#sol messiah

[beatsforbrothels]

Sol Messiah - Limitless (ft. Evidence)

[kickmag]

New Visuals from Sa-Roc: Watch Talk To Me Nice Video Prior to Tour Kickoff

Sa-Roc releases the video for "Talk To Me Nice" ahead of her August tour. The emcee's longtime partner Sol Messiah produced the unexpected single which is the first from her forthcoming album. She relentlessly delivers verse after verse explaining her fierce individualism in the face of a conformist music industry.  The track is a personal manifesto and an etiquette warning for other rappers who may want to engage with her. She flows with her usual lyrical savvy over Messiah's soundscape of moody bass and radio static. David Maxwell directed the clip that has appearances from dancer Storyboard P and members of the Art Comes First collective. The Talk To Me Nice tour kicks off on August 4th in Washington, D.C. Sa-Roc has also launched her Talk To Me Nice merchandise. Tickets for the tour are available now.

[almahiphop]

Sol Messiah - Limitless feat. Evidence

Ernest Franklin aka Sol Messiah, Atlanta, Georgia – Limitless sencillo que salió al mercado el 30 de agosto y hace parte de su ultima producción GOD CMPLX álbum que se estreno el 30 de septiembre, este disco es su debut bajo el sello discográfico Rhymesayers Entertainment. Su producción viene acompañada de un gran exponente de la cultura, Evidence ganador del premio Grammy.

[coloradomcpoeticslave]

A Lifetime of Work goes into Sol Messiah's "God CMPLX" debut album

A Lifetime of Work goes into Sol Messiah’s “God CMPLX” debut album

By Daniel Paiz Your first album covers all of your life up until the project is finished. That rings true here as a lifetime of work goes into Sol Messiah’s “God CLMPX” debut album. September 30th is when the masses can hear this 17-track collection of beats and rhymes; the artists featured on this project are perfectly handpicked. What makes Sol Messiah stand out as far as production is…

[squares-begone]

Hm…?

You look like me, but…

I don’t think you are a Niko.

Whats your name?

Oh, hello!

My name is Sol.

I take it you've met yourself before?

[something-in-the-seas]

Really happy I finally got Calliope and Sol’s designs down. He needed the purple cape/cloak and the Roman legionary armor was just not doing it for Calliope. 

Love the color theming for Kratos’ family: Kratos is red, Atreus/Faye are mostly yellow, Freya is pink/brown, Angrboda is green, and Mimir is... gold? Calliope being blue just fits. 

[ausetkmt]

Sa-Roc "Melanin Drip" Freestyle Produced by: Sol Messiah Video: Tommy Nova

Watch me get settled and sonically acclimated. A lil rusty, but my vocals untarnished, cuts all D rated. Rap Messiah out the muck and mire, emerged immaculate with bars that’s blacker than that charcoal that’s powdered and activated. This is God talk. 

Vedas in my vernacular, Surah’s in all of my subtexts, psalms in every pentameter. I’m bout to rule every foot and square inch of the planet’s surrounding perimeter. 2 many Ls and 2 many Ws equated to my present stamina. And I ain’t a quitter. Ain’t your babe, I’m not your sweetie, or your HUN, I’m more like Attila. Might go savage on these samples, leaving them hollow-hand me the filler. Struck a nerve with Forever, never thought that speaking freely could be worth a milli. When the last time a rapper made the people feel a pen(Philippine) homie? Call me Manila. Melanin drip. Coming for everything edible-helluva trip. Every remark I spit designed to end the patriarchy-that’s Oedipal shit. I’m part regal, halfway lethal. Queen Yaa Asantewaa, battling Brits. That’s why my English broken, Ghanaian gold engulfs my mandible’s tips. Wait-I notice you may be a bit confused. My lyric mastery like a can of gasoline after they done lit the fuse. I’m triple Blackness in a post apocalyptic mood. Amassing the survivors into a rather highly gifted brood. I’m unpredictable on these written admissions, I’ll either have rivals bow out or bow their heads in contrition. I’m a visionary, pineal tilted toward the constellations. My holy lyrics got a following like God’s religions. No validation needed. My flow off the meter. I go off on rap tirades and park my name behind Hip Hop’s elite. It’s the only evidence that I need to prove I’m my way. Cuz I hear the people shouting Roc and Ali Bumaye.

[antianakin]

I found this on Tumblr and wanted to get your thoughts on it. So, that quote was from The Acolyte that the head witch lady says to Sol, and I knew that some would reference Anakin and Order 66 because of that line. But, I wasn't expecting them to mention that scene with Qui-Gonn.

Also, I don't know why some would compare Qui-Gonn to Sol cause Sol was overly emotional. He was impulsive, insistant on Osha to be his padawan, and wasn't composed. Qui-Gonn was more put together, and he spoke with reason even when he was denied by the council. I just can't wrap my head around this. The jedi aren't supposed to be emotionless. They just can't let their emotions mess with their judgment, right? So, why make Sol like this?

I have no idea what the "choice" thing is about lol, I'm not sure I want to know given everything I already know about this show.

I feel like I've made my thoughts about Acolyte fairly clear at this point. It's not shocking that there's a direct reference to Order 66 that condemns the Jedi and blames them for their own genocide. Headland has made herself EXTREMELY clear in basically every interview I've seen of hers where she discusses the Jedi and her ultimate thesis about them in this story. This is why I boycotted it and will never try to watch it even after it ends. Nothing in this show is meant for fans like me because I am not going to find it compelling or interesting or enjoyable to watch. I'm willing to bet every single person who loves Acolyte and thinks it's incredible probably hated the Obi-Wan Kenobi show (a show that was intentionally trying to feel like the Prequels and refuses to place the blame on the Jedi instead of Anakin himself), so whatever. I got mine.

As for Sol and Qui-Gon, they're not basing him on CANON Qui-Gon, they're basing him on FANON Qui-Gon. They obviously think that it's canon Qui-Gon, but it's not. Sol is based on Filoni's Qui-Gon, the Enlightened One, the man who was the embodiment of What a Jedi Should Be specifically because he "defied the Council" and was labeled a "maverick" as a result. People have taken the fact that Qui-Gon questions the Council somewhat regularly and decided this means that Qui-Gon like... understood what being a Jedi meant BETTER than the rest of the Council and that the Council's version of being a Jedi involves suppressing/repressing your emotions, so therefore Qui-Gon doesn't do that.

Some of this is also based on the fact that Qui-Gon believes Anakin was the Chosen One and the Council seems a little skeptical about that, but Qui-Gon is obviously right about this and so the assumption is that Qui-Gon is more connected to the Force or more clued in to its will than the rest of the Council.

This takes the whole "the point of the Prequels is that the Jedi were corrupt" interpretation and the conflict seen between Qui-Gon and the Council and makes some assumptions about Qui-Gon's character as a result. If the Jedi Council represents everything WRONG with the Jedi in this era, and the Council is in opposition to Qui-Gon, then naturally Qui-Gon must be everything RIGHT with the Jedi.

So when you take all of this together, despite the fact that Qui-Gon in TPM is actually pretty reserved himself, it leads to this interpretation of Qui-Gon as someone who just trusts his emotions above everything else and feels them more than any other Jedi does, which leads us to Sol, who is more visibly emotional. Since I haven't watched the show, I can't speak very well to how he's intended to come across, whether those emotions are meant to make us believe he's more enlightened than anybody else or not. I do know that the actor himself has said he explicitly based his character on Qui-Gon, so take from that what you will I guess.

Headland's views on the Jedi would impact her views on the Council as well, and a LOT of Jedi critical fans tend to laud Qui-Gon as some kind of enlightened messiah, so it doesn't shock me that she views Qui-Gon this way herself and made a character in her show that sort-of emulates her interpretation of Qui-Gon. Qui-Gon is VERY important for fans who interpret the Prequels as being about the Jedi's failure, so since Headland is writing a story about the beginning of the Jedi's downfall, it makes sense that she'd include a character based on someone she interprets as the last remnant of "what the Jedi should've been."

[agnoscoveteris-vestigiaflammae]

Okay this might mean nothing but…get your red string ready cause this is my Doctor Who S14/S1 theory masterpost

*Disclaimer in case of inaccuracies, I started writing this before Dot and Bubble was released and then I got busy and more things happened and now it's release day for The Legend of Ruby Sunday (which won’t be available to watch in my country until this evening) and I didn’t want it to go to waste so I finished it lol okay thanks* 

I’ve been thinking a lot about @waywardwes9 ’s theory regarding Ruby Sunday and other character names in this series of Doctor Who. So we’ve had Ruby SUNDAY, MUNDI (Monday) Flynn in episode three, and MARTI (Mardi/Martes/Tuesday/etc) Bridges in episode four, with dialogue bringing attention to the uniqueness/significance of each of their names. So when the casting list was released for episode five, ‘Dot and Bubble’, I couldn’t help but notice…Cooper Mercy, a slightly adjusted form of the words Mercury, or Mercredi (fr)/Miércoles (sp)/Mercoledì (it)/dydd Mercher (welsh)/etc. all of which means Wednesday!! So up until episode six, ‘Rogue’, this theory appeared to be holding up. It then became difficult to speculate further as we had little to no character backgrounds for these individuals and the cast lists for the remaining episodes are still incomplete but twice is a coincidence, four times is a pattern. 

Now we know that in the ancient Greco-Roman tradition, the days of the week were named after the sun, moon and planets which were in turn named after certain gods:

Monday - Moon - Selene/Luna

Tuesday - Mars - Ares/Mars

Wednesday - Mercury - Hermes/Mercurius

Thursday - Jupiter - Zeus/Jove

Friday - Venus - Aphrodite/Venus

Saturday - Saturn - Cronus/Saturnus

Sunday - Sun - Helios/Sol

Because of her surname, Ruby Sunday would be aligned with the Roman God ‘Sol Invictus’, who was considered the most supreme or important god for several decades of the mid to late Roman empire. So I decided to do a little research into this deity and found out that his feast day and the main festival dedicated to him, ‘Dies Natalis Solis Invicti’, occurred every year on December 25th… The day on which at the stroke of midnight, baby Ruby was discovered in a snowy churchyard, after being abandoned by her mysterious mother. This could just be a coincidence but it’s interesting nonetheless as it adds to the themes and theories regarding the “Pantheon of Discord” which includes godlike figures such as The Toymaker and Maestro. Could this suggest that Ruby is secretly a member of the Pantheon of gods? Or maybe she was created to be a pawn, a messiah-like figure, in their masterplan? Or maybe she’s a part of an antithetical pantheon of ‘good’ gods?

So returning to the characters named after weekdays, we may have expected a character with some variation of Thursday/Jeudi/Giovedì/dydd Iau/etc. as their name to appear in Rogue but unfortunately, there appeared to be nothing at all that would correlate to this theory… until people began to notice that the ring which Rogue uses to propose to The Doctor is emblazoned with The Caduceus, the staff of Hermes… also known as Mercurius or Mercury. 

It seems that our story has become stuck on Wednesday instead of continuing with the remaining weekdays, but why? Why could Wednesday or Mercury be significant?  Well gang, guess what the god Mercury is known as…

THIS IS HOW THE TRICKSTER TRUTHERS CAN STILL WIN !! Additionally, Rogue’s name originates from the DnD archetype, ‘Rogue’, who is regarded as ‘the trickster’. Very Inch Arresting. but we’ll return to the Trickster as ‘The One Who Waits’ theories a little later on.

The theory regarding The Caduceus can also play into the theory about Rogue possibly being an incarnation of The Master, or signalling the return of The Master. The Caduceus symbol, which can represent travel, thievery and mischief (which aligns with characteristics of The Rogue, The Trickster and The Master) is commonly mistaken or used in place of The Rod of Asclepius, which is used by healthcare organisations as it represents healing, care and the duties of doctors (which obviously aligns with The Doctor). 

These antithetical yet similar symbols could easily represent the Doctor and The Master and their shared past and turbulent relationship, or alternatively could represent the theme that things that appear too good to be true usually are, but who knows.

Now if you’ve made it this far, stay with me for this part because we’re about to get even more delulu, but I promise we’ll come back around into more plausible theory territory very soon. 

So with all this attention being drawn to character names, I decided to do some further research into the names of the characters named after days of the week and found something interesting. In the case of Mundi Flynn, we can presume Mundi is intended to mean Monday but Flynn actually means…Red or ruddy/reddish, which would make her name Monday Red… or Red Monday… just like Ruby Sunday. This got me extremely excited…until…I couldn’t find any connections to the colour red within Marti’s surname ‘Bridges’. However… Marti is named after Mars, which is known as… The Red Planet! Which would still make her first name Red Tuesday, or even Ruby Tuesday just like the famous song by the Rolling Stones. Now That is a stretch but we persist nonetheless by going even deeper into delusional valley with Dot and Bubble’s character: Cooper Mercy, Cooper…an uncommon name that is very close to the word ‘Copper’.. another shade of red, making her Wednesday Red/Ruby Wednesday. Also worthy to note that the character Cooper had red hair, which was a purposeful choice as it is not the actor’s natural hair colour. Okay, last one… while there doesn’t appear to be any weekday names mentioned in Rogue, (as we seem to be stuck on Wednesday) I couldn’t help but notice that ‘Rogue’ is an anagram of Rouge… the french word for red. Listen, either this all actually connects or RTD has quite literally been sprinkling RED herrings throughout the narrative. So what could this mean? Personally, this kind of repetitive naming convention reminds me of a dream-like logic or storytelling convention centred around Ruby,  which could play into everyone’s TV show/fairytale/dream theories (which are too expansive to get into and I don’t have much to add).

*I’ve heard that the Identity of Susan Twist has been revealed in today’s episode but thankfully I haven’t seen any spoilers yet so just ignore this if it’s completely off the wall lol*

However, this could also link to the idea of Susan Twist as a show director or writer, making cameos throughout her own work. In this light, she could be considered The Storyteller… TS… but if you physically twist the initials around…ST… Susan Twist.  

Then, there is of course the theory that Susan Twist is a physical manifestation of the Tardis. Particularly because in The Legend of Ruby Sunday she has been listed as Susan Triad, S.Triad, an anagram of Tardis. Could it be that the tardis is broken down or malfunctioning and is creating these scenarios to keep itself, the Doctor and Ruby entertained? I guess I’ll find out tonight hehe.

Okay getting back to The Trickster theory. By now most people have probably seen other posts that show that Ruby’s musical theme is almost identical to The Trickster’s theme from SJA, that the Doctor invoking a superstition at the edge of the universe could have brought back the Trickster,  that RTD could be using Ruby as a replacement for Sky from SJA, the baby that Sarah Jane discovered abandoned on her doorstep and adopted, who was originally supposed to be revealed as a child of the Trickster and a trap for Sarah Jane, and as well ofc that the hooded figure that drops baby Ruby off obviously resembles The Trickster. 

But another thing I can’t stop thinking about is the theme of the fragility of memory and existence that has been popping up throughout this series, particularly in the first few episodes, and how this correlates to the powers of The Trickster. In Space Babies, we see how the doctor’s memories of the night of Ruby’s birth are manipulated in real time to show him something totally different. In 73 Yards, we see how the Doctor is zapped out of existence, and then brought back through a future-past paradox. In several episodes we see the blurring of reality, the past and fiction with events such as the snow from Ruby Road appearing in places where present day Ruby is. We see on two occasions how history is changed by the simplest of actions such as stepping on a butterfly or a fairy circle. And of course in 73 Yards we hear Kate’s cryptic “This timeline is suspended along your event” line. All of these elements appear to correspond with the Trickster’s powers of time and memory manipulation as demonstrated in SJA, to the point that I’m actually gonna be disappointed if all this build up doesn’t result in an appearance from everyone’s fav SJA villain lol. 

Another thing to consider is The Doctor’s continuous references to the sea constantly getting closer to the land such as the “Everywhere is a beach eventually.” line from episode three and the “The war between the land and the sea” comment in episode four, the latter of which could of course just be a nod to the forthcoming dw spin-off series of the same name… or… could in fact be a reference to ‘the one who waits’. The last time the Trickster was defeated he was locked up in a box and thrown into the ocean, where he could be waiting patiently to return to the shore, to claim what he wants. Could this also be linked to Mrs FLOOD, whose water-related name may suggest that she is the one who waits for the oncoming flood. Who knows ! I’m just throwing things at the red string board and hoping something sticks. 

Okay that’s all for my crazy wacky wild bananas bonkers theories today. Can’t wait to see how many of these are disproven in approximately one hour lmaoooo. If you made it this far, I commend ur patience <3

[shepherds-of-haven]

“I always forget Halek is pretty strong physically. To me he's always like gumby or something strength wise lol”

How would Halek and the others react to hearing MC say this?

Blade wouldn't comment on it out loud, but inwardly he'd be like 'what a tactical error. he's sol of the reach for a reason--a title which must be earned and defended through combat. it'd be foolish to underestimate him'

Trouble: "lol oh yeah, I guess I think the same! I never even realized that lmao 🤣"

Tallys: she's seen Halek in berserker mode so she'd definitely disagree with MC, she never forgets how strong he actually is lol

Shery: she'd try to politely change MC's mind, like "oh, really? i tend to think he's quite strong, the other day he helped me carry five boxes and he did it all by himself..." (her gauge of the shepherds' strength is quite innocent because she rarely sees them in combat lol)

Riel: "hm. yes, but i suspect he does that on purpose to avoid drawing attention to himself. it's probably rooted in his resentment towards his position as a prophesied messiah" (takes all the fun and humor out of a casual comment)

Chase: "yeah, it's like, is he a giant or a beanpole? i think it depends on what he's standing next to. ......hey, when i'm standing next to him, do i look short or normal-sized or tall. be honest"

Red: (was too distracted thinking about where the word 'gumby' came from and why everyone seems to know what it is to take heed of the comment)

Ayla: "lol yeah it's because he exudes the pathetic energy of a wet cat"

Briony: "whattttt no way, to me it's the opposite, it's like his big giant strong arms could just pick us all up and keep us safe forever! 🥺"

Lavinet: "i could see it, darling. he's so, ahem, work-adverse that he almost seems boneless at times. sometimes i'm surprised he doesn't melt into a puddle on the floor"

Halek: he'd be mildly offended by this... he's plenty strong in his opinion lol...! but he probably wouldn't dwell on it enough to do more than make a sarcastic retort, like "gee, thanks..."

[os-mapmaker]

Alright, I should make a list of all the interviews I have to give.

=================================

List of Interviews:

@nyat-a-cat & related blogs:

Kat

Niko

Alula

Lamplighter

Kip

The Kerfuś Machine

Samsun

@zeralight-asks & related blogs:

The Writer

Niko

The World Machine

Sol *

Renata *

@ask-oneshot-messiah:

Niko

@n1ko-whoisdefinatelynotacat & related blogs:

Niko

Rizu

[Redacted]

Asa

Sage

The World Machine

@silverpoints-terminal & related blogs:

Kip

Prototype

Maize (separate timeline)

@jaye-of-the-glen:

Jaye & Rowie

@world-machine-os & related blogs:

Twilight

Silver

@ask-the-world-machine:

The World Machine

@ask-entity-of-the-tower & related blogs:

The World Machine

Cedric

Rue

Player

@alulaisthebest:

Calamus

Alula

@ask-phosphor-alula:

Calamus

Alula

@freeware-entity & related blogs (separate worlds of same timeline?)

Freeware

Mason (!)

Watcher (!)

Rue

@ask-the-author-oneshot:

The Author

@ask-player-oneshot:

Player

@ask-oneshot & related blogs:

The World Machine

Player

@ask-onelife-au:

Niko

Kip

⠀

Waiting for more development:

@oneshotcafe:

N

Ling

@askprophetbot:

Prophetbot

Silver

Calamus

Goth Alula

Magpie

@askwalmartniko:

Niko

@flower--crown & related blogs:

Flower

Aria

Paige

Ellie

Sunny

@guilty-shot-au:

Niko

Prophetbot

Silver

Prototype

Motorbot

Calamus

Alula

=================================

If your timeline is not listed and you would like your timeline’s residents be interviewed for a bio, reblog this post with your OneShot RP blog and I will add it.

You can find completed interviews under the tag #os bio interview.

I look forward to seeing you all for your interviews.

(Oh god what have I gotten myself into…)

[alien-girl-21]

I was bored and started thinking about shit that happened when I was in highschool, and one thing lead to another and so this happened

Joker out as things guys in my highschool did (+ bonus käärijä)

(yes, these all happened)

• Called himself the "math messiah" —Jan

• Starting a human pyramid on the back of the class just because —Bojan

• Playing with tazers like light sabers —Bojan and Jure

• Making a tunnel of people and having one person run through it while everyone else threw their backpacks at them —they all organized it

• Play fighting a little too hard and breaking a window —Jance

• Throwing someone in the small, mounted cabinet in the classroom to see what was inside, and thus, breaking it —bokris

• Playing charlie charlie in the school lab table —Bojan and nace

• Directly staring at a chemical reaction we were told not to look at because it might blind us —Jure

• Calling that same chemical reaction the 'expecto patronus' spell —Nace

• Improving a song about the national independence because they forgot to make an actual presentation about it and had just brought a guitar with them —(bo)jan²

• Organized freestyle rap battles in the middle of class (brought a speaker to listen to the beats better) —Bojan

• Organized wrestling matches in the free periods —Bojan

• Participated in said wrestling matches —everyone else

• Hit the vape the second the teacher entered the classroom and coughed up all the smoke in shock, making the teacher think there was a fire —Kris

• Being the goalie for a football match while blindfolded (no one else was) —Jure

• Performing a rock cover of the school anthem at 8 in the morning in a school assembly —do I even need to explain?

• Tripping on the field and creating a domino effect that made like 30 people fall as well —Kris

• The second a fight broke out in the gymnasium (there really wasn't a fight), he picked up his gf bridal style and sprinted out the gymnasium screaming "WE'RE NOT DYING TODAY BABE" —Nace (the gf is jan)

• Ran off a protest we were doing to buy empanadas —bokris

• Answered the question "how do you write sol?" With "s-o-l" in guitar class —Kris

• Got so attatched to the egg baby project thing that when a football crushed it he actually cried a bit —Bojan

• Somehow made an oil paint concoction that never dried in the almost two months we were painting with oil paints —Jure

• Sprinted out of class to go play pokemon go at the school entrance —Nace

• Almost made the woodwork class explode because of faulty wiring they made —Bojan, Jan, and Jure

• Used to exchange school jackets because they missed each other (they swore they just didn't look at which jacket belonged to who) —jance

• His flirting technique was to say that he was the same zodiac sign as the girl he liked even if he wasn't —Bojan

• Was trying to do the splits and a primary school kid ran up to him and kicked him in the balls —Jan

• During a very important test (like very fucking important) tried to cheat in the biology section by searching what a cell was on google, just for the text-to-speech to start reading the definition in max volume —Bojan

• Accidentally used baking powder instead of flour when baking cookies in cooking class —Bojan, Jan, and Nace

• Went off to every table in the cafeteria and stole every hot sauce to add more to his fried chicken because 'it wasn't spicy enough' (more of the same hot sauce did not make it more spicy) —Jan

• Lost 300$ worth of food because the same cafeteria closed down the day after he put money into his account —Nace

• Brought a gas mask to class when there was a cold outbreak in the school —Bojan (still got sick)

• Got the wifi password of the art supply store near the school and used it to play minecraft on his phone —Jan

• Used to bring USBs with call of duty on them, installed them on every computer in the computer lab and played with his friends in class —Bojan

• Smuggled a toaster and blender into the school, got bread, cheese, ham, strawberries and milk delieverd to the school and made sandwiches and smoothies for the class (you had to pay though) —Jure and Kris

• Daily breakfast would consist of: a bottle of the same brand of cheap energy drink bought in the kiosk for like 2 months straight —Bojan

• Played a gay character in a play and was so good at it that teachers had a sit down with him to ask him if he was actually gay —Bojan

• Brought alcohol to an alcohol-free party organized by the school, said to not show anyone just to show everyone the bottle of alcohol —Jan

• Actually did the 'this shot's for you, babe' on a basketball game (his final pe test) and failed it —Bojan

• Used to ask girls to pluck his eyebrows weekly in the middle of class because he wanted them to look good —Kris

(+ bonus jere bc i just had to)

• Confidently saying the capital of Colombia is Ecuador in the oral geography test —Jere

• Tried to hide a basketball under his shirt (basketballs were banned) and when questioned about the bulge in his shirt, replied with "I'm pregnant" —Jere

• At a patty organized by the parents of pur class, got drunk, went to sleep on the floor and ended up being used as a bench by like 3 girls —Jere

[astoldbychae]

Messiah "Dino" Villareal (Adult, 30-somethingish Grown Ass Man)

Yup, you most certainly read that correctly...Meet Jacques Villareal's eldest son. During one of Jacques' business ventures in Selvadorada 30-something years ago, he met a Selvadoradian young woman by the name of Maríelle. She was beautiful, intelligent, witty, charismatic, and she didn't shy away from his life of crime; a combination that made Jacques weak in the knees. Their connection was magnetic. Although he was currently married to his first wife, things were moving fast between the two & he couldn't let Marielle slip away. She began to assist Jacques as a runner for his "business"...until she became pregnant with Dino.

Not wanting to be apart from one another, Jacques moved his secret family back to Windenburg, literally 15 minutes away from the house he shared with his first wife. Enrolling Dino in the most prestigious private daycare. Everything was going great...until it was time for Dino to enroll in Preschool, Maríelle had found out about Jacques' marriage and arguments ensued. After failing to convince him to leave his wife, she broke the golden rule (don't get high off your own supply)...and became addicted to the powder. Honestly, she was using here-and-there beforehand but nothing too heavily, it worsened when she couldn't convince him to leave his wife.

At that point life took a turn for the worse. Jacques disowned them and left Maríelle to raise their child on her own. Addiction and all. Growing up Dino was a problem child, he stayed in trouble. Which essentially led to him getting involved with the wrong crowd & landed him in prison at the age of 19. After serving his [redacted] year sentence, he was released on good behavior. After his release he moved to Del Sol Valley and attempted to settle down with his on-again-off-again girlfriend (Chana) and they had a daughter together. Things were looking up for these two, he managed to open a few clubs and even proposed to his girl. She said yes! They were engaged for 6 months...until she broke off the engagement. She found out that he fathered another child with Prue (one of the girls at his club)...Honey, I guess the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree...

However, one thing that he gets right is being an active/present father. He has two daughters; Amiri (child) and Carina (infant) and two Rottie's (Dinero and Mija). Although he's got a lot on his plate, He's also got his eye on a special someone at the club...I- 😑

Born/Raised: Selvadorada/Windenburg

Aspiration: Villainous Valentine

Ambition(s): Own a Club or Lounge in every major city across Simerica

Traits: Erratic, Romantic, Jealous

Lifestyle(s) in progress: Adrenaline Seeker

Degrees: Graduated from the School of Hard Knocks (IYKYK)

Occupation: Strip Club Owner (The Blue Velvet in Willow Creek, Onyx Del Sol Valley), Co-Owner of Bella's Lounge in Windenburg, Also currently in the process of opening a dispensary in Evergreen Harbor (with his brotha-from-anotha-motha, Knox Greenburg).

If you're wondering, Dino hasn't had contact with his father since he was about 4 (maybe 5ish) and he hasn't met any of Jacques' other children (since they weren't born until years after he was born). Dino is like 6 years older than Hugo, since Hugo's a Young Adult. As for his mother, unfortunately, she passed away while he was in prison. He makes sure to find his way back to Windenburg every year on Mother's Day and her Birthday, just to put fresh flowers on her grave.

📌 consider him a minorish character in angel's interlude

[broken-clover]

Hello Sinbed Messiah, i was curious as to what you think Sol’s reaction would be to the ship

Sorry to bother idk if this is the type of ask you’re accepting if not uh my bad

uhhh woah. So heckuva surprise to find in my box! Not unwelcome though (although I do have a bit of a thing about being put on a pedestal, I don't want people to think of me in that kind of way)

That is something I've been meaning to write for at some point, just haven't gotten around to. Sol in particular offers an interesting sentiment in how I think he wouldn't be quite sure how much to get involved. Obviously he's not Sin's father, he's a fatherly figure that helped raise him, but does that automatically give him the right to intervene in Sin's personal business that's not posing any kind of real issue. Would getting involved step on Ky's toes, or is it stupid of him to assume Ky would just immediately take over all the paternal parenting duties? Does he have an obligation to try and be some kind of role model? He's not sure how to feel about Bedman in general, the kid can swear up and down he's changed and has good intentions, but Sin's always been an optimist, is he giving the guy too much leeway where Sol needs to step in and set boundaries? And even all that is completely divorced from the general sense of 'how the fuck do you even raise a kid' since Sol doesn't really know where to be hands-on or hands-off, and with the weird accelerated Gear maturing it throws all the typical levels of childhood development out the window so even if he tried looking up parenting books they wouldn't be much use.

Sol wants Sin to be happy, and if that involves a partner, then hypothetically he has no issues with that. But in practice, his sense of 'getting involved' usually just ends up being standing in the corner with a weirdly intense and offputting aura because he doesn't know what the hell to do in this situation.

[masonhawth0rne]

What I read in March

Hoo boy, it's taken me a while to get around to this again, huh? I want to say March was a busy month, but it's too much of a blur for me to remember what was going on. I feel like I was climbing a lot (I've taken up rock climbing, have I mentioned?) but otherwise, I have no clue where March went.

Anyways, I got some good reading done!

Edge of Infinity, ed. Jonathan Strahan ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Analysis & Critique: How to Engage and Write about Anything, Dorsey Armstrong ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Will of the Many, James Islington ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

And Put Away Childish Things, Adrian Tchaikovsky ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Gold Coast, Kim Stanley Robinson ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of the Year Vol 11, ed Jonathan Strahan ⭐️⭐️⭐️

New Rules & Guidelines From HR for Working with Humans (ss), Derin Edala ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Angel (ss), Derin Edala ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Martian: Lost Sols (ss), Andy Weir ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Forever Peace, Joe Haldeman ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Merciless Waters, Rae Knowles ⭐️⭐️

Dune Messiah, Frank Herbert ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Cursed Heart, Derin Edala⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Lair of the White Worm, Bram Stoker ⭐️

Pacific Edge, Kim Stanley Robinson ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Phytophthora Nosferatu (ss), J Corvine ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Minty Fresh, J Corvine⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Labyrinth of Dreams, Derin Edala ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Angels Before Man, Rafael Nicolás⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Lure, Tim McGregor ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Fascination, Essie Fox ❌❌❌

There were a couple of surprises for me this month, some were nice surprises, and some were...somewhat less than nice surprices. It's good, gotta have some surprises to keep you nimble.

The Will of the Many by James Islington was the first surprise, I had thought I'd like it well enough, the concept seemed interesting, and it turns out that it was actually fantastic. A smooth take on the dystopic genre, with a great attention to detail, and handling of social forces on the characters. The scifi elements might have come off as a bit silly if they'd been handled less skillfully, but over the course of the novel the real horror of the hierarchy becomes ever more apparent. Also it ends on a killer cliffhanger--where is the sequel??

A slight disappointment was that The Gold Coast and Pacific Edge, books two and three of Kim Stanley Robinson's The Three Californias Trilogy were...just not quite as good as the rest of his work that I've read. I found that TGC focussed too much on the 'futuristic party boy hedonist' archetype that I find stultifying in fiction, and while the surrounding worldbuilding was interesting I just could not stand any of the characters.

PE on the other hand was kind of...boring? Now don't get me wrong, I love boring books, but it was boring in the sense that I was reading it feeling like 'ok now when's the story going to happen?' there are only so many softball games which are metaphors for small town politics and romantic relationships that I can sit through. The other problem with PE, I think, is that it is aggressively middle of the road. In the other California novels, the protagonists have Forces to Push Against, but PE is set in a kind of idyllic postcapitalist cooperative, where small town politics is the biggest thing going on and the main conflict of the book can be solved with a strongly worded awareness campaign. Like I GET what was being done, but I also feel like this one could have been a third as long as it was and carried the same weight, but perhaps with fewer softball games.

Dune: Messiah was a nice surprise, I only read Dune last year, and I really enjoyed it, but I've only ever heard that the series goes downhill after the first one. Absolutely not! I'm really looking forward to reading the rest of Frank Herbert's Dune books!

The two real clunkers this month were The Lair of the White Worm by Bram Stoker, and The Fascination by Essie Fox. Both for similar reasons, actually. There was a whole lot of racism going on, in ways that were, y'know, disappointing but not surprising from a guy writing shock novels a hundred-and-something years ago, but really pretty upsetting from a novel that was published in 2023 and has lots of very positive reviews.

Having read several Stoker books now, I found that there was little of the sort of charm that I've come to expect from his writing. The characters were kind of flat and unpleasant, and the antagonists were evil for the sake of being evil. I'm actually surprised that this is one of his later works, because it reads as so much less sophisticated than the other things I've read.

The Fascination was the gift that kept on giving, if the kinds of gift you like are things like racism, ableism, and biphobia which seem bad at first, and then keep doubling down on themselves. The book also has an air of smug superiority, presenting sequence after sequence of exploitation dreck and then turning smirkingly to the reader like 'see I bet you assumed [something racist, ableist, biphobic, etc]'. The end of the novel hinges on a big reveal, which is that...one of the focalising characters has a disability. Which should, apparently, reframe how we've understood the character from the beginning, and which should shock us out of our assumptions that people with that disability couldn't be main characters. Or something.

I think it takes a lot of work to write something that makes the disability representation in Game of Thrones feel subtle and nuanced.

There was so much wrong with The Fascination that I could probably spend another several paragraphs listing them, but to be honest reading the book was unpleasant enough, I don't really feel like spending my evening reliving all that. My final criticism is that the book is insufferably twee and self satisfied. There was not one sentence that made me think that it was worthwhile to read.

To end on a positive note, all of the indie books and stories that I read were delightful! I've included links to most of them above, and it's really refreshing to read stuff that is smart, well written, and which actually has something interesting to say, even if that something is 'hey wouldn't it be super fucked up if there was a vampire in your flower bed?'

Anyways, that's enough for this month!

[hey wait, psst, did you know, I've got a novelette? It's available now: https://books2read.com/u/3kOvKn ]

Stars awarded at my whim

ss=short story

[something-in-the-seas]

I don’t think Jesus should appear in the series because scenarios where he forgives Kratos and takes away his nightmares/the ashes off of him are really lame. Also, it’d be a shit show with evangelicals.

But, the rise of monotheism as a whole has the potential for a lot of good story telling. If we get Rome, I feel like they’re gonna have to mention Rome’s turn to Christianity and attempts at monotheism with Sol Invictus. I mean, Jesus was literally drawn as Helios/Sol Invictus and December 25th was Sol Invictus’ day. The dark messiah allegory is there.

So, like, Christianity should be a thing in a Rome storyline, but not in a “Jesus showed up and then solved everything”. But, in a “Jesus is already dead and Christianity is rapidly growing in Rome by the time the story starts, but so is Sol Invictus’ prominence.” Because Kratos or Zeus/Jupiter seeing this mosaic of Jesus would make them rag doll like Oblivion NPCs: