#long ago the location was probably less consistant but at this point its been pretty much in the same area for a couple hundred years

[chisatowo]

Also, I think I'm gonna switch Marley from being 14 to being 12, partially because I have too many 14 yr old ocs, and secondly because I just think I've been envisioning them as younger since I started incorporating them into Mocha and Risa's story

#rat rambles #oc posting #they were also a minor antag in the kids side of the melody and ramp story and thats not changing but now they have more of a story #so I have a more specific image of them in my head now #for some background they live in one of the two main worlds in the magic cat story that is mostly made of wild magic #actually this story specifically is kinda unique in the fact that it like solely takes place in the magic world most of them are in both #but yeah this world is very chaotic and often ever shifting which can make it very hard to live in #luckily theres almost always one persob who basically acts as a catalist for stability #they regulate and stablelise the magic in a large area around them and are typically the leader of whatever society is built around them #long ago the location was probably less consistant but at this point its been pretty much in the same area for a couple hundred years #but yeah these guys are usually mostly immortal but every 50 years or so therell be a couple dozen potential heirs born at random #these guys are typically minor magic stabelisers in a much much smaller area but more importantly they can take the role of the primary #anchor by killing the current one #now how the anchors handle this depends on who it is ofc and not every potential heir is gonna go for it but the current guy isnt a fan #he actually is from the other world and by all means shouldnt have been able to take power but blah blah blah ~worldbuilding~ he did #he wanted to just kill them all right away but he didnt rly have any way to enact that effectively so quite a few slid under the radar #marley being one of them #now left on their own who knows what marley would have done abt this but their father very much wanted them to take power #and I wont go into too many specifics since itd require a lotta worldbuilding explenations but woo harsh training and absorbing ppls power #their father kidnapped one of the 14 yr old gang from the other story to help marley get used to killing but marley didnt rly know abt that #until after they decided she was funny and cool as hell and was trying to help her find her wau out #(she being the one I havent designed nor talked abt much yet sorry lol) #marley's dad got mad as hell especially when marley timidly protested at the command to kill her so he kicked them out telling them that he #wouldnt accept a pathetic weakling and that theyd need to prove themself to him to be allowed back home #he also threatened them more by insisting that theyll be nothing without him and yada yada #so yeah marley is having a bad time #luckily mocha would find them while out on an expidition job towards the edges of the stable lands

[prof-peach]

Hey Prof, I need your advice.

My sister recently decided she didn't wanted her bulbasaur anymore (she got him on a whim about a month ago) and gave him to me, he is quite violent and tends to attack when I try to get close to him.

Now, that wouldn't be a huge problem, but my Purrloin has gotten hurt trying to befriend him, she's quite outgoing and never really liked fighting (we enjoy contests so she knows a few more flashy attacks), so she couldn't even defend herself properly.

I don't want to give up on him and my local rescue center is filled with Bunearies (you know, after Easter kids don't want their Bunny anymore) so they can't take him in right now, any advice in how I can go about this situation?

Sounds to me like you have a tricky little dude on your hands. So you're not battle orientated which will make this harder, Bulbasaur in the wild are actually quite combat minded to defend their families and territory, and a lot of their herds consist of strict hierarchy based on power and skill, often led by older, fully evolved members of their group. 

Before you take any actions to befriend them, its worth noting that any pokemon who comes into your care showing aggression is usually doing so for one or two reasons that are pretty universal for any species. Fear being the main issue with pokemon who have been ditched, if a pokemon is unwell, if it feels exposed, if it is unsure of you or your home, your partners, it may lash out because it is afraid. Even what looks like pure anger can stem from a fear. Of course some individuals are just full of rage, its not unheard of, but for the most part it comes from somewhere else. 

For a moment, take the time to put yourself in this pokemons shoes. It was chosen, with hopes and ambitions of its own, by your sister, a stranger to them, and for whatever reason they were cast aside. This reason may be unclear to the pokemon, it may be unfair, unkind, or even without malice just out of pure indifference. No matter the reason, this pokemon has been left behind by a trainer it at one point probably wanted to try to get along with. I don’t know what your sister may or may not have done, or provided for the bulbasaur, but it will help you understand how its feeling, if you were to ask her about their relationship prior to you receiving the pokemon. If it has always been aggressive and angry, i’d seriously consider talking to it about release, not rehome. 

We humans have a preconceived notion that pokemon are pets and things to keep with us. This may be true for some sure, but not every pokemon wishes to be a captive to a human, they may want more for themselves, and wish for a free life with their own kind. We cannot put our wants and desires above that of the pokemons, so you two need to have a talk, at a respectful distance for safeties sake, to see what the Bulbasaur feels they may want. These are herd pokemon, born and bred to be with their own kind, if not a larger group, if its lonely, if it wants to go home, to start a family, or simply to not be held in a ball as some creature to be owned, then you as its current carer must give it what you can. You can always find another pokemon who wants to be your partner, but you cannot give back lost years to a pokemon who has lived a life its unhappy with. Treat them with respect, and be open and honest. At the end of the day we have a chance to help pokemon, and forcing what we want onto them is a hinderance, and will lead to them feeling unsatisfied and bitter in the long run. 

Some pokemon lash out due to the process of being handed off to someone else, trust is earnt, not always just simply given to whoever holds the pokeball. Remember this as you move forward, and try to keep your other pokemon away from them, Bulbasaur are territorial species, and have to accept pokemon into their families before simply allowing them to come and go freely into their personal space. Despite their grouchy natures at times they usually do have a morally positive compass, and defend with ferocity when they love something. Perhaps in you showing genuine concern for their welfare and future, offering them not what you want, but instead what they want, they may give you a chance to get closer, but take baby steps, and try to be their friend above all else. I bet they're feeling pretty lonely right now. 

Its worth sharing interests with the pokemon, talk about contests, see if they're interested, some pokemon have a predisposition for this, others have no interest and prefer more battle based lives, or even peaceful non-competitive existences. no amount of pressure will change a pokemon’s nature, and some just aren't cut out for the fine art of showmanship that contests require. You can however use powerful attacks in showy ways, so theres always hope that they could enjoy it, if you can work with them to their strengths. 

If possible, work to getting them outdoors, cooping grass types up can lead to stroppy, testing personalities, many thrive in the outdoors, he may need some serious outside time to compensate for the lack of exercise and natural stimulation they may have not been getting prior to your ownership. There are plenty of areas in public that are much like tennis courts, areas of space you can book for a set amount of time too exercise difficult pokemon, these locations are often secure facilities, both outdoors and indoors, to suit a range of species. find one that has outdoor facilities and book a few hours per week to go there, increasing the time whenever possible. This exercise and time with you may help to find common ground, and topics that you and the bulbasaur can bond over. This can be anything from battles, to sun bathing, playing sports, games, swimming, running or digging, and everything in between. Bulbasaur naturally are great foragers and tend to like to snaffle about in long grass and shrubland, hiding treats like berry slices in a secure environment is good enrichment and can tire the pokemon out. a tired pokemon is usually a little less aggressive, having lower energy levels and less want to expend attacks. this process also associated you with something fun, and your scent will be on the treats too, so they'll know you were the one to provide this activity for them.   

I’d also take plenty of time to observe the bulbasaur, as your sister got them on a whim, they probably had no prior knowledge of the species, or how to correctly care for them. In a month, a health complaint could have begun to show, so observe their colouration, feet, walking gait, sleeping patterns, feeding habits, and general behaviour. Excess scratching, heavy breathing, or unusual shaking or moving can suggest a health condition is starting to take form. Most can be helped if caught early, but some illnesses give the pokemon discomfort, and can lead to snappy tempers and irritability. It could be that this individual is in pain, or finding life difficult due to its health, which can cause a lot of hostility as i’m sure anyone would agree. It can suck to be sick!

This species can be won over if you can prove you have a skill of worth to them. This is the case with a lot of pokemon, having respect for something they cannot do, and learning that they need things from you can lead to them at least tolerating us humans. Its a foot in the door. A trick i like t use with particularly difficult bulbasaur is to give them their fav food, whatever it is, then put it in a clear container the pokemon cannot open. They have no thumbs, and their vines though dexterous, aren't able to open every kind of container. The pokemon will want whats inside, and be unable to access it. they will eventually give up out of frustration. this is where you come in. enter the space, don’t let your pokemon approach as this can be threatening, and open the container. leave it on the floor open, making sure they've watched you get the thing open. They can then approach and enjoy their fav food, all thanks to you and those wondrous thumbs you have. repeating this process yields good results, and starts a mutual relationship of tolerance and acceptance between you and a bulbasaur. Most will accept they want the food more than they want you gone, and you provide something they can’t get to. whatever you do, don’t let them see that you were the one to lock the food up in the container. Get a friend to do it, or do it in the room, and leave it in place on the floor, before allowing the bulbasaur to enter and investigate the item. If they see you're the one doing it, the trick is foiled, and your back to square one. Eventually this does tend to lead to the pokemon becoming less stressed with you around them, and eventually it leads to trust, and even friendship. This trick is good to use to get them use to you, once they're ok with you being around them because of your use to them, they may start to take food from you directly, engage in play, or even just sit and tolerate company for short periods of time. Do not expect this to be quick, but it does usually do the trick. 

Regardless, i do have concern that the pokemon may want to be with its own, should you discuss this and find they're not interested in being housebound and a pet, feel free to send them our way, we had exactly this situation in mind when setting up the islands facilities, and have extensive locations designed with grass pokemosn needs at the forefront. Theres a small herd of about 12 bulbasaur evolutions that live north of our labs, no people see them, they are happy as a unit, and are left alone to go about their lives, with the only interactions between humans being us giving them their yearly health check, or should we spot them with an issue, we may intervene. They live away from others and pretty much free, in a poacher safe environment. Its not ideal, we like to keep pokemon in areas they come from, with people who love them, and you show great concern for the pokemon so it would be a shame to have to let them go, BUT sometimes thats just life, and theres nothing to be done about it other than accepting that the pokemons wants come first. They may just be mistrusting so try everything else first, and see how you go. hopefully you’ll yield some results from this all. Good luck out there trainer. 

#long post #bulbasaur #prof.peach #peach talks

[something-very-special]

In the original Nier, Weiss and Papa muse about how the shades are slowly "becoming smarter" and better organized. Through the lore, we learn that some Gestalts have relapsed into mindless monsters, while others retain their sentience. Of the bosses, field enemies and sidequest shades, which Shades do you see as being sentient and which ones have relapsed?

According to the lore, all Gestalts before the Shadowlord underwent relapse, so there was actually quite a broad swath of mindless monsters out there (the ones that attack during the prologue are all therefore relapsed). After he pacts with Noir he’s the first stable Gestalt, and his body is harvested for the maso particles that he generates, which are somehow distributed to the other Gestalts as they are made in order to stabilize them. There are still a lot of Gestalts that aren’t given this treatment and thus result in the ‘feral’ Shades, but I believe that by the time the game happens most of them have gone extinct. The stable Gestalts were put into stasis to wait out the destruction of the Legion and Red Eyes monsters, to be carried out by the Replicants. The feral Gestalts were still out and about during this time, presumably also engaged in an incidental war with Legion (that is, they’re mindless and violent and these other things are mindless and violent, let’s you and him fight). The prequel game long ago proposed by Yoko Taro involved specifically a small squad of Replicants led by their android overseer going in the kill Red Eyes and end the scourge once and for all. This was basically a sentence-long pitch but my read on the full context was that Legion was the monster du jour and whatever relapsed Shades were out there had largely been eradicated already. There are, of course, still relapsed Gestalts in present day. It’s fairly clear before the game starts that Shades are considered very dangerous, to the point that settlements must be kept small and far apart and walled for their own protection... but they’re still pretty uncommon. That rarity is in part what leads to them being so feared, and that fear is probably stemmed from the main encounters with Shades being with violent, relapsed Gestalts that would randomly attack humans. The stable Gestalts mostly kept holed up in their homes waiting for the promised conclusion of Project Gestalt. There are indications of Shades that are just seen wandering around minding their own business and people retreat and shutter up in fear, but active attacks from Shades are uncommon enough that all of the settlements leave their gates wide open and, other than the Aerie, and there are plenty of conversations about how Seafront and the Village in particular are pretty much untouched by them-- even the three hanging out at the northern entrance are considered ‘concerning’. All that said, I think, over the course of the game, you don’t actually encounter any relapsed Gestalts. The violence in the game starts with an attack on the three child Shades outside the Village. The attack on the bridge crew the next day is likely in retaliation for this act. The next level of Shade activity comes after you free Weiss from the Lost Shrine and indicates that unification will be occurring soon. Some Shades start appearing in the Northern Plains-- they’re hostile but not significantly aggressive unless you attack back (or you’re carrying a fragile package); contrast to later in the game where your appearance on the map basically causes any currently-spawned Shade to start charging your position. The ones in the Aerie are doing their own thing but under a unified goal of trying to forcibly reunite with their bodies-- violent, but still sentient. There are a few out on the Southern Plains as the game progresses, including that big guy who’s killing the deer and is pretty much guaranteed to one-shot you the first time you see him, but if my theory about the sheep killing transfers over this is also a resource deprivation tactic. Seafront has significantly greater resources than anywhere else with its direct access to the ocean, but even they by the second half of the game are talking about the difficulty in getting food. There are a few Shades mentioned in specific sidequests that seem to be acting in peculiarly violent ways, but the two I’ve re-encountered so far -- the bridge Shade and the Seafront postman-eating Shade -- are positioned at choke points where they can easily disrupt trade and correspondence. Their methods are noted as being peculiar, but they’re still intelligent tactics, not random violence. I admit I might simply not be remembering other Shades from sidequests, but by and large, I don’t think so. There are some random Shades just chilling in some weird locations like the Barren Temple-- not really accomplishing anything there-- but if relapsed Gestalts are inclined toward violence it wouldn’t really make sense for them to stay somewhere that nobody actually goes. It’s certainly a possibility, but their behavior is overall consistent with the aggression we see from Shades in the second part of the game, where the Shades are acting under orders and organizing their attacks. The bosses are pretty well confirmed to be stable given the revelations of the Route B, with the only possible exception being Hook-- and I think Hook would be less ‘relapsed’ and more -- to use the scientific vernacular -- ‘bugfuck nuts’. (Tyrann isn’t relapsed -- although he’s kind of a weird case overall -- and he just really likes killin’ people so it’s not out of the realm of possibility for certain Shades to just really like killin’ people.) It has the intelligence to try and trick Kaine into embracing death, and carries out an active conversation to that end so it’s not just mindlessly parroting words even at that point. The only other consideration I might make is the Shades in the weapons facility, less because of their tactics and more because it feels like that would be one of the few places in the game where relapsed Gestalts could theoretically survive. But that also could have been a major location for Gestalt stasis, and either read leaves them all understandably pissed that nobody could figure out how to open the front door, so the difference between ‘relapsed’ and ‘stir crazy’ is negligible at best. So overall, while I believe there are still relapsed Gestalts in the world, I think the game only ever has you fight against any during the prologue (and, technically, during the flashback dream with the fortune teller).

#NieR #NieR Replicant #NieR Gestalt #Lore discussion #Spoilers

[sapphirestarxx]

Through the Night

Chapter 3

Also posted on my AO3

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@lavendertwilight89 @hnnwnchstr @cstormsinukagblog @ravisk @superpixie42 @fawn-eyed-girl

It had been decided to meet at Sango’s apartment and from there they all would search out the location of the rune with Kagome guiding them. Kagome had said that there was an overwhelming feeling of malice coming from the point of origin...more than had been present at the abandoned ruin they had encountered a week before. While there could be no way of knowing exactly what had occurred at the previous attacks, this was undeniably worse than what they had already come across. Whatever this was it was big.

Miroku had been the first to arrive, armed with his holy staff and sutras, and waited while Sango got dressed in her demon slayer gear. Between the staggering evil Kagome was sensing and what was known about the runes, they all wanted to be prepared for the impending altercation that was sure to take place. 

He hadn’t had too many dealings with the slayers before, seeing as his line of work dealt almost entirely with the spiritual side of supernatural problems. Despite this he knew the outfit was a complicated mix of leather, armor plates at the vitals and joints, with various vials and compacts of poisons and powders tucked away into hidden spaces. While he knew in theory what the outfit consisted of he had never had the pleasure of seeing it worn in person, especially not by someone with Sango’s stunning physique.

When Sango exited her bedroom Miroku sucked in a breath at the sight. That skintight black leather that clung to her every curve...it was beyond enticing. There was something so incredibly sexy about it he couldn’t help but take in every inch of her lush form with his gaze. In that moment he knew he would let her do anything to him she wanted and he would enjoy every second of it. Even if it was just her kicking his ass.

He forced himself to drag his eyes away from her body to her face and saw she was looking at him. Something shifted in her eyes and he could tell she knew exactly where his thoughts had gone. He hadn’t exactly been subtle about checking her out but he was a man with eyes and she was exquisite. 

“I like the pink.” He told her, opting for something safer than what he was really thinking. ‘You’re fucking hot and that leather makes me want to do bad things to you.’ would probably not have gone over well. The plates of her armor were a pretty shade of rose and he wondered if it was a concession to her femininity or if it was just her favorite color.

“It’s my favorite color.” Sango admitted after a slight pause confirming his suspicions, and Miroku knew she had probably expected another one-liner out of him. “I know it sounds kind of frivolous but it makes me feel more confident on the job.”

Before he could respond there was a knock and they could both hear Inuyasha through the closed door.

“Hey! Hurry the fuck up, will ya? Let’s get going!”

“Inuyasha! Would it kill you to be a little patient?!” came Kagome’s admonishment.

Sango and Miroku shared a look at their antics, a small secret smile between the two of them before she went to the door, opening it.

“There ya are. What’s the hold up?” Inuyasha said without preamble. The beads for his human glamour were back around his neck but because they all had seen his true form it had no effect on any of them. The glamour only worked so long as a person was unaware of the reality. Once that illusion was dispelled it no longer had any effect.

Kagome was standing beside him in clothes more practical for fighting than her usual attire - jeans and a long-sleeved shirt. A bow and quiver full of arrows was slung over her right shoulder and a look of determination was on her face. Around her wrist was a bracelet that no doubt was disguising her weapons from view of the average passerby.

“We’re ready.” Sango reappeared by his side, her hair tied back in a high ponytail and he noticed the large weapon hoisted across her back, almost as tall as she was. It was in the shape of a boomerang and if he had to guess he would say it was made of demon bone, with brown leather straps at both ends to grip it. Such a weapon had to be heavy but she carried it with ease. He became impressed with her all over again.

Setting out, they followed Kagome, letting her take the lead as she focused on the location of the rune. She had explained that it gave off a feeling, almost like an aura that allowed her to trace it across the city. Finally, she stopped outside of what looked to be a condemned warehouse in the more run down part of the city just as the sun was setting.

“It’s here. I feel it.” Kagome’s voice was full of trepidation. 

Even without her words it would have been obvious. The sheer evil emanating from the place was palpable. As a whole they all readied their weapons and approached the structure, Inuyasha taking the lead. Considering he was the most resilient of the four of them no one fought him on it. The heavy metal door, rusted with disuse, swung open with a creak. 

“Inuyasha, we should be careful. We don’t know what’s waiting for us.” Miroku warned.

“You think I don’t fucking know that?” The half demon scoffed. “Besides this aint nothing I can’t handle.”

‘I wish I had that kind of confidence.’ Miroku thought, sighing.

Cautiously, they entered. Immediately upon crossing the threshold the scent of blood was unmistakable, even to Miroku’s human nose. Shafts of the remaining light of day crept forward from the busted out windows along the walls, helping to illuminate the emptiness inside. It stretched wide, the remnants of what was probably once a bustling business years ago. But the years hadn’t been kind to the place, cracked concrete and chipped paint accentuated by spots of mold and mildew. And worst of all, the decaying bodies towards the back wall, cast halfway into shadow. Underneath the stench of blood was the fetid smell of rot.

“There’s so much blood. Those bodies...” Kagome said in a slightly horrified voice.

“Yes. Likely killed by whatever demon is currently inhabiting this place.” Sango said, her expression grim.

“Where the fuck is it though?” Inuyasha growled.

As they warily made their way deeper inside Miroku’s eyes adjusted to the darkness and he suddenly noticed the thick cobwebs all around. At first he had discounted them as merely vestiges from the deterioration of the place but there were so many, the strands thicker than anything a normal spider could produce. Now that they were closer he could see the dead bodies were pale and bloated, and almost as white as the filaments of web they were cocooned tightly within. Red stained the floor around them where no doubt the victims had struggled before being overtaken by the spider demon. 

Next to the carcasses were white sacs with bulges that shifted every few seconds, ensconced in more web. There had to be at least twenty of them that Miroku could see and it made his skin crawl. They could only be one thing. Spider egg sacs. This was going to get messy.

“Spider demons. Such nasty things.” Sango commented beside him.

“Ew! Are those…?” Kagome didn’t finish the question but they could all see where her line of sight was. She had also noticed the eggs sacs and was staring at them with revulsion. 

“It’s just some fucking spiders. Big deal. I’ll squash them then hunt down the bastard that’s behind all this.” Inuyasha said with his usual bravado.

About midway into the building they still hadn’t seen any sign of the rune but it was a big place. Wherever it was, no doubt it was feeding all the negative energies straight to the person responsible for orchestrating this carnage. Blood sacrifice was the strongest source of power for black magic so Miroku was hardly surprised but it made the scene no less disturbing.

He felt something wet drip onto his shoulder and, with a bad feeling, turned his head to look. He reached up with his free hand to dip his fingers into the fluid and inspect it although he already knew. Blood mixed with some kind of clear fluid…

Sango glanced his way and noticed what he was looking at then locked eyes with him. Understanding dawned. As one they turned their eyes upward and the scene that greeted their gaze was an even worse horror.

More corpses hung from the ceiling suspended from strands of spider silk, dripping blood and what was possibly the remnants of the demon’s poison. The ceiling was covered with the largest spider web he had ever seen and right in the middle of the net was the mother spider demon. It was huge, her body glistening and black, legs splayed across her massive web. The humanoid head had a mane of black hair and was wearing an ugly sneer full of teeth, red eyes trained right on them.

“Look up! It’s on the ceiling!” Miroku called out.

Sango slung her weapon from her back, preparing to throw it while Kagome yelped and Inuyasha readied his sword. The spider demon scuttled from its perch towards the wall where the other bodies and eggs lay, moving with surprising quickness. 

Sango threw her weapon with a battle cry of, “Hiraikotsu!” and the spider demon leapt from the ceiling to the ground at the same time, narrowly avoiding it. The demon knocked it with one of its legs throwing her boomerang off course and into the egg sacs. It landed with a thud and there was the sound of the sacs ripping. Black bodies began pouring out of them.

“Shit. I had a feeling this was going to happen.” Miroku said in resignation as they watched the spider demon babies crawl towards them. There were hundreds. 

“Get them, my children!” The demon hissed as she used her legs to rend the remaining egg sacs open, and the whisper of thousands of legs and bodies scurrying around filled the air.

“Fuck, if I could use the Wind Scar this would be so damn easy.” Inuyasha griped as he leapt forward to meet the mother spider in battle. Miroku agreed; with the modernization of everything using an attack that powerful risked leveling the entire building they stood in, and possibly part of the surrounding structures. Not to mention exposing demonkind to humanity, which would have serious repercussions.

“Inuyasha!” Kagome called out, running after him while casting her gaze about, no doubt still searching for the location of the rune in the huge place.

“Miroku, we should let Inuyasha handle the mother spider and take control of the babies!” Sango called as she drew her sword, cutting a path through the demon spawns, trying to make her way to where her main weapon, Hiraikotsu, lay.

“I was about to suggest the same thing.” Miroku agreed, swinging his staff as they began to be overtaken by the massive outpouring of spider babies. Hundreds. Possibly even bordering on a thousand...the sheer number of them was overwhelming. Miroku took a moment to wonder what would have happened if they hadn’t discovered the scene...the city would have been literally overrun.

Numbers were against them, that much was becoming apparent as they fought against the press of bodies. Miroku’s shakujo burned with holy power where it struck the demons, but there were just so many. Next to him Sango was wielding her wakizashi with expert skill, her movements smooth and practiced, but for every two she cut down ten more took their place. It was never ending. He reached into the jacket he was wearing and pulled out a set of holy sutras and flung them at the demons, activating them with his spiritual powers. The move took out a considerable amount but it was like a drop in the bucket for how many they still faced.

“Miroku, cover your mouth and nose!” Sango suddenly called, and he instantly obeyed, trusting her and creating a barrier with his power to shield them. Without him noticing she had equipped her slayer mask, retrieving a vial of some kind of poison from one of her hidden pouches. She threw it down upon the ground and into the swarm before them. It shattered, releasing a blue cloud that began to spread across the demons. Where it touched the demons started to convulse and cease their movements.

Taking advantage of the momentary reprieve they rushed forward. There were still hundreds attempting to crawl and bite their way at them but they continued to move, Miroku throwing out more sutras and slamming his staff down into the fray while Sango hacked away at them. Even though the situation was serious he still wished he could take a moment to simply stop and watch her. Her movements were so fluid, like a dance of death, and it was captivating.

Just as they had almost reached their goal, the webs all around them shifted suddenly. Shooting out from behind them the strands wrapped themselves around Sango’s leg. Miroku saw it coming and attempted to break the hold with his shakujo, and while it severed part of it, the filaments burning from the holy power, they still held firm. More webs shot out and knocked him to the side. Sango attempted to cut away at the web surrounding her with her sword but more just took their place. As she was dragged upwards more encircled her arms, trapping her movements. She struggled against her bonds and they just gripped her tighter. 

“Sango!!” Miroku cried out, his heart missing a beat.

Kagome had run after Inuyasha when he leapt forward to fight the spider demon head on. Spiders sickened her but she forced herself to concentrate. This was no time to be acting scared. She had a job to do. Besides, she had Inuyasha with her. Even though his attention was being taken up by his fight with the mother spider she trusted that he was fully aware of her safety. Or at least she hoped he was. Preparing her bow with an arrow she stood by and attempted to hone her senses. Where was it…?

There.

“Inuyasha! The marking! It’s back there, on the far wall!” Kagome yelled, already on the move. Almost instinctively she knew she had to destroy it. Break the connection that had been formed between the corruption taking place here and where all that negative energy was flowing. Right now it was a conduit, feeding power to the person at the other end of the spell.

“I’m a little busy here!” Inuyasha shouted back, blocking a strike from one of its legs with his sword while flipping to dodge another one coming at him from behind. With a grunt he sliced his sword to the side and severed one of its legs, diving beneath its abdomen to slash at the vulnerable underbelly. Screaming in pain at the dismemberment, it rose up on its two back legs, the thing faster than it had any right to be, and avoided his attack. 

“Dammit!” Inuyasha cursed, rolling to his feet in one smooth move and vaulting to stand atop it just as webs shot out to surround him. They wrapped around his sword arm, cutting off his downward swing.

“Inuyasha!” Kagome stopped, taking aim with the arrow already notched onto her bow. She fired and the arrow flew true. Leaving behind a trail of pink it shot towards its target and struck right at the point where the strands were connected to Inuyasha, freeing him.

“Cutting it a little close there, don’t ya think?! You almost hit me!" He called to her as he avoided more webs.

“Except I didn't! A simple thank you would be nice!” She snapped back.

Inuyasha didn’t bother to reply as his attention was consumed again by his fight with the spider demon; so Kagome continued on her way to the rune. As a priestess she could take care of herself and clearly Inuyasha didn’t need or appreciate her help anyways. 

She was almost at the back wall where the rune was engraved into the concrete when she became aware of the sounds of scuttling behind her. Looking over her shoulder in horror and already knowing what it was, Kagome saw the demon spider babies advancing on her. With a surge of adrenaline she raced the rest of the way and reached it just as the demons reached her. In one smooth motion she grabbed an arrow from her quiver and notched it as she turned around firing, facing the onslaught. It cut a path through the swarm in front of her and she breathed a sigh of momentary relief.

Her sacred arrow didn’t stop them from coming though, and she found herself firing arrow after arrow. No matter how many she killed there were more to take the place of their dead siblings. The rune needed to be destroyed, she knew this as well as she knew her own name. Finally, with a cry of frustration she stopped in her assault and slammed her right hand onto the rune, her left hand still gripping her bow tightly. Her power flared, engulfing the bow in the pink halo of light with her spiritual power and simultaneously channeling power through herself into the rune to purify it. 

Using her bow as a focus Kagome formed a barrier around herself. Where the demons hit it they burned but that didn’t seem to stop them. They kept pressing in on her until they killed themselves, suicide by purification, and more crawled over the ashes to continue the charge.

Gritting her teeth she maintained her barrier while she turned her attention to the mark her right hand was pressed upon. Again she felt that thick oily sensation of evil coating the back of her throat and she fought against it. It almost seemed to reach within her attempting to taint her with its malevolence and Kagome only intensified her power, refusing to be corrupted. She was gaining ground, but with her focus split between the preservation of her barrier and the purification of the rune she couldn’t destroy it. This would require everything of her, and she simply wasn’t able to do that if she wanted to keep her barrier up.

‘Screw that.’ she thought, ‘I’m stronger than this. I can do this.’

“Sango!!”

Sango heard Miroku’s cry as she was lifted up by the webs wrapping more and more tightly around her. With her arms trapped she could no longer swing her wakizashi to free herself, and it hung from her hand, useless. Dammit. She hated spider demons.  

Triggering the hidden blades at her wrists, the curved knives sprung out and sliced through the strands enveloping her arms. In the same breath she pitched her weight forward and used her now-free sword arm to cut through the remaining webs that had captured her leg. No longer restrained she continued the movement into a somersault as she fell, resheathing her blades in the process. It was a long way down and she risked spraining her ankle but it was better than the alternative; become another sacrifice for the spider demon and her children.

She let out a soft oof as she landed, but it wasn’t the landing she was expecting. Instead of the shock of landing on hard concrete vibrating up her legs as her feet struck the ground she felt strong arms wrap around her and a very masculine grunt rumble through the warm chest she was pressed up against. Miroku must have caught me… she barely had time to think. Before she could fully register the position she found herself in, the spider babies began to encroach upon them.

“Sango! Are you ok?” Miroku’s voice came right by her ear, his breath hot. With one arm still braced around her he used the other one to swing at the demons while setting her down onto her feet. One of the demons managed to avoid his staff and jumped at him, landing on the side Sango was not being held against. Miroku let out a pained sound and Sango quickly slashed down at it with one of her wrist blades but not fast enough. It fell away, the damage done and Sango could see the blood beginning to spread from where its tiny fangs had pierced him. 

“Miroku!!” 

“I’m fine.” He told her as he held out his shakujo and focused his spiritual power on the formation of a barrier. A thin blue shield encircled them, but despite his words Sango could see the beads of sweat forming on his temple and the strain on his face. The spider babies continued to attempt to get at them but with Miroku’s power protecting them they were untouchable.

“I’m sorry but to keep you inside my barrier I have to keep you near.” Miroku told her, still holding onto her and beginning to move them forward. “Inuyasha should defeat the mother spider soon and once we retrieve your weapon you can impress me some more with your slayer prowess.” He joked weakly.

“Miroku…”

The spider bite had to have had some venom to be affecting him this much, and she felt guilty. If he hadn’t taken his attention away from the fight to catch her he wouldn’t have gotten injured. As they made their way to where her weapon lay she could feel him begin to lean more heavily on her. It was concerning. Finally they were at the wall where her Hiraikotsu lay amongst the corpses and empty egg sacs. She lifted her weapon up and turned to Miroku. His entire side was stained red where he bled and his face was pale.

“Keep your barrier up, I’m going to fight them.”

Before he could respond she left him propped against the wall and slipped from his arms to face the demons. In one smooth motion she threw her weapon and cut a swath through the hordes facing them.

‘Stupid fucking modernization of the world and stupid fucking demons.’ Inuyasha thought in irritation as he fought the mother spider. He hated not being able to use his sword’s full power; what use was the thing if he couldn’t even use it like it was meant to be used? Yet again, he would have to rely on himself but that was nothing new.

The damn thing kept chittering at him maniacally every time he missed and it was pissing him off. He was over it. It and all its damn babies needed to die and they needed to die now. Finally gaining the upper hand he leapt upwards, dodging more strikes from its remaining five legs and the gnashing of its fangs. A wave of web shot out at him and caught his left arm in its grip but wasn’t enough to stop the killing stroke of his sword. With one final slash Inuyasha beheaded the mother spider, putting an end to the fight.

“...Ba….kiiii…..” The demon croaked before the life faded from its eyes.

The webs around his arm loosened at the death of their mistress and Inuyasha pulled them off of him in disgust. Mission accomplished, he turned his attention to his companions.

Sango was throwing that giant boomerang weapon around killing spider babies left and right and Miroku had a barrier surrounding him, looking the worse for wear. Inuyasha could smell his blood and the demon poison but his friend was still alive so he figured any worrying could wait until the danger had passed. He turned to them and called out, “Hey! You guys good there?”

“Doing great, Inuyasha. Thanks for asking,” came Miroku’s sarcastic response. 

Sango didn’t bother to reply and just kept slaying demons, and Inuyasha had to admit she was damn good at what she did. She moved like a well-oiled machine.  

Where was that damn girl though…?

“Hey! Where the fuck is Kagome?!” 

Even as he asked the question, Inuyasha could smell her scent coming from the opposite side of the building.

“She followed you when you decided to fight the mother spider.” Miroku answered, his breathing more labored now. 

Inuyasha wasn’t listening anymore, was already running towards the far wall where he could see Kagome. The pink glow of a barrier surrounded her while she held her ground against the horde attempting to break through her defenses. What the hell? It was his job to protect her, his duty and she ran off with a whole host of demons on her tail. Did she have no regard for her own safety? He grudgingly admitted to himself that she was doing a good job of keeping them off of her but she couldn't maintain it forever. She had to know that.

He made quick work of the remaining demons and Kagome released her barrier with a gasp of relief. She opened her eyes fully and he was swallowed up in her gaze for the space of a heartbeat. She annoyed the hell out of him but damn if she didn’t find ways to get under his skin, and not always in an unpleasant way.

“Hey what exactly do you think you’re doing here, huh?” He demanded.

“Destroying the rune.” She answered shortly, turning all her focus onto the aforementioned rune her right hand was placed over. It was a nasty piece of work; he could smell the black magic pouring from it in waves. It was acrid and foul. If Kagome said it needed to be destroyed then he trusted her enough to believe her. Trust…

As he sheathed his sword his thoughts went back to that day she had invited him into her bedroom. She had told him she trusted him implicitly. And she had said it so easily, with no hesitation like it should have been obvious. That wasn’t something he was used to hearing, especially not from someone like her - a priestess. Sure he had an agreement with her family but it didn’t guarantee something like trust. That was something that didn’t come to him easily and it was difficult for him to understand how she could extend something as precious as that so readily.

Kagome’s power flared and she focused everything she had on the purification of the rune. Now that Inuyasha had killed the rest of the demons she didn’t have to split her attention and power in half trying to accomplish two things at once. She had been getting close, but it was definitely taking its toll on her. Her legs were starting to get wobbly from her sustained assault.

With a final burst she poured her all into the rune, purifying it and rendering it useless and inert. As the purity of her power consumed the black mark Kagome heard a scream of outrage echoing inside her head. 

‘You meddling little girl...you and your friends are next…!’ a shrill feminine voice shrieked. And then it was gone and she was alone inside her own head again and she was so tired.

Kagome took a step towards Inuyasha and before she realized what was happening her legs gave out. All at once the exhaustion of the confrontation hit her and her vision went a little fuzzy. She had used more energy than she realized, fighting a battle on two fronts for as long as she had.

Warm arms enveloped and supported her while she struggled to regain her bearings. Inuyasha. With a sigh she buried her face into his chest for a moment. She just needed a moment. Surely that wasn’t too much to ask for. 

“Kagome! Hey, Kagome!! Don’t you faint on me!”

There was genuine concern in his voice and she thought she must really be tired because she had to be imagining it. This was Inuyasha, afterall. With an effort she opened her eyes and lifted her head, pulling back slightly to meet his golden gaze. For a moment she was speechless. He was looking at her in actual worry, brows creased. As she stared he moved one of his hands to cradle her face.

“Hey! You ok?”

“Yes. Just tired...used a lot of power.” She finally replied.

At her answer he removed his hands from her and she felt bereft for a moment at the loss of his touch. Her strength was returning though so she was able to stand on her own two legs again. It was over. For tonight anyways.

Sango finished off the last of the demons with a speed she didn’t know she possessed. There was an ever present worry for Miroku in the back of her mind as she fought and the quicker they killed these demons the quicker they could get him patched up and healed. The guilt continued to eat at her. If she was a more talented slayer the webs would never have even caught her and Miroku would never have been injured.

When the last one lay in its death throes Sango rushed back to the monk’s side as he dropped his barrier, removing her slayer mask while settling Hiraikotsu across her back and kneeling beside him. He looked at her and gave a weak smile and she didn’t return it. There was no way she could smile seeing him like this.

“Hang on, Miroku.” She told him as she wrapped one of his arms around her shoulders and stood, helping him to his feet. He leaned on her heavily, his breathing ragged in her ear.

“My dear Sango...is that worry in your voice for me?” He quipped. 

“Yes. And shut up. Now isn’t the time to be making jokes.”

“Sorry.” He laughed feebly. “But I’m honestly touched by your concern.”  

Before she could respond again Inuyasha and Kagome had made their way to them. Sango felt relief at the sight of the rest of their companions. Now they could get out of here and get Miroku the treatment he needed.

“Miroku! What happened?” Kagome gasped as she caught sight of him and noticed his condition for the first time.

“Probably got bit. Idiot.” Inuyasha answered but he said it mildly, no heat in his words. He came around to the other side of Miroku and helped Sango support his weight.

“He’s not an idiot. It was my fault.” Sango snapped, not in the mood.

“First your concern, and now you’re defending me...am I dreaming?” Miroku joked. 

“I swear, if you keep making jokes I’m going to drop you.” Sango warned.

“Like I said-- an idiot.” Inuyasha remarked. Sango didn’t argue with his assessment this time. Miroku sighed in defeat.

“What are we going to do about all these demon corpses? There’s just so many.” Kagome worried. “If someone were to come upon them…”

“I’ll call the slayers in the morning and get them to take care of the removal of the bodies.” Sango replied. “Right now I’m more concerned about Miroku.”

“Of course. He comes first.” Kagome agreed. “Where should we be taking him?”

“Sango’s place is closer than mine.” Miroku input, his voice strained. His hair was damp with sweat.

Night had fallen across the city as they emerged from the abandoned warehouse. They made their way to Sango’s apartment as quickly as they could, avoiding detection from all human passersby. Fortunately thanks to the shroud of darkness night offered it was easily accomplished. Once they walked into her place she and Inuyasha brought him to her bedroom and laid him down onto her bed.

After he was settled Sango removed his jacket and grabbed a pair of scissors from her kitchen drawer to cut off his shirt so they could see the full extent of the damage. She had Kagome go grab her first aid kit while she set about her task. 

“I hope you weren’t too attached to this shirt.” She told him as she began to cut the material away.

“If you wanted me naked in your bed all you had to do was ask.” Miroku joked back weakly.

“I thought I told you now wasn’t the time for jokes.” Sango replied sternly. Inuyasha was right. He was an idiot. Nevertheless, the fact he was still able to crack his one-liners was a good sign and she took a little comfort in that.

Once she was done removing his shirt she took a good look at his chest and grimaced. It was bad. The wound on his left side was still oozing blood, but worse than that and much more concerning were the streaks of purple radiating out from the site of the wound that spoke of the infection from the demonic poison. This would require a purification or it would spread to his heart and likely kill him.

Kagome returned with the first aid kit and got her first real look at the wound. “Oh no. I’m going to have to perform a purification,” she said, confirming Sango’s thoughts.

Inuyasha roused himself from where he leaned against the open bedroom door. “With what power? You’re already wiped out from the fight! You almost fainted, or did you forget?”

Kagome scowled. “I’m not that weak. I’m a Head Priestess, or did you forget? I just needed a moment to collect myself and I’m fine now.”

“Can’t we take him to the shrine and get someone else to do it?” Inuyasha argued.

“There’s no time!” Kagome burst. “Do you want him to live?? Because if I don’t do this now he’s not going to. I know you’re just trying to look out for me because that’s your job but I’m perfectly capable, ok?”

Sango glanced at Miroku and saw his eyes had closed, his breaths coming in short pants. 

“Isn’t Miroku supposed to be your best friend?” She asked, growing a little angry with Inuyasha. She couldn’t fault him for trying to protect Kagome, but at the expense of his best friend?

“Hey, don’t get me wrong. Of course I don’t want him to die. That stupid monk and I go way back and I’ve saved his ass more times than I can count. It doesn’t mean I don’t care what happens to him but my obligation to Kagome and her family comes first.”

“I’m not arguing with you about this.” Kagome told Inuyasha. She knelt on the left side of the bed and placed her hands over Miroku’s wound. Sango sat on the edge of the bed on the other side and before she could think better of it grabbed Miroku’s hand, holding it tightly. It was cool to the touch. 

Memories of a similar situation with her father were surfacing in her mind. Against her will she was starting to become emotional. Miroku had put himself at risk to catch her, to protect her. Why had he done that…? The man had only known her for a week. She barely gave him the time of day and yet he put his life on the line for hers. More and more it seemed she may have misjudged him. 

Kagome set about purifying the spider bite, a pink glow coming from her hands as she focused her power into his wound. Miroku grimaced and Sango imagined it had to be painful. His eyes opened and locked with hers and she couldn’t bring herself to look away from his indigo stare. She wondered what she looked like to him right now. Was her face as open and vulnerable as she was feeling inside at that moment? 

Several long minutes passed and finally the demonic poison from his injury was gone. Finished, Kagome stood unsteadily and Inuyasha came over to help her. Without a word he picked her up and she didn’t protest. She had to be bone tired. Sango noticed how carefully Inuyasha cradled her in his arms and wondered if perhaps there was something there between them after all. As the half demon carried Kagome from the bedroom Sango turned her attention back to the monk lying half naked in her bed. He was still looking at her, but there was the smallest smile playing across his lips now. Swallowing, Sango released his hand and went to get the first aid kit left on her dresser. He let her hand go after one final squeeze.

Carefully, she cleaned the wound and wiped away all the blood. She tried to keep her ministrations professional and definitely tried not to notice how perfect his abs were as she worked. He had an undeniably nice body and she was a woman so she couldn’t be blamed for appreciating it, she told herself. It was perfectly natural.

Reaching a hand under his back she prompted him to sit up while she wrapped bandages around him. He placed a hand on her shoulder to steady himself as she patched him up. When she was finally done she helped him lay back down and she could see the exhaustion on his face. This night had definitely taken its toll on him. 

Without thinking she reached a hand up and stroked his hair, wiping away the sweat and brushing his bangs from his forehead. As she started to withdraw her hand he caught it with one of his own. She glanced at him in surprise.

“If you don’t mind, I’d like to continue holding your hand.” Miroku told her. Searching his face she found no trace of his usual humor. It was an honest request. Blushing, she swallowed and nodded her consent before finding her words.

“I suppose. After all, it’s my fault you were injured.”

“Sango. Don’t blame yourself.” He told her seriously, then smiled, “Besides, I had to protect that flawless body of yours.”

“Go to sleep before I knock you out myself.”

“As my lady wishes.”

Sango rolled her eyes but she didn’t let go of his hand. His eyes closed and eventually his breathing evened out into the steady rhythm of sleep. Vaguely she heard the door to her apartment open and close and could only assume Inuyasha was taking Kagome home. Her own eyes began to grow heavy and before she knew it she was asleep as well.

Gradually she began to wake up, and her first thought was to wonder when her pillow became so firm. Not that it mattered, whatever she was resting upon was warm and comfortable and she gave a soft sigh of contentment and burrowed in deeper. A hand brushed through her hair gently and with a jolt of realization the previous night came back to her. She gave a soft gasp as her eyes opened and the hand stroking her hair stilled.

“You awake?” Miroku’s voice asked.

She had passed out next to him, her chest pressed against his side, her head on his own very naked chest, still holding his hand. The intimacy of their positions was not lost on her and she blushed as she slowly lifted herself up to look at him. Hesitantly she met his eyes and her heart began to pound so hard she wondered if he could hear it too. There was none of his usual teasing flirtatiousness present, instead she saw a gentle affection...and heat. She swallowed, her mouth suddenly dry.

“Good morning.” He said, and his accompanying smile made her breath catch.

“M-morning.” She managed. “I’m sorry, I...I didn’t mean to fall asleep on you.” This was so embarrassing. She should get up right now but she couldn’t seem to make herself move.

“I assure you I’ve enjoyed every second of it.”

“I...I’m...” ‘I’m sure you did’ she wanted to say but couldn’t get the words out.

If she leaned forward just a little more...their lips would touch. It was such a tempting thought. And she knew he wouldn’t mind in the slightest. His lips looked so inviting and she licked her own reflexively. His gaze shifted to her lips at that and Sango held her breath. She couldn’t believe how much she wanted to kiss him. Hadn’t she decided she wasn’t going to give in to him and his flirtations? It was a bad idea but it didn’t make her want it any less.

With an effort she pulled away and although she thought she saw disappointment in his eyes he let her go. For her it wouldn’t be just a kiss and she wouldn’t do that to herself. It was dangerous how quickly he made her forget her self control. Distance. She needed distance.

“I’m glad you’re ok. I need to go call the slayers about the demon corpses. And take a shower. I’m sure you need to get home.” She said and hastily retreated from the bedroom before he could say anything else.

Barricading herself in the bathroom she made the call to her father and when she was done with that she stripped down and turned on the water. She knew she was being ridiculous, not to mention obvious about avoiding him, but she couldn’t face him right now. Her heart was still beating way too fast. Leaning against the wall she waited until she heard the door to her apartment open and close before she relaxed. He was gone.

Good. That would give her time to compose herself. Next time she saw him she would have herself back under control again. Her walls would be back up and she would no longer be thinking about how his lips would have tasted or how it had felt to be pressed up against him. Even if she was starting to...feel things for him, she wouldn’t let it show. She refused to consider the possibility that she was more than just a challenge to him. If she did that she might start hoping for things and that would be even more dangerous.

~☆~

Kagome finished dressing in a navy sweater and a simple gray skirt that landed mid-thigh and exited her bedroom, needing to talk to Inuyasha. He had said he had something important to tell her last night but she had been so damn tired he hadn't had a chance before she passed out. Her heart beat a little faster at the thought of how he must have carried her home and, more shockingly, tucked her into bed. Thinking about it made her blush a little. It was so at odds with the side of Inuyasha she was most familiar with-- brash, gruff, and kind of a jerk.

As she finished her descent down the stairs she heard the voices of her grandfather and Inuyasha. The half demon’s voice abruptly cut off at her appearance.

“Oh, there ya are. Finally.”

“Good morning. What’s going on?”

“Kagome. Inuyasha has just told me something concerning.” Her grandfather said.

“Does this have to do with the thing you said you needed to tell me last night?” She asked.

“Yeah. When I killed the demon it said somethin’ right before it died. ‘Baki’.” Inuyasha replied, crossing his arms over his chest.

Kagome’s face scrunched up in thought. “Baki? What does that mean, though?” Something suddenly occurred to her. “Oh! I almost forgot to tell you. Right when I destroyed the rune I heard a voice in my head. Like it was talking to me through the connection I had made.”

“What?! Why didn’t you say something sooner??” Inuyasha demanded, and Kagome could tell it was out of concern for her but it still annoyed her. She couldn’t help but poke the bear a little.

“I was a little busy passing out in your arms if you recall.”

“In my arms?” 

“That’s right. Or did someone else carry me home and tuck me into bed?”

“I-I--...W--whatever!” He sputtered, reddening a bit. “What did the voice say?”

Kagome couldn’t stop the giggle that came out, earning herself a glare. That was fine. He cared, if only just a little bit and that was enough for now.

“It was a female voice. She called me a meddling little girl and said me and my friends were next.”

“A female voice, you say?” Her grandfather asked, and they turned to look at him. “This only confirms what I have feared.”

“Grandpa, what is it?”

“Years ago there was a beautiful and powerful priestess...but she became too greedy, too vain. She turned dark. After she was found to be practicing black magic she was cast out from her shrine. Her name was whispered about throughout all the shrines as a warning. I believe the spellbook missing from our own shrine was taken by her. It seems she is now consorting with evil demons, but that is hardly surprising.”

“How do you know it’s this dark priestess, though?” Kagome questioned.

“Because Inuyasha told me the last words of the demon. ‘Baki.’ The name of this dark priestess is Tsubaki. It is too much to be a coincidence.”

“If she’s making deals with demons now then how did she manage to steal the spellbook? The aura of the demons on her should have kept her out despite her spiritual powers. They would be too tainted to break through our wards, after all.” Kagome pointed out.

“She must have an accomplice. It would certainly explain how she was able to manage so much chaos in such a short amount of time.” He replied.

Kagome was quiet for a moment. All the pieces of the puzzle they currently had were starting to fit together. 

“Hey, old man.” Inuyasha spoke up. “Do you have any idea what she’s tryin’ to achieve here?”

“Tsubaki craved power as well as eternal life and beauty, or so they say. She is a jealous and vain woman, and very dangerous. I would imagine this is all a means to accomplish her ends. It's hard to say.”

“So how do we find her?” 

“I think I have an idea.” Kagome said. “There’s a location ritual I can perform. I already know the signature of the runes she’s been leaving behind. I can use that and the residual energy left behind from the telepathic connection she opened up with me.”

“She threatened you and you’re just gonna open yourself up to her??” Inuyasha exclaimed. 

“Then what do you suggest?” Kagome shot back.

“Not that!”

“That's not an answer!”

“I don’t like it.”

“Well I’m not going to sit around and let people get hurt when I could do something to help!”

“Listen, it’s my job to protect you. Kinda hard to do that when you keep throwin’ yourself into harm’s way.”

“Then protect me. Stand guard. Do whatever you have to do. But I’m performing this ritual. You can either help me or get out of the way but you’re not going to stop me.” Her tone was fierce. She could tell Inuyasha was surprised at her vehemence, and to be honest she kind of was too, but she wasn’t going to be kept on the sidelines of this fight. She wanted to do her part.

“Fine.” The half demon finally relented. “This is fucking stupid but fine. If you insist. But I’m gonna be with you the whole time.”

“That’s what I’m counting on.”

#Through the Night #Inuyasha #MirSan #Miroku x Sango #InuKag #Inuyasha x Kagome #SanMir #MiroSan #finally getting to the action!!

[scifigeneration]

Could invisible aliens really exist among us? An astrobiologist explains

by Samantha Rolfe

They probably won’t look anything like this. Martina Badini/Shutterstock

Life is pretty easy to recognise. It moves, it grows, it eats, it excretes, it reproduces. Simple. In biology, researchers often use the acronym “MRSGREN” to describe it. It stands for movement, respiration, sensitivity, growth, reproduction, excretion and nutrition.

But Helen Sharman, Britain’s first astronaut and a chemist at Imperial College London, recently said that alien lifeforms that are impossible to spot may be living among us. How could that be possible?

While life may be easy to recognise, it’s actually notoriously difficult to define and has had scientists and philosophers in debate for centuries – if not millennia. For example, a 3D printer can reproduce itself, but we wouldn’t call it alive. On the other hand, a mule is famously sterile, but we would never say it doesn’t live.

As nobody can agree, there are more than 100 definitions of what life is. An alternative (but imperfect) approach is describing life as “a self-sustaining chemical system capable of Darwinian evolution”, which works for many cases we want to describe.

The lack of definition is a huge problem when it comes to searching for life in space. Not being able to define life other than “we’ll know it when we see it” means we are truly limiting ourselves to geocentric, possibly even anthropocentric, ideas of what life looks like. When we think about aliens, we often picture a humanoid creature. But the intelligent life we are searching for doesn’t have to be humanoid.

Life, but not as we know it

Sharman says she believes aliens exist and “there’s no two ways about it”. Furthermore, she wonders: “Will they be like you and me, made up of carbon and nitrogen? Maybe not. It’s possible they’re here right now and we simply can’t see them.”

Such life would exist in a “shadow biosphere”. By that, I don’t mean a ghost realm, but undiscovered creatures probably with a different biochemistry. This means we can’t study or even notice them because they are outside of our comprehension. Assuming it exists, such a shadow biosphere would probably be microscopic.

So why haven’t we found it? We have limited ways of studying the microscopic world as only a small percentage of microbes can be cultured in a lab. This may mean that there could indeed be many lifeforms we haven’t yet spotted. We do now have the ability to sequence the DNA of unculturable strains of microbes, but this can only detect life as we know it – that contain DNA.

If we find such a biosphere, however, it is unclear whether we should call it alien. That depends on whether we mean “of extraterrestrial origin” or simply “unfamiliar”.

Silicon-based life

A popular suggestion for an alternative biochemistry is one based on silicon rather than carbon. It makes sense, even from a geocentric point of view. Around 90% of the Earth is made up of silicon, iron, magnesium and oxygen, which means there’s lots to go around for building potential life.

Artist’s impression of a silicon-based life form. Zita

Silicon is similar to carbon, it has four electrons available for creating bonds with other atoms. But silicon is heavier, with 14 protons (protons make up the atomic nucleus with neutrons) compared to the six in the carbon nucleus. While carbon can create strong double and triple bonds to form long chains useful for many functions, such as building cell walls, it is much harder for silicon. It struggles to create strong bonds, so long-chain molecules are much less stable.

What’s more, common silicon compounds, such as silicon dioxide (or silica), are generally solid at terrestrial temperatures and insoluble in water. Compare this to highly soluble carbon dioxide, for example, and we see that carbon is more flexible and provides many more molecular possibilities.

Life on Earth is fundamentally different from the bulk composition of the Earth. Another argument against a silicon-based shadow biosphere is that too much silicon is locked up in rocks. In fact, the chemical composition of life on Earth has an approximate correlation with the chemical composition of the sun, with 98% of atoms in biology consisting of hydrogen, oxygen and carbon. So if there were viable silicon lifeforms here, they may have evolved elsewhere.

That said, there are arguments in favour of silicon-based life on Earth. Nature is adaptable. A few years ago, scientists at Caltech managed to breed a bacterial protein that created bonds with silicon – essentially bringing silicon to life. So even though silicon is inflexible compared with carbon, it could perhaps find ways to assemble into living organisms, potentially including carbon.

And when it comes to other places in space, such as Saturn’s moon Titan or planets orbiting other stars, we certainly can’t rule out the possibility of silicon-based life.

To find it, we have to somehow think outside of the terrestrial biology box and figure out ways of recognising lifeforms that are fundamentally different from the carbon-based form. There are plenty of experiments testing out these alternative biochemistries, such as the one from Caltech.

Regardless of the belief held by many that life exists elsewhere in the universe, we have no evidence for that. So it is important to consider all life as precious, no matter its size, quantity or location. The Earth supports the only known life in the universe. So no matter what form life elsewhere in the solar system or universe may take, we have to make sure we protect it from harmful contamination – whether it is terrestrial life or alien lifeforms.

So could aliens be among us? I don’t believe that we have been visited by a life form with the technology to travel across the vast distances of space. But we do have evidence for life-forming, carbon-based molecules having arrived on Earth on meteorites, so the evidence certainly doesn’t rule out the same possibility for more unfamiliar life forms.

About The Author:

Samantha Rolfe is a Lecturer in Astrobiology and Principal Technical Officer at Bayfordbury Observatory, University of Hertfordshire

This article is republished from our content partners over at The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. 

#astrobiology #space exploration #aliens #featured #extraterrestrial life

[fakesurprise]

North-West in the Empire

The very north-western tip of the Niand Empire exists in a state of uncertainty. Both Voluum and Tirel  have access to a sea with the particular shells the Empire uses as currency and this, more than anything else, is why the Empire did not shrink entirely off the continent during the last Blight War that deeply twisted and altered the geographies of the world. The Niand Empire has used shells for currency for a very, very long time – and almost all the shells in Voluum have been catalogued (though not painted; that takes a great deal of time and expertise as well often requiring they be shipped back to the heart of the Empire). Tirel has an underground source that is possibly in the same state – they keep such information far more under wraps – and the result is a small corner of the Niand Empire trying desperately to find ways and means to remain viable to the wider empire. Whether this view is reality or not is unknown; across the ‘sea’ the states of Talorim and Irem were hit far less hard by the Blight War and are established trading locations with the Six Kingdoms and the rest of the Niand Empire while Qinook, Slek and Ashweld  trade deeply with the ‘Protectorates’, varied nations and city-states that were once part of the empire before the War.

The end result of this is a deeply complicated and fearful rivalry and interdependence that is less easily seen from outside the Niand Empire but has become almost a defining characteristic of the three states; they are too close to nations that make use of Providence to dare do ask that power to aid them. All are remote and what they trade can mostly be traded by all their neighbouring nations and allies as well, leading to a strained and fragmentary existence

Voluum

Government: The state of Voluum is a series of towns linked together by trade routes and underground passages. Each town is run by an elected Council who oversees the larger aspects of the town in relation to the wider Empire, with communication between towns noted as being sometimes suspiciously fast by outside observers from other parts of the Empire.

Trade: Voluum has shells for Niand currency, warmstone, some metals and minerals and limited trade with Tollith and New Dakesh. The land is vast and sparsely populated, so trade tends to be more in furs, flax and hemp. Iron, tallow, grains, leather and carpets and basketry made over the long winter months provide other sources of trade, but Voluum lacks a proper navy as Tirel, Talorim and Irex rent out enough ships that investing in their own is unwise.

In terms of unique trade, Voluum only has crafts, limited warmstone they trade and knowledge of the Six Kingdoms to differentiate at all from Talorim, to say nothing of the norther Niand Empire proper.

Voluum sits at the northwest edge of the current Niand Empire, all mountains and stones and little arable land compared to the Six Kingdoms to the west and the other provinces of the empire around them. Voluum has a small sea with shells the empire uses for coin, which is to a large extent the only reason this land remains within the current empire. This land only survives via trade and the clever uses of warmstone, a combination of stone and glass they have refined into an art that can store sunlight and heat for later uses.

This stone allows the people of Voluum to outlast cold winters and even trade some small modicum of it. Knowing that the shells are almost spent, Voluum has been trying to get a Chapterhouse made for the Greying – which Talorim objects to as they have one already. Voluum makes use of trade with the kingdoms and expatriating citizens – who provide knowledge back to the Empire – more than it does of trade; New Dakesh has direct trade routes with Rilkesh having some and Vhandrel having an arrangement with Decaset.

Voluum secret is that they do have what they call Thought Chambers in every town, made via a deal with Providence for the understanding of the geometries for the rooms to work. These rooms were made ~1,200 years ago and allow those within them to mentally talk to people in the other rooms, allowing the small and scattered nation to respond to events far more effectively than others. Given the events of the Blight War and now being at the edges of the Empire, this is pretty much kept secret as much as possible from others.

Tirel

Government: Tirel is run from the city of Vesh at present, partially because the city has a lake of shells underneath it that the Empire has slowly made use use of and ancient caverns with mosses and trade work. The government used to be run from Rik and, while the largest city in the state, a historical (~700 years ago) alliances of merchant families with Providence that gave them silver tongues – and was abused and the families removed by the Empire in response.) The city of Rik has not recovered from that and while still a major port, local merchants are treated with suspicion if they amass too much wealth or influence, but the result is a constant push and pull with Vesh.

Trade: Tirel trades extensively with the Six Kingdoms. Passwall is a trading-town with New Dakesh while Narel traded with Rilkesh and Oshen – a town shared jointly with Voluum – deals in trade with Mrel and Osioth. Vhandrel tends to trade only with Voluum given geography, the same being true of Vhandrel with Decaset to the south of Tirel, but the vast majority of trade with the kingdoms does enter Tirel at one point or another as the state has the best ports and navy of the three states. Tirel alone bypasses the other states of the Empire on the other side of the Niand Sea to sail directly to the main continent as well.

You name it, it probably passes into Tirel at some point and many officials are rather susceptible to allowing illicit trade through as trade is trade.

Consisting of four major cities and 3 trade towns (one of which is jointly run with Voluum), Tirel makes up in people what it lacks in landmass compared to the states that neighbour it. It boasts  good crops and farmland and trades goods with neighbouring parts of the Empire, the six kingdoms and far southern ‘Protectorates’ equally and fairly. You may not like the necessity of trading with them, but there are far worse options and Tirel is determined to remain part of the Niand Empire by dint of good deeds and business acumen alone.

Unlike Voluum and Decaset – and far more than their neighbouring imperial states across the Niand Sea – Tirel takes a very, very dim view of Providence and its gifts. This unfortunately extends to a degree of shunning for those marked by the Blight as well and Tirel does boast more unhomed [Not being welcome in your home, though you technically have one], homeless and destitute people than its neighbours as a result. Not all lessons are learned properly or in the way perhaps intended by those who removed the Merchant Lords of Rik from power.

Decaset

Government: The capital city of Esed exists to guard Forestreach from harm. Cet, Desa and Serm are large towns for the state, but only Cet is as long as the smallest town in Voluum. Decaset consists of rolling hills and pastures meant for animals and grazing, so consists of many wandering families, small settlements and a deep nomadic tradition and distrust of cities that makes for an atyptical state. The people do remain within the boundaries of Decaset, however, and it is a nightmare to the census takers of the Empire. To the point that some believe Decaset could be shunted out of the Empire for this alone, but it tends to be more a hearsay than factsay.

Trade: Decaset has deep, important trade with Vhandrel in the west. This extends so far that the ‘swamps’ in southern Vhandrel are jointly used by both nations and the rulers in Esad have been known to get aid from the royal line of Vhandrel when they have problems in Forestreach, as that royal line has some power over the land and forests. Most of the trade from Decaset consists of animals trades to other lands and varied plants and foodstuff traded with Vhandrel. Most other trade comes via the Protectorates to the south that were once part of the Empire, many trying to gain admittance again, unaware that Decaset has little sway within the Empire.

Decaset is sparely populated – gently populated, the people say – and has more animals and livestock than people by a wide margin. The vast majority of the Cascades who guard Decaset help keep Forestreach safe and mostly untouched as the southern and western borders of the land are somewhat hazy, a situation positively unique for a state of the Niand Empire, especially one that is one of the literal borders of the empire as it does extend farther south than Ashweld to the east across the Niand Sea.

The people enjoy the trade routes and military aid, and very much approve of the trade and scholarly traditions of the Empire but if the Niand Empire left, Decaset would mostly continue on as it always has and the Empire gently accepts this without pushing the land or peope. Some consider this proof that the Niand Empire has little investment In these three states and is more focused on the eastern side of the Niand Sea and its relation to the main continent, but the people of Decaset generally don’t give the matter much thought. Despite rumours, everyone there does know they are part of the Empire and follows its laws.

#writing #prose #wings #flight novel #worldbuilding

[tanadrin]

I've never watched any Star Trek (except for one of the movies a few years ago and a couple scattered halves of TOS episodes) but I've always kind of wanted to get into it and you've been making DS9 sound really good; do you recommend starting with it or some other series? If some further aesthetic preference information is needed, I really like everything I've read of your writing.

DS9 is often considered the Best, for a lot of reasons. I think some of those are that it has long, multi-episode arcs, especially later in the series, and explores some pretty complicated political and moral themes around insurgency/occupation/war--all this for a series that debuted in 1993, no less--and was able to do more with developing a recurring set of characters and locations because the cast wasn’t off to a new planet every week. Also, TNG, especially in its early season, was still a little too constrained by Roddenberry’s creative control, and some of the things the writers were clearly ready to explore already in TNG were shot down by Roddenberry who had a couple of very specific things he didn’t want to make part of his version of Star Trek. Roddenberry wasn’t super interested in war stories or interpersonal conflict for its own sake (and considering some of the shit that gets passed off as Star Trek now, between the Nu-Trek movies and Discovery, that second point looks pretty smart in retrospect), but more in super-high-concept hour-long stories that stood on their own. That was fine as far as it went, and I actually think TNG has some of the best episodes of TV SF of all time: (Inner Light, Darmok, Frame of Mind, and--I realize this is an extremely controversial choice for some--Masks. But if that’s not your bag, TNG is probably not for you. Like, TNG is very much TOS, with a slightly tweaked concept and better effects, but it’s filling the same niche in the genre.

TNG and DS9 are both really good, and I think you’d do well to start with either if you want. Their biggest flaws are things that are common to all 90s TV--they feel a little dated, the sets are small, the shots are framed in specific ways, they don’t have the huge effects budgets of modern TV, and DS9 sometimes struggled to show the big space battles that were important to its plot as a result, and so on. TNG also does the planet-of-the-week premise better than its successor in that regard, Voyager, which had really uneven quality. Plenty of great episodes; Year of Hell is a fantastic two-parter, with a Moby-Dick style alien captain who’s really interesting and, for once, a plot about time travel technology that doesn’t suck ass; Course: Oblivion is a SUPER bleak episode with an ending that is 10000% my jam; but also plenty of stinkers: Threshold, infamously; and the Kazon were super irritating recurring villains that never worked, as was Seska; some characters like Janeway, Kes, and Seven of Nine were played by great actors but the writers didn’t always write them consistently, and in the case of the latter two, sometimes it seemed like they didn’t even know what to do with them at all).

Enterprise struggled to figure out what it wanted to do with the Star Trek format, and at first tried to follow in the vein of TOS/TNG/Voyager, and didn’t really get its footing until season 3, and didn’t get really properly good until Season 4, and then got cancelled, and Discovery... sigh. Discovery can’t stop reminding the viewer at every turn THIS IS STAR TREK! and the dialogue is bad, and the high-concept SF elements are rushed and sloppy, efforts to deal with the encrusted years of continuity are dealt with hamfistedly, and it’s pretty to look at, but other than the cool ships and the way Anson Mount’s ass looks in that TOS uniform, there’s not much to appreciate relative to older Star Trek.

If you actually enjoy retro SF, not merely “can appreciate it on an intellectual level,” I would start with TOS. It’s fun, it’s kinda campy, and the sets are cheap, but it’s clearly lovingly crafted, and genuinely well-acted. I think a lot of people think they know TOS because they’ve osmosed it from the culture generally, but I think the genuine article is always going to be more interesting, Kirk especially [insert your own link to the Kirk Drift essay here]. But if that’s not your cup of tea, or you’re more interested in newer entries, the choice of TNG or DS9 is down to whether you want high-concept planet of the week SF, or less high-concept (though it still has its share of godlike aliens and energy blobs), more character driven (in the original sense of “has really interesting characters,” rather than what it has come to mean now, “an endless churn of juvenile-ass high school-type drama and bad dialogue;” cf. Discovery) stories.

If you’re going to watch Star Trek movies, the general consensus is: avoid Nu-Trek like the plague, and only watch the even-numbered ones. That order holds up once you get into the later movies only if you include Galaxy Quest as a Star Trek movie (which it is, obviously), and I want to particularly recommend Wrath of Khan because I re-watched it recently and there really is no substitute for Ricardo Montalban hamming it up with his waxed pecs lovingly displayed.

#tng is my favorite for childhood nostalgia reasons #but i am contractually obligated by my membership in the International Union of Insufferable Star Trek Nerds to state that DS9 is better

[travellingmonk]

PART 1 - An Image That Predicts The Future 3 by Sunao Ari - Translated!!!

Now, to explain this a bit, I don't normally go out of my way for a doujinshi. (pain in the arse for me to translate with conversational Japanese and I am, by far, NOT an expert in the language.) However, this one I just HAD to know the story of and share. Because reasons. Fair warning, this is a Seiji x Touma story... where Seiji dies... and Touma takes it EXTREMELY BADLY... then dies, too. And the art style is consistent... but... eh... It's not comparable to Ken Mizuki or Lapis Homme art style. (to be honest, took me 3 times flipping through this, and the third time actually paying attention to the story being told, not the art style, before I picked up on the very emotional story that was unfolding. -_-U) So... yeah, if that upsets you, keep on scrollin' and pay no mind to this post.

If you're curious, then keep reading.

Now, to give you a VERY short version of these 3 pages, it’s a summary of what happened in the past 2 books (lordy only knows where a copy of them could be since this was released back in the early 1990′s).

Short version summary : Touma’s got a disease that’s landed his butt in the hospital. At first he lies and tells everyone he’s fine, but gets worse, thinks he’s gonna die, then goes all ‘Seiji! I love you!’ to which the blonde Trooper goes ‘I love you, too <3′. By the time Touma is well enough to leave the hospital, he catches sight of his boy on TV, severely injured, trying to whoop some Youja bad guy butt. Only to end up getting himself rushed into the hospital. Which ends up with the truth coming out that Seiji’s got cancer, has a month left to live, and life sucks. They decide to get married asap, with Touma giving Seiji a wedding ring.

Not long after, a new round of attacks from the Youja World (and Arago’s army) is unleashed on the city. Seiji knows he needs to be out there to help fight back and to form the Kikoutei armor, but he’s too weak and can barely move.

He prays / begs to Kaosu for help, saying he’d give his life if it means he can help stop this. Lo and behold, POOF! Seiji is magically made better, the Youja gate the baddies came through gets sealed up, all the bad guys are dealt with, and Seiji says goodbye as he walks into the magical sphere that will seal all of that evil away. Touma doesn’t take this well, AT ALL. He tries to stop Seiji, Shin attempting to hold Touma back, and, just like that, Seiji, the Youja bad guys, and the Youja gate are all gone.

Current book starts off by jumping well over a decade into the future with Shin, all grown up, with his now 8 year old daughter.

It’s a weird way to start this book, but we go from Shin and his daughter in the future, to back in the past after Seiji’s death.

Touma is not taking his friend’s / husband’s death well AT ALL. To the point he’s having violent nightmares, wakes up still being stressed / freaked out, and to where Nasutei has to use sedatives on him to make him calm down to any degree. Even then, he’s still in denial, and the others have to lie to him, saying that Seiji is out but that he’ll be back soon.

An exhausted Nasutei commenting (after he’s fallen back to sleep) commenting about why can’t he just accept Seiji’s death like everyone else has? Having Touma go through this is torture on all of them. Time flows ever onward and the warm weather turns cold. Touma gets past the worst of it, more or less, but is depressed and suicidal. To the point he locks his bedroom door, slits his wrists, and tries to bleed out. The others rescue him, get him to the hospital, to which, afterwords, comes back to Nasutei’s house where EVERYONE keeps an eye on him and makes sure anything sharp is locked away.

This stresses out everyone, and gets Shin, who’s been the most patient and compassionate of the bunch, to snap. Saying that Seiji wouldn’t have wanted his friend to behave this way, and that there’s no guarantee that if Touma WOULD die, that they’d end up meeting in the afterlife.

Things really aren’t made any easier when Kayura comes to visit and has news. Sure Seiji’s sacrifice was a noble one and did seal up that one location so no other evils, gates, or soldiers could return, but it’s messed up stuff to the point where any wickedness happens, a gate will appear and, well, we all know that the Earth isn’t the most peaceful place in the universe.

Touma gets upset, to the point he grabs her by the neck and slams her down onto the dining room table. Despite her best efforts, she’s unable to open the seal at all and reclaim Seiji’s body. At least if they had his body they could have a funeral and say a proper ‘farewell’. Eventually he releases her, then gets super depressed. One day while out on the the terrace with Ryou, a tree branch breaks and wallops Touma upside the head, giving him a nasty bleeding cut.

As his friends tend to the injury and stop the bleeding, Shin gives the blue haired Trooper a letter. After everything, Shin had claimed the bag of Seiji’s clothing and belongings from when he was in the hospital and, among the things is a letter addressed to Touma.

In the letter is a lock of Seiji’s hair and the letter basically reads ‘By the time you read this, I’ll be dead. Don’t be sad. Are you lonely? Are you alone? Go out and live your life. You still have one to live. Make me proud.’

That seems to be what it takes to snap Touma out of his mood and turns his whole world around. The next morning finds the Trooper of Tenku coming downstairs to breakfast wearing clean clothes, with the lock of hair tied to a necklace, and stating that he’ll be leaving the house soon. He’s decided to aim to become a doctor and to find a cure to the cancer that took Seiji’s life. (Line of logic here would probably be more like ‘if he hadn’t had that cancer, he wouldn’t have gotten so severely injured, and wouldn’t have had to sacrifice his life to safe the city. Hence, is all cancer’s fault that this happened’.)

Chapter 3 picks up in the future (or would this be considered the present?) with Doctor Hashiba getting called into surgery to save someone’s life.

The surgery went well. He gets praised. Then his mother decides to swing by for a visit. Half because she just won a Pulitzer Prize and wants to celebrate, and two, because she’s now got some time off from work to do so.

The only thing is, she’s got bad timing. This is Touma and Seiji’s wedding anniversary, and the anniversary / observance of when he died.

They have a bit of an arguement. She saying ‘I don’t want you to be alone’ and he saying ‘I’m not alone. I can’t love anyone else. Seiji was the only one in the world for me’. The conversation dies out when Shin arrives for a chat and Touma’s mother leaves. (And, yes, that IS Shin with the really long hair. I honestly think that Sunao Ari was channeling Shin’s early design from when the characters were still in developtment. Not even kidding, here.)

Anywho, onwards with the story~

Touma and Shin get to chatting. Shin’s here because, thanks to Touma, his daughter is cured of the same kind of cancer Seiji had. Today is the day she’s being released from the hospital and can go home. Touma asks if they’d seen Seiji’s inspirational statue out in front of the hospital. Shin has but his daughter hasn’t. She goes out to look? He sends her out to look? Not really clear on that, BUT, either way, she’s outside meandering about while the two men talk. The conversation is basically ‘everything changes, but it sure seems like Seiji / the memory of Seiji has never changed’. Touma makes an offhanded comment about his own disease and says that he knows / he has a feeling that he’s going to die soon.

Suddenly there’s noise from outside and, come to find out, Shin’s daughter (4 years old at this time) is out in the middle of the road. The two men race outside, with Touma being faster, and shoves her out of the way of danger.

Unfortunately, this lands Touma smack dab in the middle of traffic instead. And, well...

The headlights of a truck? ambulance? are all too familiar to the light that Seiji walked into all thos years ago. Just like that BAM!!!!

Shin rushes to his friend’s side and, understandably so, freaking out. (Pretty sure the pictures speak for themselves here. Also, TOUMA! NUUUU!!! I may be a loyal Ryou fangirl at heart but, TOUMA! NUUUUU!!!)

As Touma is dying in Shin’s arms, Seiji in angel form appears. Touma manages to whisper out the name of his beloved significant other before completely giving into death.

Is super sad. (DANG IT, SUNAO ARI! WHY MUST YOU HURT ME SO!? GWAAAHHH SUCH A SAD STORY!!!!!)

The story picks up later at Touma’s funeral. 

Despite the super sad atmosphere and Shin blaming himself for his friend’s death (’it’s my fault. I killed him.’ Shin, sweetie, no you didn’t. Your daughter wandered into traffic and Touma died saving her life. You didn’t do a thing! ~*sad hugs*~ ) Touma’s dead body had a gentle smile on its face. At least he died happy.

Around his neck is the same lock of Seiji’s hair from the letter so many years ago.

(Shut up, dun look at me! I’m not crying! You’re crying! Bwaaa~ :,( )

The story ends with Shin noticing the fact that it’s beginning to snow. In October. Too early.

He wonders if the snow is a sign that Touma and Seiji are now happy together, or sad.

Sunao Ari, I know it’s been decades since you made this story, probably the first time someone NOT Japanese has been able to read it, but I hope that where ever life finds you, that you’re doing well, are enjoying good health, and are no longer torturing Seiji and Touma. (not sure mah lil ol’ fangirl heart could take another book like this one from you! ^_^U) Well, that’s it. Hope you enjoyed the story and the fact that it was translated for your .... it’s not right to say ‘enjoyment’ here, is it? for your reading pleasure? ... still doesn’t sound right. ~*offers you soft tissues and a warm blanket after that story*~ excuse me whilst i go hunt down some cute pictures of fluffy kittens to console mahself with.

#Yoroiden Samurai Troopers Ronin Warriors Seiji Date Sage Date Rowne Hashiba Touma Hashiba

[fixreceding-gumswithoutsurg-blog]

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Orthodontic Treatments: In some scenarios, correcting your teeth may aid prevent gum disease and also also repair receded gumlines. We offer many choices for aligning your teeth besides the traditional cord dental braces. Our company typically handle adults with misaligned teeth, each for cosmetic and also dental health factors.

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The aging mouth - and also how to keep it much younger

Aging isn't regularly pretty, as well as your mouth is no exemption. (Ever consider why you shouldn't appear a present horse in the mouth?) A century ago the necessity for false teeths in later life was practically a foregone conclusion. Today, three-quarters of people over 65 retain a minimum of a number of their natural teeth, yet older folks still suffer much higher prices of gum disease, dental decay, oral cancer cells, mouth contaminations, as well as missing teeth. While these problems are nothing to smile approximately, you can easily still do a great deal to maintain your mouth looking and feeling more youthful than its own years. Damage

Teeth are actually extremely powerful. Your molars can bear down along with over 200 pounds of tension. However they're certainly not unbreakable. A life-time of crunching, gnawing, and grinding erodes the exterior level of polish as well as flattens the slashing edges. Tooth areas are actually also affected through exposure to acid foods like citrus fruits and carbonated beverages, which liquify the protective polish. 

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Compromised polish may establish the stage for more major dental issues. A split or even break in the tooth's outer surface leaves the fragile pulp tissue vulnerable to irritation and inflammation. And also, considering that the nerves at the tooth's center drop sensitiveness with age, the trouble might be effectively evolved prior to you observe any discomfort. If an infection develops, you can need to have an origin canal operation or perhaps shed the tooth totally. The opportunity of having tooth damages extreme enough to demand a root channel or even likewise invasive procedure triples once you're over grow older 65. The consolation prize: decreased nerves sensitiveness implies that operations that may possess been actually annoying for more youthful people could hurt much less if you are actually older.

Even if you've received a couple of grey hairs does not imply you're out of the timbers when it relates to cavities, either. The rate of tooth decay in folks over 65 now surpasses that of schoolchildren. A prime intended of cavities in much older grownups is around the back of the tooth, beside the gum line. Gum tissue naturally declines with age, so the gentle root tissue ends up being exposed. In addition, adults that grew up just before the introduction of fluoride items and also dental sealers usually possess fillings coming from childhood years and adolescence that at some point break down. Decay around the edges of those dental fillings is actually additionally a concern.

Fix Receding Gums From Brushing Too Hard

While there is actually not much you can do to control the natural attrition of the tooth area, the supports of dental caries prevention-- brushing, flossing, as well as regular cleansings at the dentist's office-- stay the very same at any type of grow older. Folks that have problem brushing and also flossing by hand as a result of joint inflammation or even various other handicaps should perhaps shift to an electric tooth brush. Fluoride, located in toothpaste, mouth rinses, as well as faucet water in some neighborhoods, helps the body system fix the mineral crystals that compose the tooth enamel and also may likewise prevent bacteria-laden oral plaque buildup coming from adhering to the teeth. Fluoride rinses and also gels, as well as varnishes administered through a dentist, may have the capacity to halt the progression of origin degeneration and also in some cases reverse the harm.

The getting older mouth

You may possess additionally seen that your once-sparkling smile has faded for many years. This modification is due partially to the yellowing of the dentin inside the tooth that can easily show with the enamel, specifically as it thins as well as splits with grow older. The polish itself acquires discolored through coffee, tea, cabernet, and cigarette. 

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There is actually no scarcity of bleaching items in these times. Dental bleaches containing peroxide (on call nonprescription or even with your dentist) will certainly reduce your teeth a few hues, although the results are actually much less impressive in more mature teeth. Lightening tooth pastes as well as rinses can momentarily elevate shallow blemishes, yet do not assume the result to last.

Before opting for a whitening strategy, it's an excellent tip to consult with a dentist. Some bleaching elements, including carbamide peroxide and hydrogen peroxide, can easily make teeth vulnerable. As well as the performance of various lightening methods may vary with the kind of discoloration. Discolorations triggered by direct exposure to the antibiotic tetracycline in childhood years are specifically persistent and may need a number of cycles of whitening to eliminate. A powerful supporting actors

While tough teeth are actually the stars of a healthy and balanced mouth, they can not perform without a strong promoting actors-- the gums and soft, moist tissue that edge the mouth. Periodontal disease, characterized by receding gums, shaky teeth, and also damage of the jawbone, is the key wrongdoer in missing teeth amongst much older grownups. 

Can I Fix Receding Gums?

It gets going when plaque accumulates in the superficial trough in between the tooth and the gum. Age itself isn't a trigger, yet the gum disease typically slowly worsens and goes undiscovered-- as well as untreated-- for decades, resulting in a lot more extreme problems in the seventh years of life as well as beyond. Thankfully, periodontal disease is treatable at any kind of grow older with a combo of scaling to clear away the hard plaque as well as afflicted gum tissue, anti-biotics, and also-- in state-of-the-art situations-- surgery.

Tobacco as well as age

Similar to numerous cancers, the risk of establishing an oral cavity cancer cells enhances along with age as well as tobacco usage. The vast large number of individuals who receive a mouth-related cancer cells are actually tobacco customers; the probability of developing oral cancer increases along with annually an individual smokes or even chews tobacco. The lip is the absolute most usual site for oral cavity cancer, complied with due to the tongue. Most lip cancer cells lumps increase on the reduced lip, and males are a lot more likely to become had an effect on than females.

The initial indications of oral cancer are often subtle and quickly skipped. You need to observe an oral expert if you observe a white or even reddish patch that lasts longer than pair of weeks, specifically if it is actually on your lip, your tongue, or all-time low of the mouth.

Options To Fix Receding Gums

Much older individuals lean to various other disorders that lead to sores around the mouth, consisting of genital herpes and yeast contaminations. These ailments are actually frequently distressing and also can hamper the capability to consume, speak, and also swallow. Although harmless, they can additionally be actually puzzled along with the early stages of oral cancer. Create the moist of it

Age carries extra health issue, and also frequently indicates a number of drugs, much of which can have a detrimental impact on your oral health. For instance, calcium-channel blockers for cardiovascular disease and also antiseizure drugs can easily cause the expansion of puffy gum cells, particularly around the lesser face teeth. Good oral health can combat this complication. In extreme scenarios, disordered gums can fully deal with the teeth, so they require to become trimmed operatively.

Dozens drugs checklist completely dry mouth (xerostomia) as an adverse effects. Shortage of spit is greater than just unpleasant. It makes eating and swallowing challenging, induces foul-smelling breath, and causes irritability and infection of oral cells. It likewise increases your threat for gum disease and tooth decay; brand-new cavities can easily begin to constitute within as little as three months after dry mouth begins.

Can U Fix Receding Gums?

You can dampen a completely dry mouth through biting sugarless gums or even drawing on sugarless goodies. Just drinking more water may assist; attempt holding it in your mouth for a couple of seconds prior to you eat. Alcohol and caffeinated drinks dry out the mouth, therefore imbibe all of them in small amounts. Tobacco is additionally drying out, so there is actually another main reason one of the multitude for preventing it. Although not best, over-the-counter fabricated saliva products may offset xerostomia. If completely dry mouth is actually a complication, you require to be especially diligent regarding brushing and flossing due to the improved susceptability to cavities. The mouth-body relationship

The welfare of your growing old mouth is tied to the health of the remainder of your physical body. There is actually mounting documentation of an association in between gum swelling and conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, movement, and breathing complications, each one of which are actually a lot more prevalent in later daily life. Experts postulate that bacteria from gum contaminations take a trip with the bloodstream to induce swelling in organs as well as cells at far-off web sites.

For diabetes mellitus, a disease that affects virtually a region of Americans over grow older 60, the domino effect may enter both directions. Over times, unrestrained blood sugar level ruins the blood vessels that offer the gums, so they become susceptible to infection, which increases gum disease. High blood sugar additionally equates right into improved sweets in oral fluids for bacteria to prey on. Alternatively, irritation from oral infection might improve the physical body's protection to blood insulin, bring about better difficulty in keeping blood sugar level controlled.

Best Way To Fix Receding Gums

Treatment the cost

Certainly not maintaining your oral health is actually mosting likely to create complications at any kind of age, but as you grow older, the issues get worse. Missing out on and also loosened teeth can make it difficult to eat and speak. As food items choices end up being a lot more restricted, really good nourishment and also, inevitably, overall health can easily go downhill fast. Pep talk problems and also face changes coming from overlooking teeth typically cause inhibition, social seclusion, as well as also anxiety.

Maintaining your mouth youthful in old age needs attentive do-it-yourself treatment: brushing along with fluoride toothpaste as well as flossing at least twice a day. Frequent dental visits are actually likewise necessary, although dental treatment is expensive, as well as retirement might mean losing affordable dental insurance. Polls reveal that almost a quarter of individuals over age 65 have not seen a dentist within recent 5 years.

Can You Fix Receding Gums?

Health insurance does not cover regular preventative treatment or most dental methods, although you may be able to obtain dental perks if you're enrolled in a Medicare Advantage Plan (previously called Medicare Part C). Having said that, the federal government healthcare reform legislation might result in primary improvements in the solutions covered by the conveniences plans.

Yet another choice is acquiring dental coverage with AARP, the senior citizen association. The expense of specific insurance coverage assortments between $30 and $55 per month relying on the level of benefits and also where you live. If you do not have insurance coverage and the out-of-pocket expenses are as well steep to pay in one portion, some dentists provide a credit plan that permits you to spend in month-to-month installments.

[dhominis]

I have been extremely not-here (hey!! dark blue!!); this is because Exciting and Good things are happening.

(Long as heck, sorry.)

I left home, finally. Should have done this years ago, but then again I didn’t have the tools to know I needed to leave, not until recently.

I’ve moved halfway across the country, living in a city I actually want to be in, near people I like.

Found an apartment. It is fucking amazing! It’s like $500/month plus utilities, upper floor of a duplex. Three bedrooms. One of the two others is currently filled; the roommate is quiet, nice, a student, seems mature and reasonable. My room is giant. It definitely used to be the living room. There is a little alcove that I absolutely will turn into a reading nook. Just... generally beautiful. So much light, big windows, spacious kitchen, nice living room, high ceilings. It’s near a lot of great stuff, two miles max from places I want to be and usually much closer. (A library, potential workplaces, at least two universities, grocery stores, my girlfriend’s house.) I have not met the downstairs neighbors, but they keep the heat turned up really high and heat rises, and they have a dog, so I love them automatically.

Signed the lease, have keys. Moving in Friday. I have keys to my apartment! This is the best thing that has ever happened to me.

(I have never rented an apartment before! I am so extremely enthused about everything!)

I am proud of myself for doing all the calling people and following up and figuring out financial things; generally I am unusually bad at these things (...this is not new, I need an ADHD evaluation and at this point I’m pretty confident it’d be a useful/accurate diagnosis, my brain fits very well into the diagnosed-with-ADHD cluster, I am almost hilariously ADHD-ish). I’m finally figuring out a system that consistently works for me, and I did not forget to do any important things while finding an apartment. I always forget to do at least something important! Even when trying as hard as I can and using plenty of checklists! This is weird!

And I got the apartment within a week of getting here. I am doing unexpectedly well.

It’s also... I don’t know. I have never permanently lived away from my parents (longest has been, like, two or three months consecutively) and there are a lot of emotions coming up. Most of these emotions are along the lines of “I do not have to be walking on eggshells constantly, nobody’s yelled at me for a full week, people keep apologizing for being inconsiderate, if someone is doing something that bothers me I can ask them to stop, I’m not having a breakdown without the Protective Influence of My Family, I don’t have to go back, what the hell.”

...I’ve started going through a DBT self-therapy workbook. It is uncomfortably useful.

I have never really doubted that people could care about me. My family cares about me absurdly much -- I believe that they would do anything if they felt that it helped me. But we are different enough that the things they feel should help me are often in fact harmful, and vice versa.

To my father, direct communication is violence. It has not historically been possible to ask him if I am allowed to (for example) turn down the heat without mortally offending him. I have never succeeded in asking him for information or to do a task without in some sense harming him, and neither have other family members; their response is to ask him for nothing, and mine is to leave.

And he loves me very, very much. And he has never intended to hurt me -- I believe this. I think that the things he does to hurt me, which I’m not listing here, feel just as necessary to him as the ways in which I hurt him feel to me.

There is no reason to doubt that people can care about me, and my experience of people caring about me always has been one of being hurt, and I now am figuring out how to have people care about me without them hurting me, without me hurting them. (It’s new and scary and wonderful.)

Anyway. Right now I’m focusing on the job search.

The best job situation possible with my current qualifications: three twelve-hour shifts per week being basically a nurse’s aide in an emergency department, making well above living wage. (I would be middle-class, officially middle-class. I could afford health insurance.) Three days of doing the really cool high-stress high-pressure job and nothing else, it’s just that and commuting and sleeping and eating, and then the other four are open.

(okay, fine, based on what I know about my personality and financial preferences “open” would end up meaning “time that is available for overtime,” but it’s the thought that counts)

So I’ve been applying for job openings along those lines. Got a likely offer as an aide at an assisted living place -- it’s pretty good hours and pay, low-stress. Also just interviewed for a call center with good hours, pretty good pay with fast increases. (The work would be stultifying but I would be fine doing it for a few months if I couldn’t find a different job soon enough.) Also got an interview for a non-ED hospital nurse’s aide job -- I think it went well. I should know soon.

All things considered, I’d rather be in an ED if I can. Three days a week of forced high-intensity non-thinking? Nice. (If I get the non-ED hospital job, I can probably pick up overtime in the ED anyway.)

...My girlfriend’s husband convinced me to apply for the ED jobs. He is very smart, very ADHD, ridiculously funny. I was going to put here some very convoluted statement about how he shares some personality traits with me, how his life looks a lot like one potential success state for me twenty years down the line. That’s... not necessary. It’s really just I want to be like him when I grow up, more or less. Far from the worst role model I could’ve chosen.

I mean -- he understands, I think, the need to be active and moving, doing a lot of different things, short feedback cycles. For me -- probably for him as well -- high-intensity stressful periods of limited duration are regulating or calming, not harmful. I keep fantasizing about getting the job, just going nonstop at maximum intensity for those twelve-hour shifts, and then coming home and... not doing that. Being able to use the time for other things, hopefully having burned off some of the excess energy so I’m not pacing around organizing things really fast for twelve hours at home.

(you know how if you leave a border collie without enough stimulation/enrichment it’ll like strip the walls of all the wallpaper it can reach, or herd the neighborhood kids, or chew its fur off, etc.? that’s me! I need Things To Do! if I am not Doing Things, I will find Things to Do, and these are not necessarily anywhere near the right Things!)

So potentially not having leftover obligations, coming home and being able to choose what I do, being able to cook and interact with people and read and listen to music and clean and optimize my budget and fuck around on the internet without being at work. I hated college because of this -- there was never a moment when I was not supposed to be doing something, instead a constant background awareness of needing to do tasks that are unusually incompatible with my brain.

(...again, I need an ADHD evaluation)

So. Things are good. I’m happy. I don’t expect to be this happy forever but I think it’s a reasonable goal, not even a stretch goal. I am noticing a new capacity to fix things about my brain. It is not exactly easy to convince oneself that the people you care about will not normally hurt you if they always do, and now for the first time in my life it is true. Other things as well; for most of my life my parents tried hard to ensure that I believed I was incapable of surviving without them, then very actively discouraged me from seeking out other perspectives or skills. This was, as far as I can tell, mostly unintentional. I believed it completely for all but the last year or two. This is a pretty big thing to be wrong about, and I was extremely wrong! And it’s kind of awesome. Life will not be as difficult as I had believed, and even when it’s difficult it’s okay, I can get through the rough patches.

I don’t do well with stagnancy. I do not do well with being trapped. Currently I am not stagnant and I am not trapped and it’s strange how easy this is, strange and exhilarating.

...And sometimes when I’m outside walking in my city, I am struck with this overwhelming sense of location, of ownership. This is mine, these streets are mine, and I don’t have to leave. It feels like home. It feels really, really fucking good. The first time I ever felt homesick was last summer; I’d come to this city for the first time, lived here for a few months, and then went back to my hometown. And I missed the city, and I missed the people -- missed my girlfriend and her family -- and I knew then I had to leave my hometown, knew I could.

I’m home. I am in motion.

(Updates to follow.)

#things are real good #family cw #emotional abuse cw #(not... not really? but also probably you don't want to read this if you do not want to see that!) #personal #news from meatspace #original post #happyblogging #brain wrangling

[playeroneplayertwo]

The Ten: 5.19

It seems a good icebreaker, or as good an icebreaker as any, to lay bare my top 10 of all time. Clear the air, so to speak. Get to know each other. It’s fair to say that this may be a make or break moment for us. Hopefully, I won’t lose you. Let’s see.

This is a list I imagine I’ll update periodically (which is why it’s dated), as my wife Kathleen (Player Two) and I play a lot of games, and a lot of new games. I’m a notoriously curious and searching type, and I love trying new games, sometimes to my wife’s chagrin. More often than not, my spare change goes to new games for the house. New games that make a splash tend to spike pretty high and then slowly fade. It’s not a great trait to have, especially in someone who tries to speak or write critically about quality (ie write reviews). But being that I’m aware of this, I hope that tempers it at least somewhat.

Anyway, where’s the list, you say? Here we go:

1. Brass: Birmingham (2018)

Oh boy, it’s a new one. Cult of the new? To be fair, Kathleen and I have played this game fairly regularly for the last eight months. By our third play or so, I knew it had locked itself into my top spot. I’d done a fair bit of research on the OG Brass (now Brass: Lancashire) prior to purchasing Brass: Birmingham, and by the time I eventually took the dive and purchased Birmingham, I was as excited to try it as I was unsure we’d actually enjoy it. At the time, it was the heaviest game we’d played, and it also relies heavily on route building–it’s in fact one of the most important parts of the game. I mention this because tactical spacial elements are not Kathleen’s forte. In fact, it’s one of her least favorite mechanics.

This is a good time to tell you that Kathleen and I think (and play games) very differently. Kathleen is a strategic player, relying on long term planning and execution to maximize scoring/performance. I, on the other hand, do not make long term plans. I find it not only remarkably difficult, but also unenjoyable. I’m a short term/tactical player. On my turn, I’m more likely to look over the board, get a lay of the land, and make the best, most advantageous play available to me at that moment.

Brass: Birmingham remarkably manages to cater to both of our play styles, which is one reason it ranks so high. Birmingham presents a myriad options for players to pursue. You’ve got a whole pile of different factory tiles you can build, a whole mess of locations or regions to move into, and about as many different strategies to pursue on your way to the end game. I don’t think I’ve ever played the same game of Brass: Birmingham twice, nor have I ever pursued the same options. The card play means, for me, that I will go where the cards lead, and I find using these cards as a guide to build my engine incredibly satisfying.

2. Covert (2016)

Dice placement. For some reason, this mechanic sounds incredibly unappealing to me, and I think it’s because it’s literally a portmanteau mechanic consisting of the worker placement mechanic using dice, two individual mechanisms that I seem to enjoy less and less. Dice I tend to avoid for their randomness (yes, I know that’s the point), and Worker Placement, in it’s most stereotypical application, I find frustrating. Why can’t I just put my worker wherever I want and just run my engine? Being stymied in a worker placement game just annoys the hell out of me.

So why do I love Covert?

It’s a pretty straightforward points race built around mission cards that have specific requirements. And using the dice as workers seems a fairly typical euro mechanism, but what I like about Covert is how puzzly it is. When you place your dice workers, they’ll be placed on round tracks with spaces numbered 1-6, and you won’t be able to place a die unless it’s adjacent to another die. In this case, you can do anything you want, but only if you plan correctly and work well with the other players. It becomes an order of operations puzzle, which may frustrate some, but I love it.

Also, I can’t get enough of that spy theme. And the production is fantastic.

3. Eldritch Horror (2013)

Ah, Cthulhu. For being the spawn of such a troubled person (HP Lovecraft), I find Cthulhu’s mythos and surrounding universe positively enthralling. 

But dice! Ugh yes, this is a huge, sprawling, long, and [sorta] bloated game that is built all around a very simple dice rolling resolution system. I have no way of justifying why this doesn’t bug me, but it just doesn’t.

Maybe I’m just a sap for the theme (Indiana Jones + Cthulhu = Win). Or maybe it’s nostalgia, considering this is the game on my top ten that I’ve played the most and had the longest. But, if I try to dig into the real reasoning here, it’s probably because this game manages to give you a big, rich, story-based experience that feels like an event when it’s over. Yes, it’s the biggest, longest play session on this list. But I love every minute of it. Even those maddening bad dice rolls.

4. Lord of the Rings: The Card Game (2011)

A long time ago, Kathleen and I came to this hobby via Magic: The Gathering, the deep, long standing king of the collectible card game. Magic is a great game, but it brings out the worst in me as a gamer. Playing Magic makes me both a bad winner and bad loser. Frankly, that’s a terrible combination. Why would you want to play with me at all?

This obvious problem led us to cooperative board games. If I’m gonna lose, why don’t I just lose with you. That’s a refreshing change of pace!

And speaking of losing, hey let’s talk about Lord of the Rings: The Card Game. The word used most frequently when talking about this game–by me and pretty much anybody who’s ever played it–is PUNISHING. And yes, it’s punishing. Kathleen and I have played a few punishing euros at this point (feed those people), but this is something else. Get a few bad card flips from the encounter deck and you’re suddenly up to your eyeballs in LOTR baddies. Orcs and goblins? Oh hai. But your dwarves or hobbits or whatever are never really out of it. Smart deck building (and luck) definitely has carried us out of the tall grass on more than one occasion. And there’s something to be said for a game as well balanced as Lord of the Rings. More than once, a game has concluded on a turn where we either win or lose based on that single turn’s outcome.

The theme doesn’t really do much for me, but I took the dive on this game because it looked like a well-designed and well-supported cooperative card game (of which there really aren’t too many). It’s stood tall over the years, and I hope it continues for a while. When I first played Arkham Horror: The Card Game, I figured it would knock this down a peg or two. But the designers’ ingenuity in the LOTR quests and encounter deck designs has been (for me, at least) a much more rewarding experience.

And I appreciate a cooperative game where you actually lose more often than you win. It seems a rarity in the co-ops we have.

5. Great Western Trail (2016)

I’d heard and read so much about this game prior to purchasing it that I almost didn’t even want to get it (which is exactly how I feel about Concordia and Trajan, subsequently). I dig the cowboy theme, but beyond that, I’d pretty much phased out all the actual details on this game’s gameplay.

But yeah, it really is good. Ya’ll were right. I love games that are heavy but are built around simple gameplay, and Great Western Trail epitomizes that. One your turn you move your cowboy on the (effectively) huge rondel board and then take an action on the space where you stop. That’s it. 

The beauty of the game comes from the remarkable breadth of options you can pursue. Using cowboys to buy cows, hiring engineers to move your train and build stations, hiring carpenters to build buildings and busy up the board, and completing objectives are some of the main tasks you’ll be focusing on, and what really clicks for me with Great Western Trail is that it’s a tactical player’s dream. The board is constantly changing, and as it changes, so must your plans. The objective cards steer you somewhat, but you’ve really gotta cut your own path across the wilderness here.

Oh, and I love deckbuilding as a sort of side dish mechanic. It isn’t always enough to sustain a whole game, but it’s great as a single piece of a pie.

6. Gloomhaven (2017)

All right, so this big beast has moved all over my ranking in the year+ since my first game. I won’t lie, it sat at #1 for a while. Then it slid a little, then a little more. I mean, it’s still at #6, so it’s not exactly plummeting. It’s the Board Game Geek #1 game of all time (as of this writing), and it’s hard to say if it’s deserving of this (and if not, what deserves the spot instead). Again, this is so subjective, and games like this or Scythe tend to be lightning rods for people who want to take a shot at the new hotness.

But yes, it’s good. It’s very good. I’m not as enamored by the sprawling nature of it as I was, nor the campaign, but being a person who loves variety, it’s scope is certainly a nice bonus. But after you haven’t played it in a while, it becomes a HUGE box that takes up a whole shelf and is a bear to set back up. And even though the box is 20lbs and takes up a whole shelf and the game takes 20+ minutes just to set up, the card play in Gloomhaven is just stellar. I love that this is essentially a tactical minis game with a euro engine. Tactical minis games rank incredibly low on my chart o’ interest, but this game takes that standard tactical minis expectation and smashes the shit out of it. 

Despite its niggling flaws, it’s an excellent game.

7. The Exit Series (2017-?)

This is the last co-op game on my list, and I just looked back and saw that there are four on here. I was just talking to Kathleen about how much I’d rather play competitive games instead of co-ops, and apparently I said that in a moment completely lacking self-awareness. Also, this is a cheaty kind of entry considering we’ve played at least eight Exit games.

Remember when I said that I liked Eldritch Horror because it was an event game that provided a big, rich experience? Well, the Exit games give you a meaty, brainier experience in a slightly shorter time period. There’s not much story–despite the designers really trying to cram one in there–but I’ll always love Exit because it’s become our Date Night game. Kathleen and I will get some nice booze, take out food, and sit down with a new Exit after we put our son to bed. The experience can be frustrating–remember we think very differently, but each experience has always been something to remember (except the Secret Lab; what happened in that one?). Special props to Exit: Dead Man on the Orient Express, in particular.

The puzzles are really satisfying when you crack them, especially after working on them for a while. We take longer than average to do these because we resist those hint cards as much as possible, so our games can stretch. But Exit should be an event, and when savored like one, it doesn’t let you down.

Also, if you have concerns about the value of an Exit game, if you look at it as an event (like going to the movies or *cough cough* playing T.I.M.E. Stories), it’s actually a very good value. Recycle it!

And finally, yes, Exit trumps Unlock any day of the week.

8. Glory to Rome (2005)

That Glory to Rome is out of print is a cryin’ shame. Our copy isn’t even a real copy, I printed a crappy DIY version at Staples and then cut and sleeved them with old Magic commons. Our copy looks bad, is cut unevenly, and has eery MTG watermarks shining through the thin weight paper, and I couldn’t care less. This game is awesome. It’s got about a million different combos that are all seemingly game-breaking, but the fact that everything is so powerful is really what makes this game so exciting.

Multi-use cards are one of my favorite mechanic, and this game is completely built around them. And like any well-designed game that is build all around cards, the design of this never leaves you feeling hamstrung by bad card draw. If you’re doing badly at Glory to Rome, it’s your fault. Sorry. You haven’t found the combo that will win the game for you. I can say this because I’m terrible at Glory to Rome, and I know it. That’s not saying I’ve not won before. I have, but more likely than not it was because I accidentally stumbled onto something good. 

Like Brass: Birmingham, no two games of Glory to Rome are the same. There are so many cards in the box, and the subtle sense of humor that permeates some of the cards just tickles me (please see: latrine).

It’s fast and exciting, and giving you options on other players’ turns is also one of my favorite mechanics.  I’ll happily play and lose Glory to Rome anytime.

9. Nippon (2015)

Full disclosure, this is the newest edition to this list, and Kathleen and I have only played this a few times, but there’s something about this game that really fascinates me. 

At first blush, it feels like Brass, but it’s not. Like Brass, this is an economic engine, but it doesn’t allow the multi-turn build up to The Big Turn like Brass. Then I thought it was a little like Great Western Trail, but it’s not really like that either. Great Western Trail presents a ton of options, but by the end of the game, you really need to work on all of them, at least a little bit, or else your score will suffer. Nippon, however, doesn’t make you do a little bit of everything. There are a number of elements in Nippon (like trains), that can be all but ignored except for certain circumstances. It’s a game built around area control via slow burn engine building. A number of other elements to the game are very specific tools you can use to hone that engine, but could just as easily prove useless under the wrong conditions.

This may be misdirected musings by someone who hasn’t played the game enough, but it feels right to me. The last time we played, I came to the realization that the game felt so fraught because I was trying to do too much. The game presents you with a large amount of avenues to pursue because you don’t actually have to pursue them all; you can’t, there’s not enough time in the game (or money!). You need to choose your actions and build the best engine as quickly as possible.

Nippon is a cutthroat fight that feels both wickedly fast and frustratingly slow at the same time. Special bonuses for completely subverting the worker placement mechanic with its own implementation that runs the whole game. It’s a puzzle that I have relished greatly.

10. Star Wars: The Card Game (2012)

Two Fantasy Flight LCGs on the list? Sweet Christmas!

But yes, this is a great game. I’m not sure it ever got much love, and it saddens me that it’s now dead, but it’s such an interesting design. That it does a fine job of simplifying deck construction is just a bonus.

I appreciate that Star Wars feels like a game of high stakes gambling. The first few turns are slow and quiet as you work through your deck and build your forces, but once conflict erupts, everything tends to break wide open. Each decision you make has massive repercussions, as single large mistakes will lose you the game. Add in some actual bluffing and a ticking clock, and this is the simplified and streamlined (if safer and less wild) version of Doomtown: Reloaded, another card game that I absolutely love. 

But where I think Doomtown ultimately fails, Star Wars succeeds. The game doesn’t get bogged down in complexity, and instead feels relatively streamlined considering its medium weight. Every time I play this game, I’m impressed by how smart Eric Lang’s design is. I feel like he played a ton of Magic: The Gathering, and then he removed all the things that bothered him (and bothered me, too).

I think this game is overlooked and underplayed, and dare I say forgotten, but for my money, it’s absolutely worth revisiting. And played over and over again.

Please remember, this list will change. Check back occasionally to see how. If you have any questions or opinions of your own, let me know in the comments!

Thanks for reading!

Eric (Player One)

#top ten #board games #board game #great western trail #gloomhaven #brass birmingham #star wars card game #nippon #glory to rome #exit #eldritch horror #lord of the rings card game #covert game #covert

[idlelitany]

Tunes for the road: Magic Pie and The Ultracheese

Located on a bustling street corner between a pub and a Mediterranean restaurant, Lulu’s Chocolate Bar is a cozy dessert shop that specializes in homemade sweets and fruity cocktails. Like most buildings in downtown Savannah, this one is snuggled against the one beside it. It’s a modest place with typical architecture for the time—prominent red bricks and green window panes along the upper floors. The latter serves as a reminder that these buildings were once inner city apartment complexes.

Lulu’s Chocolate Bar Front

Lulu’s Chocolate Bar Side

(Click photos for a bigger view.)

The first floor, where Lulu’s Chocolate Bar is located, was a general wholesale store once upon a time. If you come early enough (or if you have better eyesight than me), you can still see its faded green sign right above the shop. It was renovated years ago to fit the bar’s image.

Before you even step through the door, you can already tell what Lulu’s is about.

First off, I want to say that they do have food, y’know what people call “actual food”—fancy dishes like Saucisson Sec, Prosciutto, and Mousse of Duck Foie Gras—but it isn’t the first thing people look at when they open up their menus. It sure as sin wasn’t my first choice either. It would be downright disrespectful. Lulu’s has been voted the best dessert joint in Savannah since 2008 by readers of Connect Savannah Magazine… and with good reason.

They’ve got an array of desserts to choose from. Aside from their house specials (like their mouthwatering strawberry suspension cake, which is all held together by a sleeve of chocolate), the desserts change every other day! So, you can sample something new every time you visit.

Each dessert is presented the same way. There are two twists of whip cream off to the side and, depending on what you order, they include messy squirts of either chocolate or condensed milk scattered all over the plate.

My friend and I settled on three desserts because who can stop at just one? (Please don’t judge us.)

THE DESSERT

Cookies and Cream Cheesecake

A combination of the classics? Sign me up! This was a cold, melt-in-your-mouth slice of cheesecake that featured an oreo bottom to add a little bit of crunch to every bite. The cookies n’ cream flavor exploded in your mouth.

My main issue? I only ordered one slice.

Cookie warning: the mini oreo on top of the cake was soft since they stored it ready to go in a refrigerated area. I personally liked that, but if you like your oreos less mushy, then you’d probably want to set it aside. Maybe replace it with one of those dollops of whip cream they add for you?

  Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie

This was a mouthful of decadent Reeses-esque goodness. Soft, gooey peanut butter was sandwiched between a sleeve of chocolate, which gave the cake more texture. The pie had a hard outer shell made of cookie and featured peanuts sprinkled on top. I originally thought that the peanuts were put there for presentation and would detract from the overall taste, but that definitely wasn’t the case. The peanuts weren’t salted, so it gave the final bites a certain coarseness that made it easier to eat. Yay for crunch!

What I didn’t like was that the bottom was made of the same chocolate layer as the top, which made me get tired of it fast… really fast. For this, you need to order a drink or a different dessert to break up the flavor and consistency. I thought it would’ve been better to have the hard cookie layer on the back extend to the bottom like a cheesecake.

Honey Lavender Cake

This one confused my senses, but in a good way. I admit, we ordered this because we wanted to feel posh by having something purple with an elegant name laid out in front of us. But damn, if eating this wasn’t a ride for our taste buds.

It tasted like… aroma.

Even I have no idea what in the world that means.

It had a lavender hint to it that reached my nose every time I chewed, which messed with my senses. (It’s kind of like those instances when you smell something so strong that you end up tasting it, but the other way around.) Other than that, it tasted pretty much like vanilla cake with a dab of honey for extra zest.

Despite making me question its existence, I thought this cake was well worth its price ($8.50). It was made of three layers of spongy vanilla that was broken up with lavender icing. The frosting was creamy, but not so thick that it was a chore to chew. The amount of sugar was just right.

Overall, the taste was one-of-a-kind. The design was cute, and trying to figure it out made me enjoy it the most out of the three. Still, it was confusing… maybe they designed it to be that way? They’ve certainly got me talking about it.

THE DRINKS

At Lulu’s, you can even drink your dessert! Different kinds of martinis and cocktails dominate their menu. They get insane bonus points for serving them in big glasses. Even their “shots” are served in regular-sized cups. Their shape is the only thing that gives them that shot-glass-pass.

Lulu’s Chocolate Russian Shot

(You’re on thin ice, over-sized shots.)

We ordered three drinks to match the number of desserts. I’m not a cocktail connoisseur, but I can tell you that they each had a fair amount of alcohol. I’d definitely advise against buying three. They might upset your stomach, especially if you’re having them with cake.

From left to right: Peanut Butter Cup Martini, Lulu’s Chocolate Russian Shot, B-52 Coffee

Expect varying degrees of bitterness in each drink. Despite their sweet names, they’ve got kick. If you order something with chocolate like what we did, then you need to mix it with a small spoon or drink it fast because the chocolate tends to clump at the bottom.

Strangely enough, I didn’t feel like the added sweetness in the drinks did much (except add extra calories and afford them cool names). It still couldn’t mask that bitter bite of alcohol after every sip, and it would often interfere with the flavor of the dessert I was eating. They did make a good palette cleanser between cakes though.

B-52 Coffee

The other drinks were decent, but the B-52 Coffee had me setting it aside after only one sip.

Coffee is great on its own. B-52 is great on its own. Together? It tasted like a viciously hot latte with an aftertaste of sour Skittles because who values flavor?

I strongly believe that the only reason the whip cream was there was for mercy. It was meant to be scooped up with that strategically placed spoon they included to get rid of the flavor.

(Don’t worry, I still braved it afterwards. No, I wasn’t dared. Yes, I count it as a life achievement.)

THE STAFF

Early Bird

Everyone was really friendly and easy to talk to. I feel like the quickness of service here depends on what time you come. Like all places, waiters and waitresses are limited. It can get packed in the evenings, and you can actually spot them running in and out of the kitchen if you sit nearby. But they’re all sweet, patient people that don’t rush you, despite the line they’ve got outside.

THE PLACE

Lulu’s atmosphere enveloped me as soon as I walked through the door. The dim lighting told me that this was, indeed, a bar, despite the many seats and tables littered across the scant distance in front of me. Standing there felt akin to lingering on the sidelines of an upscale lounge without all of the stuffy awkwardness that came with actually lingering on the sidelines of an upscale lounge. The brick walls and dark wood furniture combined to give Lulu’s a chic, yet cozy look.

Dessert Display Case

Podium

(Click photos for a bigger view.)

The podium in front of the door caught my attention. While there was a high-tech looking music player immediately to my left, my eyes were swiftly drawn to the display case chockfull of desserts. I’d like to say that the well-stocked bar in back of it didn’t interest me, but that would be a lie. (Under 21 habits die hard.)

(Click photos for a bigger view.)

To the right, were sturdy, wooden tables and a long line of chairs. Paintings hung from the walls. They were small and blended in with the faded bricks they were propped on top of. Each was unobtrusive enough that my eyes easily wandered away after a moment. Honestly, I’d feel awkward if they weren’t inconspicuous because once people began coming in and sitting in the seats in front of them, it’d be embarrassing to be caught gaping. Thankfully, the place wasn’t too packed when we had our desserts. But it was small enough that you could hear the conversation of the next table over.

I found them easy to tune out because echoes of rock bands that I loved cut through the air by the time we were served; it was a great playlist of Queen, Foo Fighters, and Audioslave. (I don’t know who put it on, but bless them.) It made sitting fun.

On the upper-left above the register, they missed an opportunity to say: ‘Cakeout here’ 😦

FINAL THOUGHTS:

Lulu’s is a cool place with rad desserts, great atmosphere, and friendly staff. The price isn’t bad, though they might be steep for folks that don’t like splurging on desserts. Their drinks are creative, but can be a hit or miss. Thankfully, their sweets more than make up for it.  I recommend it as a place to go to after a late lunch, then top it off with some shopping along Broughton Street or a stroll near the Savannah River.

The best hours to pop in are immediately after they open and near midnight. 6pm to 10pm are their peak hours, so you might not be able to find a seat.

GENERAL INFORMATION:

Contact: Website | Directions Hours: 2pm – 12am (Sunday to Thursday); 2pm – 1:30am (Friday & Saturday) Happy Hour: 2pm – 6pm daily (Bonus: different drink promos every day) Reviews: Yelp | Trip Advisor

Lulu’s Dessert Mania! Tunes for the road: Magic Pie and The Ultracheese Located on a bustling street corner between a pub and a Mediterranean restaurant, Lulu’s Chocolate Bar is a cozy dessert shop that specializes in homemade sweets and fruity cocktails.

[heartofhryule]

Breath of the Wild: Captured Memories - Chapter 7

Preface and Disclaimer; First and foremost; SPOILER WARNINGS. If you have not played The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, or completed the Captured Memories Quest and want to stay unspoilered for it, DO NOT READ. Keep Reading link provided for that reason. 

So I am writing these as I play through BotW for the first time - which means they probably won’t be ‘one-a-day’ consistent - I have finally gotten all of the memories, but not yet gone for the final fight at Hyrule Castle. #Soon. I will post them as I can though! Promise! I also plan to include links to the cutscene for you to watch at the bottom, if so desired - at least for the ones I can find. Any other warnings that become necessary, I will add for content as I go. For now, enjoy! [All Chapters here for your reading enjoyment.]

Y’all… Dammit Salty Bird. I got irritated all over again rewatching the scenes to get the dialog for Revali’s scenes. He’s SUCH a well written character... and I hate him. Well, hate is strong. But I really, really dislike him a lot. Even when he “gets better” he’s still a !@#%%^&^er. But, I like this chapter, and I hope you will too. Chapter 7 - Revali’s Flap

The Rito Village, and land surrounding, was genuinely breathtaking. The wood and canvas huts that served as both homes and shops were built around the landscape’s large peaks of sandstone. This design allowed wind to blow through the village unhindered without disrupting structural integrity. At this altitude and in the region, Link was chilled. Pretty much constantly. But, he’d bought some new armor from the nice Rito vendor in trade for some amber and a few sapphires he’d found. Now he was nice and toasty warm.

Sitting by the cooking pot inside a part of the village’s inn, Link stared into the fire as his dinner marinated. He’d been here before. He could feel it, and this was not a place soon forgotten. It might have been if it was the first place he’d come, but even then the striking beauty of the land, difference in architecture, and the colorful individuality of its inhabitants were like nothing else in all of Hyrule.

Maybe that was the opinion of an ignorant Hylian child that he had once been. He had grown up in and around the Zora Domain in the Lanayru Province. This knowledge was coming back to him slowly, and explained why he’d gone there first. It also meant the Zora had never seemed odd to him, though consequently neither had they seemed particularly awe inspiring in a long, long while. The Rito however, were a different story.

Ladelling out his dinner from the pot, simmered fruit for the moment as he was cold, tired and in need of foraging for some supplies, Link leaned back against the solid wood support beam of the hut. Simmered fruit made him think of his mother - now that he remembered her face. She made the best, and had taught him long ago. It always made him feel better.

He needed that right now. There was a long way to go for him to find all the locations in Zelda’s album, and take back control of two more Divine Beasts from Ganon. He was tired, and had only arrived less than an hour before, deciding that he was going to eat something before speaking with the Tribe Chief. In the sky overhead, Vah Medoh let out a shrill and bone chilling cry. The enormous ancient technology flew overhead in the shape of a bird, stone and metal kept aloft by gigantic propellers and magic. Glancing up, and giving a good, long look at the Calamitous energies pulsing through the construct, Link ate his simmered fruit quickly.

No rest for the weary, as it were.

After eating, he asked directions to speak with the Rito Chief and had the oddest interaction. It was as though the Chief could tell he was the fallen hero, but couldn’t accept it. Link had stopped bothering to try and explain it to people months ago at this point. He was told of Teba, and that perhaps the warrior could help him, if nothing else the Chief was worried.

But it was the following conversation with Teba’s wife that ignited something in Link. She showed him Revali’s Landing, a flight platform just outside her home named for the Champion of the Rito from a century ago. Looking at it, Link was taken by a memory.

***

Standing out on the center of the flight platform, Link craned his neck and shielded his eyes to look up at the impressive Vah Medoh high above him. It truly was an impressive piece of ancient technology, and he’d listened intently to Zelda lament at great length that she would never be able to set foot on such a marvel. The sky was the clearest blue surrounding the Divine Beast, and wind cool despite the sun’s warmth. But then, it was always cool in the Hebra region.

Just as Link had the thought he should probably go find the Rito Champion, as that was whom he had climbed the peaks to see on behalf of Zelda, the wind picked up. At first it was small, but it rapidly build to a steady cyclonic breeze that seemed to come from beneath the platform.

In the blink of an eye and the flash of dark grey feathers, the Rito Champion appeared from below. Shooting up into the air high above, Revali spread his charcoal and white feathered wings, gliding down to a light and graceful landing before Link.

“Impressive, I know,” the Rito archer said in his normal, smug tenor. “Very few can achieve mastery of the sky. Yet I have made an art of creating an updraft that allows me to soar. It’s considered to be quite the masterpiece of aerial techniques, even among the Rito.” Revali turned to pose dramatically, one wing lifted where he was backlit by the sun in the beautiful day.

Link managed to not roll his eyes at Revali’s grandiloquence, giving him a tight-lipped smile. Revali didn’t like him - Link knew this. The Rito felt within his superior self image that he should have been the Princess’s appointed knight as he was clearly the most capable and worthy of the Champions. Clearly.

Though the Rito had never said those words exactly, it was the undertone of every word, sneer, snort and action the Champion took while in Link’s presence to date. Somehow the Hylian knight had a feeling this interaction would be no different.

Link found Revali cutting him a sharp look, speaking again before the knight could give a syllable of proper greeting. “With the proper utilization of my superior skills, I see no reason why we couldn’t easily dispense with Ganon,” be boasted with a bow. Hopping down from the railing on which he’d perched, Revali tucked his wings behind his back as if about to give a dissertation (which Link had no doubt he was going to do just that). Strolling forward, Revali’s expression was one of barely contained detestation. “Now then, my ability to explored the firmament is certainly of note… But let’s not- and pardon me for being so blunt-” he said as his tone changed from fairly condescending to outright patronizing, “Let’s not forget the fact that I am the most skilled archer of all the Rito.”

“Oh here we go,” Link muttered to himself into the wind.

“Yet despite these truths, it seems I have been tapped to merely assist  you. All because you happen to have that little darkness sealing sword on your back. I mean, it’s just… asinine.” The only thing that prevented Link from drawing his sword then and there and teaching this megalomaniac of a Rito a lesson, was self control. As Revali’s red-feather rimmed, green eyes cut snidely to him, Link crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. The absurdity of this entire monologue was as laughable as it was insulting. Clearly, Revali liked hear the sound of his own voice.

“Unless,” the Rito Champion added after a moment, “You think you can prove me wrong?” He took one large step closer to Link. The bird man who was a good head taller than the Hylian leaned in, beak to nose and invading Link’s personal space aggressively. “Maybe, we should just settle this one on one.”

Link opened his mouth to say that he had no problem with Revali… not until this conversation at least, but the archer turned away and continued his drama. “But where?” he asked the wind, one wing crossed his chest as the other pretended to stroke his beak in thought. “Oh, I know! How’bout up there?!”

With a grand sweep of one wing, Revali motioned to the sky, where Vah Medoh was soaring past, making its rounds. “Oh! You must  pardon me,” Revali chuckled, his tone even more supercilious than before, “I forgot you have no way of making it up to that Divine Beast on your own.” The last words were spoken with actual open aggression as the Champion spread his wings sharply, and took to the skies, leaving Link behind on the platform.

As Revali grew smaller towards Vah Medoh, and the vision began to fade, the Rito’s parting jab echoed the skies. “Good luck sealing the Darkness!”

***

As he came back to himself, Link was being stared at oddly by Teba’s concerned wife. Apparently she’d asked if he was alright, while he’d been lost to the past. “Oh, I’m sorry, yes - thank you ma’am.”

Giving him an uncertain look, she touched a delicate wing to her beak. “If you’re sure… you seemed… angry? Irritated at least. Are you well?”

Cracking his neck at the legitimate frustration Revali’s personality had left him with, he nodded. “It was… just not a pleasant memory, ma’am. Sorry to space out like that- but I promise, I will find your husband, and bring him back alive.

“Oh thank you!” she said sincerely. “Please… be safe.”

---

The knight held his shoulder and looked around the topside of Vah Medoh. The Windblight Ganon creature that had held control of Vah Medoh for so long was gone, fallen to the Master Sword. Well the Master Sword, and a not insignificant amount of bomb arrows.

Staring at the Main Control panel ten yards from where he stood, injured and exhausted, Link smirked to himself. He should just sit down, right here, and bake some apples to eat so he could regain a bit of his strength. It had been a hard fight! It had taken a lot out of him! And Revali could sit around and complain all he wanted, since there wasn’t anything the spirit of the Rito Champion could do about it.

He deserved as much for the prickly and haughty manner in which he’d been speaking while Link tried to subvert Ganon’s corruption. Though the change in tone as the hylian’s repeated successes went on had not gone unnoticed by the knight.

No, No Link wouldn’t keep him waiting… that would have been cruel. With a sigh, Link closed the distance between himself and the Main Controls, setting the Shiekah slate on the tablet as he had so many times elsewhere. The bulb, large as a room and intricate with ancient energy, changed from orange to blue, and pulsed once… twice… three times as Vah Medoh was not returned to control of the Champions.

“Well I’ll be plucked,” Revali’s echoic, ethereal voice said from behind him, “You defeated him, eh?” Link cut his eyes over his shoulder and turned around, braced for a potentially long and self absorbed speech. There Revali stood, incorporeal as both Daruk and Mipha had been, green spirit fire dancing around him where he had just landed. Spreading his wings wide, Revali seemed reserved… for Revali. “Who would have thought?”

Looking at each other a long moment, Link felt… differently than he had before. Mipha and Daruk had been his friends, people he cared a great deal for. Revali and he had not been friend, and even actively disliked one another a century ago. And yet, there was still a sadness in Link’s heart, seeing the Rito Champion’s spirit.

Noting that the archer dropped his gaze and looked away before he spoke, the Rito’s next words were surprising to the hylian. “Well done.”

But Revali continued, and the moment was over. “I suppose I should thank you now that my spirit is free. This returns Medoh to its rightful owner.” With a grand gesture to the sky of one wing, Revali straightened, clearly meaning himself. “Hmph,” he added with a callous expression. “Don’t preen yourself just for doing our job.”

Link pressed his lips together and raised one eyebrow. “Oh yes. We could never have that from any Champion,” he mumbled sardonically. If Revali heard, he didn’t show it.

“I do suppose you’ve proven your value as a warrior. A warrior worthy of my unique ability. The sacred skill that I have dubbed Revali’s Gale!” Despite the posing and flapping of wings, Link forgave the Champion’s drama in the face of the nicest thing  Revali had ever said about or to him.

With yet another set of dramatic movements, Revali’s spirit summoned and sent an orb of green spirit energy hurtling at Link, and as it entered him body, a familiar, strong whirlwind kicked up, lifting Link from his feet and tossing him into the air quite unexpectedly. With a flip and twist, Link landed without injury on one knee, and looked back up to the Rito… in gratitude.

“It’s now time to move on and start making preparations for Medoh’s strike on Ganon. But,” Rivalli gave a small smirk, “Only if you think you’ll still need my help while fighting inside Hyrule Castle.” It wasn’t an apology, but even a small admission that he’d been wrong so long ago was enough to inspire forgiveness entirely in Link’s heart. Revali quickly ruined the moment again by added, “Feel free to thank me now.”

Rolling his eyes, Link noticed the now familiar gold light that meant his time on the Divine Beast was over, and was shocked to hear Revali say, “Or.. .nevermind. Just go. Your job is far from finished you know.” The Rito Champion was glancing at him sidelong. Finally turning away and lifting his beak to the sun, Link was fading away already when he heard the final words of his old self appointed rival.

“The Princess has been waiting an awful long time.” Revali’s Flap - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doMVZikgnNE Freeing Vah Medoh - https://youtu.be/uxP8BqemAvc?t=1413

#botw #breath of the wild #loz #link #zelda #zelink #botw champions #revali #urbosa #daruk #mipha #botw fic #botw fanfiction #fanfiction #fanfic #captured memories #vah medoh #legend of zelda #loz fic #zelink fic #zelink fanfiction

[topweeklyupdate]

TØP Weekly Update #54: COVER ME (7/13/2018)

Finally, after months of solid drought, the barren wasteland known as the TØP fanbase has finally been blessed with rain. And not just a gentle sprinkle; it’s been a consistent heavy downpour, a veritable flood. Even before new music, this week gave us new content from the group every single day. There will probably be something new out by the time you’re done reading this. So let’s not waste any time! Here’s your week in Twenty One Pilots news.

This Week’s TØPics:

Your Band Is Back: Trench Coming This October

“Jumpsuit” and “Nico” Released

New Logo/Theming/Everything

Josh Speaks

And SO. MUCH. MORE.

Major News and Announcements:

This time last week, I was certain that we would be getting new music on the 6th because it was my birthday. Turns out, myself and many others in the Clique read a little too deeply into Clancy’s promise that “everything would be different” by morning. We did not receive new music on that date, which, for the record, was way earlier than most reports had pegged. The fanbase wanted music ASAP and interpreted the letter to fit that, and anyone who said the band lied about when music was coming was just not being honest with themselves. 

Things were different starting last Friday. On the one-year anniversary of their departure, Twenty One Pilots directly reached out to their fans for the first time, not through the wide platform of social media, but with an email message to their mailing list.

The message only consisted of the subject line “ARE YOU STILL SLEEPING?” and a gif of an opening yellow eye, with images fitting the iconography of the Dema site flashing under the eyelid. The Clique basically lost their minds at this direct contact, so much so that major publications like Billboard finally started to report on the long gestating speculation. Everyone was excited to see the eye open over the course of the day, bringing everything full circle and culminating (presumably) with new music.

That... didn’t happen. Rather, dmaorg.info was restored after being down for only a few hours, and this gif of torches was added onto the site. This indicated that Clancy had escaped Dema, and the Clique promptly set about assuming that the next day would mark the band’s full return. Further, the name of the gif, “they_ca_ntseeFCE300″, seemed to confirm what people would be speculating ever since Josh dyed his hair nearly two years ago: the next era’s color would be yellow (specifically, FCE300) to symbolize hope and light pushing back against the dark.

The next day brought with it another update from Clancy (and the general concession among the Clique to stop expecting new music every night and just go to bed). In one of my favorite bits of attention to detail so far, Clancy’s latest journal was messily handwritten on a scrap of paper, due to the fact that he had successfully escaped Dema and was now traveling through- big shock- a region called “Trench”. The writing itself is kinda rambly and generic (so I can relate), with Tyler Clancy marveling at how much he loves being in the trees being alone out in nature. That said, I do love that there is a definite story being presented, with Clancy experiencing changes, taking action, and going on a real journey through this world that Tyler’s created.

On the back of the paper, however, is something much more interesting: a blown-out image that, when reversed, revealed a dead body. That was creepy enough as is; far more creepy was the Clique’s CSI-level discovery that this ripped photo fit with several other dmaorg.info images in a giant puzzle. Who was this man? Was this a random poster that Clancy grabbed as he escaped, or are we supposed to take it as a metaphor? Was it a random citizen of Dema? A bishop? Clancy himself? Blurryface? So many questions.

Twenty One Pilots truly made their mainstream return on July 9th, when they posted a second video of a half-opened eye, not just for hardcore fans, but on all of their social media platforms. This return was accompanied by a total overhaul of the band’s general branding: a new yellow-and-black ||-// logo was revealed for the new era, while the old “silence” banners and even the website subscription box were covered up by bright yellow tape. Billboards featuring the logo on this yellow tape aesthetic sprang up in cities all around the world, from London to Toronto, Berlin to Melbourne, even an entire building in São Paolo. The boys were back.

On Tuesday, Twenty One Pilots again returned to social media to post a second video. The eye, now about 3/4 open, depicted even more of this medieval battle, now with the addition of the Watchers on the cliff throwing... something (rocks? rose petals?) into the air. Instead of generic white noise, this clip was scored by a muffled but still obviously crunchy bass line. As radio stations across the country began to tweet about a major alternative release coming Wednesday morning (with a few even mentioning they were from Columbus), we finally knew that we were going to be ok....

New Releases:

And then I was not okay.

Early Wednesday morning, Twenty One Pilots dropped two singles and announced the names and dates for the next album, Trench, and tour, Bandito. My prediction from last week was 100% correct, and you all may thank and validate me in the comments below like and subscribe. “Jumpsuit” is our main single with a full cinematic music video, while “Nico and the Niners” is the more lore-heavy low-key song for the fans. I’m going to pull back from fully going in on picking apart every sonic and thematic element of both songs and save that for (hopefully) a less busy week, but you know I gotta write about their first new music in two years. Cause that’s what I do: I write too much.

Guys, “Jumpsuit” is a straight-up banger. Featuring a killer driving bassline, some of Tyler’s most impassioned screams, and a truly devastating bridge, I have not tired of this song one bit in the last few days. It takes me on a complete emotional journey in just four minutes every time, and it does so mainly through its soundscape (there’s only the hook, three couplet verses, and that damn bridge). It’s so, so, so, so good, potentially (dare I say it) the best sonically arranged and produced song the band has ever released.

So... what’s “Jumpsuit” about? Well, a lot of things, but in a word: pressure. Again, the lyrics are super vague, I think deliberately so. Clearly the song is about the singer feeling pressured by others into taking a path that he does not want to travel down. That bridge, delivered in an eerie detached falsetto, shows Tyler pushing back even at his weakest point, stating that he will not submit to what others want him to do unless they “grab him by the throat, tie him down, and break his hands.” Certainly you can argue that this is about the music industry. The “breaking his hands” line is killer in that context, as it signifies that the industry can’t control him without taking away the things that makes him valuable to them in the first place, his artistic ability and freedom. You can also say that it’s just playing straight into the concept, with Clancy breaking away from the bishops’ control. But the deliberate vagueness of the lyrics means that the audience can apply the message- and the empowerment of that killer bassline- to whatever struggle they are facing. That’s pretty darn rad.

The music video, directed by “Heathens” and “Heavydirtysoul”’s Andrew Donoho, is sick. Tyler (looking extra fly in his new yellow hooded jumpsuit) attempts to flee from this creepy Red Riding Hood old dude on a white horse (Nico?) through what is certainly a Game of Thrones filming location while other figures in yellow duct tape jumpsuits look on from the cliffs above. Tyler is captured by the bishop, who “smears” him by putting the black Blurryface makeup on his neck. Tyler is freed briefly from the bishop’s control when the other yellow-clad figures throw yellow petals down on him, but he is chased down knocked out or killed. The others flee the scene, save for one very handsome looking drummer boy... Oh, and there’s a bunch of intercut clips of Tyler on the car from “Heavydirtysoul” for some reason.

Besides those “Heavydirtysoul” scenes, which truthfully don’t connect much to the story of the video beyond artificially welding it onto the end of the Blurryface Era, this is one of the band’s best videos yet. It totally fulfilled all of my expectations of a more epic scope for this era, from the gorgeous Iceland setting to the dope as hell costumes to the implication that the story might continue on from this point. And there are tons of little Easter eggs, from brief flashes of the nine bishops to possible cameos from the Josephs and Duns. We don’t really know for sure if Tyler is playing Clancy or if the red dude is Nico, but it will certainly be fun to continue to fill in the blanks as we move forward and (hopefully) hear more from Tyler directly.

“Nico and the Niners” is a weird track, but one that I still absolutely love. In some ways, it’s a more traditional tøp track, with some of the raggae elements found on Blurryface and a rap verse to fit all of Tyler’s lyrics in. But in other significant ways, it’s a totally different path for them. For starters, just look at that title: it’s very explicitly about this album’s concept from top to bottom, with Tyler singing about fleeing Dema and its bishops’ control and even heavily referencing “Jumpsuit”; there’s clearly going to be a great deal of thematic cohesion in this project. But there’s also just the general vibe of it: just as “Jumpsuit” was a heavier rock song than anything we’d yet seen from the band, "Nico” is way more laid back, its repeated references to being high and even its visualizer of assorted shrubbery making it a potential stoner anthem (whether that was Tyler’s intention or not). Regardless, the song is brimming with character and hooks, and it’s already grown on me significantly in just a few days.

Oh, and one more thing: this song lives up to its Dema-referencing title and content by being cryptic af. The track is littered with reversed audio in the instrumental bits, including the “we are banditos” snippet from dmaorg.info and another sample of someone who sounds a lot like Josh saying “We will leave Dema at true east, renounce Vialism [the bishops’ ruling philosophy, alluded to be Clancy in an earlier journal].” I swear, if all it takes for Tyler to make all this stuff is a year break, he should do this after every album.

With all that new music, the fact that we finally have a name for Album 5 almost got lost in the shuffle. Trench was a popular guess over the last few days thanks to dmaorg.info, but it’s good to finally know for sure. Graphic designer Brandon Rike from the Blurryface Era is back again, revealing a cover featuring a badass-looking vulture/falcon/whatever, some new logos (including the return of FPE!), and some more yellow tape that appears to be covering the names of the rest of the album’s songs. Not too much else to say at this point; we’ll just have to wait until some of that tape gets peeled off between now and October 5th.

Finally, let’s talk about the Bandito Tour. It bears mentioning that, amidst the otherwise overwhelmingly positive positive atmosphere of the band’s return, this tour name received the most general opposition from fans and non-fans alike. The fact that “bandito” was probably going to turn up in a lyric from two decidedly white dudes was already enough to put some folks on edge, but the idea of an entire tour of predominantly non-Hispanic tweens flooding arenas and calling themselves banditos was enough to turn a few people against the band. And look, I get it- I hear “bandito” and the first things I think of are John Wayne Westerns and Speedy Gonzalez, and I get why a lot of fans might feel uncomfortable with that. But, to be fair, the band hasn’t used any of those stereotypes and banditos is a word for outlaw used in a number of Romance languages. Perhaps most interestingly, there’s not yet any evidence that the word even appears in the album itself. So far, the only appearance of “bandito” is in a coded message on dmaorg.info and in reversed audio in “Nico”. If this does turn out to be a name meant to only make sense to the most hardcore of fans, it is almost redeemed (I mean, I still think the name is a little silly, but I’m already in presale).

So, with that out of the way, let’s actually talk about the tour itself. It will be an international arena tour- even if the band’s sound is not going in a pop direction, they still clearly feel confident that the Clique will show up wherever they go. The first show will be hosted in Nashville (their first arena concert in that market) on October 16, not even two weeks after the release of the full album. What a baller move, and much preferred to the Blurryface rollout where we didn’t hear most of the songs on the record until nearly two months after the album release and they didn’t play near me for even longer. The boys will tour the U.S. until November 21, even playing arenas in a few markets that they’ve never played large venues in before, and then hit up Australia and New Zealand in December.

The most objectively interesting leg will be in Europe from January through March. Not only will the band play their first arena shows in markets like Moscow, Oslo, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Central Poland, and Manchester, they will return to markets like Dublin and Glasgow they’ve been absent from for years. Most exciting, Twenty One Pilots will play their first shows in Bologna and Stuttgart and venture into the countries of Ukraine, Switzerland, Spain, and Portugal for the first time ever. Needless to say, the rabid fanbases of all of these regions are super excited, and I’m super excited for them!

Other Shenanigans:

While Tyler has continued to stay silent (much as he has since mid-Blurryface Era), Josh immediately jumped back on Twitter with a standard Josh joke and even resumed his morning workout Snapchats. On Thursday, Josh even called into BBC Radio One with Annie Mac to give a quick interview about the new era. He didn’t provide a ton of information, but it was just a delight to hear our kid’s voice again. A few tidbits of info:

Josh reported that he was calling from Trench, I hate him.

The sick bass riff on “Jumpsuit” was born from soundchecks toward the end of Emotional Roadshow. He says that, as a result, it sounds closest to the Blurryface sound, serving as a good transition into the new era. (If this is what he thinks is close to Blurryface on Trench, this album’s gonna be nutter butters.)

Both Josh and Tyler are really nervous about the elaborate rollout, both out of the usual fear that no one stuck around and out of wariness of severely disappointing people when they hear the actual music (so far, so good...)

Trench continues to have the “diverse” sound of the previous records and also was designed to be played live.

Josh also tuned into Apple Music’s Beats 1 for an interview with Hanuman Welch. This conversation was less about the new album and more about the “hiatus”. More tidbits: 

The band views collaboration as a “sacred” thing, and while they’re not against it in the future, it has to be done in a context that makes sense and not merely for marketing purposes.

The band has never used the word hiatus because they’ve been working. They drew back from the spotlight to allow themselves some time to recharge, but also because they were worried of oversaturation (particularly after the Grammys pushed them into that next-level pop culture sphere). Rather than make a bunch of social media posts that didn’t mean anything just to stay relevant, the band decided to draw back, focus on music, and in the process “thin the weeds” of fans who weren’t the diehards.

For the last few albums, the music has come from a specific personal place the band was at while write, whether it be a spiritual journey with Vessel or tackling insecurities on Blurryface. Josh says the same remains true with Trench, but notes that there will be a little more fleshing out themes by working on a specific story with this one (he still says it’s not really a concept album, but ok).

Believe it or not, we are not done. While the boys were blazing a brave new path forward, another bit of content reminded us of where the band came from. Greg Wells, the producer who made Vessel the masterpiece it was, gave an hour-long interview to Billboard’s Pop Shop Podcast. He mainly speaks about getting started in the industry back in the 90s and working on the mega-blockbuster Greatest Showman soundtrack, but he does talk about Vessel for a bit approximately forty minutes into the interview. I won’t give the exact time-code, not because I’m lazy, but because the entire interview is worth listening to. Greg just seems like a rad dude. His laid-back nature and the seriousness he takes with his craft really shine through; he and Tyler must have gotten along just fine.

Community Spotlight:

The Clique took some heavy losses over the last year, as a great deal of old fans moved on to greener pastures. But that just left room for a whole host of new fans to rise to the occasion and help us get through that long drought. Today, I wanted to give a shout-out to GingerSheep and Stolen Potential, two Clique vloggers that have really kept the fanbase informed and uplifted and have been working their butts off reporting on the daily content. I know how long it takes me just to research and write one of these- I can’t imagine the work that then goes into filming and editing on top of that nearly every day. Hats off to you, good sirs. Make sure you all check out their channels if you haven’t already! But, you know, don’t stop reading these. I have bills to pay with all the Tumblr money I’m not making.

Well, that wasn’t too much, was it? If you made it all the way to the end, mad props. See you next week for a slightly tamer week (probably).

Power to the local dreamer.

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#twenty one pilots #tyler joseph #josh dun #trench #jumpsuit #bandito tour #nico and the niners #hiatus #dema #top weekly update