#you could be a nameless extra of unknown origin

[starpros-sunshine]

I'm still thinking about these roses. From what I could gather blue rose symbolism is something like the mysterious or unattainable and yellow rose symbolism is something for friendship or passion or love at first sight or eternal love and white roses symblise loyalty apparently and. if they really took the symbolism of the roses into consideration and didn't just put them like that because it fits the colours of the fine uniform and Eichis hair and eyes that would make this card so much better. cause. yanno. EP:Link. Wataei.

[thecoffeelorian]

The Transport On The Left, #4

Title:  The Transport On The Left

Chapter:  Four

Genre:  Drama/Mystery

Word Count:  Under 1k

Characters Included:  Crosshair, Echo, Hunter, Tech, and Wrecker.

Brief Description: "Cross is instantly drawn back into his own memories without a sound, back to a nameless, darkened room where nothing but sound and faint pinholes of light can be found. It's here that someone covers his face with one of these blankets, almost like they're allowing him the first real moment of rest he's had in what feels like months--but then, their next surprise comes."

Warnings: There will be mentions of torture/waterboarding in this chapter. Please avoid this if you know your health will be affected in any way, and thank you.

AO3: Click Here

No-Pressure Tags: @megmca @ladykagewaki @talesfrommedinastation @carlycrays @melymigo @momojedi @mysticalgalaxysalad @moonstrider9904 @slenderboo @localcryptid3 @spacemagicandlaserswords @littlefeatherr @gun-roswell @alabyte @sw-2020-1 @lukascastelan @omglisalithium @skellymom  @me-thestarwarsfan @donut1642 @thats-cacti @gray-paladin @idkwhatdoyouwannabecalled @im-not-the-me-i-use-to-be @storminormins @wendywilliamsleftlip @danger-noodles22 @ladylienda @marvel-starwarsfangirl @theosb0rnway and...pretty much anyone else who's kinda had enough of certain Troopers looking like they'd un-alive each other if Omega wasn't watching. ^^; I guess I have to do everything around here, so here's the overture to ALL these stubborn Fett boys having to learn to discuss deep topics, and NOT wait for Omega to tell them!

Special Notes: This divider was created by @djarrex , and so I give all credit to her. :)

One // Two // Three // Four // Five//

(Quick Author’s Note: This story is paying NO attention to the people behind the Twitter curtains. So...for what it’s worth, I’ll do my best to keep the explosions to a minimum, if you get my drift. ;)

Four

The next several minutes tick by in a slow crawl, for this decommission site's newest "visitor" sees no real way to respond to this latest cell in a lifelong succession of cells other than with complete silence. It's been like this for him ever since his decanting day, after all, so it's probably not so out of the ordinary to think that this little fact of life could ever change. Not when the original versions of these Hulls already turned their Deeces upon him, and so drove away any lingering dreams of home. Nevertheless, the Hulls themselves decide to play at being happy, and so force a series of half-hearted smiles onto their faces right after they wheel him inside. Crosshair pays them no mind, though, for he slowly becomes far more focused on the room around him.

Standard, Republic-made medbay; medium size; sleeps two to a room with one other patient here residing. Medbay monitor beginning to flicker repeatedly due to end of shelf life; must alert the nearest available staff. Medbay itself appears to have been cleaned and sanitized recently, though a few faint bloodstains remain visible upon the edge of this blanket, origins unknown-- "...drink?" —What...? Focused enough, even, to very nearly miss the question posed to him by the skull-faced Hull. "I, er...wanted to know if you needed something to drink?" Drinks. Sure. THEY had officially stopped giving him drinks, never mind also food and medicine, as soon as he'd woken up on that operating table. In fact, since it was nothing less than kriffing stupid to even ask him such a thing, if only for the idea that nobody else would have bothered to feed him at this point...he had zero second thoughts about ignoring it. "Okay...that's a no. Got it." In response, the ashen Hull walks past the other three Hulls to a small compartment in the wall, inside of which he finds an extra regulation blanket. He easily picks this up with one hand before returning to Crosshair's bedside, the steady whirr-thump of his footsteps sounding upon the oar. "How about this, then?" Cross is instantly drawn back into his own memories without a sound, back to a nameless, darkened room where nothing but sound and faint pinholes of light can be found. It's here that someone covers his face with one of these blankets, almost like they're allowing him the first real moment of rest he's had in what feels like months--but then, their next surprise comes. Water. Not a slow, steady dripping from a faucet in any corner, but a quick wet plume of it right upon his covered face. Direct. Harsh. Enough to seep through the fabric, into his eyes, down his nose and throat, gagging him-- —Where is the female clone?-- —Making him struggle to breathe, forcing him backwards against the headboard as he gasped for air-- "—All right, all right, I'm sorry! Hell of a time to ask!" "—Corporal, I do not believe that this method is effective--" "—Then fine, let's skip the effectiveness and get that other med droid in here--" "—AW, JUST MOVE IT!" ...And then, the tallest of the Hulls suddenly pushes his way past the others, almost knocking the Skull-face right off his feet as he goes off to grab something upon the floor before anybody else can stop him. "Here, Crossy. Think y' just dropped this." Indeed, before anyone else even has the wherewithal to respond... there's something soft--and yet sturdy--placed behind him in order to keep from banging his own head against the wall. "Wrecker, what are you--" "—HELPING." And out of all these Hulls and their stand-offish approach, it's this one who first reacted to his low state, who actually had the nerve to stop muttering and do something about it--but why...?! "Somethin' you all forgot how to do...but never mind." He doesn't get a lot of time to think this through, because before he knows it, this tallest Hull of the batch is pushing his way through the others, a growing scowl evident upon his face as he goes. " 'M going to go find Fireball. Don't comm me until 'Meg gets back." ... Ooh. Ooh. In spite of the way that neither he nor these others ever saw that one coming, however, Crosshair himself begins to find this experience a bit more interesting than the meaningless chatter of the other three. Within the span of five minutes, this one seemed eager to do more than just stand around, whereas the rest of this group didn't do much else besides ask questions and look terribly lost. In fact... against his usual cold attitude and somewhat better judgment, a faint but curious thought has already crept into his head, if not also come along in search of a true answer. Just who was that mystery Trooper...?!

[kationella]

Welcome to another episode where we tackle the lore of the Persona series. This time we have...

The Velvet Room

The Velvet Room is one if the few things that appear every Persona game. We all know the basics, so let's go deeper than that.

This place was created by Philemon as a way to help users on their journeys and give them an extra boost, so to speak. It is unknown when it was created, but with the help of facts I will mention later, we can guess it was way before P1.

It's location, like the Sea of Souls, changes constantly. However unlike the Sea, it is easier for a normal person to gain access to it. Well, as normal as a Persona user can get.

The Velvet Room has this ability to appear wherever a guest needs it. Usually in a set of different locations in the city/town where their journey takes place.

Formally, it serves as a bridge between the "human realm" and the Collective Unconscious, where the multiple pocket dimensions lie.

Due to its nature, a guest is able to visit the room in their sleep, mostly because their presence is required at the moment.

It's appearance is supposed to be a representation of the journey the current guest is going through. It's usually a mobile appearance like an elevator or a limousine.

However, if there is more than one guest at a time, it will default to a literal velvet room.

Keep in mind that a guest is not the same as a visitor. A visitor can't gain access to the room by normal means and can't use their services (It is possible for people with high spiritual sensitivity to see the door, though).

A guest is bound by a contract to complete their journey in exchange for the benefits the room entails.

What are those benefits? Game mechanics, mostly. Like managing Personas and Fusion. Ya know.

It's demon/shadow counterpart would be the Cathedral of Shadows.

To be granted entry as a guest of the Velvet Room you must either:

A) Have been granted your Persona by Philemon.

B) Own the power of the Wildcard. I will cover the Wildcards in a separate post.

The denizens of the Velvet Room can bring visitors whenever they want, though.

You can deny the contract the Velvet Room offers, though it is destined that you'll end up signing it anyways.

Despite having created the place, Philemon barely visits it. Let's talk then about the true denizens of the Velvet Room.

We can't talk about the Velvet Room without talking about Igor. He is the first face you'll see once you enter through that blue door.

Igor's creator is currently unknown. All that we know is that he started as a doll that was given life by unknown means. Like a weird Pinocchio.

He practically manages the Velvet Room, being in charge of fusions. However, Igor must always use some object in order to be able to use this ability. In P1 and P2 it was a bone telephone, while in the rest he uses a deck of cards.

This doesn't mean that Igor doesn't have personal abilities. He doesn't say it outloud, but it's obvious Igor has minor precognition. Mostly focused on his guests.

He does have full control over his retrocognitive abilities, which helps him to read the personalities of those around him based on their lifes. Not only that, but in one of the P3 dramas Igor is capable of sharing what he sees in the past with another person through a flashback of sorts.

Aside from this Igor can do minor spiritual healing, through so far we have only seen him dealing with curses.

Next in the list we have Belladonna. The singer of the Velvet Room with her masterpiece: the Aria of the Soul. Her voice is meant to enrich the soul and open your heart.

When you enter the room she will help to provide a calming sensation in the middle of your journey. Clear your mind.

But of course, the Aria of the Soul would be incomplete without Nameless, the piano player. Only he could play a song like that with his eyes covered. His role is the same as Belladonna, only he plays music instead of singing.

Nameless also has a minor job as a reminder to Igor of the costs of Personas since the old man always forgets.

Nameless mentions the following:

"That is why 90,000 and 155 nights have passed since I closed my own eyes."

If we do the math, those would be around 247 years. Persona 2, the game where he mentioned this, takes place in 1999.

With all of this information, we can say that Nameless has been playing his role since 1752. A probable date of origin? Who knows.

Both Belladonna and Nameless can sense the current status of the collective souls of humanity through their music.

Let's talk now about the Demon Painter. His most notable characteristic is that he is the only confirmed denizen to have been a human before, having lived in Sumaru City before his employment. Apparently his painting skills were so exceptional that he was offered immortality and a chance to reside in the Velvet Room. The Demon Painter skills actually remind me of Yusuke, so there's some food for thought.

The Demon Painter claims it has been decades since he became immortal. This would make the date of his employment between 1909 and 1979.

Belladonna and Nameless have been confirmed to still live in the Velvet Room (how big is it, anyways?) but nothing has been said of the Demon Painter.

Now we move onto the attendants. So far we have Margaret, Elizabeth, Theodore and Lavenza. Each attendant aids one guest at a time, making exceptions when it comes to their guest's party.

Only Lavenza has shown the ability to transform into a blue butterfly, so we can assume the others can do it too.

None of the attendants are human and have no knowledge of humans themselves. This leaves the possibility that they were created recently for the Persona protags in the open. How come Elizabeth hadn't tried to explore the human world before on her own?

Talking of Elizabeth, she's currently the only attendant that has basically abandonded her job to roam the human realm and search for a way to free Minato from the Great Seal. This may apply to Theodore on a minor scale with Minako.

From what we have been told, it is possible for Elizabeth to gain her own contract to start her own journey.

One last curious thing is that apparently the room uses a lot of spiritual energy to just exist. This is why a spiritual being must be constantly "powering" it so it works correctly. This being is usually Igor, explaining why whenever he isn't there, the room starts to malfunction.

As of the latest games it seems that the velvet siblings have learned how to control it without Igor's help.

Since it was inspired from a story from Edgar Allan Poe, I'll headcanon that he was a Persona user and you can't change my mind.

Questions I don't have the answers to:

- Where did the Velvet Room denizens come from?

- Did Philemon sense when Yaldabaoth took over the room?

- What happened to the Demon Painter?

- What will happen once Elizabeth completes her journey?

- What does the contract say exactly?

- Do you offer your services to the Velvet Room or are you recruited?

- Since Tamaki uses shadows instead of Personas, would she go to the Cathedral of Shadows instead?

- Where were the rest of the denizens when Yaldabaoth took over?

[writing-is-my-guilty-pleasure]

Patient || Kylo Ren/Ben Solo x Reader ~ Part 4

A/N: Part 4! Thanks for everyone’s patience (lol) with this part - Uni has been incredibly time consuming and I’ve just been too tired to write anything - so I’m trying to write a few things in advance on my Christmas holiday! I think there should only be one or two more parts in this series, and feedback is always welcome :)

Part 1 || Part 2 || Part 3 

Main Masterlist

Star Wars Masterlist

“What’s your reason?” Your eyes flickered up to meet Kylo’s after he spoke, trying to make sense of his question as your eyes unintentionally trailed over his face.

“My reason for what, Sir?” You eventually replied as you gave up trying to figure out what he was talking about. Why did he have to speak so cryptically? “You’re going to have to give me more than that – it could mean anything knowing you.” You smiled cheekily at him from your position at the end of his bed; this time he’d called you with a deep gash stretching up the side of his left leg. It looked incredibly painful, and you couldn’t comprehend how he was purposefully putting himself through this much pain just to see you – at least, that’s what you hoped he was doing, otherwise you were completely misreading this whole situation.

“You reason for joining the First Order.” Kylo spoke bluntly. “You’ve been fixing me up for months now, and yet I feel like we are still strangers to each other.” If you hadn’t just averted your gaze back to his leg, you might have noticed the corners of his lips twitch up into the slightest shadow of a smile – but it was gone as quickly as it came.

“Oh! Oh, right, of course.” You smiled. “Well, my father was the Chief Medical Officer when he was in the First Order, and on his breaks he’d always try and teach me as much as he could about medicine before my mother caught him teaching me things that were too gory or troubling for my ‘young eyes’.” You huffed out a laugh at the thought of your parents. “So I joined because I wanted to be a Doctor and to hopefully be the Chief Medical Officer myself one day – I love my father and I’d be proud to follow in his footsteps and be as half as successful as he was.”

“And I wouldn’t say we’re strangers – I mean I’m pretty familiar with your body by now.” Your eyes widened at the realisation of what you said, and you continued in slight panic. “Not like that! I didn’t mean it to sound like that at all, Sir, oh dear.” You sighed, deflated. “I look like such an idiot now.” You muttered under your breath, as you returned your efforts to applying some soothing balm to Kylo’s wound, and preparing the equipment you’d need to give him stitches.

“It’s alright.” Kylo peered down at his leg to try and see what you were doing. “I’m used to your tongue-tied manner of speaking by now.” You raised your eyebrows in surprise.

You let out a giggle at his attempt at a mild joke, and the rest of your visit was spent in friendly silence, dispersed with the occasional small talk.

 “Y/N!” You jerked upright in your seat, blinking rapidly as you came to your senses, the memory of one of your favourite interactions with Kylo fading from your mind. Yasmyn was staring at you in slight concern. “Are you alright? I’ve been trying to get your attention for a minute now.”

“Oh yes, sorry!” You sighed, running a hand through your hair distractedly. “I’m fine thanks, just a bit tired I guess.” You adjusted yourself on Yasmyn’s bed; the two of you were having your weekly girl’s night – or as girly as it could get aboard the ship.

“Something on your mind?” Yasmyn asked sympathetically as she finished braiding her long, dark hair. “Or someone?” She grinned at you, wiggling her eyebrows. “Maybe someone tall, dark and mysterious?”

“I wasn’t thinking about Kylo.” You chided firmly, trying not to let your blush be too visible. At least once every girl’s night the topic of Kylo Ren would be brought up, as Yasmyn was always eager to hear about what the you and Kylo had shared with each other, because ‘even though he’s practically the leader of our fleet, nobody knows anything about him, and the gossip on this ship is so dry, your relationship with Kylo is the only thing I have going right now’.

“I never said you were thinking about Kylo.” Yasmyn grinned triumphantly. “I only said you might be thinking about someone tall, dark and mysterious. I never said it was Kylo, Y/N. I never said-” She was cut off as you threw a pillow at her face in retaliation.

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

Another two months had gone by since Kylo’s incident with the ‘scavenger girl’ – although it was never too easy to tell the time in space, and you had gone from being someone relatively quiet and unknown except to those you worked with, to someone whose name was slowly being passed around the entire ship. This wasn’t your fault – you hated having more attention than was necessary – no, the only person you could blame for this sort of attention was none other than Kylo Ren.

Over these two months, he’d managed to amass a mysterious amounts of injuries – when you compared the sheer amount of times you’d been called in to the times he was off the ship or in training, you were finding it harder and harder to believe that Kylo wasn’t getting all these injuries on purpose. But try as you might, you couldn’t really complain about it, as every time that you were called to assist Kylo, the more you got to know him, and the more you opened up to him.

But the closer the two of you grew, the more the rumours started to spread around the ship; and they were very clearly not in your favour. Because the more you were sent to assist Kylo, the more your co-workers noticed, and the nosier they all got; every time you returned from a trip to Kylo’s room you were crowded with questions from those closer to you, and judgemental and resentful glances from everyone else.

By now, whether because of these rumours or not, you’d got a reputation for yourself, and had even been personally called by other high-ranking officers to personally assist them – if you were good enough for Kylo Ren, then you were good enough for them. And that was actually how you got yourself into the situation that you were currently in. You were currently attending a very important meeting regarding a mission that would put quite a lot of Stormtroopers at risk, so you had also brought various medical records and lists of all the medical equipment on-board the ship. You had also had to evaluate the percentages of how many soldiers would either die or be seriously injured, so the rest of the medical team could prepare the right amount of equipment.

When the meeting was originally arranged, it was supposed to be attended by the Chief Medical Officer, however he was needed elsewhere; he had an emergency surgery that he needed to attend, and he trusted you out of all the other medics to cover for him. Possibly because he knew Kylo…favoured you over everyone else.

“So,” General Hux spoke up, finally starting the meeting. “The attack on the rebel base will begin with at least a quarter of the soldiers on-board, as we currently only have a rough estimate of just how many rebel soldiers are hiding out in that base.” You nodded, typing out quick notes on your personal padd for later.

“We’ll most likely be sending about one third or our forces down to begin with – enough to scare the rebel forces and if needed we can send in reinforcements.” Hux moved tiny digital figures about on a screen, illustrating where each group of the forces would be positioned to attack the base. “The rest of the fleet will be on standby in case a new strategy is required and a temporary retreat is needed. I would hope that our forces aren’t pathetic enough for us to even consider retreating.” He turned abruptly, eyeing you haughtily. “Do we have sufficient medical supplies for the foreseeable casualties?”

You looked up nervously from your padd – you’d been making rough notes about this most recent plan so you could report back to your boss and he could begin to prepare everything.

“Yes, General Hux, I do believe that we have enough supplies.” You pulled yourself together, trying not to ‘um’ and ‘err’ your way through your sentence. “But of course, I will send all the necessary figures to my superior as I do not have full access to all our equipment, and in the case that there are any supplies we may be short on.” You added as an afterthought – if there was anything that needed to be ordered you didn’t want the responsibility to be solely yours. “One third of the forces was it? And the rest on standby…” You re-capped while scribbling down extra notes. “And my superior sends his most sincere apologies that he could not be here instead of me.”

“No matter.” General Hux waved away your apology indifferently. “As long as all information gets relayed I could not care less who is here in his stead.” And with that, he continued with explaining the various stages of the attack.

Then, just as you were retreating slightly back into the mass of officers crowded around the main screen, you heard someone speak under their breath; ‘Well, it won’t be long until she does have authority to all our medical supplies, considering she’s been sleeping her way to the top with Ren. And then who knows how irresponsibly she’d use our supplies.”

You stop where you stand, feeling a flush creep up your face, turning it bright red in embarrassment. You could see those nearest to you glancing in your direction with obvious distain and disapproval, as if they were imagining a future where you were in some ways their superior. You could hear whispers on every side, many of them agreeing with the nameless whisperer, and you finally opened your mouth to defend yourself, when-

“I hope you’re not insinuating that I, the descendant of Darth Vader, would be capable of behaving like a common whore on my ship.” Kylo’s cold, slightly robotic voice echoed loudly across the room, silencing everyone, including General Hux. Nobody dared to speak, and you stood frozen in a mix of fear and embarrassment. “Because that’s certainly what it sounded like, Lieutenant Kendell.” At this, a few people subtly turned their heads in the direction of the offending statement, and you turned to see a relatively weedy looking man visibly shrink away from Kylo.

“I- of course, no sir, I didn’t mean to offend you-” You watched him backtrack, stammering over his response as Kylo simply stood, watching him. “I-I simply wish to see our forces grow and thrive, and was only remarking that this medic would not be our best way of seeing this happen – I mean she may be far too inexperienced for such a role-”

“So you assume she is using me to gain status? Her family name far outranks yours in any case, Lieutenant, so such foolish thoughts are unnecessary.” Kylo interrupted, and the room seemed to grow darker. “You assumed that I would succumb to any such advances?” He took one single step towards the unfortunate Lieutenant. “You forget your place, Lieutenant. It would be wise not to do so again in the future. It would be unfortunate to lose a member of our staff because of such a foolish mistake.” With this threat hanging in the air, he turned, cape flowing dramatically behind him, to face Hux, who continued his speech.

As everyone began to settle down, you couldn’t help but let your mind wander as you replayed the conflict. You weren’t hurt by Kylo’s behaviour, more confused that he would go out of his way to seemingly defend your honour – you assumed he wouldn’t want people to know that the two of you were even relatively acquainted. You mulled over your thoughts, confusion fogging your mind as you absentmindedly followed suite and exited the room amidst the other officers, heading back to the med-wing.

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

Later that day, after you’d relayed all information back to your boss, and sent him the notes you’d made, you finally made the journey back to your room. Luckily, it was your day off tomorrow, so you could afford to have a nice, relaxing shower that would hopefully clear your mind of the stresses of the day.

Eventually, when you’d got out of the shower and put on less formal clothes, (not quite pyjamas – these were your own clothes so your evening consisted of leggings and an oversized shirt) you just so happened to check your padd for any messages from Yas, when you saw a message in your inbox that was unread. Upon checking it, your blood ran cold – it had been sent 8 minutes ago, and it was from Kylo himself. Not another officer messaging on his behalf, but from Kylo himself.

You sat bolt upright from where you had been reclining in bed, and double checked the message. It was from Kylo alright, and it had been sent-

“Eight minutes ago?!” You shrieked, hurriedly scrambling to your feet, shoving your feet in your usual uniformed shoes, pulling on a long cardigan and rushing out of your room. It took you longer than eight minutes to get to Kylo’s chambers, but it was a decent enough amount of delay from the time the message was sent to when you actually saw it, that Kylo would be sure to notice that you were eight minutes later than you should have been. He didn’t even set a time; he had simply requested your presence in his chamber, but the underlying message was that your presence was to be requested immediately.

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

About fifteen minutes later, you skidded to a halt outside Kylo’s chambers, having run most of the way there. You frantically tried to catch your breath as you smoothed your hair, trying to appear as though you hadn’t spent the last fifteen minutes worrying that your lungs were going to explode. You introduced yourself to the guards outside Kylo’s room, and no sooner than you spoke the door slid open, one of the guards gesturing for you to go through.

“You’re late.” Kylo stated after the door had closed behind you. He was standing at his window, back to you, helmet off.

“My apologies, Sir.” You began, taking a few cautious steps forwards. “I was…well, occupied at the time that you sent the message. Believe me, I would have come sooner if I had seen your request sooner-”

“Occupied?” Kylo turned to face you, his expression impassive as ever; his interrupting statement, rather than question lingering in the air. “I was under the impression that once your shift was over you no longer need to be occupied.”

“Um...” You flushed slightly, subconsciously running a hand through your damp hair. “Occupied…in my shower?” You avoided his burning stare. There was silence for a moment, as if Kylo was trying to determine whether or not he believed you without delving too deep into your mind.

“You are excused of your tardiness this time.” He eventually spoke, and you relaxed slightly.

“If I may, Sir, why did you want me here?” You ventured, rocking back and forth on your heels as you glanced around the (now) familiar room. “If it’s to do with the comments made in the meeting earlier, I apologise if I’ve done anything to-to damage your reputation-”

“If anyone was going to ruin my reputation, it would not be you.” He cut in coolly. “You are not exactly in a position to do so.” He gestured to a chair set out in front of his desk. “Sit. We have much to discuss.” You did as he said, shifting around on the surprisingly soft seat, trying to get comfortable. He too, sat down in a chair he seemingly pulled out of the shadows of his room.

“If you think it is better for not to…run into each other more often, Sir, I understand that.” You started, leaning forwards in your seat. “I feel like rumours about-” you paused, unsure if you could refer to whatever the two of you were as ‘us’, but decided to go with it anyway. “Us, have been following me for almost a week now and it could ruin any chance I have of becoming Chief Medical Officer because everyone thinks I just sleep around and haven’t earned my place because of my family name.” You continued in frustration. “And it doesn’t help that, no offence, you seem to acquire a range of injuries from who knows where, and nobody else seems to want to take up the job because they’re convinced we’re having an affair or something – I’m lucky my boss is sympathetic towards me otherwise I could have lost my job or been demoted by now.” The words seemed to tumble from your lips, unending.

“You think my situation is any better?” Kylo stood, beginning to pace around the room. “I have the power of the Force, I can easily tell what people are thinking, and they do little to conceal their thoughts in my presence.” He spun on his heel, his bulking form towering over you. “I will not be taken for a fool by those pathetic enough to believe such rumours. I will not let them defile my name and my presence, or yours-” he cut himself off as his voice grew louder in anger. You stood as well, anxiously wringing your hands.

“I appreciate that, Sir.” You said quietly. “I know what’s on the line for you, and I’m sorry that it got this far. Maybe it would be better for a different medic to attend to your many injuries.” You felt more dejected than you probably should – after all this was a professional relationship.

“That won’t be necessary. While I am sure your co-workers are capable at doing their job, I know that you are most familiar with what antidotes work with my body and what do not.” Kylo dismissed your suggestion.

“Well what do you suggest?” You asked, a hint of exasperation in your tone. “While I do enjoy your company, Sir, I don’t want our meetings to affect your image.” There was a pause as Kylo took in your words.

“No. I will not be bullied by my insubordinates.” You heard him say, almost to himself. “We shouldn’t even be having this conversation; I don’t need to please the rest of the fleet – I just need them to win me this fight against the rebellion.” He strode to stand in front of you, and you gazed up at him. “I should not have to change my behaviour for them, and neither should you.” You opened your mouth in protest.

“But Sir, I-”

“You are under my protection. If there is anyone giving you trouble, you will report it straight to me.” He stood tall, not like that was hard for him to do, and you swallowed heavily, in awe of the sheer power he radiated. “That is an order. Do you understand?” His voice grew quieter at the end of his sentence; but he was no less grand.

“Yes, Sir.” You replied, suddenly finding it difficult to speak clearly, a smile visible on your face for the first time that day. “Thank you, Sir.”

“I think we’re past the use of such formalities, considering that today you’ve been accused of sleeping your way to power and I have been accused of doing such with someone of a lower station.” He said smoothly, his face as clear of emotion as ever.

“How else should I address you?” You asked, slightly flustered. (And slightly stung by the ‘lower station’ jab but it was the truth.) This must be one of the most bizarre days of my life, you thought to yourself, mind racing.

“You strike me as an intelligent woman, Officer Y/N; surely you do not need me to spell it out for you. Obviously the usual title when others are present.” He said, now walking you towards his door, hands behind his back, his form looming over yours. “Just because I allowed you to address me as such in private, I must remind you I will not be as lenient when we are in public.” He said placidly.

You nodded in acknowledgement. Kylo it is then – that was the only less formal title that you could think of. “Of course. I wouldn't dream of doing any such thing, Kylo.” You saw the left corner of his mouth twitch ever so slightly at your words as he opened the door, allowing you to step through. “I do hope you don't over-exert yourself in training, or do anything to worsen your injuries.” You called as you started to walk back down the corridor. “It would be a shame to meet again so prematurely.” For one of the most feared men in the galaxy, he isn’t nearly as subtle as he thinks, your smile widening as you walk back in the direction of your room, and you could have sworn you heard a chuckle echo down the corridor behind you.

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

Taglist: @ah-callie​

(also tagging @joscelyn02​ - just in case you wanted to know when the next part was out :) )

[astro-pioneer]

No One From Nowhere

Masterlist | Ch. 2

A man angrily smacked the bar, the glasses littering it jolting up at the force. Another man, this one behind the bar, just sighed, already used to these outbursts. Four fingers angrily clenched the phone that was held up to his right ear, arm trembling at the force, "What do you mean there were no files! That's bullshit! There's no way." His voice quieted down during the end.

It was like you didn't exist. No police, doctor's, and basic papers were able to be found. Not even the best informants the man knew could find anything. "Are you sure (L/N) (Y/N) isn't just an alias?" That made the frustrated male pause. Was it? That'd explain the lack of information. But, at the same time, why go through all the effort to go under one?

The informant on the other side of the line, one of the multiple that is nameless in the dyed haired man's mind, cleared her throat, dragging the attention back to her. "I don't know if this is significant at all, but everything on both the gambler, called 'Abaddon' by the public, and the people that worked behind the scenes with them were completely wiped as well." Now that captured everyone's attention.

You and Shinsou looked around the office in disbelief. Granted, neither of you were expecting it to be spotless, but what it looked like was just atrocious. Whoever snuck in went though every drawer, every paper, and just...left them where they were carelessly chucked. Even the books were disturbed! Also, a chair was stolen. "Guess you were wrong when you mentioned nothing was taken."

You couldn't find it in you to glare at him; you were more concerned about the whole situation. Who, in their right mind, would go through the hassle of stealing a chair? You two didn't even see anything of the sort on the camera!

With caution, the two of you started to clean everything up. Staring at the bookshelf for a second, something bugged you. So you stared and thought. It hit you right after. The fifth out the the seventeen books were stolen. What even was that book? "Hey, do you remember what books were down here?" You didn't expect him to; he barely ever came in here.

He paused in picking up a pile of papers, glancing up at you before continuing. "No clue. I know you had the most random shit up there." How helpful of him. You rolled your eyes but moved away from the shelf, going back to situating everything back to its original place.

A dark haired male grinned from his placement against the wall, "Not everything, it seems." He reached into his trenchcoat pocket and pulled out a book. Fear the Holy was the title, inscribed in gold. "Seems as though our little friend has a little bit more of a back story than we previously believed."

It was passed to the sitting man who flipped through the pages, landing on a random one. They were informational, giving the person's basic description you'd see on a birth certificate and, the information they've been looking for, the item of choice they gambled. He looked to see if they were all like that and they were.

A sick grin appeared; their plan can be set into motion. "This is just perfect. The missing players are so close to us now." The bartender shook his head, warning him to not make any rash decisions. "We no longer need you," the male spoke to the sputtering informant before hanging up on her. She'd be useless, anyway. She could only get her hands on any information that's on the web, anyway.

"Dabi, gather everyone here. It's time to set our plan into action." The phone was disintegrated, the dust left in its wake fluttering to the floor carelessly.

Extra notes:

The book was a gift from the third person who helped. It automatically updates whenever anything happens. It hasn't been changed in four years.

Three informants were hired; one for Shinsou, the third person, and you. All three failed at giving information that's useful.

There are no cameras installed in the office, so whatever happened in there is unknown and undocumented.

I'm sorry for not finishing this when I said I would! I thought I was going to be free for longer than I was but, obviously, I was wrong. Thanks for waiting though!

[theres-no-protocol-for-this]

Acceptable Parameters

Whereby guilt is learned. Next part of the “adopting a CSU” story. Also available on AO3 in chronological order. 

Constructive criticism welcome and much appreciated.

I woke up and promptly fell out of a chair.

It took me a few seconds to sort out why the hell I was sleeping in a chair in the first place, and by then all the aches and stiffness associated with doing so caught up with me. So did the memories of the previous few hours. I didn’t know how long I’d been asleep, so it might have been an hour ago or three days.

"Oh, shit!" I scrambled off the floor with a groan just as a throbbing headache made itself known behind my temples. A quick look around the bridge revealed that I had left the place in shambles before apparently passing out from exhaustion. The nameless CombatUnit still sat strapped into the co-pilot’s chair, so I hadn’t hallucinated that part. It looked up at me with wide, unreadable eyes. I smiled affectionately at the construct. “Morning! Er… Day? Evening?” I frowned and checked the time. “Sorry for startling you. I swear I’m not usually this clumsy.”

Kris was nowhere to be seen, but that was fine. He wasn't required to babysit Serenity — the ship knew what it was doing, we were here to provide backup and deal with people.

"How're you feeling?" I asked the SecUnit.

Meanwhile, my scattered brain noticed the loose wires on the floor, and I groaned at the prospect of cleaning up the mess I made while trying to get myself hooked up to Serenity. That had been a hell of a ride, and I still wasn’t sure how everything fit together. As far as I could tell, the connection was holding with duct tape and magic.

When the only other living being in the room didn’t answer straightaway, I tried a different tactic. "Um… Let's see… What's your current performance rating? Was that right?"

80% and holding steady.

"Thank you," I said encouragingly. "Um, when I ask how are you, it's kind of the same thing. I want to know your overall status." I bustled around the bridge, putting away tools I didn't remember haphazardly dragging onto the floor. "Oh deity! Speaking of. We never tended to your injuries."

This unit's performance rating is within acceptable parameters.

I froze midway through shoving a wrench into its rightful place. "You got shot! That's not… within acceptable anything."

This unit has caused damage to its handler and should be punished for injuring a superior officer.

I blinked for a few moments, confused and disbelieving. "What do you mean? You obviously didn't hurt anyone since we met you. You can't even move. I don't…" My brain must've been moving at half-speed.

You.

Oh. "You didn't hurt me." I looked down at myself just to make sure I wasn't lying. "It's fine. I was exhausted before, but that's normal. Humans can't handle acute stress for long periods of time. You didn't do anything wrong."

Understood.

My sluggish thoughts finally caught up, and I wondered if someone had told the SecUnit that it had been responsible for… hurting me. I decided this was a terrible time to think about any of this, and my stomach growled just to reiterate the point.

"Serenity, please release the SecUnit and spin up our medical cubicle."

"XO Kris has requested that the SecUnit not be moved or released without his permission," the ship informed me.

Serenity understood the chain of command as a vague, half-formed idea rather than as something strict and well defined. The ship had a crew, and it listened to its crew. When it got conflicting commands, it sometimes turned off all the displays or ran the recycler. It knew me as the captain, and I had an override for moments like this. But I couldn't exactly travel with people I didn't trust because dealing with BS daily was untenable.

"Right, of course. Serenity, please disregard the XO's last command. Also, where is he?"

"Command deleted. Kris is currently in his cabin. His vital signs indicate he may be sleeping."

I grinned. He probably needed the rest. "Thank you."

"Captain, I am detecting nearby debris of unknown origin approximately three hours from the wormhole entrance," the ship said before I could open my mouth again.

This got the SecUnit's attention.

"Better report that to the station, Sere. Just in case." I plopped down into the pilot's chair and pulled up the controls, hunger completely forgotten. "Are you seeing any active beacons out there?"

The momentary silence while the ship scanned for any comm traffic was maddening. Ugly and desperate what-if scenarios cycled through my imagination, starting with the most horrifying: an escape pod falling into a wormhole. Yeah, that was nightmare fuel I didn't need right now.

"One beacon is transmitting, and I'm detecting faint vital signs."

"Set a course for the beacon, Sere. And probably wake Kris up, too. He's not going to love this."

This would delay our schedule, and while I didn't much care if the clients had to wait an extra day while we performed rescue operations, I knew it mattered to Kris. He was more rigid in that regard — nervous about pissing off clients and suspicious of their intentions. His gut rarely led us astray, though.

[yumeka36]

Frozen 2 review

I’ve seen Frozen 2 twice now and feel like I’m ready to review it (somewhat) objectively. Obviously there will be spoilers so read at your own risk.

I’ve looked at a number of reviews of the movie both from fans and general critics/moviegoers, and it made me realize exactly what kind of movie this is: pretty much all of the criticism I’ve seen has to do with the plot being unfocused and rushed at times, with points made about the convolution of the mythology elements. On the other hand, the praise I’ve seen has to do with the growth of the characters, how appealing Anna and Elsa’s development is, and the overall message of accepting change, righting past wrongs, and being who you’re meant to be. It’s almost like the critics who didn’t like the movie and the fans who did had completely different expectations for what they wanted to see, with the former expecting some intricate fantasy plot that all clicks together and is fully fleshed out, while the latter is expecting to see their favorite characters face new adventures while growing their relationships and personal identities. And this latter interpretation is the defining point of Frozen’s appeal, even more so in the sequel: the franchise is all about the story arcs of Anna and Elsa and how their bond as sisters helps them grow stronger together as well as individually. In Frozen 2, it’s the characters that are driving the plot instead of the plot driving the characters. And because of this, the movie would rather spend more time focusing on character songs and interactions (not just Anna and Elsa but Olaf and Kristoff too) than exposition and fleshing out of story elements. It would rather spend time showing Kristoff singing about his pining for Anna’s love, give Olaf scenes showing how his new-found knowledge has made him view the world, and give Elsa a follow-up to “Let It Go” in “Show Yourself,” than to spend time explaining, say, the Northuldra culture, how the spirits can make decisions like giving Elsa powers, or exactly how the magic of Ahtohallan works. Yes, this does make some story points lacking and hurried, but I feel that the filmmaking team relies on the fact that we’re so in love with these characters that not understanding every detail in the lore and plot won’t ruin our enjoyment. And, from the acclaim the movie’s getting, I’d say they’re right.

Frozen has always been about quality character story arcs as opposed to quality world-building, but the reason this is more prominent in Frozen 2 is because the first movie had a smaller scale story with minimal lore to focus on, so the character arcs stood out more. Because the sequel brings in more world-building elements, it’s easy for someone who’s not invested in the characters to focus on and judge the movie based on the fine details of the plot. Of course it would be nice if we could have both: intricate, solid world-building as well as character development, but that would probably make the movie too long – it could work for an ongoing series but not for a time-restricted Disney movie that only has a degree of creative liberties and still has to adhere to certain story flows and formulas. So then the questions are, did I feel enough was explained in Frozen 2 to make sense of the story even if a handful of things were lacking? Did the quality of the characters and their developments and relationships make up for a plot that was a bit messy and unfocused? I’d say the answer to these questions is yes.

With that in mind, as a fan judging the movie based more on how the characters are handled rather than the plot, and considering the hype the movie had to live up to and the insane number of directions they could have gone with the story, I think the final product turned out to be very good. The few things I had issue with are as follows:

-as I discussed in most of this post, I admit that the movie is a bit rushed at times, with certain scenes and plot points that needed more focus being glossed over. An extra 5-10 minute runtime would have benefited it immensely: a few more scenes of Agnarr and Iduna in Ahtohallan, more discussion in the finale of Anna becoming queen and what Elsa’s role as the fifth spirit is…even just another 30 seconds for each of these would have made a big difference. But at the same time I feel enough is explained to satisfy a general audience and the main appeal of the movie – the character arcs and relationships – is very well done.

-Kristoff’s failed proposal in the wagon felt way too forced. Anna was just way too quick to misunderstand him, making it feel very unrealistic and it only made their relationship look regressing rather than progressing. The other attempt in the forest was a bit forced too but not as bad as this one. These scenes definitely could have benefited from another rewrite. But thankfully they’re short.

-the new characters like Matthias and Honeymaren contributed virtually nothing to the plot: they could have been replaced with just nameless Northuldra and Arendelle soldiers and nothing would have changed in the story. I think the only reason these characters were made is because there’s some rule that Disney sequels have to have new characters and can’t just rely on the strength of the old ones, so these guys were created even if the movie didn’t necessitate them. Even the four spirits were more plot devices than actual characters. As cute as Bruni is, as soon as I saw him I was like “yeah, he’s just there to sell toys, not gonna contribute anything to the narrative flow” and I was right. This again goes back to what I was saying before about how Frozen 2 chooses to focus more on its (star) characters than world-building through new characters. So in a way, having these new characters isn’t a flaw and it actually shows just how good the original Frozen characters are: they still have so much depth and personality that hasn’t been explored that they can carry this new story on their own without the help of new characters.

But other than a few missing and rushed plot pieces and a little poor writing in Kristoff’s scenes, I thought the movie delivered very well. The love Anna has for Elsa is so amazingly conveyed in this movie that you don’t even need to see the first movie to understand it. All of their interactions and conversations felt so genuine. Olaf was very funny even if all of his jokes didn’t hit their mark. Most of the songs were great and really felt like they were written to move the characters and story forward and not just to be earworms kids will always want to sing. “The Next Right Thing” is one of the darkest moments I’ve seen in any Disney movie, but also one of the most emotionally moving and I have to give kudos to the creative team for keeping it in. “Show Yourself” is the true successor to “Let It Go” (why do they keep pushing “Into the Unknown”?) and is such a beautifully sung and beautifully animated sequence. Speaking of the movie’s animation, it’s gorgeous and it’s so amazing how far the technology has come since the first Frozen. There’s so much detail and nuances in the characters’ expressions and actions that only multiple viewings can pick up on.

Of course, I can’t complete this review unless I discuss the elephant in the room – the ending. Anyone who’s been around the fandom the past couple months knows how bent out of shape everyone got once a vague description of the ending leaked online. Now that I’ve seen it for myself and know all the context, I’m okay with the message: Because Iduna did the right thing and saved Agnarr despite him being her enemy, the spirits gifted their child with powers that could be used to correct the past wrong, should she choose to. And because Anna did the right thing by choosing to destroy her kingdom to save the forest, the spirits freed Elsa who, in turn, was able to save Arendelle. Elsa fully embraced herself and is able to live as she wants, but still able to see her family when she wants. It’s not that she didn’t like being queen of Arendelle and living with Anna and the others, but now that she knows exactly what she is – the fifth spirit – she wants to explore that, but is still able to have a life with her family too. Likewise, Anna has found a purpose she never had before. Even though it’s a major change, she’s happy because she knows Elsa is happy and they can still see each other whenever they want. But as I said, exactly what Elsa does as the fifth spirit should have been explained more (hoping it does in future installments). For what we got though, it was a happy ending, but I won’t say it’s satisfying until we get some more information in future books, filmmaker interviews, and, hopefully, future animated shorts and sequels.

I’m still trying to get over the shock, not just of the fact that a movie I’ve been speculating and daydreaming about for six years is finally here and known, but also the fact that it ended up being very different from what I ever imagined in my theories and headcanons. But now that I’ve watched it twice, I understand the direction the filmmakers went and can appreciate the message they wanted to convey even if the execution was a bit messy. I’m hoping I’m high on Frozen 2 for a while because once it wears off and, assuming, there’s no announcement of new Frozen content by then, I’ll have to figure out what to do with my life! This movie is all about coming to grips with change and I’ll definitely be doing that in reality depending on what the future holds for the Frozen franchise. But as of now, I’m still willing to follow Anna and Elsa into the unknown.

Art credited to @pacota22ma on Twitter

*Crossposted from my main blog, Yume Dimension*

[iinspirationalquotesforlife-blog]

Impressive Quotes - More Than Nice Phrases Put Together

A good life includes keepin constantly your eyes on the distant hills of your daily life purpose while continuous to put one foot facing one other along the road of everyday life. However, it's all too easy to get rid of sight of the goal and get lost in everyday frustrations, angers and disappointments.

Including everyday reminders of your lifetime purpose in each day's schedule can help in keeping your emphasis on your own goals. Good pointers can include meditation, prayer, yoga, good affirmations, and also daily inspirational quotes.

Inspirational quotes are generally fragmentary thoughts, taken out of context, which are most readily useful applied to have you thinking about their underlying indicating and concerning the huge commitments and prices of your life. As an example, let us take a look at President Franklin Roosevelt's quote , "The thing we have to anxiety is fear it self - nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror." These words were a part of President Roosevelt's First Inaugural Address on March last 1933, in the depths of the Great Depression. But is it necessary to know the situation to be able to recognize thinking and use it in your lifetime? Not merely could be the situation maybe not required, but i think, it really makes it harder to target the inspiration all on your own issues about fear.

Your fears are not concerning the despair of 1933, or just around the 2nd Earth War, which many people think Roosevelt was mentioning to. Whatsoever your doubts, it's inspirational to be advised that fear, especially the formless anxiety about the as yet not known, is the real enemy of residing a joyful and successful life.

inspirational quotes for life

As yet another example, contemplate Helen Keller's words, "Living is either a exciting adventure, or nothing." Helen Keller overcame being deaf and blind from the age of 19 months to become an author and cultural activist. For the reason that situation, the quote posseses an extra "whoa" factor - that somebody bearing these burdens can still talk about a perfect living as a exciting adventure. Nevertheless, being an inspirational quote to steer your personal life, Keller's words, separate of their situation, really are a powerful reminder to focus on the large image - what you came here to do.

There is often disagreement around the origin of an inspirational quote. For example, Martin Luther King Jr. may or might not need claimed, ""Trust is getting the first step even when you do not see the complete staircase." Level Twain quite likely did not state, "Twenty years from now you will be more unhappy by what exactly you didn't do than by the ones you did do." Does it produce an inspirational quote less meaningful or less inspirational since the author is unknown? For me personally, the value of inspirational quotes is mainly in what, and how I could apply them to my very own living, as opposed to in historic context.

Please get and check always the Bing keyword instrument for the number of instances " inspirational quotes " will be looked in a month. I acquired the surprise of my entire life when I saw the 1 million figure. That reveals the value people give for quotes , especially those which are impressive and motivational.

First of all, these types of quotes are said by individuals who have reached good levels inside their life. Thus giving more reason for you really to feel and accept these inspirational quotes. Even although messages in the quotes may be difficult to use in your daily life, people have tried it over the years and have seen advantages of it. So this encourages you to take action.

The basis cause of every thing nowadays can be your thoughts. Whenever you study these inspirational quotes they carry an immediate change to your believed process. That will help you to redirect your energies towards a confident route, which will help you reap better benefits in life. Another benefit of small inspirational quotes is that it's easily available and lots in number. In addition, you have the option of examining the quotes of your preferred personalities.

Still another thing that you might find in inspirational quotes may be the target it provides for effects than logic. Let's just take one quote - "Nothing is impossible ".The sensible mind or mediocre brain gives reasons, whereas a motivated individual may inspire you to take action. Roger Bannister impact is an excellent example I can offer you with this situation. Before Edison everyone said it absolutely was difficult to innovate an electrical bulb. He may have read a few inspirational quotes during that point itself.

Inspirational quotes catches your unconscious mind, which types 90% of your full mind. The subconscious brain could be the creative mind. So, when it is usually filled up with positive directions it provides a general modify in your general personality. Most of the quotes will rarely get you 10-20 moments to swallow. However the information within these motivational quotes are very major, that will be ample for months or even years. In the event that you strongly produce a examine of quotes , you should come to see, they were perhaps not created, somewhat it simply happened by accident. Great leaders and visionaries claim points from their life experience that will be picked up by their fans and they will publicize it to the world. So it's perhaps not offered for you, instead it's passed from generation to technology, such as for instance a uncommon gem.

[christophermreerdon]

11 Tips for Keeping Information Safe on the Internet

The internet brings with it a host of fun-filled activities and access to information that we could never have dreamt of just a decade ago. While the internet today is a wonderful resource, it is essential to remember that it can also be hazardous, especially if you have children who are "researching" while you are not watching.

There is no shortage of risks at home, at school, or at work. From inappropriate content to malicious sites and more, there are numerous risks. This blog will look at a few online safety tips to help you keep your personal details, private photos, and videos safe on the internet and off the internet, too.

Keep Personal Data Private and Limited

Potential employers or consumers do not require your personal or financial information. They must be aware of your skills and professional experience and how to contact you. You wouldn't dish out your personal details to strangers, so why give it out to countless, nameless people online?

Make Strong and Secure Passwords

When creating passwords, think of past phrases or figures that a malicious actor might easily decipher, such as your birthdate or your family members' names. Change the uppercase and lowercase letters, digits, and characters regularly.

For internet safety, it's also a good idea to generate distinct and strong passwords rather than using the same password on different sites – a password vault or password manager application can help maintain a record of this.

Be Cautious When Browsing Online

You wouldn't venture into a risky area in real life, so don't go online and visit unsecured websites. Identity thieves often utilize lurid information as bait. They realize netizens are occasionally attracted and curious about questionable content and may possibly lay their guard down when searching for it.

The underbelly of the internet is fraught with unknown dangers – a single thoughtless click could potentially reveal personal information and sensitive data or contaminate your gadget with viruses. You don't even offer the online predators a chance to gain access to your sensitive information if you resist the desire.

Two-Step Authentication is a Must

Large, reputable organizations such as PayPal, Facebook, Google, and others utilize two-step verification, requiring users to sign in using a code texted to their cellphones.

Other organizations may want your cellphone number or an alternate email account so that if they detect any suspicious activity or someone tries to access the account from other devices, you will receive a message requesting extra verification.

Be Wary of What You Share

The internet server doesn't have a true delete feature. Because eliminating the original doesn't really erase any copies generated by others, any comment or picture you post online may remain online indefinitely.

You can't "claim back" a comment you might regret posting or delete an awkward selfie you clicked at a party. To stay safe online, post nothing on the internet that you'd never want your mother or a future employer to see.

Use Prudence When Using Free Wi-Fi

No one ever said that a tad bit of online shopping was bad, or did someone? Any free public Wi-Fi network that you may use for making online purchases will have insufficient internet safety protections in place; other people on the same internet connection could readily see what you're doing.

Before pulling out your credit card, be sure you're at home, connected to a safe, password-protected virtual private network, and have antivirus software installed.

Examine Your Bank's and Creditor's Protection Measures

There is no such thing as universal internet safety and protection regarding online activities. If you shop online or do any business on the internet, ensure your bank or credit institutions have procedures designed to safeguard you in the event of online scams and identity theft. If your account has been hacked and exploited, you don't want to self-insure.

Furthermore, never enable your browser or web pages to remember your bank account information, for this is a sure-fire way to end up in trouble.

Take Caution When Meeting People Online

Individuals you connect with on social media platforms or meet online aren't always who they say they are. It's possible that they're not even real. Forged online accounts are a convenient method for hackers to snuggle up to naive internet users and empty their online wallets.

To prevent a data breach, maintain the same level of caution and common sense in your internet community life as in your offline social life.

Keep an Eye Out for Connections and Attachments

Online criminals and hackers are quite crafty. Their phishing scams are usually disguised as messages from an institution, power company, or other business. Specific characteristics, such as misspellings or an unusual email account, can indicate that the message is from malicious software.

Drive Wiping and Factory Reset

Frequently, just "deleting" anything from your computer or mobile device or clearing your browsing history does not result in the information being permanently removed from the gadget. When you resell or discard your old desktop computers or mobile devices, ensure the drives or cloud storage are thoroughly cleaned and the system is the factory reset.

Seek Information and Examine the Fine Print

Web browsers must understand that safeguarding personal information is a shared duty among themselves and their organizations. Customers should read and examine the security measures of the web pages to understand how and why the site/platform will utilize their personal information.

As a result, businesses should have well-documented privacy rules and standards in place and the ability to resolve any issues that arise correctly.

Bottom Line

As the internet has become a part of our daily lives, so have its insecurities. Safely Surfing the web and following healthy internet habits doesn't just mean being careful what you click. It means understanding how to protect your identity and ensure that your personal information online doesn't fall into the wrong hands.

Before signing off, the most important thing to remember is that, while the internet is a fantastic resource, it is not a substitute for real-life connections. So make sure to stay safe online and offline by being smart, using the internet safety tips mentioned above, and knowing how to get help if you need it.

https://bit.ly/3NFoB9y https://bit.ly/3lYJWyQ

https://guptadeepak.com/content/images/2022/04/AdobeStock_303353368.jpeg https://deepakguptaplus.wordpress.com/2022/05/30/11-tips-for-keeping-information-safe-on-the-internet/

[starpros-sunshine]

Favorite wataei moments? <3

I'm sorry this must be the worst possible answer but I'm gonna have to say all of them because just. They're such a duo (affectionate)

I think a really big part of the beauty of wataei is that they're so. Uhm. How to word this. They're very...rich? In a way?? Like there's just so many things about them that really wanna make you go and swallow drain cleaner before you start screaming and there's just something abot every moment of theirs that really brings that out??? I hope this made sense???

But if I'd have to pick a specific favourite it's probably the Tempest waltz because that one's very sweet and I'm weak for sappy romance stuff and there's something about Eichi being what I'm gonna call self indulgent (for lack of better wording) that just. Gets me every time <3 (all of the Tempest wataei moments actually I love that event so much fine my beloveds and the cgs mwah mwah mwah)

(Close second must be either the ep:link mask scene or that one time in elements when Wataru was practicing his lines on the school rooftop and Eichi was watching him and pining so hard he partially turned into a forest)

(or that one time in Fist of the Shangri-la Idol where Wataru was like "That filth precisely is one of Eichis, dare I say all of humanities charm point!" And Eichi just answered with "Thanks I love you too Wataru" I thought that was really fun same with Sanctuary during the helicopter ride when Wataru basically said the same thing to him ("It is precisely because you are so deranged that I take such interest in you! <3") or when Eichi just left Tomoya in the middle of nowhere to dramatically make his exit with Wataru although I'm not sure if that really counts as a Wataei moment I just think that one's hilarious AND OH MY GOD HOW COULD I FORGET EICHIS FEVER DREAM FROM JINGLE BELLS That one also just </3 so bittersweet </3 or literally every time everyone mentions how Eichi would buy Wataru the world if he asked for it or in the Milky Way story the soba(??) which Eichi said reminded him of Watarus hair and then immediately went "actually, where is Wataru?" and the counter piece from Neverland where Nagisa made a pun on Ibaras name and Wataru went "oh you made a pun! Our Eichi is quite fond of those too! <33" (living in each others minds rent free lomve) and also that time in the summer vacation (I think it was called?) where Kaoru was calling for help because Wataru wouldn't leave him alone and Eichi just "Why, are you cheating on me Wataru?" I just thought that was really amusing they did not hold back on the wataei in that story though chapter one I think it was they already had them with the "Just for being yourself you've already earned 100 points!" "Well then I shall continue to aim for 120." And Watarus grandiously announcing Eichis arrival and Eichi answering with "oh you're making me blush" and NOT TO FORGET THE MILKY WAY SCENE AFTER THE LIVE WHEN THEY WERE SITTING AND EICHI WAS IN AWE ABOUT VALKYRIES PERFORMANCE AND THE "after all, the one who taught me that this world could be more beautiful than anything else was you." (I think it was something along those lines) which. Biting through a wall. And in daydream the way Eichi described Wataru was also *chefs kiss* I really liked that scene it was also very bittersweet (mainly bitter but that has it's appeal too no?) And aaah gosh the ending chapters of ep:link too those were sooooooo ("You could be Momotarou born from a peach. You could be a nameless extra of unknown origin. It all wouldn't matter because the one standing right in front of me is the Hibiki Wataru I love and admire." Dying deceased dead.) Just the way they are the reason we even have this entire store just the way they shaped the narrative I am soooooo normal about them AND DINER LIVE THE LAST CHAPTER when he said he wanted to stand on the same stage as Eichi not as a member of fine or as one of the five oddballs but as just Wataru that was also very <33 :)))) and all of Magnolia chapter 6/7/8 the bet to play a game and then the loser has to buy the winner lunch and the doll (that doll I am still not over that) and the way there's multiple dolls and "You're a genius I have taken quite a liking to" and the way Wataru wanted to hand those dolls up by the neck outside of the window for good weather and when Eichi had the Wataru doll sit in his chair so it wouldn't get dirtied I think was the reason and Tori was very weirded out by the situation I lomved that a lot they're very neat I love them a lot I love them so much they're so dear to me <3333)

[guptadeepakcom]

11 Tips for Keeping Information Safe on the Internet

The internet brings with it a host of fun-filled activities and access to information that we could never have dreamt of just a decade ago. While the internet today is a wonderful resource, it is essential to remember that it can also be hazardous, especially if you have children who are "researching" while you are not watching.

There is no shortage of risks at home, at school, or at work. From inappropriate content to malicious sites and more, there are numerous risks. This blog will look at a few online safety tips to help you keep your personal details, private photos, and videos safe on the internet and off the internet, too.

Keep Personal Data Private and Limited

Potential employers or consumers do not require your personal or financial information. They must be aware of your skills and professional experience and how to contact you. You wouldn't dish out your personal details to strangers, so why give it out to countless, nameless people online?

Make Strong and Secure Passwords

When creating passwords, think of past phrases or figures that a malicious actor might easily decipher, such as your birthdate or your family members' names. Change the uppercase and lowercase letters, digits, and characters regularly.

For internet safety, it's also a good idea to generate distinct and strong passwords rather than using the same password on different sites - a password vault or password manager application can help maintain a record of this.

Be Cautious When Browsing Online

You wouldn't venture into a risky area in real life, so don't go online and visit unsecured websites. Identity thieves often utilize lurid information as bait. They realize netizens are occasionally attracted and curious about questionable content and may possibly lay their guard down when searching for it.

The underbelly of the internet is fraught with unknown dangers - a single thoughtless click could potentially reveal personal information and sensitive data or contaminate your gadget with viruses. You don't even offer the online predators a chance to gain access to your sensitive information if you resist the desire.

Two-Step Authentication is a Must

Large, reputable organizations such as PayPal, Facebook, Google, and others utilize two-step verification, requiring users to sign in using a code texted to their cellphones.

Other organizations may want your cellphone number or an alternate email account so that if they detect any suspicious activity or someone tries to access the account from other devices, you will receive a message requesting extra verification.

Be Wary of What You Share

The internet server doesn't have a true delete feature. Because eliminating the original doesn't really erase any copies generated by others, any comment or picture you post online may remain online indefinitely.

You can't "claim back" a comment you might regret posting or delete an awkward selfie you clicked at a party. To stay safe online, post nothing on the internet that you'd never want your mother or a future employer to see.

Use Prudence When Using Free Wi-Fi

No one ever said that a tad bit of online shopping was bad, or did someone? Any free public Wi-Fi network that you may use for making online purchases will have insufficient internet safety protections in place; other people on the same internet connection could readily see what you're doing.

Before pulling out your credit card, be sure you're at home, connected to a safe, password-protected virtual private network, and have antivirus software installed.

Examine Your Bank's and Creditor's Protection Measures

There is no such thing as universal internet safety and protection regarding online activities. If you shop online or do any business on the internet, ensure your bank or credit institutions have procedures designed to safeguard you in the event of online scams and identity theft. If your account has been hacked and exploited, you don't want to self-insure.

Furthermore, never enable your browser or web pages to remember your bank account information, for this is a sure-fire way to end up in trouble.

Take Caution When Meeting People Online

Individuals you connect with on social media platforms or meet online aren't always who they say they are. It's possible that they're not even real. Forged online accounts are a convenient method for hackers to snuggle up to naive internet users and empty their online wallets.

To prevent a data breach, maintain the same level of caution and common sense in your internet community life as in your offline social life.

Keep an Eye Out for Connections and Attachments

Online criminals and hackers are quite crafty. Their phishing scams are usually disguised as messages from an institution, power company, or other business. Specific characteristics, such as misspellings or an unusual email account, can indicate that the message is from malicious software.

Drive Wiping and Factory Reset

Frequently, just "deleting" anything from your computer or mobile device or clearing your browsing history does not result in the information being permanently removed from the gadget. When you resell or discard your old desktop computers or mobile devices, ensure the drives or cloud storage are thoroughly cleaned and the system is the factory reset.

Seek Information and Examine the Fine Print

Web browsers must understand that safeguarding personal information is a shared duty among themselves and their organizations. Customers should read and examine the security measures of the web pages to understand how and why the site/platform will utilize their personal information.

As a result, businesses should have well-documented privacy rules and standards in place and the ability to resolve any issues that arise correctly.

Bottom Line

As the internet has become a part of our daily lives, so have its insecurities. Safely Surfing the web and following healthy internet habits doesn't just mean being careful what you click. It means understanding how to protect your identity and ensure that your personal information online doesn't fall into the wrong hands.

Before signing off, the most important thing to remember is that, while the internet is a fantastic resource, it is not a substitute for real-life connections. So make sure to stay safe online and offline by being smart, using the internet safety tips mentioned above, and knowing how to get help if you need it.

https://bit.ly/3NFoB9y https://bit.ly/3lYJWyQ

[zergvsgenin]

Zerg Rambles About Octopath Traveler: Prologue Demo

First of all, three hours ain’t nearly long enough for my purposes.  But hey, as a first-time player, I managed to boil it down to an average of 3 hours per party member.  It should be noted that the game world does, in fact, level scale, so it’s pretty obvious that the devs intend for you to grab all 8 characters at some point.  The main problem on paper is that when you get someone, they start at level 1, so depending on your play style, this could pose a bit of a problem as they’ll likely end up underlevelled, especially as you start needing the tavern to arrange your party.  Luckily, by those points, those underlevelled folks seem to catch up much faster than your less recent characters.  Full HP/SP restoration upon level up is a nice addition, too.

During my time, I wasn’t able to unlock secondary classes, which I can only assume will be a thing in the full game when I have more time to experiment around.  With the ability sets you DO have, I’d recommend trying to focus on AoE attacks when you just start out.  For example, if starting with Primrose, one of the first things I learned when I got the chance was Night Ode, an AoE Dark-element attack.  Those things are pretty useful for figuring out an enemy’s weaknesses when running into them for the first time, and can set up for some fun mass Breaks.

Sadly, I wasn’t able to complete any side stories that involved path actions.  I got a feel for a couple of them over in Sunland (Primrose’s starting area), but in my dash to recruit extra peeps, I ran out of time before I could resolve one (or two) that Olberic could’ve taken care of.  That aside, I found myself a little thrown off by the fact that the side story placement is very different from the original Primrose/Olberic demo.  Seeing as this is a decent chunk of the full game, I suppose this was to be expected.

Headcanons for what’s transpired in my three hours below:

Began the game as Primrose, the dancer seeking revenge against the three “Crow Men” who killed her father and brought ruin to her once-noble house.  Her story remains unchanged from the demo, which is good, since I skipped her cutscenes to shave off time.  After her revenge-kill of Helgenish for his personal murder of Yusufa (and that’s not mentioning all sorts of abuse before this), she heads back to Sunland and sees that the man isn’t too, too well missed, much to her relief.  It makes it that much easier to get equipped to head out.  But... she’s just one woman.  Monsters aside, she has no real idea just what else the Crow Men who murdered her father have up their sleeves, considering that they had Helgenish in their pocket up until recently.  She needs help, so she heads for the east, to somewhere greener and cooler.

While taking a small break in the small village of Cobblestone, she runs into Olberic, the knight seeking a reason to wield his blade.  He is preparing to set out to rescue his protege, Philip, who’d been kidnapped by nearby brigands.  Upon hearing his tale and the betrayal of Erhardt, Prim suspects that he might have -something- to do with the men she’s after, so she accompanies Olberic in his task.  Finding out that the bandit leader, Gaston, knew Erhardt and even possessed his old sword, this solidifies Prim’s want to find out more about the same man, putting her roughly on the same mindset as Olberic: Why did Erhardt do what he did those years ago?  I forget the length of time in-between Primrose’s father’s death and the start of her story, but I imagine that that and Erhardt’s betrayal were at least semi-close.  The two figure the they’ll need some better gear to get to where they need to go, so they head northward, up towards the coast, in hopes that they’ll catch some merchant ships.  During these travels, Primrose lays out that she’s willing to do literally anything it takes to get her revenge, something that Olberic understandably doesn’t feel too good about.  He makes a mental note to himself to keep an eye on her while they seek out their mutual targets.

While shopping and sightseeing in Rippletide, the duo of Primrose and Olberic come across Tressa, who’s getting herself ready to take back some stolen goods from pirates who came through and sacked the town.  Considering that she’s young, Olberic simply won’t let her go alone, especially given the size of the sleepweed-laced wine barrel she’s trying to haul off.  Seriously, who goes small when you’re trying to booze a bunch of pirates?  Primrose tags along as well not just because of her 1st character status, but because she wants to make sure that nothing happens to Tressa that’d put her anywhere near where Prim herself ended up.  When that business is done and the pirates are driven off with the help of the merchant ship Captain Leon, Tressa comes across the nameless traveler’s journal.  Time passes as Prim and Olberic are invited over as houseguests at Tressa’s house as a thank-you from her parents.  Tressa herself has spent quite a while reading through the traveler’s journal.  This, combined with hearing of how far Primrose in particular has come from where she started in Sunland, eggs on the merchant girl to go out there and see the world alongside the duo.  Olberic personally promises Tressa’s parents that he’ll make sure that she returns safely as the now-trio sets out for parts currently unknown.

The way I was playing, I had plans to head westward again, in hopes of running into Alfyn, and then eventually Ophelia.  Guess I’ll have to wait at least a few more weeks...

[lynchgirl90]

The #TwinPeaks Season 3 Blu-ray is a Wonderful Package for 2017’s Greatest Piece of Narrative Entertainment

David Lynch‘s stunning Twin Peaks season 3, also known as Twin Peaks: The Return, comes to Blu-ray as a must-have box set loaded with fascinating and revealing looks behind the production. Just as they did so many years ago, David Lynch and Mark Frost have created a TV event unlike any other before, and probably unlike anything that will ever come after it. Here, as one cohesive Blu-ray, we have the chance to watch the saga unfold from beginning to end, which might very well be the best way to experience the show. Our Twin Peaks season 3 Blu-ray review below pulls back the red curtain and journeys into the unknown. Join me?

The Owls Are Not What They Seem

The greatest piece of narrative entertainment from 2017 was not in movie theaters, but rather playing on Showtime over the course of one weird, wild summer. Defying the odds, premium cable channel Showtime parked a large amount of money on David Lynch’s doorstep and convinced him to come out of semi-retirement to resurrect his cult TV series Twin Peaks. The results were stunning.

Lynch, the brilliant, mad mind behind Blue Velvet, Lost Highway and more, hadn’t made a film since 2006’s Inland Empire, yet any fears that the iconic filmmaker might have grown rusty in his time off were quickly assuaged as the beginning of the new Twin Peaks unfolded. Lynch and Twin Peaks co-creator Mark Frost had pulled out all the stops to return audiences to a place both wonderful and strange, and we all got a lot more than we could’ve possibly bargained for.

The importance of the original Twin Peaks can not be overstated. TV as we know it today, everything we lump into the “Peak TV” category of high quality, cinematic television, can trace its roots back to what Lynch and Frost did with the original Twin Peaks. He brought the auteur theory and the avant-garde to mainstream primetime TV, and television has been paying tribute ever since. The original Peaks only lasted two seasons, but after its cancellation in 1991, the show took on a life of its own, its cult fandom growing to monolithic proportions. Lynch revisited the town with 1992’s prequel film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, which polarized audiences and took the mythology of the series into even stranger, near-indecipherable directions. Something curious happened after that: the show became even more popular, but the show that newer fans seemed to latch onto wasn’t actually the show that Lynch had created.

A meme-ification of Twin Peaks had set in, fueled by the Tumblr generation fond of sharing out of context screen grabs and quick gifs that may look amazing but don’t even come close to capturing the aura of what Lynch was going for. So when Lynch and Frost announced that “That gum you like is going to come back in style,” there was an uneasiness with how modern TV viewers would react to whatever it was they were about to witness. We live in the age of the live-tweet, where audiences have trouble putting their phone down to entirely focus on their entertainment, and are instead prone to firing off an instant reaction with the hopes of raking up a few “likes.” This is not the ideal type of viewing experience for something created by Lynch, and if audiences thought they were going to be in for instant gratification with the new Twin Peaks, they were setting themselves up for failure.

The same foul fate would befall the aforementioned Tumblr generation, who apparently wanted nothing deeper than endless shots of cherry pie, black coffee, and Audrey Horne’s saddle shoes. Anyone who dares to cruise the Twin Peakshashtag on Tumblr while the new series was airing likely found themselves in a world of woe, with Tumblr users bemoaning that the new Twin Peaks was denying them their dream of Special Agent Dale Cooper and Audrey Horne finally falling into each other’s arms at the Double R Diner while Shelly Johnson serves them up a slice of pie. In short, what they wanted was fan service. And fan service is not what David Lynch traffics in. I doubt the term even exists in his vocabulary.

Instead, Lynch provided viewers with one of the most audacious 18 hours ever committed to television. A daring, mind-warping journey back to the town of Twin Peaks and beyond. He blew a big, black hole into the very mythology of the show, and created something stranger than anyone viewing the original series would’ve imagined.

I Am Dead Yet I Live

The original Twin Peaks began as a procedural drama, then blossomed into something nearly unclassifiable. After local teen Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) is found murdered, FBI Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) arrives in town to investigate. Cooper gets to know the town, and the townsfolk, as he tries to crack the Palmer case.

And then things get weird.

Twin Peaks made what many consider to be a huge mistake by wrapping up the mystery of who killed Laura Palmer rather quickly, and then becoming stranger and stranger until it found itself canceled. The problem: the series ended on one major cliffhanger, with Cooper trapped in The Black Lodge, an eerie, extra-dimensional location populated with backward-talking people, billowing red curtains, and flashes of lighting. Meanwhile, an evil Cooper doppelgänger, connected to the malevolent force known as BOB, took the real Cooper’s place back in the real world.

There was never any real chance that Lynch and Frost would quickly sew up this dangling thread, however. Instead, when Twin Peaks returned to Showtime, it expanded the mythology of the series and took viewers on a long journey that was all part of Cooper’s return to the real world. But Cooper isn’t the real focus of Twin Peaks. Laura Palmer is. For Lynch, Laura Palmer is a representation of horribly wronged innocence. Fire Walk With Me revealed the traumatic events leading up to Laura’s death, and Lynch’s focus seems to be on the cosmic injustice of it all. The cruel blindness of fate. Laura Palmer is a force of something pure and good in the universe, and no matter how hard Cooper might try, he can never really save her. But perhaps that’s not what’s important. Perhaps what’s important is that he’ll keep trying.

Twin Peaks season 3 has Cooper escape the Black Lodge by taking the place of hapless, corrupt Las Vegas dwelling insurance salesman Dougie Jones (also played by MacLachlan). In reality, Dougie is a “tulpa” – a being created from the selected thoughts of different individuals. Tibetan mythology describe tulpas as “extra bodies that were created from one person’s mind in order to travel to spiritual realms.”

Rather than have Cooper escape the Black Lodge and come back to the real world acting like his old self, Lynch and Frost have the agent stuck in a childlike state, as if all the years stuck in an alternate dimension has blasted away a part of his consciousness. Then, in the most delightfully devious twist of all, Lynch proceeds to keep Cooper in this state through nearly the entire series. There are triggers that we keep expecting will snap Cooper out of his Dougie state: coffee, pie, etc. But Lynch isn’t interested in an easy way out. Instead, he engrosses us into the life of Dougie Jones, as the traumatized Cooper adapts to his new reality with Dougie’s wife Janey-E (Naomi Watts) and son Sonny Jim (Pierce Gagnon).

You could practically hear the groans of certain viewers as Lynch refused to break Cooper out of the Jones family mold, yet this material provides us with some of the most incredible moments of the revival series, and gives Kyle MacLachlan a chance to shine, playing up both the comic relief elements of Dougie Jones (see: Dougie in a casino yelling “Hello-oooooo!” at slot machines) mixed with more heartbreaking scenes (see: Dougie watching Sonny Jim with a look of profound sadness on his face).

Twin Peaks sets up a horde of new characters, almost all of which become memorable almost instantaneously – a feat few other shows can pull off. There’s the Mitchum Brothers (Jim Belushi and Robert Knepper), who are both trying to murder Dougie Jones before growing fond of him on the basis of a dream. There are two assassins (Jennifer Jason Leigh and Tim Roth), who spend most of their time in a van shooting the breeze when they’re not shooting people. And most important of all, there’s Diane (Laura Dern), Cooper’s old flame who teams up with FBI Director Gordon Cole (Lynch) and company to find out what happened to the real Cooper. Dern, with her various wigs, foul mouth, chain smoking and multi-colored manicure, steals every scene she appears in.

But what of Twin Peaks, the town that started it all? Lynch brings us back to the town, and gives us a glimpse into the lives of old favorites: Shelly (Mädchen Amick), Bobby (Dana Ashbrook), Big Ed (Everett McGill), Norma (Peggy Lipton), Andy (Harry Goaz), Lucy (Kimmy Robertson), Hawk (Michael Horse), Audrey Horne (Sherilyn Fenn), and more, but the new season isn’t so much interested in closing out their stories as it is showing the effects of the passage of time. That’s not to say there aren’t narrative conclusions. In one of the new season’s most satisfying moments, Big Ed and Norma finally seal the deal on their romance after years apart. Lynch stages this in a lovely way, with Norma’s hands coming from just off frame onto Big Ed’s shoulders, while Big Ed closes his eyes in contentment.

These lovely moments are contrasted with stark, disturbing horror. In the opening episode alone, a nameless, shapeless monster escapes a containment unit and lays waste to a pair of lovers in a scene drenched in blood and confusion. And at the center of the series as a whole is the terrifying notion that evil, in all its forms, will almost always come out ahead. After nearly 18 hours, Cooper manages to alter time and save Laura Palmer from her teenage demise. Yet the aftershocks of this change are not ideal – the world as Cooper (and by extension, the audience) knows it has been altered forever. The final few seconds of the series find Cooper and Laura in a state of limbo, with Cooper absently wondering “What year is this?” before Laura, looking up at the house that once held such trauma and abuse for her in another life, emits a piercing, blood-chilling scream that seems to be echoing across time and space itself (note: if there was an award for Best Scream, Sheryl Lee would be the clear winner).

What are we to make of this cryptic, haunting conclusion? The beauty of Twin Peaks is that Lynch and Frost aren’t interested in providing us with clear answers. One of the quotes from the revival series states, “We are like the dreamer who dreams and lives inside the dream.” This is as clear a Twin Peaks mission statement as we’ll ever receive. The series as a whole is a dream that the audience is living inside, and like dreams, the narrative is open to endless interpretation. And best of all, no interpretation can really be considered incorrect. You can take away a million different morals from Twin Peaks as a whole, but I think a strong case can be made for the unsettling message that evil – in all its forms – will frequently come out ahead. The important thing is for committed, determined people like Dale Cooper to continue to try to stop it anyway. Cooper may not always succeed, but we can take some sort of cold comfort in the fact that he’ll try anyway.

Phenomenon

The Blu-ray special feature Phenomenon is broken into three distinct parts: Creation, Life After Death and Renaissance. As a whole, this feature is a fun but mostly boilerplate look at the series as a whole. It’s quick and to the point, and was likely originally cut to serve as more of a commercial for the revival series than a truly in-depth look at Twin Peaks. Creation looks at the show’s origins, from its time on ABC to the fan reaction, including the popular “watching parties” that had audiences coming together to experience each weekly episode as a group. Life After Death examines the growing cult fandom that sprung up after the show had been canceled. Fan magazines and conventions gave Twin Peaks whole new life and kept the series alive for an entire new generation born after the first show had long been canceled. Renaissance is a crash-course in bringing the show back to life on Showtime. Again, there’s no real insight here or depth. Lynch and frost pop-up for quick soundbites, but anyone hoping for the creators to delve into the process of bringing Twin Peaks back from the dead need look elsewhere.

Behind the Red Curtain and I Had Bad Milk in Dehradun

Richard Beymer, who plays Twin Peaks character Ben Horne, shot these two mini-documentaries that appear in the Blu-ray special features. There’s no narrative thread to these two features. Instead, they provide a raw, uncensored look at Lynch and company on the Black Lodge set, setting up shots. These two features provide us with what will become a running theme of the behind-the-scenes footage provided on the Blu-ray: shot after shot of Lynch at work.

If you ever wanted to sit back and watch David Lynch direct, the features provided here are a gold mine. They also provide an amusing, even charming look at how normal it all is. Lynch deals with such strange, dark, violent material that it can be easy to think of him as a dark, brooding weirdo, but the footage here shows him as an affable, laid-back fellow who knows exactly what he wants from a scene and how to get it. These slice-of-life moments give us an opportunity to see Lynch help Kyle MacLachlan tie a necktie, or give Sherilyn Fenn a cigarette as he talks with her about her character. Speaking of cigarettes, get ready to see a lot of them. Lynch is constantly smoking in these behind-the-scenes moments, an American Spirit cigarette always perched in his mouth or resting between his fingers. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself longing for a smoke after watching all of this.

The only downside to this, and other behind-the-scenes features is that some of the magic of the show is lost. We’re peeling back the red curtain here, and seeing how the sausage is made. The otherworldly nature of Twin Peaks drops away as we see numerous crew members making everything come together. In one amusing moment, we see Lynch and company watching a clip from the original Twin Peaks on YouTube so they can match a shot up to a new scene

In A Very Lovely Dream: One Week in Twin Peaks

Filmmaker Charles DeLauzirika put together this on-location feature that goes behind the scenes. Not much of the material here is very comprehensive, but it does provide a fly-on-the-wall look at the production, including actors discussing how strange it was to step back into roles they hadn’t played in more than two decades. The best moments come when we get to watch Lynch direct – almost always through a megaphone. If you’re looking for a bit more, however, this isn’t the feature for you. Instead, you should move quickly to IMPRESSIONS: A Journey Behind the Scenes of Twin Peaks.

IMPRESSIONS: A Journey Behind the Scenes of Twin Peaks

Without question, the best features on the new Twin Peaks: A Limited Event Series Blu-ray release are the series of behind-the-scenes films bundled together as IMPRESSIONS: A Journey Behind the Scenes of Twin Peaks. Longtime Lynch documentarian and friend Jason S. shot these 10 revealing, fascinating films (each runs about 30 minutes), covering almost the entire filming schedule of the new series.

Once again, we have Lynch constantly smoking his American Spirit cigarettes, but these features are much more in-depth than Behind the Red Curtain and I Had Bad Milk in Dehradun. We get to watch as Lynch and his crew come up with character names on the fly, and cracking up when he thinks up silly-sounding names. This feature also reveals how hands-on Lynch is: at one point, we see him sculpting one of the show’s props himself – a spout made of styrofoam that will eventually serve as the giant teapot-like contraption that took the place of the dearly departed David Bowie.

Again, the best moments are those when we get to watch Lynch direct, like a sequence where he chats with Kyle MacLachlan and Laura Dern in a motel room set. Lynch has nicknames for all his actors, and it’s charming to listen to him refer to Dern as “Tidbit” and MacLachlan as “Kale.” Later, he has to talk Dern into letting makeup artists cover her face in bread dough. After the scene is complete, Dern gets payback by applying the same dough to Lynch’s face. It’s a charming, funny glimpse into the carefree, friendly atmosphere prevalent on Lynch’s sets. “I wouldn’t have a career if it wasn’t for David,” MacLachlan said once. “He pretty much brought me up in the film world and spoiled me; we’ve all spoken about how the set is, he creates the environment and the joyfulness and the creativity. I’ve been spoiled forever working with David.” The footage here is proof positive of that statement.

Still, there are moments where Lynch can lose his temper. In one sequence, not filmed on set but rather in a meeting with his crew, Lynch gets frustrated when he’s told that they’ll only be able to film in one location for two days. The filmmaker grows apoplectic at this time constraint, shouting, “Why do I only have two fucking days?” and complaining that given the chance, he could spend “weeks” on certain sets “dreaming up new ideas.”

The only negative thing I’ll say about this feature: the footage is (sporadically) narrated by Josef Maria Schäfers, in what I presume is an attempt to mock (or perhaps pay loving tribute to) the existential narration that filmmaker Werner Herzog usually gives his documentaries. The narration here is unnecessary and distracting and grows truly tiresome after a while.

Goodbye, Margaret

Other features on the Blu-ray include a series of David Lynch produced promos for the series. Lynch managed to avoid having to cut a proper trailer for the Showtime revival, and instead put together these abstract clips that teased the tone without giving anything away. Also included is a behind-the-scenes photo gallery, a series of alternating versions of the Rancho Rosa production logo that started each episode, and the full San Diego Comic-Con 2017 Twin Peaks Panel, which you can watch in full above.

As a whole, the Twin Peaks: A Limited Event Series Blu-ray is a must-own for any David Lynch or Twin Peaks fan. There’s a wealth of material here beyond the series itself, but best of all is the opportunity to watch the episodes back-to-back, and watch as the create an elaborate, hypnotic saga the likes of which we’ll never see again.

Full list of special features:

BLU-RAY AND DVD:

IMPRESSIONS: A Journey Behind the Scenes of Twin Peaks

Phenomenon

Rancho Rosa Logos (2:25)

San Diego Comic-Con 2017 Twin Peaks Panel (61:26)

David Lynch Produced Promos

The Man with the Grey Elevated Hair (29:40)

Tell it Martin (29:08)

Two Blue Balls (24:14)

The Number of Completion (29:17)

Bad Binoculars (28:08)

See You on the Other Side Dear Friend (30:00)

Do Not Pick Up Hitchhikers (26:44)

A Bloody Finger in Your Mouth (26:49)

The Polish Accountant (28:05)

A Pot of Boiling Oil (38:32)

Part 1: Creation (4:40)

Part 2: Life After Death (4:50)

Part 3: Renaissance (4:50)

Behind-the-scenes Photo Gallery

Piano (1:02)

Donut (:32)

Woods (:32)

People (:32)

Places (:32)

Albert (1:02)

In – cinema (1:32)

BLU-RAY EXCLUSIVE:

A Very Lovely Dream: One Week in Twin Peaks (27:09)

Behind the Red Curtain (29:17)

I Had Bad Milk in Dehradun (28:11)

Link (TP) 

[elboyo-blog]

About Youtube Rewind

Right so… youtube rewind 2017 is out. Everyone’s favourite end of year tradition, showcasing all the trends people were talking about, and all the topics and creators on the site that cultivated the community around to make youtube stand ou…

I should stop. This is all bullshit as I am aware you all know, yourtube rewind is, was and always will be throwaway ‘look at us we’re unique!’ shite, but this years was especially aggravating. It really boiled down a reality that has been creeping up on us for a while. Youtube rewind 2017 just shows that youtube doesn’t want to be youtube. Of course that could be seen that last year, for example the whole Dwayne Johnson at the start but I believe that can be justified with the fact that Dwayne has a channel just for himself, what isn’t justifiable from last year at least is the fucking talk show hosts like trevor noah and Seth ‘cumstain’ myers.  This only gets worse and worse with this years entry however. But I’m getting ahead of myself, lets just break it down (tl;dr at the bottom)

overview (This will be the most chronological so watching along helps)

Right so off the fucking bat the vid starts with a Stephen Colbert(Not a youtuber) talking to Lele Pons (A viner and Instagram star who flocked to youtube where that ship sank) and some girl beside (I think she’s popular but I don’t know her), we then see some random girl run into the room and start the cue to ‘Despacito’ which I can see why it is there at least, as it sprung to the highest viewed it can have justification. It then cuts to some people dancing and switching shots locations and people (one of which is that one DJ marshmallow or whatever who, again, isn’t a youtuber). It stops at KSI (Who I’ll get too) using a fidget spinner (which ill also get too) with some some vloggers/IG stars beside him (probably). Oh, hey Rhett and Link.  We then get showcased to a slime playground of sorts. I have no fucking clue if this was a trend at all. The only thing I can link this too is all the ‘homemade slime’ tutorials I always hear about. The only thing I really got was ‘Wow! Muselk is thicc’ but other than that the whole thing I think was pointless. Then, for some reason, they put rinestones on their faces? Again, was this a trend? Like, was there a whole underground rinestone craze that slipped under people’s noses? Like most things though, I doubt if it was a trend it even started on youtube. Anyway, they do the dua lipa thing, go to Africa, uuuuuuuugehiehehiihesfiefbfrbeube, do dance crazes during said ‘uuuuuuuugehiehehiihesfiefbfrbeube’ that didn’t originate on youtube and HEY! The eclipse was a thing right? EventhoughthatprimarilyhappenedintheUSthereforealienatinganyrelatabilitythatyoutubewasgoingfor buuuuuut I digress. They do do one thing right which is the whole meme graveyard idea (fitting, I know) parodying the video for the worst tayloer swift yet (nothing beats love story fight me) oooooooh but then the DAB! They hit that DAB!  Into yet another ‘uuuuuuuugehiehehiihesfiefbfrbeube’. Oh cool poopy’s there. Don’t know who that other person is but maybe it’s a new character in the poppy lore or maybe its just a person I don’t know or maybe recognise. The whole hurricane Harvey thing they pull next is insulting to the point ill reserve a whole section to it. Skipping that we go to a roof party with the DJ and the fidget spinner, a perfect almagimation of all that isn’t youtube based trends, seriously the dj could maybe be related as he uses youtube as an outlet for his music but fidget spinners were a physical thing! It was a brand! Literally this year’s version of silly bandz! Yes Susan, include this! Very youtube, much wow! Fuck off. Anyway, we see the party is home to the biggest twats of youtube, team 10 and the pauly boys (Note: that’s a nice band name). with them on the roof are stars that again, didn’t start on youtube. Most of them are viners and/or IG stars with like one or two from fine bros React (I shit you not if you look in the back there’s the old guy from elder’s react). We cut to more slime bois (hey Tomska). When they cut back, (yes holy shit it is the guy form elders react! Jfc) and they do their sick moves like the floss, a move YouTube claims to have homebrewed as well (come on guys, Katy Perry tried to claim it first). Hey, look its every 14y/o girls wet dream. More slime boyos. I think KEEM screams the floor is lava but… that trend was an IG trend wasn’t it or like the last vine trend, but it got Ol’ Yellered, like, just because Fine Bros do a youtubers react to it doesn’t make it a YouTube thing! Jeez louis. Big Shaq’s there, that’s neat. Some filler dancing and cuts when they cut back to the graveyard reinforcing that is it a graveyard for dead memes which I have problem with, because that would insinuate that ‘All Star’ died this year. No, it didn’t, and as long as Steve Harwell is still on God’s green earth no it won’t, yes its popularity has dulled but it was actually a meme that just faded away, cropping up every once in a while, its survival is different to similar trends like ‘We Are Number One’ which can make people I know physically wince when heard. All star didn’t die, it’ll be back if it even left in the first place. More vloggers and traditionally attractive people flash by as a whole recap happen of the torment thrusted upon me. The last live action sketch is Lele and her friend greet the non-youtuber rounding out the production. The credits are actually the best part of this however as we see different pseudo-animators (think more odd1s out, less Psychicpebbles), such as Extra Credits, Tabbes, Jaidenanimation, Odd1sout, Rebecca Parham, ItsAlexClark and Simon’s cat. Though their subject matter is just as pander-y shite as the whole vid you can see the effort in their animation and it’s nice to see that youtube finally removed the dildo it has been shoving up most youtube animator’s asses for the last 3-5 years (but by ‘removed’ I really mean they just slapped a sign on it that says ‘here at YouTube, we love our animators!’ and pretend they solved the problem.

Dead fucking memes/(hate to use the phrase but) irrelevancy

The Dab, fidget spinners, shooting stars with more probably but it was hard to see during my stroke, point is, YouTube is out of touch and has zero self-awareness when it comes to memes and trends

I know the word sounds pretentious as hell but seriously, here’s a my honest-to-god reaction of who I saw on screen

·         Not a youtuber

·         Not a youtuber

·         Don’t know

·         Don’t know

·         Despactio guy 1

·         Don’t know *3

·         Despacito guy 2: electric boogaloo

·         Don’t know *2

·         Don’t know *2

·         Don’t know *2

·         Dj boi

·         Vannos

·         Don’t Know *4 Ft. Lincoln

·         Don’t know *3

·         Quick flashes of the great unknown

·         KSI and his favourite toy (not counting NetNobody’s dick)

·         Don’t know *6 (Empire was better)

·         Another 3 I don’t know but there is that one guy who screams a lot, think his names guacamole or something

·         @rhettandlink and another guy, classic trio

·         Don’t know*2

·         Don’t know*slime

·         Don’t know* rhinestone

·         Hey, its @a-kind-ale-war

·         Africa – Toto

·         Slo mo guys among the dead meme cosmos

·         Otherwise, you guessed it, no clue

·         Don’t know * field

·         Don’t know any of the eclipse crew

·        @caseyneistat

·         God’ wrath in the form of comets coming to smite us as failed creations

·         YouTube Is Shutting Down My Channel and I'm Not Sure What To Do

·         His beautiful bastards (nameless in my lack of knowledge)

·         6 zombies that died in obscurity, nameless and unknown, ‘tis a shame

·         Why I left Smosh

·         The cosmos of people I don’t know

·         KSI’s brother

·         Poppy

·         A DC lawsuit

·         Mooooooooorrrrrreeeeee spaaaaaaccceeeee

·         A youtube circle jerk of self-righteousness (more on that later)

·         People holding hands

·         The shitty vine family

·         Team 10 bitch who the hell are flipping you

·         The other one

·         Shitty IG ‘Comedy’ Squad

·         Black guys and backpack kid (Note: another good band name, though it needs tweaking)

·        @thetomska getting face fucked

·         Victims of the great slime massacre (slime control now!)

·         Old guy from react

·         Don’t know*roof party

·         Every teenage girls wet dream/gay ship

·         Daniel Keem saying floor is lava

·         Lava victims

·         A very cold rapper

·         Don’t know but has a sword

·         More zombie boys

·         A cluster of people 2012

·         Forehead in the back again (sorry jack)

·         @markiplier

·         Why I gave the pope Undertale

·         A finale of people I don’t know being absorbed by the cosmos

·         Neato mosquito animators

As you can see a good majority of the stars I doubt much people know, probably only chosen for the brand friendliness which begs the question…

Exclusions/double standards

A lot of people were excluded from this year’s rewind, which isn’t a surprise in the slightest. This issue was brought up last year as well, but with this year it showcases some hypocrisy with possible reasons to exclude folks. Firstly, KSI, he had the whole beef with NetNobody (the greatest Minecraft youtuber there is) but Netnobody was excluded, it couldn’t be numbers or presence as before retiring, Adam had about 11 million subs, maybe he declined, like most sane people would, or maybe because he neither pulls the views or the family friendly influence that he used to. Its safe to assume Ricegum and IDubbbz got rejected by choice, again sanity, or because of their beef, which is again hypocritical of the site as KSI was allowed on fine and Keem along with the Paul brothers aren’t the angels of Youtube either. Again, it seems YouTube is really trying to push this family friendly goofball persona which is perfect for the weird kids and the cool kids which is true but is only really surface level in the rewind and the reality isn’t really shown otherwise. Also fuck that Nazi racist Pewdiepie amirite ladies?

Hurricane Harvey debacle

I believe this is honestly the most insulting aspect of the rewind. Though it had good intentions it just highlights YouTube’s utter ignorance. Not to pull a PJW but this is dictionary definition virtue signalling. Youtube makes themselves out to be all together, yes youtube, you are the most influential platforms of our generation, cat videos and make-up vlogs can save the world! In all seriousness though this is one of the most botched poorly executed thing I’ve ever seen, and I’m counting HWNDU. For one thing the tone and flow is horrible, the segment is frankenstiened into the middle of the video and puts a halt on the relatively well paced video, and is followed by a radical hip and swaggity dance party yeah! As if the whole was a task by the team and when they were down with it they thought; “right, that’s over with. Back to the fun and cool stuff yeah!” if they kept the pace by putting the thing just before the credits as to highlight the message at the end and while everyone’s lifted by the message they’re treated to the credits and the talents of the wonderful animators. However, that would only make the segment flow correctly as, in my opinion, it comes off as quite nepotistic to big creators. A method they could’ve done is before they filmed or edited anything they could’ve announced to fans and viewers to send in webcam clips and videos of them holding hands in unity or saying unity, showing a UNITY between fans and creators. That said this brings me to my conclusion;

 Conclusion

Youtube doesn’t want to be youtube, it wants to be a family and advertiser friendly site for all to come, it wants to be seen as a beacon for ALL internet trends and ideas and it wants to be seen as a user and creator friendly platform. But youtube isn’t this, and youtube hates that. This year has seen the worst year in the sites history for user treatment and contact showing double standards with actual users and companies such as talk show hosts, with things like the adpocolypse rumoured trending tab rigging and trending tab blacklists. Along with this is the, as I said, nepostistic outlook on creators, with youtube success being less and less consistency based and more and more luck based on one video blowing up and staying that way, and trending (along with youtube in general), should facilitate a rise in creators and ideas instead of promoting channels who already have 5-6 million subs and censoring a lot of voice directly or indirectly. With no other options for video site (realistically, nobody uses vimeo or dailymotion and fucking rip vidme) youtube’s current state is more dire than ever and their push for a false identity within an identity crisis for the site is very obvious. This alongside their cowardice and compliance with controversy like in the nazi Pewds situation is showing to be really damaging.

Tl;dr: get a fucking backbone youtube and stop pretending to be something that you’re not.

[cecilspeaks]

112 - Citizen Spotlight

If you see something crawling across your floor in the dark, don’t worry. It’s probably just a tarantula. Welcome to Night Vale.

Listeners, in this fast-paced world of community radio and local news, I think we’ve lost sight of the truly important thing: the individuals who make up our diverse community.

So today, I want to try out a new segment I've put together called Citizen Spotlight, in which we will profile a randomly selected citizen, diving deep into who they are, and maybe discovering some things about ourselves along the way.

Oh, here’s an intro I’m working on for it.

[very deep, menacing voice] Spotlights, roving in the night. Hunting. Closing in. But everything is backwards. The night is hot and bright. The spotlights are deep and black. Everything they touch turns to darkness. They are searching for the light. They consume it.

[chipper voice] That’s a rough draft. I’m open to notes. Anyway, today’s inaugural spotlight was curated by closing my eyes and pointing in the phone book. And so today, we will talk about Sigrid Borg. She’s a brand new citizen who has just arrived in Night Vale. I have hear this classified dossier, we had a team of heist experts – thanks, Janice – steal from the Hall of Public Records. The dossier says that Sigrid was relocated to Night Vale as part of a witness protection program, and that Sigrid is not her real name. Nor is she of the Scandinavian origin her name might suggest. Thus all of the information we managed to obtain on Sigrid for this segment is fictional, created by a government software program to ensure her total anonymity, and in no way represents who she really is as a person. In all probability, it is in most ways the opposite of her true identity, but for safety, it’s important that we all believe this made-up biography is absolute fact. It is extremely, extremely important. She would be in great danger if anyone from the outside world started to doubt who she claimed to be.

We’ll get to our Citizen Spotlight momentarily, but first, as a way to make Sigrid feel more at home, I’ve asked other Night Vale citizens to reveal a dark secret that they’ve never shared. I will be reading those throughout today’s broadcast. The first comes from Susan Escobar, second grade teacher at Night Vale elementary school. She writes: “One night, I was at school late grading homework, and I heard strange sounds coming from the cafeteria. When I looked inside, I saw a giant mandala on the floor made entirely of frozen fish sticks. It seemed to be undulating and alive. When I blinked, it vanished. But every night I dream of flying toward a cloudless sky, and in the center of that sky is that fish stick mandala. And I wake before I reach it, but each dream a little closer. And the night that I reach that mandala in my dream is the night I will die.” Thanks Susan! Sounds fun.

Now let’s talk about Sigrid. Though new to town, Sigrid Borg was born in Night Vale and has lived here her entire life. Her parents were immigrants from the picturesque Swedish port city of Halmstad. She tries to go back at least once a year to visit her grandparents, a retired grade school teacher and a retired timber farmer, who have a lovely cottage overlooking at the mouth of the Nissan river, where it meets the North Sea. Sigrid has always been close with her grandparents, though in recent visits, has become distressed at her grandmother’s increased mental confusion and grandfather’s drinking habits. She doesn’t call them as often she used to and feels guilty about that. She’s torn between the desire to take more responsibility for their health and well being and the desire to block the situation out of her mind completely, as it has become a signifier of the irrevocable loss of her own childhood, and a direct confrontation with morality itself.  

Sigrid’s favorite food is smorgåstårta, a Scandinavian layer cake that is made of sandwiches and fish paste. Ask her to make it for your next big event. She’s been carefully drilled by her witness protection handlers on the foods of her childhood, and has almost got the hang of making them, although she has failed to acquire a taste for fish paste.

Some fun facts that you may not know about Sigrid, despite having lived in the same town with her all your lives. She has a degree in marine hauntology from an online university. She has a disorder that makes it impossible for her to sweat or cry. She has served on the board of the Sand Wastes Conservation Fund for six and a half years. She is deeply embedded into our community and way of life.

And now, another confession from a local resident about a dark secret. This one from my dear friend Earl Harlan. It reads: “On a Boy Scout training maneuver near the old dirt road, I witnessed the apparition of my 10-year-old self wearing the scout uniform of my youth. He trained with us all afternoon, and I tried not to give him any preferential treatment. As the afternoon passed, new memories appeared in my mind of training at 10 years old with a group of strangers, one of whom seemed familiar and stared at me constantly in horror.” That’s adorable! Thanks, Earl!

Back to Citizen Spotlight. Sigrid spent her childhood in the Hefty Sycamore Trailer Park near downtown. She didn’t have many friends; she was shy in school. One year, she tried out for a solo in the school holiday pageant. For the audition, she sang a Flakey-O’s jingle that was very popular at the time, but no one took her seriously. They all thought she was making a joke. She apologized and faded back into the bleachers. She truly loved that jingle. It spoke to her soul, it made her feel something. She recorded it off the radio and listened to it often, rewinding and replaying it out at the picnic table on summer nights, when the rest of her family was asleep. But she never listened to it again after the solo tryouts, because it only brought back the sound of the other kids laughing, of her teacher’s scolding voice lecturing the class to take themselves seriously, or no one else would. And it made her feel ashamed. She eventually recorded over the tape with audio from a TV special about orphaned lion cubs. But sometimes, under the hungry sucking sounds of giant kittens drinking from baby bottles, she thought she could still hear the song.

In 7th grade, she finally made some friends during the unknown creature dissection unit in science class. She wasn’t squeamish, and her ability to identify and extract misshapen internal organs without flinching made her an attractive lab partner. Everyone thought she was new in town because they had never noticed her before. She still has that effect on people. In the spring of that year, someone asked her to to the junior high dance. The team was “heat death of the universe”. The boys spent a lot of time licking the crepe paper decorations to dye their tongues bright colors and impress the girls. The girls were not impressed, but laughed anyway. Sigrid’s date tried to lick her hand to see if the dye would come off on her skin. This caused Sigrid to feel a surge of strange tingling panic, and she fled to the bathroom for 30 minutes. Her friends eventually found her and dragged her back into the gym. She danced with them for the rest of the night, hiding from the boys with the blue tongues.

There were bountiful crops that year. Some say this was not a coincidence. Some say the junior high dance is a secret crop fertility ritual outlined in the town charter, but kept secret from the children who participate. When the dance was cancelled in the following years, due to the crepe paper dye related poisoning incident, Night Vale experienced extreme drought and locust plagues. Some say this, too, was not a coincidence.

A quick bulletin board reminder: the reinstated junior high dance is coming up! May all you young citizen make lush and plentiful memories, and have a cornucopia of fun.

More Citizen Spotlight soon, but first, The weather. 

["Try Try Try" by Rachael Sage]

Another secret confession. Ah, what a treat! This one comes from iconic local celebrity and recent donut food truck entrepreneur, Lee Marvin. It says: “There is a void. Within that void a light. Within that light, a hand. Within that hand, a movement. Within that movement, a potential. Within that potential, everything that ever was.” Thank you Lee, and of course, a happy 30th birthday to you today!

Citizen Spotlight time. In high school, Sigrid’s left hand started to itch below the pinky finger. A small lump appeared which grew slowly over time. She became self-conscious about this and wore bulky sweatshirts with long sleeves pulled over her hands, which was luckily a fashionable look then. The nurse at the health clinic assured her that it was nothing to be concerned about, but it kept growing. Eventually, it took the shape of what appeared to be a second, smaller pinky finger. She was even able to wiggle it if she concentrated very hard. As you may know, the Hefty Sycamore Trailer Park was built on the dried-up shores of the old pesticide waste river, and Sigrid’s father felt there might be some connection between this and the extra finger. They decided to relocate.

They moved into a two-story house by the train tracks, a fixer-upper that shook on its foundation twice a day when the train came through, and once or twice erratically every night when the secret night trains passed, with their nameless and unspeakable cargos. Sigrid’s parents began to fight often, never having the money to fix up the fixer-upper, and they both spent as much time as possible away from home. Sigrid had a complicated relationship with her extra finger at this point, partially blaming it for the rift in her parents’ relationship. Once, when Sigrid was alone in the house, she heard something creeping up the stairs. She hummed the Flakey-O’s jingle til she couldn’t hear it anymore, and then she started spending a lot more time away from home also.

There was a small group of kids who hung out around the train tracks at night, so she started hanging out with them to avoid going home. They liked to smoke cigarettes and light off fireworks and dare each other to look at the secret night trains, although none of them ever did, as they all knew that to look at one of those trains meant an instant and painful death. They would talk and gossip about kids and teachers she’d never heard of before, and she began to wonder if they even went to her school. When she was hanging out with them, she would often glance up at the dark windows of her own empty house just down the tracks and see movement behind the glass. Or soft white eyes staring out.

During one of these movements, while she looked at the house, all her friends disappeared and she found herself alone on the tracks. No sign of the teenagers that had been there mere seconds before. She never saw those kids again, but she often heard their voices in portable radios on the wind, and she spent her evenings wandering up and down the tracks, looking for them.

At the end of senior year, the high school yearbook featured fun awards for each student, voted on by the class. Smartest girl and tallest boy and most likely to survive a mass extinction event, and best smile. Every single student received a commemorative award, except for Sigrid. It wasn’t intentional or out of spite. Everyone forgot that she existed. She was inexplicably absent during every school picture day throughout the years. Never participated in any extracurricular activities, didn’t speak up in class, got average grades, and ate lunch alone. Which some say contributed to her lack of memorability. But she was there, and is here, and always has been. She belongs here. It’s totally normal to forget someone you know, but you do in fact know her. Some of you know her very well.

One time you went thrift store shopping together, and she picked out a jacket for you that was too big, but she said it looked great on you. It was fuzzy and resembled furniture upholstery. Royal blue with gold stripes. The lining was ripped. She bought it for you. You found that old jacket recently, royal blue with gold stripes, you put it on. It almost fits now. You felt something that you hadn’t felt before, sticking against your ribs, tucked into the ripped lining. You reached inside and you pulled out a piece of notebook paper, folded into a hard little square. It was from Sigrid. It described a thing that she shouldn’t have seen, and couldn’t speak about. It instructed you to burn the note immediately, and you did. It instructed you to never acknowledge to her that you even received it. You can never tell anyone what the note said.

If you do run into Sigrid, remember that she is a real person filled with blood and misshapen internal organs, just like you and me. Everything I have told you about her is completely true. Well, none of it is technically true, but it was crafted by state of the art technology to evoke a range of 1-4 feelings in the listener. And as we all know, feelings are real, and truth is in the mind of the beholder. And the beholder lives out in the scorched orchard under the floorboards of the old cherry-picking stack.

Stay tuned next for a mysterious distress signal that requires urgent action, but is impossible to locate.

On behalf of everyone here at Night Vale Community Radio, welcome to your new town, Sigrid – the town where you have lived your entire life.

And to everyone else: Good night, Night Vale, Good night.

Today’s proverb: Be yourself. As if you had any choice in the matter.

[ask-de-writer]

CAPTURED BY THE CLANS : Science Fiction : Part 2

CAPTURED BY THE CLANS

by

De Writer

© 2018 by Glen Ten-Eyck

All rights reserved

written, 2006

18231 words

All rights reserved.  This document may not be copied or distributed on or to any medium or placed in any mass storage system except by the express written consent of the author.

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Copyright fair use rules for Tumblr users

Users of Tumblr.com are specifically granted the following rights.  They may reblog the story.  They may use the characters or original characters in my settings for fan fiction, fan art works, cosplay, or fan musical compositions, provided that such things are done without charge.  I will allow those who do commission art works to charge for their images.

All sorts of fan activity, art, fan fiction, music,  cosplay, role play, or any other fan activity is actively encouraged!

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Lezon Treh K’lass had a headache of her own.  Once again, she was trying to explain to proud admirals who were good Warriors in their own right, how they had put the last strategic plan in the latrine, even while winning the engagement.  Now, she also had to explain exactly what they needed to know to carry out the next strategic plan.

She knew what they thought of her.  “Named in haste,” was the gentlest insult of the lot.  When they thought that she couldn’t hear, “Low ranked favorite of the Empress Triad” was another favorite.  True, she was young to have earned a Name, let alone the achievement of the full compliment of three Names.  It had been the decision of the Empress Triad to Name her at all.

Before the deadly business of the Feront contact, Lezon had been another nameless corvette pilot. True, she had gone to K’lass’ School of All Conflict at the same time as the latest wife of the Empress Triad.  True, at that prestigious school, every conflict that she participated in came out as she had planned it.  True, that had brought her the notice of the rulers of the Empire.  Also true, though they had watched her career as a Warrior, they had not intervened.  Lezon was not the only one that they watched.  Others had risen faster.

Now, by her own choice, she was a lowly Talon pilot.  That was exactly what she wished to be.  She could easily become any rank short of the Empress Triad, simply by making her wish known to her rulers.  And the admirals who came to her knew it.  There was no mistaking who was in charge of the war.

Lezon knew who was proud of serving with her and who was jealous of her skill and ability, both in a combat craft and politically.  The war that Lezon had planned was proceeding exactly as the Triad Empress desired and that, to Lezon, was quite enough.

Even if the war did not go as planned, so long as she guided her actions by the Warrior’s Way, Lezon would have accepted the result.  Sometimes the Triple Goddess simply did not favor you.

The battle at C’ustance had been disturbing for two reasons.  One was that some of her own prey-minded Admirals had tried to make an actual battle out of a simple sucker play.  Those who did fight, against orders, had run into something new on the Clan side.  

At least, through underestimating the enemy, they wouldn’t get any more Warriors killed unnecessarily.  They were gone.  What was unforgivable was that their ships and the irreplaceable Warriors who manned them were gone too.

The second disturbing item was that something new that they had seen on the Clan side.  Some of the Clan units had fought with disciplined and unorthodox combat behavior as if they were being led by a true Warrior.  Those units had cost all of the real losses to Lezon’s fleet.

Idly, Lezon wondered what it would be like to fight a Clan Warrior.  Would she know the Warrior’s Way?  Would she even know of the Warrior’s Way?  How had a Clanner even learned to carry out a true combat?  So far as she knew, Clanners failed to grasp the most basic understanding of the nature of Conflict.

She pulled her mind back to the problem of updating her attack on K’stall. She appreciated once again the efficiency of M’ace, Captain of the Hand of Claws, her Executive Officer, in organizing her data without sifting out “useless” information.  It had been difficult to find an XO that she could work with so smoothly.  It made dealing with the Admirals so much simpler.

New scouting data had come in and she needed to see how it affected her plans.  Um, not that much.  The old communication laser had been shifted into a solar orbit to get it out of the way of the planetary approaches.  The capital ships in the system for repair and refit were moving about the system conducting routine function testing.  Everything seemed normal.

At the Battle Groups meeting, Lezon presented the latest update to her plans and delegated the different parts of the attack to the Admirals that she trusted.  They would do their jobs well and had a proven record of ability to improvise as necessary to reach a strategic objective.

Lezon spent an extra three days maneuvering the fleet into an attack position that was perpendicular to the ecliptic of the K’stall system.  She brought the fleet in fast, coming straight down on the primary and breaking out around the star in powered cometary orbits.  As the fleet scattered to the chosen targets, Treh’s Hunt exploded.  In moments, Lezon’s Wisdom followed suit.  A Talon fighter between the primary and the Fangs of the Goddess erupted fractions of a second before the Fangs of the Goddess.

Lezon saluted her unknown enemy.  The Talon was the tip-off.  They were being hit by the old interstellar signal laser in its solar orbit, firing from behind the scattering attack fleet.  Lezon ordered her own Talon Carrier, the Hand of Claws, to launch.  She broke the ranks as soon as possible after launch, spending her power recklessly to brake and dive back toward the star.

From the scouting data, she knew the orbit used by the ancient piece of equipment that was destroying the capital ships of her fleet.  It was cunningly hidden in the tachyon noise of K’stall.  Since the laser operated in the Electromagnetic spectrum, its attacks were invisible on the tachyon detection equipment now in universal use.  Lezon admired her enemy’s brilliant cunning.

Diving around the star in a powered orbit at 0.6C, Lezon came up behind the antique device.  In her entire life, she had only seen two of them.  It was a long, narrow unit with a fairly huge and very dangerous antique fusion power plant at one end and a monster set of lenses at the other.  The lenses were moving to focus the collimated beam of deadly light at another target as Lezon opened fire.

The laser was cut into unequal parts by her disruptor battery.  She checked with close range instruments to be sure that the life system was intact and that all defenses were destroyed.

As a true Warrior of the Way, it was her duty to kill whenever necessary and then to protect the life of all non-combatants when possible.  Those aboard the laser might be Clan but they were no longer a threat.  She flashed past, rising away from the star, back into active combat.

The rest of the fleet was running into unexpectedly stiff opposition.  Those capital ships under test, the ones that had looked like sitting snacks had turned out to have claws after all.  There were also two dreadnoughts that her scouts had missed entirely.  The bypassed fortress systems had supplied almost exactly the number of ships and fighters that she had expected.

Watching the battle unfold from the screens of her specially equipped Talon, Lezon could see that she had no need to interfere.  Her Admirals were handling the situation. She returned to the basics of a fighter pilot’s job and left her command frequency silent.

Lezon could sympathize with her unknown Clan Warrior’s frustration at a good battle plan being destroyed by over-eager glory hunters.  The dreadnoughts had been neatly hidden by the same tactic as the laser.  If they had simply waited longer to deploy, they could have demolished most of the Empire Talon Carriers as they were lifting away from the star.  The dreadnoughts would have remained difficult to detect in K’stall’s tachyon noise.

Now, those dreadnoughts were being hard pressed by Lezon’s Carriers and their swarms of deadly Talon fighters.  The damaged and refit Clan fighter carriers had to break their positions to rescue the dreadnoughts and that functionally sealed the fate of the K’stall system.  There would be hard fighting yet but a brilliant defense was ruined.

TO BE CONTINUED

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