#seattle voyage

[of-fear-and-love]

Green - from To Catch a Thief (1955); Cargo (2009); Ocean's Eleven (2001); Kill Me Again (1989); Fantastic Voyage (1966); Far From Heaven (2002); Three Violent People (1956); Friday Foster (1975); Sleepless in Seattle (1989); 皇家師姐 / Yes, Madam! (1985); Lover Come Back (1961); The Mirror Crack'd (1980); and The Ice Storm (1997)

[blazestowpress]

Today we’d like to introduce you to Blaze Robert Stow.

Blaze, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today? I was born June 25, 1992 in Seattle, Washington, to a firefighter’s family. My mom was the one to name me, remembering it from childhood after she met an artsy socialite living in L.A. Being the oldest son, I naturally took on a leadership role. I was blessed to have the support of my parents, their families, the family we gained through the adoption of my brother, and the family of friends we made. We lived in a small coastal town named Edmonds, and my favorite place was our family’s beach house. I attended private Christian school, and my graduating class had roughly 100 people in it – most I’ve known my entire life. I’ve always wanted to be an actor, for as long as I can remember. I recently found my 4th Grade autobiography assignment, where I had written that I would become a famous Actor in Los Angeles, riding around in a black limousine.

At a young age, I became affiliated with The Stone Soup Theater in Wallingford, Washington. Here, I starred in public youth performances of “A Christmas Carol” and “Snow White,” then regularly attended their summer camps. I was also exposed to the arts by attending field trips such as “James and the Giant Peach” and “The Nutcracker.” In school, I took drama class. I was also signed with a local talent agent, and I worked in television, commercials, and print. I’ve always surrounded myself with music, art, fashion, design, gardens, etc. I am a frequent attendee of plays, museums, concerts, festivals, and more. I chose to move to Los Angeles when I was 19 years old. I transferred to The Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising, received a scholarship, and later graduated with a degree in Merchandising & Marketing. Soon-thereafter I began working for a celebrity stylist. Working with celebs, pushing visions and further developing brands, I quickly realized my heart was still set to be in front of the camera. In 2014 I found the Beverly Hills Playhouse (BHP) as my place of study. Here, I practiced scene study and audition technique, with the focus on Acting, Attitude, and Administration. Through the community, I was able to make friends with filmmakers and eventually starred in a few short films through in which I became SAG-Eligible. I began self-submitting for roles using sites such as backstage.com and castingfrontier.com.

Through these sites, I receive audition requests to either self-tape or appear in-person. My main acting focus is Theater, Television, and Film. I also enjoy working with Fashion, and I book a lot of commercial work. In theater, I am most known for playing Horst, in the Hollywood Stage Company’s live production of “Bent.” “Bent” is a play written by Martin Sherman, about two homosexuals, falling in love, set inside a concentration camp. Most recently, I played the Nazi Officer, in the live production of “The Diary of Anne Frank,” by Phantom Projects. “BY USING THEATRE AS A TEACHING TOOL, PHANTOM PROJECTS THEATRE GROUP BRINGS LITERARY CLASSICS TO THE STAGE AT THE LA MIRADA THEATRE FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS, ALONG WITH ORIGINAL PLAYS TACKLING HARD HITTING TOPICS RELEVANT TO TEENS, PARENTS, AND TEACHERS (PhantomProjects.com).”

I am honored to be affiliated with Phantom Projects and contributing back to my community. I have been fortunate enough to work on over 100 different sets in the Television, Commercial, and Film space. Although my intention is to be a leading actor, I feel it is important to stay as close to your medium as possible during all steps of your career. With that thought in mind, I occasionally accept work as a background performer. I strongly believe all roles are important, no matter how big or small the role may be. I am grateful for companies such as Face2Face Talent, Central Casting, and others for giving me the opportunity to work on such great projects. By working day-jobs, I was able to save enough money to produce a few scenes for my acting reel (available on IGTV). Having acting footage on my casting profiles has been crucial to my success, as it seems to increase the likelihood of being asked to audition.

Due to COVID-19 and the city’s social unrest for Black Lives Matter, most of the work has been put on hold or moved online. I have taken this time to refocus and restructure my routines. I have been making an effort to read more books and plays during this time. I’ve also been focused on maintaining good nutrition and exercise in order to keep my mental health and body strong. Starting in July, I will be posting self-taped videos on my Instagram using the hashtag #MonologueMonday. My goal is to express my first-circle of casting to my followers, while also refining my approach to the work. My acting career concept is to set fire and illuminate the way.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome? At BHP, we believe your attitude is like the aperture of a camera; the more open you are, the more light shines through. I am also a believer that life only throws at you what you can handle. I am reminded of the “starving artist.” My attitude reads this phrase as someone who is hungry to learn and grow, but there is another side to it. I’ve had to learn how to financially support myself while simultaneously investing time and money into my artistic career. I am naturally hard-working and become very dedicated. I’m constantly compartmentalizing my thoughts in order to put in the work at a day-job, to be able to put in the work on-stage. Acting classes, headshots, reels, personal websites, casting websites, all add up and can be very costly. I frequently adjust my priorities and often make sacrifices to keep my art alive.

Another challenge I face is with my sexuality. While attending religious school, I had to hide my sexuality in order to stay enrolled. In my later years, I have learned to appreciate diversity, and I am learning to have a stronger voice towards my beliefs. I continue to take this challenge head-on, and use my art as a vessel to expand my expressions and grow my confidence. #ITGETSBETTER. I am familiar with the symptoms of depression and anxiety, but thankfully I have overcome most of these hurdles through therapy, meditation, breathing work, and constant communication with myself (mind, body, and spirit). A specific challenge during quarantine was staying motivated, specifically when self-submitting. There were so many unknowns during this time: when will the shoot be, will they practice social distancing? Truthfully, I did take some time off until I felt more certain.

We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know? I prefer more dark and dramatic works, but with charm, humor, and irony, I can easily play light and comedic. My interest in fashion, art, and design also contributes to my upscale vibe. My current first-circle of casting is: the fashion assistant, the young politician, the creep, the cool boy next door, the rich kid, and the deep-romantic/love-interest. I have a wide range, and my friends like to joke that I have a “50 Shades of Blaze” thing going. Some of my favorite roles studied are Prior in “Angels In America”, Alex in “Little Dog Laughed”, and Chance in “Sweet Bird of Our Youth.” What makes me different starts with my physical appearance. I’m 6’2” with model-like features, intensity behind the eyes, and a lot of mental energy. I am gifted in making genuine connections, and I tend to be spiritual, with a good attitude. I have lived a lot of life, and that is transparent through my work. Because of my business mindset, I have strong administration habits for my acting career, which I believe will be the vehicle that will launch my career into success. I am proud to be “living the dream,” but see so much more ahead of me, and I’m ready to put in the work. I am currently looking for talent management and representation. If you would like to know more about me or watch my reels, please visit my website at www.blazerobertstow.com.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on? The first time I saw myself on primetime television was extremely cool. But I must say, my proudest moment so far would be walking onto stage with over 1200 students watching me perform something extremely relevant to our times.

[lucybellwood]

An older piece for the Seattle Review of Books about formative reads from childhood. Lucy Pevensie is half my namesake and I'm pretty convinced The Voyage of The Dawn Treader is responsible for my eventual career path as a sailor, so this was a mandatory contribution.

[i-only-ever-asked-questions]

Good Omens Through the Decades

UPDATED!

This is a timeline of all the events that have happened related to Good Omens, from its inception to its publication to its future plans; editions, adaptations, failed adaptations and the like.

I originally wanted to have this post ready for the anniversary in May, that didn't work, it just kept getting larger. Then I wanted to do it for the anniversary of Season 2 in July, that didn't work either, for the same reason. So I am just going to post it now, a random date and hope for the best LOL. And guess what? After a fun and fruitful chat with another fan who prefers to remain anonymous, I added a couple of events a few trivia here and there (thank you!). So, a little bit of warning: it is loooong, lots of things have happened in 34 years. At the beginning I was going to put all the references at the end of the post, but they are a lot, so I put them in a document instead.

*Yes, of course I am aware of the allegations. But this is about the history and the world of Good Omens which is so much bigger than one person, even if that person started the whole thing. It is ours now. It is Terry's and Rob's. It is David and Michael's, Douglas McKinnon's, David Arnold's and the rest of the cast and crew. It is Colleen Doran's, Dirk Maggs's, Terry Gilliam's, Vicki Larnach, Jim Hare and Jay James Moody's. It is Stephen Brigg's and Martin Jarvis's. And so many other people who have brought or will bring its many iterations to life. It is the fans'.

1985-1990 - The Book

1985, Jan - Terry and Neil met for the first time when Neil interviewed Terry for Space Voyager magazine after "The Colour of Magic" was published [1,2] *For years they both wholeheartedly believed it had been at a Chinese Restaurant during February. Some time after Terry passed away Neil found his diary for 1985 where the entry said it had been in January at an Italian Restaurant [3]

1987, summer - Neil wrote the first 5000 words of a story and sent it to a few friends, including Terry; "An exchange in Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta, combined with a late night viewing of The Omen and a love of Richmal Compton’s immortal Just William stories, had put a story into my head, about a demonic baby-swap that goes wrong, in which the Antichrist grows up to be a nice kid, with a dog and a gang" [1,4]

1987, Oct - Sandman began and William the Antichrist went into the back back back burner [1]

1988, spring? summer? - Terry called Neil and offered to either buy the idea or write it together; "About a year later I took it out of the drawer and did see what happened next, even if I couldn’t see how it all ended yet" [5]

1988, summer - They wrote it together (do you really need a reference? 😉)

1988-1989 - First draft took about nine weeks. After Richmal Compton's estate did not reply to the request of using William Brown and his world, William became Adam, Pepper and War became female and the book got a new title (Good Omens by Neil) and subtitle (The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Terry). The second draft took about four months. There were still about five more months of polishing and editing and auctioning and more editing [4,6] *Good Omens was the first Terry book that ever went to auction. It ended up going for £150,000 [7]

1989, Halloween - During the World Fantasy Convention in Seattle, Terry and Neil started plotting what could become the sequel to Good Omens and called it "668 The Neighbor of the Beast" [6,8] *The real-life experience of trying to piece together the plot of a soft porn movie using little free increments from hotels' pay-per-view over time probably made it into the sequel around here [7]

1990, May 10. Book published in the UK - Hardback published in the UK by Victor Gollancz (with whom Terry had already been working) to be followed by paperback by Corgi on May 23, 1991 [8,9] *After the first UK edition was published (Gollancz), several changes were made to the text to make it easier on US readers and to polish it a bit. The new text was used by both the US publishers (Workman) and the UK publishers of the paperback (Corgi). Gollancz was unaware of this alternate text until about 2009. They started using the Workman/Corgi text starting with their next edition in 2014 [9]

1990, Sep. Book published in the US - Hardback published in the US by Workman to be followed by paperback by Berkley on March 1992 [9,10] *UK editions list Terry's name first and US editions list Neil's name first. This was done because Terry was more known in the UK and Neil was more known in the US [7]

1991-2004 - The Movies

1991, Feb - Hollywood Studio Sovereign Pictures hired Terry and Neil to write an adaptation of the book for a movie. The studio had some specific requirements such as Crowley owning a night club, Aziraphale working as a curator for the British Museum, Tadfield with an abandoned pier and a miniature town in it and Satan. They ended up rejecting the script anyway [11] *It was at this point that Terry suggested Buddy Holly's "Every Day" as the theme for Good Omens. In this script some of the angels used for the series got started like Gabriel and Sandalphon and a big sequence had them use their haloes like frisbees inside the British Museum [11,12,13]

1992, Jan. Movie Script - Terry declined to write a second script, but Neil stayed and wrote one. In October the company got taken over and all dreams of a movie died [11,14] *In this script Crowley tries to run away to Alpha Centauri

2001-2002. Terry Gilliam Movie deal - Since about 1999, when he obtained the rights, and throughout the 00's Terry Gilliam tried hard to make a movie. The closest he came to it was in 2001-2002 when he got as far as casting the parts (Johnny Depp as Crowley, Robin Williams as Aziraphale, Mme. Tracey and Hastur, and Kirsten Dunst). But he couldn't get a US studio to invest the last $15M and the movie project collapsed [13,15,16] *Terry had received, back in 1989, a copy of the book asking for a blurb. The letter got lost and he thought the book had been sent as a pitch for a movie [16,17]

2004, Jun 20th - Hill House Publishers created the "Neil Gaiman's Preferred Edition Series" with limited editions of American Gods, Anansi Boys and Neverwhere. As a bonus for the subcribers, Hill House printed the 1992 movie script under the name "A Screenplay." Only 500 numbered and 52 lettered copies were ever made [11,18]

2005-2010 - The Sequel (and the Audiobooks)

2005, Jun - Terry and Neil met at the Audie Awards in New York and plotted a little more of the sequel. This was when the South Downs bit was thought up [19,20]

2005, Dec. Crowley and Aziraphale's New Year's resolutions - The list of resolutions came out sometime between Christmas and New Year's at Harper Collins' website [7] *The well-known idea of Crowley gluing coins to the sidewalk is not in the book at all, it came from this list

2006, Feb 28. New edition - The book was reissued in the US as a hardcover in two different versions. The text is the same but one version has a white cover with Crowley and Neil's name listed first, and a second version has a black cover with Aziraphale and Terry's name listed first [7,21] *This time the explanation for the authors' name order was to make sure the book could be found both under "G" and also under "P"

2006, Jul. Briggs Audiobook - ISIS released in the UK an unabridged audiobook read by Stephen Briggs in CD, MP3CD and cassette (it won the 2008 Audiobook Download of the Year by audible.co.uk) [22,23]

2009, Nov 10. Jarvis Audiobook - HarperAudio released in the US an unabridged audiobook read by Martin Jarvis in CD [24] *Martin Jarvis is the same narrator who recorded the Just William audiobooks, a nice Easter egg related to the origins of the book

2010, Sep 23 - Terry and Neil had dinner at a sushi restaurant in Cardiff and decided that the book should be adapted as a TV series and not a movie anymore (as per Terry Gilliam's advice). And if it goes well, the rest of the story, the unwritten sequel, should be adapted too [8,13,15] *It was around here that the idea of the sushi restaurant cameo with both of them being patrons started

2011-2013 - The Stage (and a failed TV series)

2011, Feb. Terry Jones TV series - Terry and Neil agreed to a deal to adapt the book into a four-part TV series made by Terry Jones and Gavin Scott. At the end they didn't quite like the script though [13,25,26]

2012, Jun - Amy Hoff's The Cult Classic Theatre was granted permission to adapt the book to a stage play [27] *One of the conditions was that no footage would be taken/made available and the script would not be shared/sold

2012, Aug- Narrativia was established as the production company that would handle all of Terry's work adaptations. The production of the TV series and of The Watch were then transferred from Prime Focus [28,29] *Narrativia was first revealed at "The Watch Team Interview" panel during the Discworld 2012 convention on Aug, 26th [28]

2013, Mar. Stage Play - Amy Hoff's play was presented on March 20-23 and 27-30 at the Cottiers Theatre in Glasgow [30]

2013, Apr - BBC drama producer Heather Larmour pitched a radio drama adaptation to the BBC [31]

2013, sometime. The Musical - Vicki Larnarch and Jim Hare, "two hippies from Sydney", had met with Terry and Rob about six months prior. Terry's interest had gotten piqued when they showed him The Chattering Order Nuns song and he asked them to come back with a showstopper and a few more songs. They came back with "All Living Things" and they got the green light to go forward with the adaptation [32]

2013, Dec 11 - In a meeting at The Groucho Club, Terry and Neil enter into talks with the BBC to adapt GO to TV [33]

2014-2015 - The Radio Drama

2014, summer - Dirk Maggs adapted the book into a Radio Drama and gave Terry and Neil a cameo as police officers pursuing Crowley [31,34] *In July, Neil advised Dirk to get Terry's recording asap, before he couldn't do it anymore. They did it in the summer and that day ended up being the last day Neil and Terry saw each other [35]. The rest of the recording happened during autumn [13]

2014, Aug - Terry asked Neil to make the TV adaptation of Good Omens, "I know, Neil, that you are very, very busy, but no one else could ever do it with the passion that we share for the old girl. I wish I could be more involved, and I will help in any way I can" [12] Neil, of course, said yes

2014, Dec. BBC Radio 4 Dramatisation - The six episodes aired between December 22nd and December 27th, 2014 on BBC Radio 4 [36]

2015, Jan 15 - Random House UK released the BBC Radio 4 Dramatisation in CD [37]

2015-2019 - The TV series (and some luxury limited editions)

2015, Mar 12 - Terry passed away 😢

2015, Mar 25 - Terry's funeral. As soon as Neil got back home, he started writing the script for the TV series [12] *Sometimes signed copies of the third draft of the pilot (dated 25 July 2015) appear in eBay

2015 - Jay James-Moody joined the team to produce the musical [32]

2016, Aug 1 - First read-through of the series script [38] *The scripts were finalized right before SDCC 2016 which was held July 21st-24th [39]. Both Maggie Service and Tim Downie were present in this read-through [40]

2017, Sep 18 - 2018, Mar 10. Season 1 shooting - Season 1 started shooting at St. James' park (with the 11 years ago scene) and ended in Cape Town, South Africa [13,41,42] *The read-through before shooting occurred on Sept 13, 2017 [43]

2017, Nov 13 - Full development reading of the musical at the York Theatre in Chippendale, Sydney, Australia [32,44]

2019, Feb 8 - The social media campaign to promote Season 1 started with a tour of the Chattering Order of St. Beryl, an acapella choir that traveled to different cities for events and TV shows [45,46]

2019, Apr 25. The Chattering Order of St. Beryl's video - The video "That Brand New Baby Smell" was released in YouTube [47]

2019, May 3 and 4 - Workshop production of the musical at IPAC in Wollongong, Australia. About ten days before the series premiere Vicki, Jim and Jay showed Neil and Rob a recording of this show [32,44,48] *Although a full recording of the workshop exists, they are not allowed to share it until it is finished

2019, May 21. Companion Book - A companion book to the TV series with interviews and behind the scenes photographs written by Matt Whyman was published by William Morrow [49]

2019, May 21. The Script Book - Headline Publishing Group released a script book in both hardback and paperback (The US edition by William Morrow followed on Jun 11th). All editions of the script book include an "Other Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" deleted scene. An exclusive edition for Waterstones included an additional deleted scene (Aziraphale in the 1800). A hardback edition limited to 1000 copies with white cover included four different deleted scenes (thugs visiting the bookshop, Leonardo DaVinci, the televangelist and Crowley clothes shopping) and a series of sketches made on set by Lorna May Wadsworth. On Jan 15th of 2020, a paperback edition with the white cover was released; it contained all five deleted scenes from the other editions and a sixth one (Aziraphale trying to sell a book); this edition does not include the sketches however. [9,50] *The script book was created so the production could pay for the death of Agnes Nutter, a scene (and a character) originally written by Terry which was too expensive to film [3]

2019, May 23. The Illustrated Edition - The Pratchett Estate and Neil agreed on a revised definitive text. It was published in five versions collectively called the Definitive Edition. Two versions were published by Gollancz which they called the Illustrated Edition; a standard hardback with black cover and a limited edition in a slipcase with white cover signed by Paul Kidby, the illustrator [51,52]

2019, May 30. "Unholy Night" - The Chattering Order of St. Beryl's released their album "Unholy Night" on Amazon Music and other digital platforms [53]

2019, May 31. TV Series - Season 1 premiered in Prime Video 😊

2019, May 31. Soundtrack - Silva Screen Records released the soundtrack in CD, vinyl and mp3/wav download [54]

2019, Jul. The Definitive Edition - The other three versions of the revised text were published by Dunmanifestin, the company established by the Pratchett Estate to handle Terry's intellectual property. All editions were limited: The Occult Edition (July 1st) with only 1655 copies in a black clamshell box, the Ineffable Edition (July 4th) with 666 copies in a deluxe box including ephemera, and the Celestial Edition, made to order with only 24 copies [52,55]

2019, Aug 2. The BBC Radio Drama Collectors Edition - A vinyl box set by Demon Records included four LPs printed in black and white in illustrated wallets, commentaries by Neil and Dirk and a set of tarot cards. An Amazon exclusive limited edition of 500 sets also included a print signed by Neil [56]

2019, Aug - Neil pitched Season 2 to Amazon [57]

2019, Oct 28. Blu-ray and DVD - Amazon released the series in DVD, Blu-ray and steelbook limited edition Blu-ray (PAL) for the UK. The US version (NSTC) followed on November 5th in both DVD and Blu-ray, there was no steelbook edition for the US market [58]

2019, Dec - John Finnemore joined as co-writer of Season 2 [57] *In this meeting, John stated that he needed to know the ending before he could write so Neil came up with the ending of Season 2 in about 5 minutes right there and then

2020-2025 - TV Series Season 2, a new Audiobook and some other adjacent projects

2020, May 1st. Lockdown Video - A short video about a phonecall between Crowley and Aziraphale was created by Narrativia and The Blank Corporation for the 30th anniversary of the book. It was released in the the official YouTube account of the Terry Pratchett Estate (@terrypratchett6025) [59]

2020, summer - Neil started writing the script for Season 2 beginning with the opening scene for episode 1 [57] *The last scene written was Gabriel organizing the books by first letter of first line. It was planned as the last scene for Episode 2 but at the end got moved to another place [60]

2020, Sep 16 - Season 2 was officially greenlit (along with Anansi Boys) [61]

2021, Mar 26 - The Hillywood Show announced the Good Omens parody project [62]

2021, Jun 29 - Amazon announced Season 2 in a press release [63]

2021, Oct 18 - 2022, Mar 1. Season 2 shooting - Season 2 started shooting in the Bathgate studio. Some scenes were shot on location in different parts of Edinburgh and other areas [64,65] *The read-through happened over October 14th and 15th, three episodes per day [66], David had to attend via zoom since he was still in isolation from Georgia's covid [67]. On the other hand, Michel McKean (Shadwell in Season 1) was present for that zoom read-through but had to be drop out also for covid reasons [68]. Peter Davison (David's-father-in law) was asked to play Job's part after shooting had started (possibly replacing Michael McKean?) and Ty Tennant (David's son) was cast too after shooting had started but through audition [69]. Maggie Service was in the very first shot of the season and also in the last day, first one in last one out as she said [70]

2021, Nov 2. Full Cast Audiobook - HarperAudio released in the US a full cast audiobook with Michael Sheen as Aziraphale and David Tennant as Crowley. The audiobook was later released in the UK on January 14th, 2022 [71,72] *The original cover for the audiobook was designed by Henry Sene Yee; a lavender background with drawings of Crowley and Aziraphale facing away from each other. After Season 2 was released, the cover changed to one of the promotional posters [73]

2023, Mar 15. Good Omens HQ - The Terry Pratchett Estate and Neil Gaiman created Good Omens Headquarters. The headquarters launched official accounts in several social media platforms and a website that keeps track of collector's items as they are being revealed [74]

2023, May 10. Good Omens Parody - The Hillywood Show's parody premiered in their YouTube channel (thehillywoodshow) [75] *Amazon Video partnered with Hillywood to announce the premiere date for Season 2 within their parody video. Neil, Maggie Service and Daniel Mays appeared as guests

2023, Jul 28. TV Series Season 2 - Season 2 premiered in Prime Video 😊 *As part of the promo campaign two days before the premiere, Amazon screened the first two episodes in cinemas in several cities free for Amazon Prime members

2023-2024 - The Graphic Novel

2023, Aug 1. Graphic Novel - The Kickstarter campaign to fund the graphic novel adaptation with Colleen Doran as illustrator launched [76] *At its closure, 36,867 backers had pledged £2,419,973 (notice it is pounds, not dollars)

2023, Aug 25. Season 2 Soundtrack - Silva Screen Records released the soundtrack for season 2 in CD, vinyl and mp3/wav download [54]

2023, Dec 14 - Season 3 was officially greenlit [77]

2024, Apr 18 - The Graphic Novel Pledgemanager site launches for people who missed the Kickstarter campaign or to add extras to an already existing pledge [78]

2024, Jul 13 - Vicki Larnach, Jim Hare and Jay James Moody appeared as virtual guests at Nullus Anxietas 9, the Australian Discworld Convention 2024 held in Adelaide, to talk about recent push for the musical [79]

2025 - The Future

2025, January - Season 3 is scheduled to begin filming [80]

2025, Spring - Graphic novel is scheduled to be released [76] *The original release date was in July of 2024, however in April of 2024 it was announced that it would need to be pushed to the Spring of 2025 (Update #20)

There should be a special mention of a fan created musical parody for YouTube that was in development in Russia by 62Media. This was completely fan made and not connected to the Pratchett Estate, Neil, the BBC or Amazon (which is why it is not in the list). Unfortunately it had to shut down due to COVID [81]

Fun fact: During the tour to promote the book, back in 1989-1990 the song "Shoehorn With Teeth" by They Might Be Giants became the unofficial anthem of the tour since that is what they always ended up singing when things went too crazy [82]

[ofliterarynature]

TBR TAKEDOWN: Week 9 (July 28)

TLDR: I have too many unread books, and I’m asking tumblr to help me downsize. Pick one or none, and comment if you can - a convincing sentence is worth a dozen votes! You’re also welcome to just choose the one that sounds the worst :D Book descriptions below the cut, see my pinned post for more info.

I Am Princess X by Cherie Priest

Once upon a time, two best friends created a princess together. Libby drew the pictures, May wrote the tales, and their heroine, Princess X, slayed all the dragons and scaled all the mountains their imaginations could conjure.

Once upon a few years later, Libby was in the car with her mom, driving across the Ballard Bridge on a rainy night. When the car went over the side, Libby passed away, and Princess X died with her.

Once upon a now: May is sixteen and lonely, wandering the streets of Seattle, when she sees a sticker slapped in a corner window.

Princess X?

When May looks around, she sees the Princess everywhere: Stickers. Patches. Graffiti. There's an entire underground culture, focused around a webcomic at IAmPrincessX.com. The more May explores the webcomic, the more she sees disturbing similarities between Libby's story and Princess X online. And that means that only one person could have started this phenomenon---her best friend, Libby, who lives.

Tinkerbelle by Robert Manry

This book tells how a dream became a deed: how a middle aged, married and presumably sober copy editor of the Plain Dealer, of Cleveland, Ohio, happened to get the idea of sailing across the Atlantic Ocean in a small boat, how he acquired the boat, and how he executed the voyage that made his idea a reality. It is the story of the 13 1/2 foot sloop Tinkerbelle, believed to be the smallest boat ever to cross the Atlantic nonstop.

The author, having undertaken to explain why he made the voyage, describes his adventures during the 78 days it lasted: being awakened by a submarine, being knocked overboard by big waves, meeting three Russian trawlers, suffering weird hallucinations, repairing a broken rudder in mid-ocean, receiving a feast from a Belgian ship captain, trying to get dry, being interviewed by a Cleveland TV newsman 250 miles from journey’s end, and receiving a welcome from an armada of small boats at his destination, Falmouth, England.

Quite apart from the thrill of the exploits it reports, Robert Manry’s story has the happy effect of persuading the reader that he too could sail a small boat single-handed across the Atlantic… if only he could find the time.

The Cantaloupe Thief by Deb Richardson-Moore

It's ten years since wealthy matriarch Alberta Resnick was found stabbed to death in Georgia. Local reporter Branigan Powers sets out to investigate the city's only unsolved murder.

Branigan knows that the homeless often have information, but are rarely asked. She gets in touch with Liam, a pastor who runs a shelter. As they start to ask questions, secrets begin to surface. Then homeless people start dying.

Clearly the killer won't stop until all tracks are covered. But what the killer doesn't know is that someone is watching, someone who is used to being ignored and unseen…

[electronickingdomfox]

"Ishmael" review

Novel from 1985, by Barbara Hambly. A pretty great read, it's actually a crossover between Star Trek and a Western show from the 60's: Here Come the Brides. However, you don't need to have watched the other show to understand the novel, since the characters and their relationships are properly developed, and no previous knowledge is assumed.

The plot follows an amnesiac Spock waking up in 1860's Seattle (the setting of Here Come the Brides), and learning to navigate among the people there, all the while hiding the fact he's an alien (which is one of the few things that Spock remembers about himself). He takes the identity of "Ishmael", the nephew of local businessman Aaron Stemple. Funnily enough, Stemple was played by Mark Lenard (Sarek in Star Trek), which may have given the author the idea to combine both shows. Interspersed with Spock's chapters in Seattle, there are chapters focused on the "present", with Kirk and McCoy trying to figure out what happened to the Vulcan. I ended up finding those chapters a bit more interesting, since the reader is as much in the dark about the mystery as Kirk. But it was also nice to see Spock adapting to the townspeople, and being more human and emotional, given how little he remembers about his Vulcan education. Besides, this serves to confront Spock's values against those of XIX century America (addressing subjects such as the sexism and racism of the era).

I can't judge how well portrayed are the Brides' characters, not having seen the show myself, but they're all lively and easy to warm up to. As for the Enterprise regulars, they're fine, and in particular the portrait of Spock as a rootless, lonely stranger, carving his own place among those humans, is pretty moving.

On another note, it's curious how this is the first novel to involve time-travelling to Earth's past, considering it was a recurring theme in TOS (which even had its own Western episode!). And there are also parallelisms with the later movie The Voyage Home, where a somehow amnesiac Spock also visits San Francisco, though at a much later date. Apart from this, Spock's unofficial family name: "S'chn T'gai", is first introduced here.

To summarize, this is an intriguing story, that also manages to be quite poignant at times. Though there's still no cowboy Bones...

Spoilers under the cut:

During shore leave at Starbase 12, built in the vicinity of the Tau Eridani Cloud, Spock notices some unusual dealings in a Klingon cargo ship, and he's authorized to conduct a solo infiltration mission aboard the transport. Time passes without Kirk receiving any news from Spock, and the Enterprise follows the cargo discreetly, once it leaves the starbase. Suddenly, the cargo starts accelerating inside the Cloud, which is rife with magnetic anomalies, and then it simply... vanishes. The only transmissions from Spock that they receive before he disappears, are a cryptic series of words and numbers: "White dwarf. Khlaru. Tillman's Factor. Guardian. 1867."

The story moves then to 1860's Seattle, where Aaron Stemple finds a badly injured and unconscious Spock in the forest. He recognizes immediately that Spock's an alien, given his green blood and strange ears, and understands he's been tortured and will die if left alone. Not without misgivings, Aaron decides to take the alien to his cabin in the woods. There he takes care of him, until Spock recovers, and is surprised to find out that the alien can speak English. Spock, however, can't remember anything about his past or identity, though from time to time he gets impressions from his previous life, that he can't pinpoint. The only other person who is aware of the alien's existence is Lottie, the local saloon owner, but she keeps the secret. Back in the saloon, Lottie notices two foreigners asking a hell lot of questions (the reader will identify them as Klingons at once), but she doesn't mention it to Aaron, despite her suspicions.

Back in the starbase, Kirk, McCoy and Maria Kellogg (the starbase commander), try to make sense out of Spock's transmissions. The mention of a "Guardian" is taken as a reference to the Guardian of Forever, and implies the Klingons are trying to tamper with the timeline. This is supported by the mentions of a "white dwarf" and "Tillman's factor", which describe a method to open a time warp. After some discussion, they also determine that 1867 must be a date... but from what calendar? As for "Khlaru", it could refer to a Klingon historian that was researching at the starbase. Khlaru's colleague, the Vulcan historian Trau, tells them a bit about their research. They were studying ancient Karsid records; a civilization that used to subtly infiltrate other societies through economic deals, before annexing them to their empire. The Klingons were part of that empire, until the rebellion that gave them independence (which is a very unusual backstory for the Klingons). However, Trau fails to see any connection between Karsid history and the Klingon's current plans.

Meanwhile, Spock is adapting to Seattle's society. He lets his hair grow to cover his ears, and passes as Aaron's nephew Ishmael, working for him as accountant at the mill. The general situation in the town is also explained. The Bolt brothers (Jason, Jeremy and Joshua) had brought several women from the East Coast to marry local workers. Aaron has placed a bet with Jason: if he fails to get all the women married by the end of this year, the Bolt's mountain property will pass to Aaron's hands. Ishmael (I'm going to refer to Spock as such, since that's the name used for most of the story) shows his super-human abilities when he's able to locate Jeremy and his fiancée Candy, lost in the forest, by hearing alone. However, Aaron manages to dispel any suspicions about his "nephew". Ishmael's acute hearing also comes in handy to save Aaron's life during a trip to San Francisco, where two men assault Aaron in the street. During this trip, Joshua meets Sarah, a doctor who faces discrimination for being a woman trying to work in the medical field. This is something that Ishmael can't understand; and he's constantly worried about slipping up, and showing traits unusual for a human in this era. The San Francisco bay also stirs something in his memory; Ishmael is certain of having seen that landscape in other time and shape, but whenever he tries to recover those memories, he feels intense pain around his temples (and if you know your Klingons, you'll probably guess by now that they used a Mind-Sifter on Spock).

For his part, Kirk consults with an engineer in the starbase, Aurelia Steiner (a curious alien that looks like a blob of gelatin, and shows her emotions through variations in her color and perfume). She devises a means for the Enterprise to create a time warp like that of the Klingons. At this point, they're certain that 1867 is a date from Earth's Christian calendar. And after Klingons try to kill Trau, and destroy the Karsid records, the historian concludes that there must be some relation with Khlaru's research. Effectively, they find out that the Karsid tried to infiltrate Earth around that date. However, they were stopped because a representative from Washington, Aaron Stemple, showed an unusual hostility and suspicion towards them. The Karsid abandoned their attempts, and soon thereafter, the Klingon rebellion put an end to them. Kirk and co. suspect the Klingons will try to kill Aaron before he enters local politics, so the Karsid succeed in their invasion and the Federation never comes to be. There's still the question, though, of why Aaron was so convinced that the Karsid were aliens (given how good were their disguises), since humans of that era wouldn't have reached that conclusion easily.

Back in 1867, Ishmael accompanies the Bolt brothers to San Francisco, in a gambling quest to earn $50.000 at the casinos. Aaron had promised Jason that he'd forget about the bet in exchange of that sum of money. Jason was likely to lose the bet, as nobody wanted to marry one of the girls, Biddy Cloom, who is considered loud and unattractive. Aaron and Ishmael, however, had grown fond of the girl, and deep down, Aaron doesn't want Jason to marry her just to win a bet, since he's developed feelings for Biddy. The Bolt brothers start making money at the casinos using Ishmael's mathematical system. And again, the two foreigners from the saloon show up there. Meanwhile, Joshua meets with Sarah and proposes to her, but he disappears before going out on a date with her. They find Joshua a while later, apparently drugged and with marks around his temples similar to those of Ishmael. He also suffers from a minor memory loss. In the end, Jason fucks up when he abandons Ishmael's system to win money more quickly, and ends up losing all their cash (and this whole passage, with Jason's winning streak surrounded by impending doom, was pretty exciting). So they return to Seattle empty-handed.

A bit later, during Jeremy's wedding with Candy, Aaron finally asks Biddy to marry him (even if this means that Jason will win the bet and keep the mountain), and Biddy agrees, as she also loves him. Sarah also comes from San Francisco to accept Joshua's proposal. However, Aaron receives a sudden call from the mill, and leaves the party alone. Ishmael notices two men following him, and recognizes them as Klingons. This brings back all his memories (and from this point onwards, the novel refers to him again as "Spock", to signify the change). Spock follows Aaron, but he arrives too late, and finds him gravely wounded by a disruptor blast. The Klingons take Spock for a common human, and not wanting to disrupt history further, they leave, confident that Aaron will die anyway.

Spock and Sarah try to keep Aaron alive during the following days, but with their primitive medicine, there's not much they can do for him. Fortunately, Kirk and McCoy arrive in the cabin just then, having finally pinpointed the correct time and place. They take Aaron to the Enterprise for proper treatment. And Spock has a tender farewell scene with Biddy, where he promises to bring Aaron back in a few days, even if Spock himself will never see her again. Aaron is healed and brought back to Seattle, with the Enterprise returning to its proper time. As it turns out, it was the Klingons' interference precisely, what thwarted their own plans. By sending Spock to that time and place, Aaron became familiar enough with aliens, to resist against the Karsid later. The novel ends with a nice touch, as Kirk consults Spock's family records, and discovers that one of Amanda's surnames is... Stemple.

Spirk Meter: 6/10*. Kirk becomes very depressed after Spock is lost in the Cloud, having recurring nightmares and being unable to sleep. To the point that he hopes that Spock was already dead, to not suffer anymore. It qualifies as McSpirk too, because McCoy is shown to be similarly depressed, and turning to heavy drinking. At the end, both Kirk and McCoy stare open-mouthed at Spock being so affectionate with Biddy (of course, it's not romantic affection... but they don't know that yet, and it's easy to read it as jealousy). Besides this, there are many mentions of Spock being unable to appreciate feminine beauty, and he takes his inability to ever marry a woman as a matter of fact.

*A 10 in this scale is the most obvious spirk moments in TOS. Think of the back massage, "You make me believe in miracles", or "Amok Time" for example.

[oohnotvery]

Throwing Good After Bad (Chapter 3)

Scully

Scully fiddles absentmindedly with the gold wedding band around her finger. Wind whips wildly at her hair and she shivers at the cold breeze coming off the ocean. Her boots shift awkwardly on the beach and she momentarily considers taking off her shoes just so she can feel the sand between her toes. It’s a familiar, comforting feeling, one she could use right about now.

They arrived at the island five hours ago by boat and ever since, she’s been trying to make sense of their place here. Joe and Mulder made quick work of divvying up duffel bags and suitcases between their two cabins while she and Lydia stood by watching their boat—and only transportation off the island—disappear into the rough surf.

While the sea breeze coming off the waves is refreshing, the campsite itself is eerie. A set of four cabins has been set up a few hundred feet from the beach, close enough that when she’s inside her cabin, she can still hear the surf. A thick forest has grown up around the campsite and although she isn’t afraid, she clings to her bear mace as she walks the path from the beach back to the cabins. Their boat captain warned them of the dangers of Black Sands Island—the grizzly bears are scary, he had said, but the people are scarier.

Who the hell would choose to vacation here?

A long gravel pathway connects her cabin to Mulder’s and she stares at his door for a long minute, wondering whether she should go make sure he’s playing nice with Lydia. On the boat ride over from Seattle, he wasn’t the least bit interested in making nice with his new wife. Rather, to her amusement, he had spent much of the voyage trying not to heave over the side of the boat. Instead of babysitting her partner, however, Scully decides to clomp back to her shared space with Joe. She should probably get to know him better, but she spent most of the boat ride worrying over Mulder's sick stomach. 

Joe is quite nice, if not a little shy. He seems uncomfortable being in her personal space and she appreciates that he is aware of the awkwardness of their situation: practical strangers, forced to share a one-bedroom, one-bath cabin on a remote island.

Their cabin doesn’t boast even a couch, so she’s resigned herself to the fact that she’ll be bunking with Joe. Their bed is happily queen-sized, but even this is too small for her comfort level. As she walks towards the cabin, she’s thinking about the large recliner in the middle of the living room. She could probably get decent sleep on it.

She opens the door and yanks off her boots. Sand cascades off them and onto the doormat and she frowns. Even as a little girl, she hated the feeling of sand in between her bedsheets when she visited the beach with her family. She hopes Joe doesn’t plan on tracking sand all around the cabin.

“Doing some whale watching, Danielle?”

Mulder’s voice catches her off guard and she jumps. Sly as a fox, her partner is lounging deep in the recliner, his feet propped all the way up, a wicked grin on his face.

“Just getting a feel for the local flora and fauna, Floyd,” she responds with an eyeroll. She glances around and, not seeing Joe, quirks a questioning eyebrow at Mulder.

He shrugs. He’s not here, he mouths.

She walks up to him and balances on the arm of the chair.

“This place gives me the creeps,” she says under her breath. From the beach, she could really sense the remoteness of their situation. On the boat, they passed a few nearby islands but once she stood on the sand and looked out to sea, all she could see was more ocean.  

Mulder tosses a few sunflower seeds in his mouth. “You think Kersh intentionally sent us out here to get murdered?”

Scully shakes her head. “I think he cares about Lydia and Joe too much for that.”

Mulder looks up at her. “Ah, but maybe they’re our killers. Better watch yourself tonight as you’re cuddled up in bed with pretty boy Joe, Agent Scully.”

That earns him a smack to the back of the head. “Shut up, Mulder.” She looks around again and glances at her watch. “Where is he? We’re all supposed to be present for the briefing in half an hour.”

Mulder shrugs carelessly, but behind his feigned nonchalance, she can tell he is on edge too. She shifts slightly and nudges for him to scoot over. He shifts over to make room for her and she shuffles into the open space in the large recliner.

“How are we supposed to find out anything about this Black Sands Community, Mulder?” she asks, closing her eyes. “I walked around the beach for almost an hour and didn’t see anything except wilderness.”

She feels his head shake. “Kersh sent us on a no-win mission, Scully. He just wanted to piss us off for a few days.”

She kicks his leg with her sock foot. “Are you not interested in the possibility of ritualistic sacrifices?”

Mulder taps her leg back. “You read the briefing, Scully. The evidence is slim-to-none. The folks who reported any knowledge of human sacrifices were crackpots. It’s all just the typical rumor and conspiracy you always see attached to a heavily protected, cloistered religious community.”

Scully opens her eyes in disbelief. “Did you and I switch bodies on the boat ride over here, Mulder?”

He grins toothily and cracks a seed between his teeth. She grabs a handful of seeds from his open palm and fiddles with them. “I’m just saying,” he says, “I wouldn’t put it past Kersh to dump us here for a few weeks, just to make us feel bad about ourselves and our place in the world.”

Scully worries her lip. “But then where do Joe and Lydia fit in?”  

“They’re just here to ruin all our fun.”

Scully can’t help the feeling nagging at the back of her mind. “You’re wrong,” she murmurs quietly. “This isn’t just some pointless assignment intended to personally offend you, Mulder. There’s something going on on this island.”

Mulder twists his head and their gazes meet. Squished into the recliner together, their noses are just centimeters apart.

“I can feel it,” she breathes.

Mulder studies her for a long minute, his expression turning serious, and then he nods.

**

It’s dark outside by the time Joe returns to the cabin, Lydia striding in after him. Embarrassed by their proximity, Scully shoves Mulder off the recliner and greets the other agents with a smile.

“So, are we just waiting on him now?” Joe asks, glancing apprehensively at the door.

Everyone nods and Scully swallows.

Him.

Mulder glances around the room, his gaze full of authority. “Everyone remember your cover?”

Joe, Lydia, and Scully all nod. She spent the six-hour plane ride to Seattle poring over every detail of her character, Danielle Parsons.

They stand in silence for a long moment and Scully starts to suggest that they get to know each other better before he arrives. From the few moments she’s spent with Joe, she knows only a few details about him—that he’s a former fireman turned federal agent, with aspirations to serve as a congressman. She knows next-to-nothing about Lydia, except that the woman is good-looking, quiet, and doesn’t get seasick.

Before she can make her suggestion, however, there is a sharp rap at the door. Mulder shoots them all an expectant glance and Scully notices that everyone seems to stiffen slightly. Mulder gestures for them all to settle down before he strides to the door and opens it.

In the threshold stands a young man, his hair covered by a thick gray beanie, his lean, tall body dressed in jeans and a flannel shirt. He smiles openly at the four of them and Mulder motions for him to come inside.

“Hi, everyone,” the man says with a cheerful voice, “as you know from your travel agency booking, I’m Evan, and I’m going to be your guide for the next few days on the island.”

Everyone nods. As part of their briefing, Scully learned that Evan is the liaison between the Black Sands Community and the campsite. From what she understands, he is in charge of making sure they have food, water, and entertainment while they’re staying on the island. And making sure they don’t get too close to the Black Sands Community.

“Nice to meet you,” Mulder says, and as Evan enters the cabin, Scully rises to greet him.

“So,” Evan says, staring down at a clipboard in his hands. “I’ve got Jack and Danielle Parsons and Floyd and Lauren Merryweather.”

Joe immediately moves to Scully’s side and his large, warm arm wraps around her waist, drawing her in. Mulder’s eyes seem to travel with the movement and Scully watches in amusement as he briefly fixates on Joe's hand at her hip.

“I’m Jack, and this is my wife, Danielle,” Joe explains, extending a hand to Evan.

Mulder makes a half-hearted attempt at similar pleasantries, placing a hand near Lydia’s back and guiding her closer to Evan, where they introduce themselves as Floyd and Lauren.

Scully notes that Mulder can’t seem to decide how to interact with Lydia, and seems to think that hovering close to her—but just out of touching range—is how a husband treats a wife. She makes a mental note to pull him aside later and give him a tutorial on how to touch your significant other.

“So, you’re here on vacation, I see?” Evan says with another glance at the clipboard. Scully assumes from the briefing that Evan knows only the basics about the four of them—their names, home states (California), and travel dates. “Well, you’ve really come to the right place,” he explains excitedly, and by the gleeful look in his eye, Scully wonders if he’s confused Black Sands Island with Hawaii. “We’ve got sea kayaking, fishing, hunting, hiking, snorkeling, wildlife viewing. The island is regularly named one of the best places in the area to spot humpback whales. We even had a pod of orcas come through recently.”

“Lauren and I are big whale aficionados,” Mulder pipes up unconvincingly, and to her credit, Lydia nods eagerly.

“We’d be interested in getting out on the local hiking trails,” Scully adds. She’s eager to map out the island and find out where the Black Sands Community is located. At her side, Joe shifts and his hand slips slightly lower on her hip.

“Of course,” Evan says with a wide grin. “We can do all of that. If you like hiking, I’ve got a real treat for you tomorrow. But first, I want to fill you in on some ground rules. I’m sure you know you’ve been allowed to stay here at the generosity of our friends, the Black Sands Community. Now, the Black Sands is a very religious, very cloistered community, and that because of that, visitors can only access certain parts of the island.”

Scully cocks her head. “Are you not part of the community?” She had assumed from the briefing that their local guide would be involved with the group.

He shakes his head. “No,” he says with a too-friendly smile. “I’m from Vancouver, but I live here part-time running the local wildlife and sea kayaking tours.”

Mulder glances at her and she lifts her shoulders slightly in a shrug. It might be to their benefit to have an outsider’s perspective.

“Tomorrow,” Evan says, interrupting her train of thought, “we’ll be joined by Grace, a friend of mine who was born and raised in the Black Sands. She’s going to accompany us for a waterfall hike that I love to show visitors on their first day. It really showcases some of the best parts of the island, but to get there, we have to pass through some zoned-off areas. She’ll be there to help us navigate the protected bits.”

His eyes dart around the room, landing on each of them in turn. “I must emphasize, we are here because of the kindness of the Black Sands Community. It is imperative that we respect their authority over this island. This means that I kindly ask you to stay around the campsite when we’re not doing other activities. We’re mostly surrounded by jungle and sand, so there’s not a lot of exploring to do around here anyways.”

His eyes move to linger on her for a long minute and Scully starts to wonder if he saw her wandering around the property earlier.

“In that same vein,” Evan continues, his eyes moving on, “I’ll be checking in on you all in the mornings and evenings, just to make sure you have everything you need.”

Mulder’s eyes dart to hers and they exchange a knowing glance. In other words, I’ll be checking on your whereabouts constantly.

Evan’s lips stretch into a small smile. “So, friends! Any questions?”

[spocks-husband]

OKAY SO after forcing myself to finish Voyager I am finally watching Picard so I'm gonna liveblog my reactions to episode one for the Enjoyment Of The People. Spoiler warning obv lol

-the cinematography is so yass

-oh my god it's my husba DATA?????

-WHAT

-HELLO???

-or is that B4...?

-I have to rewatch the TNG movies :/

-When did Jean-Luc start drinking his tea with milk????

-i love my husband Jean-Luc so much hes so hot even at 83 <<3

-uhhhh what's. Oh my god. Oh it was a dream. Oh I'm gonna kill myself.

-THE DOGS NAME IS NUMBER ONE ☹️

-AWWW HE'S BACK IN FRANCE :(

-who are these new people

-i'm uncomfortable

-WHAT the fuck is up with the replicators

-OH DAMN LMAOOO THEY BOUTTA DIE

-omg I'm from Seattle too she's just like me fr fr

-me when I'm murdering bitches

-of course the Black boy dies immediately ‼️ yasss ‼️‼️

-Intro was kinda meh ngl :/

-why is there SO much piano going on

-my beautiful old man boyfriend...

-JEAN LUC SPEAKING FRENCH IS GONNA MAKE ME CUM.

-sorry ☹️

-omg ....... Who is this sexy romulan man......

-DECAF??????

-he looks so tired someone please let this man go home 😭😭 my poor baby Patrick :(

-literally who are these people

-I always forget about that the Romulan supernova happened outside STO 💀

-Why is she bullying my bf. Kill yourself.

-GOD HE'S SUCH A GOOD ACTOR I'M SCREAMINGGGG

-I need to perform this monologue

-literally who is this girl 😭

-can you leave my husband alone please

-the writing just took a random turn downward

-PLEASEEEE I'M SO IN LOVE WITH HIM

-stop looking at him like that 🤨🤨

-dahj has Mary Sue energy I'm sorry 😭

-STOP TOUCHING HIM I'M GOING FERAL

-i also hallucinate Data being in my backyard

-Its probably just because we have better camera quality now then we did in the nineties but Brent's contacts are making me so uncomfortable 😭

-why does he say stasis like that 💀

-THE PICARD DAY BANNER :(

-DAUGHTER??????

-didnt we already do this in that one TNG episode

-OHH wait is she an android

-i want Jean-Luc so bad no one understands

-WAIT OH MY GOD I JUST GOT IT

-I JUST UNDERSTOOD WHAT'S HAPPENING

-HOLY SHIT

-Why are they making this sad old man run so much he's in his 80s 😭😭

-WAIT DID SHE JUST DIE LMAOOO NO FUCKIN WAYYY

-Number One is my favorite character other than my boyfriend, he's so perfect

-"I haven't been living, I've been waiting to die" OKAY SO YOU CAN WRITE WELL YOU JUST CHOSE NOT TO FOR THE PAST LIKE TWENTY MINUTES LMAOO

-omg hi B4!!

-i miss data ☹️

-DR MADDOX???? UGHHHH

-PAIRS??? THERE'S TWO OF THEM????

-that transition was bomb asf

-HOT ROMULAN GUY HOT ROMULAN GUY why is he British OH MY GOD THERE'S THE OTHER ONE

-damn straight to the traumadump

-this dialogue is kinda stilted tbh

-erm is that a Borg cube 🤨🤨

Overall rating 6/10

[deadpresidents]

Exactly 100 years ago, President Warren Gamaliel Harding escaped the sweltering summer weather and increasingly dark political climate of Washington, D.C. to embark upon a lengthy cross-country trip through parts of the American West still relatively unaccustomed to frequent visits by the nation’s Chief Executive. Billed as a “Voyage of Understanding”, Harding’s trip was seen as a prelude to his potential campaign for re-election the following year, and an opportunity to put some literal and figurative distance between the President and the rumors of rampant corruption swirling around some of Harding’s friends and closest aides from Ohio, as well as several Cabinet members — rumors eventually proven to be true, resulting in indictments, convictions, prison sentences, and even suicides. As President Harding prepared for his Western tour, he could feel the heat as the scandals plaguing his Administration began to reach a boiling point. Speaking privately to the famous journalist and editor William Allen White, Harding said of the Presidency, “My God, this is a hell of a job! I have no trouble with my enemies…But my damn friends, they’re the ones that keep me walking the floor nights.”

Harding’s planned 15,000-mile Voyage of Understanding began on June 20, 1923. Traveling aboard the private Pullman railroad car Superb, the 57-year-old President left Washington, D.C. accompanied by First Lady Florence Harding, Speaker of the House of Representatives Frederick H. Gillett, new Interior Secretary Hubert Work, and a large retinue of aides, friends and their families, doctors, Secret Service agents, and members of the press. Work had become Secretary of the Interior a few months earlier when the previous Secretary, Albert B. Fall, became the “fall guy” for the Teapot Dome scandal. For his role in the scandal, Fall was later convicted of accepting bribes — the first former Cabinet member in American history to serve time in prison for crimes committed while in office. At later points along the journey, Harding’s party was also joined by Secretary of Agriculture Henry C. Wallace (father of future Vice President Henry A. Wallace) and Secretary of Commerce (and future President) Herbert Hoover.

The last week of June 1923 was spent traveling through the Mountain West — Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, Montana, and Yellowstone National Park. The beginning of July saw the Presidential party in the Northwest and celebrating Independence Day in Portland, Oregon before boarding the USS Henderson in Tacoma, Washington on July 5, 1923 to sail to Alaska. One of the expected highlights of the Voyage of Understanding was the northernmost  leg of the trip, as Harding became the first incumbent President of the United States to visit Alaska and Canada. The Territory of Alaska had been purchased for the United States by Secretary of State William Seward in 1867 when Warren G. Harding was two years old, and at the time of Harding’s visit, Alaska was still 35 years from being admitted to the Union as the 49th state. But the President spent nearly the entire month of July traveling through the state, mixing public appearances with private recreation and sightseeing. On July 15, 1923, Harding hammered a golden spike in Nenana, Alaska to officially complete the Alaska Railroad. And ten days later, the President crossed into Canada, fishing on the Campbell River in British Columbia on July 25th and then making an official visit the following day in Vancouver, where he was greeted by one of the largest crowds of his voyage — estimated at over 40,000 people — and where he also squeezed in a round of golf at the exclusive Shaughnessy Golf Club.

The President returned to American soil on July 27th, arriving in Seattle and making several speeches in a busy six-hour period — first to Camp Fire Girls at Volunteer Park, then to nearly 30,000 Boy Scouts at Woodland Park, and finishing the day addressing over 30,000 people at what is now Husky Stadium at the University of Washington where he predicted statehood for Alaska, where he had spent most of the month. After making a brief appearance that evening at the Seattle Press Club, Harding boarded his train that night to travel to Portland, Oregon.

But something was not right. The President seemed to be exhausted, perhaps from the grueling trip through geography much wilder than Harding’s native Ohio or swampy Washington, D.C. Despite his exciting journey through Alaska and the energetic welcome provided by the Canadian people, Harding was clearly wiped out by the time he reached British Columbia. The President did head to the country club while in Vancouver, but he was so tired that after six holes of golf his foursome skipped directly to the eighteenth hole, seemingly completing the round without tipping off the press that Harding couldn’t play the entire course.

From the White House, nine days before embarking upon his Voyage of Understanding, Harding wrote a quick note to Solicitor General James M. Beck who had wished the President a safe journey on his upcoming trip. Thanking Beck, Harding wrote, “I shall try to remember not to overdo (it) in crossing the continent.” And, on June 14, 1923, six days before leaving, President Harding wrote a short letter to a young girl from Hartford, Connecticut named Vivian Little, who had recently sent the President a four-leaf clover as a good luck charm. “Thank you so much for the four-leaf clover which you were so good as to press and send to me,” the President wrote. “I hope it will bring me good luck and that it will bring you still more of the same.”

However, any luck that President Warren G. Harding still had seemed to be running out. Ill and exhausted after leaving Vancouver, Harding tried to rest aboard the USS Henderson as it sailed to Seattle in the early morning hours of July 27. At some point around 3 AM, Harding and the other passengers aboard the Henderson were jolted awake as the ship crashed into the USS Zeilin, an American destroyer accompanying the Presidential party while they traveled through the foggy Puget Sound. This was not the first mishap of the Voyage of Understanding. While traveling through Colorado early in the trip, three people from the President’s party had been killed in a car accident. And now, after a few weeks in Alaska where Harding was able to at least temporarily forget about his Administration’s many troubles, the President was not only sick and tired but two of his Navy’s ships had just smashed into each other almost as soon as he had returned to the continental United States. While the USS Zeilin was badly damaged in the collision, the USS Henderson was not and there were apparently no major injuries on either vessel. But when the President’s valet, Major Arthur Brooks, came to Harding’s stateroom aboard the Henderson to inform him that the captain was calling for all hands on deck, he found the depressed President lying on his bed with his face buried in his hands. “I hope the boat sinks,” President Harding quietly muttered.

It was just hours later that Harding made his whirlwind tour through Seattle, putting on a brave face at his public appearances, but clearly not feeling well. While he was never considered a brilliant orator like Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Harrison, or his immediate predecessor, Woodrow Wilson, Harding was a strong speaker and excellent communicator who had a unique ability to connect with audiences, but he was obviously — and unusually — halting and confused while speaking in Seattle on July 27th. As he boarded his train at Seattle’s King Street Station that night, Harding was examined by his doctor and by Interior Secretary Hubert Work, who had once been a physician, and they decided to cancel the next several days of planned activities. Instead of stopping in Portland and then visiting Yosemite National Park, the Presidential party was ordered to proceed directly to San Francisco where Harding could rest before giving a speech on the radio planned for July 31st which was expected to be heard by over 5 million people.

Despite the four-leaf clover that had been sent to him by Vivian Little before his Voyage of Understanding, Warren Gamaliel Harding’s luck seemed to be running out. And, as his train sped through Oregon en route to San Francisco’s Palace Hotel on July 28, 1923, President Harding was also running out of time.  

[longlistshort]

Jack Shainman Gallery is currently showing two bodies of work by Leslie Wayne for her exhibition This Land.  One half of the show is paintings based on photos she took of landscapes from an airplane window while traveling from New York to the Seattle. Abstract work influenced by aspects of the natural world makes up the other half.

In a recent interview with designboom, Wayne was asked how perception and memory influenced her process for this work-

Perception is just an interpretation really, of what one sees, and while the paintings in ‘This Land is Your Land’ series were made directly from the photographs I took on a flight to the Pacific Northwest, they are infused with the feelings and memories I hold dear of my childhood. I’ve lived in New York since 1982, but I grew up in California and I still have a very strong attachment to the West Coast and to the geology and geography of the West. Even the abstract work in which I am manipulating thick layers of paint, I am drawing on those sensations I remember having of being in nature where the tectonic and geologic forces are right there for one to see and feel — millions of years of layered strata, of compression and subduction, of gravity and erosion, and certainly of the shifting plates that cause earthquakes.

More on the show from the press release-

Jack Shainman Gallery is pleased to present This Land, an exhibition of two kindred bodies of work by Leslie Wayne that express the nature of the American West through perception and memory. In each piece, Wayne considers different ways in which we interpret and imagine geological space, exploring landscape both as a vertical, abstracted force and a horizontal, figurative expanse. Named in homage to Woody Guthrie’s heartland ballad “This Land is Your Land,” Wayne offers a contemporary vision of Manifest Destiny—imbuing her symbolic, and experienced, westward voyages with topographies that are sensorial, memorial, and tectonic.

In a series of dimensional abstract paintings on large, metronome-like planks, Wayne uses a dramatic and vibrant palette to mold paint so that it cascades down the wood panel in a multitude of ways. Applying the paint in heavy layers, she encourages the influence of gravity and refines her materials to their most basic form, color, and behavior. Adopting, rather than controlling the rhythm of nature, these compositions are fluid to the viewer’s myriad associations with this image of momentum—be it reminiscent of the rush of an avalanche, the swell of hot lava, or the pileup of driftwood on a seashore.

In her series entitled This Land is Your Land, she creates compact, observational paintings based on snapshots she took from her seat as she flew west over the Rocky Mountains all the way to the Cascade Range in Washington State in 2021. Creating a precise mise-en-scène by placing each painting in a frame that resembles the Boeing 737 window she peered out from, Wayne transports her viewers into a precise sensation: beholding our nation as the land settles into one continuous, harmonious expanse—stripped down to simple shapes and shades. Her portholes offer a view into a terrain of awe, reminiscence, and omniscience, a collective vision of a region fraught with, and fractured by, territories and borders.

Extending beyond the format of the airplane-window frame, Wayne has also created two unique works inspired by the same journey. The first is a twenty-two-foot-long painted scroll entitled From the Rockies to the Cascades, in addition to High Dive, a large-format painting in which she stretches her canvas onto a frame of coiled springs—materials that simulate a bird’s-eye view of the landscape as if seen by a skydiver descending towards a trampoline. The paintings from this series are accompanied by a vitrine displaying Wayne’s special limited edition This Land, a handmade accordion book that illustrates the aerial photographs from her voyage, alongside Taylor Brorby’s poem “The Ages Have Been at Work” and the lyrics to Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land.”

In German, heimat is a term used to describe not only the characteristics of a place, but the complex and interdependent physical, social, and mental associations with a homeland. For Wayne, this sentiment stretches, folds, and bends from the west coast, her childhood home, to the east coast, where she has resided since 1982. Treading across this land, psychic routes unfold, and Wayne savors “That path [which] is never straight and always various, each time opening new ways of seeing and thinking about the world we occupy, the ways we inhabit nature, and the legacies we leave behind.”

[isopodcast]

I recently commissioned @miranhas-art to draw two original characters, Suliya and Atlas (Suliya is mine, and Atlas belongs to my girlfriend.) I was blown away with the art, so I had to write something around it. It was supposed to be a drabble, but it turned into a short story because I couldn't write anything under 500 words to save my life.

Feel free to read it below the cut!

Words: 770 (approx.)

Content Warnings: None (besides several curse words and mention of insects)

Every month, Atlas voyages from Washington to Michigan to bask in Suliya's bright and joyful light. Feeling her presence releases more endorphins than the sun ever could. His trip is more than 2,200 miles, five hours in the air, plus a layover in Chicago. Atlas' pampered first-class seats cost over a thousand dollars; he must have the legroom, he says. And he gets grumpy without a decent meal, which apparently tastes better when it's complimentary.

But this time, Suliya booked a flight secretly, the shoddiest airline that flies into Seattle. Economy seats, nothing free of charge except a barf bag. Her best friend, Mikayla, agreed to oversee her store and care for her animals while she was away so that it would be a worry-free vacation. She planned to be inside Atlas' condo, lounging on his sofa while he ran errands. Sam, his roommate, was supposed to send him away before she arrived.

Instead, they almost collide at the entrance of his apartment building. Suliya barely has time to set her luggage down before Atlas pulls her into a crushing embrace.

"What the fuck!?" he howls. "What the fuck? When did you--"

"Thirty minutes ago!" she interjects, being squeezed by massive biceps. Blissful, her body is practically limp in his arms.

"No, when the fuck did you buy plane tickets?" he interrogates, "How long have you known you were coming?"

"Since last week."

"Last week!?  Babeeee, why didn't you tell me? I would've picked you up at the airport!"

"It was a surprise!"

"Well, it's more than a surprise; it's a fuckin' delight."

She struggles but manages to crane her head upwards and beams at him, struck with thanksgiving to fate for bringing them together. "You're a fuckin' delight."

One hundred and sixty-one nights have passed since they met; he's been keeping track. Before then, Atlas wasn't sure love existed, not for him, not at the capacity felt for most, but Suliya has given his life a vibrancy it's never known; colors are brighter, aromas are more intense, touch is more tender and intimate. That unforgettable day might've been the luckiest one of his life, and he's scored with the Montana Lottery before, big time.

"How long do I have you? Did you get round-trip tickets?" he asks.

She shakes her head from side to side. "Nope."

"Planning on stayin' a while?"

"Until you're ready for me to go," she replies, "But I don't know if that'll ever happen."

"Yeah, I guess you're never leaving."

Heartbreak has always been one of his most debilitating fears, but losing Suliya is unthinkable. She's out of his league; Atlas has thought that since their first conversation, and he still believes it to be true. There isn't a doubt in his overactive little mind that someone so dynamic, with a beauty as celestial and a soul as rare as hers, wouldn't be satisfied with him forever. He's obsessed, but she deserves more than that. To him, Suliya is divine; countless men and women have worshipped her, and he worries that he might not pray or sacrifice enough.

Atlas lifts her from the ground, bringing their faces close. His eyes shut as she wraps her arms around his neck. Her hands travel to his hair, nimble digits fussing with dark waves. He practically purrs in response, leaving gentle kisses on every inch of skin he can access; her cheek, her ear, her neck.

"I'm keeping you," he murmurs, nuzzling the tip of his nose against hers, "And you're never going to leave if I have any say."

"Oh, nooo," she teases, "Stuck with you? God forbid."

"I'll lock the door and throw away the key, don't even tempt me. I don't play around, toots."

"Sealed away in a penthouse! How will I survive?"

They laugh together, relishing in each other's warmth and familiar scents. Atlas would fall apart without her, a giant rag doll stripped of his thread, spilling polyester stuffing with fabric asunder. He assumes he needs, wants, and loves her more than the healthy doses, more than she possibly could him, except the truth is that Suliya is equally devoted and afraid. Love has never been her strong suit; it's always ended poorly, but Atlas is worth the risk.

Busy downtown traffic breezes past them, snippets of dialogue buzzing intermittently from passersby. They stare at one another in comfortable silence.

"I do have to go home at some point," she mutters. "There's the shop and all the plants... And my cat likes Mikayla, but she'll miss me. Plus, the tarantulas, the snake, the centipedes--"

"Don't worry about the critters; I'll send for their things."

[neilperryismine]

Sharing the films I’ve watched this year (copied from @lefthandedspaghetti )

1. Joy

2. The Patriot

3. I Know What Did Last Summer

4. I Still Know What You Did Last Summer

5. The Hunger Games

6. Mean Girls The Musical

7. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

8. One Life

9. Real Women Have Curves

10. No Hard Feelings

11. Lady Bird

12. Knives Out

13. 10 Things I Hate About You

14. Clueless

15. Sabrina

16. Shakespeare in Love

17. Pride and Prejudice

18. Sense and Sensibility

19. Crazy Rich Asians

20. Back to the Future

21. Back to the Future 2

22. Back to the Future 3

23. Far and Away

24. Damsel

25. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

26. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

27. Bottoms

28. Red, White & Royal Blue

29. Primal Fear

30. Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (Taylor’s Version)

31. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

32. Iron Man

33. Bodies Bodies Bodies

34. Jurassic Park

35. Mary Poppins

36. The Boys in the Boat

37. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End

38. Peter Rabbit

39. Passengers

40. The Help

41. Death on the Nile

42. Spiderman: Homecoming

43. The Avengers

44. Love, Rosie

45. How to Date Billy Walsh

46. Fear Street Part 2: 1978

47. Bridget Jones Baby

48. Emma (1996)

49. When Harry Met Sally

50. Miranda’s Victim

51. *Dead Poets Society* !!!!!

52. Sleepless in Seattle

53. Runaway Bride

54. Dead Poets Society (again, yes😔)

55. Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 1

56. Little Miss Sunshine

57. Jurassic World

58. Scream 5

59. The Boys Next Door

60. Barbie Princess Charm School

61. Mamma Mia!

62. The Zone of Interest

63. Jumanji

64. Matilda

65. Married to It (rsl)

66. Hairspray

67. Good Will Hunting

68. In the Gloaming (rsl again)

69. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules!

70. Killers of the Flower Moon

71. My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3

72. Billy Elliot

73. Tape (rsl and ethan)

74. The Blackening

75. The Money Pit

76. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

77. Little Women

78. About Time

79. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

80. Turtles All The Way Down

81. Lullaby

82. Beautiful Boy

83. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1

84. Thelma & Louise

85. The Talented Mr Ripley

86. Father of the Bride

87. Father of the Bride Part II

88. Stand By Me

89. Girl, Interrupted

90. The Map of Perfect Tiny Things

91. The Wedding Planner

92. The Sixth Sense

93. Living

94. Big

95. Speed

96. Love & other drugs

97. Notting Hill

98. Five Feet Apart

99. The Outsiders

100. Before Sunrise (ethan)

101. Parenthood

102. Terms of Endearment

103. The Matrix

104. Fight Club

105. Leave the World Behind (ethan)

106. Bride Wars

107. Forrest Gump

108. Dazed and Confused

109. Don’t Tell Mum the Babysitter’s Dead (josh charles)

110. The Breakfast Club

111. Legally Blonde

112. Hidden Figures

113. Confessions of a Shopaholic

114. Three Men and a Baby

115. The Fault in our Stars

116. Sister Act: Back in the Habit

I definitely have a problem and this probably isn’t even all the films I’ve watched this year :/

But my favourites have been the ones I’ve watched since dead poets society (obv including it) mainly cause they’ve been a bit weird or different like tape!!

any film recommendations are welcome!! :)

[tapesandelectronicsclub]

Disaster Movie Ideas

I wanted to write this list of disaster movie ideas.

A computer-controlled train departs from the bustling city. However, the speed control malfunctions and increases to the horrific 2-miles-per-minute. The locomotive is unexpectedly decoupled from the rail cars, and he derailed, albeit ones leaving the loco.

A car with unfinished brakes goes runaway.

A cruise ship sinks with uncontrolled flooding during his maiden voyage.

An aerial tramway leaves passengers trapped after he breaks down.

Action-packed events happens even the tsunami hits somewhere in the American Northeast.

A hurricane hits Florida.

A flooding happens in a suburban town.

A bus with non-functioning brakes goes runaway, and everyone onboard jump from the door.

A high-rise tower catches fire in London.

An earthquake hits Seattle.

A series of tornadoes hit Michigan.

An emergency evacuation is prompted in Hawaii before alarming eruptions from the volcanoes.

A metro train goes runaway.

Everyone survives a plane crash.

An elevator awaits to fall.

[spacedykez]

The Otterverse Incident

My name is Jasper, and this is Casper. 80 years ago, our third sibling went missing on D.A. Non's train, his pride and joy, when it dissapeared into the night. Now, that train has finally arrived, and we've been sent to investigate the wreckage. It's going to be quite the journey- why don't you join us?

notes: OTTERVERSE/BIFROST INCIDENT CROSSOVER ANYONE??? yeah this is mainly for my friends but i'm posting it here since that's the easiest for me to share. to the meowdy crew, hello, enjoy, please liveblog it in my dms i love you.

[JASPER] Eighty years is a long, long time to be missing a sibling.

Most ordinary people would have given up on finding them long ago, concluding that it would be best for everyone to simply move on. But we’re not exactly ordinary. Nor are we people, but that’s hardly relevant. My name is Jasper E. Goggles, and I, along with my sibling, Casper, have been searching for our third sibling for a long, long time.

You see, Zasper isn’t the type to die that easily. It survived a rain of arrows unscathed in Moscow, a poison dart that should have killed it on a heist gone wrong in Seattle, and multiple kidnappings, including being held hostage in Sydney for five years.

Last we heard, zip was the lead engineer on D.A. Non’s favorite toy; a train, one that would travel through the big pride flag-colored tear in reality. The one he created years ago, perhaps for this very purpose. The train was supposed to be a breakthrough invention-

[CASPER] Literally, a breakthrough! Through space!

[JASPER] Thank you, Cat. A breakthrough invention that would put Asgard on track to become the galaxy’s number one tourist destination, and connect it to every known world this side of Eldevard.

It left the station right on schedule, passing inspection with quite literal flying colors. I can only assume that was in no small part due to the amazing technologic genius of our third sibling. That train was D.A. Non’s pride and joy, meant to prove to the galaxy that he was to be feared. I don’t doubt it would have come in very handy when he inevitably started a war with anyone who didn’t comply to his rules.  

That train was carrying anyone and everyone in Asgard with enough money to make a name for themselves, since D.A. Non wanted everyone of any note to be on the maiden voyage. And they complied, mostly because few dared risk the wrath of D.A. Non, threatening as he is. 

Which, of course, made things all the more complicated when the train never arrived, and every one of Asgard’s politicians, rulers and wealthiest citizens vanished without a trace. But it’s unclear if we’ll ever know for sure, given what happened to it. To… To…

[CASPER] D’you need me to narrate, ‘Lijah? Gumy told me I’m very good at it! That I bring enthusiasm to the job!

[JASPER] I… y-yeah. It’s-

[CASPER] Emotional? Talking about the very likely horrible and tragic death of our sibling? Yep! But no need to worry, I can package it all up and keep going, forever! Cool, right?

[JASPER] Cat, we talked-

[CASPER] Don’t worry about me, ‘Lijah, I’m all good. Where were you…? Oh! Right!

The train left the station right on schedule, for a journey meant to take three days. As you likely know, eighty years is a lot longer than three days! So we can only assume something went horribly, horribly wrong. Nobody knows what happened to it, and no one who was on it is left to tell us. So we’ve been in the dark.. until now.

You see, the search just got a whole lot brighter. Because the train that set off eighty years ago has just arrived, bringing with it new clues, and we’ve been sent to figure out what happened to it. Unfortunately, not much is left of its passengers besides a couple of skeletons and the train’s black box.

[JASPER] The first recording on it is of D.A. Non’s historic speech about the thing, which as expected provides no help in finding any reason for the train’s disappearance. You’d think he’d want to gush about his pet project, but in typical dictator fashion, all he wanted to talk about were his plans for galaxy-wide conquest.

[D.A NON] Friends, machines, and hostages. I welcome the world tonight to watch the beginnings of a new era. This train is the start of the revolution, a spark to light the flame that’s sure to grow and fuel the mechanisms of a new world. And from the womb of my workshops this great train has been birthed, putting us on track to speed forward into this great new world.

Don’t worry, my dear Asgardians. I’ll ensure this grand new era will serve Asgard. There’s no one better than I to lead you in this exciting new time. I am, of course, the modern major general, so to speak, of this great conquest, and who else to nominate? No one! None can serve you as well as I.

I shall ensure that the great Void that is, and the great creation that will be shall serve to benefit Asgard and only Asgard. Their love for us shall be infinite. They will Know you, and so they shall Watch and guide us through this new revolution. Oh, the Watcher with a thousand eyes is merciful, my people, and the stars themselves love Asgard. This I know with certainty.

Thank you all, for coming to this monumentous occasion. The birth of a new world in the name of Asgard, how exciting. And it shall all be because of the great advancements in technology, helped by each and every one of you, that have allowed this train to exist. So, thank you, truly. You do not know how much this will change Asgard.

I’ll see you all on the other side of the wormhole- and on the other side of history.

[CASPER] Three, two, one, and liftoff! Boom!!

[JASPER] It’s not a rocket, Casp, it’s a train. Well- actually, this train might fly. I wasn’t paying attention to the speech. Too boring. Bleh!

[CASPER] O h, don’t worry, there was nothing useful in it.

[JASPER] Thanks, love you! Anyways, the train blasted off- hey maybe it was a rocket ship- into the the rainbow night at 400,000 kilometers an hour-

[CASPER] Wha’d’ya say?

[JASPER] The train blasted off into the rainbow-

[CASPER] No, four hundred thousand kilometers? Speak English?

[JASPER] THAT IS ENGLISH. You Americans and your-

[CASPER] Meters and mental illness both start with M. Coincidence? I think not!

[JASPER] Oh, fuck you. Moving on-

[CASPER] You insult Casper? You insult kit like the discourse? Oh, jail for Jasper! Jail for one million years!

[JASPER]C AN WE PLEASE GET ON WITH THE NARRATION!?!

Oh. Sorry. I- I didn’t mean to- to snap.

[CASPER] It’s okay. I’m sorry.

[JASPER] No, you don’t need to- I’m sorry. Let’s just move on. Okay?

[CASPER] Okay! 

[JASPER] -at 250,000 miles an hour, carrying all of D.A. Non’s hopes and dreams- and also Asgard’s wealthiest. The footage is quite stunning, even if it’s monochrome. Can’t believe the Bifrost invented pride flags. Crazy, amiright?

[CASPER] Hehehe.

[JASPER] Nothing here seems out of the ordinary, except for the odometer. It’s odd, the thing can’t seem to decide if the train is moving slowly, faster than light… or not at all? But regardless, now the train is off, carrying all of Asgard’s wealthy among all the colors of the rainbow. The journey is meant to take 72 hours, but as we know, it took a lot longer than that.

The footage is quite corrupted, and it’s hard to pick out anything specific, really, but we scan the first day intently, looking for anything out of the ordinary. There’s nothing too out of place; many of the guests seem unhappy to be making the journey, but that isn’t surprising. Even D.A. Non seems a bit nervous, sitting pretty in his big fancy chair and staring out at the shifting colors of the wormhole from the comfort of his observation deck.

Everything is as mundane as it can be, considering we’re looking at a space train flying through a wormhole. It’s possible the second day will provide more clues-

[CASPER] Hey, Jazz! Look at this!

[JASPER] Huh- what?

[CASPER] I don’t quite know- they seem quite odd though. Maybe a clue?

[JASPER] Okay, I’ll come look.

Oh, that is odd.

Standing in a corner of the train, away from all the other passengers, a figure stands clutching their head in pain. They look thin, unhealthily so, and the bags under their eyes tell an unfortunate story. Their long, disheveled hair fades slightly at the ends, like… maybe long-faded hair dye? A tail shifts distortedly, like it isn’t sure whether to be a cat tail or a fox tail. Furry ears shift slightly, and it’s impossible to tell what species they are, or even their details. They look sort of like bear ears, but they could almost be fox ears, too, like…

[CASPER] Zasper.

[JASPER] But Zasper didn’t have long hair, and this… uh. Creature on the video doesn’t have wings… or antennae.

[CASPER] Yeah. Yeah, you’re right. Still odd, though. And they don’t appear to be registered as a passenger.

[JASPER] No, not as a passenger.

Oh, here!

[CASPER] Orion Fox. They/them. Gender unknown. Species… unclear. That data’s been… corrupted. Like someone doesn’t want anyone knowing what- or who- they are. They’re listed as an engineer on the train. And… that’s it.

[JASPER] Odd. Were there any other engineers onboard?

[CASPER] Uhm… yeah. Yeah, there were two more. A crew of three. Evidently D.A. Non didn’t think he needed any more staff than that. The train was supposedly mostly self-sufficient. And their files are all in order. Not like Orion’s.

[JASPER] Odd. We’ll keep an eye on them.

[CASPER] They don’t look like much of a threat.

[ORION] My head….

I can’t think through the pain. I don’t remember who I am, or why I’m here. All I remember is fire… and blood…

There are too many colors. El… Ely… We’re in danger. She’s in danger!

AAUGH!!

My mind, broken like I’m a puzzle missing pieces! With everything I recall, my confusion increases. Dreams and memories are all mixed in my brain; Who am I, and what is this train!?

Water and light and rainbows, and hope; All of these things I think that I broke; All I recall with certainty is warm love and affection; But whose voice was it, whose voice to my ears is utter perfection?

Memories like water drops fall through my mind! Stories and people I can’t seem to find! She’s screaming a name I don’t recall; And who was I, to earn such a fall!?

Emotions are blurry, but I know clearly the guilt! At an unknown promise that was left unfulfill’t; Why would I hurt her, when she’s all I love? With a fire so bright, and a voice like a dove?

I don’t… My head…

[JASPER] Whoever Orion is, their head seems messed up pretty bad.

[CASPER] Look, someone’s coming.

[DAISY] Hey? Kid?

[ORION] Who-?

[DAISY] Oh. My. Word. Are you who I think you are?

[ORION] I’m… not quite sure myself.

[DAISY] That sick bastard. That sick, sick bastard.

[ORION] Care to explain..?

[DAISY] No. CARMIN!!!

[CARMIN] Coming, darling! Oh, the kid-

[ORION] I’m-

Well. I don’t know how old I am, but I’m not a kid!

[DAISY] You’re a kid to us. Now, Carmin, I think we need to go have some words with a certain someone.

[CARMIN] Of course! Stay right here, kid. We'll be right back.

[ORION] Still not a kid!

[CASPER] I like them!! Sad that they're probably dead, along with everyone else.

[JASPER] Hey, Zaz is stubborn! We'll find kit, I'm sure.

[CASPER] Yeah. Yeah, you're right.


Now, those two were Daisy Cabiosas and Carmin Aloys, owners of Asgard’s most famous restaurant, Wine and D’s. D.A. Non’s been trying to get them shut down for years. He says it’s because of “public health concerns,” but everyone knows it’s really because of their politics. More specifically, they’re very against his rule, and aren’t afraid to say so. But still, he invited them on the train, so evidently he tolerates them, at least.

They don’t appear to be tolerating him, though. Not sure what their history with Orion is, but Carmin and Daisy appear to know them, and don’t seem happy about whatever’s happened to them.

The couple make their way to D.A. Non’s quarters and burst, absolutely unafraid of anything, through his door. The footage isn’t clear, but it’s clear enough to tell that their discussion is heated.

[CARMIN] WALLACE!

[D.A. NON] The name is D.A, my dear. I’d appreciate you learning it.

[DAISY] We aren’t here about your name. We’re here about “Orion.” What did you do to them?

[D.A. NON] Oh, I didn’t do anything! I just gave them a place on my train. I’m being nice to them!

[CARMIN] You tell us why their memories are messed up, or I’ll expose your true plans.

[DAISY] We know about Ely’Woowoth.. And we know that you’re planning to release it on the world.

[D.A. NON] Don’t be ridiculous. Why would I believe those… those childrens’ tales?

[CARMIN] You think Ely’Woowoth will help you conquer the people of the other realms. And when they’re ravaged from the attack of… whatever it is, you can spread your ‘new world’ to every planet in the galaxy.

[D.A. NON] You flatter me. No. No, I don’t worship the gods. 

They worship me.

[DAISY] D’you really believe that?

[D.A. NON] No, obviously not. I’m not a child, nor am I naive enough to think gods will help me in my conquest. No, I intend to win this galaxy myself.

[DAISY] I’m still not seeing what Orion has to do with this.

[D.A. NON] Oh, you don’t see? Orion is very special, very special indeed. They just don’t know it… anymore? Yet? Time is odd, with that one. Very unique. Can’t imagine what they must have done to piss the gods off that badly.

[DAISY] Explain, now, or we’ll kill you.

[D.A. NON] Killing me won’t stop the train from arriving at the station.

[CARMIN] No, but it might make me feel better.

[D.A. NON] As amusing as it would be to watch you try to kill me, I think you’ll find I don’t die quite so easily. And nor will the train.

[DAISY] Fuck you, and fuck your train! You’ll be sorry, when I tear that smug smile off your face!

You bastard, time to shut up and hear what I say! You’ve ruined enough lives, now it’s time for you to pay! You won’t be smiling when we derail your train! I’ll make you know nothing but bloodshed and pain!

I don’t know what you want with Orion! But it’s clear to me when someone is lyin’! I want justice for them, and for all the galaxy! That’s what will make me happy!

You will regret making an enemy of me, D.A.

[CARMIN] You’re very cute when you’re bloodthirsty, honey.

[JASPER] Well, I think we have our culprits. Hard to argue with that evidence, when Carmin and Daisy had such a clear motive. As if getting rid of their main political opponent wasn’t motive enough, they now have an even better one in the form of Orion. I’m about prepared to write them up as the cause of the delay.

[CASPER] Not so fast. Look at the dining car.

[JASPER] Oh. My. Wings. Is that who I think it is?

[CASPER] The chief attendant catches the eye, with beautiful golden-orange wings in place of her ears and massive, feathered wings of the same color held tight against xyr back. Mid-length ginger hair is braided neatly down her back, out of xyr way. There’s no one that this could be besides the amazing Felix P. Nix.

[JASPER] Zasper’s girlfriend.

[CASPER} And the former wife of noted politician Paci C. Otter, who died in a strange theater accident that eyewitnesses swear D.A. Non was present for.

[JASPER] Cat? Look at the staff.

[CASPER] Oh.

[JASPER] Every one of the attendants is a member of the Disc Core, a covert group of individuals dedicated to taking down D.A. Non. 

They were planning a takeover. One that would turn the train from D.A. Non’s weapon into his prison. Even through the muffled footage, I can hear Felix plotting with the attendants.

[FELIX] D.A. has ruled for far too long, Spent his whole rule doing unspeakable wrong, Yet still he sits, upon that throne; Now he wants the galaxy for his own!

Go now my friends! Bring him to his ends! In the name of my wife; We will take his life!

[JASPER] Felix walks down the hallway, away from the other attendants. Her eyes get slightly misty, and xyr ears wilt. In the next car, Orion is still leaning wearily against the wall.

[FELIX] My most darling, my moon, I never planned to lose you so soon, Now I’m all alone, And D.A. is still on the throne.

…Paci?

[ORION] I don’t-

[FELIX] My sweet foxbride, beloved star! It matters not to me who you are, You’re here with me now, and I won’t lose you! Never again, no matter what I must do!

[ORION] Who is she, this beautiful queen? Whom I’ve never met, but could swear that I’ve seen? She sings to me of undying love; Is this the one I have been dreaming of?

[FELIX & ORION] My darling, my dear… (Do I know you?) Your eyes are filled with fear… (How badly I want to….) I swear to you I won’t let you die. (I don’t recall, my life at all) And if you do, then so shall I! (Did I deserve so great a fall?)

[JASPER] With that, Felix, teary-eyed, turns and leaves. From here the footage is quite messy and distorted. There’s a few clips of Orion wandering the ship, passengers staring at them confusedly and muttering amongst themselves. Felix runs into Carmin and Daisy, and they talk about unlocking something. Then there are six painfully long minutes of D.A. Non smugly smiling into the camera.

And… that’s it. Five suspects, and we have no idea which one caused the train’s disappearance. There’s no further clues, and no real incriminating evidence. The rest of the footage is corrupted. Gone, or at least further damaged than we can recover.

[CASPER] Does that mean we get to visit-

[JASPER] Oh, skies, no. Please. Anything but them.

Don’t give me puppy eyes! Deer eyes? Whatever you are! Don’t-

No. I’m not giving in.

[CASPER] Pwwwweaaasssseeeeeee??

[JASPER] OH- 

Fine. But only to get the footage! That’s it!

God. Americans.

[DAISY] It’s time.

[CARMIN] Dinner time?

[DAISY] You’re hilarious, truly. No, time to put an end to a corrupt ruler.

[FELIX] And Disc Core will be right there with you.

[D.A. NON] What. You want me to sing? Absolutely not.

Fuck you. You might have a thousand eyes but that does not mean I’ll give into puppy eyes. From a god. Stars above, you’d think an immortal being would have some dignity!

[DAISY] It’s time to sharpen the knife!

[CARMIN] Of course, my wonderful wife.

[FELIX] I’ll make us a new life!

[ORION] Why is my mind filled with strife?

[DAISY] Take revenge for the kid!

[CARMIN] And stop D.A’s plan. Heaven forbid!

[FELIX] Of all our fears we will be rid!

[ORION] From me my own memories are hid!

[DAISY] D.A!

[D.A. NON] Oh, you’re back. How fun.

[DAISY] And we’re here to stop you.

[CARMIN] For too long, we’ve let you go unchecked! Now Asgard will pay the price of our neglect! But I will not give in to any preordained fate. I do not believe it is too late!

[D.A. NON] Really. Singing?

[DAISY] Curses to you for acting this way! You’re too corrupt, obsessed with this train! Conquest is not something I’ll stand for. And your death may prevent a needless war!

[D.A. NON] One does not simply stop a birth. And especially not one of a god!

[ORION and FELIX] Memories like water drops fall through my mind! (My sweet foxbride, my beloved star!) Stories and people I can’t seem to find! (It matters not to me who you are!) She’s screaming a name I don’t recall; (You’re here with me now, and I won’t lose you!) And who was I, to earn such a fall? (Never again, no matter what I must do!)

[DAISY&CARMIN, ORION, FELIX, ALL] For too long, we’ve let you go unchecked! (Memories like water drops fall through my mind!) (My sweet foxbride, my beloved star!) Now Asgard will pay the price of our own neglect. (Stories and people I can’t seem to find!) (It matters not to me who you are!) But we will not give in to any preordained fate. (She’s screaming a name I don’t recall;) (You’re here with me now, and I won’t lose you!) I do not believe it is too late! (And who was I, to earn such a fall?) (Never again, no matter what I must do!)

[JASPER] Casper and I are here at the prison, officially about to make this the worst day of my life, and now I think some backstory is needed here. We’re about to visit a group of criminals in the prison they’ve been in for sixty years. When the train didn’t arrive eighty years ago, they appeared to profit off of the chaos. It took twenty years to track them through seven thousand, three hundred, and sixty-three fake identities, three thousand and twenty-two secret hideouts, and seven hundred forty-five fake businesses.

[CASPER] My idols.

[JASPER] Casper, I know we’re also wanted by the police, but we’re not going to be like them. I hate them.

[CASPER] Awwwh.

[GMA. GUMY] Oh, hello dears. Care for a cookie?

[JASPER] Where the fuck did you get cooking supplies in prison.

[GMA. GUMY] Oh, a grandma has her secrets!

[CASPER] I WANT A COOKIE!!!

[JASPER] CASPER! They’re probably poisoned.

[GMA. GUMY] Only a teensy bit! Can’t you let an old woman have her fun?

[VASH] Train finally arrived?

[JASPER] A few days ago, actually. How did you know?

[WALI] Don’t concern yourself with it, you wouldn’t like the answer.

[GMA. GUMY] Oh, Wali, be nice to our guests! Having guests is really a skill, I can teach you if you-

[WALI] I can barely tolerate you and the crew, don’t test my patience on anyone else.

[GMA. GUMY] Don’t mind him! Gore’s always like this. It’s simply the only event with a greater than twenty percent chance of bringing you here to see us!

[ELYS] Oh, hey gamers. D’we have guests?

[JASPER] Look, all we need is to see this footage. It’s been corrupted and you’re our best chance at recovering it

[ELYS] Hrm, is that it?

[JASPER] Yes.

[ELYS] Swag, swag. Gimme a minute, I’ll have it back to you.

[GMA. GUMY] In the meantime, would you like some of my galaxy-renowned tea?

[CASPER] Ooh, yes, I would love-

[JASPER] It’s-

[CASPER] It’s fine! I’m immune to most poisons. Sccchlurp!

That’s delicious! I can see why it’s so loved.

[GMA. GUMY] Why thank you, dear! It’s been so long since I’ve had someone new to give my cooking to.

[ELYS] An angel and a dragon, come knocking on our door! The story of the Bifrost, that’s what they’re-

[JASPER] Shut up! Stop singing! No singing!

[ELYS] So mean to me. Can’t believe this. Can’t have shit in prison.

[VASH] I think that’s kind of the point, but sure.

[ELYS] Restored your footage. Here ya are.

[JASPER] Oh, that was quick. Thanks.

[ELYS] ‘Course, ‘course.

[GMA. GUMY] Oh, dears, would you like some cookies to take with you?

[ELYS] They’re very good.

[CASPER] Yeah!!!

[JASPER] I- oh, never mind.

[GMA. GUMY] Here you are!

[CASPER] Thank you! We’ll be on our way now.

[JASPER] The recordings are clear now, I can see everything. The view that matters is the engine room, where Carmin, Daisy, and Felix stand staring at where the engine would be. But there is no engine, only a body, wires and tubes hooked to him, glyphs and sigils and blood flowing through them.

The body is Josh, a founding member of the Disc Core, who’d gone missing several years ago; not a surprising occurrence when your work is in an underground movement meant to piss off the people in charge. They were presumed dead, but now it’s clear whatever happened to them is far worse than death.

Felix rushes over and yanks his body away from the wires. Blood bubbles up and begins oozing from his countless wounds, dying Felix’s grey pants a deep red.

Xe don’t notice it though, too busy looking up and watching, along with Daisy and Carmin, as the glyphs warp and change. They all stand frozen, sensing something has gone very, very wrong.

[VOID] Y'AI'NG'NGAH, ELY'WOOWOTH H'EE-L'GEB F'AI THRODOG UAAAH OGTHROD AI'F GEB'L-EE'H ELY'WOOWOTH 'NGAH'NG AI'Y ZHRO Y'AI, Y'AI Y'AI ELY'WOOWOTH Y'AI'NG'NGAH ELY'WOOWOTH H'EE-L'GEB F'AI THRODOG UAAAH OGTHROD AI'F GEB'L-EE'H ELY'WOOWOTH 'NGAH'NG AI'Y ZHRO Y'AI, Y'AI Y'AI ELY'WOOWOTH Y'AI'NG'NGAH ELY'WOOWOTH H'EE-L'GEB F'AI THRODOG UAAAH OGTHROD AI'F GREEBLE NEEBLE ELY'WOOWOTH 'NGAH'NG AI'Y ZHRO Y'AI, Y'AI, Y'AI Y'AI ELY'WOOWOTH

[VOID, SPOKEN] And the walls begin to tear. Not the walls of the train, but those of a false and hollow reality, twisting in its thrall to Ely’Woowth, the key and the gate through whose dark rainbow being the train has passed. Ely’Woowoth who is the Bifrost, and whose dread invocation now shattered, drags them towards the roiling nuclear chaos of the mad demon sultan at the center of reality. A billion watching, wriggling things approach, recording and observing through the shattered tatters of a sane world. All its eyes are open now.

[VOID, VERSE] Shadows spinning tall and dark As the walls begin to tear apart A thousand eyes crack open now Seeing, watching, observing how Its victims all dissolve in screams As the Watcher looks, invading dreams A world unknown this thing now finds! A world of fresh, unguarded minds!

[JASPER] The three rebels watch in silent horror as the glyphs and symbols protecting the train drain away, leaving them all unprotected from the dread gaze of Ely’Woowoth. Before them, Josh’s blood continues to flow, washing the walls with red. Screams ring out from the carriages behind them. Carmin and Daisy turn and head towards the observation deck to complete the task they boarded the train to complete.

On the deck, D.A. Non sits, wearing his unchanging grin, while Orion looks at him, betrayed.

[ORION] I… I remember…

His folly I did clearly find; For that he took away my mind! A thousand eyes ever watching me The whole universe, now its to see!

[D.A. NON] That knowledge would have my train destroyed; I could not risk it stopping me from entering the void! A shame it left your mind so broken and confused, But your expertise and talent was too great to lose!

[ORION] Memories like a rising flood rush through my mind! Dreams, faces, people whom I left behind! All my faults, all my mistakes I can recall; Now I fin’lly know why I took such a fall!

[D.A. NON] You’ve lost the fight, my plan you have fulfilled! It matters not now whether I am killed. The Void sings to me its whispering refrain. You cannot now stop the coming of this train!

[ORION] Fuck you, and fuck your train!

[JASPER] Orion turns and leaves. They don’t stop to watch as D.A. Non laughs. They don’t see as he leans back in his chair towards the wall, upon which a gooey black substance drips, drips, drips. But Carmin and Daisy do.

They burst through the door, weapons in hand, back to back as they fend off millions of tiny, squirming things, in time to watch as the black slime drips onto D.A. Non, coating his entire body and crawling unnaturally over him, encasing him in an oozing mass. It molds itself into a vaguely humanoid shape, with two thrashing tails and wavy, flowing hair topped with a pirate hat.

Then a thousand glowing green eyes open from the slime, across every part of its body, and it laughs.

[CARMIN] What have you done!?

[D.A. NON] I’ve birthed a new world!! I’ve allowed our people to feel the love of the One Of A Thousand Eyes!

[DAISY] This was your plan all along!

[D.A. NON] I have created a new world for the people of Asgard!! All shall know the name of D.A. Non, and they shall worship me for bringing to them the undying care and gaze of Ely’Woowoth, The Watcher With A Thousand Eyes! It will be our apotheosis! Some may die, but that is a price I’m willing to pay. The Phoenix does not rise from nothing! Rebirth requires first a great death!

[JASPER] D.A. laughs. Carmin and Daisy exchange a look, and nod.

[D.A. NON] Killing me will change nothing, now!

[DAISY] But it will be very, very satisfying.

[CASPER] His tails are so fast!

[JASPER] Very cool movement, I agree. They’re bleeding whatever that black goop is, too. If I didn’t know better, I’d say it almost looks like ink.

[CASPER] What, he’s rewriting history with a giant ink monster or something?

[JASPER] …Wouldn’t be the strangest thing we’ve seen.

[CASPER] Carmin and Daisy are quite good fighters.

[JASPER] The ink monster is so fast, it’s almost like they’re fighting two monsters at once, with its tails whipping around to attack them.

[CARMIN] We may not be able to defeat you-

[DAISY] But even you still need to breathe.

[JASPER] The shattering of the window is deafening. The air rushes out of the room, taking the three of them with it, and the stars claim them all.

[CASPER] At least they died for a cause they cared about, I guess.

[JASPER] Casp, look. Look there.

[CASPER] Orion. They’re going towards the engine room. All the creepy, dripping blobs of black goop avoid them, and the green eyes shut when they walk by. Ely’Woowoth must know something about them.

There in the engine room, Felix weeps for Josh and the failed revolution, and at the apocalypse. The tips of xyr wings are dyed the color of sunset.

Oh, here comes Orion! They step in the door and make their way over to Felix. They don’t seem worried about the blood on their shoes. Oh, we know that look. Of someone who’s seen too much blood in their life.

[ORION] Felix?

[FELIX] You- you remember?

[ORION] All of it, sparkfire.

[FELIX] Agh! I love you!!

[CASPER] Awww, I always cry at reunions!

[JASPER] They’re drenched in blood and about to die?

[CASPER] But they’re in love, okay? Just. Let me have this.

[JASPER] This is why I’ve been narrating.

[CASPER] So meansies to me. Cruelty.

[JASPER] Yeah, I love you too, Cat.

Orion and Felix embrace in the middle of a shallow tide of blood, and Orion guides Felix towards the altar at the center of the engine. Orion plants a kiss into Felix’s hair, looking a bit conflicted even at that, before lying upon the altar.

[FELIX] No!

[ORION] Memories like a great sea, now clear in my brain. The story is plain now, I must stop this train! My love, I must ask you to give in to your fears; But we’ll meet again even if it takes years.

[FELIX] My sweetest moonflower, the love of my life! You cannot ask me to do this to my wife! I’ve vowed to you I won’t let you die! I won’t be left alone to weep and to cry!

[ORION] Darling, it was never meant to be! It’s not yet time for our great symphony! In another life, we will love again; But my time in this one must come to an end.

[FELIX] Oh, when will this pain just leave me be? Am I doomed to grieve for eternity? I get you back just to lose you once more; Am I doomed to fight an eternal war?

[ORION] Love…

[FELIX] You don’t get to ask me to do this.

[ORION] I’m so sorry, for everything I’ve done to you.

[FELIX]N o, I- I don’t know. I love you.

[ORION] I love you too, my wildfire.

[JASPER] Casper?

[CASPER] Yeah?

[JASPER] Isn’t- isn’t that what Zasper used to call Felix?

[CASPER] Oh, I’m sure it’s just a coincidence!

[JASPER] …Okay.

[FELIX] Oh, shush, you sly fox.

[ORION] Not that life anymore, I’m afraid.

[FELIX] Ah, but that was fun.

[ORION] I hope Jasper and Casper have ended up far, far away from all this.

[JASPER] No-

[FELIX] Ah, I wish I could fly far, far away from all this.

[ORION] It’s too late for either of us, probably.

Well, in honor of our last life, could I steal one more thing from you?

[JASPER] No! No. It’s not kit. It can’t be.

[CASPER] I’m sorry, Jazz.

[FELIX] Oh, what is it this time, Paci?

[ORION] One last kiss.

[FELIX] Ahhhh, you’re such a flirt! You may.

[CASPER] I guess. I should narrate this last bit.

Orion- Zasper- Paci and Felix share one last kiss, before Felix inhales sharply and plunges a single, thin line into xyr wife’s heart. When Paci’s blood is gone, the train will arrive, but until then, they are together, and the train is far away from anyone else it can hurt.

[JASPER] No! I don’t understand!

[CASPER] We need to go.

[JASPER] They’re both- they’re both- they can’t be-

[CASPER] Jasper, we need to leave, now.

[JASPER] Okay.

[CASPER] Sorry. But we’re gonna go now, far far away from here, as fast as we can. If anyone’s listening to us, you should do the same. Things are about to get colorful around here, and it might be pretty, but it won’t be fun being around for that.

I guess we solved the mystery of our missing sibling.

[JASPER can be heard sobbing in the background]

I’ll miss kit, but just another day in my life, right? I’ll be fine. I still have Jasper!

Goodbye. Casper C. Googles signing off, along with my sibling, Jasper Goggles. Good luck, and may the stars watch over you.

[The ending lines of the transmission can be heard, but muffled, as if through a cheap radio. Then, static, and an odd sound, like water- or something heavier- dripping onto a wooden floor. A floorboard creaks, and a guitar begins to play an upbeat tune]

[ELYS] And there they were lost among the stars; Eighty years that couple spent trapped in those train cars! No need to fret, they’ll forget every ounce of pain, One day they’ll die hand in hand and leave that cursed train!

Felix born again in flames as bright as lightning’s strike, Doomed to chase her wife through love and war alike! Paci thrust through time and space to take another name, The poor unknowing victim of the universe’s twisted game!

Someday they’ll be free upon a ship with crewmates bold, And for their love they will ascend, another legend to be told! Here I’ll sit and tell their tale, as I do so many more. After all, what else is this curse of endless life good for?

Thank you so much for reading! And now, everyone mentioned! D.A. Non (Divorce Anon), Carmin Aloys, and Wali - @shroom-guy Elys and Ely'Woowoth - @wolfwoodbignaturals Daisy Cabiosas and Gma. Gumy - @gumy-shark Felix - @felicityphoenix5 Casper - @cats-thoughts Jasper - @urlocalqueer0846

Featuring @999999rats as Josh

And yours truly as c!Paci/Zasper/Orion <3

[amtrak-official]

heya Amtrak,

I want to visit a friend in Seattle, possibly via train, but I live in Virginia so it would be like a 3-day voyage or something. Is there a route you'd suggest? do I take two weeks off work? or do I just fly like a jackass?

I am going to assume you're in DC for convenience. Take the Cardinal to Chicago and then take the Empire Builder to Seattle. That should be about 3 days

[wyrmfedgrave]

Pics:

1. Photo of Nathaniel Ames, the most probable writer of "Symzonia" - at least, according to a computerized literary comparison program.

2 & 3. Covers for reissues of this odd sea adventure, Lost Race & utopian novel.

4. Back cover of 1 of the "Symzonia" reissues.

5. Cross section of this Hollow Earth. This chart is half of Pic # 6, which explains certain particulars on the cross section.

6. The other half of Pic # 5. It notes certain places on the cross section. Even, in 'fact', the angles of light - from the Sun & Moon - that light up this Inner Earth.

1906: The Earth (is) Not Hollow.

Intro: Just 2 years after J.C. Symmes started lecturing upon a Hollow Earth, "Symzonia, A Voyage of Discovery" was printed in 1820. It was supposed to be written by its hero, one Captain Adam Seaborn.

Its true author, however, is still a bit of a mystery. Through a meticulous computerized literary comparison, its most probable writer was found - one Nathaniel Ames.

However, several other authors (like Johnathan Seymour & J.C. Symmes himself) are still in the 'running'...

Author: Nathaniel Ames was the "black sheep" of his prominent family. (His dad turned down the presidency of Harvard.)

Ames said he was too wild for any college. So, he spurned family & fortune to become "Black Bill", a common sailor!

After 12 years at sea, he settled in Providence, R.I. - as a 'mere' merchant & author of 3 books of memoirs - with sketches...

Plot Wise: Adam builds the ultimate steam ship - specifically designed for polar exploration. He also gathers a suitable crew of sailors & scientists.

But, getting there isn't easy.

They face off against a treasonous crewman, nasty weather, food shortages & detailed bouts of sea charting, solar positioning & normal life aboard such a ship.

After visiting several run of the mill islands, they steam right thru the South Pole & into Symzonia.

In this internal continent, they find a # of subterranean animals & people. And, an exchange in cultural satire vs utopian ideals follows.

Adam represents a warlike, greedy & vice-ridden external world. Yet, the wise & peaceful Symzonians educate the Captain on their society.

Their social structure is basically, an extreme form of Marxism!!

Sadly, this is when racism rears its ugly head. These 'perfect' beings are all "alabaster skinned."

But, the external world bears various 'shades' of 'swarthiness!' The Inuit, for example, are sinful outcasts ejected into the icy Northern wastes.

The further you get from this interior world, the darker a person's skin - & the worse their 'habits' get...

Surprisingly, Adam advocates for the abolition of slavery.

Criticism: Some readers found this novel to be a long, boring comparison of a corrupt society vs an utopian one.

Others say this story engages in social satire. Or, that the book is just a silly parody.

Even that it's penned by a true believer is in question. The earnest silliness makes it hard to tell...

The best parts mix fear with the marvels of Symzonia. Such as the "portents of doom":

1. The compass spinning wildly as they pass the Pole.

2. A shipwreck of alien design.

3. An unknown mammoth beast.

4. The Symzonian's airships...

Anyway, Adam soon becomes involved in the Symzonian 'problem' with the Lovecraftian sounding Gnophkehs...

Legacy: It's said that "Symzonia" inspired Edgar Allen Poe to write 2 stories:

1. "Message in a Bottle" &

2. "Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym."

The last of which, in turn, inspired Lovecraft to write "At the Mountains of Madness."

"Symzonia" was reissued around 1979.

Then, Seattle KRAB radio station aired this book's only known adaptation - an 8 part, 4 hour series.

Plus, the New England Quarterly was the 1st to posit Ames as the possible author of "Symzonia."

Finally, the book sank back into literal obscurity. Ames, just like his fictional Captain Adam, died poor & forgotten.