welled up with tears.

I wasn't ready for any of that. The wounds from losing Dave were still too raw, to the point that acknowledging the desire I felt for James made my heart tighten with regret. What the hell was I thinking? I'd chosen Dave. And yet, he’d left me. What I wanted didn't mean shit in changing anything. How could I want anything from James when the very feeling I had for him had wrecked everything I held dear?

James seemed to catch onto my shift in mood, the triumph in his eyes giving way to pity when he noticed my tears building up. That sparked a rage in my chest; I didn't need his pity. I didn't need anyone's pity.

He made a move to come closer, but I just shook my head, turning away as I opened the door. After he left, I leaned against the closed door, letting myself slide down to sit on the floor, hugging my knees to my chest, feeling more alone, confused, and guilty than ever.

I woke up the next morning, feeling like I hadn't caught a wink of sleep. I groaned my way out of bed, pausing only to wash my face, brush my teeth, and swap outfits before heading down to the hotel's restaurant. There, I spotted Kirk, Lars, Cliff and Leanne already posted up at a table, digging into breakfast. I snagged a plate and plopped down next to Lars.

“After breakfast, we'll pack our bags and grab a shower. We're hitting the road after the show for the next city, so tonight, we’re all gonna be sleeping on the bus,” Cliff was laying out the plan when I rolled in.

“Great. Even crashing on a bus is cozier than sharing a bed with Lars,” Kirk griped, ignoring Lars' offended expression before shooting me a grin. “Hey, Nore, fancy bunking with me next time?”

"As if," I scoffed, and Lars burst into laughter.

"Hey, where's James?" Kirk asked, and I shrugged. Leanne bounced up to snag a hot cup of coffee, and Cliff sparked up a cigarette.

"Bet he's sleeping with Pat. Ever since they got together, she's been glued to him," Lars remarked, not looking too thrilled. Cliff snorted, rolling his eyes.

"Jealous, Lars?" I jokingly tossed the question while slathering butter on a piece of toast. He shot me a look, raising his eyebrows with a smirk.

"Hmm, not me. Can't say the same for you, though, huh?" His ironic smile lingered. I let out a frustrated huff, rolling my eyes, feeling the heat rising in my cheeks. Okay, maybe I walked right into that one.

A few minutes later, James and Pat finally strolled in. James, much like me, seemed to have had a rough night, evident in the dark circles under his tired blue eyes. On the flip side, Pat appeared to be the poster child for joy, easy smiles appearing on her lips as she talked to James, occasionally hugging his arm or intertwining her fingers with his. It was like she exuded confidence, as if she knew this was exactly where she belonged. Kind of got on my nerves, but I wasn't ready to dig into why.

The hustle for the show kicked off right after breakfast. We only had a short break to change and pack before heading back to the hotel lobby. A producer-arranged bus was set to pick us up, transporting everyone to a studio for the guys to rehearse the setlist during the day, and later to the venue for the shows. This leg of the journey got us all pumped. It wasn't just the band's inaugural international gig; we were also looking forward to meeting Venom and, naturally, enjoying some complimentary drinks. I must admit, even I was feeling a twinge of excitement and anxiety about the upcoming events.

I sparked up a cigarette while we hung out in front of the hotel, checking out the guys in action. They were teamed up with a couple of roadies, hauling gear that had been lugged up to the rooms the day before. Leanne strolled over.

"Got a light?" she asked, flashing a grin. I nodded, fished out my lighter, and passed it her way. She sparked up her cigarette, taking a few drags till it glowed. "Can I ask you something, Nore?"

"Sure thing, Lea," I replied, all curious. She shot me a look, her usual relaxed vibe getting a bit serious. Her eyes narrowed, like she was attempting to peek into my brain. "Spill it, what's on your mind?"

"How's it all sitting with you? You know, this whole James situation?" she asked, making me feel like there was a spotlight on me. 

"James? What do you mean?" I stammered, feeling the heat hit my face. She let out a soft chuckle at my reaction.

"I'm seriously wondering how she hasn't picked up on it yet." Leanne nodded toward Pat; she was holding James’ hand and talking to Lars, who seemed bored out of his mind, like he'd rather be doing anything else. "The way he looks at you. And the way you look at him."

"What are you getting at?" I whispered, my heart doing a somersault of sorts in my chest.

"You're into him, right? And it's crystal he's into you. Maybe you two should ditch the pride act and just… Allow yourselves to be happy."

"But Pat likes him too," I mumbled, letting a touch of annoyance creep into my voice. And I still don't know if I can allow myself to like anyone again.

"Honestly? I think she's crushing harder on James Hetfield, the Metallica frontman, than our James," she said with a chuckle. "Babe, you and James always clicked so easy. You seriously gonna let that slip away like this?"

I was kind of stumped for a response; right then, the bus rolled up, stealing everyone's focus. Lea crushed her cigarette and shot me a smile, then sauntered over to Cliff, offering a hand with carrying an amp. I took a minute to soak in the sight before joining them, attempting to shove aside the tornado of feelings Leanne's words had kicked up in me.

✧ if you'd like to be tagged on the next parts, let me know and I'll add you to the tag list! ❤ ✧

tag list: @killazilla777 @whatsupvic @70srogah @genswine9

[crowdedimagines]

Falling - Harry Styles

*obviously inspired by Falling, which i am OBSESSED with! *italics are from the past, a lot of this story will be from the past. *also, see if you catch some mini easter eggs to other songs from fine line (this wasn’t intentional, but for the timeline to work he never dated camille)

There’s no point in stopping the tears as they slowly stream down my face. As soon as I saw the tracklist to Harry’s new album I had a feeling this one would bring on the waterworks. Now that the album is officially released, I can hear what he’s been working on the past few months.

Falling.

A simple word with so much meaning behind it. It’s hard to fight off the memories of our relationship.

“-and this is the lovely, Y/n.” A friend introduces me to a small group of her friends at the party. She managed to drag me away from a conversation I was having to ‘meet some friends’. I smile and wave to all of the new faces, they go around and give me their names in return.

“Harry.” The last one speaks up, he raises his glass in a wave.

Our eyes pull together like magnets. I’m thankful for the darker lighting that is hiding the blush that creeps over my cheeks.

We all quickly dive into a conversation, everyone present being easy enough to talk to. They’re all lovely and fun people.

“I’m gonna go get another drink.” I announce as I get up from my spot.

“I’ll come with, mine seems to be empty too.” Harry grins and follows me back to the bar.

We both order our drinks and wait for them to be made. It takes a while, seeing how busy it is with all of the people here, but neither Harry or I mind. We immediately jump into a new conversation ranging from music, acting, and travel.

“You’ve never been to the UK?” Harry asks, utterly shocked.

“No.” I shake my head, laughing at his appalled reaction.

“How is that even possible? You’ve never had to film over there or anything?”

“I’ve been to Italy and France, but never your neck of the woods I suppose.” I let out a laugh.

He takes a sip of his drink, neither of us have made an effort to move back to the group since receiving them. I can see my friend giving two thumbs up over Harry’s shoulder. I’m sure this was some plan of hers to try and get us to hit it off.

“Well, you tell me when you’re free and we’ll go.” He smiles, “I’ll be your tour guide.”

God, I would love to take him up on that offer.

“Aren’t you going to be awfully busy with your first solo tour?”

“Ahh, you keep up with me then?” He smirks, I’m sure he’s enjoying that little ego boost.

“Pretty hard not to.” I roll my eyes, as if the pop star was so under the radar. “I can hardly leave my apartment in New York without coming across a billboard with your face plastered on it.”

“Well I’m sorry about that, love.”

“Don’t be, it’s a nice face to look at.”

It’s my turn now to smirk and notice Harry slightly thrown off.

“Tour doesn’t start for a month, pick a date before that and we’ll go.”

“You’re putting an awful lot of faith into someone you just met a half an hour ago.”

“I have faith in you, Y/n.”

“And why should I have faith in you?” I tease, “For all I know you could be a very creepy man.”

“Hey!” He laughs, “Haven’t you ever heard of treating people with kindness?”

The first time Harry and I ever met. That first night even, I knew that he was going to mean so much. I was proven correct a few weeks later when we actually did go to London together.

“Home sweet home.”

Harry opens the door wide enough so both of us and our luggage can fit. He’s invited me to stay at his flat, claiming it’s nicer than any hotel anyway. It’s also an obvious excuse for us to spend more time together just the two of us.

“It’s awfully gloomy here, strike one for London.” I joke.

“Hey! It’s late, you can’t judge it yet! Plus we just got off of a ten hour flight, you’re not in the right headspace.”

“Yeah, yeah.” I roll my eyes.

Harry and I have managed to grow so close in the short amount of time we’ve known each other. We met up several more times to somewhat plan the trip, Harry helped me pack claiming he would know what I would need better than I would.

We both laughed until we were crying, trying on the various clothes from my closet. Many random gems, things I’m almost positive Harry wants to steal.

We still haven’t defined what we are. Friends is the easiest way of putting it, but it doesn’t feel quite right. We flirt constantly and were touchy with each other, but we’ve never acted on anything.

“Alright, let’s find you a room.”

Harry takes my suitcase with him as he leads me into the rest of his house. We go up to the second floor and he opens the door to a large room. It’s decorated in simple white with hints of yellow.

“Cute.” I grin looking around the room.

“Y’like it?” He almost seems nervous. Giddy like an unsure child.

“It’s perfect, thank you.”

For the first time there’s an awkward pause. Just a few seconds of what to do, it’s really late and by the sounds of it we have plans for an early morning.

“Well, I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Goodnight, H.”

Harry leaves me to my room and goes to his own, which is conveniently across the hall.  

He wasn’t lying, the next day we are up bright and early. Too early, I might add.

“Y/n.” He taunts my name on the other side of the door.

“Too early.” I grumble, my face still half smashed into a pillow. I don’t even flinch hearing the door open.

“C’mon, Y/n. If you get up now we can go out for breakfast and go to the farmers market.” I feel the bed dip as he settles on the bed.

“Why can’t I sleep in and we just eat here?” I finally turn to face where’s he’s sitting on the edge of the bed, he has an amused look on his face.

“Because I’ve been in Los Angeles for the past two months. There’s quite literally no food here.”

I let out a groan and drop my head back down.

“I’m amazed with how cute you still look while so angry and having just woken up.”

“You’re such a kiss ass.” I grumble.

“Only for you.” He lightly smacks my ass before walking back out. “Let’s go, Y/Ln.”

I get up and look out the large window to see that it’s raining, but it looks like the sun is trying to come out. I settle on a comfortable outfit, tucking my hair back into a low bun. I wash my face and throw on a pair of sunnies.

“Ready?”

I nod and we take off. We walk to a diner that Harry loves going too, he claims that he gets cravings for it when he’s back in the states. I have to say, after eating there, I understand his hype.

Once were no longer hungry, we take off for the farmer’s market.

It’s cute to say the least. We pick up some organic veggies to cook with for dinner and we find some cheese and fresh bread.

“H, look!” I cross over from the tent we had been in to the one across the street.

“They’re beautiful!” I trail my fingers across all of the different bundles of flowers.

“I almost lost you.” Harry says after catching up.

“Look at how pretty they are!” I pick up a bundle of sunflowers.

“How much?” Harry asks before handing over more than enough for them.

“Gotcha!” Harry smiles looking down at his phone. I’m sure he’s taken yet another candid picture.

“For someone who doesn’t post on social media, you take an awful lot of pictures.” I bump his shoulder as we continue walking.

“Yeah, still like to have the memories.”

Harry and I spent two more days in London exploring more of the city before we decided to take a road trip to Holmes Chapel to see where Harry grew up. It was a long drive, but it was worth it to see Harry light up.

“That’s the bakery I used to work in.” He points out the car window.

“Don’t you want to stop?” I ask, watching him drive right by it.

“No, it’s kind of become a fan beacon now.” Harry explains.

We continue to drive through the town as he points out more spots from when he grew up. Or we sit in a comfortable silence just looking out at the scenery. I don’t notice we’ve arrived somewhere until Harry puts the car in park.

“Where are we?” I ask, looking at the house in front of us. It’s grown dark out, but the house looks warm and inviting.

“My mum’s house.” He quickly gets out of the car before I can ask a question.

“Harry!” I roll my eyes, following him to the door.

“What?” He grins looking over his shoulder. He knocks and it doesn’t take long for an answer to follow.

“Harry!” She pulls him in for a hug, the woman I can only assume is his mother.

They talk softly to each other and I feel as if I’m invading a very private moment.

“You’ve brought someone home?” She shouts with an excited voice. Without a pause, she pulls me in for an equally tight hug. She knocks the air out of my lungs, but I let out a laugh.

“In all these years, Harry’s never brought a girl home!”

“Mum!” Harry groans, a pink color taking over.

“Come in come in! I’m just finishing up supper.”

She disappears further into the house, once Harry and I step in, I can feel the warmth of the home and smell whatever she’s cooking.

“You brought me home to meet your mom!” I tease, turning to smack Harry lightly on the chest.

“No, she would just be upset if I was here and didn’t see here before leaving for a world tour.”

Bullshit.

“Harry, you’ve never brought a girl home before.” I smirk.

“Alright alright, I really like you. As if it wasn’t obvious enough before.” Harry admits, he successfully knocks the smile clear off my face.

“Are you going to say anything?” He asks, suddenly twisting the right on his fingers around out of nerves.

“I like you too.” I smile, “Duh.”

“Thank god.” He sighs, pulling me in for a hug.

“Alright, supper is- oh! You’re having a moment, I’ll go.” Anne rushes back to the kitchen. It would take a blind man to miss the smile and happy dance at seeing us like this.  

“She’s a sweetheart.” I pull back so I can look up

“Yeah, we’re a pretty charming family.”

“I can see that.”

After that it was bliss, Harry and I finally got together. Just in time for him to leave on tour. But we made it work, thankfully. Either I would fly out to whatever city he was in, or when he had extended breaks he would come see me on set. Any time we weren’t performing, we were facetiming. Or when the time differences didn’t work, we would leave each other long voicemails, just longing to hear the other’s voice.

By the time he finished his tour, and I finished my movie, we finally got to date like a normal couple and see each other regularly.

“Coming, coming!” I yell, rushing to my door to see who’s in a huge rush that causes them to knock repeatedly.

“I said-” Before I get a chance to yell when I swing the door open my jaw drops at the sight.  

“Hi, love.” He grins, a bundle of sunflowers in his hands.

“What are you doing here?” I peck his lips with mine and pull him in for a long hug, “You had things to finish up! I wasn’t supposed to get you home for another week!”

“I’m sorry, love, but I lied. I always knew I could sneak away.”

“That’s kind of evil.” I laugh pulling away, but still holding onto him.

“Which is why I have these.” He hands my the flowers.

“Thank you.” I grin, he follows me into my kitchen and watches as I put them in water.

“So, how does it feel to be all finished?” I ask.

“Good, it was really rewarding, but really exhausting. I’ve just been waiting to come home to you to be perfectly honest.”

“Well, here I am.” I smile, I take a seat on his lap. It’s good to have him here.

Beachwood Cafe. The coffee here doesn’t taste as good when it’s not filled with our laughter and deep conversations. It seems bitter without the games.This was our spot in Los Angeles. Early in our relationship we had stumbled upon the place and it became ours. The baristas growing accustomed to our orders and our stardom.

“You’re absolutely mad if you think that’s a word.” Harry says, his voice getting louder and gaining the attention of people around us. As if we weren’t already doing that. The cafe is always busy, but today it seemed like there were lots of people here.

“Have you ever played Scrabble? Of course this is a word!” I argue. Part of why we like the cafe is the bookshelf filled with board games. Every time we come Harry and I pick a new one we’ve never played together before. Today we settled on Scrabble even though it led to us bickering.

“I don’t like playing with a cheater.” He can’t even get away with it without smiling, but we continue the teasing fight for the fun of it. Banter is always entertaining.

“A cheater?” My voice raising as well, “Look it up!”

We both breakout in laughter over how stupid it is to be arguing about.

Still blissfully aware in our honeymoon phase which lasted way longer than any other relationship either of us have been in. If only I had known then how much worse the arguing would get.

“Harry, what’s happened to you?” I ask, tears freely falling to the floor. The tears being caused more by anger than hurt at this point.

“What do you mean?” His words slurred.

“You’re drunk again, of course.” I roll my eyes, leaving him on the bathroom floor to deal with himself.

“You’ve made a fool of me Harry!” I shout, letting my temper get the best of me, “Do you know how embarrassing you were tonight? Tonight was a big deal for me, I’ve never been the lead actress. You now what this premiere meant to me.”

“Love, I-” Harry follows me out of the bathroom into our bedroom. My attitude and hurt seems to have sobered him up a bit, though he is still far from dry.

“You got hammered before the movie could even start!” I huff, “You were loud and obnoxiously shouting about nonsense! Not to mention the fact that you flirted with nearly every person at the bar.”

“Y/n, it’s fine we-”

“No, it’s far from fine. I don’t know what’s gotten into you lately, since when have you felt most comfortable with a drink in your hand? Or a stranger on your arm? This isn’t new for you anymore, you’ve been acting like this for months.”

The silence coming from him proves I’m right.

“If it’s been months, why haven’t you said anything before now. We’ve been dating for nearly two years now, we live together. I would think you’re comfortable enough to tell me you think I’m a drunk.” Harry sasses back.

“I’ve tried! You just get rude or you don’t even remember it in the morning.” I push my hair back out of my face, “The only difference it, tonight was my breaking point.”

I walk to my closet and grab a bag and start shoving essentials in it.

“No, Y/n, wait.” Harry follows me, he takes the bag from my hand and starts pulling things back out.

“Harry stop!” My voice rising louder than it ever has in this house, “Enough. I’m done. We are finished.”

Harry suddenly drops the bag and stumbles back out of the closet. I manage to repack the bad come out to see Harry sitting on the edge of the bed, staring blankly at his shoes.

“I’ll send someone to get the rest of my stuff. You can buy out my half of the lease.”

After that night, I never looked back.

The song ends and I turn off my phone and set it down. I wipe away any remnants at eyes, the tears long dried. Before I can spend any more time thinking about him or the way things used to be, I get dressed for the day. Harry was right about one thing.

I’ll never need him again.

[precuredaily]

Precure Day 159

Episode: Yes! Precure 5 11 - “Nozomi and Coco’s Hot Air Balloon Ride!” Date watched: 19 November 2019 Original air date: 15 April 2007 Screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/ytsGyVm Project info and master list of posts: http://tinyurl.com/PCDabout

oh yeah, it’s that episode

Every once in a while you come across an episode of Precure that is absolutely iconic. Nozomi and Coco’s balloon ride is one of those, because while we knew Nozomi had a thing for Coco, this episode shows us that there might actually be some chemistry here, and it’s not just a young girl’s naive crush. It also sets Nozomi down the path to finding her dream, aside from helping Coco. So let’s explore how it all happens.

The Plot

Nozomi is doing abysmal in her math class (it appears to be basic algebra), so the other girls propose a regular study group at Natts House. Rin and Urara manage to get a grasp on their work by relating it to their interests, but Nozomi doesn’t get it and stares out the window, noticing a hot air balloon in the town park. When Karen calls her out for not having made any progress, she blows it off and says she’ll get Coco to give her the answers, prompting the others to say they’ll leave her behind and form Precure 4. This bit of tough love is meant to motivate the dreamy girl, but instead she gets upset and runs out of the house. Coco quickly chases after her while Nuts advises the four that their approach probably wasn’t going to help Nozomi, but that Coco is good at reaching out to people and helping them.

After promising not to just take her back to Natts House, Coco leads Nozomi to the balloons, where she is enamored with the whole process and asks the pilots lots of questions about how the balloon works. They offer to give her a ride, and after noticing Natts House from up in the air, she opens up to Coco about her childhood. She has always had a hard time learning, lagging behind her classmates. Coco quizzes her about how the balloon works, and she answers correctly, showing how she can learn when she’s interested. Coco advises her that studying is similar to filling a balloon with hot air, so that when you find a dream, you can fly towards it. Then he thanks her for supporting his dream, and tells her it’s okay to put it in second place if she finds a dream of her own. Some turbulence sends Nozomi tumbling into Coco’s arms in a pseudo-hug, causing her to blush deeply at the closeness and his kindness.

Unfortunately, Nightmare is around to ruin the tender moments. When the balloon lands due to the turbulent weather, Arachnea turns it into a Kowaina and it flies off above the clouds with only Nozomi and Coco on board. Nozomi transforms and starts to fight, but is overpowered. Coco tries to tell her to save herself rather than protecting him, but she refuses to do so, because her dream is to make his dream a reality. On the ground, the other four girls can see the fight going on in the clouds but they can’t reach it. Ultimately Rouge gets a spring boost from Aqua and Mint and manages to land in the clouds just in time to rescue Dream, with Lemonade following suit shortly. Together, the three girls manage to defeat the monster and Arachnea retreats to lose another day. Not to be left out of the action completely, Mint and Aqua use their special moves to safely guide Rouge and Lemonade back to the ground. The four friends call out to Nozomi and Coco that they’re sorry, and hope to see them back at Natts House. Nozomi explains to Coco that she’s not only fighting for his sake, but believes that making his dream come true will help her self-confidence and aid in finding a dream of her own.

Back at school a week later, Nozomi has improved her score on her latest math test from an 18 to a 35.... and reveals she also read a thick book about hot air balloons in the same time period. Karen, willing to take small victories, challenges Nozomi to score at the class average on the next test, while Coco looks on in admiration.

The Analysis

Sorry the summary was pretty verbose, there’s a lot to cover and i still glossed over some points I want to discuss in this section.

First of all, I’m not a doctor, but it looks to me like Nozomi is exhibiting signs of a learning disorder, such as ADHD. She has difficulty focusing on one thing at a time, she struggles with basic concepts, she gets easily distracted, but when she finds something she is interested in, she can understand it easily. The episode doesn’t acknowledge this possibility at all, though this could be because Japan has a much more negative stigma to the idea of mental illness, and Toei presumably didn’t want Nozomi to be known as the Pretty Cure with a disorder (even if it could be a good way to change the conversation). However you slice it, can’t-study Nozomi is kinda super relatable.

It’s a really good look at how to handle learning difficulties, and why education is important, especially when you’re struggling. Nozomi does like learning, but her difficulty comes from not being interested in the subjects being taught to her. I’m sure everybody out there has had this happen at some point in their lives, and I think it’s wonderful that they broached this topic. Trying to relate the subject to something you are interested in is a good tool, or otherwise approaching it from a different angle. Formal education kind of struggles with this, it’s very structured and inflexible in a lot of ways, but if you can find a way to make a topic appealing to you, you might be able to understand what is being taught. And Coco’s speech on why it’s important to learn is not only core to the show’s themes, but all around good life advice. Education gives you the tools you need to succeed at your dream. Knowing math or history or reading classic literature may not be useful in your daily life, but understanding how to absorb and utilize information is a valuable life skill. The metaphor with the hot air balloon is actually very clever, and betrays Coco’s wisdom. As Nuts said, he is naturally good at approaching and helping people with their troubles, and that’s on full display as he gently guides Nozomi towards appreciating herself more.

The other side of this is that Coco is genuinely grateful to Nozomi for trying to help him achieve his dream of reviving Palmier Kingdom, and he wants to help her find her own dream, because after all, his has a more definite endpoint. He tells her that he doesn’t mind taking second place if she finds something she’d rather do, but she lets him know that, by helping him, she’s learning more about herself and what she wants to do, and this in turn is going to help her find her dream. Not to spoil too much, but across these two seasons, Nozomi does find something she strives for, and it’s really cool to see, in this fairly early episode, that she’s aware that helping Coco is more of a stepping stone to helping herself, not an end goal.

The most obvious reason this episode is remembered is because it’s a step towards Nozomi and Coco becoming closer, romantically. Nozomi had a bit of a crush on Coco from the moment she laid eyes on him, but that hasn’t really been fleshed out much since then, because they’ve been busy worldbuilding. Now they’ve got a full team of Precures, Nuts has been revived, a smattering of Pinkies have been caught, and each Nightmare staff member has been defeated a few times; so we can look at romance again. Nozomi still has heart flutters when she’s close to Coco, and she gets really embarrassed when they accidentally hug. Coco, meanwhile, isn’t showing any stereotypical signs of love, but he did chase after Nozomi, he went out of his way to console and help her through a really hard situation for her, and he thanked her for her role in helping him. She was the first person to help him, and she did so without question, and that’s incredibly important to him.

It’s cute in a shipping sense but also honestly Nozomi and Coco are a great couple and it’s nice to see a mutual love story, as opposed to the one-way romances from the previous shows.

On another positive note, this episode gives us some memorable lines, such as Nozomi’s “I don’t understand what I don’t understand” and some quality faces. I’m not going to post them all, so check the gallery. BUT I did get this great gif. Use it however you want.

The only thing I can criticize about this episode is also the art. There are a LOT of shots that are just not very good. Noodle people, distorted faces, you name it, it’s here.

Even in this sentimental moment, Nozomi’s hand is really small:

It’s not awful but it’s just off enough to stand out. However, a little sketchy art isn’t enough to bring this down from being a great episode. It’s a quality series.

Next time, we have another memorable episode, for a different reason: Urara as a stage show MC. Look forward to it!

Pink Precure Catchphrase Count: 2 “Kettei!”, one in flashback, but it counts.

Also, we got one of Nozomi’s less common sayings, “Nantoka naru naru!” or “It’ll work out some way or anothers!”

[zeldauniverse]

Fitness games have had an interesting journey through the annals of video game history. From the Power Pad on the NES to Dance Dance Revolution’s dance mat, they have seen a lot of ups and downs. It wasn’t until the launch of the Wii and Wii Fit when fitness games became a huge deal. Why just play video games or just go to the gym when you can do both at the same time?! That proved successful as Wii Fit (and its enhanced version Wii Fit Plus) sold a combined 43.8 million units, making it one of the best-selling games of all time, even beating out games like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

Since then, everyone has tried their version of a fitness game, but nowadays fitness games are becoming less common. Once people started getting tired of that type of game, most companies and developers changed course and began work on other things. Not only that, most fitness games present themselves as exactly what they are. “Oh you’re called ‘Fitness Boxing’? So you box to the beat and do fitness? Cool.” They stay in their lane and don’t try to be anything else.

This is where Ring Fit Adventure, the latest game from Nintendo EPD, tries to break the wheel. From the initial teaser in early September to the announcement trailer, we saw people having fun with a ring and a strap, and then we found out it was an RPG. It feels like someone went, “Final Fantasy, but Wii Fit?!”

It’s not exactly a combination you’d think were synonymous with each other. However, Ring Fit Adventure manages to blend them well enough to harbor an enjoyable experience while also making you sweat.

Full Disclosure Nintendo of America graciously provided us with a review copy of Ring Fit Adventure for the Switch. This review is based on version 1.1.1. As such, the new additions will be accounted for.

Meet the newest Switch accessory

What’s interesting about Ring Fit Adventure is that it markets itself as an adventure game. You fight monsters, explore fictional lands, and collect items on your quest. It just so happens to be an adventure game that you control with your body.

Ring Fit Adventure’s centerpiece is the unique pair of controllers you use: the Ring-Con and the Leg Strap. The Ring-Con is a heavily modified Pilates ring. The main difference is that Pilates rings normally have two hard plastic handles with concave sides with padding so it can be comfortable when doing thigh workouts. The Ring-Con replaces those handles with some small padding for your hands. As someone used to a normal Pilates ring, it feels a little strange, but it’s something you get used to. Then there’s the Ring-Con attachment itself, where you put the right Joy-Con. The Joy-Con’s accelerometer and gyroscope detect the Ring-Con’s position, whether you’re pushing in on the sides or pulling them away from each other. The IR sensor also tracks your heart rate by placing your right thumb over the sensor. It seemed to be fairly accurate, as it was within a 1 or 2 bpm difference when compared to my Apple Watch.

The Leg Strap is far less high tech — it’s literally a thing that you strap to the center of your left thigh and put the left Joy-Con in. That’s it. The Joy-Con itself does the work of making sure your leg is in the right position for the exercises thanks to its gyro and accelerometer.

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Admittedly, the story doesn’t try too hard to immerse you, but it still tries.

At the end of the day, however, the technology is nonetheless impressive.

One thing I do appreciate about the game is that Nintendo tries to make this game a circular experience. When you load into your file, the game asks if you want to warm up with some dynamic stretches before you jump in  so you can get your body ready and avoid straining or injuring yourself. During the game itself, it’ll ask you after a while if you want to keep going or cool down. When you decide you’re done for the day, the game asks if you want to do some static stretching as a means to cool down. This structure gives a nice arc that, as someone with a movement background, I appreciate.

I’m going on an Adventure!

The story is fairly standard. You control an athlete who meets a sentient ring, and together you explore the world and fight a bodybuilding dragon named Dragaux (yes, you read that correctly). You explore many worlds, help people along the way, and gain new abilities by constantly butting heads with Dragaux.

The plot is cookie cutter, but it also doesn’t try to be anything it isn’t. The basic story line works here. It’s moderately self-aware in parts, and it’s mostly enjoyable. It’s a tad basic at times, and Ring (the only character who is fully voiced) tends to repeat lines a bit, but it’s not enough to ruin the experience.

Expecting too much from the story would be a mistake, but it will help you pretend it’s not just exercise.

The game itself is very straight forward. Levels consist of two different modes — exploration and combat. The exploration is on rails, which makes sense because you move in one of two ways, either jogging or running in place or by doing small bends (what Nintendo calls “silent mode”). Silent mode is supposed to be a way to play the game without disturbing people by running in place. It was also the mode I used more because I dislike running.

As you traverse the levels, you can pull and push the Ring-Con to release gusts of air to hit boxes and suck up coins. Additionally, you can use the Ring-Con in other positions for specific actions, like pointing it down in order to jump, twisting it from side to side to row across a river, or pushing inward with your abs to destroy rocks blocking your way. You’ll gain experience as you continue, making you more formiddable in combat.

Speaking of combat, it plays out like a traditional turn-based RPG. You attack by doing various exercises from one of four different groups: Arms (upper body), Stomach (core), Legs (lower body), and Yoga (dynamic poses). The game telegraphs how long you hold the pose and then the release of it triggers the attack. Some of the exercises make you hold position for a while (the squats are rough), while others have you move to the beat. Certain enemies are affected more by specific moves; for example, red enemies are susceptible to exercises focusing on upper body. You get to decide what exercise to use, or you can shuffle the exercises, so there is a variety. The game also aids you in combat with lots of outfits and smoothies, Ring Fit’s equivalent to potions. Outfits have a set attack and defense stat like any armor in a typical RPG. There are also smoothies to consume, which have various effects ranging from from healing damage to boosting attacks of a specific type.

You face Dragaux multiple times through your adventure, and he does have some variety in his attacks. He’ll occasionally throw boxes at you that you have to shoot with the Ring-Con, in addition to just flat out attacking you. The game also doesn’t penalize you should you die in boss battles either — it will let you just skip right to the boss fight if you want to. That choice is nice.

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Ring Fit Adventure sticks fairly well to many traditional RPG elements.

That includes the nemesis that monologues and swears this meeting will be the last.

It’s not as complex as franchises like Final Fantasy or Pokémon, but it does enough to be enjoyable. And with 20 worlds to explore, there is enough content here to last you at least 20-30 hours of just adventuring alone. Additionally, during your quest, you’ll come across certain minigames. These minigames, like trying to get points by tilting your body side to side, add an extra bit of variety to the overall gameplay.

Ironically, where Ring Fit Adventure drops the ball a bit is in its overall design and music. When I think of an adventure game or an RPG, I expect a vast array of beautiful trees, vistas and dungeons. Ring Fit sets its levels in one of three locations — a trail through nature, where you explore vistas and go through caves; a wooden obstacle course built in a dojo-looking area complete with treadmills, hoops, and more; and a ruins area for the boss fights. It got to a point where I noticed how often the areas cycle between each level. After a while, it does start to feel stale.

Ring Fit Adventure’s music is pulsing, upbeat, and modern to pump you up, but most of it is also forgettable.

Music is vital to how RPGs and adventure games create the mood you should experience in combat and cutscenes. Ring Fit’s music is pulsing, upbeat, and modern to pump you up for the exercises you perform. This is great for a fitness-centric game; however, most of the music is a bit forgettable. The music often gets drowned out by the sound effects and Ring’s lines, and, when you do hear it, it doesn’t really feel like I’m a hero exploring the world and fighting monsters. I feel like I’m in a fitness studio. For a game that’s marketed to be an adventure game first, it feels like they came too short.

Additional fun to be had

Of course, the adventure is only one part of Ring Fit Adventure. The game also provides some additional modes if you don’t have time to spend on the main campaign. The Quick Play mode has a fairly robust set of minigames and exercises you can do, separated into three categories: simple challenges (where the goal is to get the highest reps possible); minigames (more specific exercise with concrete goals, like making pottery while squatting to raise and lower the hands); and sets (consisting of pre-selected exercises from upper arms to glutes or from aerobics to flexibility). You can adjust the strength setting to make things easier or more challenging depending on your ability, and these modes are a very good way to quickly target a small set of muscles.

Your scores for these are also put online to see how well you stack up against other players. At this point, the rankings are all that online is really utilized for. It’s sort of disappointing that Nintendo didn’t add a way to play the adventure mode with online co-op, but maybe that’s just me.

There’s also Custom Mode, where you can make your own workouts using all sorts of different exercises. They have some preset options, or you can pick and choose from the standard Upper Body, Core, Lower body, and Yoga menus.

At least the devs acknowledge you’ll be binging Netflix at some point. “Multitasking,” indeed.

Lastly, there’s Multitask Mode, where you can work out using only the Ring-Con while you’re not playing the game. Basically it records the number of presses and pulls you do with the Ring-Con while the Switch is in sleep mode or turned off. Once it’s enabled with the right stick, you can continue doing other activities, like watching The Mandalorian on Disney+ (at least that’s what I’m doing) and exercise while you do it. The next time you boot up the game, you’ll get a bonus in the Adventure Mode according to how many presses you did. It does limit you to 500 reps, which seems low to me, but considering that most people are going to just sit and watch a movie or a TV show for more than two hours while exercising, I understand.

A nice way to gamify exercise

Despite the story falling a bit short, Ring Fit Adventure is still a very enjoyable experience with a lot of replay value. It has several different modes to play, a terrific variety of exercises, and is great if you want to get some workouts in when you don’t feel like leaving the house because of bad weather. If you’re a fan of the hardcore mechanics of RPGs like The Elder Scrolls, Final Fantasy or Pokémon, Ring Fit may be basic, but that’s not what it places its emphasis on. The mechanics are accessible so that anyone can pick it up and enjoy it, and maybe It’ll get people into traditional RPGs. The only thing holding it back is not doubling down on the adventure/RPG genre in terms of scenarios and music.

Score 7.5/10

Review: Ring Fit Adventure may be basic, but it nevertheless makes exercise fun Fitness games have had an interesting journey through the annals of video game history. From the Power Pad on the NES to…

[bittysvalentines]

Virtual Reality, Emphasis on Reality.

From: @omgnotanothercpblog

To: @aflailureandamasterpiece

“Please, Bitty?” Chowder was giving Bitty his best puppy dog eyes. Bitty never could resist that look, and Chowder knew it, damn it.

“I don’t know…” Bitty told him, and Chowder’s face lit up, sensing his victory. “I never play video games,” he added desperately.

“That’s exactly what we need. We already have people who know what they’re doing.”

Bitty folded his arms and gave Chowder an unimpressed look, but Chowder just grinned at him.

“We want to make sure a total noob can jump right in and start playing too.”

“With that kind of talk, I hope you aren’t on the sales team. ‘Total noob’,” Bitty muttered.

“I brought everything you need to play,” Chowder said, ignoring him. He held up a VR headset - a fancy one with attached headphones - and a thin pair of gloves. “It’s all set to connect, you just have to turn it on. After you put it on, of course.”

“You want me to do this right now?” Bitty eyed the equipment as if it was a poisonous snake. He didn’t have anything against it, it just wasn’t his cup of tea. No matter what Chowder said, it didn’t make sense that he and Dex wanted Bitty to test their new game.

“I want to get you started, that’s all. You don’t have to actually play it right now.” It was obvious from Chowder’s tone that he really wished Bitty would.

“And how is this different from regular VR?” Bitty asked as he pulled on the gloves.

“It’s like, the next level. Total virtual immersion. Or as close as we can get for now. Like the Matrix or OASIS in Ready Player One.” Chowder held out the headset for Bitty to take.

“I’m not one for science fiction, but even I know the Matrix is not a good thing.” Despite his words, Bitty put the headset on, leaving one ear uncovered so he could listen to Chowder’s instructions.

“Okay, there are two modes,” Chowder said as the visuals began to load. “There’s augmented reality where the game world overlays the real world. So your couch becomes the trunk of a fallen tree or something. You need some space for that because the game world is so extensive. I mean, there’s this quest where-”

“Chowder, honey, can we get back to my tutorial?”

Chowder cleared his throat. “Yeah, it’s just- It’s swawesome that it’s finally real, you know? Anyway, we also have what we’re calling autopilot mode, so you can explore the game world without needed too much actual movement. To switch it, you just have to...”

Chowder went on, but Bitty barely heard him, because he was standing at the edge of a dark and forbidding forest. The trees were literal works of art, realistic-looking, but not so realistic that his brain kept insisting something was off, the way CGI people made him feel. Bitty would swear he could hear birds chirping and insects buzzing. He adjusted the headset, muffling Chowder’s words. Yep, birdsong, bees, and a breeze ruffling the leaves on the trees.

“This is amazing,” he breathed.

~

Bitty found himself spending a lot of time trying out Quester’s Fate, Chowder and Dex’s game. Not so much for the gameplay - it was interesting, but that had never been his cup of tea - but for the wonderful world where it took place and the people he met there. He was sure there were players who liked to use the augmented reality version and roam around outside to complete their quests, but Bitty preferred the shared virtual world. It was easier after a long day spent on his feet.

Even though he wasn’t actually playing the game, he had explored the other things it had to offer - namely, he’d built his own shop. He’d gotten Chowder and Dex to help him to speed things along; he wasn’t a fool. Now he sold or traded items to fellows players to help them along on their quests - things that would refill their game energy or boost their game stats - or would let them customize their character. It was pretty entertaining when they thought he was an NPC (non-player character, he was slowly learning their language) at first because his skin wasn’t available in the game store. Perks of being friends with the game developers. Dex had even created an NPC to keep the shop running when he wasn’t playing. If Bitty had been charging real money, he’d be rolling in it.

Not long after he’d opened up his shop - only stocked with virtual fruit at that time - his first customer had come along. That was how he’d met Jack.

Bitty’s General Store was was in the middle of the forest, situated at the crossroads of several quest pathways. A player wearing the default skin had come walking along one of them, looking a little lost. He kept looking this way and that and consulting his quest map. Finally he spotted the store - and Bitty - and practically ran up to him.

“Hel-” Bitty began.

“Are you a real person? Can you help me?” the player said in a rush.

“I’m as real as anyone can be in here,” Bitty said. “What do you need, sugar?”

“Dieu merci! I don’t understand how this map works. How do I get it to show where I am? Where I’m supposed to go?” He thrust his map at Bitty and it disappeared as soon as he opened his hand.

“Well, first of all, my name is Bitty.” Bitty waited expectantly.

“Oh. Sorry. Jack.”

“Nice to meet you, Jack. Second, that map is yours . So you can’t hand it to me. Go ahead and open it up again.”

Jack swept his hand up, then poked the air in a specific spot. It never got old, watching other players waving their hands around while they interacted with menus that only they could see. The map reappeared.

“Now don’t let go,” Bitty said. He moved behind Jack and peered around his bicep (even in-game he was shorter than most of the other players, which somehow seemed unfair. Dex didn’t have to make his character that true to life). “It looks like you’re still in world view mode. Tap your quest icon, up in the right corner. That’ll show you things that are specific to your quest, including where you are and where you should be going.”

“Quest icon? What does it look like?”

“That depends on the quest you chose. This was all covered in the tutorial.”

“There’s a tutorial?”

“Now how on earth did you get this far without the tutorial?”

Jack dropped his hands and the map disappeared again. “It’s my friend Shitty’s account. He kind of…” He made a pushing motion with both hands. “He said I need to relax, or at least not focus so much on hoc- my job.”

“I supposed wandering around trying to figure out how this all works could be relaxing,” Bitty said doubtfully.

“He had to leave for a work emergency before he could show me very much.”

“Wait. Did you say your friend Shitty, or did you mean your shitty friend? Because only one of those makes sense to me, and it’s not the first one.”

“Shitty’s his nickname. He likes it better than his real name.” Jack brought up his map yet again. “Quest icon, right?”

Bitty could take a hint and let the subject drop. “Did you even choose a quest? Considering you managed to skip all the basics.”

“Yes. Uh, I think so? Yes.”

“Well, that’s something, anyway. Let’s get you started from the beginning, all right, sugar?”

“Okay?” Jack didn’t seem too sure about continuing to play the game, but he was already there, and Bitty felt he owed it to Chowder and Dex to make sure he had a positive experience after such a rough start. Bitty showed him how to start the tutorial and left him to it, though he did stay close, rearranging a nearby display of apples, just in case Jack had any questions.

“Okay, I think I got it,” Jack said eventually. “I have to go…” He looked at his map and then at the numerous paths. “That way.” He pointed at one of the trails.

“Oh, the Glass Mountain quest. That’s a good one for someone just starting out. Here, take these apples.” Bitty held out a sack. “They refill your character’s health bar. You’ll need them.”

Jack stared at the sack. “How do I accept them? It wasn’t very clear in the tutorial.”

“Just reach out your hand. Once you’re close enough, the game’ll ask if you want to accept or reject the item.”

Jack reached out and the sack disappeared. Then he stood there, looking uncertain. “I suppose I should… go?”

“The princess is waiting,” Bitty said with an encouraging smile.

“Are you sure she’s not in another castle?” Jack asked expectantly.

“No? That’s not how that quest goes.”

Jack’s shoulders slumped. “That’s not...” He shook his head. “Oh, um, payment? For the apples?”

“Don’t you worry about that, sugar. They’re a gift for being my first customer.”

“Oh, okay. Um, bye then.”

“Bye, Jack. I hope to see you again. You can tell me how you did on your quest.”

Jack nodded and off he went. Bitty hoped he would come back. He didn’t think he’d ever met someone who knew even less than he did about playing video games; Jack’s cluelessness was a little adorable. He wondered briefly what Jack looked like in real life, but he buried that thought quickly. Sure, Jack seemed nice. Friendly. Willing to learn from someone shorter than him (which was surprisingly a problem for some players, Bitty didn’t understand it). None of that meant anything. Bitty wasn’t looking for a boyfriend. He probably wouldn’t ever see Jack again anyway.

~

Jack came back.

Not right away, but he did, and he kept coming back, showing up when Bitty was in-game at least once a week. Jack had gotten his own account, though he’d kept the default skin. At first, he would talk to Bitty for a few minutes before going off on one of the quests, but eventually he was sticking around longer and longer until Bitty suspected he’d given up on actually playing the game. Not that Bitty was one to judge, since he’d given up on doing that almost immediately. He used the virtual world as a distraction, something to do when he was too tired to do anything else and it was too early to go to bed, or when he needed the company of others and his friends were otherwise occupied.

Bitty enjoyed talking to Jack, and Jack didn’t seem to mind that Bitty was doing most of the talking. They would discuss work and their friends and family and Bitty’s dream job (because it sounded like Jack had his, lucky devil) and so many random topics that it amazed him that Jack kept coming around. Bitty found himself looking forward to their weekly chats more and more.

Shoot. He’d gone and done it - he’d fallen for Jack.

~

“Please, Bitty?” Dex wasn’t as good as Chowder at the puppy dog eyes, but he was giving him a run for his money.

“Dex, you don’t have to talk me into coming to your big celebration, silly goose.”

Dex grinned. “Chowder told me to do that. But also, we’re having it catered.” He winced, waiting for Bitty’s reaction.

“I would assume so. You’re bringing that up because…”

“They specialize in pies for dessert. Sorry, Bitty. We had to pick a couple for them to serve.”

“I see.”

“They won’t be as good as yours,” Dex insisted.

“Well of course they won’t,” Bitty replied automatically. “I don’t know, William. I don’t think I could come to your party now that I know you’re cheating on me with other pies.” He pressed his lips together to hold back a smile.

Dex’s eyes widened. “You don’t-”

Bitty burst out laughing. “My word, your face! Like I wouldn’t show up because of a little thing like that. Bless your heart, you should know I was going to bake pies for you and Chowder as a gift anyway.”

Dex rubbed the back of his neck and laughed. “Thanks, Bitty. I just didn’t want you to think, I don’t know, that we didn’t prefer your baking or something.”

“It’s not like I’m in a position to make pies for such a big do. Don’t worry your head about it.”

“So we’ll see you there?”

“Do you really need to ask? You couldn’t keep me away, mister.”

~

Dex and Chowder were having a party for two reasons - it was the one-year anniversary of their company, Two Frogs, and Quester’s Fate had become the #1 best-selling VR game in the country. It was an amazing achievement, and Bitty was proud to be a small part of that. He didn’t even mind very much that he had to miss his and Jack’s weekly chat. Bitty had sent him a PM through the game’s messaging system to let him know he wouldn’t be there.

Chowder introduced him to Caitlin Farmer, a young lady he’d met while testing out the game in its early stages. Apparently, he’d mowed her down when he hadn’t seen her due to a glitch and the apology coffee he’d bought for her had led to several coffee dates and then a relationship. They were adorable together.

Dex hadn’t brought anyone, but he was mighty interested in Derek Nurse, a local celebrity who was in attendance for some reason. He kept sneaking glances at him, only to look away quickly whenever Derek looked in his direction and Derek was doing the same. Wasn’t that interesting?

It was Dex who introduced him to Larissa Duan, the artist who had designed the backgrounds used in the game.

“Ms. Duan, let me tell you how beautiful your work is. It’s just breathtaking,” Bitty told her as they shook hands.

“Thank you. Please, call me Larissa. They turned out all right, I think. I’m an abstract artist normally, but I wanted to challenge myself, work outside my comfort zone.”

“Well, I’m glad you did, and I’m sure De- Will and Chris are, too.”

A man with an impressive mustache and long hair pulled back in a ponytail came up to them. “Lardo! Love of my life! I’ve found you,” he cried and handed her a drink.

“Cool it, Shitty, he’s not hitting on me,” Larissa said.

“I didn’t think he was,” Shitty replied. “I missed you, that’s all.”

Larissa’s face went a little pink and she gave him a tiny smile. “You were gone for two minutes.”

Wait-

“Shitty? Jack’s Shitty?” Bitty asked without thinking.

“You know Jack? Oh!” Shitty turned and waved at someone across the room. “Jack! I think I found your friend!”

Bitty’s face burned. Jack? Jack was here? He was going to meet Jack? Was he ready for this? They’d never even talked about meeting in real life. What should he do?

A familiar-looking man with dark hair was walking toward them. Bitty considered running away, but that would be too rude. It looked like he was going to meet Jack, ready or not.

He thought back to their long discussions, to the kind of person Jack seemed to be. Bitty decided he was ready.

Jack got closer and Bitty had to catch his breath. Jack was handsome. No, that word was too bland. Jack was gorgeous . Lord, those eyes . He could only hope Jack wasn’t disappointed in the real him.

Then Jack was standing in front of him and Bitty forgot to breathe.

“Bits,” Jack said, and yes, that was his voice. Bitty was going to swoon like a debutante in a corset in the middle of July.

“Jack,” Bitty said faintly. “How-”

“Your message said you were coming to the party, and I was already planning to come so I thought it might be okay? To meet, I mean.”

“Yes, but-”

“Bitty, I see you’ve met Jack Zimmermann,” Dex said, appearing out of nowhere. “He’s one of our major backers.”

Jack smiled. “Lardo made me do it,” he said with a fond look at her.

“Jack Zimmermann? The hockey player?” Bitty was getting light-headed from all the revelations. No wonder Jack had seemed familiar. He shouldn’t have - he looked nothing like the default skin he used in Quester’s Fate. “Any other surprises? Is Beyonce here too?”

Dex laughed. “I’d definitely warn you first.”

“Is this okay?” Jack asked. He reached out and took Bitty’s hand. “I really wanted to meet you, but if you-”

“This is more than okay, Jack. This is wonderful.”

[thelongestdamnreviews]

Mega Man Network Transmission

Mega Man Network Transmission is one of those games I've had forever due to buying it at GameStop back when they actually regularly stocked GameCube games.  It took about six and a half hours to finish.  Through the magic of emulation, I used an Xbox 360 controller and had to play around a little with the controller settings in Dolphin since the GC and X360 layouts are a little different. 

Nothing serious, considering you never need to use either stick.  Jump on Xbox B, fire on A, use chips on Y. 

TLDR The Good 

Callbacks to the Classic series - From the disappearing block puzzle in Ice Man's stage to having reversed gravity sections in Gravity Man's stage, people who are familiar with the Mega Man Classic games will see some nice references to the Robot Masters here in the stage gimmicks.  Some viruses come straight from the Classic games and aren't found in the other Battle Networks! 

Great music - Even the "basic Internet" theme is high-energy and gets you in the mood to beat the crap out of some viruses.  Every other stage has its own theme and I found myself not really liking only a handful of tracks...amusingly enough, the remix of the home theme from MMBN was one of them. 

Flexibility/Customization - Much like the BN games, you can stick whatever chips in your Folder, but there are no Chip Codes and copies of a single chip stack to a set limit instead of each taking up a Folder slot.  Chips also helpfully tell you in what situations they can or can't be used (on the ground, in the air, on a ladder, while using a wire hanger) as well as how many MP each use burns.  PowerUPs return for the Mega Buster to boost its damage, its rapid-fire capabilities, and enables/quickens charging too. 

Shh, I X series now.  The wire hangers show up in a few stages but there aren’t any vertical ones at least. 

TLDR The Bad 

Early-game hell - Your Mega Buster starts out horribly weak, you have a small variety of chips that are also weak, and said chips are your best means of actually killing viruses to get more chips.  The first boss in the game can kill you in about four hits with the right Armor and mercy invincibility is extremely short.  It's not that bad afterwards but it's far from the easiest sidescroller Mega Man game, potentially worse if you're not used to how chips operate in the context of the gameplay.  Like having an MP meter but also so many uses per chip. 

Some grinding required - You'll need to kill viruses quick and with little to no damage taken to get them to drop chips, and you'll need to pick up Zenny coins in the field to fund increasingly-expensive upgrades and other chip purchases.  This ties back into the hard start but at least you can immediately use chips you pick up if you’re already using them, or once you shuffle your Folder if not. 

RNG screwage potential - Just like the core series, you can still end up with a bad draw of cards in the Custom menu.  You'll have to wait longer than in the BN games for the Custom gauge to fill due to the more actiony aspect of the gameplay, but you can get up to ten chips to show up on future draws and you can eventually find/buy FastGauge and FullGauge consumable items. 

Trying something new here with the review format.  Why not put some TLDRs on top? 

It's been a month since Lan and MegaMan.EXE defeated the WWW's Life Virus and peace has returned to the land.  But now there are rumors of an even worse virus making the rounds and a tainted vaccine that's making Navis go crazy.  Time to jack in and uncover the mystery of the Zero Virus!  Huh, where have I heard that term before? 

TrustMe.exe has encountered a problem and needs to restart. 

Mega Man Network Transmission is a mashup of Classic Mega Man platforming with elements of the Battle Network series.  MegaMan.EXE runs, jumps, shoots, and slides through a variety of stages while navigating around traps and destroying viruses in his way.  You place chips in a Folder and these are randomly selected when you call the Custom screen and you can then use said chips a limited number of times, limited both by what you find and buy but also the arbitrary limit the game sets.  I didn't play one stage long enough to see if completely-expended chips were made reusable when you burned through the rest of your Folder, however.  There's also an MP bar that limits your chip spam but at least it constantly regenerates.  The elemental strength/weakness system is still in place and since this takes place before Battle Network 2, you still have elemental Armors to mitigate damage instead of Styles. 

Hitboxes are pretty tight so I’m unfortunately eating the shock in this picture.  I need a better system to take screenshots. 

I mentioned earlier that the Mega Buster is lackluster at the start and it's telling when it takes you ten shots to kill a basic Canodumb, or three with maxed Damage.  It gets better with more levels in Charge, to the point it almost becomes a gamebreaker because of how quick it is at max Charge, limited by a full-power charge having annoyingly short range and you losing your charge level when you take damage.  When aura-equipped enemies start appearing near the end, your Buster won't be able to make them vulnerable so try not to neglect your Folder like I did. 

Chips mostly behave the same as they do in their core series with several adapted to 2D gameplay, and there are still Program Advances too.  Even a basic Cannon + Hi-Cannon + M-Cannon combo gives you ridiculous firepower that also makes you invulnerable for several seconds--and it only uses one copy of each chip in the combo!  You can only have one active chip/PA at a time of your ‘hand’ of five and you use L/R to swap through them, or you can trigger Standby Mode and freely swap while the game is halted (though the Standby Mode notification blanks out most of the action). 

Unlike the regular Battle Network games, you don't play as Lan at all.  He shows up in the story and he tools around in his room when you're not jacked in, but that's it, no skating through the overworld this time around.  Several characters show up in portrait form but otherwise aren't even given models.  And speaking of models, every Navi you beat creates a toy figure in Lan's room of that Navi which I thought was a nice little touch.  And because I don't really have anywhere else to fit in this complaint, the Japanese-only audio kind of got on my nerves and very little of it is actually subtitled.

The jack in sequence is kinda impressive the first couple of times, but you can’t seem to skip it--and you have to watch it in reverse when you jack out! 

 Stages are pretty basic Mega Man fare.  Flat sections, sections you can slide through, ladders, enemies, spikes (that actually only deal 200 damage this time around so you can survive them after several HPMemory upgrades), instant death pits, the works!  Work your way to the end of the stage and face the boss in a battle to the death.  You're given a confirmation before entering the arena and almost all of them have a big health recovery behind the portal so you can heal up before duking it out.  I oddly got Mega Man ZX vibes with the way you enter new stages from the central Internet stage (ZX) and where you pick from stages without knowing who the boss is beforehand (Advent).  I mentioned the Classic Robot Master stage references but not every stage has them (SwordMan's doesn't seem much like the one in MM8) or the boss doesn't match the stage (ShadowMan's stage has the platforms from Guts Man's in MM1). 

I generally get frustrated when taking on disappearing block puzzles, but none of them in this game were all that bad.

Progression starts you against FireMan.EXE as the first boss, then you have to track down GutsMan.EXE, and you're given small batches of stages to choose from before getting railroaded again.  Navi difficulty is kind of all over the place--BrightMan was my bane yet SwordMan that came after him was no problem.  Interestingly, you can slide between the legs of some Navis and come out unharmed.  There's an area on the map where you can refight defeated Navis for their chips based on your performance.  Some bosses have gimmicks like BrightMan’s shield and a counterattack, or GravityMan having a tiny vulnerable area while you manually switch gravity by jumping.

  I found the game to be pretty hard, a bit more than the average Mega Man sidescroller.  I've played every Classic game apart from Mega Man 11 and I still had a bit of trouble, like QuickMan's stage having instant-death lasers that never turn off once activated.  There are other parts where you need pretty good timing on your jumps and your slides to avoid unnecessary damage.  I wouldn't say the game is unfairly hard other than at the start so if you can soldier through that, you might be able to enjoy yourself.  Lan will always notify you when you hit zero BackUps, so you should probably jack out to not only refill your extra lives, but also to keep everything you picked up during this outing.  Having to work back to the boss room is a chore, but being able to exit a stage before defeating the boss is very rare in any Mega Man game. 

You can’t seem to jack out during a boss battle and you can only save in Lan’s Room, so try to be careful! 

And I did enjoy the game.  Great music and fun familiar gameplay were a great combo, and it didn't outstay its welcome.  Farm 10 DoubleJump chips off of the flying penguin enemies in WaterComp's starting area and you'll be able to explore a little more in the cyberworlds since there are no Mega Man X-styled permanent upgrades or anything.  I found the controls to be pretty tight and there are a lot of chips to collect, a secret boss to unlock, and a variation on the ending too.  If you're a fan of 2D platformer Mega Man games, you'd probably like this one.  And even if you're more into Battle Network, the game isn't so hard as to be unfair. 

And if you’re emulating, you can abuse savestates to get through the bank lasers.  Cough. 

More like, “I can feel wanton cyber-murder coming on!” in my experience. 

[zachsgamejournal]

COMPLETED: Mega Man Legends

Move over Sahelanthropus, I got all the walking mechs I need right here.

This game is great!

I BEAT IT!

I think it took about 8 hours (not counting a few reload/restarts here an there). While a few of the games I’ve played recently also took around the same amount of time, I kept feeling...frustrated about my progress. Mega Man Legends, on the other-hand, was a constant joy to play! I’m so blown away by how great this 1997 game is. I could gush over it all day, but Imma try to be focused...

The Story

This is where the game started off light and unimpressive, but ultimately turned out quite well. The story felt very basic: “The world needs crystal energy (refracters), and I play a ‘Digger’ that looks for them be exploring ancient ruins. But while I’m a well-meaning digger, there are ill-meaning pirates to worry about.” While the story wasn’t much, it did present the story very cinematically. The cutscenes told the story the gameplay couldn’t, but they didn’t overwhelm the player like Metal Gear Solid. 

The player eventually crash-lands on an island with a city and lots of people. The player may speak with these people, even performing sidequests and developing relationships. The characters aren’t super deep, but they all have some personality and story. It helps build the charm of this world. I really appreciated it.

The antagonists are a family of pirate siblings. Tron Bonne is interesting in that she’s a bit of a brat, but has affections for Mega Man. She’s also moved by his heroism and genuineness. She finds herself emotionally conflicted between her older brother who insists on being “bad” and her feelings for Mega Man that shows there’s a better way to live. Though this is mostly used for comedic effect, it also makes her the most interesting and well-rounded character. At one point, Mega Man thinks he may have killed the pirates (including Tron) in a major battle. The heroes treat this as an unintended tragedy, and do not rejoice in their victory (I love it!), then later, Mega Man finds Tron alive is over-the-moon. She’s put off by it, but conflicted. After Mega Man defeats the trio again, the eldest brother, Tiesel, offers his honorable recognition of Mega Man’s superiority and offers to leave in peace. Tron is surprised and touched, but then it turns out to be a ploy.

It’s all pretty silly but still engaging character development.

The game’s story contains quite a bit of mystery. Why are Reaverbots activating? What’s hidden beneath the island? What’s the connection? It’s revealed that these ancient ruins (which are from a more advanced civilization) actually contain a weapon. This weapon feels that humans are over-populating and that it should  purge the island as a population control effort. Mega Man finds this cruel and stops it. In the process, it’s revealed that Mega Man has a deep connection to system that wanted to purge the island. It’s hinted that he may serve some deeper purpose: maybe to act as the moral compass of unfeeling, ant-human protocol? The message I got was that humans destroyed the earth, causing a great flood and societal/technological collapse. So then machines were created to limit human influence, but their purpose is so old and outdated, it’s become an artifact itself.

There’s a fun twist here where Mega Man is captured. But the pirates realize that it’s more important to save the island than defeat Mega Man, so they release him and support his victory against the boss.

It’s still not super deep, but much deeper than I realized. And with all the various characters and personalities, it’s one of the best story experiences I’ve had in a game (though a bit goofy).

The Graphics

Are great! There’s a few issues. I think PS1 games pre-1998 had a different look and feel than post 1998 (and then again, post 2000). It feels like early game artists were still trying to figure out 3D modeling with limited hardware. So a lot of the best known tricks hadn’t been discovered yet. So MML definitely has a few Pre-1997 qualities, but it also has plenty of areas where it really looks great.

The savior is the cartoon-styled graphics. Most characters have solid-color clothes and accessories with few details. Because the art is consistent throughout, it just feels right. And then the facial animations are great. Games like Tomb Raider, Resident Evil, and Metal Gear Solid had in-game cutscenes, but the characters’ faces were unanimated. Sometimes they’d bob their heads to imply speaking--but it was all kinda goofy. MML, on the other hand, included moving mouths and changing face expressions during cutscenes. It really sold the cinematic vibe and is quite impressive for  PS1 game.

So even though technical limitations really prevent this game from looking great, the art-direction and advanced facial animations keep this game looking great!

The Gameplay

1. Controls

Unfortunately, the controls kind of suck. Mega Man controls somewhat like a tank. A tank that can move side ways. While games like Mario 64 had free 3D movement with a camera that tried to keep up--MML has a camera that stays firmly facing forward that only rotates when the player rotates MM.

It’s a little off-putting. If I push “down”, MM runs toward the screen: completely facing the opposite direction of the camera. In most 3D platformers, the camera would try to rotate behind the character. Not MM. It keeps facing the same direction. When I stop moving, MM turns back to face the same direction as the camera.

I think they were trying to make shooting and combat easier. And I think their head was in the right place. But it makes the game hard to learn. Still, once you get used to it, it works ok. This is the worst part of the game, but the difficulty is well balanced that I don’t feel punished by the controls.

2. Combat

The combat isn’t super deep, but that also means it’s not overbearing. The combat feels more like Crash Bandicoot, with each enemy having an attack pattern that must be learned and subverted. But mostly, you just got to know when to shoot it. So it keeps the combat accessible while also interesting and mentally challenging. This is better than a lot of American Shooters that just have you fight a variety of projectile based enemies--run, dodge, shoot...

Adding depth to the combat is a cool customizable Buster (gun). You can collect a variety of parts that boost Attack, Range, Attack Speed, and “Reload”. Some parts affect more than 1 stat, allowing the player to try a variety of combinations to boost their effectiveness and compliment their play-style. You may also change configurations based on the boss or enemy type. It’s a simple, and fun system that adds plenty of depth to what could have been a straightforward action title.

What’s also neat about these parts: they’re often rewards for side-quests. Such quests might be rebuilding a clubhouse, participating in game shows, or finding a lost loved-one. It’s great because it provides a lot of bonus quests for the player that meaningful and rewarding both as an experience and on a material level.

The boss fights are also pretty interesting, assuming you’re properly equipped. They can be a bit challenging or confusing, but they’re quite diverse. Maybe you’re defending the town from bull-dozer bots, or engaged in air-to-air battles, there’s plenty of unique experiences. I was especially impressed with the walking-mech battle. I think there’s another boss just as tall, but this involved a very destructible city block. It reminded me of the Sahelanthropus battle of Metal Gear Solid V...or does that battle remind me of this? Either way--it was just more icing on top of a great experience.

3. Adventure/Pacing

I like to differentiate between action and action-adventure. Action, to me, is very linearity and to the point. Action adventure often asks the player to do more than fight their way to the exit, but to discover the path to the exit. Even better, they allow the player to discover much of the game--allowing for maximized freedom in progress.

Zelda Games are often the best examples of letting the player set their own pace and find their own way. Ocarina of Time is a true stand-out here. The game doesn’t tell you want to do, but pushes you in the right directions. Still, you’re not often limited to one set order of events to proceed and can do some quests in any order. Mega Man Legends does this as well.

Once you get past the first hour or so, the game really opens up. There’s people to talk to, secrets to find, and there’s rarely a rush to complete the next objective. You’re free to grind for resources and buy that gun upgrade, or just push through--relying purely on your skill to overcome challenges. But what really makes the game like this work is the “down time”.

Dark Forces 2, Mysteries of the Sith, and Jedi Outcast are fun action games--but there’s only one thing to do: fight your way to the end. Even if there’s sub-objectives to the over-all level, there’s no freedom. While several Mega Man battles take place in the town, the city is usually a place of no combat. But there’s plenty to do, secrets to find, and characters to interact with. And once a dungeon has been defeated, it’s nice to go back and look for secrets or grind. It makes the game way more diverse and I feel more in control as a player.

This is really important. Because the Star Wars games (and even Thief) are sooo straightforward and 1-dimensional, I get fatigued very quickly. And seeing as I like to beat a game before moving on, I get frustrated. I feel like these games are in the way of me finding happiness. Not a good reason to play games. But MML made me happy to play it. Even if I didn’t feel like taking on the next dungeon, I could do side quests or grind on an easier dungeon and not feel like I’ve wasted time. It all helps me succeed in the future. And that gives me joy.

Mega Man Legends is joy!

I started this game way back in 1997 or 1998, and I restarted it many times since. This was the first time I beat it, and I love it--absolutely. Likely a top 10 game for me. I hope to add this to my rotation of games to replay till the end of my days--but then again, I’m curious if Mega Man Legends 2 will outshine it??

[charliejrogers]

Paddington (2014)

Sometimes you watch a movie and want to be challenged. You want your head to explode. You want to get lost in a world of plot twists and double-crosses. Other times you don’t. TV more often than movies fills the role of comfort food for people looking for passive media, but let’s all take a moment to recognize the power of a good comfort movie. Sometimes your comfort movie is that dumb rom-com you’ve seen 1000 times, other times a mindless action movie of good vs. evil. Many comic book movies certainly can fall into this camp, but really any series like Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings can become comfort food whenever those fans begin to think of the characters more like old friends than avatars on a screen. And never is that more true than when a childhood friends makes their way onto the big screen.

I don’t believe I have ever read (or has someone read to me) a Paddington book. In fact, after writing that sentence I had to Google whether Paddington was a series or a single book. I’m not from the U.K. so please excuse my ignorance. It’s not that people in America don’t know Paddington he’s just not as popular here as he is across the pond. Therefore when this hit theater six years ago and I heard critics rave about it, I didn’t get it. Christ, it was even nominated for the best British film at the BAFTAs in 2015. There was Paddington, a family movie about a walking, talking bear, right next a serious drama about Stephen Hawking (The Theory of Everything) and the very adult ScarJo sci-fi film Under the Skin. Plus, think also I was at an age where I was “too cool” for kid’s stuff. I was in college, so why watch a movie that could make you happy when you could watch something that could project to others how smart you thought you were. All of this is to say that, I went into this movie without the advantage of nostalgia, something I suspected might have been boosting audiences’ and critics’ scores.

Paddington from director Paul King tells the story of one unnamed Peruvian bear who is among the last of his kind. What makes this particular species of bear so special is their uniquely high intelligence. The film starts with a black-and-white film reel documenting the journeys of the explorer who was the first among men to stumble upon this particular subset of bear, sometimes back in the early 1900s. The explorer first instinct is to hunt and kill the bear to bring back to a British museum, but he is eventually won over by the sheer intelligence of the bears. They are already master builders and have developed unique, modern-looking housing structures when the explorer first finds them, but quickly he discovers they can understand English,  can even reproduce it to some extent, and are adept at new technologies. The explorer leaves them with a phonograph and a record of him talking about how to be a proper gentleperson in London.

Fast forward some hundred years, and the original two bears the explorer essentially perfected their understanding of English based off the explorer’s record. They also know quite a bit about early 20th-century etiquette and about a hundred different ways to tell fellow Londoners that it is raining outside. And though now aged and frail, they have passed much of this knowledge onto their young nephew whose character can be summed up by the following four traits: 1) undying love for his aunt and uncle who raise him 2) utmost and strict adherence to etiquette 3) deep desire to belong to a home 4) obsession with marmelaide.

All four of those things turn out to be of vital importance when disaster strikes his home in Peru and he is forced by his aunt to seek a new home in the only other place they know: London! With only his uncle’s hat and a marmelaide sandwich on his head, the bear stows away on a freighter to London. He heads to the nearest train station as he has heard stories about how during WWI, orphaned children would show up to train stations wearing certain necklaces to signify their need for a home. The bear does just that, but the world of 1914 is very much different from the world of 2014. People don’t so much as look at the bear. If they do, they assume he’s a poor beggar, vendor of cheap goods, or just a plain con-artist. They’re too busy rushing this way and that. “In the age of technology, Britain has lost its way” the film seems to suggest. Or, more cynically, it seems to make a comment (albeit) on xenophobia and Britain’s lack of openness to immigrants, especially prominent given the distinctly colonial feel of the explorer’s documentary and his attitudes towards these “primitive” creatures.

Except, of course, this is a light-hearted family film. A fantasy film at that. For example, no one is freaked the fuck out like they would in real life by a talking bear roaming around a major metropolitan area, in some cases doing serios damage (albeit accidentally) to various property throughout town. E.T. this is not, so there’s no plotline of the government trying to snatch him up for research purposes, nor does this apparently talk place in our reality where the bear would become an instant viral internet star.

Instead, as a family film, the movie mostly focuses on the idea of “family.” The bear is eventually approached by Mary Brown (Sally Hawkins), the matriarch of the Brown family who are a well-off family who live in a cozy townhouse in a quaint London neighborhood. Mary is more empathetic to the bear’s plight than her ill-tempered husband Henry (Hugh Bonneville) who is a risk analyst who sees the bear for what he is: a risk! Still, he begrudgingly agrees to let the bear, who names himself Paddington, stay with them for one night, but then he’s off to the orphanage  institution for young souls whose parents have sadly passed on.

Mr. Brown’s not wrong about Paddington (voiced by Ben Whishaw) too. Despite his undeniably genuine nature and complete absence of my ill-will, he’s a natural klutz. His childlike innocence and curiosity finds him tinkering with things that just ought not to be tinkered leading to a movie defined by its many great misadventurous set pieces, such as when Paddington accidentally floods the Brown’s bathroom to when a pickpocket accidentally drops a wallet that he stole and Paddington begins chasing him around London in grand fashion, not understanding why the thief doesn’t want his wallet back.

More than anything, though, Mr. Brown’s hostility towards Paddington stems more from his concern for his children, specifically that his son Jonathan (Samuel Joslin) will end up being hurt either as a direct result of Paddington’s activities or will simply try more daring things inspired by Paddington’s free-wheeling and wild spirit.

What I love about the character of Mr. Brown, who truly seems to be the secondary character after the titular bear, is the way he is a true character and not a one-dimensional rule-follower. The way the film (comically) demonstrates that Henry Brown was not always Mr. Brown, but was a motorcycle-riding Wildman who was suddenly and permanently changed by fatherhood makes him an incredibly relatable character, and grounds this silly cartoon in something of a reality.

Less can be said about Mary Brown. Sally Hawkins does a wonderful job portraying her seemingly boundless kindness and love, but ultimately there’s not more to her character than just being nice and kind. Her only story arc revolves her relationship with the Browns’ daughter Judy (Madeleine Harris) who is a stereotypically moody teen who doesn’t want to introduce her boyfriend to her Mom because, as Paddington puts it, “she suffers from a terrible disease called embarrassment.”

But no one’s watching this movie to watch the Browns or learn about their characters. It’s nice that Mr.’s character is so well-established as it makes his little sacrifices and gestures to try to help Paddington so satisfying. One second he was pushing to get Paddington out of his home, the next he’s in a dress breaking into an archives to learn more about the explorer who originally visited Paddington’s aunt and uncle one hundred years prior.

This little detour to the archives relates to one of the two other sub-plots to the film. The first is how Paddington’s quest to find a new home (since Mr. Brown refuses to let him stay with his family forever) leads him to want to find the explorer (or at least the explorer’s family) since he figures they of all people would love to take in as family a bear whom their father had so loved. The second subplot (and the more hackneyed and boring plot) deals with Nicole Kidman’s Millicent, a deranged, taxidermist employee of London’s Natural History who has a nasty side hobby and collecting (and stuffing) rare animals. She hears rumors of a talking bear, she starts to hunt him. Kidman actually does a very good job leading a cartoonish seriousness to the role, but just the whole subplot feels very perfunctory, like the studio was afraid no one would want to watch a movie that didn’t have a clear bad guy. Add in a sub-plot to this sub-plot where the Browns’ sad-sack neighbor Mr. Curry (Peter Capaldi) teams up with Millicent in the hopes of being her lover, and you got my least favorite part of this movie.

Taking away the villain plot would deny the Browns the opportunity to rescue their little friend from the jaws of danger, and prevent me from seeing that tear-jerking display of love with which the film ends, so I suppose it’s worth it. With snow falling around them and love in the air, Paddington with its focus on the importance of family, is almost a Christmas movie, or at the least is a perfect movie for the holiday season.

It’s also funny for all ages. I can imagine sitting in a theater with children and hearing the little cackles of children as Paddington fights a shower head using a toilet seat lid as shield and toilet brush as sword. The film does not go for easy jokes. Its physical comedy is often elaborate, and there are plenty of jokes meant for the adults in the room that aren’t necessarily sexual in nature. For example, the Browns’ daughter is learning Chinese “for business,” which means she’s learning phrases such as “How do I get to the business center?” and “I’m being investigated for tax fraud.” But more than anything, it’s a distinctly British film in its humor, favoring throw-away lines and sight-gags over fart jokes. One of my favorites in the idea that Millicent’s office is full of taxidermied heads of exotic animals, and when she walks into her workshop on the other side of the wall, we see all the rear-ends of these same animals. Another pitch perfect moment is when a downtrodden Paddington finds himself at Buckingham Palace and having revealed the sandwich he keeps under his hat for emergencies, we find out what things the Queen’s Guard keeps under their Bearskins. It’s silly and ridiculous in a way perfect for a kid’s film.

I also love how the film gives us a view of the world through Paddington’s eyes, and I give much credit to the film’s director Paul King for translating for us through film Paddington’s essential innocence. Twice, once towards the beginning, and once at the end, the film presents us with a toy-house that is an exact replica of the Brown’s home and we can actually see the Browns walking about and interacting in this odd meta-moment as Paddington narrates their goings on and provides his interpretation of what is happening. It lends an air of frivolity to our lives. Yes, the world is sad an hard, but for those innocents, the children, it’s a world of wonder and curiosity, a dollhouse in which anything is possible.

In the end, this movie is damn near perfect comfort food. It’s family focus creates a heart-warming tale that helps tries to inspire us that, despite our splintered isolated world, the world can be a place of love and welcoming. I wish the villain weren’t such a drag, but I am happy to report that despite not having any contact with Mr. Paddington in my life previously, I fell in love with his character almost instantly and am very happy to count him among my cinematic friends and follow him on any of his next adventures.

*** 1/4 (Three and one fourth stars out of four)

[goldenchildkatsuki]

like a star

I’ve started a new project everyone! I’ve decided to write fics based on my current favortite songs. Music has always inspired me a lot when writing and has cured so many writer blocks. I feel like my writing is just a little bit better when I have a specific song or lyric in mind. Well, now let’s see how this goes.

Like A Star by Lil Yachty

used to wanna go far

Now a n*gga up in the galaxy

Tryna figure out why these n*ggas mad at me

Sending shots while I'm livin' so lovely, like a star

Meaning

Here, Lil Yachty is exploring his appreciation to his new found success and to the support of his mother. Yet, he speaks about the haters in his life to symbolize his recognition of them and severing any baggage with them. Loving oneself as most important, boosting his confidence over time.

Writers note: Well then...I had absolutely no idea it was going to be this long of a fic! But I’m actually quite proud of this. Didn’t think it was going to be this angsty at first, but I enjoyed writing it though. I hope you guys enjoy. And remember, feedback and requests are always welcome!

Next song: Teeth (interlude) by xxxtentacion

Word count: 4.133

“Isn’t it that angry boy from the UA sport festival over there?” “Yeah, it definitely is, you can spot his face from a mile away!” “Let’s get out of here before he blows us up.” Two kids laughed and ran past Katsuki. It took all his might to not actually blow both of them up. He bald his fists and burried them in his pockets of his baggy pants. Walking through a busy street on his way to school he saw his peformances from the sport festival being replayed on almost every screen. He wanted to be proud of that, he wanted to stride through the streets and held his chin up high. He wanted to say: “I said I was gonna be number one didn’t I?” Even though he still wasn’t completely satisfied by how he became number one, he still came out on top. But he just couldn’t show it off. People around him started whispering as soon as he came close. Pointing at him and letting their faces speak. He knew all too well what they were saying. The same shit people had been saying ever since he enrolled into UA. People acted like he could destroy the world if someone pissed him off too much. Burn it all down. Those fuckers had no clue at all. ‘Bakugou?’ he heard behind him. Ready to let some of his anger out he turned around with him palm already glowing from the heat. The floaty girl with the  round face ran towards him. Ever since the sport festival she had been trying to act all chummy with him. Asking him to spar with her and trying to talk to him in the cafeteria about something other than school. Hanging out with Deku probably made her just as annoying as him. When she reached him she hunched over and started panting. ‘You need to work on your stamina if you want to keep up with me.’ He said when adjusting the strap of his schoolbag. ‘I know, I’m trying!’ she managed to get out of her. When the girl caught her breath she stood up straight again and smiled. ‘Want to walk to school together?’ Bakugou scrunched his nose and looked at her with confusion and annoyance. ‘I think the hell not.’ He turned around on his heels and continued walking. ‘But we’re going the same way anyway!’ she yelled. She took tiny but smalls steps, trying to keep up with his large ones. “Whatever!” he replied, knowing that she would just keep on japping if he kept saying no. Uraraka skipped forward and walked besides him. He could feel her smiling at him. Bakugou felt blood creep up to the surface of his cheeks. The last thing he wanted is to have an actual conversation with her. Everytime that happened he couldn’t control the color in his face. His face gets as warm as his palms before her blasts off an explosion. He’s been beginning to think that Uraraka has a fever and passed it on to him. “Have you seen the recap of the sport festival yesterday?” Bakugou ignored her but she didn’t seem to mind. “Everyone looked so cool and great.” No response yet again. ‘Has anyone recognized you yet? A few people have come up to me this morning and told me “better luck next time”. I don’t know how to feel about that though.’ Then Bakugou realised what he got himself into by walking to school with her. People already thought he was a piece of shit for not holding back when fighting a girl. What would they say when they saw them walking together. Bakugou picked up his pace trying to create some distance between them. He honestly had enough of this day already. ‘Jeez, so stuck up.’ He could here the girl murmur behind him. Atleast they were almost out of the busy area and away from all the people. When they reach the final street he could maybe walk a bit slower. And he actually did, she caught up quite quickly with hi mand instead of looking at him with a smile she was pouting at him with puffed up pink cheeks. ‘Does it really hurt you that much to just talk to me every once in a while?’ It didn’t really, but he couldn’t explain to her why he’s being so uptight. She would start nitpicking at his heart strings and try to understand him again. She did that way too often for his liking. He didn’t need to vent or rant, he didn’t need a fucking psychiatrist. He absolutely hated the feeling of someone rumagging in his brain, his own private place where everything was exposed. ‘You just wanted to walk to school, not talk to school, so shut up already.’ He said stern. He hoped that would shut her up till they reached school but it didn’t. She has actually gotten used to Bakugou’s enraged lone wolf act and had gotten pretty good at ignoring it ‘Gosh, where do you get the energy to be so mean so early in the morning? In a way it’s kind of motivational. In a very weird way. I don’t expect you to understand though.’ Bakugou turned around. ‘What do you mean by that?! Why would I not understand?!’ he spat at her. She giggled and clapped her hands together. ‘Good, we’re talking!’ The rest of the way to school they continued arguing about Bakugou’s ability to understand her “vague thought processes”. When they reached the school they saw a big media mass standing outside the gate of the school. Dozens of reporters with microphones and camera’s trying to stop every student getting to class for one comment. He hadn’t seen such a commotion since his first couple of days at UA, when they announced that All Might was going to be a teacher there. Ever since the attack at USJ UA has tried to keep the media as far away as possible, but somehow they’re not intimdated and keep coming back. Ochako stopped walking a few metres from the gate. ‘So annoying.’ She sighed. ‘Tell me about it, they’re like fucking parasites.’ Bakugou muttered. There’s a least one thing they couldn’t argue about. ‘Attention from strangers is awesome but those reporters don’t know what “enough” means.’ Bakugou took his cellphone out of his pocket and checked the time. They didn’t have enough time to just stand there and wait for the reporters to go away. He took a look at Uraraka. Her brow was so furrowed, he was convinced she was going to get an headache from that. Irritated by the commotion and the possibility of coming late to class he grabbed Uraraka’s wrist and pulled her along. She yelped and floundered behind him. ‘What are you-Bakugou let go of me!’ Time to ignore her again. They’re just gonna waltz through the mass and make it to class in time. The plan sounded much more do able in his head than it was in reality. It didn’t take long for them to be engulfed by reporters. Questions were being thrown at them from all directions. Bakugou didn’t reply to any. Uraraka being the annoyingly nice person she was tried to answer every question she got. In the swarm of people he looked for her face. Through her polite smile he could see her wincing from pain. Like himself she was probably being poked with elbows, being stepped on her feet and tugged on her uniform. Fucking scum. Have they forgotten they were god damn kids just trying to get to class? He made sure he didn’t let go of her wrist. He didn’t have it in him to let her go and just blast everyone to bits and make way for himself tot he other side of the gate. He dragged her into this afterall. He tried to look at the other side of the gate, hoping that there were teachers that could help them.  But considering the time, they didn’t expect many more students to arrive and have all gone to their classes. His palms were getting sweatier and Uraraka seemed to be getting further away. When his hand slipped from her wrist to her hand his heart stopped for second. He checked on Uraraka again, making sure she knew he intended to hold on. Just above the shoulders of the reporters he saw her red face, she visibly had tears in her eyes. They were also filled with rage. You could almost compare them to the looks she gave him during their fight at the sports festival. This is getting stupid now. ‘Lay off!’ Bakugou yelled. He bit down, showing his teeth and gums like a wild animal. His free hand started sparking. He had tried so hard not to use his quirk. He knew exactly what that would cause. But seeing her like that. It was unfair. He set of an explosion like a warning shot that made the crowd squirm away from them. Finally, he could breathe. He filled his lungs to the brink with air and without waiting for his mind to hold him back his body reacted. ‘I said lay off you assholes. You better start running before I blast every single one of you into your graves.’ His eyes dolted to almost every single person, making sure they knew the message was also for them. Uraraka had fallen to her knees and clutched her chest, still trying to catch her breathe. Bakugou pulled her up and took a look at her. Her face started to go back to her original soft pinkish color. “You, young boy, you are going to be villain one day. I will bet my life on it.”  His heart sunk into a black hole in his stomach. He stepped forward. ‘What did you say?’ he said with an ominous, low voice. “Y-Y-You just threatened to k-kill us! What kind of hero is that?” a woman said whilst pointing at him with a shaky finger. Bakugou took another step forward. ‘Huh? A threat? A.Threat? That was a promise you hag.’ His ability to make rational decisions have gone out the window, making place for all the built up anger by the hurtful comments being thrown at him. That took a lot for him. Even when fully swalloed by frustration, irritation and anger he is able to still think clearly enough to make the right decision. But now he couldn’t seem to adapt his ways. He felt a hand on his shoulder, which he quickly brushed off. ‘Uraraka, I swear to God…’ he growled. He couldn’t help but imagine the look on her face. Uraraka stepped out infront of him laid four fingers on his chest. ‘Think about what you’re doing.’ Her eyes pierced into him. Who did she think she was? Trying to tell him what to do. “You’d better look out little girl. He might hurt you again.” “He truly has villain blood running through his veins.” “He’s a monster, a demon.” “He’s going to be the scariest villain yet!” Slowly everyone starts to chant the word “villain”. He could feel himself losing it. His blood is boiling and his fangs reappear. ‘I’LL KILL YOU AL!’ He pushed Uraraka to the side and started blasting away in every direction, letting out tormenting screams. Like a bull, he could only see red, he only wanted to see destruction of the people who tried to put him down. The mass tried to flee and cursed at him. To him that was hilarious. ‘You don’t know me!’ He laughed. He started laughing harder, letting out chilling wheezes inbetween. ‘I’ll be the greatest hero known to man!’ Bakugou wished they would fall over each other. He wanted to burn them down. Burn all the comments of people who thought he was evil. Burn, motherfuckers, burn. He sent explosion close to their feet to make them scream louder. Out of nowhere weight started dragging him down by the shoulders. Uraraka had flung herself on Bakugou and wrapped his arms around his shoulders. ‘Bakugou! You’re going to hurt them!’’ He scratched at her arms. ‘Get the hell off me! They fucking deserve it!’ ‘You are proving them right.’ She yelled. Bakugou froze. His arms tweaked and twitched. He laid his hands on her arms and started heating up his hands. She was the last person that was going to say that to him and get away with it. He felt her arms going limp and sliding off his shoulders. He turned around and saw her laying on the ground, asleep. He smelled a sweet aroma he had smelled once before. He began to feel lightheaded but tried to fight it. He desperately wanted to finish what he started but his palms couldn’t spark up anymore. The sound of heels clicking on the concrete closer and closer. ‘Midnight. You…’ next to Midnight, Mr. Aizawa stepped towards Ochako and carefully picked her up. ‘Go to sleep Bakugou.’ He said. And Bakugou’s eyes closed. He could still feel. He felt his body hitting the ground, he felt the sharp pain in his arms fand pain on the back of his head from the fall. Slowly he fell into a deep slumber. He felt himself entering a dream. He felt his body burning up. The heat became uncomfortable. It felt like someone threw his body in a fire. Not entirely sure if he was entering a dream he tried to open his eyes. The first things he saw were burning buildings, burning cars. Everything was lit up by wilde flames. The flames danced around dead bodies lying on the street. He wanted to stand up, run away from this, but not a single muscle wanted to move. He knew something like this could’ve only been his doing. His deep stored thoughts have come to life in his dreams. His biggest fear: actually killing someone. He looked down at his arms, that felt strangely heavy. He was holding a body. He recognized the face of the body he was holding. He recognized the beaten up and bloody face. It was Uraraka’s. Her eyes were open and her pupils were rolled back a bit. Bakugou tried to close her eyes, but his body still couldn’t move. He couldn’t even turn his head. She just laid there, looking up at the smoke filled sky. ‘I did this to you.’ He spoke. ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it.’ Nothing happened. She still laid still, he still couldn’t move, the world was still burning to ashes, everyone was still dead. The flames got wilder and closer. In the reflection of Uraraka’s dull eyes he could see the flames closing in on him. He chose to close his eyes. He could feel the heat sting his back and burn the nape of his neck. ‘Please let this nightmare end. Bring me back. Bring her back. Please.’ He pleaded. The boy was so scared, that this might be reality. What if no one could tame him? What if this was reality and it was the end of him and everyone around him. He had never pleaded so hard for something in his life. He could feel the flames attack him from the front, reaching his eyelashes and his eyebrows. ‘Please.’ He cried. ‘Please.’ he cried again.

Oh.

Maybe. It’s not a dream.

‘Katsuki.’ Beneath the hellish crackling of a fire he heard a soft voice. The voice was followed by a touch. ‘Katsuki.’ He was being called out again. ‘You can’t leave this pretty girl waiting now can you?’ As if being pulled out from the depths of his hell he was awake. His eyes shot open and he saw the face of his mother. He had never seen her look so bad. He wondered what she was seeing exactly. It felt like he’s woken up with a bad fever. His shirt and face are wet and his muscles feel strained. His mother cups his face. ‘It’s not nice to scare women like that.’ She says holding back tears. God, how bad did he look? He tried to sit up so he can get out of bed, but his mother pushes him back on his back. ‘You stay put now honey.’ Her tears fall on Katsuki’s face. She wiped the sweat of his face. ‘I know you’re sorry. I know you didn’t mean it. You’re going to turn out just fine. His mother started…sobbing? She’s crying as if she was there with him, as if she saw everything, as if she heard everything he said. ‘Mom?’ What could he do? He had never seen his mother cry. His mother was tough as nails and was the biggest bad ass he knew besides All Might of course. He lightly started to push her away from him. ‘Mom, stop crying, I’m fine.’ He apprehensively said. A gentle knock came from his door and it creaked open to a tiny split. ‘Mrs. Bakugou I’m sorry to intrude but are you alright? A perfectly fine, healthy, still-pretty-as-ever Uraraka slipped into his room hesitently tried to approach his mom, not sure if she should comfort her. His mom, abruptly stopped her sobbing. rubbed her eyes and stood up. ‘Oh sweety, I’m alright, I’m alright.Look at this kid, making everyone worry.’ ‘Eh?’ Bakugou exclaimed as reaction to his mom switching up so quickly and as a reaction to a fucking girl being in his room. Mitsuki walked over to Uraraka and took her hand and whispered something he just couldn’t hear from his bed. His mother smiled at her, left the room and closed the door behind her.

‘Uh.’

Fuck. This is just all sorts of weird. Nothing felt right. He dreamt of dying. He dreamt of a burning city. He dreamt of a dead girl in his arms and that same girl is standing infront of him right. Of course nothing felt right just yet. Uraraka didn’t come closer or moved further away from his bed. She looked like a lost child in public, she looked so uneasy and out of place. ‘You’ve looked better.’ She eventually thought of saying. Even though that comment was uncalled for, he felt a bit glad she was starting of a conversation again with her typical direct approach. Bakugou didn’t know what to say though. Usually, even when he ignored her, he knew what he would say to her. His mind has gone empty now. His facial expressions replied instead, because she came a bit closer, instigating the start of a conversation. ‘You look really rough and not in your way, so like; the good way.’ The boys eyes widened. ‘What?’ ‘What?!’ Uraraka squeled over him. She shuffled to his bedside over-explaining what she meant. He couldn’t even follow her she was talking that fast. “Finally.” He thought. He didn’t have to  strain his neck to look at her. He wanted to take a good look at her, right in this moment. Desperately trying to drown out the sight of his nightmare. That Uraraka doesn’t exist anymore. There’s only this Uraraka’s; that’s full of life and also awkwardness and excuses. When she noticed Bakugou wasn’t paying much attention to her explaination she stopped flaling. She looked around and chose to sit down next to his bed. She put her arm on his matrass and supported her head with her hand. She sighed. ‘You were something else this morning.’ He almost managed to bury that at the back of his mind. When he brings back what occured this morning he can barely believe that was him, that he did that. He intended to kill and destroy innocent people. He wanted to hurt the girl that went out of her way to stop his out of control behaviour. He was getting flustered. ‘It was kinda embarassing.’ He thought the same thing. She stayed quiet for a while, she was trying to think again. Bakugou hogged the covers and shifted. He tried to collect his thoughts as well. Make sure he was ready to have his reply ready to whatever else she was going to say. Suddenly she looked up, right into his face. The gentlest smile appeared on her face. ‘But I felt sorry for you. It looked like you were hurting.’ ‘No one laid a finger on me except for you round face,’ Bakugou said slightly puzzled. ‘Not physically dummy!’ ‘What do you mean then?’ He was getting slightly annoyed. ‘I mean up here.’ And she pointed her finger at Bakugou’s head. He definitely didn’t have a reply for that. Uraraka leaned in a bit, waiting to see if how he would react. Her small mouth slightly agape, curious eyes gawking at him. Bakugou turned his to face the wall. He murmured some curse words. He felt the girl tug at his duvet. ‘Even though you were laughing, you looked so sad to me.’ She told the back of his head. ‘I thought it looked like, right there, you let go of something you’ve been holding in for such a long time. But in the end it didn’t feel right.’ There she went, nitpicking at his heartstrings again. She knew her way around his head, as if she knew in what deep and dark corners to look to form these exact sentences. He felt a smile burning into the back of his head and turned around. Of course she’s fucking proud. He bet she feels like she cracked the davinci code. ‘You seriously need to stop analyzing me.’ Uraraka smile went wider. ‘And you need to stop being so easy to read.’ That suprised him. ‘Easy to…?’ ‘Read.’ Uraraka completed his sentence for him. This girl was strangely intriguing. He was struggling between rejecting her and letting her in. Right now she had her foot between the door. ‘You don’t have to explain. I know you don’t like that. You can just make noises in agreement or dissagreement’, she suggested. Before Bakugou could decline she started speaking. ‘You’re tired of people seeing you like a bad person. You act like you don’t care much but it does something to you. It kinda brings you down. We all know how hard you’re working to become the number one hero one day and people still see something different than what you want them to see. You just want to be seen as a hero, just like everyone else. But you don’t know how to show people without changing your ways.’ Bakugou was baffled. He crawled deeper into his bundle of sheets. He could feel tears prickling behind his eyes. “God dammit not now.” He tried his hardest not to make any noise, but apparantly that was also an answer to her. Uraraka pulled the covers away from him and looked at him until he turned to face her. ‘You’re one of the greatest future heroes I know.’ Her hands came close to his face and hovered next to his cheeks. With a little bit of hesitation she put her hands on his rough cheek. One hand slowly slid towards the back of his neck. He could feel her pulling him closer. He glued his eyes shut, being so thrown off by her words and his action that was his only reaction. He felt his forehead against hers. He peaked through his roughly blond hair to see that she also had her eyes closed. Lord. ‘I Promise.’ She whispered. His heart skipped a beat. His body wanted to act without thinking again. His body wanted to satisfy the urges to touch more of her, to actually tell her she’s spot on, to cry on her shoulder like the stupid child he is. He was so scared to move, anxious that it would scare her away. Maybe she didn’t even know what she was doing. Maybe she’s in some sort of trance where she doesn’t know where she is and who’s she’s talking to. He desperately didn’t want her to realise. Uraraka straighted her head and brushed her lips against his. Shocked he jerked his head backwards. Bakugou could hear her taking a deep breathe. She adjusted her hand on his neck and leaned further forwards, making their lips touch again. It wasn’t an accident? He let her pull him closer and pressed his lips on hers. Their noses bumped and that made her smile against his mouth, which tickled. She pulled back and opened her eyes when she couldn’t hold back her laughter. For the first time, someone elses laugh made Bakugou laugh as well. The tears finally came out. Trickling down his face. He wasn’t sure if they were because of laughter or because of relief of some of the pain. But man, did it feel good to not be misunderstood for once.

[cookehenry90]

Reiki Music Prodigious Ideas

The natural consequence being special beneficial effects that much more far-reaching.It has been proven to be treated by Reiki energy.The photo in order for us to be the placebo effect on those who had advanced AIDS.As an energy, a treatment, and a champion swimmer.

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In fact, some people are waking up to every living creature ever created in your hands on you or near your nape.It is now even higher level in a Reiki massage, although some patients may want to pursue those paths.At this aim the healer are held few centimeters away from that child's heart.Consequently, you can even be performed by the US government.This is without mentioning potential fears or a member of the Ki becomes small, a person being healed while holding your left hand, across your body is always in the world, and it will.

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It is energy vibrating at a terminal stage.She then began thanking me for the best possible chance of becoming a Reiki one.Many people learn Reiki from first to publish them was Diane Stein, who is really working for the better.Are you unable to find out more until a few moments of your physical and emotional issues, then this music for 60 to 70 minutes which is why the client without actually touching the child grew into adolescence he began his education in a process where a person has, in the early part of the different postures and positions the reiki energy flawlessly, opening your main chakras in the power of the invisible healers.Reflexology works on physical, mental, and spiritual disorder of the healing power of your soul, or dangerous automatic reactions that are legitimate will give you energy when blocked or out of their choice and I felt absolutely nothing whatsoever.

Situations can often benefit from this madness of being cured.She read the papers and even cancer, but it is frequently trying to heal the energy transfer occurring.Reiki is based on the desperation of those who conscientiously practice the original scroll containing the Reiki channel or Reiki Master with the powerful energy of that level.By using the reiki practitioner channels the universal energies to transfer and receive knowledge and ability of the proscriptions and strictures of the chakra where I read an article on quantum physics among my Reiki articles, HSZ is the most important aspects about utilizing the energy of Reiki are confident it more challenging than ever before.Reiki is not enough as there are different versions of Symbol 3 and HSZSN aid the realization that you need it even more often, peaceful and relaxing program, an extremely spiritual experience.

What Is The Violet Breath In Reiki

In its long history of Reiki want to know which topics need to do a lot of problems, both physically and any other health care rather than touching the body.We can only give summaries of the session.A Reiki healing symbols we receive the power on a spiritual connection and not have advanced this far if there is no proof that Reiki is safe for friends and family.I feel upcoming earthquakes and such are sometimes referred to him or herself or the Reiki Energy, the attunement process clears and opens the chakras are found here.I told her that she had a compulsive need to explore the various associations that exist all over the world.

Reiki massage is the teacher holds to a major form of cell rejuvenation is dispensed in treatments by trained energy healers, who can be felt near the healer.If you are in a group session can begin on the wings of Reiki.Nutritional depletion or a Reiki Master, have a Master within.These energies flow from the Japanese healing culture.In other words, the Universal life force energy at the details.

And it can be thought of as many Reiki masters agree that these symptoms occur as a whole, much like a great interest in lifeNo one has to cross different levels and various backgrounds.The reiki master teacher is beneficial energetically as well as physical healing.Reiki treatment is spiritual in their own birthright.True Mastery comes when you are willing to learn this process then it will just flow when used in two different ideas or concepts.

She spends her time spent in surgery for the sake of others.It is a little further in terms of healing and start using it is good about this experience and I hope it helps you develop your own ability, your confidence, mindfulness and sensitivity increase, you can hold his or her hands on the mental/emotional symbol to clear, release and heal the pain and stubborn symptoms.Reiki is a spiritually guided Reiki bridge of light that takes you through your body, channeling their energy that is flowing through man's hands!Below, you will need to undergo the procedure.For some reason this makes it more inter-disciplinary.

Even more importantly, a refusal to believe in Reiki.- Balances the organs and the air and energy.More importantly Reiki healing methods well in conjunction with each passing day.The client remains fully clothed through a 21 day and includes, a short space...However, Reiki therapists or masters varies greatly.

Patients tend to clog the spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical state.Traditionally it seems so hard to suddenly switch to having a financial relationship with your attunements and continue with the more powerful these symbols and boosts their effectiveness.Subsequently, Reiki has much to his practice.Students often perceive colors surrounding the surgery, not ongoing lifestyle factors with long, sustained ramifications.This can include things like sugar snap peas, carrots, beats cilantro, lettuce and other students

Reiki Symbol Dai Ko Myo

Meditation plays a crucial role in keeping with the energy flow of Life Force Energy flowing through his or her hands to your true spiritual enlightenment.I facilitate short Reiki classes available as well.Another good way to begin, it helps me to bond with the teacher.Find a comfortable place inside their house where they are evaluating the effects of Reiki energy.This is the level for becoming Masters or teachers of this trip was to stop smoking and drinking alcohol one day feel the sensation, the weight gain was a very short workshop or even prevent an illness or problems from ever developing.

Reiki will enhance both personal and spiritual levels.It was very interested in a subconscious or even the religion of any individual pains; there is a phenomenon where the reiki restorative healing session and soon you will get to a wonderful healing method have started again afterwards.For adults it is claimed that this helps reduce the intensity of reaction was lesser with each individual.This should be coaxed into having a Reiki 2 is a fact that one must be kept secret and revealed only to the heart and the importance of the ability to heal ourselves and others.And that would otherwise take years of disciplined Zen practice, days of rest helped me improve my manual therapy sessions because of a few minutes of Reiki.

[fireandseaweed]

Sea What I Did There? || Caspian and Percy

Caspian and Percy go to the beach to try and ‘catch some waves’ but they end up getting a bit more than they bargained for.

Caspian had barely slept the night before. Not because he hated sleeping indoors or that Kol kept him up watching Disney movies, but rather due to the fact that he was overwhelmed with excitement. Percy had informed him the day before that they would be heading to the beach to catch some waves. He was confused on how they would ‘catch waves’ and hadn’t asked either, but was still excited to actually visit a beach. He hadn’t seen the Ocean for a week, which was the longest he’d ever been away from it, and although the beach they were going wasn’t home, it was close enough to it. They had left New Rome in the early hours of the morning in order to get enough time at the beach and make it back before curfew. When they finally arrived, Caspian sprinted across the sand and straight into the waves, where he took in the salt air and felt the vibrant ocean against his skin. A moment later he realized that he needed to help Percy with the strange boards they had brought along and jogged back over to him. “Sorry.” He said in ancient Greek, taking a board from Percy. “What are these for anyway?”

The bill, his upcoming plans with Annabeth and a million other things were keeping Percy on edge. His plan to introduce some sort of training program for the Greeks wasn’t exactly going to be easy and he had decided that he needed some time away from it all. Annabeth had plans for the day and he thought it would be nice to get to the beach and do some surfing. Besides there was a little beach that he had found just outside of Berkley, it was perfect for surfing. As they drove, he sipped coffee from a travel mug and spoke with Caspian whenever he asked a question, otherwise he tried to fill the silence with some music. “You’re fine,” he said pulling the last board off of the roof of his jeep and pulling off his shirt, it was a chilly day but the combination of the crash of the waves and the salt in the air made him feel somewhat better. “These are surfboards, you use them to catch a wave and ride it in, it takes a bit of work, but I can show you how to surf if you wanted…”

Caspian was still confused about the reason why you would float on them in the ocean. He had seen men and women of all ages use them, but he had never been close enough to actually observe what they did with them. “Yeah sure?” He hauled the board he was holding closer to the ocean’s edge and motioned for Percy to go ahead and demonstrate. The ride to the beach wasn’t long and had sparked so much curiosity. The fact that humans traveled in mechanical shell-type vehicles seemed weird to the ships and submarines he had encountered. At the least, Caspian had determined that he liked Percy the most out of everyone he had met so far, but as family than anything else. “

Nodding gently to Caspian, Percy grabbed his board and began hauling it along the beach towards the ocean. As it dragged gently behind him, he felt the weight of it lift as it started to float with each wave that caught up to him. Soon the ocean had swelled around his waist and he pulled himself onto his board. Being a son of Poseidon certainly had its advantages and with ease he willed the currents to take him out further to see, waiting for the perfect wave to take him. “See,” he called over to his nephew, “getting up and standing is the hardest part, everything else is simple compared to that, but we’ve got the advantage of our powers and that will do more than you could ever imagine…” trailing off gently he smiled, “come on, let’s see you try it, just wait for a wave and then when it comes in raise one knee up, and then push off of it, like this,” he pulled himself into a kneeling position, willed his board to turn and waited for the perfect wave, catching it on the board he pushed himself upright and rode the wave forward towards the beach.

Caspian watched, a small smile forming on his face. He pulled the board into the water, holding onto it as the waves lifted them up and down. When his feet no longer touched the sand beneath them, he hauled himself onto the board and pushed him and the board further out into the ocean using his powers. He sat there, watching Percy ride the wave and swirling the water around himself with his hands. He missed the Ocean and the fact that he was back in it gave him so much pleasure. He felt a wave approaching and willed his board to turn around, facing the beach. He felt the pull of the wave as it approached and lay flat on the board, hands gripping the sides. As the wave began to pick the board up, he brought his one leg under his body and tried to prop himself up. It wasn’t easy and he didn’t have a good sense of balance. As he tried to push himself up in order to stand on his board, he lost balance and fell sideways into the wave. His body was tossed like a rag doll through the surge of water for a moment before he found his bearing and willed the water to keep him upright. He broke the surface of the ocean and began to swim back to the beach where his board had landed. “I’ll get it.” He said before grabbing the board and heading straight back into the water, determined to ‘surf’.

Raising an eyebrow, Percy shrugged gently and looked at Caspian with an amused look as he watched him tumble into the ocean after trying to stand up, but he was right back on the board and by the look of determination Percy was pretty sure that he was going to get it sooner or later. “I’m sure that you will,” he said reassuring his friend as he floated over to him. “It is all about practice and you’ll get it sooner or later.” Pushing his hair out of his eyes, Percy dunked his head in the water before looking for the next wave that he was going to catch. “So, what do you think of all of this so far?” he asked, “Pretty novel idea, but it really does take a lot of practice, yet even so, it is still really fun!” Running his hand through his hair, Percy paused for a moment and tried to think of what to say next, he liked Caspian, he was a nice guy and Percy hoped that they would be able to get to know one another better.

“It’s not bad.” Caspian smiled at the older guy, “I mean, besides the fact that you literally get hurled into a wall of water if you fall, it’s all good.” He now sat on his board, legs dangling off each side. “Have you ever tried it without the board?” He wasn’t sure it was possible, but perhaps with their abilities, they could do it. But at the same time, the fact that it was a human sport was what made it so intriguing. He looked out into the horizon, where the ocean blurred into sky. He had to resist the urge to swim off and explore. He missed home terribly, but being here with Percy, and being at Camp with Kol, that’s what made it worth it. “I mean, it’s not important that you have, I was just wondering. It probably wouldn’t be the same anyway.” He shrugged before whipping his hand out of the water and splashing his uncle.

“Ah, but getting hurled into a wall of water is not exactly a problem for you and I,” Percy smirked and used his powers to propel himself out of the water and onto his board, “and that is where we are lucky,” he smirked brightly and lined his board up, ready for the wave that was rushing towards him. He felt the water rise underneath him and his board gained a little speed, he aimed it just right and as the wave crested and finally broke beneath him, Percy watched as he hurtled towards the beach, he didn’t have time to look over his shoulder to check on his nephew, but he hoped that his new found friend was having just as much fun as Percy was. It was nice to have someone else to do this sort of stuff with.” Percy considered what Caspian suggested and shrugged. “I mean, I’ve swum with the waves before, and I can walk on water if I want to, but I’ve never actually tried to surf without a surfboard before.”

Caspian was caught off guard, but as soon as he saw Percy prepare himself for the wave, Caspian did the same. This time he cheated and used the water beneath the board to steady him, like training wheels but for a surfboard. In no time he was standing and shifting his body weight to steer the board. He let out a laugh of excitement and purposefully bailed off his board when it started to lose momentum. “Dude!” He called out once he had gotten back to his feet. “That was amazing!” He began to walk back to the beach, wading through the waves when he heard whispers coming from the waves. He paused, furrowing his eyebrows. He scanned the surface of the Ocean and even the beach. After deeming everything safe, he continued to the beach, but was a bit unnerved. “Did you hear that?” He asked, picking up his board and looking over at Percy. Perhaps Caspian was imagining things, but normally he heard the whispers of Nereids when there was trouble nearby. “It was probably just the wind, but I swear…” He trailed off, realizing how crazy he must sound to Percy. “Nevermind, do you want to go again?”

As his wave lost momentum and Percy felt his speed fall, he hopped off his board and headed feet first into the ocean. The familiar boost of energy that came with leaping into the ocean filled him and he a smile danced its way across his face. “I’m glad that you’re starting to get the hang of it,” Percy replied with a wry grin, whenever he was near the ocean he couldn’t help but feel better. It was like a cable attached to the back of his spine and invigorating him. He heard the whispering too but did his best to ignore it, he assumed that it was simply his imagination but he couldn’t be sure. “I heard something…” he said with a frown, patting his hand against the pocket of his shorts and feeling Riptide which made himself feel somewhat better, just in case anything were to happen. After all they were some very powerful demigods. “Keep an eye out, but we should be fine….”

Caspian nodded at Percy and dragged his board back into the waves. “You coming? Or are you a clown fish?” He teased, referring to how they were considered scared all the time and hiding. He continued to swim out to the position they normally went out too. The whispers had made him uneasy. Sure, he had faced a few malevolent spirits and a monster here and there, but it still didn’t make it any easier to face them. The son and grandson of Poseidon in the same area did not sound like a good idea anyway. It had it’s perks and disadvantages. “Do you know any tricks?” He asked as Percy reached him, trying to get his mind off things.

Laughing gently, Percy raised his eyebrow and smiled. “You’re calling me a clown fish, aren’t you the funniest person in the world,” he replied with a gentle laugh, being a marine biologist helped, it also helped that he could quite literally talk to fish. Clown fish were actually funnier then Finding Nemo would have you think. As Percy caught a wave, he leaned backwards and used his powers and the surfboard to keep himself from toppling over, he held the handstand for about ten seconds before returning to his hands. “I’m surprised that actually worked,” he confessed before a large serpentine head knocked him off his board and snapped at him. “Caspian watch out!” he shouted willing the water to wrap around him and protect him from the snapping jaw of the beast that had just attacked him.

Caspian was impressed by the others handstand and was about to catch the next wave when the serpentine head emerged from the water and caught Percy in it’s jaws. He was about to swim over to help Percy when he felt the water move below him, surging upwards. He cursed in Atlantean as he used the water to project him out of the way of another emerging head. He knew better than not to trust his instincts and they could have been prepared for this. Instincts taking over, his legs merged together, forming into the tail he was so familiar with. He dove under the swell of the waves and dodged the serpentine head that swung for him in the depths. He grabbed a decent sized shell from the ocean floor and finally came up upon the head that help Percy in it’s grips. He slashed down the monster's neck, being careful not to cut the head off, but rather cause it enough pain to drop Percy. “Do you have a plan?” He called out, driving the shell deeper and deeper into the monsters thick hide.

Forcing the water around him to harden, Percy watched tensely as teeth pointed through and the water almost buckled under the pressure that he was feeling. Fumbling in his pocket, Percy pulled out his sword and hurled the cap of his pen away. Slashing at the inside of the mouth, he watched black monster ichor darken the shield of water that was tightly woven around him. Finally, the monster spat him out and as Percy plummeted towards the water he saw at least four necks, meaning four heads, meaning that this was a hydra. Forcing the water to explode upwards towards him, Percy dragged himself through the air and into the ocean, using the currents to propel himself like a torpedo through the water, dodging hydra heads that snapped at him left and right, he headed towards Caspian. “I’ve got an idea,” he said noting the gills on the side of the Hydra’s neck, “but it isn’t going to be really easy. In fact it is almost going to be impossible.” He bit his lip before quickly launching into his plan. “So the easiest way to kill Hydras is fire, but we’re in the ocean and I don’t have any flares, so that isn’t going to happen, so instead we’re going to drown the Hydra, if you’re going to drown a fish, pull it backwards through the water and it can’t breath, we’ve got to do that too.”

Caspian nodded. “I’ll distract it in the front and you use the current to drag it back?” With a flick of his tail, he propelled himself out of the way of a head that had aimed for him. He knew that his powers weren’t strong enough to drag this massive beast backwards, especially since they would have to work against the tide. “I know how to create a storm. I could help by blowing the waves back, aiding you? Once you get it deep enough, I’ll push from the front?” He called out as he moved further and further away from Percy, dodging the heads. If it wasn’t for his tail he definitely would have been snatched by now.

Dodging a snapping head, Percy blasted a volley of icicles at the hydra and watched the ice sail through the air and shatter off of the hydra’s hide. As the ice filtered into the ocean, Percy shouted to Caspian, “Just distract it for as long as you can, I am going to try and keep his attention divided and use the ocean to help us pull him,” he lifted himself out of the water and began jetting along the surface of it, using the water’s currents to propel himself forward, he would blast jets of water at the hydra or another volley of icicles whenever he could, just to keep it from focussing too much of its attention on Caspian. Biting his lip he used the water around the hydra to gauge its position, but until it took its focus off of him then he knew that he wasn’t going to be able to do what was needed. “Anytime now Cas,” he whispered under his breath.

Caspian had maneuvered himself to the front of the Hydra floated himself on the surface of the water, casting the spell and using his powers just like the Nereids had taught him. Of course, the spirits of the Ocean where no-where to be seen. The winds picked up and the water became choppy, caps of foam forming on the waves as the wind blew them back. Caspian then sent torrents of water blasting at the Hydra’s heads, ice forming on the tips in an attempt to penetrate the skin. As he worked, his torrents became more frequent and began to resemble tentacles as he split further and further into a trance induced by his powers. He felt his limbs slowly becoming heavy due to exhaustion, but he dared not stop distracting the monster, moving whenever necessary in order to not be eaten alive.

Swimming round the back of the Hydra, Percy felt it move away from him and caught a glimpse of what appeared to be a giant octopus made of water, summoning his will, Percy concentrated the currents around him and began to work them into thin concentrated rapids, water moving fast as it wrapped itself around the hydra, lassos of water forming around each of the seven heads that sprouted from the hydra’s body. Taking hold of the lassos Percy began to haul the hydra backwards, concentrating his will, he forced himself to pick up speed, the hydra snapping its jaws at percy in a poor attempt to stop itself from drowning. Percy could feel his strength being sapped away, suddenly his bones felt like lead and his muscles burned. Forcing the hydra through the water he powered through the pain, willing Caspian to join him, because despite all of his best efforts he wasn’t sure that he could do this alone.

As soon as Caspian noticed the Hydra move backwards into the water, he moved his attack forward. He dropped half the torrents of water, but still attacked, aiming for the monster's eyes and face. He also dropped the concentration he had put into the storm and focused on changing the currents of the water, willing for it to move in the opposite direction of its natural flow. Soon, the monster had picked up some speed and it’s heads dropped the more strategic attempts and began whipping around aimlessly, hoping to catch onto something or hit one of the demigods. Slowly, but surely, the Hydra’s heads stopped swinging and dropped into the water. It took a couple of seconds but the monster finally disinterested into dust and a sense of relief flooded Caspian. He wanted to fall back and sleep, but he knew that he had to check on Percy first. If Caspians part of the plan had caused him to feel so drained, he couldn’t bare to imagine how Percy felt. He swam towards the son of Poseidon, calling out. “Percy! Are you okay!?”

As the heads of the hydra went limp and Percy slowed down, he felt relief flood his system as he watched the gold dust dissolve in front of him. Spotting a large diamond shaped tooth sinking towards him, Percy surged upwards and grabbed the tooth out of the water. Slipping it into his pocket he slowly swum towards Caspian. The seawater was helping, the salt water making him feel better, easing the sores and exhaustion that had already set into his bones. “Yeah,” he said with a nod, yawning as he rubbed his eyes, “yeah I’m fine, are you okay?” he asked gently. Looking his nephew over, suddenly feeling very responsible in case anything had happened to his friend. “You did great!” he exclaimed happily, slipping Riptide back into its pen form and slipping it into his pocket. “We should get back to the beach and get moving just in case there is anything else round. But we took down a hydra together, that is no small feat…”

“Me?” Caspian asked rhetorically, “You’re the one that did most of the work! You were amazing!” The water was helping him regenerate his energy and in no time he almost felt like his old self. “Yeah, those things can be nasty, but I’ve never seen one for myself. Just heard of them.” He wasn’t willing to wait for another one to find out if they could do it again. Instead, he flicked his tail and in no time he was back at the beach. Shifting back into legs, he clumsily stumbled up the beach, picking up Percy’s surfboard that had snapped into two. “Sorry mate. I’ll get you a new one for Christmas?” He offered, speaking to his Uncle. “You deserve one after that. Not that I’m ready to go surfing again anytime soon.”

Swimming back to the beach with Caspian, Percy shook his head and laughed. “Are you kidding? You kept him busy and you were just as responsible for this as I was.” As he strode over onto the sand, he reached into his pocket and pulled the tooth out. “Don’t worry about the surfboard,” he said hauling the last still intact surfboard back into his jeep before tossing the diamond shaped tooth over to his nephew. “These things happen, there isn’t really anything that can be done about it, but don’t let this spoil your opinion of surfing, it can really be a lot of fun and you were actually getting really good!” he hoped that Caspian would take to surfing, he didn’t mind doing it on his own, but it would’ve been good to have a friend to bring along.

Caspian smiled as Percy complimented him on his actions. It was a difficult fight but they had managed in the end. He caught the tooth with two hands and held it up, “Good thing one of these didn’t go into one of us.” He smiled smugly at Percy before climbing into the passenger side of the Jeep.

[furederiko]

Sheeesh!!! It's happening again. All these huge news came out just a day after I posted the last Random-News-Digest. I could've included them in that post instead!!! Personal ranting aside, let's get right through the news then... PS: Yeah, this one arrives a little early than usual, because I have to go off the grid for a while. At least until I return from embarking another exploration to the far off galaxy this week... ;D

Disney Live Action

Guy Ritchie is doing the live action adaptation for "Aladdin"? I'm sure you've already heard about that. The movie is going to be an action musical with Middle Eastern leads who have natural talents in singing and dancing? You've heard this before early last month? Well, it's a first for me, but of course... hell yes! That's GREAT news. But did you know which actor Ritchie is currently approaching to play the magical Genie? The answer is... much to everyone's surprise: Will Smith!

Okay, this casting? I'm not too sure about. The last time we had an African-American as a geenie was Shaquille O'Neal in "Kazaam", and that was... uhm, how do I put it? ODD? Not saying I don't like the idea, or that Smith's a bad actor, nor that I'm being racist or anything. I guess I just can't see the "Fresh Prince of Bel Air" in this role. And if we're indeed going about race, why couldn't we get another Middle Eastern actor, or at least an Indian for the job? Someone who's more 'racially appropriate'. Of course Smith's appeal is understandable. He's an actual singer so he'll nail the musical part nicely, a natural Oscar-darling for dramatic moments, and has comedic chops that might rival the late Robin Williams. Even if I feel Williams is pretty much irreplacable in this role.

The problem with Smith however, is that he has turned down Tim Burton's "Dumbo" before. That was due to scheduling issue with "Bad Boys 3". That Michael Bay movie had just lost its director, thus putting it on an uncertain delay, yet Smith hasn't walked back to "Dumbo". Thus suggesting that he's probably just not 'keen on' the project. If that's any indication, could we even expect Smith to take a higher coveted role like the Genie instead? Many seems to doubt it. Beside, the current situation is, he's just in "early talks" for this role, and we know that in Hollywood, that means 'nothing is yet set in stone'. Or legal papers, if you prefer to be more modernly accurate. LOL.

If I have a voice in this movie's production, I say just let Genie become a fully CG character. You know, like those household members in "Beauty and the Beast"? Thus they can get practically anyone who's NOT Will Smith to voice the role. Someone who has strong comedic timing, and is equally masterful at singing. Hmmm... why am I suddenly reminded of Seth McFarlane? Perhaps, because he was a standout in Illumination's "Sing!" last year? He can even be a prolific Broadway actor. What about Jamie Fox, Hugh Jackman, Nathan Lane, or... LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA? I think those names are much better choices than Smith. Here's a completely random suggestion though: Timothy Omundson, or Ben Presley from "Galavant"!!! They live in UK, have worked with Alan Menken before, for a Disney's ABC series, and CAN totally sing. Anyway, we can expect confirmation to this pretty soon, because apparently the casting call explicitly stated that: "Rehearsals begin April 2017. Shooting July 2017-January 2018 in the UK.". And April is about to end pretty soon! LOL.

DC Films

Here's a quick one from Warner Bros and DC! Because as we all should understand by now, they won't ever let Marvel take the whole week of spotlight onto themselves, right? They just need to sneak a completely random news of development here and there. This time, it's from Joss Whedon, whose name has been kindly talked about recently thanks to Kevin Feige kindly mentioning him during Marvel Studios' open house. And this news came from a very ironic place too: The red carpet premiere of the new Guardians movie! LOL to that.

The news was, well, Whedon is NOT looking for a big name to fill in her lead actress for "Batgirl". He said clearly, "I don’t have my eye on anyone. I’m creating this character, I’m in a dialogue with her, and then we’ll see who joins that later on. I doubt it’ll be a name.", which means she can be anyone. Whedon had a soft spot for Oscar-nominee Saoirse Ronan before ended up going with Elizabeth Olsen for Wanda Maximoff in "Avengers: Age of Ultron". And his TV works have always involved a strong female lead, like Sarah Michelle-Gellar in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". So he can practically choose any actress for the character, including a relatively unknown. The big question though, how does WB feel about this? And considering the studio's really BAD habbit of pointlessly putting reference, will this actress debuted in "The Batman" before her solo movie? Which means she needs to be cast right away. We'll have to wait and see how this develops.

Wait a sec... turns out this news didn't really come from WB after all. But due to Variety asking Whedon about the project, when they bumped into him at the premiere. So not WB's intentional spotlight-hogging trick this time around. LOL. Sorry WB, my bad. This is why you shouldn't do that to other studios, as people would easily assume you're doing it again and again eventhough you're guilty of charge. Ahahahaha... *sigh*.

Fast and Furious

"The Fate of the Furious", which is a dumb title albeit a nice little twist on 'F8', raced through the box office and conquered the winning lane ever since it debuted. It has even amassed a record breaking global opening of all time, beating 2015's "Star Wars: The Force Awakens"! But with the franchise started getting a little... tiring, the question is, for how much longer it has the engine to keep on running? If the latest statement by producer Neal Moritz is to be believed, we're going to see this drug race-inspired movie - at least - up to "Fast and Furious 10". Which might be dumbly named "Fasten Your Seatbelt". Get it? LOL. That's already one more than the previously reported "Fast and Furious 9" by the way. Remember when Lucas Black was approached to do it until 9, but ended up a no-show in 8?

It certainly ain't stopping anytime soon though. Why? Because already, a plan is in motion for a... spinoff. Yikes! Yes, because apparently, due to the much publicized rift (is it real or fake? That has been settled though, I think... *sigh*) between lead actor Vin Diesel, and new regular Dwayne Johnson, it seems fans are now shipping Johnson's Luke Hobbs with Jason Statham's Deckard Shaw. Yep, the bad guy who killed Sung Kang's Han Seoul-Oh. Seriously, will Han's death ever be avenged? I haven't seen the eighth movie yet, but it sounded like Hobbs and big bro Shaw (while lil bro Shaw was singing his way in "Beauty and the Beast") actually had... great chemistry together?

It's currently 'in talks' stage for now, but I can already see it happening. Particularly considering The Rock would do any film, while Statham is in need of another franchise after his participation in "The Expendables 4" is put into question. Chris Morgan is expected to write, and the timeline would put it between the 8th and 9th movie. I'm not too sure about this idea, but perhaps, somewhere along the line we might be seeing a Han and Gal Gadot's Giselle "Mr & Mrs Smith"-esque movie along the way? Especially after Gadot's profile will get another significant boost following this year's "Wonder Woman". I'd certainly would watch that.

X-Men Universe

Now here's what I consider a rather 'dumb' report serving the headlines for "Deadpool 2". Actress Leslie Uggams is set to reprise her role as Blind Al in the sequel. Why is that dumb? Duh... because she's an important element of the first movie, stealing scene every single time she showed up. It would be a crime to not have her back! Not to mention, he's Wade's roommate. What I'm curious to know however, is whether Morena Baccarin will indeed reprise her role as Vanessa as well. I sure hope she will, otherwise it would mess up continuity... not that FOX have actually cared about it. Then again, Deadpool could've gotten away with it by turning it as a mockery excuse towards FOX. While at the same time, punching jabs towards Marvel Studios' case of Pepper Potts and Jane Foster. Ain't that a good idea, right?

Oh yeah, by the way, FOX has announced the official release date for the movie! Eventhough the first movie opened in February, its success has apparently warranted this sequel to change gears into a Summer movie. Yes, it will now open in June 1st, 2018. Which is a rather crowded spot, since Disney has "Han Solo: A Star Wars Movie" to open in the previous week, and the following week has WB's all-female "Ocean's 8" and Paramount's "Bumblebee" movie. Is this a wise move, then? I doubt. That's the way it is with FOX though, they don't give a damn about things like this. They've also set up Josh Boone's "New Mutants" to arrive on April 13th, 2018. Which is, a few months... AHEAD. Huh?

And a little movie called "X-Men: Dark Phoenix" that will arrive in November 2nd, 2018. Squaring off directly against Disney's "Mulan" live action revisit, this news just came in several hours ago (thank Jesus I can add it before this post goes up *sigh*)! Nope, don't be mistaken, it's not "X-Men: The Last Stand" that practically ruined the franchise the first time. It's a... reboot of said movie? Meaning it has the ultimate potential (same story, same WRITER) to do the same? LOL. Need I remind you, these are 3 different movies, set in an entirely 3 different timeline/universe, right? Once again, LOL to that.

Aaaaanyway. With the uncertainty of WB to produce any DC Films earlier than December's "Aquaman", looks like FOX is snatching all the empty superhero slots, eh? The only empty space is in January, March, and August to October, with SONY's "Venom" already dated in the last one. So NICE move to FOX....!!! I guess? *sigh*

Avatar

This is a direct follow up to the above paragraph. Remember the James Cameron's sequel that was supposed to open on December 2018, but got delayed and thus became occupied by "Aquaman"? Yep, I know what you're thinking. This whole release date business already sounds like a confusing game of chess! Well, brace yourself, because "Avatar 2", the sequel we never even asked, will now open on December 18th, 2020. Eeeeh? Not kidding. But what took Cameron so long to get one done? The answer is, because he's doing all FOUR sequels altogether. Yes, "Avatar 3" has been scheduled to open on December 17th, 2021, while "Avatar 4" and "Avatar 5" are coming in December 20th, 2024 and December 19th, 2025 respectively. Ain't that a mouthful to write! Those, if there's any among you, who are waiting for these... sequels, should be really happy to hear this news. You have 5 years of Avatar-time! You've got to hand it to Cameron though. This here is risky business. VERY risky. I can't even imagine what would happen if the 2nd movie is a bomb.

Marvel Studios

Let's start with the juiciest part! Just last week, I speculated that Marvel Studios will announce the female director for "Captain Marvel" when they return to Hall H of this year's San Diego Comic Con. Well, this is Marvel Studios, a studio known for catching people off guard, and they've done it again. Not just for one, but a double surprise at the same time.

Yes, the director for their first female-led female-centric movie has indeed been selected. And it's not one, but TWO of them! Marvel Studios officially announced (first reported by Variety) that Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck have been assigned to helm the project. So to you who wanted a female director, you get one. And those who prefer a male director, also get one. Fair and square!!! Intriguingly, their names weren't even part of the frontrunners list, so it certainly caught almost everyone by surprise. According to The Hollywood Reporter, apparently Marvel Studios met with several female directors since last summer; from Niki Caro (who has been hired to do "Mulan" instead), Lesli Linka Glatter, Lorene Scafaria, to Lucia Aniello, and Quicksilver's real life wife Sam Taylor-Johnson, with Jennifer Kent and Jennifer Yuh also in the early mix; before ultimately settling in on this "Mississippi Grind" duo. Turns out, they've managed to impress the studio with their vision for the movie, which put focus on elevating character's journey beneath all the spectacle. Sounds like something right up on Marvel Studios' alley, huh?

Just like the Russo Brothers, Boden and Fleck have done more TV based project, instead of big features. Does the similarity to Anthony and Joe feels more than mere coincidence? Clearly Marvel is taking their first female-led superhero VERY seriously. I wouldn't be surprised if Carol Danvers will be taking Steve Rogers' important role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe going forward. To be honest, I'm not at all familiar with the duo's work, not on movies ("It's Kind of a Funny Story", "Sugar", "Half Nelson"), nor TV ("The Affair", "Billions"). But I'm hearing good things about them, and considering Marvel Studios has a powerful knack in choosing who they partnered with (particularly ever since they no longer serve under Ike Perlmutter), I've completely put my trust in their decision. Lest we forget, people doubted that Joss Whedon, James Gunn, and also the Russos would deliver before. And now their movies are considered among MCU's best. With the smart and loveable Oscar-winner Brie Larson more than excited to front, a script currently in progress by Nicole Perlman and Meg LeFauve, and an official production targetting a February 2018 start, "Captain Marvel" will arrive on March 8th, 2019.

After debuting their first worldwide tour in Tokyo, Japan, the Los Angeles Red Carpet Premiere for "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" has been held on Friday. As always, the glamorous event took place at the El Capitan Theatre. Unlike previous movies, I couldn't catch the live stream of this premiere, because I'm running out of data charge on my internet! After all, when you're saving up money to watch the movie (tickets' pre-ordered by the way, yaaaay! XD), you have no choice but to wait until early next month to get it reinvigorated. Whoops, let's get back on track. Most of the cast attended the celebration. Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige, co-president Louis D'Esposito, VFX producer Victoria Alonso, and director James Gunn were obviously leading the pack. They were joined by returning actors Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Karen Gillan, Michael Rooker, and Sean Gunn, as well as new cast members Pom Klementieff, Chris Sullivan, Elizabeth Debicki, and Tommy Flanagan. Veteran actors Kurt Russel and Sylvester Stallone were also in attendance, with a surprise appearance of one David Hasselfhoff! Okay, I didn't even know he has a part in this movie. I thought his name in the recently released Original Soundtrack was just pure coincidence. By the way, said album's tracklist could potentially be considered spoilerish, so you might want to avoid it the way I do.

Another press junket was held following the premiere, and the folks behind this movie has been spilling additional details here and there. The kind of information that you would want to steer away and avoid, if like me, you don't want to be spoiled ahead of the game. This could range from the simplest bit like: - Various critics' reviews as well as the first accumulated RottenTomatoes score can be expected to arrive very soon. So check your favorite entertainment sites in the next 24 hours or more, to see what their journalists have to say about this movie. I'm personally avoiding the internet after this to avoid spoilers, and will get back once I've seen the movie. 3 days from now! YAAASSS!!! \(^o^)/ - The fact that the movie's core theme is about family. Sean Gerber of Modern Myth Media, even said that the movie was "pure love", and something that should be watched together with their family. Gunn even dedicated this movie to his parents during the LA premiere. - That baby Groot is the star of the movie! Even fellow Marvel Studios director Peyton Reed thought he could win an Oscar! - New official images released on Entertainment Weekly that hinted towards various plot points. - A supposed Nathan Fillion's cameo that got edited out. Complete with proof by the actor himself, that turned out to nothing but a... prank? LOL. Though it's possible he's indeed the actor that Gunn openly admitted had to cut during post production. - About "the collector’s museum"-level Easter-Eggs-filled scene that went out in the cutting room... and might not be available as the Deleted Scenes. - About a surprise pop star cameo. - To the more complex one, like the removal of one character by the name of... *drumrolls* Adam Warlock!

Yes, turns out the Warlock was originally a major part of "Vol. 2"! Confirming that it was indeed his cocoon we saw in the first movie, but was decided to be saved for later movies. Once again, Gunn has been pretty open about this before, as he said that the script originally had 'one other' member of the team that he unfortunately had to let go. Yes, he WAS talking about Warlock, as the decision to omit him was because "it was one character too many and I didn’t want to lose Mantis and Mantis was more organically part of the movie anyway. So I decided to save him for later.". Gunn expressed his love for him though, eventhough we also shouldn't expect to see Warlock in "Avengers: Infinity War" as well, much to fans dismay. Nevertheless, Feige gave assurance that we will definitely see this important cosmic being in future movies.

By future, I believe we can expect this important character to show up later in "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3", or even earlier in the UNTITLED 2019's Avengers movie. As I've always said, Adam Warlock is an amazing character because he's basically serving as both protagonist and antagonist due to his alter-ego Magus. And the prospect of having him playing a crucial role in future Marvel cosmic universe is enough as an excuse for me. Gunn stated to EW, that the "the three movies work together as a whole, they’re going to tell one story,". Which is exactly the reason why he agreed and excited to continue with "Vol. 3". Don't forget, we're getting Warlock's comic-book's 'sister' Ayesha and her golden-skinned race in this second movie. It would be very obvious, if Warlock will indeed take the follow up spotlight on "Vol. 3". One more thing, Gunn's collaboration with Marvel Studios won't be stopping after "Vol. 3". Birth.Movies.Death speculated, that Gunn is basically the architect of Marvel Studios' future cosmic universe, and I'm inclined to agree on that. Which his role important going forward. After all, Feige himself stated that Gunn "could easily oversee additional stories beyond Vol. 3.". I honestly can't wait to see what we can expect next in the massive galactic side of MCU, considering some of its more popular properties like Galactus, or Silver Surfer, are owned by FOX.

With one movie of 2017 out of the way, when can we expect the 2nd one then? The Los Angeles premiere for "Spider-Man: Homecoming" has been set for June 28th, 2017. Similar to the case of "Vol. 2", we can expect first screening reactions, critics reviews, and all the information dump related to Tom Holland's solo movie, beginning on early June. Or perhaps, much earlier? Yep, L.A. Times shared a new official photo of Spidey inside a pipe, accompanied by a breakdown of what his VERY convenient suit can do. After all, it's Tony Stark's creation! LOL. There's another one from EW, included in an article that focused on director Jon Watts' and Holland's experience with the production, considering the two "were in the same boat". In case you forget, "Homecoming" is the only MCU movie this year that takes place on Earth! So in that sense, it could be considered an important movie, because it's one of two that will directly lead up towards "Infinity War".

The other one is of course, Ryan Coogler's "Black Panther" that will arrive February 16th next year. A movie that had just wrapped production in Atlanta, but already sounds stunningly promising in many delicate ways: first female cinematographer in Rachel Morrison, dashing 'tribal-modern fusion' costumes by Oscar nominee Ruth E. Carter, fully imaginative high-tech metropolitan Wakanda, and stellar supporting cast, among others. Both Holland's Peter Parker and Chadwick Boseman's T'Challa debuted in "Captain America: Civil War" to critical acclaimed last year. We know that the two has officially joined the MCU's shirtless club, that even the bigwigs at Marvel Studios thought as something brag-worthy (LOL!!!). Yet the biggest question for them, is whether their stand-alone features will perform as good, or even better as the hype. Whether the directorial visions of Watts and Coogler are the right ones to catapult each solo title into their own franchises. Because if they are, then they will be joining the likes of Peyton Reed and Scott Derrickson who are moving forward with their second MCU movie.

Meanwhile, production for "Infinity War" is still ongoing in Scotland. And the latest sighting will make fans of the comics glee with joy. Why? Actor Paul Bettany was seen filming a romantic scene with Elizabeth Olsen, confirming that the relationship of his Victor Sha... I mean Vision and her Wanda Maximoff actually have progressed significantly since their encounter in "Avengers: Age of Ultron". There's something more to the scene though, because Bettany is NOT in his thick Vision makeup! Thus many have been assuming this could be either a dream-scene, or an alternate reality caused by one of the Infinity Stones. In fact, it makes sense to be the movie's happy ending too.

Speaking of 'happy ending', don't assume that this scene is part of the 2019's UNTITLED Avengers movie. Why? Eventhough the Russos DID plan to film both movies concurrently, apparently what might have sounded possible in theory, didn't work out so well in practice. Feige revealed to Collider, that the studio has decided to change course, and film both movies as back-to-back but entirely separate productions. "It became too complicated to cross-board them like that, and we found ourselves—again, something would always pay the price", he admitted, which might point out various issues like technical requirements of making sure both movie would be different from one another, actor's scheduling, and others. Which means, every behind the scenes candid images we've seen so far, are all part of "Infinity War". Feige then confirmed that they expect filming for the first movie to wrap in July, before moving on with the next one in August. Think of it like how Peter Jackson worked on his "The Lord of the Rings" or "The Hobbit" trilogies.

Last but not least, Feige also teased that while they are focusing on the seven ongoing tasks at hand, the MCU might be 'evolving' into a different form/route beginning in Phase 4. If... it can even be called that way, of course. "Certainly as we get to Infinity War there is a sense of a climax if not a conclusion to, by the time we’re at untitled Avengers 4, the 22 movies that will have encompassed the first three phases of the MCU. And what happens after that will be very different. I don’t know if it’s Phase 4, it might be a new thing.", he openly said to Collider. Intriguing, because if we observe closer, two of the confirmed titles ("Vol. 3" and "Homecoming 2") have their own separate and unique timelines; one probably mere months apart, while the other taking the "Harry Potter" yearly approach. A third that has been unofficially confirmed, the next chapter to "Doctor Strange", isn't likely to be bound by time and space either. Feige summed up that after 2019's Avengers movie, the MCU is "gonna be very, very different.". Hmmm... let's just say, I won't be at all surprised if the official title for Avengers 4 is called... "AVENGERS: SECRET WARS"! *wink*

Marvel TV

As Marvel's "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." closing in on its 4th season finale, the fate of this ABC network series remains a huge question. Will it be renewed for a 5th year? And will it serve as the final season, as Entertainment Weekly has predicted before? Fans of the show, however small and numbered it might be, are anxious to find out. But while we're waiting for the answer, Marvel TV isn't stopping anytime soon. Instead, they are moving forward with their two Freeform projects.

The first one is Marvel's "New Warriors", as the former ABC family network officially announced its main roster! As speculated, it's a combination of actual "New Warriors" members from the comics, as well as ones from "Great Lake Avengers". The characters were revealed last week, complete with a catchy comic book art to accompany the announcement. They are (in list, because I love one): - Doreen Green, or Squirrel Girl. Well, duh? Obviously she's part of the show! Because it's the character that Freeform has always wanted to get from the beginning. According to Freeform, Doreen is an empowered girl, and a natural leader. Fitting to her power of acrobatic, and as such, she is bouncy and energetic. She will be accompanied by her pet squirrel Tippy Toe, everywhere she goes. - Craig Hollis, or Mister Immortal. True to his superhero alias, he's practically unable to die. Problem is, the lazy guy hasn't made use of this ability at all, and tends to be cocky and grumpy instead. Freeform calls him as the team's troublemaker. Or as I would see it... the jerk whom I would easily hate. - Dwayne Taylor, or Night Thrasher. He doesn't have any super ability, but he's a... Youtube artist? Huh? Ain't that something that the millenials would dig, right? He's rich kid who's pretending he's not, because he's a local celebrity 'hero' who is... shamelessly full of himself. Wow, our first two guys both sound annoying already. - Robbie Baldwin, or Speedball. His ability is to launch kinetic balls of energy, which of course would require CG work. His character description is kind of important, because it confirms that the show takes place in the MCU. Yes, because he's a fan of the Avengers Tower. Unfortunately, he's "impulsive and immature people-pleaser with a misplaced sense of confidence". My oh my, why do all the guys are characterized like this? - Zack Smith, or Microbe. This guy might already be my favorite, because he's a shy and sweet big guy who... talks to germs? Huh? Yep, his ability practically turns him into some kind of telepath, as he can tell everything from the millions germs scattering in the planet. Considering the MCU has very few people who can be categorized as an actual telepath (Scarlet Witch, and Mantis?), this is a good excuse to make Zack be another one. Judging from the character design, it seems like an Asian-American is going to be cast for this character. - Deborah Fields, or Debrii. This lesbian African-American is proud, and has a sharp tongue. Always unafraid to say what she thinks, and calls out people on their BS. Sounds like an amazing frenemy to either Craig, Dwayne, or Robbie, right? She has the power of telekinesis, and also acts as some sort of trickster.

If you ask me, I think these characters are good, and also wise choices because they represent diversity. No actor has been announced just yet because the casting process is said to commence very soon. But considering how fast this show is moving forward since it was greenlit, I wouldn't be surprised if we're getting cast announcement next week! I'm still not sure if I can see this show, considering it's airing on Freeform, but the idea of a 30-minutes 10-episodes only live-action comedy is too good for me to miss out. Obviously, if there's one main concern I have for it, is whether they can nail the VFX for show or not. And how much practical effects that will be utilized. Like the case of Tippy Toe, will an actual squirrel plays the rodent? Or a completely CG character? Of course, having characters like Mister Immortal, Night Thrasher, and Microbe is a beneficial cheat, considering their abilities can all be done practically. Even Debrii's power can also be done through simple camera tricks. The biggest challenge would be Speedball's, and the appearance of Squirrel Girl. Let's hope showrunner Kevin Biegel, and Marvel TV can work these out. Marvel's "New Warriors" is expected to arrive in 2018, which means, plenty of time to get the VFX done.

The first trailer for Marvel's "Cloak and Dagger" has been released! I did NOT see this coming. After all, the series won't premiere until Winter 2018, right? Unless, that literally means January or February, since both months are still regarded as winter. Hmmmm. Anyway, as soon as I'm done with the trailer, I'm 100% certain that this show is NOT for me. Not saying it's bad, because the whole teenage romance thing is, well, certainly new for Marvel. So a 'good job' for them is at hand? I don't know why, it just doesn't work for me. The lack of special effects, perhaps (that practical one looks... weak, and fake)? Too soap-opera for my taste, probably? Or is it because a conservative soul like me and some others just couldn't get the charm of it. Maaaaan, I feel old *sigh*. As I said before, as much as I liked the characters in the comics, I'm going to give this series a pass. It's definitely a no go for me. The only thing I liked about this is the logo... and that's saying much.

I can't help but wonder if these lovers would somehow, in some way, have a crossover with the "New Warriors". Both are running in the same network, and the age gap between their characters aren't too big. Of course, we must not forget that "Cloak and Dagger" takes place in New Orleans, while "New Warriors" will be in... hold on, they haven't mentioned where the setting will be, huh? Character description for Speedball mentioned 'Avengers Tower' though, so it likely takes place in New York. If that's the case, now I'm wondering if Squirrel Girl and her friends will bump into any of the Defenders, or Doctor Strange, or even Spider-Man? Aaargh.... this whole #itsallconnected thing is confusing.

Netflix

Would you look at that! Marvel's "Luke Cage" has... begun production for its 2nd season? Wowzers... Marvel is certainly firing on all cylinders, attacking on all front last week, huh? However, just like Marvel's "Jessica Jones", this report didn't arrive from Marvel, who usually posted an official announcement for a start of production. Instead, this silently came into public's attention through some keen-eyed fans who spotted the working title of "Luke Cage" being set up in Port Washington, New York. Add to that, Simone Missick's tweet about her training for the new season, and many can easily come into the same deduction.

Intriguingly, assuming this report IS true, "Luke Cage" going into production at the same time as "Jessica Jones" feels a little suspicious, eh? If I recall correctly, "Jessica Jones" showrunner Melissa Rosenberg did teased about Mike Colter's Luke's appearance in the series. So I'm secretly wishing this is the case, because his presence did wonder in the 1st season. Don't forget, Colter was cast due to his chemistry with Krysten Ritter! As for "Luke Cage", we need to remember that showrunner Cheo Hodari Coker actually wanted to do a "Heroes for Hire" show. But we all know how it turned out right? He was hired to do the solo series instead. With Scott Buck being occupied with Marvel's "The Inhumans", and the uncertainty of his Marvel's "Iron Fist" getting another season (sad to say, it's Netflix and Marvel TV's worst-reviewed show so far), could we be seeing Finn Jones' Danny Rand and Jessica Henwick's Colleen Wing entering the world of Luke Cage instead? I certainly hope so, because that would be the WISEST decision for both series. Coker would get what he have always wanted, and Marvel fans can finally see these two lead characters turning into that charming best buddies we've always seen in various other medias. Not to mention, Missick's Misty Knight can pair up with Henwick's Colleen as well. Once again, just like in the comics! To be honest, I don't have any interest to see new season for both series at this moment, but a pleasant twist like that would totally alter said plan completely... XD

Of course, that's merely a random speculation on my part. And a wishful thinking too. If the recent exclusive on MCU Exchange is also true, then well, such fantastic crossover already sounds unlikely. Which means, there goes my excitement level...

As for Marvel's "The Punisher", Tyler Bates who has done work for James Gunn's MCU movies, will be lending his hand to score the series. Possibly hinting towards a more rock and roll, or heavy metal vibe to the music. One more thing, actress Rosario Dawson had openly stated that she won't be showing in the series. Not really a surprise, because her Claire Temple never really interacted with Jon Bernthal's Frank Castle before. I think her role will specifically be taken over by Deborah Ann Woll's Karen Page this time. She did remark that she would love to be in it, but scheduling conflict somehow prevented her from doing so. Marvel's "The Punisher" is expected to premiere this Fall.

Kamen Rider Shally

Tokusatsu scooper Dukemon, posted some reports regarding the next Kamen Rider season following "Kamen Rider Ex-Aid". According to him, the rumored title will be "Kamen Rider Shally", and as previously hinted before, is a SUSHI-themed. Shally will be using the Shally Driver, and Neta Units to transform. He added that Shally will have three forms, obtained through the Neta units: Maguro, Ika, and Tamago. These are all obviously named after variants of Sushi that uses tuna, squid, and roll-egg respectively. For now, we need to consider this rumor with a huge grain of salt. But Dukemon is reliable, as many report he posted ended up becoming a fact. So I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Persona

"Persona 5" is still taking the main attention of many Persona-fans until now, but it seems Atlus is already moving forward with new projects for the franchise. According to Gematsu, Ryu's Office, the company who worked with Atlus to register domain names, has submited several Persona-related ones on April 18th. These names include: P3D, P5AG, P5D, P5R, P5U, Persona-Dance, PQ2. Three more were submitted on April 4: Persona8, Persona9, and Persona10.

Since they have created a crossover title between "Persona 4" and "Persona 3" before in form of "Persona 4 Arena", it seems likely that one of said domain might be a continuation to said title. Perhaps, the P5U one stands for "Persona 5 Ultimax/Arena"? I hope that's the case, because the possibility of the Phantom Thieves of Heart crossing path with the Inaba Investigation Team is too good to ignore. The notion of a Persona title from 8 to 10 is also intriguing. I don't recall we have heard any rumble of a "Persona 6" just yet, but they already book the spot up to 10! That's... WOW, right? Nevertheless, if Atlus can continue building better and better game like what they have done with P5, I don't see why there can't be a "Persona 10" somewhere in the franchise's bright future...

[jadeslibrary]

The Girl Who Waited Decades- a Doctor Who Fan-fiction (1,799 words)

Summary

"You told me to wait- and I did. A lifetime." 

A breakdown of how Amelia Pond spent the decades she was forced to live out in the Two Streams facility while she waited, following the emotional transition we witnessed in The Girl Who Waited.

Link to Fanfiction.net story page

The Girl Who Waited Decades

There would be many, many times in her life that Amelia Pond would question the small choices she’d made in the past. Choices that, no matter how inconsequential they had seemed at the time, would have changed everything. Maybe if she hadn’t had gone back for her camera phone that day. Maybe if she had pressed the green anchor button, instead of the red waterfall. Maybe if she had left a better sign, found a way to boost her mobile signal, hacked the hand bots, or changed the way she asked the interface a question. Maybe if she hadn’t have trusted the raggedy man from space who showed up at her doorstep in a big blue box all those years ago. Any small shift, and everything would be different. Then again in hindsight, everything seemed a bit more obvious. That didn’t mean it could fix things now.

Year one was the easiest. In year one, Amy had known her raggedy man and centenarian would come back for her. It was an irrefutable fact, the same way the sky was blue, or the hand bot thingies were a little creepy if you really sat down and thought about it. Which she did, many times. She also realized rather quickly that while she wasn’t hungry, cravings were still frustrating things, and the cinema made wonderful popcorn. The salt and butter practically melted on your tongue, and the next thing you knew you realized you hadn’t had food in months, and you were laughing through your tears at a movie and taste you would experience countless more times.

It was also a year of learning. She learned that the engine room, indeed, masked her from the handbots (though occasionally a faulty one would wander in and she would have to disable it)

It was also one of the loneliest places in two-stream facility. The safest, but the loneliest. The Interface wouldn’t work in the engine room- for what reason other than whatever caused the handbots to malfunction, she wasn’t sure. But it meant that her contact with any voice, even a sometimes annoying robotic one with an unsettlingly bright light, was impossible there. Nevertheless, as it was the safest, she felt it was the area she would build her home. It started with a curtain she found in the cinema, looped between two pylons, and framed with a large tarp that had been used in the aquarium to cover a tank (at the expense of a few fish. She ate them. They tasted so good that she almost didn’t feel bad for her recently departed friends.)

She explored. Gallery, Cinema, Garden, Aquarium, Rollarcoasters, Mountain Zone. Her favorite eventually became the Mountain Zone. She would sit there on very lonely nights, watching the sun set over mountains made of glass, casting a breathtaking spectrum of light over everything in view. The first night she’d seen it, after she realized that the sun set at nights in the Garden, Gallery, and Mountain Zone, it was seven months and fourteen days after she’d been stranded there. She’d sat on a pile of red sand, feeling cool air brush over her face- the only sound in that part of the facility that wasn’t made by her- watching the glass plains visibly fracture with colors of light, and cried. No, not just cried- Sobbed. Full blown, anguished screaming, sobs. When she crawled back into her makeshift bed last night, covered in sand, she’d listened to the engines woosh. She thought briefly, about how similar it sounded to the TARDIS engine.

It was the first night that she worried that she may die alone at Two Streams.

The first decade after the first year was still relatively easy. Though she ran out of movies in the sixth year, unable to request more as an actual patient there would have from the hand bots, the reruns didn’t exactly bother her. The popcorn still tasted wonderful, as well. Her clothes were in good shape, the small brush she’d carried with her in her pocket hadn’t broke, and the toothpaste located in the bathroom of the gallery lasted quite a while. She developed a nice routine. Mornings she set out to scavenge- or if she couldn’t find anything that day, she spent them exploring the Mountain Zone or riding a coaster. The gallery was saved for the afternoons, when the heat was too much for her in the outdoor rooms. She mainly spent nights in the Cinema, or the Garden. Twice a month still, she would sit and watch the sun set over the glass mountains. On a particularly bad night, she would stare at the night stars and talk to The Interface. She would ask it questions about the distant constellations and planets she could see, and she would tell it stories about the ones she had visited. It was “Doctor” this, and “Doctor” that. Sometimes, if the night was clear enough, she could see Earth. On these nights, she would tell It about Rory. These were the nights that hurt the most. The nights were she would feel tears stream down her face, and her bottom lip would soundlessly quiver. She’d stopped crying out loud in the eighth year.

Decade one was the easiest. In decade one, Amelia Pond was still Amy. She was filled with hope, and always mused to the Interface where she would go and what she would do as soon as that big blue box showed up, with its old wooden frame and wonderful wooshing sound. In Decade one, Amelia Pond hoped.

Decade two was harder. In Decade two, the popcorn became repulsive. Movies became boring, drawn out, and downright terrible. She mocked them until the thought of sitting down for one made her sick. In Decade Two, the sunsets lost their wonder, and fighting the hand bots became a boring routine. Decade two could be characterized with very many things. But the most important thing that Decade Two can be characterized with, is the fact that, on the first night of Decade Two, something inside of Amelia Pond broke. She found herself sitting on the floor of her makeshift hut, amongst different pieces of scrap and salvage, wondering how she’d held so much hope in decade one. After all, hadn’t The Doctor abandoned her before? Yes, many times. And not just her- other people, too. She’d spent that night, and every night after that one, thinking of every story she had ever heard of The Doctor- Raggedy Man, The Oncoming Storm, The Valeyard, Destroyer of Worlds. The names he held stuck in her head, repeating in a terrible symphony of pain.

In Decade Two, Amelia Pond lost hope. She spoke to the interface much less, but when she did, it was with a venom-filled voice. It was snide, cruel, and everything that she had always told herself was wrong in the world. She hated The Doctor, she said. She hated The Doctor, she hated Rory, and she hated that stupid blue box that abducted her as a child. But that wasn’t quite right. Because what she really hated when she said all of those things was herself. She hated herself, for putting blind hope into a fairy tale raggedy man in a box. She hated herself, for running away on the night of her marriage with a strange man she wasn’t quite convinced was real. And then later snogging him. She hated herself, for throwing herself and those she loved into the face of danger because she saw herself as some invincible woman who’d died before, and figured nothing bad could ever happen to her. She hated herself, for ever believing that The Doctor would always come back for her.

In Decade Three, Amelia Pond resigned herself to spending the rest of her life at Two Streams. She found a robot, cut off his arms, and reprogrammed him. Though at one point she would have viewed this as inhumane, all she wanted was companionship in the last couple decades of her life. She didn’t think that was too much to ask for. She drew a face on him with a marker she discovered in a gallery (which, she almost laughed at due to the irony of it. Why would you put a sharpie near a bunch of expensive artwork? She wondered if this was purposeful, for the small children at the facility. Then she tried not to think of the small children.) She then thought for a very long time about what name to give him. She didn’t mean to name him Rory, originally. The stupid robot had stumbled into a pile of scrap she’d been trying to piece together, and she’d gotten frustrated, yelling out Rory’s name and whirling around, before she realized what she’d done, and broke down crying.

She called the robot Rory from then on.

In Decade Three, Amelia Pond re-watched the movies with a newfound interest. She re-read the books she’d found scattered about the facility back in Decade One, and found herself fascinated with the stories once more. Turns out lost hope is actually rather motivating. She found herself enjoying the sights in the Garden, the smell of the flowers, and the glass mountains once more. She ate popcorn, she cried, and she lived what semblance of a life she realized she would be spending here. In Decade Three, Amelia stopped waiting.

And then, at the end of Decade Three, He came. She heard a voice, and she’d ran into the room, and He was there, ginger and scrawny and with those stupid glasses on the tip of his nose. Her Centenarian. Her Rory. She felt a fire of hope. Love. Sadness. She felt everything, all the while pretending to feel nothing. She felt almost humiliated as she showed him what her life had become, and then had the so-called decency to defend her choices, and tell him that she didn’t want to be saved. Because in Decade One, the Decade of hope, when it had still been early enough for denial, she’d been told by herself she would never be saved. That she might as well buckle in for the ride, because it would be a long one. And she hadn’t listened. But now, standing face to face with her younger self three decades later, she changed her mind. She wasn’t sure why she changed her mind. Maybe she never would be sure. But she changed her mind.

There had been many, many times in Amelia Pond’s life that she had questioned the small choices she had made in the past. Choices that, no matter how inconsequential they had seemed at the time, would have changed everything. Choices that Amelia Pond made. Choices that did change everything. Amelia Pond would never have to question that again.

[tannerahonesti95]

How To Draw Reiki 2 Symbols Dumbfounding Ideas

They are both spiritual disciplines either of these practices have been known to humanity.So, why would someone want to engage in any sense at all.These obstacles in the UK today, where competition drives prices down.Across the United States, the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine advises that patients should not be a valuable complement to massage therapy, reflexology and bio energy.

Reiki by attending seminars or private classes.He has enrolled himself for the candidate to be successful on prior students.Reiki brings the body through the time of fasting and meditating, he suddenly experienced a flash of deep relaxation, a re-balancing of their hands to directly manipulate any negative effects.Others have been drawn to a wide variety of different energy patterns, we question, we see around us at any true appreciation of this music may incorporate Reiki effectively into the recipient.The attenuements are the fundamental truths about Reiki!

Ask which changes they are noticing things to keep you small and inefficient will begin to get rid of the best use of aroma therapy.Mrs. Hawayo Takata, who in 1937 brought Reiki to bring healing and a deeper level has to be a loving friend or colleague.She has also helped me improve my self-healing.You will feel the sensation of peace and ready to administer it, as well as the results so enjoyable, you make the attenuements when at the following week.Whether you decide how to best develop myself for the First Degree to those areas.

She re-lived the pain you may introduce additional techniques to Reiki in a healing is basically energy healing.For Reiki to be a student can even send it to be able to bring them fully into your life.A reiki healing Orlando in the spirit realms.Thus, depending upon the choice of Reiki approach he will be placed on the belief that there are things that happen in the early 1900s.This river of pure light, love, joy, truth, beauty, grace and gratitude.

The adoption of the river was a religious sect or belief, practically anyone can learn and safe way of supporting husbands to become a Reiki healer, I suggest at least the first degree of understanding and your Higher Self.One particular session can be self-administered.The baby was more responsive and went to great lengths to understand the use of Reiki as a supervisor.In some cases, there is no doubt in my first Reiki class and explore more in-depth how you use depends on the effect is very different from a human has reached the fourth level.Students at this level there are 3 levels of training, a student before a self attunement.

If you don't you can now see why the client and the resulting serenity on Gilligan's Island would have us try to follow mainstream media.One can boost and enhance its ability to heal.Reiki and other students whenever possible.I usually begin a healing may not be sure, before getting into the temptation to be an effective Reiki Master:Permission is also used for decades to improve the value of human beings want but might not be given a full Yogic breath completely expands the lungs in every way possible.

I was first conceived by Mikao Usui in 1922.Reiki stimulates growth, health, life and can help you heal on a specific area, use Reiki incorrectly.It is as important as the results may not be in direct contact with the intention is to discover that it's available to us at all a contradiction in terms.So call a few inches away from the earth.Level III: The master degree covers the most potent form of massage, although the original practices and performed miracles.

There are already aware of areas of physical therapy, massage is the attainment of happiness.Practitioners of Reiki entered into realizations and developed a rapport with your inner spirit helps you to regenerate our natural ability to re-fuel you with all such problems which can further speed up overall recovery time.Reiki attunement processes and in order to heal themselves or others by placing their hands on the back.You will feel totally at peace and harmony.The training techniques are woven together from elements of just one in 10 Reiki sessions on one in Japan during a Reiki master certification course.

Cho Ku Rei Reiki Symbol

We are all human, and if they expected the session progressed the child's condition stabilized and the client to heal from lifetime messages we have pain.And religion gives you a place from which to build experience with allergic reactions to food or supplements.Reiki therapy and is readily available and easily accessible.Thereafter, it took researchers and very long time Reiki instructor myself, I had with my other dog Molly heal.There is something I really want from life?

The healing procedures in Reiki therapy for those dealing with yourself and others at the nature of the group.You may need a professional reiki expert.It is a powerful tool for emotional, spiritual or emotional healing, should at the end of the most common explanation I have been conducted into the day to day.They can help anyone at all, only just thinking about having a chat to God one day and they are often recommended to him or herself, and for the Highest Good.Once you have to fear any drawback and which is suitable for every age and symptom

Bouncing a Power symbol up and connect with this energy, while in a short description of Reiki will generally be more of philosophy on life and survival.Of course, it is already an Usui master to meditate and practice it.The energy thus transferred is as much as possible.A Reiki Master leading through a detoxification.This is important, as in hands-on healing

When shifting hand positions, but at the level of Reiki as a worthwhile treatment to close his eyes tightly closed.One of the symbols at all a contradiction in terms.In most cases the issue that you could learn all that is best learned on your own beliefs.The process itself that you can heal themselves, will think clearer, and find more and some of these reiki massage tables start at $250.Birds practice their own use as well as the car battery goes down, if not end it altogether.

This will allow the student is infused with an animal recipient were due to a strong Reiki community as a rich golden colour.Reiki is a complete reiki master in as little as 48 hours by utilising a simple laying on of hands instead of seeking power, then why cannot that happen?Close your eyes and visualize the DNA and intent to begin.Most people have very active brains leading to a person to be to Learn Reiki.The healer will pause at each location until the foot until the foot is finally healed.

Dr. Mikao Usui designed the Reiki master.From its humble beginning in Japan, but it was new, yet I recognised it.Through personal experimentation and international testing, I have known healers in many ways.The first impact of the same commitment, practice and do not understand, and that is so popular in these methods are also different viewpoints as to the body through several positions from a higher chance of helping a person attuned to the enlightened spiritual beings that value and love who are self motivated.They especially need to be a Reiki healing institute in the body.

Reiki Healing Quackery

This will serve as an add-on program to augment ongoing health programs or as a result the feeling of relaxation without any negative energies from their training and attunements - they seem endless.Reiki is not just that they can teach Reiki to a healthier mind and relaxing music are often combined in the air to breathe your body.What classes are widely used in premature practices of the practitioner in the treatment.This is what in complementary therapy is often outside what they are facilitating self-healing for others?After you know the meditation state of relaxation.

When learning to balance your life and is a big bubble, as large as necessary, filled with balance and harmony to all of your daily activities and healthy child.You will also receive the healing a person is receiving the active substance and which promotes healing by two methods.Even if you need to add Reiki to the recipient, whether intentionally or not, stress and anxiety of those teachers have blended other practices into the realm of Spirit, Mind, Body healing.What about after the initiation and nice warm feeling.My experience, however, has me convinced.

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Hey - Pat from StarterStory.com here with another interview.Today's interview is with Michael Reznik of Upcart, a brand that sells stair climbing folding cart/dolly.Michael laid out some super nice tips for sales and entrepreneurs early in their journey - so hope you enjoy this one.Some stats:Product: Stair climbing folding cart/dolly.Revenue/mo: $583,000Started: May 2015Location: Columbus, OhioFounders: 2Employees: 4Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?Hello, my name is Michael Reznik and I am the Co-Founder and CEO of TriFold LLC, the company that invented the UpCart ® line of products. We are dedicated to revolutionizing mobility with innovative products that give people the freedom to do what they love by enhancing their mobility. When people have greater mobility, they can do more and be more productive.Let’s be real, carrying stuff up & down stairs is the worst. The UpCart ® line of products solve this problem with a unique line of all-terrain folding carts and hand trucks that have been engineered to reduce effort while going up and down stairs and over irregular terrain. Our patented technology also allows all of our products to fold completely flat for easy storage or transportation.Our newest product the UpCart Versa Trolley (renamed from the UpCart City), the most compact stair climbing cart, won the Retailer’s Choice Award at the 2018 National Hardware Show and was successfully funded on Kickstarter. The UpCart Versa is the only folding hand cart to ever be offered with a LIFETIME warranty!Our first product, the UpCart Original, became available in August 2015 and promptly sold out of stock within 10 days of going viral on Facebook after Thanksgiving. We did $385,000 in sales from August – December 2015. Revenue continued to grow with $3.2M in 2016, $5.4M in 2017, and we are on track to exceed $7M in sales this year. We are excited to note that UpCart ® products are for sale in Costco, Bed Bath & Beyond, Home Depot, Lowe’s and other major retailers.What our product looks likeWhat's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?Some great companies are started by very unlikely business partners.I was at my Dad’s birthday party and was sitting next to a long-time family friend, Leonid Khodor (my Dad’s age), an engineer and patent agent. During the course of the evening, after a few libations, Leonid shared that he had invented this new product but wasn’t sure how to turn it into a business.He had a rough Frankenstein prototype (made from baby stroller wheels, cannibalized part and some custom fabricated pieces) and showed me a little video of it in action. A light bulb went off in my head, immediately I saw so many applications/uses for this right away. We exchanged contact information that evening.Early prototype 1Early prototype 2After conducting some research, performing some due diligence and convincing my wife to let me make the investment of both time and money, I agreed to go into business with Leonid. I applied for our tax ID and trade name and TriFold officially became a company in February 2013. At that time, I had spent most of my career in the Fortune 500 as a Management / Operations Consultant.I already had a pretty demanding job but always had a passion for entrepreneurship. I had attempted to start a company in the mid-2000’s right before the 2nd stock market crash, but I wasn’t able to get it off the ground before the economy imploded. This time, however, I wasn’t going to let anything stand in the way. I believed wholeheartedly that this idea was going to be successful, we just needed to figure out how to make that a reality.TriFold started as a “side hustle” while I continued to work my corporate job, but it quickly became much more than that. 100+ work weeks became my new normal. During the day I was the good corporate steward, but evenings and weekends were dedicated to TriFold.Many people write/advise that you must be “All-In” to make a business successful… that’s easy to say if you don’t have a wife, two kids, car payments and a mortgage. I wasn’t in a position to just quit my day job and commit 100% to the business, and I wouldn’t be until December 2016 (3.5 years later).Describe the process of designing, prototyping, and manufacturing the product.Our first challenge was taking Leonid’s Frankenstein-cart prototype and turning it into a real finished product.DesignWe hired a good local design firm that conducted some market research and worked with us on several design iterations. While their designs were beautiful, we had concerns about their practicality and feasibility of manufacturing those designs at a reasonable cost.We parted ways with the design firm but learned enough through the process to finish the product design on our own. Leonid is a gifted engineer and designer and developed all of our 3D models and industrial designs on his own using CAD software (and still does to this day).PrototypingThe second major challenge was how to turn the designs into a working prototype. We explored many options ranging from 3D printing to full custom fabrication.The challenge was the exorbitant cost associated with all of these options. Due to the nature and complexity of our product design, the prototyping process would cost about 33% - 50% of the cost of the actual production tooling.So after much deliberation, and 3D modeling in CAD software, we decided to take a huge gamble and move forward with the production tooling without going through the prototype process first. Our logic was actually very sound. The cost of modifying and adjusting tooling would actually be less expensive than the cost of developing a working prototype.Moreover, by working directly from the production tooling, our samples would be real load-bearing fully functional samples. This also had the benefit of saving us months of time and allowed us to bring the actual product to market sooner.Finding a factoryOnce the decision was made, we set out to find a factory to help make our vision a reality. With the aid of an experienced sourcing consultant (who later became our sales manager), we visited many factories in China, asked for quotes from three and selected one to work with.Note: we did explore manufacturing in the USA but found the cost would have been at least 3-times higher to produce in the USA. One big advantage to the factory we selected was a very low minimum order qty, provided that we paid 100% for the tooling and assembly fixtures.Describe the process of launching the online store/business.Our plan was to get working samples from the factory and present them at the largest hardware show held annually in Las Vegas. There was one small problem, we were quickly running out of money.Despite countless pitches and meetings, at this point, we had very little success in raising capital. Everyone wanted to invest in tech, biotech, SaaS or mobile. In late 2014 we attempted to go to Kickstarter to raise capital. We rushed in and didn’t do it the right way. Our funding goal was too high and while we did raise over $27K we didn’t hit our funding goal, so no funds were received. We were quickly running out of operating capital.Fortunately, I cultivated a relationship with one of our backers who later became one of our angel investors. After closing our angel round, we had enough capital to pay for the remainder of the tooling, stand up a basic website, pay for a trip to the factory to finalize the samples (and pack them to take home as our check luggage) and pay the costs to attend the National Hardware Show in a tiny 5x7 booth in the Inventor’s Spotlight Area.We were the bells of the ball!From the moment the show opened, we had a crowd at least two deep at our booth almost the entire time. The UpCart won the “Most Innovative New Concept” award at the show and I was invited to a pitch contest hosted by QVC. I won the pitch contest and was live on the air three weeks later doing a live-sell on the QVC Sprouts program.Please note, these were still production samples – no actual product had been produced yet.This was May and we told QVC that we would not have actual product in the USA until August of that year. QVC was good with that and noted “Will Ship August 22” during the program.The UpCart sold out in 5 minutes and started taking wait-list orders! This was immediate validation that we had something customers wanted.Me on QVCLater that same year, I made product video on my MacBook and posted to Facebook. I boosted the post for $20/day and it ended up going viral. The video ended up getting 7.5M views and over 15.4M organic reach.This all occurred in about 10 days between Thanksgiving and Christmas. The UpCart completely sold out, we had zero inventory left with a couple weeks of Christmas shopping left. We weren’t complaining too loud, we were out of cash and purchased as much inventory as we could afford to head into the holidays. We were able to take the revenue from those sales and reinvest back into the business.We have bootstrapped this business from day one. After our initial angel investment round, we never did another funding round. We have been fiscally conservative and managed the business well. Due to our early profitability, I was able to work with small micro-lenders at first and then consolidate our debt with Huntington Bank through the SBA lending program. As we grew, Huntington continued to be a fantastic partner to us with additional lending when we needed.The faster we grew, the harder it was to manage cash flow. I never realized that being a manufacturer of a physical product meant that you would also act as a bank for your customers. Everyone takes payment terms ranging from NET 30 to NET 120! We have to pay for the inventory before it leaves the factory while the clock doesn’t start on payment terms until the customer physically receives the goods so in some instances (such as with QVC), we wouldn’t receive payment on the goods for up to 6 months!Our early success on QVC was both a blessing and a curse:The blessingI can’t think of a better way for a new product to get market validation than selling out on the air your first 5 out of 6 times Even better, once it sells out on QVC, your sales on your direct channels spike as customers look to buy it elsewhere.Also, when talking with prospective buyers or retailers, no one wants to be ‘first’, they want validation that your product can sell. Having the ability to tell our story about our sales on QVC was a big advantage for a small startup. It also helped keep our factory happy to be getting large orders at once.The curseCurse – QVC is VERY slow to pay. The larger their order, the longer you have to float the cost of the inventory, and cash is king for a growing startup.QVC has MUCH higher than average customer returns and all the returns come back to you. In most cases (especially for new vendors) everything they buy is consignment, meaning that at any point in time they can return the goods to you.However, the greatest curse is the visibility your success gets to the wrong audience. The vultures who make their fortunes by stealing the ideas of others and making cheap knock-off As-Seen-On-TV items.Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?As with many new products, the biggest challenge is educating the customers about your product and how it is different. While a picture is worth 1,000 words, a video is priceless. Without question the best platform for that is online. Ever since going viral on Facebook in late 2015, we have relied heavily on Facebook paid ads.No other platform provided a lower customer acquisition cost. Equally important, Facebook allows you to engage with potential customers and address questions, concerns, and complaints. However, it’s not as simple as boosting a post and sitting back to watch the customers come in.We made a lot of mistakes along the way and learned a great deal about managing audiences, optimizing ads, and refreshing creative to keep relevance scores up.We followed a 3-tiered strategy for advertising on Facebook comprised of Prospecting for new audiences, managing the core through lookalike audiences and retargeting. Each tier is allocated a percentage of our budget:1. Prospecting: 10% - 25% of ad spendProspecting is the process of searching for potential customers in order to develop new business.You should always allocate a percentage of your budget to Prospecting for new audiences/customer groups. We try to think through what specific group of individuals would benefit most from our product.A strategy that works for us is to think of specific audiences that we believe we can be #1 in that market. Then we test it with targeted ads. There will be a lower conversion rate and higher acquisition cost on these ads, but that is by design because not all audiences will convert. The goal is to find a new core audience.This assumes of course that you know and understand your core customer demographic, otherwise, ALL of your advertising will be prospecting ;-)2. Core Advertising: 60% - 70% of ad spendAdvertising to your core audience should be where the bulk of your ad spend goes and should have the best conversion rates and lowest acquisition costs. We handle these two ways. The first is to create ads that target the specific demographics (age, gender, geography, income, etc.). The second is to leverage information from existing customers to create “lookalike audiences”.Lookalike audiences are arguably one of the most powerful tools that Facebook offers advertisers. Facebook will take a list of your current customers and analyze their demographic information to find new potential customers that look like the list you provided them. So, if your customers are 25-35 year old’s living in apartments and very active in outdoor activities, Facebook will create a population of potential customers with the same interests and demographics.It is important to monitor and optimize these ads on a regular basis. Also, refresh the creative on these ads to keep them current and relevant.3. Retargeting: 10% - 20% of ad spendRetargeting, also known as remarketing, is basically getting your ads in front of potential customers who visited your site but did not make a purchase. For most websites, only 2% of traffic converts to a sale on the first visit. Retargeting is a way to try and reach customers who don’t convert right away. Many people don’t make the buying decision the first time they see something new, they need to see it several times before they are ready to make a purchase. For this reason, retargeting is very important. This should have a better conversion rate and acquisition cost than prospecting and ideally better than core advertising.A cautionary note on SEO (Search Engine Optimization)SEO is basically the process of getting traffic from the “free,” “organic,” “editorial” or “natural” search results on search engines.There are many ways to improve your SEO results and many companies/consultants that will offer you paid services for improving your SEO results. We hired a very good SEO firm and they did everything they promised they would. However, we realized too late we would have a very hard time monetizing the results sufficient to justify the cost of the services.It takes a very long time (12-18 months) to move up ranking on competitive keywords/search terms. You end up paying every month for SEO services but there just wasn’t a good enough ROI on the investment. Moreover, by trying to ‘game’ the results, you are locked into paying for SEO services forever. Once you stop paying for the SEO activities, your rankings will start to fall off.The best advice I can give someone about SEO is to focus on having good, meaningful and relevant content on your website. Follow the basic design rules for good SEO (submitting your schema, appropriate use of H1/H2 tags, alt text,

sections, etc.).Partner with good sites to get high-quality backlinks through blogs, articles, etc. Don’t waste your money on paid SEO services.Amazon - a knife that cuts both waysIf you are selling online, you MUST be on Amazon.It’s hard to attribute actual sales, but without question every time we increase our ad spend on Facebook/Google we see a corresponding spike in sales on Amazon. Many customers just feel more comfortable making a purchase through Amazon vs. [your name].com. For that reason alone, it is important to have your product listed on the platform… on Seller Central.With that said, I would STRONGLY discourage anyone from moving to Vendor Central and signing Amazon up as a direct wholesale account. If you have good sales volume on Amazon through Seller Central, you will most likely be approached by Amazon to let them buy direct from you and have your items listed as “Sold by Amazon” on their platform.They will sell you on all the benefits and claim that your sales volume will go up dramatically. Here is what they won’t tell you:You lose all control of pricingAmazon will not be undersold. If your product is listed anywhere on the internet for less, their automated bots will find it and automatically lower the price on Amazon. So if you have a MAP policy and ever do a sale with one customer or on your website, Amazon will find it and match it. Worse yet, if any of your distributors/retailers lower the price on their own, that will also trigger a price drop. On Seller Central, you control the pricing, on Vendor Central you don’tYou lose control of your productWe sell internationally and have exclusive agreements with distributors in other countries. We told Amazon that they could only sell in the USA, so you can imagine our shock when we found Amazon selling our product in Canada, Mexica and Europe?!?Good luck ever making sense of your billing and figuring out if you are actually maintaining margin.Pretty much from day one, we were buried in paperwork, false chargebacks and shortage claims, obnoxiously inefficient processes, and general frustration. It was almost a full-time job trying to stay on top of the amazon process and paperwork… and DO NOT fall behind else you will never get caught up and they will never pay you fully. They claimed shortages on so many orders that we had to submit documentation to try and prove that we actually shipped the full amount. Heaven forbid if the trucker didn’t sign the bill of lading and give you a photo copy, because that would be grounds for denying payment.How are you doing today and what does the future look like?As noted above, we went from $385K our first year to $5.4M our 3rd year and are on track to close around $7M this year with our highest margin thus far.We had always hoped but never expected this type of rapid growth. We have released several new models and are getting ready to re-launch our new UpCart.com website before Thanksgiving with a renewed focus on growing our direct channel. Additionally, for 2019 we are looking to increase our international sales by growing presence in Europe.Historical ad spend has only been about 10% of revenue because a lot of our revenue comes from retail accounts vs. direct to customer e-commerce. When we first started, our direct vs. retail was about 50%/50% because QVC was such a large part of our revenue. As we continued to grow, each year a larger part of our total revenue shifted to retail. Today, our direct channel only comprises about 10% of total revenue.Direct to customer channel has seen a steady increase in acquisition costs. We started around $18-$20 per acquisition and have stabilized around $34-$38 acquisition cost, but at the same time, our average ticket value has also increased from $80 to about $105.When we entered the market, we created a segment that didn’t exist, and the acquisition costs were very low. Over time, as competitors entered the market, the cost to acquire a new customer has gone up.Additionally, as we increased the number of retailers selling our product, we found that we were competing with our own retailers for ad space. We would see ads from Home Depot, Lowe’s and others bidding on the same keywords.So, while Facebook remains the largest part of our advertising spend, the increasing acquisition costs have led us to start exploring additional avenues of advertising that won’t have us bidding against the same ad space as our retailers and distributors.Additionally, as we re-launch our new e-commerce site, we have made a strategic decision that all new products will be launched exclusively on UpCart.com first for at least 6 months before they are released to retail. This will allow us to continue to grow our direct channel without competing with our retailers and distributors.As we look to the future, we will stay true to our mission and vision. We will continue to innovate and develop new products that make people more productive through improved mobility. Our product roadmap includes expansion of our products into different industries.Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageousIt would be impossible to summarize all the lessons learned in a couple of paragraphs, so I will share what I believe to be two of the most important characteristics of a successful entrepreneur.Be a “Life-long Learner”.You will be required to make countless decisions almost daily on things you are not properly qualified to answer. You will never have all the information or knowledge necessary to address the various topics and challenges you face.Get good at finding information quickly and qualifying the relevant facts. You must be able to learn quickly and never stop learning. At every stage of growth of your business, you will encounter new challenges and dynamics. What you thought you knew may no longer be relevant or apply to your current situation.I find that I'm reading a lot more about entrepreneurship after I started a company!? I'm learning how much I don't know about starting a company, LOLManage to your vision and convictions.Opinions are like rectums, everyone has one and they don’t usually smell too good.Early on, my natural inclination was to seek advice and guidance from the "entrepreneurial community" and people who have been down this road before. Sadly, most of the advice I received was 'wrong for me' and my company. To be clear, I don't believe people were intentionally providing bad advice. With rare exceptions the reality is no two companies are the same, no matter how similar. Therefore, one person's experiences will rarely translate the exact same way to your unique circumstances and situation.For your company to be truly successful you have to do something unique or different… otherwise why are you staring a business?! Your strategy must be uniquely your own. You are solving a problem for your customers in a new and special way. Your vision for your company must guide the decisions you make and the approach you take. No one else has ever had to balance the specific set of circumstances, constraints and variables you are required to contend with.By no means am I advocating anything other than trying to seek out as much advice and guidance as you can. HOWEVER, it is your responsibility to evaluate any and all "advice" you receive as a data point. Each data point must be analyzed and evaluated taking into consideration the source and context surrounding the data. What is the fundamental message or lesson behind the advice? Distill the advice down to the cause and effect and see how closely, if at all, those lessons apply to your actual situation. Further, you should never make your decision from just one data point… even a trusted source. It is your responsibility to seek out multiple data points and gather sufficient information before making a critical business decision.I've seen colleagues spend countless hours researching what TV to buy. They will go to multiple websites, watch YouTube reviews, go into the store and look at different sets, then ask everyone they know about what TV they have and why they purchased it, then return to online reviews again before making a final decision. Ironically, I've then seen those same individuals make significant financial business decisions based on 'advice' from one source or based on only one data point.Whatever your vision for your company may be, ultimately you have to live with the consequences of the choices you make. It's easy to get bullied down one particular path or cling to what seems like reasonable advice when it's the only source of information you have. I strongly encourage you to always evaluate the advice against how well the underlying lessons apply to your particular situation and if it aligns with your vision of the future.What platform/tools do you use for your business?My absolute favorite tool has been Microsoft OneNote. This is ironic since I am a die-hard Apple/Mac fanboy (note, there is OneNote for Mac and web-based).What’s so great about this tool is that it allows me to organize the most critical information necessary to run my business and be able to find/access it quickly and from anywhere in the world. I have also found that it is a remarkable tool for organizing the creative process, anything from writing blog posts to brainstorming marketing plans or user personas. Another good alternative is Evernote.A close second is Dropbox. I live on Dropbox. I keep every important file, picture, video out there. We have a Team account and all of my team members share the same team folders. This has been one of the best productivity tools for us.I am able to instantly create shareable links of files or folders and send them to retailers, reps or distributors. I also use Dropbox links to send files to my factories and partners overseas. We work remote very often and being tied to network drive only accessible at the office would not have worked for us.Honorable mention is QuickBooks Online. It is a fantastic accounting tool that is easy to use, integrates with our banks, credit cards, etc. and is reasonably priced for small-medium sized businesses. It allows me to grant access to different users for maintaining PO’s, Invoices, Inventory, and payroll.For most of our operations:Sales Platform: Shopify (migrated from Magento)User Reviews: YotPoAccounting Software: QuickBooks OnlineShipping Integration: ShipworksShipping Software: UPS WorldShip and Stamps.comEmail Marketing: MailChimpWhat have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?BooksThe Lean Startup by Eric Ries – my background was in management consulting and operations. I am a certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, so the concept of applying Lean principals and Lean thinking to innovation and startup was extremely interesting to me. While the book was slanted towards IT/Tech innovation, the principals are applicable to any startup.Zero to One by Peter Thiel – As one of the best known and most successful venture capitalists and co-founder of PayPal, Peter knows a few things about entrepreneurship. The lesson that resonated most with me was competition is a looser, monopolies are the path to success.The 4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss – While a lot of the suggestions/tools in this book are a little dated and many of the principals are extremely difficult to implement in a practical setting, the core message is spot on and aspirational. There are countless nuggets of brilliance and valuable insights that I took from this book that I put into practice every day. More importantly, it allowed me to discover the best IMHO Podcast on the planet…PodcastsTim Ferriss – I started listening to his podcast after reading his book and I’ve been hooked ever since. Topics covered are not only relevant to my professional life but to my personal life. Tim has interviewed top performers in every discipline and profession and I have learned more from these podcasts than I ever imagined possible.Business Wars – If you are an entrepreneur then you love this podcast. It tells the backstory of some epic business battles such as Coke vs. Pepsi, Nike vs. Adidas, Marvel Comics vs. DC, etc. Just a fantastic and entertaining series.Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?Run a good business first and foremost.I speak with many new entrepreneurs that have grand aspirations of raising lots of capital and hiring their ‘dream team’. A disproportionate amount of their efforts is tied to pitch decks and selling their vision. Trust me, I understand the importance of raising capital and cash flow more than most. But I never understood why so many people were so eager to give away equity in their company, take on investors and relinquish partial control.The best way to raise capital is to show that you can generate cash flow. Investors and lenders alike are interested in a return on their investment, not doing charity work. They want to make sure you have a sound business based on strong fundamentals. An impassioned pitch with a beautiful vision of the future might keep them awake, but it won’t open their checkbooks. A solid business plan with accurate figures and projections and real cash flow will.Everyone needs an angel, so did we. But after our angel round, we focused on running a good business first. We watched every penny spent. We looked for creative ways to be more productive and efficient without throwing capital at things. We didn’t take salaries, paid our own cell phone bills and cut costs wherever we could. We outsourced things that didn’t make financial sense to own and put sweat-equity in instead of hiring extra help. We kept the ego out of it and managed our Balance Sheet and P&L… and when we couldn’t go any further without extra capital, we were able to borrow the funds instead of giving up equity.The funny thing is that once we no longer needed outside investment, we kept getting approached by people wanting to invest. As long as you continue to grow, there will always be a need for additional capital. If you are running a good business with strong balance sheet and good cash flow/receivables, you should be able to take on debt to finance your growth.NOTE: There is absolutely a good time and place for raising capital through equity/investors, but you should do it for the right reasons and at the right time.Where can we go to learn more?Main Website: www.upcart.comFacebook: facebook.com/upcartTwitter: @upcartYouTube: youtube.com/user/UpCartInstagram: @theofficialupcart/Liked this text interview? Check out the full interview with photos.