#The group when they succeed in becoming dragon: We are Death Destroyer of Worlds

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt 181

“Hey. Hey Tuck. Tucker. Tuck look. Look.” 

Tucker looked over the edge of the screen lazily, the half interested words on his tongue dying as he let out a wheeze of laughter. “Oh my Ancient Sands, dude, how did you manage that?” 

Danny had, for the last near year, been trying to mix shapeshifting, thank you Amorpho, with duplication. Something he’d apparently succeeded in today, if the massive fuck-you hydra standing before him was any indication. The very pleased looking, well did it count as a hydra if it had wings too? 

“You need to show Sam. Oh my Sands we need to show Val too. And Wes. You did it dude!” He floated up to look at Danny, who did a little twirl to show off. He shook his head, flecks of gold and sand falling from his hair as he laughed. 

“Do you think,” Danny lost it in laughter as several other heads echoed his words, from whichever the main him was. “Holy ancients that’s great- do, do you think we can make a dragon club? Hydras are totally dragons right? Do you think we could pull a Tiamat?” 

He landed on a head, taking a selfie to add to the groupchat labeled Preparations. “Dude, we should, but let me send this to the others first… But I am so down.” 

They can, in fact apparently, pull a Tiamat- with a little help from Princess Dora, practice in front of Frostbite in case something goes wrong, and some advice from Pandora on controlling extra limbs. Honestly, who is going to want to mess with Amity when there’s a giant dragon? And hey, maybe they can break the barrier now! 

The heads for those wondering who I was thinking of for each lol And perhaps what they might all get ((1) Kwan, Pressurized Water) ((2) Wes, Sonic Blast) ((3) Sam, Poison Gas) ((4) Star, Plasma) ((5) Danny, Ice Breath) ((6) Paulina, Acid) ((7) Tucker, Electricity) ((8) Valerie, Fire Breath) ((9) Dash, Pressurized Wind)

#Prompts #The Class Pulls a Tiamat #They’re all adults and graduated #But can’t exactly go anywhere thanks to the shield/barrier around the town #The whole town is now liminal as hell thx to the ecto having nowhere to disperse #Bounced back from the shield back into the city from the portal #Dcxdp #Dpxdc #Dp x Marvel #Whichever works for u #Amity is under an info blackout thanks to the barrier #They have no idea what’s happening outside #Hey if they can’t break the barrier themselves they’ll just combine their might together #Liminal Amity Park #The group when they succeed in becoming dragon: We are Death Destroyer of Worlds #The GIW panic and call heroes in when a Very Big THING not only approaches the ghost shield #but actually looks like it might get through #The rest of Amity might pull a Become Dragon too but honestly up to yall #Amity: Ghosts are illegal but dragons aren't!

[man-creates-dinosaurs]

REFLECTING ON CLOVERFIELD AT TEN

***This essay contains spoilers for the recent film The Cloverfield Paradox*** “I thought, we need our own American monster, and not like King Kong. I love King Kong. King Kong is adorable. And Godzilla is a charming monster. We love Godzilla. But I wanted something that was just insane and intense.“ - J.J. Abrams, on the genesis of the first Cloverfield film The brainchild of producer J.J. Abrams, Cloverfield (2008, Dir. Matt Reeves) – which turned ten earlier this year – remains the best “serious” non-Japanese attempt at a kaiju film ever. Why? Because it is essentially the American equivalent of the original Japanese Gojira (1954, Dir. Ishiro Honda) in that the power which resonates behind both pictures is the fact that what one sees on screen when watching these movies is not simply just the sight of a giant monster attacking a major city but a carefully crafted allegory which works to convey the war-time horrors wrought upon their respective nations. For Japan this was the Second World War, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the Lucky Dragon No. 5 incident. For Americans it was the tragedy of September 11th 2001 when the four commercial passenger planes were high-jacked by Al-Qaeda terrorists, two of which were flown into the World Trade Center in New York City and a third into the Pentagon. By transforming such catastrophes into the specter of a rampaging kaijū both films attempt to create for viewers a kind of catharsis through which they can come to understand the tragedies which have befallen their countries.

At the time of its release and still today some have accused Cloverfield of merely co-opting and exploiting the imagery of 9/11. But Cloverfield was not the first film to make use of that imagery. By the time it was released in early 2008, Hollywood had already produced two explicitly 9/11-themed movies: World Trade Center (2006, Dir. Oliver Stone) and United 93 (2006, Dir. Paul Greengrass). In addition, both Steven Spielberg’s 2005 adaptation of the alien invasion classic War of Worlds and Frank Darabont’s The Mist (2007) made use of the haunting images of falling buildings, rolling smoke clouds, people covered in the dust and debris, scenes of people attempting to evacuate in mass, confused information about what is happening, and frustration with the U.S. military to invoke the trauma of 9/11. Even Cloverfield’s now iconic decapitation of Lady Liberty – a scene which can be read as both a literal and symbolical first attack on America – was itself preceded by 2004’s The Day After Tomorrow (Dir. Roland Emmerich) which prominently featured shots of the Statue of Liberty engulfed by water and/or ice as part of its ad-campaign to much of the same effect. What makes Cloverfield different from these previous cinematic attempts to talk about 9/11 is that it does more than merely invoke memories of terrorist attacks but rather actually allegorizes and mythologizes them within its story.

The protagonists of Cloverfield are a group of twentysomethings who have gathered together for their friend Rob’s going away party. Well into the night the party is interrupted when a massive fireball erupts across the NYC skyline. Soon the head of the Statue of Liberty is seen hurtling through the air, crash landing on a nearby street. As Rob and his friends follow the crowds of people attempting to evacuate the city it quickly becomes apparent that the source of the chaos is a giant monster which has appeared out of nowhere and is now causing unquantifiable amounts of death and destruction. With civilians still present the military moves in and war erupts between the monster and the U.S. Army.

Admits this chaos and confusion, Rob decide to set out across the city to try to find and rescue his girlfriend Beth who is trapped in her apartment building which has collapsed into the side of an adjacent skyscraper – the film’s most overt reference to the World Trade Center. As it was for millions of New Yorkers on 9/11 the most important thing for Rob amidst all that has happened is finding his loved ones.

While Rob does succeed in rescuing Beth, the end of Cloverfield is nevertheless both bleak and ambiguous. Traditionally monster movies end with the defeat of the monster via man’s scientific ingenuity. In Gojira, Godzilla is defeated via Dr. Serizawa’s Oxygen Destroyer and though the audience is left with Dr. Yamane’s dire warning that should nuclear testing continue another Godzilla may one day appear they can also rest assured knowing that at least the present Godzilla is dead.

Cloverfield however offers its audience no such reassurance. Following the deaths of their friends, the climax of the film finds Rob and Beth huddled under a bridge in Central Park with both the Monster above them and the military raining bombs down on all sides of them. Both characters look into the camera and deliver what most assuredly is their last will and testament. Ultimately it is unclear if the army has succeeded in killing the monster or not, though it appears that they have almost certainly killed our two surviving protagonists. Such bleak ambiguity seemingly speaks to the ambiguous nature of the American War on Terror which followed in the wake of 9/11. At the time of the film’s release it was still unclear if Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is alive or dead though it is clear that many young American soldiers and Arab civilians have lost their lives in the aftermath.

David Kalat has noted that one of the unfortunate side effects of the metaphorical weight invested in the original Gojira is that it has resulted in the broad dismissal of its many sequels as nothing more than lazy cash grabs. An attempt to bank on a brand name. While I think that criticism is unfair when directed at the Godzilla series it may ultimately prove to be the case when it comes to the Cloverfield franchise.      

In 2016, J.J. Abrams unleashed the first of two Cloverfield “sequels”; 10 Cloverfield Lane (Dir. Dan Trachtenberg) and The Cloverfield Paradox (Dir. Julius Onah) – the latter of which debuted on Netflix this past Sunday (Feb 4th). Both of these films suffer from the inherent problem that they were never intended to be sequels to Cloverfield in the first place! Rather Abrams appears to basically be running this Faustian gambit for aspirin young filmmakers and writers where he’ll agree to produce your original sci-fi movie as long as you agree to allow him to shoehorn in a connection to Cloverfield. In the case of Lane this ultimately didn’t amount to much and that movie is a fine thriller in and of itself that plays out like a feature-length episode of the Twilight Zone. In the case of Paradox however, attempting to try and make it a Cloverfield movie pretty much ruins it through a combination of sloppy post-production editing that would make Terry Morse blush and a ridiculous final shot in which the Cloverfield monster pops up on the screen for all of three seconds to do his best impersonation of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer lion. With news of a fourth Cloverfield already in the can all I can say is that if Paradox is what the future of the Cloverfield series has in store I would suggest stopping now before the original film is ruined by association.              

#cloverfield #cloverfield monster #10 cloverfield lane #the cloverfield paradox #kaiju #kaiju eiga #jj abrams #netflix #godzilla #gojira #9/11

[swipestream]

New Release Roundup – 28 April, 2018: Science Fiction

Robot geneticists, grand strategists, A. I. invaders, and time-lost explorers feature in this week’s roundup of the newest releases in science fiction.

A. I. Battle Fleet (The A. I. War #5) – Vaughn Heppner 

It came from deep space. It sent the signal. Now our computers are killing us, helping the enemy drive us into extinction.

But some of us refuse to die. We fight back. We learn.

In a desperate fight, we captured one of the machine empire’s factory planets. Can we now defeat an interstellar superpower that has exterminated thousands of sentient races across the galaxy and slaughtered billions of us in the Solar System?

Not bloody likely, but Captain Jon Hawkins is on a mission. Using new warships from the factory planet, he’s searching for alien allies, more battle stations to storm and death machines to kill. He’s buying us time to turn the Solar System into a fortress…if he can stay alive long enough.

Alliance Stars (The Alliance Trilogy #1) – Michael Wallace 

Captain Jess Tolvern of HMS Blackbeard is leading a Royal Navy expedition across long-dormant space lanes toward Old Earth when an alien fleet ambushes her battle cruiser. The aliens are Adjudicators, an ancient race whose ethos is to judge other species and reduce their survivors to a stone age existence.

Tolvern sends a desperate message back to headquarters and retreats with her damaged ship to friendly systems. By the time she returns, the aliens have already invaded Alliance territory with a powerful fleet of star fortresses and accompanying dragoon ships, trapping and laying siege to the allied fleet.

While repairing her ship, Tolvern cobbles together a squadron of damaged allied warships, former raiders, and the local survivors of an Adjudicator attack to drive off the alien fleet.

Ascension (Ascension #6) – Ken Lozito

Earth’s greatest protection will become its biggest threat.

When the Confederation gathers a grand armada ostensibly to liberate Earth from the Boxans, the crew of the Athena must stop them before it’s too late.

Some species believe they can avoid war and endure the oppression of the Confederation while others choose to resist. The Athena and her crew struggle to keep the Star Alliance from splintering apart by offering them something unthinkable.

Ascension, is the final book in the Ascension series, an action-packed space opera saga that spans worlds. A journey that began when the brave crew of the Athena left Earth to investigate an alien structure discovered in the furthest reaches of the solar system will now come to an end.

Broadswords and Blasters #5

In this issue we’ve got a tale loosely based on the legend of Yennenga of Burkina Faso. What happens when the prophesied warrior wants something more out of life than warfare?

When the palace guards stage a coup against the royal family, will the young daughter of the family escape to a new world or stay where her home and heart are?

What happens when a small town calls out to the evil that dwells in dark places, and the evil answers?

Can a small contingent of warriors hold back the villainous forces of Kagan Kadir, whose lieutenants are each more horrific than the last?

Stranded on a planet, can a frontier space man escape? If he leaves, what will he be forced to leave behind?

A man can’t remember how he got on the train. He doesn’t know the other passengers, but each has a story to tell. What kind of destination is Oblivion anyway?

And finally, our cover story—to what ends will an emperor go to become a god, and what might it cost a man to oppose him?

Beyond Eternity (Paradox #2) – Phillip P. Peterson

Travel to the Stars . . . A Dream Fulfilled or Humankind’s Worst Nightmare?

Assumed dead, four astronauts are fighting for the future of humankind at the end of time and space.

After their mission to the outer limits of the solar system failed, David and his crewmates wake up at a strange place at the end of time. The alien intelligence wants them to go on a dangerous mission: circumnavigate the universe. If they succeed, they will secure the future of humankind.

But the universe is even more threatening than the AI believed. In the end, David, Ed, Grace, and Wendy must fight for survival at a place beyond space and time.

Exiles of the Belt (Void Dragon Hunters #4) – Felix R. Savage

They made him Commander of the Dragon Corps.

And left him to die.

With his Void Dragon, Tancred, Jay Scattergood has been given command of a newly formed unit: the Dragon Corps. Stuck on a remote asteroid in the Jovian Belt, Jay and his friends know they’ve been sidelined. Jay is determined to expose and defeat the conspiracy of traitors in the Department of Defense.

But a sneak attack on their asteroid changes his plans. The Dragon Corps launches into a death-defying mission that will take them deep into enemy space, where they will face the full might of the Offense’s firepower … and discover the truth about the conspiracy.

The Void Dragons are about to face their biggest test yet.

Flight (Legend of the Galactic Heroes #6) – Yoshiki Tanaka

“The Golden Brat” Reinhard von Lohengramm, a military prodigy and admiral of the Galactic Empire, has ambitions beyond protecting the borders or even defeating the Empire’s enemies. He seeks to overthrow the old order and become a truly absolute—yet benevolent—dictator. His rival, the humble Yang Wen-li of the Free Planets Alliance, wishes to preserve democracy even if he must sacrifice his political ideals to defeat the Empire. Their political and military battles play out over a galactic chessboard in an epic saga fifteen centuries in the making!

After donning the emperor’s crown, Reinhard becomes the target of an assassination plot. Knowing that the Church of Terra is behind it, he deploys his troops to the church’s holy land: Earth. Meanwhile, Yang’s leisurely retirement is tempered by the surveillance networks watching his every move from both sides. And when he is one day visited by a group of men dressed in black, the galaxy, too, relinquishes peace to become embroiled in upheaval once again. Welcome to the turning point in the war for the fate of the galaxy!

He Who Crosses Death (Star Warrior #3) – Isaac Hooke

Tane has travelled to Aegean Tetragon in search of the archaeoceti, a mystical race that he believes can restore Sinive to life. He is willing to pay any price to save her.

Any.

Unfortunately, shortly after his team arrives, he discovers that a few uninvited guests have tagged along.

Now Tane must not only complete the trials the archaeoceti have laid before him, but he must outwit his hunters. Either way, he won’t back down. The stakes are too high. And when Tane discovers the true price he must pay, he must make a choice that could destroy him.

For he who crosses death does not do so lightly.

Also available: Doom Wielder (Star Warrior #4)

Human Phase (Robot Geneticists #6) – J. S. Morin

The red planet will run red with blood.

Martian terraformer Kaylee Fourteen is a recent immigrant from Earth. Residents of the domed colonies of Mars can practically smell the day they’ll be able to walk outdoors on their own planet without the need for air supplies. But the committees on Earth control the resources the colonists need and their interference threatens the terraforming project’s very existence…

Until a group of radicals takes hostages to force the release of the tech and materials the terraformers need.

Caught in the crossfire, Kaylee has to navigate the delicate line between sympathy for her captors’ goals and horror at their methods. If she can’t keep the peace and find a way to get the hostage takers what they ask for, humans and robots alike will pay with their lives.

How can anyone negotiate a hostage crisis with a bomb locked around her neck?

The fate of two worlds and the balance of power between humans and robots hang on that answer.

Lucky Empire (Lucky’s Marines #3) – Joshua James

Mankind’s luck has run out…

As humanity rushes toward universal slaughter, the last Marine standing in the way of extinction is the least qualified one around — just ask him.

With the conspiracy now fully in power, Lucky & crew have turned into fugitives within the Empire. As an ancient enemy closes in on humankind, one last, desperate gamble is their only chance at survival — if it isn’t too late already. Luck may not be on their side this time.

Lucky’s Marines are at their over-the-top finest in this third outing, reveling in salty language, violent outbursts, and lucky escapes – even if their fearless leader would rather be dead already.

Osiris (The Locus #3) – Ralph Kern

It’s been three months since the cruise ship M/S Atlantica arrived in a hostile new world.

The survivors dream of building a home, but just as their hopes rise, they learn the true cost of saving thousands of people from catastrophe.

Conrad Wakefield, the architect of the Locus project, killed billions.

Fleeing, Wakefield unleashes the full fury of the advanced weaponry of his ship, the Osiris, leaving a trail of death and destruction. Commander Heather Slater and her battle-damaged destroyer, the USS Paul Ignatius, relentlessly pursue, hungry for revenge.

But two stowaways hide aboard Osiris. Marine Jack Cohen and Karl Grayson, a CIA assassin, have more in common than they care to admit. They must use every skill they have to evade Wakefield’s elite mercenaries and bring him to justice. As they explore the secrets of Osiris, they discover the fate of this new Earth depends on whether the mysterious artificial intelligence aboard truly has humanity’s best interests at heart.

Paradox Slaughter (Roak: Galactic Bounty Hunter #4) – Jake Bible

Robbed of his chits and betrayed by one of his oldest contacts, Roak is now on a rampage across the galaxy to hunt the duplicitous scumbag down and exact some serious payback.

Bishop is on the run and Roak is right behind him.

System by system, planet by planet, contact by contact, Roak leaves no rock unturned and no lead unchecked. He beats answers out of those that dare help Bishop. He kills those that refuse to answer. Roak is waging war on the criminal grapevine and no one is safe from his wrath.

But Roak soon finds out that while he is the galaxy’s preeminent bounty hunter, it is now his turn to be hunted. And the hunter coming for him is a force from his past that he may not be able to escape!

  New Release Roundup – 28 April, 2018: Science Fiction published first on https://medium.com/@ReloadedPCGames