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theladyragnell · 3 months

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Thoughts on Rebel Moon: A Child of Fire

Sometimes I watch a movie and just have to say some words about it while I try to sort it out in my head, and I watched this yesterday and now am thinking through it!

I will get to a some bullet points in a moment, but from the tenor of conversations when I went into the tag looking for gifsets, I am going to be very clear and say that I do not have a horse in the Zack Snyder race. I am not a Film Person, I know who is directing maybe 5% of the movies that I watch, I'm not going to get involved in any Snyder Discourse, thank you.

CW for this post and also the film for attempted rape.

By far the best thing for me in this movie is that there were multiple times when I thought to myself, "I know exactly what quip this movie is about to make to ruin the sincerity of this moment," and then, consistently, it didn't. I love quips and banter, but the trend for having those without sincerity behind them has really been wearing on me these past few years. Rebel Moon went a little too far in the other direction of taking itself Very Seriously for me, but it was a bit of a breath of fresh air that it MEANT what it was saying.

By far the worst thing for me in this movie was the two scenes of threatened rape. The first was brutal and so obvious as to be unnecessary, with the soldiers and Sam, there are a thousand things they could have done to get Kora motivated that weren't that and still they chose it. At least, though, they took that one seriously. It's just that then they followed that up with "it's at least slightly humorous when the threat comes from an alien who is sexually harassing a man instead of a woman, right?" and the answer is nope! It isn't! The fact that every attempted rapist in this movie dies violently within five minutes of threatening it, including the "humorous" one, doesn't change that it's lazy, shitty storytelling. Do better.

This would have been better as a limited series. Maybe I'll change my mind when the next part(s?) airs, but nothing had the space to breathe, and the fact that it's just part one of one movie makes it feel unfinished and weird. I think it would have felt more like the first in a duology/trilogy, weirdly, if they'd finished the flashback backstory infodumps here? It's pretty obvious where the rest of Kora's backstory is going to go, the point that it almost doesn't need saying, but it should have gone here for precisely that reason. Closing that loop would have fixed a lot of things. And it would have been easy to make time for it by removing EITHER OR BOTH OF THE THREATENED SEXUAL ASSAULTS.

There are a lot of elements here that I really like. Lots of interesting bits of worldbuilding and fun visuals and worldbuliding THROUGH visuals, which always brings me joy. The warriors we pick up throughout the movie are interesting (the moment of pure joy that is that griffin ride! (I know it's not a griffin. I simply do not care)), and the moment with Sam and the robot and the flower crown was a highlight of the film for me. It's just that none of them really had the space to flourish! They were introduced with the feeling that we were already supposed to recognize them, which can be pulled off but wasn't here. Even one or two bits more establishing them as characters would have helped, and particularly I'm going to say that if you're going to sell me on General Titus as a brilliant strategic mind, he should have ordered someone into a better strategic position in that last battle. Even once would have helped.

Costumes overall were very fun, except for on Veldt and specifically with our main characters! Everybody else is dressed for a Space Adventure but Kora and Gunnar are just wearing, like. A tank top and pants. A henley and pants. Kora has her cloak, at least, but we can do better, I feel. I also take some issue with Spaceship Design, a combination of Too Dark and Meh Design means that I was often confused about what ship we were seeing until we saw who was on it.

Overall I kept comparing this to Jupiter Ascending and finding it wanting? Both are sincere, but Jupiter Ascending is joyfully so. They're both tropey space fantasy that throw you into a new world without much orientation to it and expect you to care about a lot of new people and factions, but Jupiter Ascending lets its heroine be an audience surrogate who is also being introduced to all of these things. Obviously they are trying to do very different things, but they use similar trappings to do them, and Jupiter Ascending does a more effective job, at least for me, of making me care about this new world I'm dropped into.

(Sigh. Look. I did not want this to turn into "soooo, he sure did file the numbers off his Star Wars pitch, huh." I'm not going to make larger commentary on that, BUT I will say that a lot of my problems with this movie are problems that I have with some (SOME) books that are by fannish authors who filed off serial numbers instead of starting from scratch. And that is the big difference that for fanfic, or a new entry in a well-known franchise, the audience comes in already caring about your world and characters. Even if they're new characters, or a new setting in the world, there's a level of pre-investment. And this movie has the problem of having made a new world and characters that COULD be compelling on their own, that AREN'T actually just remade characters and worlds ... but by assuming that we're coming to them pre-invested, it makes itself feel more like fanfic with the serial numbers filed off.)

In conclusion, if I had a nickel for every time one of Les Amis from the 2012 Les Mis movie played an evil lavishly dressed space emperor with a weird relationship to the movie's heroine, I would have two nickels, which isn't many, but it's weird that it happened twice.

#about me #shut up nell #remember when you could make enough tags and something wouldn't show up in tumblr's tags #i miss those days #i'd come up with an idiosyncratic tag for the movie but i'm sleepy and people may have it filtered #so i'll just #rebel moon

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bcntbouquet · 1 month

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1. Who has been your favorite muse to play?

2. Do you listen to music while you write? If so, what do you like to listen to?

10. Do you like stylized icons and formatted text or do you prefer to keep things simple?

14. What are five of your favorite ships? (In the rp community or otherwise)

15. What sort of muses do you tend to write?

16. Do you like to queue your replies or just post them when you finish?

17. Do you prefer winging it or plotting everything out?

20. If you could tell your muse something, what would it be?

1. Who has been your favorite muse to play?

I think my first-ever legit rp muse was Herbert West (Re-Animator) and once upon a time, I didn’t really have the urge to write other characters (can’t you even imagine ME writing ONE character now, lmao). The first OC I really got into was my dude Gideon Brady, so he was my favourite for years—Then I found my way to Supernatural and Dean Winchester was the most at-home I’d probably ever felt in ANY muse ever to that point. Probably stayed that way until some time in 2023. I’ve created dozens of ocs and even quite a number of canon muses since then, but late last year I started writing Brian (Brain Damage) and Aylmer (Brain Damage) and I became very attached very quickly; around the same time, I decided to explore my under-used oc Derward (created c. 2022) and I find he’s easiest to write at this particular time in my life. I also enjoy playing Wonka a whole lot—because he’s so positive and optimistic—but it’s been brought to my attention that Derward and I share a lot of similarities—Which, I suppose, explains why he's become my default muse these days.

2. Do you listen to music while you write? If so, what do you like to listen to?

Yes, I listen to music about 50% of the time that I write. A lot of 80s pop, rock, and new wave ngl. But there's other kinds I listen to, of course. The rest of the time I watch movies while writing… I know, you’d think it would distract me from the text, but most of the time films get me in that creative zone with any combination of setting, music, story, cast, etc.

10. Do you like stylized icons and formatted text or do you prefer to keep things simple?

To quote Slugworth— “A good chocolate should be SIMPLE. Un-complicated.” I will admit I have a hard time reading/seeing (highly) formatted text. Bold, italics, colours, and certain fonts; those are all find by me. As for stylized icons… What’s even the point? Frankly, it’s lost on me. A visual should be just that. Any image or gif that takes interpretation in order to figure out what’s being presented doesn’t really belong… as it serves no purpose to enrich either the details of the narrative or the muse being portrayed. Granted, this is only my personal opinion. If stylized iconography somehow makes your creative juices flow, fellow writers... go for it. You do you. The rpc should always be an inclusive place.

14. What are five of your favorite ships? (In the rp community or otherwise)

Call me biased or indecisive af, but I hold all my ships dear. Romantic or platonic. I just love all my ships- as well as my shipping partners. Lil' shout out to @cvpidswings, @everyoneismytoy, @smolcuriouskitten, @rawbutprecious, and @frcsttitan. Everybody else I ship with, love you too.

'nother lil' shout to @cursedvessels and @miidnighters—Shimi and Callisto are one of my favourite duos in the rpc atp and I love reading about their joint antics. A canon ship I love is Zed and Addison from Zombies.

15. What sort of muses do you tend to write?

Difficult to say... I don't find myself defining any of my muses by type. If I had to take a guess, I'd say kindhearted people with emotional trauma? Again, IDK.

16. Do you like to queue your replies or just post them when you finish?

I'm a slow writer, so I usually post when I've finished a draft. I already keep people waiting a while for a reply due to my inherent speed, so a regular queue would just make things even slower.

17. Do you prefer winging it or plotting everything out?

It just depends on the situation in the rp; during a lot of threads, I do well with a mix of winging it and plotting. 90% of the time, though, it's winging it. My muses are all control freaks in that they're usually more cooperative when I don't involve myself XD

20. If you could tell your muse something, what would it be?

Derward hasn't felt much love in his life, or support. He isn't the type to give up in any situation, but he probably really needs to hear that he's both wanted and needed. I think little compliments would serve him well, too. Maybe tell him that he's cute or that his hair/clothes are nice. He wouldn't always believe me about his clothes, 'cause he tends to wear tattered stuff throughout his various verses, but... If I could give him a big hug, I would. I'd give him a nice smooch on the cheek, too. Maybe wrap a blanket around his shoulders. That said, he should allow himself to put his burdens down from time to time. He's strong, and he knows this. What he doesn't know, however, is that he CAN be weak. He CAN be vulnerable. I would, hopefully, convince himself to free himself of such pressure. Dude needs a good cry five minutes ago.

#ᵒᵘᵗ ᵒᶠ ᶜʰᵒᶜᵒˡᵃᵗᵉ

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writer652 · 27 days

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Dagon.

Authors Note: I wasn't gonna start posting this until I finished one of my many ongoing fics, but… The release of "Luca" in theatres last week, and the upcoming release of "Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire" were such a good opportunity to let it pass, so enjoy!

Also, I wanna thank @ironychan for allowing me to use their Oc's and set this on the same timeline as some of her fics, like:

"Three Little Monsters"

"Famiglia"

"A Little Human" which in itself is a combination of the previous two.

Things to take into account: Giulia and Massimo are sea monsters thanks to a genie, Ercole becomes one thanks to a spell, Ciccio has a sea monster girlfriend, and Alberto has an extended family in Napoli.

Chapter 1: Tragic Being.

"Monsters are tragic beings. They are born too tall, too strong, too heavy. They are not evil by choice. That is their tragedy." —Ishir⁠ō Honda.

It was late at night when old Tommaso and his son-in-law, Giacomo, were out at sea fishing; ever since Alberto had come to live with Massimo, his business was better than ever; having a sea monster as a partner increased the catching.

So, the men wanted to take advantage of the night when the Marcovaldo duo was asleep to increase their trawling.

As they arrived at the spot, Tomasso put out their new record player while Giacomo prepared for fishing.

"We should have our eyes open for sea monsters," Giacomo said as he picked the float to put the net through the winch.

Tommaso stopped before placing the needle on the disc and looked at him before the two burst into laughter; ever since that summer just two years ago, sea monsters have become so usual in Portorrosso that it was weird to think the town once hated them, even if this had raised tensions with the nearest town, San Guisseppe, people there were still not sure how to feel about their aquatic neighbors.

Even Luca, Alberto, and Giulia were still afraid of going back after the little incident where they were exposed as sea monsters in front of everybody, and then the town pretty much hunted them. Even with the reassurance of Signor Giglioli, the old man who helped them when nobody else did, they doubted of ever coming back.

But even so, Portorroso had become a safe space where connivance was possible, and mostly everyone was happy about this; those who had refused to accept sea monsters at first were warming up to them, and if the number one hater of sea monsters himself, Ercole Visconti, became one that time, anything was possible.

"All do," Tommaso added after laughing, "Massimo told me Alberto and Giulia like to sleep over at Luca's house; we should be careful in case they're swimming around here."

Giacomo nodded as he began pulling the net inside the boat; it wasn't that big of a catch, but they would return empty-handed.

"Do you remember that night? When we accidentally caught him on the net?"

His father-in-law nodded.

"How he shooked the boat! I was afraid he was gonna sink us!" Giacomo continued.

"Oh yeah! He's a strong boy for his age, no doubt."

"And the way he jumped! He completely passed over us!" At the time, he had been scared to death of him, but now he admitted Alberto had been pretty cool that time.

"I'm just glad he's a good boy, all do; we should still keep him out of our boat, especially at night."

This made the two laugh, as it was a common gag after Alberto accidentally burned Massimo's boat that one time.

"He still beats us at fishing do," admitted Tomaso at seeing the few fishes they caught.

Giacomo denied it with the head.

"Maybe we need to look for a better spot," he said as he prepared to start the engine.

The waves began to shiver, violently rocking the boat to the sides; both men screamed as they grabbed the ship to not fall; water entered the deck, and many objects fell to the ground; Tomaso's finger pushed the needle, and the record began to play:

On the farm, every Friday

On the farm, it's rabbit pie day.

But that wasn't the weirdest thing; the waters began to shine in a strange neon green light illuminating the vessel; Giacomo looked over the border and peaked at the light; his eyes opened wide: it was coming from the sea, but what in God's name was that?!

Another tremor stronger than the last one, made the two fall to the floor as they screamed in terror.

So, every Friday that ever comes along,

I get up early and sing this little song

The tremble stopped, and nothing else was heard except for the rapid breathing of both.

"What was that?!" Asked Tommaso; despite his old age, he immediately stood up and stopped the player; the song wasn't helping the moment.

"I don't know!" Giacomo replied, standing up and pointing a finger at the sea, "But the waters... they were shining!"

Tomasso looked at him as if he was crazy.

"I swear, look..." but the bright was gone; there was nothing more than regular waters, a little shaky from the sea trembling.

Giacomo looked at him again.

"I swear; I..."

Tomaso just raised a hand.

"Let's... get out of here! Whatever it was, it's over, we should better check Viola is safe."

Giacomo nodded; that seemed the perfect plan; maybe the light was just in his head.

Tommaso picked up the stuff that had fallen while Giacomo prepared to start the engine, but in that, he saw ahead; there was an enormous rock a few meters apart from Isola del Mare.

The man squinted one eye; he had fished around that area for years and had never seen that rock; it was curved towards the front, spike-like scutes; it looked like a reversed shark fin.

He walked to the front for a better look; the rock was also huge, at less than 10 meters tall.

How was that possible? Where the hell had it come from?

Tomaso finished putting a tool over a box; he looked up and noticed his companion looking ahead instead of starting the motor.

"Giacomo!" He scolded him but saw no reaction from his son-in-law, so he looked ahead; his entire body froze.

"That... was not there before," he declared.

Giacomo could only nod.

They kept still, looking at that strange gravel that came out of nowhere; could it be related to the seaquake?

The rock swam ahead.

The two screamed and backed down; Giacomo stumbled on a screwdriver and fell while Tomaso grabbed onto the cabin.

The rock swam until it reached the island, and in their way, Tomaso noticed that it wasn't just one rock; behind it, there was another, and several more ran in a straight line, with smaller ones at the bottom.

"Dorsal fins," he thought, "but that would mean..."

At reaching the island, the creature began to rise; it looked like a lizard, but it stood on two legs and possessed a seemingly vestigial toe on the back of the foot and three dinosaur-like toes.

In fact, it looked like a T-Rex, but its scaly arms were long and muscular, with four fingers and sharp claws; it also had fins on its arms, and they were sharp-edged like knives.

The mouth was big and long, almost like the one of a crocodile, with two keen canines sticking out of the jaws. It also had fins on top of the head with two white horns.

Its eyes were green.

The creature was purple, but some of the scales on the arms were deep sea blue.

And it's size... 25 feet (7.6) tall at best.

Tomaso's eyes opened as wide as they could; never in his life had he seen such a creature; it was almost unbelievable to see a being of that dimension, and it looked scary as hell.

Giacomo was picking himself up when he noticed the monster while Tomaso backed up with a hand on his chest. Giacomo saw the state of his father-in-law and quickly held him from the back, afraid he was collapsing.

"What is that?" Was all the old mand could say, "WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!"

Giacomo couldn't respond, as his eyes were on the demon. Even now that he was used to sea monsters, nothing compared to that thing! It was on another level!

The beast walked out of the water, closed its eyes, and trembled to the sides, shaking its head; it almost looked confused. His big legs were enough for it to reach the tower in seconds. The structure was small in his comparison. The monster leaned both hands on the tower, and the building collapsed under his weight.

The creature screamed in surprise as it fell along the construction and landed on the remains.

The two screamed again; that thing crushed the tower as if it were made of cards!

The fins of the ears moved to the sea, and the creature raised its head and looked at the water; its eyes opened wide as he noticed the boat.

"BRRANNK!" The monster roared and stood up, beginning to run to the sea.

Both men screamed, and Giacomo had to let go of his elder to run down the deck to start the engine; that thing was coming from them! They have to get out of there!

Tomaso didn´t fall to the ground but instead went inside the cabin to ride out of there; on his way, he pushed the box where the gramophone was resting, and the needle came down as the song began to play again:

Run rabbit, run rabbit, run, run, run

Bang, bang, bang, bang goes the farmer's gun

Run rabbit, run rabbit, run, run, run, run

"GIACOMO! START THE ENGINE!"

"I'M TRYING! I'M TRYING!"

The monster entered the water and submerged, but its horns and dorsal fins were still visible and were heading straight to them. It was frightening how much it resembled a shark.

The engine finally started.

"LET'S GO!"

Tomaso only nodded as he turned the rudder; the boat moved to the front, but it quickly spun before heading to Portorosso; unfortunately, the fins were getting closer.

Run rabbit, run rabbit, run, run, run

Don't give the farmer his fun, fun, fun

He'll get by without his rabbit pie

So run rabbit, run rabbit, run, run, run

The monster was fast, as it was quickly catching up with them.

"FASTER!" Screamed Giacomo, looking behind his back.

"I CAN'T!" Cried Tomaso, they were going at full speed.

The creature raised its head, peeking out of the water; it looked directly at them and opened its mouth, then closed it.

"IT WANTS TO EAT US!" Tomaso yelled, "IT WANTS TO EAT US!"

The creature continually opened and closed its mouth, trying to bite the boat, and it was closing on them; it would be over them in no time.

Run rabbit, run rabbit, run, run, run

Bang, bang, bang, bang goes the farmer's gun

Run rabbit, run rabbit, run, run, run, run

A few inches were the distance apart; Giacomo looked desperately in every direction for something to defend themselves. The monster was getting closer, and the man could notice the jaws of that nightmare: sharp and long shark like teeth were waiting for them. Without a second thought, Giacomo began to throw every box, tool, and rope he could find; everything hit the monster in the nose, but nothing happened; the creature moved forward as nothing.

Defeated, Giacomo backed to the cabin; they were gonna die.

But Tomaso had his eyes up front; he could see the beach, they were almost home. Maybe with the help of the entire town, they could defeat that demon.

Run rabbit, run rabbit, run, run, run

Don't give the farmer his fun, fun, fun

He'll get by without his rabbit pie

So run rabbit, run rabbit, run, run, run

The boat finally reached the port, and both men got out as fast as they could and ran up the stairs to the plaza . On their way, they hit the gramophone, and it fell, making the song stuck:

Run rabbit, run rabbit, run, run, run

Behind them, they could hear that creature move through the water.

Once they reached the place, they noticed that many of the townsfolk had gathered there; many were in their pajamas with lanterns in hand, looking confused and scared. One of them was Viola herself; when she saw her father and husband, she sighed in relief but quickly passed when she saw their faces.

"Dad? Giacomo? What's going on? There was an earthquake, and then we heard something; it was almost as..."

But she couldn't finish as Giacomo grabbed her by the arms.

"WE NEED TO RUN!" He yelled.

She looked at him as if he was crazy, but another shake was felt.

CRASH!

The song stopped; many screams of terror were heard as everybody shook to the sides.

"What's going on?!" Someone else screamed.

"It is an earthquake?!" Another yelled.

"Alberto! Giulia! Luca! Has someone seen them?!"

Chaos began to take control of everybody, as no one knew what was happening. No one except for Tomaso, who looked at the beach.

"There!" He screamed as he pointed towards the sea.

Everybody looked in that direction, where the monster had already arrived; all the lights were put on, and the creature roared, causing a burst of screams.

Many couldn't hold themselves and fell, while others grabbed their children and began to run uphill; the creature looked down at them and shrieked again, then stopped and looked at its throat, taking boat hands to it. He shouted again and again, almost looking desperate. But no one noticed this as many fled the scene or were looking for weapons.

The creature roared one more time before setting foot on the plaza , opening a big hole in the ground; the earth shook, the windows of buildings broke, and many of those escaping plummeted.

"HELP! SOMEBODY PLEASE HELP US!"

"RUN! IT'S COMING THIS WAY!"

"IT'S ALIVE IT'S HUGE!"

The monster looked in all directions until it turned around, and the tail hit the shops Trattoria Da Marina, the Bar Giotto, and several other buildings, reducing them to pieces.

Part of the rubble flew in all directions, impacting the ground like missiles; some folks had to dodge the ruins to not be crushed.

The creature opened his eyes, and he was surprised at what it had done. He grabbed the rubbish and threw it into the sea before looking over its shoulders; the Pescheria was behind it.

The monster smiled and began walking to the fish shop.

...

Massimo didn't know what was happening. That day had begun like any other; Luca and Giulia were back in town, and even Helena had come to visit for the summer. His nephew and daughter made the deliveries and helped at the Pescheria. Then Luca came to visit; when night fell, Alberto and Giulia asked him to spend the night at Luca's house.

They agreed as it had happened a thousand times; they knew it was safe, and there was no reason to think otherwise.

But then, everything changed.

A few hours later, he was in the kitchen going on his finances when his wife told him she was heading to bed.

"You sure you don't wanna come?" Helena asked.

"I'll be there in a minute," Massimo responded without looking at her.

Helena rolled her eyes but smiled, the same old Massimo. She wished him good night when the earthquake started.

Everything in the house moved up and down, the lights flickered, and the coins Massimo had over the table fell. Helena had to hold on to the wall to avoid falling.

Massimo looked at her, but she just nodded; there was no reason to panic they just had to wait until it had passed.

The shaking ended, and they exchanged glances before running to hug each other.

"Let's not put our guard down," Massimo said once they departed, "there could still be an aftershock."

Helena nodded as they both exited the Pescheria. Out in the plaza, many were gathered looking in all directions with lights in their hands. There didn't seem to be any damage, and no one seemed injured, fortunately, it had only been the scare.

Pietrina, the young lady who used to mind the shop on weekdays, noticed the Marcovaldos and smiled, then walked to them.

"Signor and Signora Marcovaldo! Thank God you're safe!"

"Thank you, Pietrina, we're glad you're also safe. What about your parents?"

"They are all fine as well, thank you for asking," she then looked to both sides, "what was that?"

"An earthquake, but that's weird, it has never trembled here before."

Pietrina opened her mouth to speak but then shouted when that has heard.

BRRANNK!

Everyone fell silent; they had never heard anything like that. It made Helena so scared that she backed down and held Massimo´s hand.

"What was that noise?"

"It sounded like an animal."

Helena looked at Massimo, but he denied it; he had lived all his life at sea, and in all those years, he had never heard anything like that; plus, the magnitude a beast needed to have to make a sound like that was massive, and animals of that size didn't inhabit those waters.

SMASH!

Something else broke, it sounded like bricks coming down. People screamed once again, the sound didn't come from town, so it would probably be coming from Isola del Mare.

This made Massimo raise both eyebrows as he looked at Pietrina.

"Find your parents, stick together in case we need to evacuate."

The teenager nodded as she ran to find them, whatever it was, it couldn't be good. Massimo then looked at Helena.

"Go find shelter."

"What about you?"

"I need to find the kids and make sure they're safe."

Helena squeezed his hand harder.

"I'm coming with you!" She said, determined.

But he shook his head.

"The last we knew is they were at Luca's house, if they are underwater you can't come."

Helena was about to argue but shut up, he was right about that, she bit her lip before looking at him in the eyes.

"Please, be careful."

Massimo nodded, he was about to head to the beach as Helena asked if someone had seen the kids when that thing appeared.

Everybody was familiar with sea monsters by now; heck, Massimo had become one himself, and Ciccio and Ercole had experienced what it felt like to be one.

But nothing could have prepared anyone for what they saw.

This was a monster, not in the same sense they used it to refer to Luca and the other of his kind. No. This thing was a monster.

Its size and appearance were frightening, something that could only come out of the worst of nightmares.

Even with all his bravery and strength, Massimo couldn't do much but stare at the demon. Until he felt the hand of his wife over his shoulder. Massimo looked at Helena, who had both eyes on that thing and was pale. That made him wake up; he needed to react and put his wife to safety before looking for the kids.

Then, he will try to defend the town from that monster and make sure Alberto, Giulia and Luca were safe.

He took Helena by one arm and began to pull her uphill, as the creature was advancing more into town.

The creature's steps made the earth shake again, but they managed to hold on to their feet.

"Massimo!" Helena tried to complain as they climbed through a corridor, the same one where Luca and Alberto tried to escape Ercole.

"Run to the higher ground! I'll be right behind you!" He ordered.

"But..."

CRASH!

Some buildings collapsed at the tail's hit, and the rubbish was coming over them. Massimo opened his eyes and pushed himself and Helena to the ground, at the same time debris fell behind them, raising smoke. Helena screamed while Massimo peeked back at the Plaza; the monster was advancing towards the Pescheria.

Massimo raised both eyebrows.

"Not our house," he thought before letting go of Helena.

"Run! As far as you can!" He screamed as he ran back to the main street.

Helena was about to protest, but then she heard more crying; she saw the other side of the street and noticed a small girl in tears hiding behind a barrel.

"Mommy! MOMMY!"

Helena bit her lip; she reminded her of Giulia when she was little. She looked one more time in the direction Massimo had gone.

He was a grown-up, and the best man she had ever met, so she decided to trust him. If someone could take on that monster, it was him, so she stood up and ran to that girl to take her in her arms.

"Don't be scared! We'll be alright! We'll be alright!" said as she caressed the little girl's back.

"SIGNORA MARCOVALDO!" Someone screamed.

Helena looked up and noticed Pietrina, covered in dust but with no injuries.

"This way! Come on!" She pointed up front.

Helena nodded as she began to climb again.

...

As Massimo entered the plaza, he looked at the monster; it was standing in front of the Pescheria; it roared as it peaked with its head at the building.

Massimo made a fist.

He couldn't get inside the house for his harpoon with that monster watching over.

"Massimo!" Someone yelled.

The fisherman looked to his right side and noticed Giacomo running in his direction, harpoon in hand.

He smiled; even if many had decided to get rid of their harpoons ever since sea monsters became welcomed into town, there were still those who kept them, Massimo being one of them.

Just because sea monsters were friendly, that didn't mean all the creatures from the sea were, and they needed something to defend themselves. Even Daniela had agreed to this, and Massimo had gifted a harpoon, which came in handy when a squid attacked the community one time.

And now, they had to do the same.

Giacomo threw the weapon at him and Massimo caught it in the air; he smiled, and behind Giacomo many more men and women were coming with harpoons and nets.

"Go for the legs!" Massimo ordered, "We'll make him fall and then go for it's neck!" Cutting an animal's throat was the quickest way to bleed it out.

Everybody nodded as they ran to the monster.

The creature seemed disappointed at not finding anything at the Pescheria, but the footsteps and screams made it look in their direction. Massimo could swear the creature landed eyes on him and...

Smiled.

As if it was happy to see him.

This made him stop to have a better look at it; the monster roared again as it turned its colossal body to face him, but then noticed the other presents with weapons in their hands.

The smile melted, and the monster shook its head, trying to comprehend what was happening.

Massimo couldn't decide what to do. Should he wait? Could this monster be... a different kind of sea monster?

But how could it be so big? And where the hell had it come from?

Many things ran through his head, and Massimo couldn't decide how to proceed, but then, Signor Ferrando threw his harpoon.

The weapon went in a straight line until it hit the creature's leg, and it broke: the tip of the spear bent, pointing to the sky, and fell to the ground.

This made all stop and look at the harpoon, which was now useless; with eyes and mouths wide open, they all stared at the weapon and then looked at the monster.

The creature was also looking at the spear; it seemed he also didn't know how strong he was. Massimo could just stare at that. What was this thing?

Giacomo screamed and threw his harpoon at the creature; it hit the monster in the stomach, but the result was the same, the harpoon broke and fell as a worthless item.

This made the creature curious; it leaned on both hands to lower his head and see the harpoon.

"He's curious," Massimo thought; this made him realize that this wasn't a mindless beast. Whatever it was, it had some sense of comprehension of the situation. The monster raised his eyes and looked at Massimo; once again, it smiled and roared.

Massimo couldn't know what to do. Was this thing trying to communicate with him? But why? How? What in God's name was happening?

But before Massimo could do anything, Signora Bruzzone stabbed the creature's eye with a harpoon; she somehow managed to sneak to the monster's side to hurt it. This had an effect as the weapon pierced the pupil and sank until the optic nerve.

The monster howled in pain as it stood up and put both hands to its eye.

Massimo wide opened his eyes and dropped his harpoon; he wanted to say 'wait' to the others but didn't know why. Why did he have the urge to defend this beast that had come to destroy the town?

The people began to shout in victory as they finally managed to hurt it, but then Massimo noticed something, being injured the creature was moving desperately to every side; it threw a blow into the air that ended up hitting the Pescheria and the neighboring building, destroying the second floors of both, making the humans yell in terror.

"NO!" Massimo screamed.

As the others started to back away; starting to regret hurting it.

The monster roared before rushing forward.

"DODGE!" Yelled Massimo before throwing himself to the ground, many more ran to the other side of the street, where the bar had once stood.

Unfortunately, Signora Bruzzone was very close to the monster when it started to run; the impact of his paw caused a wave that sent her flying, the woman screamed until she fell over the rubble.

"SIGNORA BRUZZONE!" Yelled Ferrando, he ran to help her, but in its desperate run, he got in the monster's way, the man could only open his eyes when the demon's enormous paw crushed him. Massimo opened his in terror when he saw the scene. When the beast raised his feet, Massimo noticed traces of organs and blood smeared on it.

The monster hit the main building, where registrations for the Portorosso Cup took place, the monster crashed head first, then lifted it up before taking a large part of the building with it.

More debris fell, raising a cloud of smoke that only increased when the construction collapsed, all the presents covered themselves to prevent it from getting into their eyes.

After that... everything went silent.

Massimo stayed on the ground for a few moments, not knowing what else to do, he was dirty from head to toe, there was nothing around him but dust and debris, and some pieces of concrete had become embedded in his arm.

Slowly, he got up, looking around to see if there were any other survivors, but he could not see because of the smoke that surrounded him. It wasn't until a shadowy figure appeared in front that he stood up.

The figure advanced until he was out of the mist, and Massimo saw it was Giacomo, just as dirty as him, and with a pale death expression.

He looked at Massimo and opened his mouth, but no sound came out of it. The fisherman just nodded.

"Let's find the others."

Giacomo only nodded.

BRRANNK!

This put the two on alert, they turned to the side where the building had collapsed, the creature's enormous face came out of the fog above them, and they stared at it in terror.

Out of the mist, more and more people came, all with eyes on the creature, they backed away until they reached Massimo and Tomaso, forming a straight line.

The monster still had the harpoon in its eye; he took a claw to it and then pulled the spear off.

Everyone made faces of disgust at seeing such horror, the creature dropped the harpoon to the ground, still wailing as it did so, and then... the injured eye regenerated itself.

Massimo couldn't believe what he saw, the only damage they caused him had disappeared, and he now had an eye just like the previous one.

The others lost hope when they saw this, as they fell to their knees and just stared at the imposing being that was now in front of them.

The creature opened and closed the regenerated eye, and then smiled, apparently, it worked like the previous one, after that, it looked at the ground and... seemed to get sad.

He looked around at the destruction he had caused and then fixed his eyes on the villagers lying at his feet. They were wounded, while Signora Bruzzone lay in rubble howling in pain, and Signor Ferrando had been reduced to a mush of blood and organs.

The monster roared and then looked at its throat, it roared again in desperation. It closed its eyes and fists, gritted its teeth, and lowered its head. When it opened its eyes, the monster inspected its body, but nothing had changed.

It roared again and looked behind him; the tail was still there.

The beast looked down once more, and Massimo could swear he laid eyes on him. The monster did not see him with hatred or fury but rather with pity and pain. What was happening? The monster let out a small scream, but apparently, it wasn't what it wanted, as it closed its eyes and began to move forward.

Everyone shouted as they moved out of the way of the creature, who did not stop until it reached the water; it submerged, leaving the dorsal fins out, until they disappeared into the sea.

#luca 2021 #pixar luca #alberto scorfano #luca paguro #giulia marcovaldo #luca movie #fanfiction #kaijuberto #kaiju au #kaiju

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starvingtongue · 4 months

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Realising now that I haven't actually touched on Dona's feelings towards Yuna on this blog yet and I feel like I should. I've seen a lot of speculation on it over the years (from reddit posts, youtube comments, tv tropes, etc.) and formed my own headcanons regarding over the past couple months too, and I've always thought I've made a note of it somewhere, but browsing through my headcanon tag for Dona, I realise I haven't. Shame on me.

I would like to preface this by saying that I don't think Dona hates Yuna. Dona can be rude, blunt, and upfront to anyone, regardless of who they are. We see this time and time again throughout both X and X-2, that she doesn't give a damn about who you are, what position of power you hold, she's going to treat everybody the same. We see her not saluting to Nooj in X-2, despite him being the leader of the Youth League, we see her not bowing to Yuna when they first meet, despite it probably being the 'correct' thing to do. Formalities like that are not a thing for her. I kinda wish we saw her interacting with more people, especially those within Yevon a little more, to show this a bit better.

But anyway, while she does not hate Yuna, Dona's feelings (and problem) with Yuna stems from Dona's own insecurity, with a possible hint of jealousy, and a view that Yuna gets afforded opportunities that Dona and other summoners don't. We kind of see this through X itself, but if you consider these things from an outsiders perspective (like Dona), it makes a lot more sense. Things such as:

Yuna being Braska's daughter, the child of someone who has already defeated Sin, and has the status that not too many others have. In Dona's eyes, it's afforded Yuna with certain privilages (good or bad) that not too many others have and could possibly make her pilgrimage a lot easier.

She has 6 guardians by the time she defeats Sin (which Dona deems as overly excessive regardless of her own feelings towards Yuna), one of which is Auron. Auron being legendary guardian to Braska, brings more status, privilage, and knowledge to the pilgrimage, which others may not otherwise benefit from.

Yuna is sought out, befriended, and accompanied by Seymour, a Maester of Yevon, which brings certain perks (like getting past the checkpoint at the start of Mushroom Rock, for example), that again, not everyone else is going to benefit from.

All of this combined, and from an outsiders perspective such as Dona's, makes it seem like Yuna's pilgrimage pretty comfortable and somewhat more high status (I don't want to say privilaged again, but I think this is one of the terms I've heard thrown around before when talking about Dona's feelings towards Yuna) than the average pilgrimage is. Dona obviously not right in being this insecure and jealous over the opportunities that Yuna gets afforded, many of which Yuna doesn't get a choice about (and Dona would have no way of knowing about this either), since both are gong on a march to their own deaths, but after seeing Yuna get handed all of these opportunities and been put on such a high pedestal, it's hard not to feel some type of way towards her. Dona sees her as competition, a pretty serious one at that, but not necessarily because of her strength as a summoner, but because Yuna has more opportunities afforded to her that could make her pilgrimage easier than most.

You would think, however, that once Yuna defeats Sin and has that success under her belt, Dona would act out even more towards her, the great High Summoner who lived, but no. While it's not immediately obivous in X-2, I think Dona chills out quite a bit towards Yuna after Sin's gone. She not longer sees Yuna as a rival, as a competitior, to kill Sin. She's chilled out a bit, she can find herself as a person, spend the rest of her days in Kilika with Barthello, and not have to worry about who defeats the giant whale of death first. Her jealously, her insecurity, her feelings of low self worth towards a 17 year old who has a successful former guardian in tow and a Maester interested in her, have mostly disappeared.

I do find it very sad that we never got to see her interact with Isaaru as a comparison. She would 100% still be her bitchy self, but Isaaru's just 'normal' summoner competition compared to Yuna, there's no reason for Dona to be as insecure towards Isaaru as she is towards Yuna.

This type of insecurity is something that a lot of people go through, regardless of if they want to or not, and Dona suffers from it just as much as anyone else would. Does it make it right that she lashes out at Yuna the way she does? Of course not! Dona does a really poor job of hiding this jealousy and insecurity towards Yuna throughout their entire respective pilgrimage. However, it does add another layer of characterisation to Dona that I think a lot of people glance over when they first meet her.

#dona { 🎆 } headcanon #I obviously don't excuse her attitude towards Yuna throughout the game #but ever since coming to realise that Dona's attitude towards Yuna probably stems from her own insecurity #rather than outright hated has certainly made me see Dona in a different light

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junglekarmapippa · 6 months

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Robbie on Robbie #22 "There's a sadness in the silent part of me"

From "Where there's muck

The team was busy cleaning the restaurant after a long day of serving the best pizza and pasta in town, Rin Shi attack on the side.

Despite how tired they were, the boys were excitedly telling Fran the details of the Rin Shi battle, while Lily and RJ worked in silence.

"You should have seen it," Dom told Fran. "Casey combined my weapon with his claw and tore right through that beast!"

"I had never felt power like that before," Casey said. "RJ, did you plan for them to be used like that?"

RJ didn't reply, transfixed as he was washing the vegetables.

"RJ?" Casey called again. This made Lily look up and see the young Master's sad face.

She put a hand on his shoulder. "RJ?" RJ turned to look at her. "Casey asked you a question."

"Sorry, Case, I missed that. What?" RJ asked with a soft voice, obviously still distracted.

"I asked if you had designed Dom's morpher to combine with our Master claws."

"Yes." He said nothing else and went back to his vegetables.

Immediately, Lily knew something was wrong. It was unlike RJ to pass up a chance to show off how intelligent and ahead of everything he had been by designing Dom's morpher to combine with their claws.

She looked at her Master's face but decided to give him some time and not call him out in front of everybody.

It was over an hour later after the restaurant was ready and they had had a light dinner, that Lily could finally get RJ alone. His sad demeanor had vanished at some point of dinner and he had sent them to bed with his usual calm smile.

But Lily knew better. She pretended to walk towards her room but stayed hidden just past the threshold to the bedrooms.

She saw RJ grab a book that looked like a journal and sit on the floor, not his chair, the floor. He opened the journal and Lily thought he was going to write in it, but he just read from it.

She watched him as he read, passing the pages as he finished them, his face growing more and more somber. Suddenly, he closed the journal quickly and looked up.

"Can I help you, Lily?" He asked.

She should have known better. She came out of her hiding spot and sat across from him.

"Is that your journal?" She asked, pointing at the book.

"It was, at some point," he replied.

"I noticed you were unusually quiet earlier, is everything okay?"

"It's just one of those days, you know?" He set the book aside and Lily got a good look at it. It was bound in leather and had what seemed to be a crest in a fading gold leaf on the cover.

"That looks like a very expensive journal," she commented.

"It is," he said, looking at it. "It was a very expensive time in my life… before I was disowned." He said that as if he assumed Lily would know what he meant, but she didn't.

"Disowned?" She asked.

He seemed to realize what he had only ever told Casey about what had happened with his dad. "When I fought with my dad, seven years ago. He disowned me." He looked at the journal and then back to Lily. "I was unusually quiet? Really?"

"They were talking about the ranger tech and you didn't even pipe up once to explain how it worked."

"Ah. I see."

"You looked sad. You still do."

"I guess there's a sadness in the silent part of me." He shrugged.

"Why are you so sad?"

He took a moment to reply. "I'm not very good with goodbyes."

"Where are you going?"

"That's the thing. I'm usually the one who leaves but this time… This time I will be the one left behind."

"Are you talking about us? Us leaving you?"

"Yes." He grabbed the journal and stood up. "The final battle against Dai Shi is getting closer and closer. After that…" He stopped himself, took a deep breath, and continued: "I won't be of much use to you, you will be adults and you will leave to find your place in the world." He reinforced his words with wide hand gestures.

"Yeah, but not right away." she got up to follow him as he put the journal on the shelf. "And even if we move out, you will always be our friend. We won't just… cast you aside." He turned to look at her. "Will you cast us aside?"

He gave her a smile that didn't completely remove the sadness from his face. "You will always have a home with me."

"It's kinda scary and sad to think this adventure is coming to an end, but that doesn't mean we will leave your side right away."

He looked down at the floor and when he looked back up, a tear was sliding down his cheek. She hugged him tightly.

He hugged her back.

"We won't just leave you, you can't get rid of us that easily," she told him after letting go.

"Right. Well, get to bed, then, tomorrow will be a long day."

"Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah."

She left to her room and RJ pulled out another journal, one with a lock, much cheaper than the first one, and opened it to a blank page. He wrote the date and then, in cursive, he wrote in French:

"The day keeps getting closer, they still haven't figured it out. They're so young and full of life. I can't bring myself to tell them the truth. I don't have it in me to remind them that they're dead."

#power rangers #powerrangers #power rangers jungle fury #fanfic #fanfiction #robbie williams #robbiewilliams #robbie on robbie #lyrics #powerrangersjunglefury

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my-mt-heart · 1 year

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Ok im gonna try to bring a bit of positivity here even if it might not seem like it at first lol. U might have seen (but i think u avoid twitter right?) Carol being attacked these last few hours/days regarding Sophia/Ed. How she supposedly let Sophia being sexually abused by Ed without doing nothing. How she screamed to Shane "stop!" and cried when he beat up Ed. Meaning she was weak and ridiculous, again.

First of all i think (correct me if im wrong) that its considered canon that Ed didnt abuse (sexually, that is) Sophia... yet, because he died, but he would have had tried to had he lived because he saw her "growing up" and was a sick psycho. And Carol acted on it by having Sophia taken physically far away from her father if i recall well (dont have the exact scene in mind hence why im vague).

Second of all, this is bullshit obviously. Those people have never been abused and it shows. How its hard to leave, because you still love him and actually believe him when he says he wont hurt u again. Because he's a "great father" and "only" hit you and not ur children (its stastically rare i think but it does happen). I've worked with a lot of women beaten up by their husbands (and believe it or not, a few man with their wives too. Even husbands with husbands or wives with wives. Again, more rare but still here) and all combinations exist: women dont give a shit anymore, wont forgive, and only wants to leave and/or ptotect their children, woman who cant leave because they still see the "amazing" man he was for the first 10 years, or the first 3 years. Or says things like "he was beaten up when he was a child by his dad so its not his fault. "

ALL combinations exist, no one knows what its like to be in the head or the heart of a beaten 's wife/person, and no one should judge someone's way of coping with it, dealing with it, reacting to it. It is NEVER the victims fault, even if in the case of a beaten's wife, she stays with the husband.

Sorry, so, this disgression to say that Carol was insulted yesterday and so on for staying with Ed and not protecting Sophia.

The goods news (and here comes the positive part lol) is that for once, everyone was coming at these assholes (who, yes, happened to be Richonners, but NO, not all Richonners are this way, absolutely NOT).

And when i mean everyone, i mean even those who usually dont say shit when Carol (and therefore Melissa) is called ugly and/or too old for Daryl. Even those who dont ship caryl and/ or dont particularly like Carol are saying "ohh hell noo, too far, u re not victim blaming Carol here, absolutely not". Even the "kind of official fan accounts" followed by stars of the show.

So, while i wish she was defended more often already for the ageist and sexist part of the attacks she suffers, its still comforting to see that this time, everybody or almost see how too far they have gone and reacted accordingly.

Sorry if im clumsy in my way of writing or presenting things, english is not my native language, hope i did ok.

First of all, thank you for all you've done for survivors of domestic abuse and for sharing your insight. I heard about the incident through the grapevine and it was nice to go back and see all the support Carol was getting from all sides :)

Even though we have to be responsible for what we say on SM, I don't think it should just be left up to the fans to create a safer environment for them (and even cast and crew) to interact with each other. We should also put pressure on AMC to stop fueling the sexism, ageism, racism, etc. seen not just in one particular subset of the fanbase, but across the board. For example, how about making Carol the same size as Daryl in the key art so people can literally see her as a lead character? How about abandoning the ambiguous language around Caryl's relationship so people can understand that, yes, a middle-aged woman with gray hair can be the middle-aged male lead's love interest and vice versa? How about hiring someone who actually supports their characters and their relationship to run the official SM accounts? That's the kind of change I'd love to see.

#caryl #caryl spinoff #carol peletier #melissa mcbride #darylneedscarol

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elders-of-the-sky · 11 months

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Fonte: …I just…don’t understand. Why wouldn’t they tell anybody? No me…not Kerta…not Derek…not Ezzard…

Fonte: It just doesn’t make sense…

[Flashback underneath Read More]

[ Kerta and Ezzard are co-owned by @jello-skykid ]

“I don’t understand. Your era should have ended a long time ago…Why are you all still here?”

Silence. The current elders all looked among one another, as if ashamed to admit to anything.

“That…” The Vault elder, Nox, spoke, “…is a long story…”

She slowly approached Fonte and took her by the hand, guiding her to a circle of shrines. “Come here…we’ll catch you up…”

Fonte stared despondently at the grass beneath her feet. Still, she nodded and mumble an “okay.”

Nox sat in front of her own shrine, Fonte followed, having finally sat down after hours of wandering the ruins of a kingdom now long gone. The former sighed as she watched her fellow elders find their place. Pop and Rain sat off to the side while Sunn and Sett stayed perched on Gold’s shoulders like birds. Delos, having experienced old age far quicker than anybody else despite only being a few days Nox’s senior, found a way to sit on the grass not too far away from the others without hurting himself. The ancient-looking man silently swore when his mask started to fall apart, as it normally did when his light ran low.

“You remember our coronation…” Nox started.

“Of course,” Fonte sighed, “the twins were barely teenagers when it happened. I wish we had been able to give you all more time.”

“It could not be helped.” Nox spoke with an almost aggravated tone. “Lorelei and Marissa were dying, and you were already losing yourself before then. No matter if the poison was physical as it was with them, or mental as it was with you, the Seven Realms could not run with only three healthy elders. Combined with Kerta’s inconsolable state regarding your prognosis, that really only left Ezzard and Derek to run things. Given all the circumstances that forced our early coronation, I must reiterate…it could not be helped.”

Fonte simply looked at Nox, her eyes still sparkly with tears from before.

“Anyways…” The Vault Elder continued, “Not long we were left to take charge…His Royal Highness…”

‘had a child’ she wanted to say. But then she remembered that she had removed the memory of Prince Kier, and his counterpart Prince Resh, from the others’ minds. She didn’t need them suffering those memories right now. If anybody deserved to feel guilty for not saving them, it deserved to be her.

“He…what? Nox, what happened to King? Is he still with us as well?”

Nox silently wondered to herself why the previous ruler, Charles, had given his son such an on-the-nose name. The man must not have had room for creativity, having been born during the Oasis-Prairie War. She decided not to digress any longer, even if she considered Charles a fool for naming his one and only son “King.”

“…no.” She answered after pondering for far too long. “He is gone. We had to make progress without him, starting with those blueprints for The Eye.”

“How did that go?”

“It went…well.”

“A little too well.” Rain interrupted, “The ancient texts warned us of taking too much light for our own. We found out firsthand what happens when The Balance is disrupted to such an extreme degree, you get-“

“Those things from outside.” Fonte finished for her.

Rain nodded in confirmation. “The Eye exploded in front of us, before we could get it under control. Those things, those dark dragons, they appeared immediately afterwards. We think the explosion opened up a way to us from wherever the creatures of darkness were originally banished to.”

“What even are they?”

Everybody was silent again.

“…Monsters.” Gold simply said, but his voice suggested guilt in every word he spoke. “They’re just…monsters that eat light. Nothing more, nothing less.” He didn’t dare tell them that some of the dragons were once people, people who somehow corrupted into those forms with no escape other than death. If anybody deserved to feel guilty, it deserved to be him.

Gold continued. “They killed Delos…they killed Sunn…they killed Sett…they killed…me…they’re dangerous.”

“I couldn’t agree more.” Said Nox.

Gold felt a pressure in his chest grow slightly heavier.

“Did you fight them?” Fonte asked.

“Yes…” Nox sighed, “…after about a year of conflict, it was only me and the remaining ancestors of our kingdom that remained. I don’t remember how long we held out for, only that I pled to the Makers for our people’s redemption. I can’t recall how long we’ve been stuck in the Realm of Spirits for…but I do know that my calls were answered.”

Nox paused, and looked over to see a child with a brown cape approach her. She beckoned to them, and allowed them provide an offering of light to her realm. The child watched the starry sky fill itself with portraits of a world long passed, and received a nod of acknowledgment from each of the elders before they vanished from the Realm of Spirits. Nox looked back at Fonte.

“…the children…”

“Yes.” She smiled weakly at the woman.

“The Makers sent them down to…redeem our people.”

“At the very least, to redeem the ones who are stuck here as spirits.”

Fonte mused over this information for several minutes. Nox hoped that this would satisfy whatever questions the predecessor had for her group, but it did not. Fonte had one more question.

“Nox…”

“…Yes, Miss Fonte?”

“…Why didn’t you call somebody?”

“…”

“I can see how much older you all are compared to when I went to sleep. There had to have been about 10 years between your coronation and when the Eye exploded. There’s no way you couldn’t have noticed something awry with it. All of you are far too observant to have not noticed.”

Gold spoke up. “…I…I did mention on multiple occasions that…the Eye seemed to be acting more unstable with time…Rain can consolidate with me about that.”

Rain nodded, “I had my concerns as well…but…”

“But?” Fonte tilted her head curiously.

“We…didn’t want any of you to worry. While we felt that everybody that went to Orbit would likely be healthy again after about a year of rest, we really didn’t want to bother anybody. We figured that everybody would be tired…and that it would be less stress for everybody else if we handled it ourselves.”

“But we’re your predecessors!” Fonte started to shout. She felt offended for the elders she had worked with. Like their experience was somehow out of question. “I might not have been available, but the others would have been. Derek especially if there were issues with The Eye. And when the darkness had finally taken over…I don’t know why you wouldn’t have called Kerta or Ezzard, they love you guys! They would have fought tooth and nail for you and for your people.”

Silence, once more.

“You…you wouldn’t get it.” Pop simply stated. It was the first time he had said anything since Fonte had shown up.

“What…what is there to get? Pop, I don’t understand…”

“It’s complicated. You just…wouldn’t…get it.”

“Why?!” She pleaded with him.

Pop refused to answer. There was too much shame in his heart, in all of their hearts. It wasn’t about asking for help…it was about letting their predecessors, their caretakers, down. Fonte’s era had been one of peace and prosperity, surely they would all seem lesser if they couldn’t as easily find success…but how could he put that into words. How could he admit to Fonte that they were all ashamed to ask for help?

“…why?…” Fonte repeated herself. “…why won’t you look at me? Why won’t you talk to me?”

After several minutes without a response, Fonte stood up. “I’m not mad at you all…”

She paused. “I’m really not…I’m just…confused…and upset that you didn’t tell anybody…”

Fonte vanished into the darkness within the Realm of Spirits, eventually re-appearing back where she started…in front of a shrine: her shrine.

The light of the moon spilled in from a hole in the cave ceiling, the only source of illumination for Fonte as she buried her head into her sleeve-covered palms.

#chapter 1 #ask the elders #elder fonte #thatskygame #long post #tw death mention

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starlightrealmofficial · 2 years

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Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry-Anime Review

Hello, ladies and gentlemen and everyone else from all across the multiverse! It's been a long, long LONG while but finally, I'm back to this here blog, and today, just as I promised in my review of Kokoro Connect. Today we'll be talking about another project of SILVER LINK in collaboration with Nexus. This one has many names, Chivalry of the Failed Knight, Rakudai Kishi no Eiyutan, Tale of the Worst One, take your pick, everybody. That being said, for the remainder of the article I will stick to calling it the way I do in the title, or some abbreviation of that for the sake of simplicity. Now, let's see what timeframe we're dealing with.

It's the fall of 2015. Haikyuu's second season's starting, One Punch Man's happening, and A-1 Pictures is pushing out Gakusen Toshi Asterisk. Keep that one in mind, it's important. In that sort of environment, SILVER LINK releases a short series based on a Light Novel written by Riku Misora and the subject of today's article.

What Is Rakudai?

Imagine if you will, an academy for gifted youth who can shape their souls into powerful weapons. These Blazers, as they are called, train at a prestigious academy to become Mage-Knights. In a funny coincidence, in February of the same year, a little-known series called Black Clover began publication., Rakudai was still first with mage-knights between those two tho, the novel starting in 2013. That tangent aside tho, among the students of Hagun Academy, one is deemed a failure. His name is Ikki Kurogane. The series centers around him trying to prove his worth to everyone. And ohhhhhh boy did they mess up calling him a failure.

Ikki Kurogane-The Worst Knight

As a failure, Ikki didn't have proper training like other Blazers did, but that didn't stop him from learning. He developed a skill of his own, Blade Steal, the ability to mimic someone's style after witnessing it, which he used to hone his craft as a swordsman. Where other Blazers' weapons gifted them with essentially super powers of different kinds, Ikki's Intetsu was not like that, it was for all intents and purposes, a plain old sword. But due to Blade Steal, he had become an extremely competent user of that hunk of..metal..soul? Soul metal? What is this, the Minecraft Bleach Mod? At any rate, he's very good with a sword, and only gets better once he initiates his once-a-day super buff, Itto Shura! Which roughly translates to "I am a superhuman god swordsman, what you gon' do?" It dramatically improves Ikki's already impressive physical abilities from strength to speed to perception, to a plethora of other things. So, we have our protagonist set, especially with a pretty good performance from Ryota Osaka. The voice of Sadao from The Devil's a Part-timer, Tanikaze Nagate from Knights of Sidonia, Apollo from Danmachi and Cheval from Monster Hunter Stories Ride On. But any knight worth his salt should have a lady right? And Ikki is no different.

Stella Vermilion-A Himedere Done Just.

I don't know if schools in Poland are just out of fashion or something but co-ed dorm rooms and stuff never really flew here, and whoever decided to put a literal princess in the room with the school's biggest fail was either a master of irony, a moron, a genius, or some combination of the above. And if you asked me which is true, I'd say "Yes". However, we can all agree that the first meeting between these two is, well, rather humorous. Imagine for a moment you're in Stella's shoes - first of all, they're probably very comfortable. Secondly, you've just been assigned to a room and you're changing, when suddenly a boy walks into your room and sees you in the act. Using his infinite wisdom in a way I can only describe as "Somehow", he sees that the only way to make things right is to show himself naked to you, taking off his shirt. Yes, my friends, this series is an Ecchi and, honestly, a pretty nice one.

Needless to say, Stella doesn't take too kindly to this and immediately demands Ikki be taken out of the room, to which the boy of course objects as it was his first. The matter is fortunately resolved and over the course of the series, the two get gradually closer and understand one another better, in a pretty realistic way if you ask me, which is always a plus. And while we're at it, let's praise the series some more.

The Technical side.

The music within this anime is a definite strong point in its favor. I find it to be composed beautifully and the fact it uses classical instruments more than digital ones is a definite plus when it comes to how emotive and immersive it can be. Koutaro Nakagawa did a fantastic job as the composer. And along with sound director Jin Aketagawa, they crafted a really pleasant sonic experience. But granted, given their portfolios that shouldn't surprise anyone. Nakagawa's work includes Code Geass and Gosick, as well as Yu-gi-oh Arc-V and Digimon Universe, while the latter of these fine gentlemen is the sound director of Your Lie in April, Food Wars, Fire Force, Dr. Stone, Toradora, Re: Zero, Horimiya, Fruit Basket, Highschool DxD and many others. If we are to talk about the sound of Rakudai, I feel it's an absolute crime not to mention Identity, the opening theme of the series performed by Mikio Sakai, which I have been in the past guilty of listening to on loop. What can I say? It's a good song, and if you pay attention to the visual style of the opening. That provides us a neat segway into the next part.

The Visuals

This mostly monochrome palette shift is something that to me is synonymous with Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry. It is an aesthetic utilized in decisive moments of a battle and it really puts me in the moment each time the colors said their bye-bye. That coupled with some really fun to watch sword combat and the hype generated when that ace in the hole, Itto Shura came out, plus a generally smooth animation quality and a cast of fun characters, even if not too many got action in the span of these 12 episodes, are definite positives.

The Rival

Remember how I said to keep A-1's Asterisk in mind? The two series definitely have their similarities and had been considered rivals in a sense. The funny thing is, they were really close, despite the fact that, unlike Asterisk War, Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry wasn't really promoted.

"But Rouga!" I hear you saying "Asterisk had two seasons and Rakudai only had one. That must mean Asterisk did better right?" While the first statement is certainly true, the second we could debate but I frankly don't find the need to. Asterisk's anime was at its creation planned to have two seasons while today's subject only had one. Both series were simply made to promote the source material. This still doesn't stop people from asking when the second season is coming on the author's MAL page of all places, which to me is a bit humorous. I do think that both these series did rather well at their task. I certainly want to pick up the novel of Rakudai and read it.

Conclusion

I have to admit, the series as a whole, the anime at least - I cannot speak for the novel as of right now - isn't that spectacular. Much like Battle Game in 5 Seconds, which I already covered, it's an anime that I simply had a fun time watching. That said I do place it a good bit higher on the list than Battle Game. It's actually one of two anime series that I hadn't watched alone. A friend of mine came over to my house every once in a while and we'd watch it together on her recommendation. I really liked that. And for those fond memories, I must thank the studio, Riku Misora, and everyone involved in the creation of this piece of media. I sincerely hope you give it a shot. It may not be the most stellar but just like Ikki Kurogane himself. It is far from the worst.

I have been Rouga and thank you all for your time. I hope to see you soon.

#anime review #anime #light novel #rakudai kishi no cavalry

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the-firebird69 · 1 month

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My receiver went through Pennsylvania it's not exactly a normal but it's not real normal the excuses the other routes are jammed which they are but usually they are jammed off and on the point is where the receiver here you might receive things information you need and communications have been disrupted recently and something we're messing with that they shouldn't but if you need to hear something you might want to look into the code of the stereo I bought from Walmart

Thor Freya

Olympus

That's okay we're here and stuff I do see what you're saying so we're going to have to try a little bit more to keep people often and he's not one of ours and he looks like a man and he's with Tony f who moved him off

Mac daddy okay well it might be me but I see what you're saying I'm dune 2 but yeah I'm pretty big I don't know why you're not growing we had tons of that prilosec but you're right we get a workout and we get it and we get the cardiovascular going and you're not really burning off that much fat until recently and it's probably going to stretch it out a little but really at 8 years that stuff falls off other medicines will slow it down it doesn't take a ton it takes a lot but it takes a while for someone to start growing it was stunted for so long probably 5 years to full size and it says that should be too hard I'll have to mug back to the everybody I see doesn't mean you probably one steer a day at full size and that's remarkable that's too big and that's what I'm saying he says

Mac daddy

It's hard to impress them no he's nervous and watching so boy that guy's shoulders are wider than mine and he's thick LOL but really it's pretty big and he's a big fella that my full size I'd have a fight on my hands because he's seasoned and skill still and yeah it's Mr Bean any hits people in the beaner that's how he wins and it's annoying but it's the way it goes I guess is a lot of stuff going on a lot of people are moving and leaving they want him out here and they want to see if things are fine and really it's not that bad and we moved out west before the process was really not right but that's what happened

Bill

I got to say something and not cuz my name is slightly the same this is hell you guys are not speaking in complete sentences and I guess you never do but boy it's aggravating and I have to tell you that I get aggravated easily I need to purchase this stuff and it won't what time you said growing up and down will do it and I tried it and everybody's doing it and I started to figure out I was hiding by accident yeah so I feel a little better and it's working in a combine it with stuff grow up and add some stuff as I'm coming down I'll throw it out eventually I'll be stuck up there but wow and it's horrible this is a mess he's going to start growing right at Easter he's laughing and asking us if him or something has something to do with it maybe maybe the cabbage that's true so that makes sense so we're off in another adventure soon and we will let you know how it goes I'm trying to find out some of the stuff he's talking about we know about the Continental caverns and that's real the borge it's a question and gigantic Giants we have to check into it it's going on right now

William

Had to say something stay away from those two they're too big and too much for you and it says oh yeah I already did that and they've got the St Bernards and they're pretty big. Shoes huge numbers and people are coming by now but there's some people bothering him. Like this little kid and it's probably Brian he's a dick. For real.

Hera

It's kind of a humorous thing watching dogs know each other if they're bigger they always pushing and push them around stick their nose right on them so sign of dominance but they're really sitting there sniffing like crazy and they remember okay this guy is all right and he's going to be gone shortly and without so much fanfare and once the ships are gone he's going to take his Titan and lose everything and there's Stone chips up there underground and there's a bunch and people will fight them and lose the rest of theirs it's going to happen shortly.

-the more like her down to 2.5 billion ships the 1 million trumpsters that heated up or out by the pseudo empire Trump only has maybe two billion left that's a lot of ships but not if you can't get anywhere and ask dumb questions but yeah but they can't get anywhere you're not watching ammo supply the attack tactics their technique and why they're doing things and you're not modifying anything you're not leaving any off for information or getting information you just assholes I think you have ai that does something so they're thinking that's true soon they'll be out no but they'll be out and yeah they're stupid. But it was bja during the bicycle thing in this kind of stupid. It's a couple more people that are real Tom but we have some control there's a huge amount of people leaving Florida and there's a bunch coming in here but right now we think there's probably 4% up out of those 4% of 1%, it's more or less almost on the highway you're driving around getting roadway supplies gasoline that's a huge number from 18% yes they'll bring it down to 14% by tomorrow there are some that are planning on evacuating by ship and from Tampa and large numbers. Yes it's minority morlock and almost all of them they found out they're not welcome either and they're having fights with these guys it's adding to it they're going to be leaving momentarily they're going to be leaving from Tampa and fort Myers in big cruise ships. And they are cruise ships that are good sized they're only a thousand foot but they're decent cruise ships they hold both 4000 people uncomfortably and it's a few hours and they go up to the South what's going on now that they are having a little bit of fun trying to get on as they're competing with people who are white poor people and they're trying to get more ships it is stated that they will probably have five or six shifts momentarily. And that's additional right now out of Tampa there are four I'm going to take hours to get there not really they're going to Alabama and it's only like 50 miles you know it's about 80 miles and they go off and back in 2 hours it makes nine shifts once you're up there they can come over the mountains to Georgia and they do that and they're leaving now this is going to be awful they're going to be leaving in the pseudo empire is moving in and it doesn't seem it he says Mac is acting strange and it's true but they are doing it and they do have basis but then again the bases are not on the East Coast they have a lot of aces in Florida and that's the key I was wondering where the bases were they have 50 top side about 40 below some of them are good sized and you know a bunch of ships offshore and making a base there and spaceships and that's what they have a power structure and they have like half of each of the nearby islands and that's also kind of a power structure

-there's other things happening it's crappy acting all around and Matt was doing some crappy in it so people are wondering what's that all about

-our son has not grown in heights at all he decided to train document his size month to month and he's going to keep track of it so he knows if he looks odd people do it all the time here and his arms are a little bigger I checked it out and it's true he's usually at barely 16 inches now it's about almost a quarter over and it's less fat and he's getting bigger little chunky here and there where he wasn't his ribs are filling in a little not much but a little bit and they are he says it will take a little time

-additional to this evacuation is the Midwest they're going up 75 miles and they're already loading up and they'll be out of there completely and others they think to move in no recording it off and we take it all out and we're going to start building automobiles and things like that for export to the perimeter I'm going shortly

-it's a lot of symbology here and it's about our son and his wife it's going on quite a bit and and it's a lot of it it's kind of worse than this so much of it but these guys aren't sending it seems macaron is going nuts with it they are obscene

More shortly

Thor Freya

Olympus

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ego-morior · 6 months

Text

I'm stuck.

God, you would think the feeling would go away once you hit 30 but it will probably take me 30 more years to realize feeling stuck is just something very human that happens to humans.

I've been debating going to therapy recently, just to get a third person point of view on the feelings I harbor. Someone without bias to validate certain things and point out the flaws of others. A different pair of eyes to take a look at all the puzzle pieces I have yet to combine together across the table. Someone with enough experience to point out that there are a few missing edges that I will never recover and that it's okay to stop searching for them. Maybe hearing it out loud from someone else won't hurt as much as when I whisper it to myself in the middle of the night on a random Tuesday.

Something you learn a little later on, is that writing things after a breakdown and not during one, will always be easier to digest on an empty stomach. The rage, sorrow, fear and anguish have simmered down into a stew that isn't bubbling violently over the edges. When it's finally warm enough to sip from without burning your tongue, that is when you should pick up the pen. And that's exactly what I'm choosing to do now, on a cold morning in November.

November 8th, 2023.

I have quietly wept during the past days and loudly sobbed during the past few nights. This is the first morning I don't wake up with a wet pillow and the first time I can drink my coffee and listen to something silly online that has nothing to do with my life. Maybe it's the seasonal depression or the timing of Snapchat memories that has claimed victory to my senses this year. About two weeks ago, I gave up on a love I hadn't heard from in three years. The first year apart, I carried the yearning in the front pocket of every flannel I wore, the second year, I kept it in my purse, far enough where it wasn't part of who I was anymore, but close enough if I ever needed it. The third year, I kept those feelings in a small box in my sock drawer. And now, I have accepted the fact that they have no place in my home or in my life, because the idea of a "maybe one day," has lost it's meaning as time marched forward.

I spoke about him in passing, but I never really emphasized his importance in my growth. Maybe one day, I'll tell you about him, but for now just know, that the person I thought was my other half, was nothing more than a simple tease from the universe. There are several hundreds of articles on how to identify a soulmate or a soul tie. How to know "they're the one" etc. Something silly to give a lost existence some sort of made up trajectory to feel better about yourself for not being able to find a definitive path. But what they don't tell you, is that once your sense of escapism finishes, you feel more lost than before. Because directly afterwards as your feet move forward, your head keeps looking back at what could have been, what might have been, the 'where did they go?'s or the 'what are they doing now's and you don't focus on what's in front of you. The moment you stop looking back, you realize time has continued on and your feet have taken you somewhere you don't recognize.

Here I am, somewhere new, but only mentally and emotionally.

A different man I had a small chapter with, became a father this week. The man I spent almost a decade with, my very first relationship, has purchased a large home on an even larger property with a new wife. A couple of childhood friends have gotten married and made families. Time has moved on, and the frustration I have felt these past days is that everyone seems to have proof that time has moved on. Everybody, except me.

I wondered if maybe I was jealous of them, while I cried and sobbed and screamed uncontrollably this week. I couldn't put into words how every image was a punch in the gut. Some have wondered if maybe I missed my ex, or maybe I wanted to be the third baby-mama of the man who taught me how to love my own body. But I feel nothing towards them in particular and I didn't have the words to explain the anguish I felt to those who tried leaning an ear my way. The emotions felt deeper than just missing or yearning somebody from my past, but the explanations that came out of me only seemed to lean in that direction.

But the pot has finally simmered.

And I can finally put into words what my heart and mind have been begging to express.

I hate that everyone I have known, then and now, has proof that time has moved forward. A new home, a new baby, a new wife in a new place in a new stage in life takes time and energy. These kinds of things don't just happen. I have an apartment, a car, and a small position as a glorified cashier in a store.

I don't have a published book, or a new relationship to flaunt. I don't have a well-paying job or an upcoming vacation I can plan to run away from the feelings I pretend I don't pack in the suitcase I carry with me. The passage of time has always been the antagonist of my life and oddly enough, all it does is its job.

And it does it well, and it does it for everything and everyone else.

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fireflyhwufanficwriter · 6 months

Text

My thoughts on Dr. Stone’s S03E11 (“With This Fist, A Miracle”)

(Safe to read for anime-only folks.)

My thoughts after watching Season Three, Episode Eleven:

01. Kohaku has a lot of skill and confidence to be about to maneuver in unfamiliar territory, at NIGHT, like that! :O

02. The platinum is so, so close! :D

03. This last-for-now episode's title is "With This Fist, A Miracle!" :)

04. I think we've seen Kohaku panic more in this half-season than the previous two seasons combined XD

05. But HOW could they have made a ball of concrete inside the Soyuz? Did they put all the science goodies inside, and then fill it up with concrete? But... that would be a huge risk... HOW is there a perfect concrete sphere inside the Soyuz?? :O

06. Yup, just like the glass record! It was up to Kohaku in the past, and now, it's up to Kohaku once again! :)

07. Oh, she's so close to what will save EVERYBODY... so very close...! :O

08. This is adorable! Senku's talking about something that's literally deadly, and he's holding out his arms to show how much damage he can do, but he's being cute about it, and Suika decided to copy him and stretch her arms out too, which is super adorable! :D

09. Soyuz cowering and covering his head reminds me of when Suika was scared about the chemicals that Senku was mixing for the antibiotic, way back in Season One! But this time, somebody else is very scared, while Suika is just a bit worried and her head is turned sideways in (sort of) Senku's direction. She's not nearly as scared as she was back then! :)

10. Plaster acquired! Uh, the island looks weird... maybe because of its 3D-ness on top of the waters 2D-ness? XD

11. Amaryllis is so good at distracting the guards! Before, it was her marveling at their muscles, and now, it's her asking them to watch her dance XD

12. Initially, I was disappointed that they made Ginro dance in that goofy way. I really should have known better, though, because the animators of Dr. Stone have been so careful, and they've been so faithful to the manga. I should have believed in them! :)

13. Senku called her "lioness Kohaku!" :D And she, of course, started to protest, as usual! :D

14. And this is were Ginro's "spear dance" comes in! :) Twirls and jumps and poses and intensity! :O He gives a slightly different explanation here compared to the manga... I think... but "I always need to be ready to escape without putting up a fight" sounds very much like him, too! XD

15. Amaryllis is both very impressed and not very impressed at the same time, hahaha! :)

16. Okay, so one set of vials has emerald green sulfuric acid, and the other set of vials has anhydrous calcium sulfate in the form of white powder... Basically, sulfuric acid and powdered seashells... oh, Senku didn't finish the explanation. Wow, that might be the very first time he HASN'T finished a scientific explanation in this series XD

17. You just need to mix those things and the plaster that forms will eventually... three hundred kilograms per square meter - THAT much force?? Ah... silent bomb acquired... for sure! :O

18. "Still, someday... Science will quietly break stone." This is so true...! :O

19. "No... This sand itself must have value. It's how Senku's always done it. He's always made use of fragments of the stone Earth. I've really found my place in the Kingdom of Science, haven't I?" Aww, Kohaku...! :)

20. A special delivery from the spy team to the science team! :D

21. There are only 0.001 grams of platinum per ton of earth... And sifting through a river for platinum would take DECADES... :O

22. They did the cartoon animation thing of two random people digging for materials really well. The small tree turned into a big tree; the whale had two whale children; the two young digging people turned into two old digging people... this was quite well done! :)

23. Did Byakuya's dedication and love make me cry when I first watched this episode? Yes. Did all of it make me cry AGAIN as I'm writing this? Also yes. Byakuya... I don't even know... I don't even think I need to say ANYTHING, because his incredible determination to work for the future of humanity as the last astronaut on Earth, and his absolute faith that his son, Senku, would break free from the petrification and find the fruits of his decades of labor one day... :O

24. The way he said, "I don't mind not being the one looking up," and the fact that Senku's name was the very last word he spoke... So much faith, and so much love... Byakuya is AMAZING :O

25. And I love that they showed the International Space Station up there! It's so fitting, in more ways than one! :'(

26. That's SO MUCH PLATINUM! And Senku, his eyes are shining - he knows EXACTLY how hard, and how long, his father must have worked to get that much, to give it to him someday... :O

27. Senku is biologically Byakuya's friend's child... but he's Byakuya's son, ten billion percent! :)

28. I wish that instead of saying, "in the way that you never buckle," they instead translated that to, "in the way that you never give up" XD But "buckle" does highlight the "never break under pressure" aspect, as opposed to "never give up," which focuses more on the "continuing no matter what" side of things, so I can see why they chose "buckle" :D

29. Just like in Season One, Senku thanked Byakuya again - but this time, it's for his many decades! :) And, platinum acquired! :O

30. Kirisame realized the connection between the boat and the Soyuz; Ibara declared in a really creepy way that they have an intruder... and Mozu's just relaxing with his axe on a tree branch, just hanging out XD

31. Super complicated-looking science setup acquired; nitric acid acquired! This is going to be exhilarating! I love that Senku was facing towards the light in the last scene - the light of hope, the light of the past, and the light of the future! :D

32. And the end title card thingy says, "Next Episode, The Kingdom of Science Strikes Back, Airing in October!! See you then!" :O

33. The scene I would have hoped they would end this sort-of-finale with didn't take place in Season Three, Part One, Episode Eleven after all, but that's alright! I am SO happy that they did such a great job animating the first part of my favorite arc in the Dr. Stone series! And, I won't go into detail because I want to keep this post spoiler-free, but I saw what the animators did in this episode, and I appreciate it! :D I'm super looking forward to watching Season Three, Part Two, Episode One, which will be airing three hours and and ten minutes from now - and there's a ten billion percent chance that it will be exhilarating! :D

https :// fireflyhwufanficwriter . tumblr . com / MyDrStoneEpisodeMangaThoughts

#dr stone #ishigami senku #kohaku #dr stone kohaku #dr. stone #dr. stone kohaku #ishigami byakuya

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briankeene · 1 year

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The Greatest Show On Earth

Someone asked me the other day what's the most fun I've ever had working on a project, and what was the most rewarding. That's a tough question to answer. There have been novels that were absolutely fun (with bold italics) to write -- EARTHWORM GODS, THE COMPLEX, and the various CLICKERS books immediately come to mind. Certainly, the most I've ever laughed while working on a project was when Jesus and I would try to one-up each other with the CLICKERS books.

But for an overall combination of Fun and Rewarding? I'd have to go with SILVERWOOD: THE DOOR.

In 2018, I was approached by Serial Box (now Realm Media) -- a producer of audio dramas. They'd just obtained licensing deals for a number of media properties, including Orphan Black and Tony Valenzuela's Silverwood. I'd enjoyed the first two seasons of Blackbox TV’s Silverwood -- they were pioneering as far as made-for-YouTube original horror content went. So when Lydia Shamah (now Director of Original Content Scripted Drama at Audible, but then with Realm) asked if I'd be interested in serving as showrunner and head writer on a new Silverwood series, I immediately said yes.

Then I contacted a bunch of friends who had actually served as showrunners on various television and audio series, and I said, "Hey, I just signed a deal to be a showrunner, and I should probably find out what that actually is and what I've gotten myself into." And so I got a crash course from some of the best in the business.

The first thing I did was come up with an overall concept for what would effectively be season 3 of Silverwood. It had to be respectful of the continuity of the previous Blackbox TV series, and wrap up some plotlines from those. But it also had to be readily accessible to people who had never watched Silverwood and weren't at all familiar with the show. I also wanted to run the gamut, as far as the horror genre went. The first two seasons of Silverwood had lent themselves to cosmic horror, extreme horror, slashers, quiet horror, bizarro and more. I wanted a plot that encompassed all of those things. When I had that, Lydia and I ran it by Tony and then by her bosses at Realm. And once it was approved, we started putting together the team.

Throughout this initial process, I really enjoyed working with Lydia, and it remained that way throughout the rest of the production. To this day, she remains one of the best editors I've ever had the pleasure of working with, and she's a big part of why Audible's original scripted shows are doing so well. Tony was great, as well. Protective of his I.P., which he absolutely should be, but gracious and supportive and enthusiastic of what I wanted to do with it.

For the writing team, I was allowed to have three writers in addition to myself. I decided that the fair way to do it was to tap one veteran, one up-and-comer, and one talented newbie who needed a big break.

The up-and-comer was an easy choice. Stephen Kozeniewski was already making a stir in science-fiction and horror circles by then, and his stuff was firmly played in both of those genres -- something which was crucial to the pitch I'd developed. Furthermore, he had a good sense of corporate and business pathos, irony, and culture. (Everybody talks about the influence of Alien on his novel The Hematophages, but I'd argue that Office Space is the bigger influence on that book). And since one of the plotlines I'd pitched involved a group of office employees on a company retreat, I knew he'd be able to deliver on those characters and their stories.

The veteran was a hard pick. Lydia and I both came up with wish-lists, and then we narrowed it down. She suggested that, since I'd known him twenty years at that point, Richard Chizmar might be a good pick. I agreed that Rich would be great, but I had my doubts as to whether or not he'd do it. Those of us who know Rich personally know that he is absolutely all about his family. He dotes on them and is devoted to them, and he is disinclined to get involved in anything that will take time away from them. He's also, like myself, a creature of strict work routines. For him to abandon the comfort and familiarity of the Cemetery Dance office, and take a week away from his family to go sit in a writers room in either New York or Los Angeles? I didn't think he'd go for it.

Until he did. He was noncommittal at first, but after his family and Mindy and Brian at Cemetery Dance convinced him this would be a good career move, he joined the team. As he said, "I guess it can't be too bad if I've got Keene watching my back."

Now we had to pick a newbie. I knew that I wanted a woman, and I knew that I wanted someone who could alternate between extreme horror and quiet horror, often within the same episode. I finally settled on Michelle Garza and Melissa Lason, aka The Sisters of Slaughter. There was just one problem. I was only allowed one more writer, and they were a pair. So, Lydia and I went to the higher ups at Realm and said, "They're called the Sisters of Slaughter. You can't just hire one sister. You have to hire the pair".

And thus, the dream team was assembled.

What came next was the writers retreat -- what was supposed to be a week spent with all of us gathered together in a conference room in either New York City or Los Angeles, brainstorming and coming up with our characters and the plots of the individual episodes and such. Once again, Lydia came through for us. The Sisters both had young children at home, and they couldn't just up and leave them for a week. So Lydia convinced her bosses to rent us an Airbnb in the Sisters hometown in Arizona.

That week remains probably the single most fun and rewarding experience I've ever had working on anything. As I said, the CLICKERS series was always fun, but Jesus and I weren’t shooting for anything more than blowing off some steam with those books. SILVERWOOD: THE DOOR was a different kind of animal. We had things to say. The creative energy inside that Airbnb is impossible to describe. It was absolutely magical. We lived together in close quarters for a week (the Sisters went home to their families at the end of each day). Every morning, we woke up and had coffee and sat around a big conference table -- me, the Sisters, Stephen, Rich, Tony, and Lydia. We hammered out everything -- every character, every plotline, every episode -- the works. Tony contributed his knowledge as the creator of the Silverwood universe, and he was so gracious and excited and kind. Lydia contributed editorial notes, and let us know what was possible with audio -- a format that none of us had ever written for before that. She was our guide, opening us up to all kinds of possibilities that we wouldn't have thought of, otherwise. I served as showrunner, jotting down everyone's contributions onto sticky notes and placing them all around the room. And by the end of the week, those sticky notes formed a season long narrative -- a living, breathing story. It was fucking magic.

It occurs to me now, looking at these photos -- we were in Arizona for a week, and it was scorching hot, and that Airbnb had a private swimming pool in the back, and we didn't use it at all that week. Not once. That's how much fun we were having.

Mostly, we stayed on site for the week. But we did go out to eat as a group, and see a bit of the town, and have a few drinks at the local bars. And Paul Goblirsch of Thunderstorm Books visited us a few times and hung out. And there was a whole side misadventure with Rich and the home's Alexa A.I. assistant (Kozeniewski and I often refer back to that when trying to make each other laugh) . But the vast majority of our time was spent communing together, and being creative together, and basking in that wonderful group energy, and I've got to tell you -- it's very hard to go back home to your life when you've been basting in that sort of incubator for a week.

Back in Pennsylvania, I transferred all of our post it notes around the kitchen, and for the next month, Mary was constantly plucking them out of the sink, the cat bowl, and various things cooking on the stove. Then I got to work on writing the show bible -- a long, in-depth document that outlines the entire season's overarching plot, the plot of the individual episodes, the characters, their biographies, etc. I then wrote the pilot episode, and the team began writing their episodes, and I also wrote episode eight and the season finale, and then we went through many rounds of revisions and rewrites (because that is going to happen in episodic media work like this, just as it does in television, comic books, video games, etc). Eventually, Tony signed off on everything and Realm signed off on everything, and the next stage of production -- the audio narration -- began.

Here is what the kitchen looked like during that time. Photos by me.

I remain extremely proud of the work we did together on SILVERWOOD: THE DOOR. I believe it is some of the best writing any of us have ever done. I absolutely think it's some of my own best writing, particularly the burn victim in the finale, and the father-daughter main characters and their struggles with her OCD. That stuff was extremely personal for me. And that is part of the reason why it was such a satisfying and rewarding experience. It’s also scary as hell.

Sadly, although we left it open and set it up for a season four, nothing further was ever greenlit. Eventually, Lydia moved on to Audible, and Tony moved on to new horizons with Blackbox TV, and Rich, Stephen, Michelle, Melissa and I went back to writing books. The five of us ended up writing for Realm again with EXQUISITE CORPSE, and I wrote for the company again with NOT ALONE and THOR: METAL GODS. But none of those projects ever quite recaptured the magic and energy of that SILVERWOOD: THE DOOR creative retreat. I think for NOT ALONE and EXQUISITE CORPSE that's because they happened during the pandemic, and it was impossible to get everyone together. And THOR: METAL GODS was initially soured by a fly in the ointment, who luckily, wasn't involved in the final product or final drafts. Sure, it was fun to play with Thor and other Marvel characters, but that's all it was -- fun. Playing with Tony's characters and with Silverwood? That wasn't just fun. It was rewarding. It was a rare kind of magic that I wish I encountered more often in this job, and it was done alongside the best creative team I could have ever hoped to work with. They were a joy, each and every one of them.

While it lasted, it was the greatest show on Earth.

SILVERWOOD: THE DOOR is available in the following formats.

eBook: Publisher - Kindle - Nook - Kobo - Apple

Audiobook: Publisher - Audible - Apple

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