#its like I get cryogenically frozen and wake up and post and go back to sleep

[thatdassie]

The Murderbot diaries is like everything I ever asked for in sci-fi. I burned through the whole series in one week and now there is a deep disturbance in my soul.

Also if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to flail my arms at my newfound queerplatonic AI pairing 

[wizardlyghost]

alright i'm gonna do it. i'm gonna play fallout 4.

PRIOR KNOWLEDGE: i have started this game before, but i got about as far as finding a suit of power armour and getting my ass kicked by a giant lizard before getting bored. i have an extremely hazy knowledge of the fallout universe from posts on tumblr and getting to the "what in the goddamn" bit in new vegas, but i don't know a whole lot of specifics about this game, so please dont spoil if you want me to genuinely react when i get there. here's what i know off the top of my head:

- on the FINAL DAY the SOLE SURVIVOR (henceforth: me) goes into one of VAULT TECH's FUCKED UP SOCIAL EXPERIMENT BUNKERS with their (henceforth: my) SPOUSE and BABY, whose name i think is SEAN(?). the SPOUSE is whichever of the husband/wife duo you don't turn into your character, whether or not they actually have a name is kinda unclear in my memory.

- as soon as i enter the VAULT i immediately get CRYOGENICALLY FROZEN. last time i didn't know what was going on and just climbed straight into the pod like a chump. i wonder if they forcibly shove you in if you try to escape? food for experimentation. also your SPOUSE goes into their pod with BABY SEAN(?) because i guess explicitely child-sized unethical experimentation chambers is where VAULT-TECH draws the line? go figure.

- YEARS IN THE FUTURE (BUT NOT MANY) some ASSHOLES break into the VAULT, shoot my SPOUSE, and steal BABY SEAN(?). i am awake to watch this but they don't notice and reactivate the pods, i get frozen again.

- SOME MORE YEARS IN THE FUTURE (BUT NOT MANY(?)) i wake up once more due to the VAULT running out of power. the guards have all killed each other or something, all the other vaultcicles are dead in their pods. i fight my way outside past some FUCKED UP BUGS, pick up a PIP-BOY, and head home.

- when i get home my ROBOT BUTLER is still floating around because planned obsolescence has no power here. he gives me the skinny on the APOCALYPSE, i head off up the hill to look for BABY(?) SEAN(?) and find a DOG called DOG along the way. DOG is a GOOD BOY and if any harm comes to him i will burn this entire fucking wasteland to the ground. again.

- i get to a TOWN and kill a bunch of ASSHOLES in a MUSEUM OF AMERICANA. this GUY with a COOL HAT and a SICK ASS LASER RIFLE (i think his name is PRESTON(?)) asks me to go grab a SUIT OF POWER ARMOUR from the CRASHED PLANE ON THE ROOF. this isn't really my playstyle but i do so and BUST SOME HEADS with it. a GIANT LIZARD shows up and repeatedly kills me until i reboot the save and spend fewer MINIGUN BULLETS on the aforementioned BUSTING OF HEADS, saving them for this SCALY BAG OF DICKS. i finally defeat it and spend the rest of my ammo shooting its corpse out of spite.

- PRESTON(?) and i walk back home with his survivors and idk live happily ever after? adopt a bunch of wasteland weirdos, raise some two-headed cattle, learn from the mistakes of the fallen american empire as we rebuild a kinder society from the ashes of our mistakes? i stopped playing here so for now i'm going to assume that's what happens and the rest of the game is just irradiated stardew valley.

WHAT HAPPENS NOW: i'm gonna boot up the game and play for a bit, and try to liveblog about it. there probably won't be a whole lot of posts in the bits i've done before but we'll see. again, if you want me to genuinely react to something when i get to it, please don't spoil it beforehand, it'll be a lot more fun for the both of us.

yee. haw.

[minuteminx]

Revolutionary

Pairing: Preston Garvey/ Female Sole Survivor

Summary: In the aftermath of personal tragedies, Preston and Charlie both seek to make a difference in the Commonwealth and those around them. They could never anticipate the impact that they will have on eachother in the process.

Chapter Four: Sole Survivor

Chapter Summary:   Charlie tells Preston a long story. 

[First Chapter]

[Previous Chapter]

[AO3 Link]

“A bridge of silver wings stretches from the dead ashes of an unforgiving nightmare to the jeweled vision of a life started anew.”

― Aberjhani, Journey through the Power of the Rainbow: Quotations from a Life Made Out of Poetry

Sanctuary  Hills, October 2287

The trek out of Concord, and up the road to a place called Sanctuary Hills was largely silent and uneventful. Preston took point, and Charlie offered to hang back in case there were any straggling raiders who decided to follow. He wasn’t so sure that she was in any condition to watch the rear, but he wasn’t about to argue with the woman who’d just turned a deathclaw inside out. It was more than alarming to see the bloody massacre Charlie’s tangle with the deathclaw had caused up close and personal as they passed by. He was just glad she’d survived, and that he didn’t have to fight the damn thing.

On the way to their hopeful home, Sturges spotted a largely intact Red Rocket on the side of the road, stacked with old tires and filled with useless junk that Sturges would scrape up a use for. Jun and Marcy walked together in somber silence and Mama Murphy hobbled along in the back, arm looped through Charlie’s, whose open hand gripped a 10mm so tightly her knuckles turned white. She had a hell of a poker face, he’d give her that much.

Nearing the old neighborhood, a statue of a lone guardian stood tall, musket in hand, holding his centuries-old post at the bridge where the American Revolution began. It was almost like some weird omen, Preston thought, observing the Minuteman and then the bridge. Maybe Mama’s visions had some truth to them after all. He did not realize he’d mused out loud until Sturges’ hand clapped him on the back.

“I don’t know what the heck you’re talkin’ about boss, but I’m glad you’re happy.”

Preston laughed. “Thanks, man.”

Crossing Old North Bridge into their hopeful home seemed monumental, the group propelled forward by the potential of a place to finally rest. There were more than a handful of homes that still had enough structural integrity to be tidied and boarded up for use as shelters. It was bittersweet to see the remnants of picket fences, lawn furniture, and pink, plastic birds that dotted the landscape. Skeletons of old cars littered spots where garages might have been. Preston imagined what the area might have been like back before the war, pictured neighbors talking to one another from their yards, children playing together in the streets. It was a way of life he knew he’d never get to have.

Before long, Preston had done a sweep of the entire cul de sac, making sure there wasn’t anything dangerous lurking inside any buildings. All he found were several dead rad roaches and bloatflies, as well as a high-strung Mr. Handy robot that called itself Codsworth.  It kept attempting to scrub the rust off the paneling outside one of the homes, muttering something about making sure it was in “tip-top” shape for when its family returned. He wasn’t exactly sure what to do with the thing, so he just left it to clean aimlessly in hopes that it’d be someone else’s problem later.

“Hey boss,” Sturges called out to him, waving him overs to where the others had congregated near the mechanic’s makeshift workstation, lamplight flickering on their exhausted faces, “Check out what we found in one of the fridges.”

Preston walked over, catching a glimpse of the round face of Button Gwinnett on a cardboard case of Southie Stouts. “Damn, and here I thought we’d used up all our luck for the day.”

“I’d prefer Beantown,” Marcy said as she brought her bottle to her lips, and Preston caught the briefest flash of a grin wrinkling at the corners of her mouth.

“C’mon Marcy,” Jun interjected, nudging her shoulder, “You know that’s not true.”

“I’m a Gwinnett guy, but I’d probably drink anything wet with a kick right about now,” Preston said, grabbing one of the dark brown bottles and examining it more closely. It had been forever since he’d actually gotten to enjoy a drink, long before Qunicy, that was for sure. Just as he placed his hand on the cap to pop it off, there was a bump at the back of his legs. He startled and turned around to see Dogmeat peering up at him expectantly, whining and wagging his tail. Preston knelt down and gave him a scratch behind the ears. “You a Gwinnett guy, too, boy?”

The dog let out a stern bark that sounded like a correction, and then turned toward the house across the street before looking back at him. Following Dogmeat’s instruction, Preston glanced over at the house, where Charlie stood alone, frozen and staring vacantly inside as if she wanted to enter but couldn’t.  Without hesitation, he grabbed another bottle and headed toward her

He cleared his throat as he approached to make sure he didn’t startle her.  It was neither polite nor smart to spook a lady who was already pretty shaken up.  She darted her head toward him, scrubbing at her face as if he wouldn’t notice her tear-stained cheeks and swollen nose. He pretended not to, anyway, instead holding up the bottles in his hands and smiling. “Thought you could use a drink.”

She perked up at the sight of the drinks, tilting her head and squinting at the label. “Are those--? Oh wow.”

“Yeah,” Preston said, popping the cap off of one of the bottles and handing it to her, “Stouts are harder to come by than the other stuff.”

Charlie shook her head and examined the bottle, running her thumb up and down across the label. “No… it’s just.  I’m surprised there are still any left after you know--” she swallowed hard-- “the bombs.”

She sounded harrowed, as if the bombs had just fallen yesterday or something. Maybe she was just harrowed in general.  God knew she had every right to be.

“Me too,” Preston said, opening his own drink and taking a swig, lukewarm and bitter.  It hit the spot. “It’s kinda crazy, you know, what survived.

She took a sip, sad smile at the corners of her mouth. “Like the lawn flamingos? Such a testament to pre-war vanity.”

“Those damn birds,” Preston replied, nodding and laughing.  He’d never thought much about the lawn ornaments before, other than thinking they were ridiculous.

The air between them fell silent as Charlie stared down at her bottle, picking at the label with a polished thumbnail. She opened her mouth, as if to speak, but then closed it and sighed before glancing over at him. “Can I tell you something?  It’s going to sound really weird, but I’m going to lose my shit if I don’t talk to someone.”

“Is this that ‘long story’ you mentioned before?”

“Yeah.” Charlie walked toward the bright red door to the house in front of them, slightly ajar, knob and hinges specked with rust. She ran her hand along the wooden surface and took a deep breath.  “I used to live here.  In Sanctuary Hills.  In this house.”

“But,” Preston’s brows drew together, “That’s not possible.  This place hasn’t been settled since--”

“Before the bombs fell.” She spun back around to look at him, leaning back against the door frame. “I know.  That’s when I lived here.”

“Two-hundred and ten years ago?”

She nodded her head slowly. “2077.  I had the perfect life: a good career, the best husband, a beautiful baby boy, and a shiny new Mr. Handy unit that was much less neurotic than the one over there trying to clean the dirt off the ground.”

He blinked, attempting to figure out where he’d misheard the woman, because if he hadn’t then that would make her over two-hundred years old.  That couldn’t be possible, at least not without being a ghoul, although he wouldn’t mind if she could take Codsworth off his hands.  

Charlie frowned. “I knew you wouldn’t believe me.”

“No, no,” Preston stammered out quickly,  “I believe you, but… how?”

“That might be a better question for Vault-Tec,” she remarked, looking down at her suit, “My husband and I signed up for a  spot, just as a precaution.  Nobody thought the Chinese military would actually drop those nukes. Not sure if it was arrogance or complacency, but either way, it happened.  My family and I were rushed to Vault 111 to shelter.  That’s all it was supposed to be: A shelter .”

“I’m guessing it wasn’t just a shelter?”

“No.” She laughed bitterly.  “They herded us, like lab rats, into these cryogenic chambers, and locked us in there.  Last thing I remembered before waking up was my limbs going numb and my vision going dark.”

“Damn.” Preston was stuck somewhere between horror and amazement.  “Did anyone else make it out with you?”

“No.”  Her answer was abrupt, eyes welling up visibly and he immediately felt bad for asking. “When I woke up, there were these people in weird lab coats and a man with this scar--” She traced a line with her little finger, vertically from her eyebrow down to her cheek-- “He opened up my husband’s chamber and took my baby.  Nate fought, but… they shot him.  After that, I think everyone else’s life support failed.  A whole damn town, and I’m the only one who survived.”

“I’m… so sorry.”  He didn’t know what else to say.  He knew how it felt, to be a sole survivor of a terrible tragedy, but he couldn’t bring up Quincy, even if it was just to show her he understood.  “If there’s anything I can do, or that the Minutemen can do…”

“I think the Minutemen have their own problems at the moment, hmm?”  She smirked, eyes twinkling with humor despite the tears.

Preston looked around and chuckled in exasperation. “Well, considering that I’m the only one left, I’d say yes. We have so many problems.  That doesn’t change the fact that I owe you.”

Charlie tilted her head back and finished off the rest of her stout, then looked decisively at Preston.  “You’re not the only one.”

“Pardon?”

“I never thought I’d get to say this in my lifetime, outside the context of some weird historical play, but... I’m joining the Minutemen.” She tossed her bottle to the ground. “I don’t have any survival skills, I couldn’t shoot dead fish in a barrell, and I’m a bit traumatized, but I figure it’s still better than nothing.”

“Are you serious?”  Preston could barely contain his excitement.  He didn’t care if he had to spend months teaching her how to shoot or get by in the Commonwealth.  He’d been without help for so long now, he would be glad to not be alone.

“I know it’s hard to believe that anyone could be that bad of a shot, but--”

“No, Charlie,” he interrupted, “Are you serious about joining up?”

Charlie grinned, playfully. “Hell yeah.”

“That’s... well.  Let’s just say that’s the best news I’ve heard in a long time.”

If Preston were a hugger, and if he’d known her longer than a few hours, he would have embraced the woman.  Maybe it wasn’t just the jet.  Maybe Mama Murphy was right all along.

[aion-rsa]

Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous Season 3: What to Expect

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The following contains spoilers for Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous season 2.

The second season of the animated series Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous, released on Netflix on Jan. 22, answered a lot of lingering questions from season one. But another cliffhanger ending has left fans roaring for more.

With a whole island to explore and a few years of blank timeline between Jurassic World and Fallen Kingdom, the creative team has a lot of elements to play around with. What do we think we’ll see if Netflix spares no expense and gives us a third season?

Escape

As de facto team leader Darius declares this season, they aren’t waiting for rescue any more; the campers are going to find a way off the island by themselves. And they have proven they have what it takes, having constructed every kid‘s dream treehouse in the rubble of Camp Cretaceous. They built every kid’s dream treehouse, a multi-level affair with a shower and slides; surely they can build a raft to get them out to the boat big game hunter Tiff was escaping on when she was killed by a pair of Baryonyx.

And a rescue still may be coming. In the beginning of the season, the kids activated an emergency beacon, and somebody received it. Combined with the resources and influential friends Kenji’s dad likely has access to, it would be hard to believe there isn’t somebody out there trying to reach these kids. Maybe camp counselors Dave and Roxy, whom we haven’t seen since the end of season one?

Will Hap Return?

Hap, the gruff and scarred guide hired by big game hunters Mitch and Tiff, sacrificed himself to save the kids from a trio of pursuing dinosaurs in episode six. But neither of us nor the kids actually saw him die. I’m not saying it’s likely he’s alive, but I wouldn’t say it’s impossible. The show has already brought back Ben, a character the others assumed was dead. And Hap did seem awfully suspicious about the innocuous looking master keycard Brooklynn had, despite it being very unlikely he had ever seen one before.

Unless he had been to the island before, or knew someone who had. Hap is probably gone, but the number one fictional character survival tip is often “have an overabundance of unexplained backstory,” and season two definitely hints at him having that.

What Will Happen to Bumpy?

It’s time to talk about the asymmetrical Ankylosaurus in the room. Bumpy, a hatchling from season one who has grown into a beautiful armored tank and Ben’s constant companion, has a very distinctive appearance. One would think it would be easy to recognize her if she was in Fallen Kingdom, but none of the ankylosaurs in the movie seem to be her.

Assuming the kids escape the island, it’s not likely they would take her with them. As much as Bumpy is part of the family, she is a dinosaur and she belongs in the wild, which will probably lead to a tearful goodbye from everyone involved, Ben in particular. After that, her absence from Fallen Kingdom doesn’t seem to bode well for her fate. But this is still a children’s show, and some characters are just too cute to go extinct. I’m not sure how, I’m not sure where, but Bumpy will survive.

What is E750?

E750 is the designation given to a mysterious experiment housed in a cryogenics facility deep within the tunnels under the park. Brooklynn spends much of season two investigating the code name, first seen in Dr. Henry Wu’s laboratory in season one, where it was labeled “Clinical trials.” At the very end of the second season finale, thanks to electrical malfunctions, E750, whatever it is, wakes up.

While Jurassic World: Dominion director Colin Trevorow has stated that the third movie in the trilogy will not feature any hybrids, there are at least two years between season two of Camp Cretaceous and Fallen Kingdom, which is the next time we see anyone visit Isla Nublar. Plenty of time for an as of yet unseen hybrid to terrorize the campers before meeting its fate at the jaws of the mosasaur or the bottom of a cliff.

It could also be another Indominus rex. After all, the one that kickstarted the Jurassic World incident had a sibling. She killed and ate the other one soon after hatching, but the phrase “Clinical trials” implies something medical. Maybe trying to regrow an entire dinosaur from the parts left over after Indy’s dinner? It’s not that far fetched. Whatever E750 is and whatever DNA was used to fill in the gaps, it helped her survive being frozen. Why not a little regeneration?

The Camp Fam

At its heart, Camp Cretaceous isn’t about dinosaurs trying to eat people. It’s about family. Dinosaur families trying to eat people, sure, but mostly the found family Sammy has dubbed the “camp fam.” Comprised of six teenagers and one dinosaur who likely never would have been friends if not for the Jurassic World incident thrusting them together, the camp fam has already grown and changed because of the friendships developed on the island. Kenji learning the value of work ethic, Yaz learning to take it easy, Ben learning that you can still love hand sanitizer while being a badass.

As they continue trying to survive and escape, each teenager will have to discover who they truly are and want to be. Some fans are hoping this will include romance, especially noting Yaz’s apparent crush on Sammy, but whether it’s romantic or platonic, the love is strong in this camp fam. Whatever future seasons have in store, one thing is easy to predict: as long as they have each other, the kids will be alright.

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The post Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous Season 3: What to Expect appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[the-expatriate]

[The (Mobile) Specified Verses Page!]

Pari can be placed within almost any setting, usually what works best with the person she’ll be interacting with. However, there are a few instances where in which this be specified. Again, please specify if you’d like a particular verse if one of these takes your fancy, or I’ll just go with the default one which leaves it open to interpretation.

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Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap:  An Alternative Placement. This particular period of time takes place a few years later. Pari has established herself as a bonafide Information Broker, who often takes on freelance assignments for a price. She often works alongside DL (https://pink-haired-chronicles.tumblr.com/), and she is known to travel far and wide for her clients. In some cases, she is hired permanently by some..

Note: Any interactions pertaining to Pari in the Borderlands Universe are held in this above AU.

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Of Measures and Pints: Pari’s standard placement. Where she broke free of her old life and disappeared. Starting again in a quiet little place, in a rowdy as hell bar. That isn’t to say that she doesn’t rely on her old skills from time to time..

Most interactions take place during this period, but the exact placement of where she lives and works can be adjusted to meet the other muse’s verses and such.

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Then I Punched a Dragon in the Face!: Pari’s Elder Scrolls Verse, mainly being held in Skyrim.

A journeying Imperial Sellsword who doesn’t particularly belong to any group and who attempted to try and cross the border back into Cyrodiil. Pari has no standing on the conflict between the Empire and the Stormcloaks, instead just trying her best to not get killed and by making a decent amount of coin.

Originally hailing from the coastal city of Anvil in Cyrodiil, Pari in her teens was enlisted in the Imperial Army during the Great war. However after returning home to Anvil only to find it in ruin, she decided to roam the lands of Tamriel doing what she did best. Essentially being a mercenary for hire..

Until she learned that she was actually very skilled in the art of thievery. And after a rather eventful induction into the Riften Thieves Guild, Pari eventually worked her way up through conspiracy solving and is now part of the secret inner circle known as the Nightingales.

That doesn’t mean she hasn’t stopped wandering however..

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Wizardry, Witchcraft and Hiding in Plain Sight: Pari’s JK Rowling’s Wizarding World Verse. In this particular verse, Pari is Muggle-Born, hailed from a non-magic parentage. She was however raised by her grandparents who ran an independent potions store. Of course, one can only keep their secret of being from a certain lineage a secret for so long. And on having that discovered by a former partner who loathed the idea of someone being less then a ‘Pure-Blood’ in their presence, Pari vanished into obscurity only to end up working at the Three Broomsticks in Hogsmeade, not too far from where she spent some of her happiest years honing her skills. A former Hufflepuff, and still very proud where she came from, she’s often having a bit of banter with the patrons at the pub. She is also rather adept at potion brewing too..

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Putting the ‘Sin’ in Casino: Essentially what happens when an information broker with no direction takes on a random job which brings her all the way out to a place where things aren’t always what they seem. A place where fortunes can be made and lost in the blink of an eye, and where lives can change in ways that no one can anticipate.. and in the neon lights, even the darkness can take hold.

[Please note, this particular verse may contain some themes of a demonic nature so if that’s not your thing, you’re welcome to blacklist this tag: putting the sin in casino: vegas verse ]

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[Pari’s FFVII Verse is currently under reorganisation and reconstruction. Will post an update soon.]

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End of the World: Pari’s Fallout Verse, which can be specified to start off in the timeline of Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas or Fallout 4.

Three: After having to leave Vault 101 in search of a missing relative many years previously and the misadventures that had followed, Pari is still roaming the Capital Wasteland. Somehow managing to survive and still desperately trying to prove that being born and raised in a vault has no standing on how a person adapts.

New Vegas: Being a Courier was never easy. Even moreso when one is ambushed and left for dead while having said package removed from them. After a spell of recovery in Goodsprings, our plucky Courier sets off to find the people who had left a bullet in her head and to settle the score.. as well as retrieve the package that was taken from her.  

Four: Pari thought that being admitted into Vault 111 would be the key to survival for herself and her family. However, that was not the case as she and her family were cryogenically frozen! Years later, she is awoken and after having to witness her spouse being ruthlessly murdered and her child being taken from her, she’s put back into cryostasis. What’s a lady to do on waking up years later? Simple. Get even. However being something of a woman out of time is a little more testing than she hoped..

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Anomaly Solving Anomaly: Pari’s Dragonball Xenoverse Verse, predominantly based in the setting of the second game. An Earthling Time Patroller based in Conton City, Pari is continuously trying to protect the timelines from any perceivable threats.. it’s something of an exciting challenge.

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Dead and Out of this World: Pari’s Vampiric Verse. After being made into a vampire almost two hundred years previously and still looking like a fresh faced lady in her early thirties, Pari is.. somewhat trying her best to adapt to the more modern age. The hair may have been cut and changed, the fashion more up to speed but some old habits die ridiculously hard. And modernity is something that our vampiric lady is trying her best to adapt to.

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Stand and Deliver: Pari’s JJBA Verse. This verse begins a good few years after Pari’s break with her ex, Robert and he in turn is linked in a chain of events which have led to this point.

One could agree that they are in fact bizarre.

While in the company of Robert Kinsley, it wasn’t entirely uncommon for him to collect ancient and unusual artefacts. One of the more noted ones being a rather unusual bow and arrow. Neither Pari nor Robert knew of its purpose.

.. Until the moment came where in which Robert fired the arrow at Pari as she tried to get away from him after their final and extremely tempestuous fight.

Everything in her world went dark, and she found herself succumbing to the arrow fired into her. However, she kept trying to rouse herself. On eventually opening her eyes, she realised something.

Not only had Pari survived the shot but was faced with a very unusual apparition. The room she was in had been filled with a kind of fog, thick enough to not only obscure her movements so that she could try and make a break for it, but also confusing Robert because of its effects.

The apparition seemed to vaguely resemble a human in the thick smog, and it seemed to be driven along with her need to live. To survive.

Thankfully Pari had managed to get away from Robert with the help of her newly acquired apparition, and from then on has been trying to learn more about what it is and why in times of mental focus, it keeps appearing. And why she is currently at the point of being able to run into reflective spaces nearby only to reappear in adjacent surfaces due to what she only knows as a very confusing and yet somewhat helpful ‘ghost’, who she knows very little about aside from the fact that they are inexplicably bound.

A truly bizarre chain of events indeed.

{Please note that I have yet to figure out where on the JJBA timeline I plan on putting this verse, but as it’s dealing with the nature of Stands, it’s safe to say that it’s definitely set somewhere along Stardust Crusaders and Diamond is Unbreakable. I have only just started watching Diamond is Unbreakable however, so this verse may be subject to being edited much later on.}

About Pari’s Stand:

Stand Name:『 Smoke + Mirrors』

Stand User: 『Pari Vass』

Namesake: Album/Song Name name by Imagine Dragons

Appearance: A grey/silver gaseous humanoid figure when summoned, naturally very obscured regardless of surrounding environment. On closer inspection, the figure somewhat resembles a broken mirror. Fragmented, but not tangible.

Stand Ability: Can grant the user the ability to evade any potential hazardous situation, but only if there is some form of reflective surface close at hand. The user can, with this stand, basically run into the reflective surface and be shifted somewhere else. At present, it only will work for the nearest reflective area where in which the user will re-emerge. If such a surface isn’t available, Smoke + Mirrors essentially acts akin to a smoke grenade. As time passes, the stand’s abilities may evolve..

Stand Stats at present:

Power - E

Speed - C

Range - D

Durability - C

Precision - B

Potential - B

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City of the Dead: Resident Evil Verse

This particular verse is set between Resident Evil 2 and 3, and as such, Pari is making some sort of attempt to escape from Raccoon City. Will she somehow manage it? Will she succumb to the T-Virus and join the infected populous? Let’s find out.

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The Wandering Hunter: Legacy of Kain Verse

Pari’s place in this particular verse depends on which part of the timeline is in writing. However, the premise is the same. Pari is one of Nosgoth’s Vampire Hunters, but occasionally tends to go it alone and leave the human settlements to pursue a target. Perhaps not as crossbow trigger happy as some of her counterparts, this attitude of hers may lead to her undoing..

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Lady Strange: BPRD Verse

Pari in this verse is a new recruit to the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defence, after a rather messy incident involving her psychokinetic abilities and having to make some effort to try to use her abilities for a better purpose by order of the British Government. Of course, she doesn’t quite know what she’s letting herself in for yet, as our telekinetic will find out..

[mutanitys]

a friend linked me to this tweet and i couldn’t stop thinking about it for ages. so here you go! part 1/? of my stucky post-cryo post-its drabbles!

It starts happening after his second time out of cryo.   

Shuri and the Wakandan scientists have kicked off the rehabilitation process, staring with teasing Bucky slowly out of his hibernation state to check for vitals and to analyse his cognitive activities when he is actually awake. Though painless, the nausea that Bucky had experienced the first time was nothing short of horrible—his system was shaken up so badly that he spent the first five minutes of being gloriously awake puking into a sick bag, but Shuri had patiently waited until he stopped heaving into the bag, let him lie down, talked to him without expecting answers back and asked him questions that only required minimal thinking; which was wise. Bucky could barely open his eyes, let alone give coherent answers—thankfully, Shuri seemed to understand completely. He never felt more grateful to be put back under. 

The second time he’s taken out it feels just like being nudged awake from an overdue nap—awfully groggy, but nothing worse. He says as much to Shuri when she asks him how he’s feeling, and she beams like bright Christmas lights. 

“We adjusted the settings to wake you up. I was hesitant at first because it meant taking up more time than usual, which could have damaged your brain tissues severely—“ At Bucky’s wide eyes, she smiles even wider. “But it seems to be working, so no worries!” 

“Well, I trust you,” he mumbles, to which Shuri laughs.

“As if you have a choice, Sergeant Barnes.”

He looks around the room, occupied only by one other person (Shuri’s favourite assistant, probably. Bucky’s never been introduced to her) and it looks like an exact carbon copy of the room he woke up in the first time— 

Except. His eyes land on something on a roundtable next to his examination chair. 

There’s a small pie placed on it, no larger than Bucky’s palm, in all its golden glory complete with a lattice upper crust that seems to have been delicately put together. It sits on top of a small, white box like a child’s birthday cake, or a modest divine offering. He shakes his head slightly, thinking he might be dreaming or having delusions. It’s not far-fetched for a recently cryogenically frozen man. 

Shuri catches his line of sight and follows it, an eyebrow quirking. She grins. “You must be starving. We’ve got time, we’re in no rush since you’re not feeling sick. Go on,” she points a thumb at the pie. “Eat up! It’s for you.” 

Bucky hesitates. “You sure?”

“‘Course." 

He pulls the pie closer, grabbing the spoon laid beside it. “You always serve your patients nice desserts after you fish them out of a freezer?” 

Shuri lets out a snort as she scans Bucky’s shoulder slowly with a device wrapped around her finger. They’re not as intimidating anymore, her devices, as they seemed to be the first time Bucky woke up. The cold touch of sterile metal surfaces had turned his limbs rigid at first, like it was an automatic response, but with Shuri’s patience and her team of brilliant scientists, they had managed to distract Bucky long enough for him to forget he was being closely scrutinised. Now, it’s only the second time he’s conscious, and already the fear is long forgotten.  

“As hospitable as we Wakandans are, someone beat us to getting you the apple pie.”   

Bucky draws his eyebrows together. “Who’s it from, then?” 

For some reason his confusion seems to be a source of amusement for Shuri, because she steps back with a knowing smile. “You’ve had several loyal visitors during your… time off, you know.” She cocks her head in the direction of the table. “You might want to check the box.” 

He didn’t even think of moving the pie from its resting place on the box, which probably speaks volumes of his cognitive capabilities at the moment. He doesn’t dwell on this, however, and instead lifts the pie up to see a hastily-written note scrawled on a yellow post-it stuck on the top of the box. 

Buck,

Sorry I couldn’t be there the first time they took you out. Or this one. But I got Sam to sneak into Brooklyn’s best bakery for this pie. Had to convince T'challa it was worth the risk. Hope I wasn’t wrong.

Get better soon.

Your pal,

Steve

A pang of longing cuts across his chest even as he bends over laughing, tickled by the awkward ‘Your pal’ Steve tacked on at the end of the letter. It must not be the reaction Shuri was expecting, because she’s at his side immediately and hovering over him like a concerned mother bird. 

“Are you okay? Does anything feel strange? Do you need help clarifying the note?” she asks in rapid successions, all to which Bucky shakes his head. 

“No—no I’m good. It’s just—this.” He points at the bottom with his good hand. “He could’ve just written ‘Steve’. ‘Your pal’ sounds cheesy.” 

Bucky expects Shuri to laugh along with him, but instead her eyes soften. She ducks her head as she takes his good arm and begins to wind some sort of cloth around it. “It sounds silly—but maybe he just wanted to remind you. You know,” she glances up at Bucky as she says, quieter, “Just in case you forgot.” 

The pie is good—more than good. Bucky hasn’t eaten many pies in his life, but this one surely takes the cake (no pun intended). He may be biased, though. Steve could have left him a jar of dust and he’d still say it was the best thing he’d ever eaten. 

Bucky misses Steve, and is reluctant to go back under. But little does he know it’s far from the last of Steve’s post-it notes he’ll be receiving.

---

Hit me up in my asks! I don’t bite hehe

[morfinwen]

For the headcanon ask: Sarah (Chuck), Steris, Anakin, and then any OC you would like to answer for, please. :)

So i’ve been sitting on this for i don’t know how long, chipping away at the answers, and this is what i got. It doesn’t cover everything for every one you asked, but it covers a fair amount. At any rate, it’s enough that i’m putting it under a read-more.

Sarah Walker

Headcanon B: [hilarious]

Despite being the daughter of a con man and a trained CIA spy for her entire adult life, post-series Sarah gets a deer-in-the-headlights look whenever some chatty new acquaintance asks how she and her husband met. Unless Chuck is there to rescue her, or her panicking mind manages to remember that a simple relating of “he fixed my phone and I gave him my number” without any of the classified details would work just fine, she winds up inventing some story on the spur of the moment. She’s not that good with inventing things spur of the moment.

Eventually she memorizes a safe, straightforward version of events to tell people who ask, but that isn’t until after she tells their neighbors across the street a complicated story involving ninja muggers and a computer virus that turned out to be a bomb.

Steris

Headcanon A:  [realistic]

Steris has learned, to some extent, to express her emotions in a way that other people understand. It’s still acting, though. She may be pleased, but she does not feel like smiling. She may wish to get to know someone better, but she does not have any actual interest in who tailored their clothing.

Wax and Marasi are learning to understand how she expresses things. Wax, particularly, tries to learn how to communicate the same way. It will probably always be as much acting for him as ordinary social conventions are for her, but she appreciates it more than can be expressed, in either way.

Headcanon B: [hilarious]

She has a notebook dedicated to plans for the Scadriel equivalent of the zombie apocalypse. It started years ago, after an especially stressful society event, and her mind picked that particular topic to obsess on. After that, whenever she had difficult emotions that could not be soothed any other way, she would work them out by refining the plans or expanding them further.

Marasi came across the notebook once. She had read about half a page before realizing it belonged to Steris. She put it back quickly and has never brought it up, but sometimes she passes by an abandoned building and ponders its defensive capabilities, or eats some fresh fruit and wonders how difficult the plants would be to cultivate in desperate circumstances.

Steris’ theoretical colony is doing much better now that she’s married to Wax.

Headcanon C: [heart-crushing]

For a long time, Steris wished she had a sister. She tried to connect with other girls her own age, but it never seemed to work out. Some, particularly the daughters of older families, wouldn’t have anything to do with her at all, and those that did would suddenly stop, and Steris was never sure why.

When she first learned she had a baby half-sister, she started making a list: things to teach her, things they could do together, what personal things she could share (and what ones she would never, ever be allowed to touch). She was still working on it when her mother, still very upset, explained to her that none of those things were ever going to happen. Steris still didn’t understand why, but she tore up the list and threw it out.

Anakin

Headcanon A:  [realistic]

A lot of things would have gone very differently if the Council had thought a bit more about the fact that Anakin had an incredibly different outlook than the kids brought up in the Temple.

Headcanon B: [hilarious]

Due to their radically different upbringings, experiences, and temperaments, Obi-Wan and Anakin miscommunicate regularly. Sometimes, far too often, it leads to frustration and disappointment. Other times, however, it leads to ridiculousness that leaves them scratching their heads, wondering where it all went wrong …

Obi-Wan tells Anakin to “meet him by the ship”. He then spends two hours waiting by the crashed ship in the forest, nibbling on preserved food packets, and very deliberately not worrying about what might have befallen his Padawan to delay him so long. Meanwhile, Anakin is hanging out on the ship they arrived in, tinkering with something he’s been secretly working on all week while he waits for his master to show up already.

Headcanon C: [heart-crushing]

Everything about Anakin’s life is heart-crushing, if you ask me.

Any OC  

I picked Leah Tolkien, my character from Fallout 4.

I don’t know if you’re familiar with the Fallout games at all, so here are a few things you need to know about Fallout 4 for the following headcanons to make sense. I’ll try and keep them brief …

- The Fallout games take place in a post-apocalypse America, about 200 years after nuclear war. It also takes place in an alternate universe, as its pre-War America looks a lot more like 1950s America than modern-day, despite the War taking place in 2077. There were more advancements than in 1950, but mostly based on what people of the 1950s might have thought advanced science would look like.

- Fallout 4 starts with the main character, his or her spouse, and their infant son entering a vault to escape the nuclear war that’s just started (in 2077). They are, unwittingly, frozen cryogenically. Some time later, they wake up briefly to witness strangers kill their spouse and kidnap their son. The MC is frozen again, wakes up after an unknown amount of time, and escapes the Vault, vowing to find their son and avenge their spouse.

    - Everyone else in the Vault is dead. The life support systems were discontinued for every pod except the MC’s.

Headcanon A:  [realistic]

I have issues with how the concept of artificial life is handled in Fallout 4, both from scientific and philosophical standpoints, so there’s a lot of official information about synths that i ignore. Most notably -- this is a spoiler for the game, in case that matters -- i ignore the in-game fact that the synth child Shaun Leah ends up having custody of (eventually … i haven’t gotten that far) will never grow up or age.

Headcanon B: [hilarious]

The Silver Shroud was a popular radio/TV series before the War, with all the ham and cheese you would expect of a 50s-style serial about a masked vigilante going by a name like The Silver Shroud. Leah and her family loved it.

One of the (many) side quests Leah took up while searching for her son involved finding the original Silver Shroud costume, then using it and a weapon based off the one used by The Silver Shroud to fight crime. Leah did the entire thing as in-character as it was possible for her to be.

While that side quest eventually ended, Leah still indulges in acting like The Silver Shroud from time to time. Some of her companions are as enthusiastic as she is about it. Others, well, they have to brace themselves every time she has the chance to talk to the bad guys she’s fighting.

Headcanon C: [heart-crushing]

As i’ve noted previously, Leah considers herself as two different people -- pre-War Leah and post-War Leah. In many ways, post-War Leah is a much stronger person. She can carry more, walk farther and faster, and is probably healthier than she’s ever been. Morally, her beliefs and principles have been challenged, both more often and much more dangerously than in the past. She’s learned to do things that her younger self would not have believed possible. But at the same time, she is far more fragile.

Sometimes, she’ll find a broken-down crib or a baby’s rattle, and mentally … go somewhere else for a half hour. Someone will walk by in a scavenged military uniform, and she’ll spend the rest of the day on the verge of tears (her husband was in the military). A song will play on the radio that reminds her of her wedding, and she’ll turn it off so fast the knob just about breaks. The thing that sets her off today might have caused no reaction yesterday. She might not even understand what about this thing reminds her of the past. Sometimes she can push it to the side or ignore it, but other times there’s nothing to be done but wait for it to pass.

Her companions eventually learn how to help, in their own ways, even if it’s just making sure nothing sneaks up on them while Leah’s out of commission. But it never fully heals or goes away. What happened to her was a drastic, awful thing, like getting a limb cut off. She’s learned to move forward, but something has been lost that can’t be replaced.

Headcanon D: [unrealistic]

Not sure if this counts as “unrealistic”, but it’s all i got.

After the end of the game, once all the dangling threads have been resolved and the dust is settling, Leah has a funeral for all the people who died in Vault 111. It’s a very personal affair, so she only asks her closest friends to come.

There’s not much more to it than digging graves outside the vault and laying the bodies to rest. For some people, she didn’t know them well enough to say much more than their names and professions, and even for the ones she did know she doesn’t say many words. It’s easier to cover the graves with stones to protect them from animals rather than put up markers, and honestly Leah prefers it that way. In a better world, they would have headstones up for their families to visit and mourn at, but that isn’t the world they live in. Most likely anyone coming to Vault 111 is coming to raid it or to gawk at it, so this way they won’t be raiding or gawking at the graves.

She visits once every year, on the anniversary of the day she left the vault, and leaves flowers, one for every person.

Thanks for asking!

[rhetoricandlogic]

Review of The Freeze-Frame Revolution by Peter Watts

Since encountering Beyond the Rift, Peter Watts’ second collection of short stories, I have been wholly engaged.  Quality overtaking quantity, Watts’ day job seems quite good at forcing him to spend time with each story, writing, re-writing, and ultimately ensuring each rings like a bell.  (Ted Chiang’s writing has a similar vibe.)  That being said, I felt Watts’ latest novel, Echopraxia, was a bit forced—more a tour of ideas than story integrating said ideas, and for certain fell short of its predecessor, Blindsight.  I was thus happy to see that for his next project Watts was again taking his time (four years), and, striking out in a new direction.  2018’s The Freeze-Frame Revolution (Tachyon) the result, it’s a far-far-future locked room that highlights one of Watts’ favorite motifs: the limitations of the human condition.

Sunday is a worker aboard the space ship Eriphoria traveling vast distances across the universe, creating wormhole ends and tying them together.  Cryogenically frozen and thawed as the ship’s AI, an entity called Chimp, deems necessary, Sunday passes thousands upon thousands of year or just a few days between work.  Awoken one day for the completion of a wormhole, Sunday discovers that all may not be well with Chimp.  Architectural details in the ship awry and people missing, it’s up to Sunday and his fellow workers to get to the bottom of the mystery, and do something about it.  If possible...

Despite the change in setting, FFR returns to relatively familiar territory for Watts.  Like Blindsight, it is a story of a lone ship traveling the universe, the unknown things and situations encountered there, and the human reaction to it.  The details of imagination are singular (the idea of eons or days passing between cryogenic wakings is the imaginative point of rumination from FFR) not to mention the story mode is completely different (locked room mystery vs. space exploration), yet the end result is somewhat similar to Blindsight.  I won’t go into details, but suffice to say Watts confirms a so-called, hardline view to human limitations and idiosyncracies.  Some may view this as a criticism, but it is likewise possible to be seen as a baseline to confront, work with, and potentially adapt to.  The more you know (or, perhaps better stated: the more truths you accept), the better.

FFR takes its sweet time getting off the ground (a poor idiom given the setting).  The ship setting setting floats a touch unclear at the start, in particular.  In a style not unlike Charles Stross’ far-futurism, however, Watts is clever in his science-ism, handwavy-waviness.  There is some grounding among the futuristic verbiage.  That being said, the first quarter of the book could have done with a bit more foundation to give the reader a clearer picture of what they should be imagining.  In the real world of innumerable science fiction futures, seemingly everything is possible, meaning a little more effort from Watts would have concretized his vision in the reader’s mind to more positive effect. 

In the end, The Freeze-Frame Revolution is a story that begins a bit ragged, but congeals into a tight climax that, Watts being Watts, addresses the inevitably of humans beating their heads against the very walls that make us human.  The contrast between Chimp (har har) and the human crew is real.   A quick read, said wobbling at the outset does not last long, allowing the setup to swiftly reveal and resolve itself, making for satisfying reading.  I will not say Watts is back in a way that matches Blindsight or Starfish, but it’s certainly fair to say he has successfully integrated story with idea in a manner Echopraxia is lacking, not to mention in more entertaining fashion and bright spots of prose that prove the four year break between longer works has value.  

Recommended.

Posted by Jesse at 12:00 PM

[one-of-us-blog]

Home Again, Rose: Parts 1-2 (TGG, Season 7, Episodes 23-24)

Today Eli is forced to watch and recap Home Again, Rose: Parts 1 and 2, the penultimate story arc of the final season of The Golden Girls.  When a fun evening out lands Rose in the hospital, the girls are forced to pull together and demonstrate the true meaning of family.  As the series prepares to wrap up its run, will we be saying goodbye to a pal and a confidant?  Keep reading to find out…

Drew, despite the fact that I have neglected my recapping duties here for far too long, let me assure you that you did an amazing job with your take on For Your Eyes Only!  This has never really been one of my favorites, but you made me feel some genuine emotions regarding Melina Havelock.  Octopussy is next on your list, though you still have to wait for another recap from yours truly first, and while I’m not sure it will be an All Time High, I hope you have a good time.  I’m not even going to share an update right now on Drew’s current favorites in the Bond franchise, I’m just going to get down to business.  Once again, let’s head to Miami!

Buttocks tight!

Episodes written by Gail Parent and Jim Vallely, directed by Peter D. Beyt

We open with Dorothy complaining about her mother leaving the toilet seat up for some reason, while Blanche is excited that her daughter, Janet, and her granddaughter, Sarah, are coming to visit.  She asks for help coming up with ideas for bonding experiences that don’t involve a visit to the docks, but Sophia doesn’t care enough to contribute, and Blanche doesn’t actually want any input from Dorothy.  Rose eventually enters the scene with a letter she received, and is depressed to learn that she missed her 40th high school reunion.  Dorothy reminds her that she wasn’t feeling well at the time, but refused to see a doctor, and we then learn that the residents of St. Olaf are basically anti-vaxxers who refuse to seek medical treatment.  The girls point out that she’s looking pale and even call her crazy for refusing help, and it turns out Rose is part of the anti-psychiatry movement as well.

Blanche has been scanning the personal ads, and has stumbled across an announcement for a 40th reunion at a nearby high school.  She thinks it would be a good idea for the gals to crash the party to make up for Rose’s lost opportunity.  Rose agrees that it sounds fun, and Dorothy gets on board with the wacky plan as well.  Heck, they even agree to take Sophia along on their adventure (though it may have something to do with the fact that she can no longer be trusted with a sitter, or most members of polite society).  It’s time for some pre-reunion research to get ready for the big night!

We soon find the squad all dressed up for their evening of shenanigans, and Dorothy is hungry to live this fantasy.  Blanche is still drilling Rose on facts about the school they’re pretending to be from, but Rose is having second thoughts about the whole idea.  After all, it almost seems like they’ll be lying, and Rose is committed to total honesty.  The girls then ask her about her natural hair color, and this gives Rose the push she needs to assume a false identity.

At the reunion, Rose quickly snags some nametags from the no-show table, and there is some disagreement as to whether these alternate personas are going to work.  Rose (now a former Korean exchange student) begins to feel a little faint, but Dorothy quickly bonds with a random tar salesman, and Sophia poses as Spanish teacher Mrs. Gonzalez to seduce an old student.  Blanche, inhabiting the role of Susan Armstrong, gets called out by a man Susan once publicly shamed for being gay, and then by the father of a lovechild she abandoned.  Susan sounds like a real winner!  Eventually, the Senior Class President announces that the class Prom King and Queen should take the stage, and Dorothy just happens to be posing as Prom Queen Cindy Lou.  Some people wait a lifetime for a moment like this!  She seizes the opportunity, but is recognized as a fraud and the whole group is quickly exposed.  In all the commotion, Rose collapses in a heap on the floor while Dorothy/Cindy Lou screams for medical assistance.

We next cut to the hospital, where Blanche is pacing nervously, worried that her friend has died, or perhaps has suffered a stroke.  Dorothy assures her that if Rose has suffered a stroke, they will simply bring her home and take care of her; after all, they’re family!  Sophia shoots some icy daggers at her daughter, forcing Dorothy to at least entertain the option of sticking a post-stroke Rose in a Shady Pines-like facility.  Blanche blames herself for making Rose crash the reunion, and is urged by Sophia to pray.  Blanche isn’t so sure that God will listen to her, but she gives it a try anyway.  In exchange for Rose’s well-being, Blanche promises to be a better person, and not to continue having casual sex (unless the dude really, reeeally needs it).  A doctor enters to announce that Rose is doing fine after a minor cardiac episode, and the girls go to see her.  But first, the doctor tries to pick up Blanche, and she is forced to turn him down considering her recent commitment.  In the distance, a vengeful God takes delight.

The gals all talk to Rose about her scare, and begin evaluating their own lives.  Rose mentions that she isn’t afraid to die because she is planning to use the power of cryogenics to freeze her head for future recovery (despite the aforementioned St. Olaf science denial).  She gives the girls a good laugh at the mention of preserving her brain, but eventually forces her friends to promise to be cryogenically frozen as well.  I can’t wait for Golden Girls 2049!

While Rose is spending some additional time in the hospital for observation, Janet and Sarah show up at the house.  Blanche is in a great mood, and suggests they take a trip to church.  Janet isn’t crazy about this new interest in religion, but Blanche is committed to spreading the Good News, and even has some Bibles to distribute.  Sarah misses her “sexy grandma.”

Back at the hospital, we find Sophia pursuing her hobby of petty theft when a nurse enters to tell the girls that apparently Rose has gone into cardiac arrest and is being prepped for major surgery.

Gasp!  To be continued…

We can’t leave Rose hanging, we have to continue this recap STAT!  After a summary of events thus far, the girls are desperate to see their friend, but they are not allowed as they aren’t family members.  Dorothy makes an impassioned plea to the nurse, Sophia tries out another false identity, and Blanche employs “scripture,” but no dice.  Blanche begins another group prayer instead.

Hours pass, and the gals receive no news.  Sophia shares a story about the time that Dorothy’s father way dying in the hospital, and somehow the trio ends up singing a beer jingle to raise their spirits.  Unfortunately, Rose’s daughter Kirsten shows up at this moment and thinks the gals are having a great time instead of feeling sorry for their friend.  She goes off alone to get some answers.  The girls share some fond memories of Rose, including a musical she wrote, and Dorothy is in the midst of another song when Kirsten returns.  Kirsten tells the girls that she is confused about their lives with her mother, and thinks that all the wild escapades they are constantly having might be killing Rose.  Despite what they might feel, they are not her family.  A doctor finally arrives to tell everyone that Rose has to have triple bypass heart surgery, but Kirsten points out that the girls aren’t family members so that only she can see Rose.  It’s a total dick move, but I’m not sure it was premeditated.

Kirsten talks to her mother, and Rose is happy to see her but really wants to see the girls…”her” girls.  Rose says that if anything happens to her, she wants Kirsten to take care of Dorothy, Blanche, and Sophia.  She also performs an SNL intro, visits the Tonight Show, and mentions her cryogenic schemes.  Eventually she says goodbye as she is wheeled into surgery.

The girls continue to wait, and Blanche says that she is envious of Dorothy and Sophia’s relationship as she didn’t get to say goodbye to her own mother.  Janet and Sarah show up at the hospital as well, because we’re supposed to remember that they’re in the episode for some reason.  More time passes, and Kirsten emerges to tell everyone that Rose is out of surgery but doesn’t look so good.  The next few hours will be very crucial, and Rose will likely need lots of care that the insurance just won’t cover.  The girls point out that they have already made a pact to care for one another no matter what the personal or financial cost, and Kirsten finally realizes how special their relationship is.  She goes to talk to the doctor so that Rose can see her “family.”  The trio eventually sees their friend, but Rose is in midst of a dream…

In this strange vision, Rose, Dorothy, and Blanche all have their heads severed and resting in ice on the kitchen table.  All perfectly normal so far, but they are also all perfectly aware of their predicament.  Sophia happens to be living her #BestLife with the body of a much younger woman, and we learn that Blanche died at age 92 in yet another sexual adventure, while Dorothy suffered death by gorilla.  Realizing the cryogenic approach might not have been the best strategy, Rose begins to apologize…

Rose finally wakes up in the hospital with her friends surrounding her.  It is clear that their bond is stronger than ever, and she asks them all to stay by her side.

We end with the gals throwing a “Welcome Home” party for Rose, even if they simply whisper the “Surprise!” moment for obvious safety reasons.  Rose goes to the kitchen to see Sophia, who is crouched on the floor after dropping a knife (or perhaps disposing of a murder weapon…that’s right, I’ve still got my eye on the old broad), giving the impression that her severed head is resting on the table just as in Rose’s dream.  Surprise indeed!  The entire squad embraces as the episode concludes, and we draw just a bit closer to the end of the series.

The End.

This was a pretty good episode, and I like that they raised the stakes as the series was coming to an end.  I knew that Rose would survive, but I can imagine viewers at the time having just a shred of doubt (assuming they knew the show was in its final season, but I’m not sure about that).  I think that Janet and Sarah were completely wasted here, and I’m not sure what purpose they served apart from briefly commenting on Blanche’s religious transformation.  Speaking of which, I enjoyed the subplot with Blanche finding faith, however clumsily it was practiced.  I also really enjoyed seeing the gang crash the reunion, and there were some genuinely touching moments as they worried for their friend.  The frozen head dream sequence was kind of lame in my opinion, but overall I came away with a favorable reaction to this two-part tale of the true meaning of family.  I would give Home Again, Rose a rating of 3.5 poofy hairdos out of 5!

Drew still has a bit more time before he has to recap Octopussy, but I will be back as soon as I can with my VERY LAST Golden Girls episode recap, this time of the series finale, One Flew Out of the Cuckoo’s Nest!  What a long, strange trip it has been.  Until then, as always, thank you for being a friend, and for being One of Us!

[aion-rsa]

Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous Season 2 Ending Explained

https://ift.tt/3o6Fv3T

A pack of Compsognathus munches on frozen pizza amid the wreckage of Main Street… Nature is healing.

The second season of Netflix’s animated series Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous picks up soon after the first season ended, continuing the story of six teenage campers who were stranded on Isla Nublar after the Jurassic World incident ruined their chance at a fun camp experience. Even though the Indominus rex is dead (thanks, Ms. Mosasaur!) and the park is closed, Isla Nublar has more danger and excitement lined up for our campers, and several different plotlines converge at the end of the season. Let’s recap them.

What Happens to the Villains?

While the first season pitted the kids against the dinosaurs of the island and the catastrophically failing theme park itself, it didn’t have much in the way of human antagonists like we have come to expect in Jurassic movies. Season 2, on the other hand, introduces us to Mitch and Tiff (voiced by Bradley Whitford and Stephanie Beatriz).

Read more

TV

Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous Season 2 Review (Spoiler-Free)

By Alana Joli Abbott

When we first meet possibly the most annoying couple to step foot on an island full of dinosaurs since Jurassic Park III gave us the Kirbys, they claim to be ecotourists coming to document the dinosaurs in the aftermath of the human evacuation. Dinosaur nerd Darius immediately recognizes a kindred spirit in Mitch, and he and the rest of the campers are grateful for their state of the art campground and all its amenities. Mitch and Tiff’s intimidating and frankly kind of scary guide, Hap (voiced by Angus Sampson), on the other hand, has the campers divided as to whom they should trust.

Unfortunately, our self-proclaimed ecotourists end up being big game hunters, on the island to bag trophies before the dinosaurs go extinct again. Not even freshly cooked bacon and the promise of getting the kids off the island can redeem Mitch and Tiff when they threaten the children into helping them find the dinosaurs they want to hunt.

Using park technology to track the dinosaurs (and some herding knowledge gained in the first season), the kids play along but attempt to lead the hunters into a trap: the Tyrannosaurus is building a nest and she’s not afraid to defend it. The plan almost ends in disaster, but Hap proves he was on the kids’ side all along, dramatically sacrificing himself for them. Ultimately, Mitch and Tiff trap themselves. Literally, in Mitch’s case, as he gets caught in one of his own snares. His wife leaves him to become dino dinner, but soon becomes the victim of a pair of Baryonyx, the family of a dinosaur Tiff shot earlier.

You know what they say. Karma is a Baryonyx.

The Fate of Ben and Bumpy

After a terrifying fall from the park monorail last season, neurotic camper Ben and his adopted asymmetrical ankylosaur Bumpy were presumed dead by their fellow campers. The final shot of season one revealed their survival to us viewers, but the rest of the kids have to live with the guilt and grief until Ben and Bumpy come storming back into the story to help save the day. And you almost wouldn’t recognize them.

Thanks to her genetically altered growth acceleration, our little Bumpy is all grown up now and large enough for Ben to ride around on her. She’s big, beautiful and ready for action, lending a hand (or clubbed tail) more than once as the kids break into the tunnels under the park to restore power and save the dinos from the hunters.

But Bumpy isn’t the only one who grew up almost overnight. Though he still has an affinity for hand sanitizer, having to survive in the wild on his own has made Ben something of a wilderness badass. He even defeated Toro, the Carnotaurus! (Defeated, but not necessarily killed. When last we saw Mr. “I have a big head and tiny arms”, he had a new facial scar courtesy of Ben’s spear, and had fallen off a cliff but was still moving. Whether he succumbed to his injuries or will return to terrorize the camp fam remains to be seen.)

The end of season 2 sees all of the teenagers changed in some way or another, albeit not so dramatically. Like the dinosaurs at the watering hole, predator and prey mingling peacefully because of a shared goal, our campers might have personality clashes at times, but they put them aside and learn from each other because the only way to survive is to adapt to your surroundings.

Who Are “The Other Guys?”

With seemingly no hope of being rescued (although the emergency beacon they turned on did say it was received, so maybe someone is coming for them), Darius resolves to find a way off the island himself. Which might not be so hard, seeing as Tiff’s boat stalled out pretty close to shore when the Baryonyx power couple decided to play “I am the captain now.”

And anyway, the kids have basically faced everything the island can throw at them, right?… right?

Well, here’s the thing. All season, social media starlet Brooklynn has been noticing some weird humming sounds and cold spots on the island. Like really cold. Like, freezing a patch of flowers cold. This mystery appears to be connected to Eddie, the lab worker who mentioned “the other guys” last season but was inconveniently eaten before he could elaborate. He had a master keycard to open any electronic lock in the park (which Hap seemed to recognize), and a number Brooklynn found in the lab corresponds to the one on the door that all the cold air is coming from. The door where, unbeknownst to the kids, the cryogenic system has just failed.

What were they keeping under ice in there? Was it something to do with the hybrid program, or might it be a totally different project yet to be revealed in the Jurassic Park franchise, possibly involving the mysterious “other guys” and/or Mantah Corp? And what’s going to happen now that it is warming up? In the first movie, we learned that the gaps in the dino DNA were filled in with frog DNA, inadvertently giving the dinosaurs the ability to change gender like some frogs. Who’s to say a dinosaur made with wood frog DNA wouldn’t be able to wake up unharmed after being frozen just like the frogs?

With any luck, and if life finds a way, we will get a third season of Camp Cretaceous to answer all of these questions.

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