#one path takes you to an awkward shutdown

[kisskissbanggang]

Jumpspace Renegade - ep. 2 ✨🚀

[2.2k words, 10 min. read - Stray Kids Multi Fic, Scifi!au, Choose Your Own Adventure - SFW/Smut in Later Chapters - Meeting the Gang, Shady Characters, Hiding from the Cops, Different Levels of Asshole, Always Check the Tags]

[Episodes on Fridays 7pm pst, Polling closes Saturdays 7pm pst]

[Series Masterlist | Come Say Hi!]

“Dammit,” you cursed under your breath in the cargo hold. Your boots were clunking on the iron floor of the haggard frigate just a bit too loudly for your liking. There were plenty of reasons you should've gone with different shoes, in hindsight. 

As an experimental manufactured planet, T’kaarm ran on a scaled up version of electromagnetic gravity commonly used on government and military crafts. In fact, if a tourist were to take one of those overpriced tours under the planet’s crust, where the electromagnetic plates rested, they’d get a taste of the peculiar sensation of suddenly being pulled in the opposite direction that they’d just been standing. All your clothes were lined with dainty metallic fibers. Every piece of jewelry you owned was Core-Safe, which was hilarious on T’kaarm as, again, the plates weren’t even in the planet’s core. Everything was made to pull you down to the surface, just enough. 

The steel plates were the current reason for your regret regarding the dumb boots. You should've thrown them out weeks before, when the plate on your right sole finally got exposed through the wearing rubber. A nasty zap from a faulty threshold on a commuter rail finally knocked some sense into you, and they’d been laying abandoned by your front door for weeks. 

Until today, when Klave had notified you it was time for your biweekly check-in. Except you knew it was a week early. And you knew that your employer for your last gig sold you out. 

You untied the stupid boots and tiptoed out of them – or as much as you could, now that you were bouncing a bit. There was just enough metal in your clothes, your bag, your jewelry, the fillings in your teeth to confidently hold you an inch above the floor. 

It was hard to see in the dark cargo hold, but this was fine. This was great cover, all things considered. You carefully shuffled around a maze of boxes, crates, and trunks, hoping to find enough of an opening to duck down into. 

“Looking for anything in particular?” came a sudden voice cutting through the dark. 

You damn near jumped out of your skin, whirling around to face the intruding sound. No apparent luck, but you did finally get a somewhat better idea of your bearings. Your fingers were curled around the spaced apart bars of a cargo cage to stop your momentum, likely against the starboard side of the hull since you entered the rear of the craft and veered right. But were you inside the cage, or out?

A single, red light illuminated an alarm button on the short ceiling. It dimly silhouetted the speaker in the dark. 

“Well?” the stranger continued. You could see his head cock curiously to one side, looking almost sarcastic given his bored tone. 

You let up a reluctant sigh. “Okay. I'm sorry for crashing, but I just need to lay low–”

“Why?” the man interrupted. “Are you wanted?”

“You could say that,” you impatiently answered. Your fingertips nervously fiddled with the raised lettering on your bag, slung down off your shoulder and resting in the crook of your arm. Supernova Hospitality. Once upon a time, you'd worked for one of those silly hotels that offered those silly tours under the planet’s surface, long before you learned how to make better money. Long before you went to jail. Long before you were saddled with Klave. 

Piping lined the low ceiling, and the man grabbed on to lean forward attentively. It was still your turn to talk, apparently. 

“Look, I can just leave,” you offered, “but if you let me stay, I’ll pay you–”

You were interrupted again, this time with an incredulous laugh. “Pay? With what money? You can’t even afford shoes, hun.”

First you wondered how he could tell with how dark it was in here. Then you were wondering where he got off calling you ‘hun.’

But you didn't get a chance to pursue either of these things, because the asshole nonchalantly reached over and pushed the alarm button. 

The lights flashed on at the same time a serious buzzer echoed through the spacecraft. 

Your ass hit the floor and bounced before you even knew you fell. 

“What the fuck, dude–?!” you sputtered. You spied a trunk stacked on top of a couple crates, leaving just enough room for you to crawl under when you heard footsteps coming down the stairs from the main floor. 

“Just seeing how good you are at hiding with the lights on, little stowaway,” the guy snickered. Now that you got a better look at him, you were surprised to find he wasn't more intimidating in terms of looks. Cropped, dark brown hair hung down in a shaggy fringe in front of his almond shaped eyes. Perfect nose, cute, thin lips curled into a shit-eating smirk – he was actually handsome, an unexpected feat for a dick like this. And he wasn't just resting both arms at the same time by leaning on the overhead pipe; he was handcuffed. 

Mercenaries with a cuffed guy in the cargo hold? 

Oh, fuck.

That meant–

The commotion in the stairwell spilled into the room. A few pairs of boots and sneakers stepped in front of your vision, and you strained to see past them. 

“I warned you about touching that fucking button, Lee,” a new disembodied voice threatened from somewhere behind you. 

Cuffs dismissively shrugged and gestured both his hands in your direction, all silent. 

One pair of legs spun to look towards wherever he’d pointed, and suddenly one guy ducked down to see you under the trunk. Cute round doe eyes blinked at you, or at least the one that wasn't obscured by an eyepatch. You and Eyepatch wordlessly stared each other down. There was a pathetic, silent plea in your expression, you could just tell.

And he held your gaze while he waved everyone over. “Hey, guys– OW!”

You kicked Eyepatch right in the shin and tried to wriggle out from under the trunk, but another body blocked you. A shock of red and black hair entered your vision first. He didn’t say anything, to you or his cohorts. He only curiously arched an eyebrow at you. You were ready to punch him right in his pierced nose when there was a banging knock on the sub-hatch door. 

Humorously, you weren’t the only one who filled with dread, by the looks of it. All the men stood, warily regarding the door and hesitating until there was another knock, this time with a yell accompanying. Nose Ring’s hand hovered over the hilt of a knife clipped into his trouser pocket. 

“Open up! T’kaarm Port Authority!”

Klave, obviously.

Nose Ring glanced down at you and back at the door, his jaw firm like he was grinding his teeth in thought. He glanced at you again.

“Jeongin, open the door.”

So he was the voice barking at Cuffs when the crew came crashing in. 

More light spilled into the cargo hold, causing the men to squint for a second. From your vantage point, you could only see Eyepatch, Cuffs, and Nose Ring. Cuffs had boredly moved to sit on a bench in the back of the makeshift brig.

“Greetings, gentlemen, I’ll make this quick.” God you hated Klave. “This is your Slipdock?”

You knew he was referencing the giant freighter parked on top of them. 

“Funniest thing,” Eyepatch nervously chuckled. “We were here first and the big bastard dropped down on top of us. You can check the quartermaster–”

“No, that's fine. And your Captain…?”

Nose gave a curt raise of his hand, really only gesturing with a couple fingers. “Bang,” he cautiously supplied. “First name Chan.” You could hear Klave or the cops behind him messing with a scanner. A blue scan grid flashed onto the Captain’s face for a second.

“Good, good. And your first mate?”

Eyepatch looked at Captain Bang first before raising his hand as well. “Han? Jisung– ah fuck!” The first mate cursed when the flash of the scan grid left him blinking.

Without asking or warning, the scan grid hit Cuff’s face as well, getting an annoyed grimace out of him.

“Lee? Minho Lee?”

Cuffs reluctantly nodded.

“Captain, you’re authorized to deliver outlaws?”

“Yeah,” Chan impatiently answered while he felt his pockets, “of course we are. Ji, do you have–”

“What? No, hold on–” Jisung quietly stalled, somewhat panicked. “That shit’s back on the bridge, I–”

Another pair of boots suddenly entered, stopping right beside Chan.

“Thank you, Seungmin,” Jisung hurriedly whispered before piling everything that was in his hands into Chan’s hands. Chan quickly reviewed everything before handing them back to Jisung to pass to Klave.

“Clearances, authorizations, and passes, officers,” he plainly explained.

“Thank you, Captain. And your final port?”

“Victory Meridian in Daedalus,” Chan answered with a nod towards Minho. “To drop off the cargo.”

“Perfect, Captain,” Klave praised. What a kiss-ass. “One last thing… Have you happened to have taken care of any attempted stowaways, maybe an outlaw trying to seek refuge?”

All three men in your sight line glanced at you and you vehemently shook your head from where you were hidden under the trunk. Minho and Jisung both looked at Chan next, but Chan was still looking at you. 

And you realized what it was. On your wrist closest to him, you knew the scar from your implanted inmate chip was visible. They injected ink into the cauterizer so it'd leave a tattoo, a little metallic logo for the port authority. 

Chan had a similar mark on his wrist. So did Jisung. 

The glare you shared with Chan felt like hours instead of seconds before he finally looked up, pretending to have just been looking at his watch instead. 

“No, officer,” he shook his head, “now, I'm sorry to be rude but do you mind? We have to make our boost time.”

“Captain, are you sure? There were reported sightings–”

“Officer,” Chan calmly interrupted. He pulled out a wad of folded paper credits. “I actually don't remember if we paid our gate fee already. Would you be so gracious as to check with the quartermaster for me?” 

The Captain handed the credits to Jisung to pass along. 

“My pleasure, Captain,” Klave gushed. “I’ll report back shortly–”

You were stunned that it’d been so easy. This was the last you’d ever hear of Klave, thankfully, as the door was shut in his face. You finally shambled out from under the trunk in the cargo hold, still bouncing on your tiptoes. There were a few new faces now. A couple of the men sat on crates near the stairwell, inspecting your boots. 

Jisung amusedly pushed your shoulder down, watching you bounce right back up. 

“Hey, thank you guys,” you offered sincerely. 

“Cute,” Jisung smirked, still distracted by your bobbing, “like a little ghost. She coming up with us?”

Chan also bopped you down a couple times before grabbing your shoulder. He beeped open the cargo cage and shoved you inside before you even had a chance to protest. “Nah,” he casually decided. 

“What?!” you protested, grabbing the bars. “You’re leaving me here?!”

“We gotta see if there’s a pretty price on your head,” Chan explained. “No hard feelings, I hope. Now what's your name?”

One of your hands relinquished the bars to reshoulder your bag. You nervously fiddled with the raised letters again. 

“... Nova,” you answered. 

“Hyunjin?” Chan called over his shoulder. One of the men, a tall, slender blonde, stepped forward. He drew out a small pocket scanner and focused the beam on your face before he also noticed your inmate mark and got that, too. Hyunjin looked at the scanner data. 

“Yeah, that's not your name,” he boredly shook his head while he read. “But I like it. You've got a lot of pages in here…”

“Jisung,” nagged a voice at the stairs. A bespectacled man was poking his head in the doorway. “The gate agent is on my ass–”

“In a minute, Seungmin, god!” Jisung rolled his eyes, dragging his feet on his way to the stairs. 

“You’re keeping me in here until Victory Meridian?” you frantically asked the captain. He was reading over Hyunjin’s shoulder. 

“Just until we make sure you're not worth anything,” Hyunjin answered, still reading his scanner as well. “You’ll probably be out before the end of the day cycle.”

“Sounds about right,” Chan ruled. He looked between you and Minho. “Play nice. Don’t touch that fucking button again.”

And just like that, Chan, Hyunjin, and the rest of the men cleared out. 

You were alone with Minho, a bounty you knew nothing about, and nothing to firmly anchor you to the ground. Your boots were still out in the cargo hold proper. 

And the lights went back out. 

The ship rumbled to life around you. 

A couple strips of work lights blinked on, but that was it. 

“The pilot called you a little ghost but you remind me more of a little bird,” Minho chuckled to himself. 

You considered your response.

There was always the silent route, maybe bore him into leaving you alone or divulging something valuable. 

Or there was always the option of trying to be friendly, maybe make one alliance since it was available. 

There was, however, the risk that silence could come across as taunting or antagonistic. But, then again, talking could appear disingenuous, maybe even cloying. 

#stray kids fanfic #stray kids smut #skz fanfic #skz smut #skz scenarios #SPOILERS #ALWAYS CHECK THE TAGS #one path takes you to an awkward shutdown #the other takes you to an excitingly stressful game of chicken

[topplaystationgames]

The Best Multiplayer Racing Games

The most stunning night of gaming is the ones that allow players to play in multiplayer. You, as we do have many stories from your friends where multiplayer played a role in making the difference between a pleasant evening and one that was truly extraordinary. In terms of the races involved, the sense of joy that comes from multiplayer is the most enjoyable. They all differ in terms of enjoyment competition, and overall gameplay. If you're looking to test your peers and enjoy playing some competitive racing throughout These racing games for multiplayer are the ones to take a look at.

F1 22

Pirelli Hot Laps will be at certain times throughout the season, allowing you to take to the track in a supercar to tackle a challenge. The fun story mode of last year has gone away and we now have the opportunity to be an F1 star with luxury cars and awkward watches. This might be a mixing issue however when we are in Cinematic" mode, we don't hear the same sound an F1 crowd makes when there is a pass of the lead or major incident. It is a good idea, however, it's a bit lacking. one driver in the 2021 leaderboard, my early top-level time of 1:19.

the track acclimatization program is now more visually appealing and, in the fuel management program, a smart new graphic illustrates the lightness of your right foot. It's an error of judgment quite a few other racing-based game titles make, but it is one that this video game avoids. For no reason at all the cars are a bit sloppy when measured up to the purpose-built open-wheelers that represent the top of F1 technology, however, they provide a sense that they are fast, responsive, and weigh in comparison to their counterparts in other racers. The Supercars are unlocked only by playtime, in almost any mode, and not microtransactions.

The title's technical features are upgraded to astonishing levels of performance, but unfortunately, the impression is that the changes made by FIA in real-world conditions haven't been translated well to the digital world. F1 Life's virtual avatar can be purchased with Bitcoin (yuck) which is a videogame-specific currency that you may exchange for real money, though the videogame does give you the currency free money however, at the very least there aren't any random loot boxes. The automobiles operate identically as in 2021, regardless of the new rules. All of these things are leading experienced in My Team, F1 22's career mode that is getting more and more enjoyable each year.

"My Team" returns and lets you construct the creation of a brand new F1 team from scratch, acting as team principal, owner and driver at once, doing sets from driving, to allowing the second driver sim time. Yep, for only the second time, this videogame allows you to collect and display supercars. So, speaking as an avid fan of the series with hundreds of hours of playtime in every game title, and a persistent fantasy of expanded lifestyle elements, F1 Life is a bit of a bust for me. Both career paths contain a lot of details and customization options F1 enthusiasts will love to the max, however, the wealth of details which are sections of both could prove overwhelming and a lot to put up with for those of you interested in simpler (and simpler) career mode adventure.

If you're wearing headphones, hearing these monstrous cars roar around you while you're barely able to look out of the rain is an incredibly terrifying experience, particularly when you're in an important race. In the past few months, I have got spent much of my watching vehicle racing video gaming. F1 22 is compared across PS5, Xbox Series, and PC as well as comparisons to last year's Series entry. Comment: In the My Team career mode, in the Facilities tab, you can find the Shutdown Facility button which prevents it from generating costs. You will need to participate in online competitions and video game titles and likewise a career for two players.

Gearclub Unlimited 2 - Ultimate Edition

Today we play a not-so-very bad and not very good vehicle racing game title. Gear Club Unlimited 2 provides much more than 50 licensed vehicles from various. However, that is not all. There is a total of seven workshops that offer upgrades and customization alternatives for your car including engines, gearboxes, custom parts including paint and sticker work, and body, tire, and brakes. When you realize that this is an adaption of a Nintendo Switch game title, you end up appreciating a few of the provides that it has in comparison to other race videogames on Steam. You could enter one-off exhibition events which reward higher prize sums and allow you to upgrade your car.

but always in a prestigious car! All of what I may have said is true. Personally, however, I think Microids along with Eden videogames would be regretting the launch of Unlimited 2 on Xbox, for it doesn't come anywhere near to matching the record-setting title in the kind. Unlimited 2 Ultimate Edition Ultimate Edition is a shoddy version that is glitchy and a port of a video game that already had problems with the Switch. Le Man's mode with tire deterioration and fuel consumption (even even though tire wear seemed somewhat exaggerated to me). Why, you then get accused of being a shill or advised you have very poor standards, often by those who shill some garbage mobile game title, of course.

The second game (the other is The Crew 2) includes the Porsche and RUF vehicles, and it includes a track racing specifically oriented expansion where you need to manage fuel and tire wear. Indeed, the video game is not astonishing in the slightest, but it is charming, full of content, and free of any live service issues that are present in the latest version of Forza Horizon. However, the music, scenery, and overall environment of this game title make it extremely enjoyable. Local multiplayer was my favorite mode and is one feature that is well-suited to the Switch.

Explore the Porsche Series and drive legendary Porsche cars such as the 911 930 Turbo, and drive iconic endurance vehicles such as the Ford GT40 MK I Gulf regarding the official 24H Le Man's racetrack into the Endurance Championship… The handling was a bit to have used to (I have all assists switched completely off) since at first, my JCW mini was going sideways at 60mph, but I was able to get a finer touch on the steering wheel, and then turn about one gear higher than I had thought was needed (driving manual transmission). It is an arcade racer with a few cosmetic and upgrading enhancements.

It was rough on the edges and theoretically, the sequel could allow for smoothing out. The likes of which we haven't witnessed ever since Ridge Racer on PS1. High-quality graphics, enjoyable gameplay, as well as split-screen support make it worth playing. Overall there's no reason to not go with the Ultimate Edition of "Gear. You can find plenty of races to take part in and there are a little over 250 races to keep you entertained for a long time, but for the many weeks to come. The visuals are breathtaking and the loading times are seconds and the video game title runs more smoothly than the switch.

MotoGP 22

Alongside the MotoGP video game players can furthermore try their hand at junior formulas in MotoGP 2. It doesn't diminish the excitement the opposite is true. This bike-sense is critical, mainly because even a practiced sim-racer lover might have to retrain their brain to prepare for Moto GP 22. When you are in multiplayer, it is possible to able to utilize LAN or the internet, or split-screen. I am not even halfway through the season yet, but vehicle racing games already seem to be at their peak. It seriously feels as though any sports video game title without such a feature is going to be lacking from here on, it is just an absolute delight and has now elevated MotoGP 22 from one associated with the top racing video game titles of the year, to certainly one of my favorite games of the year full stop.

The overall improvement in comparison to days gone by might seem less than you would expect However, fans of MotoGP will surely enjoy MotoGP 22. MotoGP 22 will offer every single rider in all MotoGP leagues as well as all of the tracks on the calendar. Modern MotoGP is in a glorious era. What a year is actually for MotoGP fans. Stunt Mode lets you earn points through stunts and clearing track sections within set time frames. It is impossible to change the duration of the map in career mode. In real life, your MotoGP team will have feeder outfits in Moto2 and 3.

For the casual racer interested in an instant post-work event to blow off some stress, MotoGP 22 is not especially accommodating. If you are still a mess, there are plenty of in-video game assistance options to experiment with that are which are mechanically adjusted, but don't expect the same amount of nerdiness from RiMS After you've been racing on the track equally, there is the now standard ability to rewind the sequence and correct mistakes. Overall. Other than the top riders such as Valentino Rossi, Max Biaggi, and some others the video game players could race as the greater part of the MotoGP riders of 2002.

The new edition covering the official MotoGP videogame has exclusive presents which are worthy of beginners and avid racers who love two-wheeled racing. Meanwhile, the split screen feature that is available with this season's edition will provide gamers with the chance to have a child or household member be part of the game title and is an enjoyable feature to be able to. If you are a fan of MotoGP, MotoGP 22 is a fantastic entry into the series that can do all you would think it would and more. Milestone is repeat offenders for bringing out a new videogame, and the actual only real changes are the new menu's load screens, HUD menus for the bikes, and the costumes for team members and riders. Nine Season is a fantastic introduction to the world of MotoGP for those who are new to the sport and an awesome option to relive history for old-school and new-school fans alike. Every one of the racers, tracks, and brands that you'd like to see are present as well as completing challenges to develop your bike adds an extra feeling of progression to the single-player adventure.

RIDE 4

The intricate details of the entire bikes themselves and the tinkering you might do using them is a testament to the fact that. It is the best thing though that you don't have to be concerned about the tires you choose when racing, you can do all of it on-the-fly while on the race track. It's just a little rough in spots with some tests staying with zero tolerance. And speaking of which, Ride 4 adds accurate wear of tires and fuel consumption, mainly for said endurance races. Extend. Three types of races are Time Trials and Single Races. multi-dimensional tournaments in the career mode keep it interesting even with a few tedious tests that slow things down.

But I have covered the visuals of career mode handling, multiplayer AI, and other aspects. This is a practical joke. Take a journey that is unlike any other on the most stunning tracks of the world and experience every second of this journey. It was a blast. It's a racing simulator. Milestone has honestly stepped up the ante with RIDE 4. Experience the thrill of a pro driver and discover a brand new and completely redesigned Career Mode featuring the essential exciting progression to date. World League. The video game title provided the same overall gameplay experience but was made for the modern platform.

MXGP 2020. Needless to say, after doing these games for several years there's some sort of norm for the visuals of this type of video game that the majority can meet. Improving from animal cruelty-inducing levels is not an award together with the job isn't without some grueling time-trials and other events within the course, but it's an excellent decision. It is not noticeable, and both games run smoothly and with MotoGP 21 being less prone to stumble. You place anything regarding the top and it will be telegraphed to the subframe's underside cover. I began playing the game in 2022 so I'm not certain what it was like before the update and I'm able to say that its very difficult in its present condition.

Some games let you sit at the wheel, and others let you manage the motorcycle from a distance. Online, the overall game does not break any rules either. This dilemma is largely resolved in RIDE 4 and results in a small number of race-ending crashes entirely attributable to the impressive AI. You will find a complete of eleven stadiums and seventeen tracks to race through. Two-wheel enthusiasts have additional reasons why you should smile as a result of another release of bike racing by the renowned Italian engineering team Milestone. The RIDE 4 series has always produced quality experiences for its video game players, and that is the same this time. The racing and action at the race track are truly an artwork that is in motion.

As stated, the video game title showcases a little over just motorcycles as gamers can quickly transform from a car into a plane, boat, or motorcycle. As a person who works together with their hands frequently and wants to know how things work/make them accelerate racing video games seriously get me going. It pushes time for you to learn how exactly to stand and for its bones to get strong. With next-generation consoles right just about to happen, you receive the impression that Milestone has put all of the effort to help make the latest entry in the franchise shine. The fully fleshed-out career mode, with options at the top of the list and, will delight enthusiasts to do multiple playthroughs.

Riders Republic

If the winner was first it would be interesting to observe how other gamers reach the line of finish, particularly when it is a match within their team, and with the option of switching the watched player rather than checking the rating screen, there's nothing to see. The map is equally downright filled with other activities to take part in as well, whether it is the hunt for collectibles, lovely sights to see or natural events to realize like hidden stunts - certain of them require video game players to perform insane tasks like clearing an impossibly large gap or riding a tiny steel beam across the width of a canyon.

Most fun I may probably have had in a game in quite a few years. You will be amazed by the images, a massive map with indescribable beauty and the videogame makes you experience enthralled from the first seconds. You most likely will not have much fun in Riders Republic either until they complete the game title and address all of these problems….. We are truly impressed with how good the game title is at this point. Descent on a mountain bike with death-defying angles, especially in first-person, is exhilarating as well as crashing outside of a multiplayer event is almost unnoticeable due to the rewind mechanism.

From bicycles to rocket gliders, and snowboards to operating on the ground… The Riders Republic is a varied extreme sports venue that's engaging and easy to navigate. Combining this dual-setting of national parks and rogue celebrations is a gaming suite that only brings the leading. Completed activities and participation in multiplayer game titles earn you stars, which are utilized to gain access to new career paths, increase your sponsorship deals and allow you to gain usage of more prestigious (and ridiculous) events. The graphics are several of the most impressive on the PlayStation 5 at the moment and it offers a decent change from current-gen to next-gen.

In the space of two days, I'm enjoying it immensely The skiing is a great time, the biking is a fantastic addition, and the environment is so vibrant yet realistic. There are moreover some "floating" mechanics every once in a while that rips you away from the awe of your surroundings, and some awkward checkpoints to be struck that might be improved during an update. You can have more organized adventures by forming groups along with other video game players and going from event to event together which makes this an extremely connected experience.

There is certainly some real potential in this game title, but it's hindered by a handful of serious problems however none of them stood out more than the horrible controls and I also mean horrible. A significant improvement over Steep due to Steep's Mass Races therefore the new bicycle racing, however, Ubisoft Annecy has still got plenty of strive to do if it wants to rise to the top of the line of gaming. Do not think too much, just keep nodding in addition to the X-videogames bros and winning stars. It's partly because you may fast get to any event listed on the map and be used there near instantaneously, and some of it is due to the ability to switch between different disciplines at a moment's notice. Some of the brilliance could be familiar to players of Steep which was a similar free-for-all extreme sports videogame on the foundation of which the Riders Republic is built.

TT Isle of Man Ride on the Edge 2

Third-person cameras are best for navigating the windy tracks however if you can get comfortable with the onboard cameras, then you're a true TT player as the game becomes a completely unusual creature. The high-speed, muffled wind noise that is accompanied by the splattered and fly-sprayed windshield produces home exactly how terrifying the particular event must certainly be. It is not surprising that the majority of opposition elect to wear the well-known Manx pants for the happening - an adult-sized diaper designed for astronauts, which shields their specific leathers from traveling by air clagnuts for all the time of the race.

Similar to rally events on four wheels, an excellent proportion covering the job races which will lead to the final, infamous Isle of Man 'Snaefell Mountain Course' are run against the clock. You can see various other cyclists during the happenings yet it's mostly a solo event which is not necessarily a problem once the standard of concentration wanted is insistent. Whenever you do come upon some other riders, these are generally nothing more than drones that surface for being trained to follow the course in varying degrees of competence.

The single-player career mode has a wide array of varied circuits from Wales, Great Britain, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Ireland when you look at the run-up to the 37-mile finale, which is a biggie in its own right. You'll find plenty of fun to be had on these tracks that are fictional and they will have now been lavished with nearly identical details since the important situation. The role competitions vary in duration from five to six moments, up to a quarter-hour relating to the longer tracks and those aren't too long and can be quite boring. One tour of the Isle of Man mountain circuit can take around 25 minutes though it is important to ensure that you will be wearing max-style pants' and are generally sufficiently hydrated before beginning.

Alongside the brand fresh new tracks, there's the new option of free roam that includes all Irish tracks and threads all of them altogether. Conflicts pop up in this jumble of streets in the career mode permitting one to attempt face-off events as well as time trials and assorted additional tests of strength on roads that are similarly as punishing as Snaefell.

In addition to the challenging and fun solo-playing career, there's an online multiplayer option that claims it can be great if the servers are filled with. On top of it, solo cyclists can enjoy the free-roam time trial, and challenges. There is no doubt that Kylotonn will release some DLC shortly, just like they did with all the former put out. The return of sidecars, as well as the vintage bikes dating back to 1907, should do the trick.

Despite the positive energy moving straight from the game title, it does still an obscure sport that has an uninspiring learning curve crafted in a rather boring front. For those who can see beyond these initial hurdles, you will be compensated with an attractive and enjoyable street racing on two wheels that offers dividends when you've got a feel for the handling.

An amazing recreation of Superbike road racing wrapped up with some appetizing audio/visuals which correctly encapsulate the strict quickness and terror covering the Isle of male TT. It's a vast improvement over the original game and worth the full time required to master the demanding maneuvering.

After a few yrs ever since the preliminary game title was announced, TT Isle of Man - Ride from the Edge 2 is truly here with a new look and Kylotonn has created huge improvements in certain locations. While it's nevertheless within the development compared to the previous race series WRC 9, that Kylotonn offers a boost over quite a few seasons, TT2 is very a worthy substitute to the two-wheeled race. This time around, Kylotonn provides a revamped career mode with an array of content that you can explore and a variety of cycle customizations during experience progress. There's enough new content that this update is worthwhile for existing players, and those who are new to the sport can easily go in and pick up the game mechanics fast adequate to start having enjoyment.

For some background For a bit of background, the Tourist Trophy is very an annual event that centers around a renowned but special race that occurs on a tiny island between Ireland and Great Britain The Isle of Man. But the most important claim around this event is the fact that it's viewed as quite possibly the most harmful competition around the globe and shows sadly reported the lives of countless competitors throughout the many years. This race is the one that Kylotonn has chosen to take to the electronic age range, via the very first name that was published in 2018. Then, just a few years later on - TT Isle of Man - Ride around the Edge 2 is a more refined version of the previous version, and includes essential improvements made in the career mode to make the action more enjoyable and challenging.

The introduction tutorial is a fantastic and easy approach to moving in and learning the fundamentals which are essential to start racing and participating in races. In contrast to the majority of bike-racing titles in the market, TT2 persists in the direction of being an arcade racing game, featuring incredibly fast and smooth cycle turns. It is quite different from games like Ride 4, which is focused on being a very realistic bike simulator. Not too there is certainly an issue with TT2 being more of an arcade. The camera is a third-person view, and the motorcycles sense a bit absorbed from the cam's viewpoint. The camera is generally thought of as being 'anchored' within the automobile in many racing games however here, it is afloat behind the bike, not knowing associated with it - this is evident in the marked turns, or receiving corners at high speed.

These arcade-style mechanics work perfectly with TT2 - the motorbikes here are generally speedy, as well as the speed that they can achieve from the long and winding roads is truly terrifying. The Snaefell Mountain Course is the main event of the year that is the main event in the title build-up to your crucial and damaging race that is where legends are made. The track is a challenge that requires the perseverance and focus of a pro racer and additionally that may not necessarily suffice. A single mistake or ill-timed choice can dash any hopes of pulling out the top prize and send many participants back once again to the start line. Learning how to maneuver the bike across the circuit is truthfully made easier with the useful on-road guide which is color-coordinated so that it can indicate when it is time to slow down before a turn, and after to begin accelerating when emerging from the corner. As expected these are just guides and must not be regarded as gospel, as adhering to these guidelines can cause some tense challenging, difficult, or dangerous situations that could lead to the motorcyclist acquiring badly dragged the actual track.

#TT2 #motorcyclist #TT Isle of Man Ride on the Edge 2 #The Best Multiplayer Racing Games #F1 22 #Gearclub Unlimited 2 - Ultimate Edition #MotoGP 22 #RIDE 4 #riders republic #cars

[intheticklecloset]

A Good Tickling (My Hero Academia)

Primary Universe

This one is a direct sequel to “Wardrobe Malfunction,” as requested above. It’s also officially the longest fic I’ve ever written for any fandom, clocking in at 3,000+ words, so buckle up! I really had fun delving into this one and exploring Kirishima and Bakugou’s friendship on a bit of a deeper level while still turning it into a tickle fic by the end. I sincerely hope you enjoy! <3

6: “You want me to tickle you that bad?”

25: “Let’s see how long you can go without laughing.”

8: “You can run, but you can’t hide.”

20: “Stop resisting!”

19: “I see that smile. Come on, laugh!”

25: “Let’s see how long you can go without laughing.”

You’ll notice for some of the numbered prompts I didn’t use the exact quote, but a variation thereof. This was to help prevent repetitiveness as well as maintain believable story flow. They’re still in the fic, just perhaps not word for word.

Warning: Slight angst.

~

Kirishima was quiet. Like, really quiet. Too quiet. And Bakugou was extremely aware of it.

The silence had come on gradually, over the course of a couple of weeks. At first it was just small pockets of time during which the redhead seemed to shrink in on himself for no discernable reason, but he’d soon bounce back when someone started talking to him, Bakugou included. But as time went on, those pockets of silence became entire hours, which became days by the time two weeks had gone by.

Then Bakugou noticed something even more disconcerting.

Kiri would only be silent around him.

He’d walk into a situation in which Kiri was his normal self, having a good time with their other mutual friends and classmates, and boom. Instant shutdown. It was impossible to ignore after the second time it happened that Kirishima was going silent because of his presence, and Bakugou was actually getting worried about it.

It all came to a head one night when Bakugou went downstairs for dinner, where Kiri and some others were already starting to eat. As soon as he entered the room Kiri’s face went dark and he stopped speaking, which was already bothersome to the atomic teen before the redhead then stood up, put his practically uneaten dinner in the fridge, and left the room.

That was the moment Bakugou realized he’d done something wrong. Somewhere along the line and without knowing it, he’d upset Kirishima so much that his closest friend couldn’t even stand to be in the same room as him anymore.

No, he thought. I have to fix this. So he turned right back around and followed Kirishima to his dorm room.

“It’s open,” Kiri called when Bakugou knocked, and as soon as the door was open enough for him to see who was visiting, he turned his back and didn’t say anything.

Bakugou felt awkward closing the door behind him as he entered the silent space, but he’d resolved to find out what was going on. He hated this rift that existed between them now. He wanted to close it up. To be close with Kiri again. He missed him, dang it.

For a long while words failed him. How was he supposed to approach this when he didn’t know what was wrong? Finally Bakugou cleared his throat. “Hey. Are you mad at me?”

Kiri’s shoulders slumped. “No.”

Well, that was a relief, at least. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing.”

Bull. Bakugou fought back an angry retort and said in his calmest voice, “You can run from me all you like, Kirishima, but at the end of the day you can’t hide that you’re upset with me about something. It’s written all over your face every time you look at me. So…” He sighed. “Tell me what’s wrong.”

Kiri still wouldn’t look at him. “It’s nothing. It doesn’t matter.”

“It matters to you,” Bakugou shot back, “and I don’t like that you aren’t yourself around me lately. Where’s that loud, obnoxious, spiky-haired idiot I usually hang out with?”

“I don’t know.”

Bakugou’s irritation was rising, but he used every ounce of willpower he had to fight it. He tried to think rationally. When had this all started? Not long after that day in the locker room when he called Kiri’s costume stupid. Was that it? “Is this because of what I said about your hero costume?”

Kirishima tensed, but shook his head. “No.” His voice was quieter now. “It’s not that.”

“Well, you started being really weird around me after that, so what gives?”

“It doesn’t matter.” The redhead got up from his seat at his desk and finally turned to look at him, and the look in his eyes – the upset, lost, desperate look – was like a sucker punch to the stomach to Bakugou. Guilt washed over him, and he still didn’t even know why.

“Yes, it does.” Bakugou felt something inside him soften. He dared to take a step closer. “Please, Kiri, tell me what I did wrong. I want to fix it. Whatever it is, I’m sorry.”

Kirishima seemed to have some kind of struggle within himself. He grabbed onto the back of his desk chair and gripped it so hard Bakugou thought it might splinter. Finally he muttered, “It’s just…I’ve tried everything I can think of. Nothing’s working.”

“What isn’t?”

“I’ve tried tickling you,” Kiri continued, his eyes everywhere but the blonde. “I’ve tried outing you to our friends, I’ve tried tickling you in public, teasing you in public, saying things I thought would make you angry enough to retaliate…nothing!” He shoved his chair into his desk so hard it made Bakugou jump. “And then when you finally tickle me and call it revenge, we’re in the middle of class so I can’t even enjoy it because I don’t want to get in trouble. And I try challenging you openly and still nothing!” The redhead was on a roll now that the words were finally coming. “Even Sero has tickled me nearly to death, and he almost never does that kind of thing. Everyone seems to get it. Everyone can tell when I want it. But even when I outright tell you to do your worst, you do nothing!”

Bakugou was stunned.

“Why is it,” Kiri continued, voice rising, “that all of our friends know that I love being tickled and will tickle me when I want it, but my best friend just stands there even when I’m practically begging him to destroy me? I don’t understand!”

This time, the silence was on Bakugou’s end. He had no idea what to say. He’d never seen Kiri so openly upset, and over something that could have so easily been avoided if he’d just pulled his head out of his butt long enough to see how much damage his apathy was doing.

A long minute passed before he was able to speak.

“I…” Bakugou cleared his throat. “I didn’t know…I mean, I knew you liked it, but…I didn’t realize how much…” He frowned. “You want me to tickle you that bad?”

“Ugh!” Kirishima covered his face with his hands and cried, “Yes!”

“I’m…I’m sorry.” Bakugou took another step closer. “Kiri, I’m really sorry. I didn’t realize how much it meant to you. It…it means a lot, doesn’t it?”

“It’s so stupid,” Kiri growled, but Bakugou could tell even before he turned his back again that his friend was on the verge of tears. Another sucker punch to the gut. “It’s so stupid. It’s just tickling. I shouldn’t be so upset over this, right? It’s so dumb of me.”

“Oh, heck no.” No way was Bakugou letting him go down this path with his thoughts. He strode right up to him and grabbed his shoulders, turning him around. “Do not feel bad about this. This is my fault. This isn’t because you weren’t clear enough. I knew what you were asking for and I just stood there, like you said. Like a complete and total jerk. Do not apologize for my mistakes. Let me do that. Kiri, I’m so sorry.”

Kiri said nothing, but he swallowed thickly, and Bakugou pulled him into a hug before he could think twice about it. He held the redhead close and waited, hoping that his apology would be accepted. The silence stretched on for what felt like forever. Then, finally, Kiri wrapped his arms around him, too, sighing heavily into his shoulder.

“What is it?” Bakugou asked softly, genuinely, trying not to disturb the moment. As much as he hated sentiment, he didn’t want to screw this up any more than he already had. “Why is it so important to you? I want to understand.”

“That’s just it,” Kiri mumbled in reply. “I can’t put my finger on it, exactly. It’s just…it’s so much fun, and it makes me feel good, and when it’s with my friends I know I can feel comfortable and be open about it without judgement, and even when I’m getting absolutely destroyed I know I’m safe and they’ll stop when I really need them to. But until then I can just…laugh until I can’t breathe.” The redhead pulled away from Bakugou, keeping his eyes averted. “I don’t know. It’s just so much fun. And with you, I know you’re good at tickling; I’ve heard Midoriya talk about it, I even experienced it a couple of times. And you’re my best friend, so more than anyone else I want you to tickle me into next year. So when I openly asked you to and all this time has gone by and you’ve had lots of opportunities and you didn’t, I just…” Kiri bit his lip. “I felt like maybe you really didn’t care. You act like it a lot, but this time…this time I wondered if you—”

“I care,” Bakugou said quickly, desperate to bring an end to that train of thought. “I care, Kiri, I’m just a complete jerk.” He ran a hand through his hair in frustration. “God, I really screwed things up. I’m an idiot.”

Kiri offered a weak smile. “It’s okay—”

“No it’s not okay!” Bakugou snapped. “Are you kidding me? Look how upset you are over this! How is any part of this okay? No.” He shook his head. “No. I have to fix this. I want to fix this.” He thought for a moment, then met Kiri’s eyes. “Do you still want me to?”

Kirishima stared at him. “W-What? Now?”

“Or later,” Bakugou said quickly. “If I haven’t ruined everything. But – but yeah, I’ll do it now, if you want.”

Kiri took a step back. “Talk about whiplash.”

“I know I’ve been a jerk, and I know you’re upset, but if you’re okay with it I’d much rather make you laugh right now—”

“Bakugou,” Kiri said, “I want you to tickle me. But only if you want to. Don’t do it just because you feel obligated. Do it because you mean it.”

Bakugou nodded once. “I mean it. I’ll tickle you into oblivion now, and then later I’ll do it again and again and again. I do want to make you laugh, Kiri. Really.” He dared to smirk. “But even more, I kind of want to see how much it will take for you to beg me for mercy.”

Kiri frowned. “It will take a lot. I’m not kidding about that.”

“Then bring it on.” Bakugou tackled Kirishima onto his bed, making the redhead yelp in surprise. He swung a leg over to straddle him and paused, just once. “You sure this is okay right now?”

“For the love of god, Bakugou,” Kiri groaned, “if you don’t make good on your promise right here and now I swear I will end our friendship and then end you!”

“Good enough for me.” Bakugou grinned wickedly, shoving Kiri’s arms above his head. “All right, then. When you really can’t take it anymore, tap out. Until then, I will not stop. Got it?”

“Prove it,” Kiri spat, but his eyes were hopeful.

“Keep those arms up there.” Bakugou growled, releasing his hold and sitting back. “Move them and I’ll make it worse.”

“All bark and no bite?”

“Hah.” Bakugou smirked. “One more thing. I want to make you laugh so hard you forget your own name. But before that, I want to see how long you can go without laughing. Bet you’re not going to be very good at that part.”

Kiri smirked back. “Bring it on already.”

Bakugou did, lightly trailing his fingers from Kiri’s underarms down his ribs and sides to his stomach, watching the redhead twitch a little but – surprisingly – do very well in keeping himself in control. “Hmm,” the blonde mused. “Should have had you take your shirt off. That would make this easier.”

“Want to enjoy the view?” Kiri teased. “I told you I look good in my costume as it is.”

Bakugou rolled his eyes. “Give me a break.”

“The shirt stays on. You made me wait this long. Now I’m going to make you work for it.”

“I don’t think that will be hard, considering I can just do this.” The blonde shoved his hands up under Kiri’s t-shirt and raked his nails down his ribs roughly, making Kiri choke on a startled yelp. “Giving in already?”

“No way!”

“We’ll see.”

Bakugou got to work, starting very lightly and increasing the pressure with every pass, making sure to focus on the ribs when he circled back to them each time, knowing that was Kiri’s worst spot and very likely the place that would break him and make him laugh first. Kirishima kept his arms above his head as instructed and his smile widened more and more, but he did better than Bakugou was expecting at keeping his mirth at bay.

“Dang, you’re stubborn,” the blonde muttered after a few minutes of this. “Stop resisting, already.”

“Y-You’re the o-one who wanted m-me to h-hold out,” Kiri stammered. If nothing else, he sounded close to breaking, and that was satisfying just on its own. “I’m c-c-committed n-now.”

“Well, knock it off. I see that smile, but I want to hear you laugh, spiky hair.” Bakugou decided to be a little mean and press his thumbs into Kiri’s bottom ribs, kneading gently. “Come on. Let it out.”

“Agh, n-no,” Kiri’s voice wobbled as he tried to stay in check, his grin splitting his face. He squirmed a little. “That’s cheating!”

“Oh, is it? Too bad. Playing dirty is kind of my thing when it comes to tickling. Ask Deku.”

“I k-know all about that. He’s t-t-told me how r-ruthless you ahare.”

Bakugou kneaded deeper. “Was that a giggle?”

“Ah! N-No, no!”

“It sounded like a giggle.”

“It w-w-wasn’t!”

Feeling evil, Bakugou kept up his kneading pace and began to tease. “Tickle, tickle, tickle~”

Kiri whined. “Oh, y-you so don’t p-plahay fair!”

“Now that was a giggle.”

“You s-s-suck so much--!”

Bakugou dug his fingers in deep to Kirishima’s ribcage, and with a shriek of surprise, the redhead finally broke.

“AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA YOU JEHEHEHEHEHEHERK I WAHAHAHAS DOING SO GOHOHOHOHOHOOD!!”

“Too good,” Bakugou corrected over Kiri’s laughter, impressed his friend’s arms were still above his head, albeit flailing now. “I was getting tired of you showing me up from such a helpless position. Forget resisting. It’s time to make you laugh your guts out.”

“YOHOHOHOHOHOHOU SOHOHOHOHON OF A--!!”

Bakugou slapped a hand over his mouth and tickled wildly with his other hand, enjoying the look of sheer panic that came over Kiri’s face. The redhead started to bring his arms down. “Ah-ah-ah! What did I say? Keep them up.” Kiri whined, fisting his hands into his hair while his legs kicked wildly, the sounds of his distress muffled. “Well now, this is satisfying. You look hilarious, all freaked out like that. Didn’t think I’d pull out all the stops, did you?”

Kiri screeched when Bakugou started pinching his bottom ribs.

“I mean, I suppose I could also tie you up if I really wanted to be mean. But that’s your call, and you can’t talk right now, so I’m not going to assume anything.”

Kirishima started to bring his arms down again, then settled for covering his face with them. His laughter was loud and crazy, even behind Bakugou’s palm over his mouth. The blonde smirked down at his friend, marveling at how much he seemed to enjoy this, despite the obvious ticklish distress he was in.

“You’re probably thinking, ‘I thought you said you wanted to hear me laugh? Why are you covering my mouth?’ Right?” Bakugou chuckled. “I do want to hear you laugh. But it’s so much fun to make you desperate first. You’re just dying to let it out now, aren’t you? No more holding back?”

Kirishima managed a split-second glare in the midst of his muffled hysterics before nodding frantically.

“That’s what I thought.” Bakugou finally pulled his hand away and used both hands to rake up and down Kiri’s ribs.

“SOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOMEWHEHEHEHERE ELSE!! PLEHEHEHEHEHEHEASE, PLEASE GO SOHOHOHOMEWHERE EHEHEHEHEHELSE!!”

Bakugou laughed. “What’s wrong? Can’t take it here anymore? But I want to hear you laugh, Kirishima.”

“I AHAHAHAHAHAHAM LAHAHAHAHAHAUGHING!!” Kiri screamed, his arms flailing wildly above him. “BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAKUGOU!!”

“Honestly, I’m just trying to find the technique that will make you bring your arms down to stop me,” the blonde said with a shrug. “So I can make it worse.”

Kiri’s laughter was wild already, and they were only a few minutes in. He squealed and shrieked and thrashed and kicked but – somehow – kept his arms above him the entire time. Bakugou was impressed. That had to take serious effort on his part.

Now, how to break that concentration?

He’d tried kneading, pinching, and raking – all obviously effective forms of ticklish torture. But nothing had made Kiri’s fight-or-flight instinct kick in the way he’d hoped it would. What was he missing?

“Oh, I think I know what will drive you nuts.” Bakugou laughed, suddenly leaning down to blow the longest raspberry he could manage on Kirishima’s bottom ribs. Sure enough, not a whole second had gone by before he felt Kiri’s hands grabbing at his hair frantically.

“NAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA DOHOHOHOHOHON’T DO THAHAHAHAHAHAHAT!!”

“Well, well. I told you to keep your arms up.” Bakugou smirked, grabbing Kiri’s wrists and pinning them to the mattress by his sides. “Now I’ll have to punish you.”

Kiri gasped for breath while he could, his eyes wide and cheeks pink and hair wild, but behind it all, it was obvious to Bakugou that his best friend was having the time of his life. He couldn’t believe he’d made him wait this long. Made him practically beg for something as simple as a good tickling.

“Y-You’re gonna…b-break me,” Kiri stammered between breaths of air, sounding surprised. “I w-won’t be able to…to take it at this rate!”

“That’s the idea, isn’t it? You wanted me to destroy you, right?”

Kiri beamed. “Yeah.”

“Still good to go?”

“Yeah!”

Bakugou took a big breath, then blew another raspberry. Then another, then another, then another. Then he got to work absolutely destroying Kirishima with tickle torture, digging into his underarms and sides and hips and knees and feet, but especially his ribs, until the minutes added up and added up for nearly an hour, and by the time they were done Kirishima was laughing so hard his voice was giving out and tears streamed down his cheeks and he was pounding the mattress as desperately as he could to gain some shred of mercy from the tickle monster that was Katsuki Bakugou.

And when it was all over and Bakugou finally relented, Kirishima kept giggling even without the tickling stimulation, shaking his head in disbelief and gasping for oxygen. “I c-can’t…breheheathe…”

“You asked for it,” Bakugou reminded him, but he couldn’t help but grin at the mess he’d made of his closest friend. “And I promise, the next time you ask for it, I won’t hesitate to do this to you again. And again and again. As many times as you ask for it, I’ll destroy you, Kiri.”

“W-What about…playful tickles…?”

“Those, too.” Bakugou nodded. “I swear I’ll stop being an idiot about this. You ask, I’ll answer. I promise. I won’t ever let you give me the silent treatment again. I’ll be a best friend worthy of the title.” He wanted to cringe at himself for saying it, but it was all true, and besides that, Kirishima’s response was more than worth it.

“You were already a great best friend,” the redhead replied tiredly, lifting his head off the pillow to grin at him. “This just makes you that much better. Thank you, Katsuki. Seriously.”

Bakugou swallowed, feeling a little awkward due to all the sentiment in the room. He nudged Kiri’s leg. “Thanks for putting up with me. I don’t deserve it.”

“Sure you do. You’re a little rough around the edges but you’re a cool dude, King Explosion Murder.”

Bakugou’s lips twitched. “I told you if you called me that again there would be consequences.”

“Yeah?” Kiri chuckled. He leveled a clear, challenging smirk at the blonde. “Prove it.”

#fanfiction #tickle fic #boku no hero #my hero academia #bnha #mha #katsuki #bakugou #eijirou #kirishima #angst #fighting #friendship #fluff #wholesome #tickling #ticklish #tickle

[anangelicday-mrwolf]

Wolfsbane : Noblesse Fanfic (post-ending)

(previous chapter)

Chapter 26 – Hand of Icarus

Once his decision was made, 3rd Elder could reach the rendezvous in no time.

Or rather, he managed to near the rendezvous.

Or rather, his decision was on standby for a final revision.

Here he was, to meet the Union agent whose allegiance shared the same goal as that of Helga.

However, as his destination drew closer, he could not define his own heart. He could not define his own heart’s desire.

What am I doing here?

Why am I here?

What is it that I really want?

When he was composing a list of potential cleaner running a shutdown tour of Crombell’s facilities, as requested by Lunark, he intentionally omitted Helga’s name.

He figured he would be able to plan Union’s come-back with her, if she had terminated her loyalty to Crombell (given that he would be able to reason with her to join forces).

As the orange-haired agent pointed out during their actual encounter, it has been a while since he had last donned the cloak of a Union elder.

But that did not mean he had forgotten Union’s purpose and his own identity.

When he was typing up the list in his room, he could swear he did not feel like giving up on Union at all.

However, as he was half-forced to regularly supply organic resources to Frankenstein’s island, he could feel shifts in his world, his view, and his thoughts.

Union. Elder. Modified human.

Those had long become his identities – replacements of his birth name.

As he came to walk among ordinary humans in ordinary world, however, he could feel his values melting away.

Experiment. Body modification. Apex of the world.

The very values he oh-so-dogmatically believed to be the stairway to the rise of mankind melted away like salt dipped in water.

He has scolded himself to snap out of it a number of times.

To his dismay, the dam of his heart was long cracked, and the one question that sprinkled through his broken dam ultimately flooded his entire heart.

What if......?

His body perhaps affected by a complex concoction of questions and doubts, 3rd Elder could realize a tad later that he got sidetracked, far from the point he wanted himself to be at.

He found himself in midst of busy streets, teeming with people despite the hours.

A couple that could at last make some time to enjoy a date, after endless studies and part-timing.

A group of teenagers who ditched tomorrow’s quizzes and exams just for once to have some fun.

A middle-aged man, as fatigued as he could be with overnight shifts, who was nonetheless delighted as he was heading home holding a doll that his daughter had been whining about.

Everyone was wearing those faces plastered upon every single visitor of the mart he had been just before running into Helga: etched and weathered by the weight and challenges of life, but nevertheless happy.

Their faces hinted not a chance for Union to dare butt into their lives.

No, their faces hinted that they had no need of Union in the first place.

They were just too busy and happy being faithful to their own lives.

Now that he has seen for himself yet again, the question drowning his heart raised a huge wave of distress, which caused a pregnant resonation of self-questioning with an inaudible splash.

What if......?

What if the very purpose and existence of Union are vain?

What if the Union’s objective to elevate mankind is a self-chosen blindfold to enslave itself to greed and avarice distorted from Union’s founding mission?

What if the world does not need Union any longer? What if the only thing left for Union to do is to disappear from the world?

That was when 3rd Elder violently shook his head in vicious gut reaction.

‘What are you thinking...?! You are the elder of the Union – the only elder of the Union!’

His eyes were shut so tight he could almost feel tears erupting from his eyelids.

In fact, he felt like breaking down in tears. He was terribly perplexed, addled, and confused.

Ever since he moved into Frankenstein’s island, and until he encountered Helga, he has trodden the world of ordinary people full of ordinary life.

And the said world did not let him walk without getting anything in return; it showered him with misty pieces of ordinary life.

And now he realized the ghostly downpour has become a deluge, his lower body engulfed by water heaving and boiling with ordinariness.

Now he could not tell where his heart belonged – the underwater world holding his legs fastened, or the dry and airy world above.

‘Is it too late to go back...?’

The white-haired man halted in his steps. He has never felt so hesitant, so lost.

Should I just go back to Frankenstein’s island?

Should I just pretend nothing ever happened and cross back the sea?

Should I just forget about Helga’s offer and return to my daily life?

Daily life.

That was when awkwardness hit his head like an angry rhinoceros, and 3rd Elder mockingly snickered at himself.

‘Since when did you ever get to identify an ordinary life as your daily life? You are an elder of the Union. Your daily life is nothing like those of these people. It is far from peaceful and plain, but instead full of experiments, body modification, combat, and struggle.’

His self-admonishment refreshed his memories about the reason why he ever sought Korea, and 3rd Elder started to move.

He had a slimmer of hope that once he gets to the rendezvous, reality will snap into him.

And thus he made it to the coordinates where Union had lost 8th Elder, Zarga, and Urokai.

The location looked much cleaner than the last time 3rd Elder had witnessed through a picture, perhaps because KSA ran recovery procedures in the meantime.

Though it was now basically a desolate, barren desert of concrete and cement, at least millions of years away from regaining its original features.

A perfect antipode for 3rd Elder’s heart, tossing and turning and twisting in agonized questions even a second before his arrival.

No, he was still tossing and turning and twisting and agonized questions.

He had hoped his heart will be correctly calibrated once he reaches his destination, but he still could not sort out what direction he should take.

‘If I say yes to Helga’s offer, then I...’

I what?

He retorted to himself, with no answer echoing back.

He could not figure out what was holding him back, yet he could swear that before downfall of Union, he would have made his choice without a second of delay.

Yet here he was, with the ordinary life he had seen and heard and weaved so far churning and constricting and calling him.

‘But if I give up on this opportunity, I...!’

I what? What now?

Again, there was not a syllable he could summon to spell out what was in his head.

Feeling attachment and uncertainty for both choices, 3rd Elder grit his teeth with a bony screech and clenched his fists dead-tight.

That was when a voice interrupted his reverie of pain and panic.

“I’ve been waiting for you, sir.”

He did not expect he would hear her voice, which was why he could not hide his flinch as he turned his head.

“...I had no idea you will be waiting for me.”

“For some reason, I had a feeling you will find this place today, so I opted to switch with the agent that was stationed here. And lo and behold, look what Lady Luck brought in my path. I guess she is real.”

Helga stage-rejoiced, her face visibly smug.

An indisputable sign that she was already certain he was here to take her hand.

“At last the time has come. It is time to show those insolent insects that had dared to fling a fishing net to drown the sun the meaning of retaliation! And with you on our side, we will prove without a doubt that our rise back to glory and vengeance is more than just a dream.”

Smiling fully in confidence, Helga struck out her right hand, which 3rd Elder gaped at wordlessly.

Her hand was silently but pressingly inviting him to come out of water now. It was telling him playtime is over.

Not surprisingly, he could not grab it outwardly.

He had been a buoy precariously rocking and lurching in the storm; he had yet to recover and realize what he was faced with.

Helga added in a clearer voice, perhaps because she could not detect resolution from her audience.

“You’re not going to turn my labor in this trip, my agent’s contribution in his duties, and time and effort from all the bodies and souls consisting Union into nothing, are you?”

And just like that, Helga’s words brought a gruesomely effective influence upon the man.

For he finally was given the answer for what would become of him if he were to delete Helga’s offer from his head and return to Frankenstein’s island.

He was reminded of the faithful applicants for experiments he had coordinated in the past, assigned for body modification project that was basically a suicide mission. He recalled how they nevertheless firmly believed their sacrifice will serve as basis for Union to make bigger attributes to mankind’s welfare and growth. He regretted – in fact, he is still regretting – how they had not a single chance to be appropriately rewarded for their sacrifice.

He was also reminded of his personal followers, who had run endlessly in promiseless toils for mankind, full of pure sense of responsibility and passion.

And he was reminded of how he had to struggle to shake off his own tears so he could keep forward, even as he watched with his own eyes how terrible such martyrs’ ends were.

And he will turn everything into nothing.

He will deny himself, deny them, and deny everyone if he were to turn down Helga’s offer, just because he had been dwelling in ordinary world for a few weeks.

Having finished his projection in a speed of light, 3rd Elder moved his arm and held Helga’s hand.

“Welcome back, sir. Now we will show them that the world is ours. The world belongs to Union. And we are still here. We are not fire. We are the sun. We are merely taking refuge under the horizon. We will prevail once again, and we will never fade or fall. A sun does not fade or fall.”

As he watched how Helga was piercing the air with her nose, 3rd Elder for some reason was reminded of the story of Icarus – a boy with wings forged with feathers and wax who coveted the sun’s position and was severely punished with a permanent, lethal plummet towards the nether depths of the sea.

And for some reason, he felt like he was watching Icarus inviting him with a hand to a deadly race towards the sun.

But he had already held the said hand, which already pulled him out of the waters.

Now it is too late to go back, even if it would later turn out Helga really was Icarus.

The only thing he could do was to make sure he would not let the abyss below take over him along with the owner of the hand.

But what if I’m wrong? Whispered a teeny-tiny voice in his head.

‘No. I’m being psychotic here. I mean, Icarus’s hand? Give me a break. That’s not happening. I won’t let it happen.’

Their sacrifices, our labors, and my tears are not wrong.

They are not wrong.

We are not wrong.

I am not wrong.

Hence the 3rd Elder muffled his wariness and a bit of guilt, screaming from within until the very last moment of his self-navigation of heart.

(next chapter)

I had a lot of fun writing this chapter, but at the same time I had a lot of trouble, especially with parts that describe 3rd Elder’s anguish and shifts in thoughts. I wanted to make an allusion to the story of Icarus from Greek myth, and I think I did a fair job of it lol. And thus you have seen 3rd Elder joining forces with remaining agents of the Union. Stay tuned to find out what will happen as a result!

#korean webcomic #korean webtoon #fanfic #noblesse #frankenstein #lunark #frankensteinxlunark

[cutegirlmayra]

Feelin the Shadamy feels lately, so would you care to write a story where Shadow survives the end of SA2 and goes back to Amy on the ark? Thanks for what you do!

Ugh, me too. Me too.

And thank you ;u;

Gentle reminder that Prompts are on Shutdown! Don’t send me a prompt request till they reopen! :Db

Prompt:

Tails approaches Sonic, wearily watching him gaze out the window. “Sonic?”

Sonic shakes his head down, “It was a close call.” He turns and smiles as Shadow approaches the two from behind.

“Ah! Shadow!” Tails exclaims, spinning around and not sure if he should attack him or not.

“Easy, buddy. He’s cool.” Sonic explains, somewhat, and walks over to Shadow. He playfully whacks his shoulder, “Tough job, you may have the workings of a hero in you yet, Shadow!”

“Hmph, I wasn’t created for sporting a hero’s smile.” He steps away from Sonic, dusting off the place where he touched. “All this has done for me is left me with more unresolved questions. I don’t need your gratitude, just your compliance.” he folded his arms.

“Oh? Is that so? I see.” Sonic, without skipping a beat, cheerily leaned his body a bit and folded his own arms, as though to mirror Shadow but in a more relaxed way. “Well, you’re still getting one. Thanks, Shadow!” He charmingly gave him a thumbs-up, and Tails jumped with his fist held high.

“Yeah!”

“What’s the compliance?” Knuckles and Rouge entered then, angling their bodies towards each other, but looking squarely at Shadow.

“You aren’t sayin’ you’re gonna ask for our quiet demise some other time are ya?!” Knuckles swung an arm out, but Rouge placed a hand on her hip and sharply turned her head to him.

“Enough. He’s clearly not being hostile. You are!”

“What!? You-!” Knuckles stepped toward her but she broke eye-contact and turned her cheek to him, addressing Shadow again and ignoring Knuckles’s outburst toward her.

“You were saying?”

“Wha?! Hmph!” Knuckles saw the blatant turnaround and kicked the ground as he turned away from her, walking off by Sonic.

“Only to stay out of my way…” Shadow unfolded his arms, then looked to Tails and Sonic.

Sonic nodded, closing his eyes and opening them in the process.

Shadow lowered his head, acknowledging that Sonic had heard his request and accepted it.

“I simply want answers. Nothing more.” Shadow began to walk off, moving passed Rouge as she followed him with her eyes.

“Kinda moody for an ultimate lifeform, don’t you think?” she teased, tilting her head as Tails rushed over to the center of the bunch.

“B-but! What if he tries to hurt people again! We’re just gonna forgive him like that? Q-quick! Someone put a tracker on him!” he pointed to Shadow’s direction, but Knuckles and Sonic looked to each other, then away as Sonic gave a smirk to Tails.

“Come on, Tails. He kinda did help me save the planet.” He stood beside him, comforting his worried friend.

“Y… yeah, I guess that’s true.” Tails looked to where Shadow had left, then Sonic, and then to the ground, letting the topic go.

“Besides, he’ll have to face me again if that happens! And everyone knows I’m the fastest hedgehog alive!” Sonic struck a pose, and Tails happily laughed with him.

As Shadow continued down the hallway, he looked at the battered metal with old bullet holes in it… contemplating exactly what had happened, to the best of his memory.

“If this is what you wanted, Maria,… then I’ll stop this path, and find another way to achieve the purposes you asked for.” He continued to study the area, but nothing was triggering his mind. “Whatever those may be… and however much I may not agree with it.” he shook his head, not sure if saving the earth was right, but knowing that if Maria wanted it, then he had no choice but to follow it.

“Soooniiicc!!!!” 

“Huh?” He stopped to turn around but was ambushed by the girl’s doting arms in yet another accident. “You never cease to forget to look first before jumping.”

Amy continued to smother him before realizing this texture felt a little off. “O-oh..?” Her arm felt fluff… that wasn’t right.

She also squinted her eyes to the black and red contrast on Sonic’s features… wait…

“Oh no!” she pulled away, “It’s Shadow!” she reached her arms back and quickly pattered her feet away from him. “Wait, if you survived, then Sonic must have come back too, right!?” she put her hands gratefully to her chest. “Oh, thank goodness. I was really worried about you two!”

“…You were… worried… about me?” Shadow looked a bit in shock, unable to understand that.

“Huh? Silly, of course I was! You both had me scared! When you dashed off to help Sonic save the world, I just knew you weren’t a bad guy!” she swayed a bit in her words, then pointed very sternly to Shadow. “Bad guy’s don’t say they’ll keep their promises! What was that promise you were referring to, anyway? I don’t remember asking you for anything.”

As she continued to speak, Shadow grew more… was it embarrassed?

He looked to the ground, his eyes darting around before turning away from her, gesturing to the world. “I remembered making a promise long ago to someone… your words… they brought those memories back to me.” he tightened his fist, bringing it in before his shoulders fell a bit from their rising tension, and then he nodded to Amy. “Before, I asked for no thanks… simply because I realized this was what I should have done all along. You… The thanks I received should be given back to you.”

He walked towards Amy, making her a little nervous as she looked up into his serious eyes, “Shadow…”

He placed a Chaos Emerald in her hand. Its glow and radiance looked much like the earth’s surface in hue and light…

The two stared at the emerald… before back up at each other.

“Thank you…”

“For what? Reminding you of a long lost promise? You really are kinda weird, but for that person’s sake, I’ll gladly accept your thanks.” Amy nodded, but something tugged at her heartstrings then. It didn’t really feel appropriate to have him thanking her, she didn’t feel like what she did was really the cause of his sudden change of heart.

“You’ve had that promise buried in you all this time. If anyone should give thanks, you should give it to that person you made a promise with, right?” she tilted her head cutely, and he seemed to be processing her words.

“Perhaps you’re right.” He started to think about it, before turning around and walking off.

“Oh, that reminds me.” He turned his head to look over his shoulder somewhat back at Amy, “I never did fully learn your name…”

“It’s Amy! Amy Rose!” She let out her signature vocal pattern and then waved to him. “I’ll always remember your name, Shadow! Shadow the Hero!”

“Amy…Rose… And a Hero..? You sound just like him.” He walked forward, repeating her name as he departed. “Farewell, Amy Rose. Sonic The Hedgehog… and Space Coloney Ark…” He then closed his eyes.

“Forever.”

“Huh?” Amy watched him round the corner, not sure what he meant by that…

She placed her hands over the Chaos Emerald and close to her chest as Sonic and the others came by.

“Hey, Amy. Long time no see!”

“Oh, Sonic!” She spun around, rushing into his arms. “How could you! I thought you were-! Ohhh, Sonic!” she dug herself into him, remembering that for a moment, he had almost died from a trap that exploded in space!

“W-woah! Hang on, Amy! It’s all good! Yikes! Don’t pull me so hard! Amy..!” she kept on laughing as Sonic protested little by little, but something still plagued her thoughts.

“Hey…” She pulled away, revealing the Chaos Emerald as she brought her hands forward from her chest. “Shadow gave this to me… And for saving my life back there… I’ll give it to you.”

Sonic looked down at the Chaos Emerald. He took it a moment and nodded to her. “Thank you.” then stuck it away.

“Hehe! That’s the second time someone’s thanked me today!” she chimed, as Tails walked over to her.

“What do you mean, Amy?”

“Well… Ah! That’s right! Shadow! I forgot!” She suddenly grew panicked and took off. Waving behind her, she encouraged them to not follow, “I’ve gotta make sure he gets back to earth, alright! What if he tries to use that fake Chaos Emerald!”

Knuckles suddenly jolted back in spot, “Oh no! That’s too far a distance! He’ll not make it!”

“You mean… if that’s what he was planning.” Rouge argued, “I don’t think the bloke’s stupid enough to consider that…”

“We needed the Chaos Emeralds… but maybe he thinks he can get by with Sonic’s fake Emerald?” Tails looked to Sonic.

“Either way, I’m not leaving a new friend behind!” Sonic struck a cool pose, showing his resolve as he took off. “Come on! We’ll find him! Leave no asteroid unturned!”

“Got it!” the others agreed, taking off.

As Amy searched, she gasped.

Seeing Shadow prepare an old containment pod to put him back into sleep, possibly killing him this time since he probably didn’t know exactly how to do it…

And there was a location… he was going to blast himself into space…

“No!” Amy shook her head, her face full of horror as she read the screens he had momentarily programmed to start up on its own. “Shadow, stop!”

She dashed to the pod as he approached it, grabbing his arm.

“L-…Let me go.” Shadow struggled a bit.

“Don’t do this! You belong on earth! Like the rest of us!” she wouldn’t cease, and he was somewhat confused by her odd strength.

“This must be… I’m not like anything on earth. I don’t belong there. I don’t belong here, either… You don’t understand what I am.” He tried to fight against her, but it was clear he was lenient in actually repelling her away. He didn’t want to hurt her.

“I don’t care what you are!” she shouted out, stopping him a moment from tolerating her moxie against him.

Her words shook him to his core.

“You… What?” his eyes quaked, widened by her sudden outburst.

“If what you are scares you from living a full life… then reinvent yourself!” she ducked her head down, making sure her arms were like iron bars he couldn’t escape from.

It was an awkward hold, her still gripping him from behind and him trying not to hurt her while attempting to move away and get in the pod that would make him sleep while he drifted aimlessly into space for eons and endless years.

“You… You don’t know what you’re saying. Let me go!” he tried to be a bit more forceful in his voice now, but she continued to struggle against him.

“No! This isn’t right, Shadow! What about your promise to me? Do you remember!? I have a new promise, promise you’ll stay! Promise me you’ll try and understand what you just saved! See the world for what it really is, a beautiful new home for yourself! You can be whoever you want to be on earth! No one will despise you!”

He couldn’t believe her words this time.

“That’s enough. Release me!” he was threw listening to the ramblings of a child.

“No!” She felt him using more of his strength now, his large hands finally placing themselves on her head and shoulder.

“Amy… You don’t realize what you’re saying.” She knew nothing of him. Nothing of his origin. He was a monster, that’s all he needed to know. Earth didn’t hold the answers he so desperately desired. Nothing did. It was all dead and gone… like he should be.

“I do! I know far more than you because I’ve seen earth! I know the precious lives that you’ve saved and you don’t, Shadow! You don’t know!”

“I’ve never saved any lives!” growing more frustrated, he bent his knees and began to push back against her, realizing he doubted her initial strength. His memories swarmed with Maria, the ones he could recall, anyway. “All I do is end lives… even if I don’t want too, and even if it costs me a promise!”

“Make a new one! I dare ya!” she pushed back against him, and for a moment, his feet scooted back and almost gave way at the sudden velocity of her shove.

“Ah…” He was actually kinda impressed, but quickly withdrew the thought. “I’m growing tired of this..!” he threw an arm up, whacking her back as she fell and landed on her back. “You may have swayed me before, Amy. But this isn’t something you can interfere with again!” he spoke with much more firmness in his voice now, a dark essence dripping from his tone. “If you only knew… the destruction I could cause to your precious earth… you’d let me turn into a forgotten curse.” He held his hand up, picturing the earth before lowering his hand into a shaking fist. “Leave me…” he swiped his hand back and began to load himself into the pod.

He put his arms in a similar position as when he had awoken from Eggman triggering his activation. He intertwined his fingers and let his head rest back, breathing in the fumes that would place him back into a warm, comatose state.

“Maria… Forgive me.” He closed his eyes, “I should have never been created… or you’d still be with us.”

“Preparing launch sequence.”

“Grr… ughh… GRAAAHH!!” Amy swung her Piko Piko Hammer into the pod.

It cracked the pod.

“What?” He opened his eyes and looked around, seeing the electricity spark and red lights flash on with yellow sirens spinning around.

“Containment breach. Launch in jeopardy.”

“HAAA!” Amy continued to swing into the pod.

Shadow’s eyes studied the girl, the powerful swings, the tears in her eyes..?

“Why… tears?” Then something happened, he felt an emotion pour from a heart he didn’t know he had.

With each swing, Amy’s arms would lift and he would see her. When it crashed down, he would see Maria, crying and desperately placing her hand on the containment pod.

His heart melted again, and he tightened his jaw, leaning back and kicking the pod to escape.

“Launch still imminent. No emergency code registered. 10…9…8-”

“SHADOW!” Amy cried out.

He strained against the militarized, seemingly glass surface.

“7…6….5…4…3…2-”

“You promised!” Amy cried out, her eyes like shattered pieces of a prism, shining with an endearing love for the stranger she had only just met. “Promise you will stay!”

“1.”

“…GrraAAAHHH!!! I PROMISE!” Shadow shouted out, the two’s force finally breaking the pod as it blasted out into space.

“Shadow!” Sonic and the others finally arrived, as Sonic threw the Fake Chaos Emerald, having found it slammed dunked like he remembered.

Shadow, being tossed around by the speed of which the pod was launched, finally was able to maneuver himself to grabbing the Fake Emerald.

He looked to Amy, “I’ll keep my promises… I’ll see you on earth… I’m not a bad guy, then… right, Amy?” he looked at the Fake Emerald in his hand, her image on the other side of it.

“Hmph, very well. I’m no hero, but I’ll keep my new promise to you.” He held up the Fake Emerald, “Chaos..! Control!”

It shook him to his core, but because he had far more chaos power than Sonic, the Fake Emerald was enough to send him to earth’s surface.

He fell unconscious, landing after the shining light had brought him to a beautiful forest.

The Fake Emerald rolled out of his hands, shattering from its final use, and Shadow blinked his eyes open.

The first thing he noticed was the rays from above, the sun hitting his fingers and causing light to part into shadows on the ground around him.

He tried to focus his exhausted eyes, then looked to see trees… felt grass… heard nature for the first time.

“Ma… Maria…” He barely could mouth it out, feeling his consciousness slipping away again, his eyes getting blurry as they faded in and out… he spoke one other sound…

“I see it… A-… Amy… I see what we’ve saved…”

And then, darkness… as was his fate.

#shadamy #cutegirlmayra #shadowxamy #shadamy prompt #sonic prompt #SA2 #sonic adventure 2 battle #sonic adventure 2 prompt #SA2 prompt #shadow the hedgehog #amy rose #shadow and amy

[rainsonata]

Doppelgänger 10/15

Chapter 10: Reflection  

Fandom/Pairing: Elsword; none Rating: T Word Count: 7,347 

Summary: It was like looking into a mirror. What happens when one’s reflection talks back and throws uncomfortable questions? El Search Party struggles to find entrance into the Demon Realm, but Dominator has a plan.   

Alternative Title: Dominator fucked up and now everyone meets their alternative selves   

AO3 Link / FF.NET Link

— [Chapter 01] [Chapter 02] [Chapter 03] [Chapter 04] [Chapter 05] [Chapter 06] [Chapter 07] [Chapter 08] [Chapter 09] [Chapter 10] [Chapter 11] [Chapter 12] [Chapter 13] [Chapter 14] [Chapter 15] —  

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Class Notes: 

Canon Path: Knight Emperor, Aether Sage, Daybreaker, Rage Hearts, Code: Esencia, Comet Crusader, Apsara, Empire Sword, Doom Bringer, Ishtar and Chevalier (Innocent), Bluhen   

Alternative Path: Rune Slayer, Oz Sorcerer, Anemos, Furious Blade, Code: Ultimate, Fatal Phantom, Devi, Flame Lord, Dominator, Timoria and Abysser (Catastrophe), Richter

---------------------------- 

Code: Esencia

Lines of commands flooded back into her vision, her sensors returning in response to her circuits activating. Protocols lined up, waiting to be accepted by Esencia as she ran through the mandatory scans. She let them run in the background as she prioritized assessing her environment. 

In front of her was a campfire emitting its heat, its flames being fed by Rage Hearts tossing in dried leaves and tree branches to soothe its hunger. Data flashed through Esencia’s optic lens as she filtered through the information she already knew about her teammate. Did Rage carry her back to camp? Her navigator protocol announced they were close to the entrance of a cavern called Shadow Vein. She checked her memory bank for more information but was met with distorted data. It wasn’t often that she experienced a forced shutdown. Her memory backup should be finished updating in a few minutes. 

“Eve!” Rage breathed a sigh of relief, “We were beginning to worry you wouldn’t wake up. Are you okay?”

We? There was another person, her sensors alerted her. 

“Code: Esencia. That is the name of your program, is it not?” 

Esencia turned to the sound of her program’s name, a thin airy feminine voice that called for her attention. Covered in black armor, the new Nasod presented herself with the appearance of a young woman. Resting one leg over the other, she sat beside Rage as if in the middle of a conversation before Esencia was acknowledged. A pale face marked by blue lines across the cheeks and orange eyes identical to Esencia’s. The resemblance was unmistakable. 

“You’re Eve,” Esencia stated. 

“Yes, I am.” Her alternate offered a tiny smile, “I did not expect to meet someone else that shares the same core as us.”   

Esencia stared at her own face, unwavered by the existence of the other Nasod queen. At last, they have met, no longer separated by circumstances that would have forced them to fight. Anemos had mentioned the other Eve, comparing them because humans were comfortable looking at something they were familiar with. There were similarities, but the mechanical wings extending out from her alternate’s back suggested that at some point, their paths had begun to branch out.  

“What program have you undergone?” Esencia was curious. 

“Code: Ultimate, a hidden code meant to override the limit most Nasods have.” She was just as interested in Esencia. “I see you have chosen to rely on your servants for strength. They are being repaired right now.” 

“How severe is the damage?” Esencia asked with concern. 

Not as sturdy as their queen, she was aware of the time it would take to restore her servants to fighting form. Ferdinand would take the longest because he was not meant to fight past a certain time limit and his parts were harder to find.  

“They won’t be able to move properly until Moby and Remy find the spare parts needed.” Ultimate said, “It is estimated that it will take four hours and three minutes for them to be functional again. I recommend you don’t fight until then.” 

“That is to be expected,” Esencia agreed. Her eyes flickered over to Rage, who patiently sat through their technical conversation with his human arm over his lap. “What happened after I was deactivated?”

Her datalog’s last record was the battle they had against the opposite El Search Party. Ultimate’s assistance gave little information on the outcome of that battle on whether or not the two parties had arrived at a compromise. 

“I’m not sure,” Rage shrugged. “With the party split up, there were many things going on that even I don’t understand. By the time I arrived here, both Elswords had returned and I was told that we were no longer fighting.” 

“I arrived at the same time as Rage. The information I can provide will be similar.” Ultimate said, “You arrived to camp in a battle-worn state, but most of the damage has been repaired. You are lucky your opponent is keen on minimizing the damage on you.”

Esencia didn’t think Ultimate would be one to use words like “lucky”. The irrational emotion of irritation rose again at the mention of Dominator. Bringer was not subtle in his interest in her codes, so Dominator approaching her was just as likely, but did not make it any less inconvenient in having to fight the scientist. 

“Add is not present,” Ultimate said. “You do not have to worry about talking to him. I made sure of that.”    

“How did you get to the Demon Realm?” Rage asked Ultimate. 

“Add,” a look of disdain was visible on her face. It was the most human expression Esencia had seen from the Black Queen of Destruction. “He said he knew a way to enter into the Demon Realm from Elrianode. Our Elsword encouraged him.” 

“Did he use a device that opened portals for travel?” Esencia asked. 

“Yes,” Ultimate sighed. 

Esencia nodded, “The Add from our party suggested the same thing, but he did not have the coordinates. We opted for a different method of travel.”

So Dominator and Bringer arrived at the same conclusion, except Bringer had Esencia to troubleshoot his plan. The portal device must have brought the entire El Search Party into the same dimension as them. Although Dominator had hit the wrong mark, Esencia reluctantly gave the scientist credit for arriving in a Demon Realm. Luck seemed to travel with Rune’s friends as well.  

“How did you arrive to the Demon Realm?” Ultimate wanted to know. 

“It was an accident by one of our friends,” Esencia explained. “We would have to find a new way to get back to Elrianode.”  

“We've been lucky,” Rage admitted. “I’m not sure if that will be the case next time.” 

“Was it you who brought me back to be repaired?” Esencia asked Rage, frowning when she discovered that her backup memory stopped saving up to the point where she lost her battle.  

“No.” Rage said in a quiet voice, “That was Blade, my other self. He’s nearby if you want to talk to him.”

Carved by scars running down his face, Blade was taller than average for a human male. Dressed in white, what made the swordsman stand out was not the prominent stern expression he held but the Nasod arm. Made of the same material used for Dominator’s drones, the Nasod arm was lightweight for battles but sturdy to maintain its structure and integrity to carry a blade. 

Blade sat at the edge of the cliff, observing the miles of canyons and dense forests from below, a bright palette of vibrant colors that did not exist in Elrios. The sound of gravel grated against his feet as the swordsman stood up to face Esencia and Rage. Although he was mostly human, his senses were as acute as Rage’s in ways that surprised the Nasod queen. Humans had the ability to train and condition themselves to sharpen their senses to compensate for their weaknesses. 

“Ah, you’re awake.” Blade lowered his head with an awkward smile, something humans did when they sensed discomfort from others. “I’m glad to see Eve was able to repair most of the damage.” 

“That’s to be expected,” Rage rubbed his face. “Demons will hit harder than that if we’re not careful.” 

“Is that what you’ve been doing?” Blade asked, “I can’t imagine coming here was easy.” 

They were fortunate that Apsara found the passage that led them to what the Dark Elves referred to their home as Varnimyr. It was uncertain what would be done if they have failed to enter Demon Realm based on their new objective to find the Dark El. They might have had to resort to the portal device as the other El Search Party did. 

“There were many barriers to overcome before we found an entrance into Demon Realm.” Esencia said. “Why did you spare me?”

“It doesn’t feel right not to,” Blade said. “We did what we thought would get us closer to Elsword. We wanted to slow down your progress so we could catch up, not kill you.” 

“I suppose that’s kinda my fault,” Rage grinned. “Running off with Rune makes us look like the bad guys.”

“Rune agreed to join the party,” Esencia corrected him. “He was willing to cooperate.” 

“He must trust you if that’s the case.” Blade asked, “Did he say why?” 

“No,” Esencia said. 

It did not matter to her as much as it did for others. She did not know Rune and he was not going to open to people he was not familiar with. However, Esencia understood that Blade’s question was not asked out of the need for information, but for reassurance.

“Only Rune can answer those questions,” Esencia said. “Why don’t you talk to him?”

“I went into this mission with the assumption of having to fight myself,” Blade pressed his forehead against his Nasod arm. Unlike Rage’s, it had a high resemblance to a human hand if not for the artificial covering over it. “I thought that fighting was the only option. What a fool I was. I didn’t learn from my failure in Altera.”

“All of this unnecessary fighting over a misunderstanding because we mixed up two Elswords.” Rage wore a similar expression to Blade, a prominent scowl that left a dent on his features.   

Regret was apparent from Rage’s tone, a familiar emotion Esencia sensed in many of the humans she encountered during her journey. Even Adrian, the father of Nasods, was not spared from that common emotion. Esencia did what humans did when they saw another distressed and placed her hand over his human arm. 

“Elsword would not be here if we did not encounter the other party,” Esencia said in a gentle voice. “We are no longer fighting and will find a way to help them in return.”  

“We came here to retrieve the Dark El,” Blade shook his head. “We’re not leaving until we find clues on how to stabilize the El.” 

“You too?” Rage looked at Blade in wonder, “and here I was thinking we were the only ones crazy enough to try it.” 

“Explain,” Esencia looked to Blade for further explanation. “What happened to the El in your Elrios?” 

“Our Elsword used himself as an energy source to stabilize it until we pulled him out of it,” Blade said. “We discovered that the Dark El is the El’s counterpart and may help stabilize it, which is in the Demon Realm.”

A sad smile graced upon Esencia’s lips. Her presumption was correct. It was almost identical to the dilemma the original El Search Party found themselves in, an attempt to restore the El that led them to the Demon Realm. An act of desperation that led to the opposite party overlooking a human error in search of the Dark El.  

“You’re here because of the other Add, right?” Rage asked. 

“That’s right.” Blade mumbled something about time machines and mosquitoes. He coughed when he turned to Esencia, “Thank you for taking care of Elsword. I hope he did not trouble you with his antics.” 

“Rune had many interesting stories to tell us,” Esencia said. Some she had difficulty in believing because Rune claimed he and his sister were forced to dance alongside a zombie king with a pink afro.  

“He asked why I didn’t have a shirt on,” Rage deadpanned. 

Esencia did not understand why the comment bothered Rage when he did in fact lack a shirt to cover his upper body. Much of his body heat was regulated by the Nasod arm. Wearing additional clothing was more of a preference than a need for the former mercenary. Was his embarrassment because Rune was a person he was not well-acquainted with?   

“Well, I suppose we should welcome you to the team.” Rage tilted his head back against his hands. “Our party is already as big as it is. What’s another dozen to us?” 

“Collaborating may be beneficial,” Esencia agreed. “Working together may make it easier to find a way to restore the El for both parties.”

“Unless Paradox comes back,” Rage added. “Do you know who he is?” 

“Of course, not.” Blade crossed his arms, “I wasn’t even aware of his existence until someone from your team described him to me.”  

Rage had provided Esencia with a summary of what had happened while she was deactivated and Ultimate had offered her data to store in her memory. Identified as a temporal enigma with a connection to time and space, Paradox had an inconsistent pattern in movement and fighting. It could be challenging to predict what his next move would be.  

“He’s Add,” Esencia stated. The description of Knight’s kidnapper brought her attention when she scanned the datalog Ultimate provided to her during the repairs. The six pieces floating around Paradox were magic-based and resembled the weapons Bringer used for battle.

“There’s three of them,” Blade closed his eyes. Esencia saw bags forming under his eyes. She noticed a strand of white hair poking from the side of his bangs.  

“At least there’s more of us now, so it’ll be harder for Paradox to take us down.” Rage frowned, “You alright? You look like you haven’t slept in days.” 

“It’s hard to sleep when there’s much to do,” Blade said. “We just found Elsword and need a plan.” 

“I get that, but no point in losing sleep over it.” Rage softened his expression, “You’re not the only one worried about Rune. You don’t have to carry everyone’s burden.” 

“It’s strange getting advice from myself.” Blade laughed. 

“It’s strange talking to myself,” Rage mirrored and joined in.  

“We should prioritize regrouping with our friends to discuss our next decision,” Esencia said.  

Both Ravens looked at each other before turning to the Nasod queen. 

“I would like that,” Blade smiled. 

“Sounds good to me,” Rage nodded. 

Esencia looked at the two smiling men and questioned the practicality of housing twenty-four people in shared space. While it would drive away people like Paradox, the sheer size of their team would act as a beacon for demons to see them as a threat when most of them weren’t native to the Demon Realm. Having a bigger group was going to be a change she would have to get used to. Until they find a way for Rune’s friends to get home, the extra twelve people will be their new teammates.  

---------------------------- 

Rune Master

“Come back!” Empire cried. “Elsword! No, Rune! Wait!” 

Rune went into a mad dash and sprinted ahead, refusing to look back to see if she was following him.  

After hours of waiting and doing what he could to help around the campsite, Rune volunteered to search for the missing party members trapped inside the Shadow Vein. He didn’t think they would find the exit so quickly, nor did he expect Empire to be the first to emerge from the cavern. Her knee-jerk reaction made Rune regret coming into contact with the red knight. People have compared Rune to his counterpart and have mistaken him as Knight, but she didn’t need to rub it in. He didn’t need reminders that they were supposed to be the same.    

“Are you okay?” Flame looked up from the cutting board. Abysser must have put her on lunch duty.  Setting her knife down, she looked at him with alarm and placed her hand over his forehead, “You don’t look so good.” 

“I know this is going to sound weird, but I’m hiding from the other you.” Rune caught his breath. How could he keep up with monsters in the battlefield, but have his heart pounding against this ribcage like he was asked to fight Solace again because of someone who looked like his sister?  

“The other me, what are you, oooooh.” Her lips rounded into a perfect circle and nodded in understanding. Rune was grateful for Flame not questioning the strangeness of talking about herself from another lifetime. “Gotcha. Is there anything I can do to help?” 

“Talk to me,” Rune said. He needed to talk to someone he knew to stay sane. If he saw one more person who looked like someone from his team, he was going to burst into flames. “Pretend we’re not in the wrong dimension because there are twelve people that look like us and I messed up big time.”

“Hey, don’t call it a mess up.” Flame waved her hand in disagreement, “We’re in Demon Realm! Maybe not the one we were supposed to be in, but it’s still Demon Realm. How is that a problem?” 

“The other El Search Party is trying to look for the Dark El for similar reasons as we are,” Rune explained. “We can’t just take it from them. They need it too!”

At first, Rune thought it was cool to meet people like him. It was amazing that they all shared the same passion and dreams as their counterparts, but then the sky started turning into different colors. Portals forming cracks in the sky, webbing over one another and causing headache for the rune user. El resonance levels elevated inconsistently whenever a bigger portal was formed. Was this all because of him? 

What would happen if they retrieved the Dark El instead of Knight’s friends? What would happen to Knight’s Elrios? Would their El continue to be unstable and corrupted because of their selfish actions? Rune wasn’t sure if he could live with the guilt of taking something from someone else. It was why they were forced to travel into the Demon Realm, because Rune couldn’t bear the grief of throwing others off a bridge, even if it was for the sake of the world.    

“Wow, that’s a lot to think about.” Flame whistled. “Why are you running away from her? Was she cruel?”

“No,” Rune joined his sister and pulled out a cutting board to begin skinning and peeling vegetables. He could argue that Empire was the complete opposite for taking the initiative and leading a team when its leader went missing. 

“Did she make you do something you didn’t want to do?” Flame asked. 

“No!” 

“Then what?”  

“She thought I was her brother,” Rune said. 

It was uncomfortable watching the pain twist in her features at the realization that she had the wrong person. Even though he and Knight were technically the same person, he didn’t grow up with Empire the same way he did with Flame. He didn’t want to stop to listen to Emipre’s pleads or apologies. Empire kept an amicable front, but kept her distance from others and was intimidating to approach. Rune wasn’t sure if he could look at her in the eye after the outburst she had outside of the Shadow Vein.  

“Aren’t you?” Flame asked. 

“Well, yes.” Rune said, “but I’m not specifically him.”  

“Els… talking about yourself is going to drive you crazy.” Flame shook her head, “I never met her, but this is probably hurting her as much as it is for you. Besides, if she’s me, she’s probably worried about you.” 

“How would you know?”

“Because that’s what sisters do,” she laughed. “Now unless you plan to help me with lunch, you should get going. You’re making her wait.” 

Metal boots clanged against the gravel at their feet, a pair of identical eyes met with Rune’s, somber and apologetic. Crouching behind one of the boulders occupying their campsite, Empire Sword had her head leaning forward, completely still and wide-eyed on being called out. Her face glowed from the campfire, devoid of its warmth.      

“Hope my brother didn’t cause you and your friends too much trouble,” Flame teased as if she didn’t just catch her counterpart eavesdropping into their conversation. “You look like you had something to say.”

“Not at all,” Empire gave an embarrassed smile. “He was cooperative and did more than enough to help us. I apologize for intruding.” 

“It’s all good!” Flame beamed and grabbed Rune by the arm, “Don’t be afraid to talk to him. He’s a good kid and means well.” 

“I know,” Empire lowered her head. ��I won’t take up too much of your time.” 

“Huh?” Rune stuttered, “Wait-” 

Flame cheerfully threw Rune into Empire’s direction, waving at them with a knife in her hand. Stumbling back by a few steps, Rune lifted his head up to see Empire pulling her arm back, suddenly uncertain on what to do with the rune user. All signs of formality from before had dissipated and was replaced by awkwardness that reminded Rune of her age. She was barely half the age of her superiors in Velder. 

Rune saw the discomfort in Empire and let out a dark laugh. Silence rippled through the air, only interrupted by the sound of Flame chopping vegetables and from the campfire crackling. How much did Empire hear from his conversation with Flame? 

“I’m sorry,” Empire started. “I didn’t mean to make you upset.” 

“You don’t need to apologize,” Rune raised his hand. “You don’t have to talk about it.”

“What if I want to talk about it?” Empire asked. “I don’t have the right to be asking for forgiveness after everything you went through, but I still want to talk.”

Her voice remained steady, but her hands were visibly shaking, clenched into tight fists. Bangs fell over, hiding her face from view. Covered in grime and dust, Empire was short of looking like Rune when he was first discovered by the El Search Party. Her ponytail became undone and slid down past her forearm. 

“Like being kidnapped and carried off like a princess?” 

Empire raised her head with confusion on her features, “a princess?”

“That’s what Paradox called Knight,” Rune shrugged. He softened his hardened expression, “You don’t need to worry about me. You should worry about your brother.” 

“You are my brother.” She said, “you’re still Elsword.” 

“Maybe,” he hesitated. “Or are you saying that we look the same? I’m not sure if I can be compared to him.”     

Knight was the leader the El Search Party deserved. Hardworking and placed others before himself. He even checked on Rune despite the crude thoughts the rune user kept to himself, afraid to admit the unpleasant thoughts that plagued him. Empire recognized that and widened her eyes. 

“You’re jealous of Elsword?” Empire was shocked.

“Does that make me a bad person?” Rune threw his head back and chuckled darkly, “Both of us failed to restore the El, yet I’m the one who threw my team into the wrong Demon Realm. We caused this mess because we weren’t supposed to be here. The sky is falling apart. Is that what a leader does?” 

Yes, Rune was bitter. Five years of traveling outside his hometown with the intent of finding his sister, only to be told that he was special. Somehow, a link between him and the El was apparent and it was up to him, a seventeen-year-old, to decide on the fate of Elrios and its inhabitants. Solace saw that. His friends trusted him. He was told by numerous enemies that he had the power, yet he was still powerless from stopping the El from collapsing on itself. 

He gave himself to the El with the intent of restoring it, offering what was left of himself because he was a mere village boy. Some other adventurers could pick up from where he left. Rune wasn’t the only swordsman from Ruben. If not, Flame or Blade could become the new leader of their not-so-little gang. They easily had more experience than him and his older sister had a connection to the El if something was to happen to it. He gasped when his state of mind rose from the subconscious to take his first breath and realized he was alive, the El unstable once more.      

“Stop it,” Empire snapped. 

“Or what?” Rune jeered, “Surely you realized that with two teams, both of us can’t take the Dark El back to fix what was broken. One of us has to leave.” 

“There has to be another way,” she said. “We’re not letting you go back without finding a way to stabilize the El.” 

Empire was so determined that he almost believed it whole-heartedly without question. He tried to dislike her, but her reassurance was all it took for him to reassess himself. Would it be possible to find another way to restore the El? Rune didn’t understand the link between himself and the El, but there was always the drive to keep it safe, even if it cost his life. He wondered if that was why Empire and Flame never blamed him for making his decision in Elrianode, rarely showing anger when he was blinded by his emotions. 

“How can you be so sure?” Rune asked. 

“I’m not,” Empire placed her hands over her lap. “But if there’s one thing I learned from you and your friends, there is more than one path to doing things. I never thought of meeting someone who understands Elsword as much as you do.” 

“What does that mean?” 

“My brother hides things from me too,” she gave Rune a sad smile. “I know Elsword has been struggling. He’s always lost in thought, but very little of those thoughts reach me. I don’t think even Ain truly knows what’s on his mind. Talking to you made me realize how little I understand him. It makes me wonder if it was something I did wrong...” 

“It’s not you,” Rune disagreed. So even Knight had trouble sharing his thoughts. They really were the same side of the coin. “He’s doing it because he’s scared of worrying you. He doesn’t want to see you get hurt and burden you with his troubles.”

“That sounds like him,” she sighed. “He grew up to be so responsible. I feel like I wasn’t there enough for him.” 

“Let him know that,” Rune said. What was he doing giving advice to his sister’s lookalike? None of this felt real. “I think he’ll be happy to know how much you care about him. I know I would.” 

Rune wasn’t about to spout to Empire about his sister being gone for most of his life up until he was sixteen, but he sympathized with her. Sure, he was envious of Flame for always traveling and fighting bad guys as a child, but he understood her better once he started his journey and learned how time-consuming and draining it was to maintain peace. The last few years he spent with Flame and his friends were easily the best years of his life. Rune doubted Knight would have bore a grudge against Empire’s absence.   

“I think you’re right,” Empire said. “Thank you. You’re kinder than you make yourself seem.” 

Rune blinked. Okay, maybe he was rough around the edges, but was he that bad? Some of Dominator must be rubbing off on him, Rune rubbed his eyes. His body ached in protest in having to move, but there was so much to do. They still didn’t know where Mad Paradox went or what their next move was in finding a way back to their dimension, if that was possible. 

“This is a lot to take in,” Rune remarked. “I’m starting to think we’ve been hanging out with Glave too much.” 

“This does sound like something he would do,” Empire agreed. “But I’m glad it’s with you and your friends instead of the usual monsters and demons.” 

“Heh, sounds like fun, actually.” Rune snickered, “you think there’s a dimension where I’m a little taller and have two swords?”

“You’ll have to be more creative than that,” Empire chided with a bemusement. “We should head back. I’m sure they could use more help in moving things along.” 

“Right,” Rune closed his eyes. “We wouldn’t want to think our pretty faces were eaten by demons.” 

Empire elbowed him with a gleam in her eyes, snorting when he choked on his saliva and joined in. Alternate dimension or not, Empire was pretty cool. After all, she was still his sister and was good at cheering him up.  

----------------------------

Bluhen

It was daybreak when Bluhen was summoned to the front of the cavern’s entrance, well, what was left of it anyway. The cavern’s entrance had collapsed from the brief, but deadly battle between the two El Search Parties. Its purple peak reached beyond the horizon and was the first landmark Bluhen noticed when they arrived into Demon Realm. He heard its name being dropped into conversation by the dark elves when he asked about it. Shadow Vein, an intimidating but suiting name in how much trouble it had caused for them all. 

Green light glowed as he mended a cut gashed into Knight’s lower thigh. He would have lost more blood if the cut had been any deeper, a thought Bluhen fought to ignore and focused on applying ointment to the area. People relied on him too much and forgot that there were limits to being a healer. Magic didn’t fix injuries, but encouraged the body to repair itself. He wished Knight knew that and stopped seeing him as an answer to everything relating to injuries. It was exhausting agreeing to heal every time someone failed to dodge an attack. It’s like no one knew how valuable their life was.    

“Thank you,” Knight lifted his head to give Bluhen a sheepish smile. 

“It’s to be expected,” Bluhen said with exhaustion in his voice. 

Bluhen wiped his forehead out of habit, but that was all for show. If he had been more human, he would have sweated and let out a sigh. Being an unworldly being, all of that was unnecessary and excessive for being the Goddess’s agent with a human husk.      

“What is?” Knight asked. 

“Keeping you safe,” Bluhen looked at his friend in surprise for asking something so obvious. He couldn’t understand how Knight could be oblivious to how important he was to others. “Now that you’re here, we can get back to finding the Dark El.” 

“We still need to wait for everyone,” Knight said. “Lu said she was bringing back the others.” 

“Who are the others?”

“Uhh… Ara, Eve, Ciel, and Lu.” Knight counted with his fingers. “She’s also bringing people from the other party. I think she mentioned Raven, there might be more.” 

Bluhen was careful not to apply too much pressure when he placed a bandage over Knight’s left shoulder. None of his vital organs were impacted, but Knight had sustained many injuries. Every battle resulted in cuts and bruises, but it was Bluhen’s job to minimize them. This could have been prevented if Knight wasn’t abducted by the strange man who called himself Paradox. Bluhen had never heard of that name, yet there was something familiar about the kidnapper. Red flashed in his vision as Bluhen swallowed his anger, unwilling to let it bubble up from the pit of his stomach that threatened to erupt and overflow. All of this was caused by Paradox…   

“Does it hurt?” Bluhen asked. 

“Not a bit!” Knight beamed, “Feels like it never happened!”

Bluhen ducked his head low and hid his face behind his bangs. He thought he knew and understood Knight, but he still struggled in reading the emotions of others. Knight smiled, but it felt plastic and artificial as the Nasods Bringer was so fascinated about. Didn’t it hurt pretending to be happy all the time? Or was it a force of habit? He was perplexed and concerned. Knight was hiding something again. The young man had been acting strange ever since they arrived to the Demon Realm. What was Knight hiding? 

“Are you sure?” Bluhen asked, “How much did Paradox hurt you?”

“I’m fine,” Knight insisted. “Are Add and Ciel okay?”

“They’ll recover,” Bluhen said. “There’s nothing concerning.”  

Bluhen had checked on Abysser and Bringer out of Knight’s insistence, nevermind that one of them wasn’t part of the original El Search Party. Both were unconscious and stirred slightly when Bluhen had Rage move them into sitting upright. Their wounds have already healed from his magic and they just needed rest. 

“When I was with Paradox… he made me watch you guys fight.” Knight was hesitant, eyes averting and looking down at his hands. “I saw your other self fighting Lu and Ciel. This wouldn’t have happened if I was there to stop it-”

“None of this is your fault,” Bluhen didn’t let him finish. He looked up from his healing station and placed his hands over his lap. “It was our decision to resolve this by fighting.” 

“I suppose so... ,” Knight mumbled. “He said strange things when we fought, like how different I was from the other Elsword. Do you think there are others like us?” 

“What do you mean?” Bluhen asked, “Haven’t we already met them?”

And fought them, Bluhen added. It was odd to help the very same people they have fought just hours ago. 

“Paradox seems to know a lot about us, even though we have never met,” Knight said.  “I mean… Paradox is Add. Do you think his friends are different versions of us and might be here?” 

“It’s possible, but I have yet to hear reports of them being sighted.” Bluhen shook his head in wonder. Alternates of themselves? He wasn’t sure if he was ready to meet himself from another life. What would they even talk about?    

Bluhen didn’t hate Bringer, but it was difficult to cooperate with someone who was so stubborn. To learn that Bringer’s alternate was the cause of their troubles opened a door to a million possibilities and few answers to the situation. This was the type of topic Bringer would voice his opinions on, but alas, the brawler was unconscious. 

At a nearby stream, Bluhen emptied and rinsed the potion bottles with a cleaning solution, smelling its light citrus scent as he wiped it dry with a washcloth. Ice cold water froze his hands when he swooped down to wash his face. Extra bandages and remedies were tossed into the bag for later use. 

An eerie silence settled over the edge of the horizon, absent of the chatter and clash of blades that once took place over the two El Search Parties. Sharp edges cut into the pale rose sky, outlined by the crystalline material composing Paradox’s portals. Dozens of portals were erratically growing and shrinking, cackling and imposing themselves over one another. Most of them were too small for a human to fit through, but it was a matter of time before that was to change. 

“You see them too?” Knight looked up.    

“How long were they here?” Bluhen asked. 

“I don’t know,” Knight shrugged. “Maybe after Paradox left?” 

The portals were echoes of the ones formed by Paradox in the battle against the Dark Agate, smaller and temporary. Trailing through the skies, they disappeared before reforming minutes later. Bluhen didn’t remember seeing them when they initially entered the Demon Realm. What could the portals mean and what kind of impact would they have on their journey? Looking at them made him feel sick.   

Knight looked at Bluhen with worried eyes, “You should rest, you look horrible. I’ll be around camp when you wake up.”

Shouldn’t Bluhen be the one reassuring his friend? He looked at Knight in disbelief, driven to madness by the apologetic look he was receiving. Covered in thin-lined scars and bruises still healing, Knight had an unfocused gaze and bags under his eyes. Bluhen laughed at the irony, unable to contain himself and sighed. What kind of friend was he to find relief in being comforted when he should be the one helping Knight? He wanted to tell Knight everything would be all right and that things would sort themselves out, but he didn’t want to feed his friend empty promises.     

It was childish to fear that Knight would disappear in his sleep. Was this how Knight felt when he disappeared for periods of time? Bluhen’s body protested, aching muscles urging him to cave him and succumb to Knight’s wish. He stumbled over on his fours and felt his body surrender, resting his head on the grass in a bliss comparable to sleeping at one of the grandest hotels in Hamel.

Cool air caressed Bluhen when he woke up to a velvet blue sky. White clouds huddled overhead with faded outlines of the portals from before. The portals opened to dark interiors obscured by the cloud. So it wasn’t a dream…  

Where was Knight? Uncertainty clouded Bluhen’s judgment, standing up without his mind ordering his body to do so in the search of his friend. His belongings sat in the grassy patch beside him, undisturbed and waiting for its owner to return. In dim lighting, Bluhen was able to make out new silhouettes approaching.  

“You can’t be serious!” A short figure threw their head down in defeat. Aether raised her staff in exasperation. “Is this some kind of joke?” 

“I don’t heal.” It was a man’s voice, quiet and melodic yet it was clear that he was irritated by the way he shielded his face from view. Wait, was that his voice? Bluhen leaned forward to listen in to the man that shared his voice.   

“What do you mean you don’t heal?” Aether threw her hands down. 

“It means I don’t heal,” he replied. “I am incapable of using magic to repair wounds.” 

In the darkness, Bluhen stared, unable to take his eyes away from the man with cyan-colored hair. Adorned in white robes billowing in the wind, Richter resembled the celestials depicted in murals and stained glass art in churches. His features were void of strong emotions, numbed from being placed on the spot by an impatient mage who barely reached up to his chin in height.       

“Then what do you do?” Aether scowled. 

“Bring divine judgment and serve as the voice of the Goddess,” Richter said.

“...you’re somehow weirder than Ain.” 

Confusion formed in Aether’s brows, creasing into a deep indentation with the mage sighing and rubbing her forehead. A clean cloth wrapped over her right elbow and over the opposite of her shoulder into a make-shift arm sling. Bluhen recognized it to be the work of Mr. Half-Demon and shifted his eyes in search of the butler.  Had Chevalier and Ishtar returned with the rest of the group?  

Richter looked straight into where Bluhen stood. Their faces were the same, but everything was different in pigment. Cyan eyes locked into Bluhen’s with recognition. Aether noticed and followed his gaze.  

“Hello, Ms. Mage.” Bluhen waved at his teammate and added. “And me…  I heard my name in passing. Is there something you want from me?”  

“Call me Richter,” he insisted. “I see you are awake.” 

“Yes I am,” Bluhen replied.

“I was hoping you could help me with this,” Aether turned to show her arm. At closer glance, her arm was wrapped in an old shirt washed out by the sun. Humans were so creative when they wanted to stay alive.  

“Pray tell how you broke that arm,” Bluhen gently placed his hand over the broken arm to examine, feeling for broken bones or joints. 

“Elsword crushed my arm.” She glared, “Don’t give me that look!”

“I’m not allowed to say it’s funny?” Bluhen smiled.

“Absolutely not!”   

“I’ll take a look at it in a bit,” Bluhen chuckled and turned to look at Richter. “I want to talk to him first.”

“Huh? Oh!” Aether looked between the two men and nodded, “Sure! You don’t have to rush! I’ll be checking on the supplies and helping Ciel. He looked busy.” 

Aether ran over to Bluhen with her uninjured arm lifted over her head to lean forward to scan the area. A trail of tents lined up and formed a path lit up by campfires that smelled of smoked meats and herbs. She looked at Bluhen with sympathy. 

“You’re okay talking to him by yourself?” She asked. 

“It’s fine,” Bluhen waved his hand. “I’ll find you when I’m done.” 

He watched Aether running through the grass with her staff tucked behind her back. The mage saw another teammate walk by and waved to get their attention. She’s going to be okay, Bluhen thought. There were more than enough people to make sure of that.  

“You wish to speak to me?” Richter asked. 

Millions of questions flooded into Bluhen’s mind about Richter’s existence, flabbergasted at the implications of it all. What did it mean for both of them to cohabit in the same plane of existence? Did Richter understand the cause of the portals rippling through the skies? What was his relation to Paradox if he had one? 

Richter reminded him of a fish. Empty eyes gazing back, the blue-haired priest betrayed little emotion, yet reminiscence of regret lingered in his presence. It was strange to meet another being like himself when his existence was meant to be an exception by the Goddess. Bluhen pressed his fingers over to Richter’s.   

“How are you me?” Bluhen asked aloud. 

“I would like to ask the same,” Richter mirrored his question back. 

“I was created by the Goddess to restore the El,” Bluhen said. “but I made the decision to form a new purpose for myself and protect my friends to indirectly help the El.” He gestured to his counterpart, “your turn.   

“I also serve the Goddess and act as her catalyst by striking down those that choose to defy her judgment.” Richter said. 

By Goddess, was he really come off as pretentious to other people? What was this prickly feeling he was experiencing? Bluhen stared at Richter with a mixture of bewilderment and exasperation, unsure what to make of his alternate. He silently counted his blessing that Knight and his friends were ever so patient with his ignorance. 

“You can be rest assured that your Elsword is safe,” Bluhen tried to change the subject. 

“I know,” Richter said. “I saw him being pursued by Empire. She did not look happy.”

“Aren’t you worried?” Bluhen tried to understand his counterpart’s reaction, puzzled by how calm Richter was about Rune being chased by his sister’s alternate. 

“How I feel does not concern Elsword,” Richter said. “He is capable of making his own decisions.” 

Like sacrificing himself to the El? Bluhen thought warily. His memories were blurred about the specific event, during a time when his physical form was barely maintained by his purpose to serve the Goddess Ishmael. With the El temporarily restored, Bluhen lost his physical form and everything that came with living, no longer a person but barely a memory. 

“I assume yours merged with the El as well?”

Bluhen nodded. His body went cold. Again?  

“This won’t get easier,” Richter’s lips formed into a straight line. “Elsword will continue to make difficult decisions you may not agree with and you cannot stop him.”

“How would you know?” Bluhen asked weakly. “You haven’t talked to him.” 

“No, but I have talked to Ishtar and Chevalier.” Richter said, “I know he is a selfless person and would feel guilty for making you react like this.”

“He was my first friend,” Bluhen choked. “I followed him and still lost him.” 

“You cannot protect him from everything,” Richter said. “He will be upset if you do.”

“I know. That’s why he’s in this mess.” Bluhen laughed dryly. “Thank you… It was interesting talking to you. I was not expecting to meet you like this.” 

“You should help Aether,” Richter said. “She was not happy when I told her I could not heal.” 

“So I gathered,” Bluhen snickered. “Where will you go?”

“Back to Elsword,” he said. “I said I would wait for him.” 

Of course, Bluhen thought. Despite the cold front and being straight-faced, in the end, Richter had a soft spot for Rune. It must have been painful for Richter to see Rune siding with their El Search Party, which led to a misunderstanding and a chaotic fight that fractured their forces on both sides. Before Bluhen left to search for Aether, he was stopped by his counterpart. 

“What should I call you?’ Richter asked.

“Me?” The priest placed a finger over his lips, “call me Bluhen.”     

----------------------------

Author Notes: Now that the fighting is over, it’s time for obligatory everyone’s gotta talk to themselves (because this fic is 100% self-indulgent and I enjoy writing the two paths talking). Will third paths show up or will Paradox remain a sad cat? Yes. 

#elsword #eltag #elsword fanfiction #my writing #mywriting #doppelganger #Elboy (Elsword) #Aisha (Elsword) #Rena (Elsword) #Raven (Elsword) #Eve (Elsword) #Chung (Elsword) #Ara (Elsword) #Elesis (Elsword) #Add (Elsword) #Lu (Elsword) #Ciel (Elsword) #Ain (Elsword)

[vikireedphotography]

The Cigar Is All You See

THE CIGAR IS ALL YOU SEE

First, do no TV:  how badly do you want to make it in Hollywood, doctor?  

FADE IN:

I/E.

A HOTEL BANQUET ROOM/OUTSIDE ENTRANCE-NIGHT

An EASEL holds a foam board telling us that inside the dark room-twinkling with spores of glittery tables, is the 2021 American Board of Radiology Conference.

Photos of two men are the evening’s GUEST SPEAKERS:  GREG CRANDON, 53 and BEN HAMMIL, 52.  Crandon is a bit pale, thinning hair on top scalp, bulging but happy eyes. He is posing with TV actor MATT KISLEYAK, 54. Matt is charismatic, and wears his TV-doctor’s uniform, Crandon is ‘on-set’ with Kisleyak and posing with an arm is around the shorter Crandon.  Under the photo it reads:

“Radiology Consultant to Hollywood, Greg Crandon (with “Med Lives” star, Matt Kisleyak).  The second photo is Hammil, who looks more like a TV star than a radiologist. Tall, long reddish hair. His photo depicts the smiling Hammill standing on a Ted Talk stage pointing and smiling.  It’s captioned: “Welcome Ted Talk Keynote Speaker on AI and Radiology, Ben Hammil of Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles”  

INT. BANQUET ROOM/BEYOND THE EASEL & SIGN-SIMULTANEOUSLY

In a reverse fractal, Dr. Ben Hammil is on-stage, preaching new gospel.

BEN

Twenty-two years in radiology. I’ve missed things. You know what sees everything? Machine learning. Check this out.

Ben lifts a POWERPOINT REMOTE AND CLICKS!

A massive projection screen behind Hammil fills with what looks like a photo quilt of chipmunk faces (tight crops of just the eyes, nose and whiskered mouth).  

BEN (CONT’D)

Chipmunks. Cute. Sixteen-hundred chipmunk faces. Do you see the cat?

CUT TO:

VIP TABLE/ORCHESTRA SEAT LOCALE-CONTINUOUS SOUND OF: BEN HAMMIL’S VOICE-CONSTANTLY.

Greg in a slightly old-school tux joins his wife, ANDREA, 47.  

In trying so hard to look younger, she forgets to be young. Everyone but the WIVES in the room are fixed on Hammil’s presentation.

ANDREA

(To Greg)

Can you get Matt’s autograph for Penny?  

Andrea’s body language tightens after she notices cocaine on his nose. She grabs a napkin, wipes it. No one sees the coke.  Just her ‘mothering’ him.

Fellow attendee and table-mate LEO, 42, now distracted.

LEO

(To Greg)

You missed Hammil’s award.

GREG Oh well.

LEO

Saw his Ted Talk. I played golf with him-played near him.

GREG

It’s just a tool, this software. A computer can’t deliver bad news or hold a box of Kleenex.

Greg gestures to a passing SERVER for another round of drinks.  He pivots to PENNY, 36, pretty, blond trophy wifetwo small children later.

GREG (CONT’D) Penny? I’ll get you Matt’s autograph.  I’m going to the studio tomorrow.

Penny is electrified. She points at Ben and announces to all:

PENNY

Out of everyone tonight he’s the most interesting and ground-level.

She catches herself when she sees Greg’s reaction.

CUT TO:

EXT. HOLLYWOOD SOUNDSTAGE/PRODUCTION OFFICE FOR “MED LIVES”NEXT DAY

Greg drives his bronze BMW convertible to the GUARD-GATE. A familiar GUARD, 39, waves him through.

Moments later, Greg strides, getting tanner the closer he gets to the the SOUNDSTAGE DOOR. He glides past Matt Kisleyak’s RED FERRARRI. It’s parked next to the door. A sign designates: “Reserved for Matt Kisleyak/Med Lives.  

CUT TO:

INT.

SOUNDSTAGE FOR “MED LIVES”-CONTINUOUS

It’s a magical forest of cables, wisteria hanging lights, cameras, crew, fake hospital sets, ACTORS in costume, CRAFT

SERVICES TABLE loaded with EVERYTHING you could ever want. Willy Wonka time.

KEN (O.C.) Dr.Crandon?

KEN GOLDISH, 37, is one of the show’s Producers. Greg wheels in the direction of his voice.

CONT.

The two walk a hallway lined with POSTERS of MED LIVES’ CAST in character. Ken is ahead and faster.

GREG

(Holding a zip drive and script.)

I have the notes on the next show. Just a few minor details.

Ken turns to see Greg brandishing his work.

KEN

(Takes the thumb-drive.) Keep the script.

They stop at the last door.

What did Matt want to see me for?

KEN

(Knocks twice) He’ll tell you.

CUT TO:

INT.

MATT’S OFFICE-FIFTEEN MINUTES LATER

Greg is seated next to Matt’s desk. The blinds are closed, the only light comes from a large computer monitor.

As Matt sits and shares the glow with Greg you see an unbelievably photogenic man.

GREG

(Staring and smiling at Matt.)

This isn’t ideal. You should send the full study to my office at the hospital.

MATT

Not gonna happen. It’s a favor for a good friend. I’m looking out for him. A secret second-opinion.

Greg nods into gear with a deep breath.

CUT TO:

30 MINUTES LATER-

The star is opening the blinds. He turns around and saws his palm into Greg’s personal space.

MATT

Thanks so much for doing this.

GREG

I’m sure it’s not what you wanted to hear. Your friend definitely has stage-four lung cancer. I couldn’t tell more without labs, biopsies-

Greg stands to meet Matt’s goodbye shake.

MATT

Keep this between us?

Matt opens door. Greg pulls the rolled MED LIVES script out of his suit pocket.

GREG

I’m sorry, but a friend of my wife’s..

MATT

(Grabbing a pen.) What’s her name?

GREG

Penny. Thanks for that. I never ask, but the wife...

MATT

Got it. Hey, I’m hosting a celebrity golf tourney this weekend at Hillcrest Country Club. For Children’s Hospital. You play?

CUT TO:

INT. GREG’S HOME OFFICE, WOODLAND HILLS,CA-NEXT EVENING

A man-cave with no man. It resembles a furniture store display. The only indicator of human occupancy is a box of Just For Men hair dye. He stands before a full-length mirror wearing new golf-wear. Looks a little ‘back to school’.

PRICE TAGS are strewn at his feet.  He snips the last tag from his BELT.

CLOSE ON: BELT/SCISSORS THE TAG READS $169.00. After a snip, it flutters down onto his new shoes. It’s quiet until-

ANDREA (O.C.)

Christ. You could go as Tiger Woods for Halloween.

GREG

Not really funny. Did you want something?

ANDREA

(Sour.)

Dinner. It’s here.

(Taking a last look, then starts to undress.) Good. I’m hungry.

FADE OUT:

EXT. HILLCREST COUNTRY CLUB-FOLLOWING MORNING

The celebrity event buzzes, it feels like a Christmas tree you could live-in.

INT. HILLCREST DINING ROOM-CONTINUOUS

Cacophonous. Seen from above, Greg disappears into a crowd of

JOURNALISTS, CELEBS, TV CAMERAS, FAMILIES OF PEDIATRIC CANCER PATIENTS, BUSY STAFF, CLUB MEMBERS and people dressed like PEANUTS CARTOON CHARACTERS.

A BANNER ABOVE AN EMPTY PODIUM AT THE BACK OF THE ROOM READS:

“Children’s Hospital Of Los Angeles Annual Celebrity Golf Event 2021”

Hearing Matt from behind a potted tree he eagerly rounds the corner.

It’s Matt with Ben Hammil and a few others. Laughing. Drinking.

GREG (TO SELF) Fucking guy...

Matt turns around. Seeing Greg, he’s not unhappy but there’s no reward in seeing him. Greg bounds over, socially awkward in Ben’s presence.

MATT

(To the group.)

This is Greg Crandon. He’s the Doc who makes Dr. Morrow sound like he went to medical school. Hey, Greg, this is one of your radiologist tribal members: Ben Hammil.

GREG

Yeah, we shared a bill at a radiology convention last week. I was keynote.

BEN

It was actually fun. Like an extended Ted Talk.

ANOTHER MAN IN THE GROUP Oh, that’s where I know you from!

MATT

Greg we’re doing a Four Man Cha Cha Cha wager; the losing team coughs up forty-K for the charity. You’re in, right?

GREG

Forty? It’s in my car.

The group laughs.

GREG (CONT'D) Will you excuse me?

Greg breaks away and rushes to the MEN’S BATHROOM.

CUT TO:

INT. HILLCREST DINING ROOM-TWENTY MINUTES LATER

Most of the crowd spills onto the fairway path, outside. Greg hustles to catch-up.

CUT TO:

EXT. FAIRWAY PATH-CONTINUOUS

Greg approaches the REGISTRATION TABLE.

An ATTRACTIVE SWEDISH FEMALE CLUB STAFFER, 23, is dispensing Team Badges, which are mounted on a valet’s keyboard behind her.  The teams are named after Peanuts Characters.  Greg squints to see the SNOOPY Team, which is led by Matt.

FEMALE STAFFER (O.S.) Good morning! What’s your name?

GREG

Greg Crandon? I think I’m a Snoopy, on Matt’s team.

FEMALE STAFFER

Here you are.  You’re a LINUS!

Matt invited me personally, I’m sure I’m a Snoopy.

FEMALE STAFFER It’s a perfect day for a game, you’ll have a great time.

The Staffer dangles the Linus Team badge. Greg takes it.

As he approaches, A GOLF CART WHIRRS away: Ben Hamill is the driver, Matt’s his co-pilot.

They leave a wake in the COLLECTIVE MEDIA bush they pass.

CUT TO:

INT. GREG'S BEDROOM-2 DAYS LATER-EARLY MORNING

He’s on his back, snoring.

ANDREA (O.C.)

Get up! Get up! Matt’s dead! Greg! Wake up!

GREG

(Slowly waking.) What are you talking about?

Andrea turns on the bedroom TV.  Live local news broadcasts the scene outside of Matt Kisleyak’s home in Malibu.

CUT TO:

CLOSE ON:  POLICE TAPE, BODIES BEING ROLLED TO THE CORONER’S VAN.  

The CAPTION READS: “MATT KISLEYAK, STAR OF ‘MED LIVES’,

BELOVED HOLLYWOOD STAR, WIFE AND SON DEAD: SUSPECTED CARBON MONOXIDE POISONING...”

GREG No! What?

CUT TO:

EXT. HOLLYWOOD SOUNDSTAGE/SECURITY GUARD GATE-1 HOUR LATER

Flowers and memorials nearly block the entrance.  

GREG

I have to see Ken Goldish.

GUARD

No one on the lot today without approval. Given what’s happened I cannot do anything. Have Ken call me. Turn around and go park on the street.

Stressed, Greg scrapes his BMW on a concrete safety stanchion.

CUT TO:

INT. KEN GOLDISH’S OFFICE-15 MINUTES LATER

Ken is on the phone with Greg, while multitasking.  A MEMORIAL VIDEO is playing on the production monitor in his office. People on-set and walking by the open door weep.

KEN

(Puts Greg on

SPEAKERPHONE)

The show is obviously going to shutdown until the writers find an appropriate way through Matt’s death. Listen, we can’t have people talking to the press about what Matt did.

GREG (O.S.) What did he do?

KEN

His son, Liam’s cancer. You know, you saw his MRI.

GREG (O.S.)

He said it was a friend of his.

KEN

No. Liam collapsed at college. He’s been living at Children’s Hospital on and on for months. I don’t know if Lily chose to die but everyone was drugged and he closed the windows and messed with his central air...No more pain.

GREG (O.S.)

Can I call you when the show is back up? I think I have an angle on

AI-

KEN

Seriously not the time.  I gotta go. I’ll let you know about the memorial if you want, okay? Bye.

CUT TO:

INT. GREG'S HOME OFFICE AGAIN-ONE HOUR LATER

Greg saunters through his open office door head-down.

The sound of a GARDENER BLOWING LEAVES IN THE FRONT YARD IS A CONSTANT.

ANDREA (O.S.)

(Popped like a cork.) What did you do?

Andrea is sitting at his DESK; it’s littered with the golf clothing TAGS, the autographed script, she’s been rummaging.

GREG My desk..

ANDREA

I answered your office line.

Children’s Hospital Charity Committee something or other called to say they can’t refund your fortythousand dollar donation but they’d be happy to provide you with a tax form so you can declare it.  Were you trying to impress Matt Kisleyak?

GREG Be quiet.

She throws the price tags at his face.

She sits at his desk and lifts the office phone receiver.

ANDREA

I’m calling that charity and telling them you can’t be held responsible because you have a drug problem and I will sue them if they don’t return the forty-thousand.

She dials the Charity’s number, taking it from the tax form.

GREG

I’m warning you-

ANDREA

Now you’re a man, right?

Greg walks towards her, automatically, instinctively. She backs-up to get space between them.  

Now they’re both behind his desk.

GREG

We’re are so done.

In one freakish rage he grabs his office chair and swings it at Andrea. The wheeled feet break her jaw as she drops to the floor.

Greg tosses the chair aside blood from the wheels casts off all over the MED LIVES SCRIPT.  He stands over the whimpering disoriented Andrea and begins to stomp her into a near coma.

He continues as we FADE OUT.

CUT TO:

EXT. HOLLYWOOD-45 MINUTES LATER

Greg is walking up HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD.  Another sunny day.

Surrounded by TOURISTS, WORKERS, WALKERS, SHOPPERS, and CHARACTER ACTORS hawking for tips dressed as DEAD HOLLYWOOD. They appear to be moving on a giant treadmill.

MOMENTS LATER-

The WALK OF FAME STARS peel away under Greg’s feet until he see’s Matt Kisleyak’s STAR with a growing memorial. He looks down at the bloodied LIVES MED SCRIPT UNDER HIS ARM.

Greg enter a crosswalk against traffic.

FLASHBACK TO:

THE ABR CONFERENCE-BEN HAMMIL’S SPEECH ABOUT PERCEPTION.

SEE: IMAGE OF THE BRICK WALL WITH A CIGAR PINCHED IN-BETWEEN TWO-BRICKS.

BEN

At the top we see a garden variety red brick. All of it’s -

RETURN TO PRESENT-HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD HEARING HAMILL’S VOICE.

BEN (V.O.)

-flaws, pores, grit and different colors up close. So many facets and defects.  Below that image we see a brick wall.  However once I tell you that there’s a cigar stuck in that wall? That’s pretty much all you see now. Humans make a choice, AI just sees everything...

CLOSE ON:  TRAFFIC LIGHT ‘DON’T WALK’ SIGNAL.

Greg quickly turns around and RUNS into traffic.

SOUND OF:  SCREECHING TIRES. A SICK BANG AND CRACKING THUD. CARS REAR-ENDING. HORNS.

CUT TO:

CLOSE ON:  THE AUTOGRAPHED ‘MED LIVES’ SCRIPT. BLOODIER, ON THE SIDEWALK.  

A MAN, 29, GRABS IT AMIDST THE CHAOS BEHIND HIM.

MAN

(Into his cel phone.) Bae?  I have some good news and better news.  You know how Matt Kisleyak croaked today? I’m the proud owner of an script autographed by him. YES. The better news is it’s covered in blood.

FADE OUT.

[obtusemedia]

The best songs of the 2010s: #100-76

Happy 2020! Now that the previous decade has finally finished, it’s time to commemorate the 2010s. The decade in which I grew from an awkward teen to an awkward adult. And a decade with a ton of great music. Let’s dive right in: these are my 100 favorite songs of the 2010s.

#100: “Monopoly” by Danny Brown (2011)

Danny Brown is so delightfully grimy. He’s like a cartoon sewer rat come to life, rapping about pills and making hilariously crude jokes. In an anti-drug PSA, he’d be the sketchy weirdo trying to get a kid hooked on bath salts or whatever. And for a quick shot of his non-replicable style, it’s hard to do better than “Monopoly.”

Rapping over a glitchy, menacing beat with his trademark squawk, Brown lands oddball punchline after oddball punchline. In a span of less than 3 minutes, he threatens to defecate on your tape (and he has to clarify that too — “No, literally, shit all on your mixtape”), compares himself to Ferris Bueller sipping wine coolers and then closes his track by describing a woman’s vagina as “smellin’ like cool ranch Doritos.” And that last insult is the perfect distillation of Brown: the Adult Swim of rap. But much smarter than that would imply.

#99: “Shutdown” by Skepta (2015)

At the 2015 BRIT Awards, Kanye West performed “All Day” with a massive crowd of grime artists on stage, all in black, with flamethrowers shooting fire into the sky. 

Four days after the performance, Skepta — one of the artists on stage with Kanye — released “Shutdown.” It’s a much more fitting song for the intimidating, energized and proudly British crowd of MCs than a middling Kanye non-album cut.

“Shutdown” is the kind of song a rapper releases when they’re at the peak of their powers. Skepta was absolutely at that point in 2015, and so his finest single sounds like a coronation. His gruff delivery isn’t too loud, but it’s firm and confident. He knew he was the best MC in Britain, and “Shutdown” cemented that status.

#98: “Amor Fati” by Washed Out (2011)

Washed Out was one of the brightest voices in the turn-of-the-decade chillwave movement, and with cuts like “Amor Fati,” it’s not hard to see why. 

The big single off his debut, “Amor Fati” gives you a similar sensation as taking a shower: Pure bliss and warmth cascade around you. It’s a bit repetitive, but the song is clearly meant to set a mood more than anything else, so that’s excusable. If you need an entry point into chillwave, you can’t do much better than this.

#97: “Los Ageless” by St. Vincent (2017)

St. Vincent’s trajectory this decade took her from an art-pop weirdo who collaborates with David Byrne to a more mainstream art-pop weirdo who collaborates with Taylor Swift. But in that process, Annie Clark was able to pull her sharpest hooks out and put them in use in deceptively dark songs like “Los Ageless.”

With its sleek new wave production from Jack Antonoff, “Los Ageless” could’ve easily fit on most pop records. But Clark’s atonal, shrill guitar bursts and increasingly disturbing lyrics differentiate it. The song’s themes gradually shift from “lol Los Angeles is fake and plastic” to something more tragic. The desperate (in a good way) chorus says it all: “How could anybody have you and lose you/And not lose their minds too?”

#96: “I Like It” by Enrique Iglesias feat. Pitbull (2010)

I’m aware how ridiculous putting “I Like It” — a disposable, trashy club pop hit most people might not remember — on this list. Admitting I that I love this song probably guarantees that I’ll never get a job at Pitchfork.

But then those fuzzy, cheap synths come crashing in. And Enrique Iglesias sings his sleazy come-ons in an auto-tune slurry. And Pitbull delivers a gloriously ridiculous, very-2010 verse that references both the Tiger Woods cheating scandal AND the Obamas (along with gratuitous Spanish and a Miami shoutout). And then there’s the final touch: a prominent sample of Lionel Richie’s cheeseball classic “All Night Long.” It’s too much to resist.

What can I say? “I Like It” hits all the pleasure centers (including nostalgia, seeing as it came out in the middle of my high school tenure) in my brain. It’s a beautifully stupid, hedonistic highlight of the 2009-12 pop golden age.

#95: “The Wire” by HAIM (2013)

Retro-pop standard bearers HAIM had plenty of great singles this decade. But one of their first, the groovy breakup anthem “The Wire,” is still their best.

Unlike many most breakup anthems, which tend to be wildly emotional, “The Wire” is matter-of-fact. The relationship simply isn’t working, and it’s time to end it. That’s that. You’re going to be okay.

The verging-on-curt lyrics mixed with the Haim sisters’ groovy early ‘80s rhythm makes for a pop jam that’s perfect for any “It’s not you, it’s me” moment in your life.

#94: “Helena Beat” by Foster The People (2011)

I know they represent the mainstream selling-out moment of the magical late-’00s MGMT/Passion Pit/Phoenix moment, but I have a soft spot for Foster The People. Their debut album, Torches, might not have much indie cred, but it’s all-killer-no-filler and stuffed with monster hooks. And despite “Pumped Up Kicks” being the big hit, I’ve always preferred the album’s opening track, “Helena Beat.”

With its shuffling disco beat and Mark Foster’s piercing falsetto, “Helena Beat” is likely about as close as alt-rock ever got to the Bee Gees. The lyrics, which tackle addiction, are much darker than “Staying Alive,” but it’s got a similar sense of propulsion.

And let’s not forget — Foster wrote jingles before starting a band, so he can get melodies stuck in your head. And once you’ve heard “Helena Beat,” good luck getting it unstuck.

#93: “Redbone” by Childish Gambino (2016)

“Redbone” might be the smoothest R&B cut on this list. Which is why the song’s sense of dread and paranoia makes it stand out. 

Donald Glover’s scratchy, passionate falsetto isn’t conventionally pretty, but it works well while singing about some unknown boogieman who’s “creeping.” That’s why “Redbone” was a perfect fit for Get Out, because of its lurking dread underneath the comfortable exterior. This is the song that cemented Glover as being a true renaissance man, rather than an actor with a weird musical side project.

(of course, this still isn’t Glover’s greatest musical contribution — that would be the iconic “Troy and Abed in the Morning” jingle. Especially the night variant.)

#92: “Do You” by Spoon (2014)

Spoon has been America’s most consistently great rock band for the past two decade now. Even calling them “consistent” is practically a cliché.

So all you need to know about “Do You” is that it’s another solid Spoon song in a vast catalog of Spoon songs. Lead singer Britt Daniel is still effortlessly cool, the guitar-driven groove is simple and it all goes down easy. By 2014, Spoon had nothing left to prove, except how long they could keep up their streak.

#91: “I’m Not Part of Me” by Cloud Nothings (2014)

Cloud Nothings’ finest moment is four and a half minutes of pure angst and crunchy guitars. Squint hard enough, and “I’m Not Part of Me” is one of the closest approximations to ‘90s alt-rock. And while the Ohio band isn’t necessarily reinventing the wheel here, refining what made past music so great can be just as effective.

#90: “Hello” by Adele (2015)

Despite only releasing two albums this decade, Adele casts a major shadow over the 2010s. Although I find both those records to be a little on the bland side, there’s a reason she was/is a juggernaut. And the example of her prowess is “Hello.”

“Hello” has everything you’d want in an Adele song: It’s about not getting over a breakup, a very relatable topic, and Adele gets to show off her cannon of a voice. But it also has a secret weapon compared to other Adele ballads: ‘80s power-ballad production! The bombastic chorus has more in common with Heart’s “Alone” than any of Adele’s previous hits, and it’s a perfect accompaniment to one of the decade’s most melodramatic singles.

#89: “Slumlord” by Neon Indian (2015)

Despite putting out two essentially perfect albums this decade, Neon Indian’s mastermind, Alan Palomo, doesn’t really have that one mind-melting single. Yes, “Polish Girl” was a decent-sized indie hit, but it’s nowhere near his best.

But “Slumlord” comes damn close to perfection. It’s not quite as heavy on the melted-VCR aesthetic of other songs on Palomo’s best album, Vega INTL. Night School, but it makes up for that with an irrepressible ‘80s techno groove. “Slumlord” is one of those songs that could ride its beat forever — and it kind of does, with the “Slumlord’s Re-lease” coda following it on the album. It’s a nocturnal synthpop jam that even those allergic to keyboards couldn’t resist.

#88: “The Bay” by Metronomy (2011)

While most synth-weilding indie acts were trying to ape MGMT’s high-pitched fever dreams in the early ‘10s, Metronomy decided on a different, sleeker path with their 2011 album The English Riviera. That album’s best single, “The Bay,” is an immaculate blend of silky smooth yacht rock and nervy, tense new wave. Those two opposite styles shouldn’t work together, but Metronomy managed to pull it off regardless, creating the perfect beach anthem for awkward hipster Brits.

#87: “bad guy” by Billie Eilish (2019)

I expect the 17-year-old Eilish will likely be remembered more as an icon of the 2020s than the 2010s, as she has a long and promising career ahead of her. It’s like how Lady Gaga is much more of a figure of this decade, despite her earliest hits arriving in 2009. But “bad guy” — the kind of left-field, innovative pop single that signals a new era — came out in 2019. And it’s too damn weird, catchy and just plain fun to leave off this list.

#86: “Latch” by Disclosure feat. Sam Smith (2012)

It’s a bummer that Sam Smith turned out to be such a bore, because “Latch” — his introduction to the world — is pure electricity. 

Smith and fellow Brits Disclosure, who provide the pulsating, sensual production, were a dream team on “Latch.” All Disclosure needed to do was give Smith plenty of room to unleash his golden pipes, complete with a few futuristic touches. Smith delivered on his end, proving his worth as one of the best vocalists for conveying drama on the dancefloor.

#85: “Need You Now” by Cut Copy (2011)

No, it’s not a cover of the Lady Antebellum hit of the same name. 

There were plenty of ‘80s-inspired epic synthpop bangers this decade; some groups made their entire careers off of them. But what sets Cut Copy’s “Need You Now” above the rest is its sense of patience. It’s an incredibly slow burner, building the tension with a thumping beat and calm vocals until it all explodes with a dazzling climax nearly 5 minutes in. Af that moment, the Aussies fulfill their promise with a euphoric release of synths and thundering drums. 

It’s not a complicated concept for a song, but Cut Copy executed it perfectly.

#84: “The Mother We Share” by CHVRCHES (2013)

Glasgow new wave trio CHVRCHES never really lived up to their promising 2013 debut album, which opened with the anthemic “The Mother We Share.” But man, what a way to start a career.

"The Mother We Share” is all icy synths and furious drum machines, the sounds bouncing off each other like a hall of mirrors. And lead singer Lauren Mayberry’s quiet but confident vocals add the necessary human touch, conveying a tragic feel to the song’s triumphant chorus.

#83: “Night Shift” by Lucy Dacus (2018)

One of the most ferocious, biting breakup songs of the decade, “Night Shift” is a showcase for Lucy Dacus’ vivid storytelling. The Virginia singer-songwriter spends the first half the song setting the scene of a crappy ex trying to halfway make amends, while Dacus’ character holds herself back from lashing out. She saves the visceral emotion for the second half, when the grungy guitars kick in and Dacus lets out a wounded howl, proudly stating that “I’ll never see you again/If I can help it.” “Night Shift” is a tour de force of indie rock songwriting that rewards patience.

#82: “Round and Round” by Ariel Pink (2010)

Much of indie-rock trickster Ariel Pink is a little too jokey and off-putting for my taste. But on his defining single “Round and Round,” he sprinkled in just the right touch of weirdness into a song that otherwise could’ve been a massive easy-listening hit in 1980.

The quirks throughout “Round and Round” — the woozy, off-kilter production, the lyrics that seemingly make no sense, Pink answering his phone in the middle of the song — are enjoyable. But the song’s true strength is in its chorus: a sudden punch of roller-disco AM-lite harmonies that cut through all the song’s oddities. It’s a double-shot of warmth and nostalgic beauty that feels comfortingly familiar, yet still thrilling.

Pink seemed to know the chorus was the key to “Round and Round,” as he makes the listener wait nearly two minutes for it. But its inevitable release is a truly magical moment.

#81: “4th of July, Philadelphia (SANDY)” by Cymbals Eat Guitars (2016)

Heavily referencing an early Bruce Springsteen classic in the title of a song that sounds nothing like Springsteen is quite the flex. But New Jersey indie-rockers Cymbals Eat Guitars pulled it off regardless.

“4th of July” is a clanging, anthemic scuzz-rock track about going through an existential crisis in the middle of Independence Day. While everyone else is making plans for the holiday, lead singer and guitarist Joseph D’Agostino is howling away, “HOW MANY UNIVERSES AM I ALIVE AND DEAD IN?!?” It’s one of the hardest-rocking mental breakdowns put on record this decade.

#80: “I Like It” by Cardi B, Bad Bunny and J Balvin (2018)

Rapping over extremely-obvious samples has been a time-honored tradition in hip-hop, from the Beastie Boys trading verses over The Beatles to Puff Daddy jacking the chorus from one ‘80s hit and the beat from another in the same song.

But Cardi B, and reggaeton superstars Bad Bunny and J Balvin sampling the boogaloo classic “I Like It Like That” was an inspired choice. The trio’s verses are all delicious fun, whether they’re bragging about eating halal in a Lamborghini or referencing a classic Lady Gaga hit.

But that sample, combined with a trap beat and Cardi’s swaggering charisma powering the chorus, is what makes “I Like It” a classic.

#79: “Sign of the Times” by Harry Styles (2017)

Most former boy band members aim for a grown-and-sexy pop anthem once they go solo, whether its Jordan Knight, Justin Timberlake or Zayn Malik. But the standout member of the 2010s’ standout boy band, Harry Styles, chose took a sharp left turn into melodramatic classic rock instead. And it was a brilliant decision.

"Sign of the Times” is about as close to a classic Beatles or Queen power ballad we got this decade, with its clanging Western guitars, lush strings and thundering drum fills. Styles doesn’t have Freddie Mercury’s gravity-defying vocals, but his immense charisma powers the song anyways. It’s not 100% clear what “Sign of the Times” is about, but with its cinematic scope and cryptic lyrics, it’s likely about the apocalypse. And there’s not many superior songs to cry to while the bombs fall.

#78: “Dancing On My Own” by Robyn (2010)

The ultimate crying-on-the-dancefloor anthem, “Dancing On My Own” has already become a standard.

But Swedish alt-pop icon Robyn’s combination of icy synths and heartbroken, jealous lyrics can’t be replicated. Just ask Calum Scott, who slowed down the track into mushy, piano-ballad goop. Yikes.

What makes “Dancing On My Own” brilliant is its resiliency. It’s not a mopey song — Robyn is defiantly still grooving despite her crushed feelings. It’s a siren call for all those who have been hurt and know the only proper way to work out their emotions through cathartic dancing.

#77: “Trap Queen” by Fetty Wap (2015)

“Trap Queen” is an incredibly fun hip-hop banger, but I don’t think I can extoll its virtues quite as well as Fetty Wap’s hype man at the end of the track. So I’ll let him speak:

“YOU HEAR MY BOY SOUNDIN’ LIKE A ZILLION BUCKS ON THE TRACK?! I GOT WHATEVER ON MY BOY!!”

Amen. It’s a real shame Fetty wasn’t able to keep his momentum rolling past a big 2015, but at least we’ll always have the magic dying-walrus energy of “Trap Queen.” HEY WHAT’S UP HELLOOOOO

#75: “R U Mine?” by Arctic Monkeys (2012)

"R U Mine?” offers Arctic Monkeys fans the best of both worlds. On one hand, you have their AM-era slinky swagger. But it also retains the furious rock-n-roll energy of their early days.

Alex Turner sounds like a smooth-talkin’ cowboy here, but the music is anything but smooth. It hits like a semi-truck, with a calvary-charge guitar riff and so many thunderous drum fills you’d think you were listening to the E Street Band.

[aion-rsa]

Free Guy Review: Ryan Reynolds and Jodie Comer Give Uneven Script Extra Life

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On paper, Free Guy is a movie about a bank teller named Guy (Ryan Reynolds) who one day realizes that he’s actually a non-playable character in a popular online video game called Free City. While Guy is mostly interested in using his newfound awareness to win the heart of the Free City player he’s fallen in love with (Millie, a.k.a. Jodie Comer’s “Molotov Girl”), he soon finds himself in the middle of a game development conspiracy that could ultimately lead to Free City’s shutdown and the end of his world.

In reality, however, Free Guy is a movie about references. While many of those references are little more than brief nods to popular video games (GTA Online is the most obvious target, though Free Guy finds time to pay homage to Fortnite, Halo, and more), even the film’s basic structure feels like a compilation of various concepts that we’ve seen before. Honestly, one of the best ways to properly describe the movie is to take a page out of its playbook and use references.

Free Guy is basically The Truman Show combined with The Matrix, with just a dash of They Live, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and Total Recall tossed in for flavor. Like Wreck-it-Ralph and Pixels, it tries to comedically examine popular video game characters, worlds, and tropes, but its closest spiritual companions may just be Ready Player One and Space Jam: A New Legacy. Like in those films, Free Guy sometimes hopes that you’ll find time to entertain yourself by scanning the environment and playing “spot the reference.” Between those Easter egg set pieces, the film often falls back on CGI-heavy action sequences and rapid-fire quips that sometimes feel like the PG-13 versions of Deadpool jokes.

It’s hard to say that Free Guy is too obsessed with references when some of the film’s best moments come in the form of surprise cameos and visual gags that will almost certainly make most theaters audiences howl with laughter (should you happen to see this in a movie theater). I’ll instead say that if you found it hard to get through Ready Player One and Space Jam: A New Legacy‘s brand of pop culture obsession, then there’s a good chance you’ll have the same problem with Free Guy.

But then even if you enjoy most of the movie’s references, you’ll likely find that some elements of the film’s referential sense of humor are… odd. For instance, there’s an early visual gag about product placement in the Free City game, but the rest of the movie is packed with product placement for everything from gaming computers to headphones. There’s also a joke about the futility of creating something original when you can just make a sequel, which feels a little out of place in a movie that may be an “original” but is getting quite a bit of mileage out of pulling material from giant properties. 

Maybe the idea was for these scenes to come across as Wayne’s World-style moments of meta-humor, but given that Free Guy’s product placements and dependence on popular properties are otherwise presented so matter of factly, these brief gags ultimately feel like a futile attempt to smile under the weight of the production machine. 

It also has to be said that Free Guy’s biggest plot holes abuse the privilege many of us are willing to extend to such inconsistencies. There are moments of NCIS-style tech jargon used to justify major plot points that really stand out in a movie that otherwise makes some surprisingly accurate observations about modern gaming. They probably won’t ruin the movie for you, but any time spent rolling your eyes at the idea that these developers wouldn’t instantly recognize that Guy is an NPC in the game they made is time spent missing the latest visual gag. 

The biggest problem with Free Guy’s script though is that it brings up interesting ideas that ultimately don’t get a lot of room to breathe. Writers Matt Lieberman and Zak Penn (the latter of whom worked on Ready Player One) touch on fascinating topics such as the struggles of video game developers, the ego and profit-driven nature of many major game development studios, and how platforms such as Twitch and YouTube can influence the culture of popular games. But the movie is quick to drown those sparks out with a blaring pop soundtrack, candy-colored CGI action sequences, and, in at least one notable instance, unfortunate outdated jokes about basement-dwelling gamers. 

There are too many times when Free Guy fails to explore the potential of its unique premise. This was clearly never meant to be a complicated examination of the nature of existence or even a deep dive into the most controversial aspects of video game culture, but it’s hard not to look down on the movie’s most generic moments when it regularly brings up more interesting ideas and then quickly casts them aside.

What’s really amazing, though, is that Free Guy’s biggest problems do little to diminish the appeal of its two greatest qualities: its commitment to absurdity and surprising warmth.

It starts with the cast. Reynolds is hardly an “everyman,” but the way he makes even the most absurd jokes work certainly comes in handy here. Comer’s comedic timing and ability to add surprising emotional weight to otherwise throwaway lines also remind us that she’s still in the early days of what will surely be a great career. Elsewhere, Lil Rel Howery, Joe Kerry, and Utkarsh Ambudkar lead the film’s fitting cast of supporting players.

This show is clearly stolen, however, by the brilliant Taika Waititi. There’s something to be said for actors in movies who recognize what the tone is around them and decide to go completely over-the-top with their performances, which describes Waititi’s performance to a tee.

Free Guy’s cast is clearly having such a good time with every ridiculous line, strange scene, and surprising little moment that it’s almost impossible to not get caught up in their enthusiasm and find a way to have a good time. 

So far as that goes, it certainly doesn’t hurt that Free Guy sometimes reaches Ted Lasso levels of positivity and genuineness. Whether you’re a fan of gaming or not, it’s hard not to root for Guy as he essentially tries to, in the words of Bo Burnham, obey all the traffic laws in Grand Theft Auto 5 in order to grow as a person and in-game character. Guy’s ability to appreciate the little things in his world isn’t just a human message but a particularly clever observation about how NPCs may be uniquely able to appreciate the work that goes into video game world-building that we sometimes don’t take the time to appreciate because it’s located off the more obvious paths.  

There’s also something to be said for the Comer and Kerry-led subplot about indie developers struggling to push an original idea in an age of big studio productions. Even if that plot does feel somewhat awkward given the amount of property flexing that’s going on (and ends on a bit of a cheesy note), it’s ultimately a nice little nod to creators who too often don’t get credit for their work. 

Like many of the best video games ever made, Free Guy is meant to be a good time above all else. It’s frustrating that the movie ultimately fails to do more with its cast and premise, but its combination of warm hugs and scenery-chewing eventually find that “dumb fun” sweet spot. At the very least, you may want to find a way to see it sooner or later just so the sheer joy of its best surprise isn’t ruined for you.

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Timestamp #SJA16: The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith

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Timestamp #SJA16: The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith

Sarah Jane Adventures: The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith (2 episodes, s03e03, 2009)

  Till death do they part.

Sarah Jane sneaks out of the house for a “traffic report meeting”. It’s the fifth time this month that she’s made an odd excuse like that, so Luke summons the gang and uses Mr. Smith to track her whereabouts.

She stops at a house and freshens her lipstick, nearly using her sonic instead. The gang follows her while K9 is left to verbally banter with Mr. Smith. What they find is a date in progress, but as they leave, they hear the straining engines of the TARDIS.

Sarah Jane returns home to find the gang acting strangely. Mr. Smith and K9 spill the beans and Sarah Jane is angry at first, but happily explains that she’s seeing Peter Dalton. She forgives the gang as she ushers out of the attic, briefly consulting K9 before saying goodnight to Luke. She jokes that she might have to tell Peter about aliens and her adventures, which was her barrier to finding love before.

As the lights go out, Luke hears the TARDIS engines again, but has no idea what it means.

Three days later, Peter stops by to meet Luke. Rani, Clyde, and Gita spy on the meeting as the gang saves her from an awkward parcel. The parcel opens to reveal a mischievous multi-eyed creature, and as K9 runs to wrangle the alien, Luke passes if off as a toy.

Sarah Jane, Luke, and Peter head to dinner. Rani and Clyde call for help with the alien – a Travast Polong – and Sarah Jane directs them on how to have Mr. Smith transmat the being home before returning to the table. Luke and Peter bond quickly.

Two days later, Clyde and Rani investigate Peter and find his home virtually deserted. Meanwhile, Peter proposes to Sarah Jane in a restaurant and she accepts. As the patrons applaud, the engagement ring glows red.

Clyde and Rani try to convince Sarah Jane that something is wrong, but the ring glows as Sarah rationalizes the information. She places Mr. Smith into shutdown as the computer detects an anomaly. She placates the gang as she starts planning. After all, the wedding is only two weeks away.

She shuts the door on the attic, perhaps for the final time, as a sinister laugh echoes.

The wedding day arrives and the guests assemble except for Maria, Carla Langer, and the Brigadier. Luke wonders why none of Peter’s family is in attendance, but Peter says that he has no living relatives. Sarah Jane arrives in a white limousine, bridesmaid Rani as her escort, and Luke walks her inside as the TARDIS chitters around them.

Clyde asks K9 to scan the area, which angers Luke because the robot dog should not be there. As the wedding commences, the officiant asks if anyone objects.

As the TARDIS lands, the door bursts open and the Doctor yells, “Stop this wedding now!”

The room shakes and spins as the Trickster arrives in angelic robes. As the Doctor protests, Sarah Jane, Peter, and the Trickster dematerialize. The assembled guests vanish moments later.

Luke, Clyde, and Rani regain consciousness and meet the Doctor. Along with K9, they are the only people left in the hotel. They have been left in a temporal bubble at precisely 15:23:23, with that one second repeating over and over again. They rush to the TARDIS, which is trapped between universes in a temporal schism and unable to materialize.

They’ve been left there to stop them from helping Sarah Jane. To use them to leverage against her.

The Doctor explains that the Trickster is the personification of the Pantheon of Discord, a group of aliens from a different universe thriving on chaos and trying to break into this universe. He starts following temporal traces as his sonic screwdriver starts blipping.

Sarah Jane wakes up with Peter, who asks her to say, “I do” so they can be together. She quickly realizes that the engagement ring has been controlling her and tosses it aside. She searches for the Doctor and discovers that the temporal bubble is split into two seconds. Sarah Jane and Peter are trapped in the other half.

As the inhabitants of both seconds run in search of each other, Peter explains that the Trickster came to him as an angel when he had been fatally injured after falling down the stairs at home. The Trickster offered him his life and the love he never had, but it was a ploy to capture Sarah Jane. If she marries Peter, she’ll forget her entire life in exchange for a life of paradise. If she doesn’t, she and her allies will remain in the void forever.

The Trickster shifts seconds to confront the Doctor. He speaks of ice and fire and the Key to Time. He also remarks that “the Gate” is waiting for the last of the Time Lords.

The Trickster returns to the other second. Shortly after, the TARDIS partially materializes and the Doctor is able to get aboard before it vanishes again. In that moment, Clyde is charged with artron energy, which the Doctor explained can be used to fight the Trickster.

Clyde summons the Trickster and promises to join him. It’s a ploy, of course, which enables Clyde to attack the Trickster with his new power.

The TARDIS partially materializes in Sarah Jane’s second, and the Doctor confers with her. He reminds her that there is only one way to end the deal, and tells Peter that he is a good man. And that he’s sorry.

The Trickster and Clyde appear, and Sarah Jane takes advantage of her weakened enemy to plead with Peter. Although it will cost him his second chance at life, he needs to break the deal to save them all. It’s the same thing that happened with Andrea Yates.

Peter withdraws his agreement, throwing the ring at the Trickster and vanishing in a shimmer of light. As the temporal schism merges with the normal timeline, the Doctor vanishes as Sarah Jane and the Bannerman Road Gang return to the exact moment that they left. With Peter gone, Sarah Jane cancels the wedding with tears in her eyes.

The gang assembles in the attic to console Sarah Jane. The Doctor joins them, allowing everyone a look around the TARDIS, as he reminds Sarah Jane just how important she is to the universe.

She asks if this is the last time that she will see him. He doesn’t know, but asks her not to forget him.

She says that no one ever will.

  This story was beautiful. It was fantastic to see Sarah Jane in love, even if it was all a dirty trick. While the gang tried their best to save her from yet another Trickster temptation, when it comes to temporal traps, you call in the Doctor.

The teenagers were still instrumental in saving the day, which is good because the last thing you want is the guest star sucking all the oxygen out of the room and dominating the story.

Of course, this being a story from 2009, it’s part of David Tennant’s farewell tour, so it lays hints about the road ahead while questioning if this is the last time that Sarah Jane and the Doctor will cross paths. The reflection on their first parting was beautiful.

Sure, the solution was a re-use of the first Trickster story, but the story itself more than made up for it.

The other nods to history aside, we also had a mention of Metebelis III and the return of the football rattle.

  Rating: 5/5 – “Fantastic!”

  UP NEXT – Sarah Jane Adventures: The Eternity Trap

  The Timestamps Project is an adventure through the televised universe of Doctor Who, story by story, from the beginning of the franchise. For more reviews like this one, please visit the project’s page at Creative Criticality.

#Sarah Jane Smith #Tenth Doctor #The Sarah Jane Adventures #Timestamps Project

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US suffers third-highest circadian access in deaths

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The US suffered its third-highest circadian access in deaths from coronavirus, demography the civic absolute aloft 65,000 at a time aback a growing cardinal of states booty achieve to reopen their economies.

Over the accomplished 24 hours, a added 2,527 bodies died, according to abstracts aggregate on Tuesday by the Covid Tracking Project. That was the third-highest circadian access aback the beginning began, attributable to a jump in new deaths in New Jersey — partly because of a arrangement abeyance over the weekend that acquired a adjournment in advertisement weekend abstracts — and a almanac circadian access in Pennsylvania.

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New Jersey, the second-hardest hit state, saw a added 334 bodies die over the accomplished day. That was up from 39 on Monday, afterwards the arrangement shutdown. The absolute afterlife appraisal stood at 8,244, backward alone New York.

Pennsylvania anchored its abode as the fifth-hardest hit accompaniment overall, with a almanac 554 new deaths over the accomplished 24 hours. Aback the communicable began, 3,012 bodies acquire died there.

New York’s circadian afterlife aggregate charcoal on a bottomward trend, with 230 over the accomplished 24 hours and abutting to Monday’s access of 226.

Since the beginning began, 65,307 bodies acquire died nationally, according to CTP.

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Alice Woodhouse 5/6/2020, 12:11:46 AM

Asia-Pacific stocks alloyed as optimism buoys Wall Street

Asia-Pacific equities were alloyed on Wednesday afterwards active optimism over countries and US States abatement lockdown measures buoyed oil prices and aerial Wall Street.

The Kospi in South Korea was up 1.4 per cent, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 nudged bottomward 0.1 per cent. Futures tip the Hang Seng abject in Hong Kong to accessible 0.3 per cent higher.

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Japanese markets are bankrupt for a accessible holiday.

The moves came afterwards the S&P 500 concluded 0.9 per cent college in the US as healthcare stocks rallied on anniversary of developments for a abeyant coronavirus vaccine and a abeyant assay and as oil prices connected their rise.

S&P 500 futures were up 0.3 per cent.

West Texas Intermediate, the US marker, was up 3.5 per cent at $25 a butt and on clue for a sixth afterwards day of assets with investors assured appeal for ammunition to acknowledgment as economies reopen. That bigger affect saw Brent awkward ascend aloft $30 a butt on Tuesday.

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Emma Boyde 5/6/2020, 12:49:32 AM

Colombia extends lockdown but will acquiesce some sectors to reopen

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[justgotham]

Edward Nygma, aka Gotham City's puzzle-prone supervillain The Riddler, has always had the potential to be one of Batman’s most intriguing, multi-layered foes, though it took comic books several decades to elevate the man from a one-note gimmick to a complex, three-dimensional character.

It was a transition of the most glacial pace, not exactly aided by largely goofy on-screen portrayals in the mid and late 20th century, with two prior live-action TV iterations (Frank Gorshin and his successor, John Astin) and a feature-film appearance by Jim Carrey cementing The Riddler's status as little more than a hyperactive nuisance with a Lycra fetish and an inexplicable need to tell his opponent — albeit cryptically — exactly what nefarious plans he had up his sleeve.

But, even with early animated appearances in the 1960s-80s reinforcing the campy, unitard-clad interpretation of the character, change eventually took hold: the 1990s' Batman: The Animated Series gave Nygma a new look — actually first worn by Gorshin in 1966's Batman: The Movie, and since adopted as his primary outfit in the comics — as a suit-and-bowler-hat-wearing genius initially out for vengeance against an employer who had scorned him, consequently driven forward by his obsessive desire to outsmart his nemesis and anyone else who would oppose him. (Granted, the series' successor, The New Batman Adventures, reverted to the unitard, and mid-2000s series The Batman went full weirdo-goth — but the less said about that, the better.)

Along with that reinterpretation and a few consequent re-imaginings in the comic books, his mythos has found further substance elsewhere: he was a persistent presence throughout the Arkham games of the past decade, and — although not canon — writer/artist Alex Ross even suggested in his 2005-2007 series Justice that Nygma's penchant for riddles was the result of an abusive father who used to beat the truth out of his son when he suspected the latter was lying, the villain's clues a manifestation of his ensuing psychological inability to be untruthful about his intentions.

All of which is to say: The Riddler has come a long, long way since his first appearance almost 70 years ago.

In the case of popular Fox TV show Gotham, a similar degree of depth has been achieved for the character, though it's done so in a much shorter time frame, across its three seasons to date, gradually coaxing Nygma's inner evil out from underneath a shell of naivety and social awkwardness. Even so, for actor Cory Michael Smith — presently in Australia ahead of his impending appearance at Supanova Comic-Con & Gaming Expo — reaching the point where he has finally stepped into the shoes of one of Batman's greatest supervillains still felt like an eternity.

"I actually said to the producers ... ‘When does this change? When does my life change? When do things start happening?'"

"It started so slow for me; season one really tested my patience," he laughs. "I was just some dopey, gawky, chipper dude walking around the GCPD, trying to make some friends and make people laugh and test people, and I just kept pissing people off and upsetting them, but it was this long period for him — it felt very much like his life.

“I kept coming in and kept making effort to impress these people, as Edward, and make people laugh, and was just getting shutdown after shutdown, and I actually said to the producers ... ‘When does this change? When does my life change? When do things start happening?’ and they were like, ‘Yeah; yeah, that’s Edward’s experience, isn’t it?’ But, once the ball started rolling, I started having a blast, and I’m having more fun than ever. And, now that we’ve finished season three, I can officially call myself The Riddler, and that feels pretty darn fantastic."

Describing Nygma's shift from maligned and misunderstood coworker, to accidental murderer, to aspiring criminal mastermind as "one of the most extreme and cared-for evolutions on the show", Smith says that his character's journey represents "a very smart transition" for Gotham over the course of its existing arc, one that has served both show and character in very good stead by establishing Nygma's underlying humanity before tearing him down and rebirthing him as The Riddler, ensuring a genuine connection was established with the series' viewers.

"I certainly try to connect everything to a piece of humanity, and not just be evil for evil’s sake; that’s not that interesting."

"I think the audience got to sit with Edward as a genuinely well-intentioned young man, and to see him kind of suffer, and then the unfortunate events that befell him," he muses, reflecting on Nygma's journey. "At a certain point, when you’re in your late 20s and you just can’t catch a break, and when you finally do have the first taste of normalcy in your life ever — that being a relationship with a beautiful woman who loves you back — and you’ve lost your virginity and you’re going on dates, and all of a sudden this guy at your work, Gordon [Ben McKenzie], likes you, and is on a double-date with you, and that’s taken away from you by you accidentally killing your second person... at a certain point, it’s like, you know, this guy looks at his life and he goes, ‘You know, I’m not making these decisions; this is the world taking over my life. This is fate.’

"I’ve always found that to be a really interesting way to kick Edward into villainy, by him forfeiting his attempts at being a good guy, at being kind, and trying to make friends with people, just trying to love someone. It’s like, the world’s just not going to let him do it, and he can’t do it any more. He has to kind of forfeit that, and accept the role that he thinks the world has given him. And I think there’s a tragedy to that, that a viewer, as they watch that, can have some sort of compassion and sympathy for him, so that as he goes forward, it’s almost… you feel so bad and sad when you see this person doing all this stuff. So, I don’t know, maybe that’s what people are attached to. I certainly try to connect everything to a piece of humanity, and not just be evil for evil’s sake; that’s not that interesting."

While Nygma's slide into villainy appears, at face value, to be something of an inevitability — it was a foregone conclusion at the outset that we'd eventually see the man take on the persona of The Riddler, though there was no telling when that change would take place — Smith says that he enjoys the idea "that there is a way that he could not have been this evil, evil person".

"I like to think that there’s a way that most people who cause harm and destruction wouldn’t be that way, for whatever reason, whether it’s ideological, or abuse or neglect, or mental illness," he reflects. "I think his turn into villainy is an amalgamation of a few of those things, so, yeah, I think he’s more interesting if he’s someone who possibly could have had a life where he wasn’t harming people or choosing to wreak havoc. Perhaps still contentious, and liked challenging other people, but I like that there was another life and another path for him that was a bit brighter."

It's nice to think about whatever alternative universe exists in which Nygma ultimately got his happiest ending, but in Gotham's reality, it was not to be — especially not once the character started rubbing shoulders with the city's ascendant crime lord, Oswald "The Penguin" Cobblepot (Robin Lord Taylor). Since their very first scene together back in season one, the pairing of Nygma and Cobblepot has been one of the series' most compelling relationships, and it has only grown in both complexity and entertainment value — through the duo's blossoming camaraderie, underlying antagonism and genuine love alike — as the show has progressed.

"Oswald is really one of the only people who can sometimes outsmart Edward, for now, because he’s understanding what Edward’s intentions are, what his habits are, what his neuroses are."

Echoing Taylor's sentiments about the innate chemistry that exists between both actors and their characters, Smith says that their fruitful onscreen compatibility is the product of several factors.

"Well, I think they work together for a couple of reasons: one, because Robin and I are dear friends now, and we get along very well, and that dynamic transfers very well to the screen," he explains. "Even when we are at odds with each other, Robin and I are very… it feels very safe, working with each other, and we’re able to do things with each other and mess with each other and be quite competitive on screen with each other, trying to get the upper hand, and when we finish … we just, like, hang out. It’s just easy. It’s a really great environment.

"But I also think that Edward admires Oswald so much, and Edward is able to use his skills and intelligence and ability to… he kind of understands Oswald better than Oswald sometimes, and knows what he wants and what motivates him, and he’s able to guide Oswald to getting what he wants, and vice-versa. Despite Edward not wanting to hear it, Oswald knows him just as well, and it creates this really interesting dynamic where Oswald is really one of the only people who can sometimes outsmart Edward, for now, because he’s understanding what Edward’s intentions are, what his habits are, what his neuroses are, because he’s spent so much time with him, and so he’s able to predict some things that Edward is going to do, which is dangerous for Edward, because he thinks he can outsmart everybody.

"It’s just a really interesting relationship; I think it’s one of the richest relationships on the show, because they’ve allowed us to have so much history together and so many shared events. It’s been really, really fun; it’s been really fun to spend so much time with him at work."

The on-set fun of Gotham also translates to the finished onscreen product of the show itself. In fact, it's pretty broadly accepted by fans of the show that, in its second season, Gotham underwent a fundamental shift in tone that saw it distance itself somewhat from its straighter crime-procedural origins to more fully embrace its comic-book roots and get a little looser, a little more ambitious, a little more exciting in what it was bringing to the table in terms of charting the rise of several of Gotham City's best-known and best-loved villains. According to Smith, it was a transformation that was "absolutely" felt among the cast and crew as the show reimagined itself anew following its (still generally successful) maiden season.

"We were all very, very aware of the transition of style and format at work, and we were all very excited as each episode kind of came out," he says of the series' structural changes. "We always get together as a cast with our producers and the writer and director, and read each episode together. It’s just a nice little family bonding time for us, because, you know, we don’t all get to work together. So we get to reconnect and read each episode together. As we were reading them, it just… each one just felt like, ‘Yes! Yes! This is heading in the right direction.’ We have rerouted ourselves, and it felt way more exciting. It felt right. So we all were very aware of it, we were cheering on the writers and the showrunner, and were really celebrating the redirection of the show."

"It’s pretty exciting to now have this moment where he is donning the name and donning the hat and is wearing the green suit, but that doesn’t mean anything if he doesn’t know what his objective is."

Although the Gotham crew have finished filming season three, the final eight episodes are yet to air, and Nygma’s ultimate acceptance of his destiny as one of the city's foremost supervillains will only be seen when the show returns this week in the US, with an episode titled — fittingly enough — How The Riddler Got His Name. For his part, Smith is positively jubilant about the prospects of what that means for the character after so long a journey.

“I finally get to call myself The Riddler on-screen for the first time,” he enthuses. “And I feel like it’s just a very cool thing, because up until that point, it’s like, I wasn’t really The Riddler, so I wasn’t really the third live-action Riddler; I was the third live-action Edward Nygma on my way to becoming The Riddler. But now, as it stands, I am truly the third live-action Riddler, and that’s just a pretty cool thing.

"But, in terms of the narrative, it’s pretty exciting to now have this moment where he is donning the name and donning the hat and is wearing the green suit, but that doesn’t mean anything if he doesn’t know what his objective is, or what he wants from this, or how best to be this person, and so there’s still so much — and really this is going to go well into season four — how does he become the best version of that? So, at the start, I had him kind of experimenting with how to deliver a riddle, how to interact with an audience that is captive, how to present yourself, and initially I have him doing things that are a bit brusque and tight and forced — he’s trying to figure it out — but I want him to kind of move to a very different version of The Riddler; his expressions are perhaps a bit more elegant and with grace."

"It would be very interesting to see how The Joker would handle puzzles and problems set up by The Riddler where he is in danger, and the only way to solve them is to be analytical."

It’s not just his own character about which Smith is excited, but Gotham’s direction in general. With The Riddler set to make a proper return to the comic books in the near future — facing off against the Dark Knight's arch-nemesis, The Joker, in a kind of supervillainous civil war, with Batman's rogues gallery taking sides in a skirmish sure to be one for the ages — Smith says that he would be keen to see his Nygma go toe-to-toe with the series' own take on The Joker, a young madman by the name of Jerome (Cameron Monaghan), because, despite their similar names, their modi operandi couldn't be more diametrically opposed.

"I think that it’s an interesting pairing-off, and I think I’ve said this at a comic con recently; somebody had asked me who I wanted to work with on the show, and I said Jerome, you know, our pre-version of the Joker," he elaborates. "I think it’s an interesting pairing, because The Joker is really about anarchy and destruction for destruction’s sake, and when you have someone that likes questions and answers and analysis and puzzles — things that have to be solved, not crushed — I think it’s very interesting. It would be very interesting to see how The Joker would handle puzzles and problems set up by The Riddler where he is in danger, and the only way to solve them is to be analytical. I think that’s a pretty exciting dilemma for The Joker character."

Hypotheticals aside, Smith teases that Gotham is set to delve even deeper into the comics’ mythological well as the show stares down the barrel of season four, with surprises and delights in store for long-time fans of Batman and his crime-riddled city, and new devotees alike.

"Our team of producers, they’ve kind of taken on a new way of going about this, now, and it starts, really, with… towards the end of season three, they decided to go less obvious with most of their choices," he allows. "We're going to see some transitions happening at the end of season three, and some identities unveiled that I think are going to be really surprising, and people aren’t deep into the mythology probably won’t — may not — recognise. But, like, the people that love Batman and the mythology are really gonna get excited by some of this stuff that we’re doing. So I’m excited to see who else in season four they’re going to pull out from the deeper end of the well in terms of the villains.

"There are some very, very cool ones. I think that they make a few choices towards the end — and Ra's al Ghul is coming in at the end of the season, which isn’t as, like, obscure by any means — but there are a couple of revelations at the very end that are so good. So good!"

#Gotham #Edward Nygma #Cory Michael Smith

[kansascityhappenings]

Trump denies Pelosi military aircraft for trip to Afghanistan war zone

https://embed-prod.vemba.io/vemba-embed.js

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Thursday he was denying House Speaker Nancy Pelosi a military plane for a trip to Afghanistan and other countries that was set to begin in the afternoon, a tit-for-tat retaliation that deepened the divide between the leaders and brought the government no closer to reopening.

The move, apparently in response to Pelosi’s letter a day earlier suggesting the President reschedule his State of the Union address, made for high drama but little substance in the ongoing back-and-forth over border security.

As the partial government shutdown stretches nearly a month, the back-and-forth reflects a West Wing angling for the upper hand in a standoff with newly powerful Democrats.

Pelosi had been scheduled to leave within the hour that Trump’s letter was made public, making for the awkward site of a large blue Air Force bus idling outside the Capitol as the implications of the President’s missive came into focus.

The administration “worked with the Air Force and (the Defense Department) and basically took away the rights to the plane from the speaker,” one White House official said.

The White House released Trump’s letter to Pelosi a day after she suggested the President postpone his planned State of the Union address, scheduled for later this month, until the government shutdown is resolved.

“Due to the Shutdown, I am sorry to inform you that your trip to Brussels, Egypt, and Afghanistan has been postponed,” Trump wrote Pelosi on Thursday. “We will reschedule this seven-day excursion when the Shutdown is over.”

Even though Afghanistan — an active US combat zone — was one of the countries on her planned itinerary, Trump suggested she fly commercial.

“Obviously, if you would like to make your journey by flying commercial, that would certainly be your prerogative,” Trump wrote.

The President of the United States has the authority to direct the Defense Department to not use military assets to support a congressional delegation to military theaters. This support includes air transport and additional security procedures.

US President Donald Trump speaks to the media as he departs the White House in Washington, DC, on January 14, 2019 en route to New Orleans, Louisiana to address the annual American Farm Bureau Federation convention. (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images)

Trump’s penned retort amounted to his first public response to Pelosi’s Wednesday letter in which she wrote: “I suggest that we work together to determine another suitable date after the government has re-opened for this address or for you to consider delivering your State of the Union address in writing to the Congress on January 29.”

A Pelosi spokesman responded to Trump’s letter pointing out the President’s own shutdown trip to Iraq as well as one by Republican lawmakers.

“The purpose of the trip was to express appreciation & thanks to our men & women in uniform for their service & dedication, & to obtain critical national security & intelligence briefings from those on the front lines,” Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill tweeted.

He also clarified her travel plans, which he said did not include a stop in Egypt, but did have a planned refueling stop in Brussels.

SOTU impasse

Trump and his aides — loathe to abandon a key evening of presidential messaging yet intrigued by a new opening to break tradition — have yet to strike on a path forward for the speech. Trump’s letter to Pelosi did not address the scheduling of his address to Congress. And it did not offer any new incentives to return to negotiations on reopening closed-down agencies.

Just as Pelosi pointed to security officials working without pay as a reason to delay his State of the Union address, Trump said he was postponing Pelosi’s trip “in light of the 800,000 great American workers not receiving pay.”

Trump also used the letter to jab at some of the time Pelosi has spent outside of Washington during the shutdown, saying that “it would be better if you were in Washington negotiating with me and joining the Strong Border Security movement to end the Shutdown.”

Trump has expressed confusion at why his attempts to pressure Democrats for border wall funding have yielded no progress. Meanwhile, some of his advisers worry the mounting consequences for unpaid federal workers could further erode support for Trump’s cause.

The State of the Union address, initially scheduled for January 29, was viewed as a potential turning point. One White House official said the administration had begun putting together a list of potential invited guests in the first lady’s box, including some “angel families” of people killed by undocumented immigrants.

Those plans were thrown into flux on Wednesday when Pelosi wrote Trump, citing concerns over security during the shutdown, which has forced Secret Service employees to work without pay.

Upon receiving the letter, White House aides were unsure of how to proceed, people familiar with the matter said. The White House is weighing alternatives for the venue and style of Trump’s State of the Union, but doesn’t appear to have settled on a plan just yet, the people said.

GOP Rep. Mark Meadows, a close ally of the President’s who is in frequent touch with the White House, said Thursday he believed Trump will deliver the speech outside the House Chamber.

U.S. Speaker of the House Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) arrives at a news conference at the U.S. Capitol on January 4, 2019 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

“I think he’ll give the State of the Union somewhere else, and Nancy’s politics will come back to bite her,” he said.

Trump himself viewed Pelosi’s the letter as a political stunt, according to a person who discussed it with him. He did not raise it during a lunch meeting with lawmakers on Wednesday, and did not appear overly incensed by the move.

Some inside the West Wing have viewed Pelosi’s letter as an opportunity to finally break the traditional State of the Union mold — something previous White Houses have mulled but ultimately decided against. Others, however, are not in favor of a nontraditional State of the Union. And most believe they need more clarity from Pelosi before proceeding.

One Trump adviser told CNN’s Jim Acosta part of the betting around the deliberations is that Pelosi will “fold” and allow Trump to deliver his speech in the House of Representatives. The adviser described the battle between Trump and Pelosi as “King Kong versus Godzilla.”

Optics

Some advisers have pushed Trump to deliver the annual address from the Oval Office in order to continue projecting the message that he is sitting in the White House, waiting for Democrats to make a deal. That’s an argument the President has repeatedly pressed over the past weeks to little avail.

However, a prime-time address delivered from the Oval Office earlier this month fell flat, a memory that could deter the President from selecting the audience-less venue for an annual tradition he actually likes to observe.

Trump told people last week he disliked the address to the nation he delivered from the Oval Office, which he believed looked and sounded flat and lifeless. He told a group of TV anchors ahead of the speech he was unconvinced that it would change any minds, but allowed some of his advisers to talk him into it.

Before the speech he spent a long while — more than is typical for a President, according to a person familiar with the setup — with aides adjusting the camera framing and lighting so that it met his specifications.

Watching clips afterward, Trump was even more convinced it was a useless exercise. One person who was with him says he grimaced when he saw a clip on television, believing it looked stilted and robotic. He said he doubted it was worth the trouble. And polls seemed to prove him right — a Quinnipiac University survey this week showed only 2% of respondents’ minds were changed about the border wall by the speech.

“Nobody wins in a shutdown. Nobody does. A lot of Americans are hurt because of it,” said Marc Short, Trump’s former White House legislative affairs director and a CNN political commentator. “I do think that Democrats also risk the reality of when this is over, will Americans look at this and say there is one side pushing border security and one side wasn’t?”

Alternative plans

White House aides had already begun working on writing the State of the Union address, and had hoped to use it as an opportunity to hammer home the President’s warning of an immigration crisis from the loudest megaphone he has.

With an address in the House Chamber thrown into question, some have suggested to the White House that Trump simply deliver the State of the Union speech from the Senate chamber instead, because the Republican-controlled upper body could invite the President rather than the Democratic-controlled House.

But as of Thursday there were no plans among Senate Republicans to invite the President to speak. And doing so would still require a 60-vote majority among senators, meaning some Democrats would have to come on board. A senior Republican congressional aide said the White House has not yet given guidance on any changes to its plan for the State of the Union.

The White House is also considering doing a rally-style State of the Union, which would be coordinated through Trump’s campaign, a person familiar with the matter said. The idea is still preliminary, however, and formal plans have not been laid.

Many in Washington view the traditional State of the Union — delivered in the House Chamber — as a tired exercise. Aides to former President Barack Obama also considered taking the yearly speech on the road or delivering it in an alternative venue, though decided against it in the end.

Trump, however, has seen the speech as bolstering his presidential standing. He gained relatively positive reviews for his first two addresses to Congress, and enjoyed the applause that Republican lawmakers provided during his speeches.

For that reason, top aides are not moving forward with making firm alternative plans until they can gain some clarity from Pelosi about whether she has actually disinvited Trump from delivering the address.

As of Thursday morning it did not appear the two sides had spoken — Pelosi said she’d received “no response” from the White House to her letter. During her weekly news conference, she denied she was attempting to withhold from Trump a high-profile venue to address Americans.

“I’m not denying him a platform at all,” Pelosi said. “I’m saying, ‘let’s get a date when government is open.’ “

from FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports https://fox4kc.com/2019/01/17/trump-denies-pelosi-military-aircraft-for-trip-to-afghanistan-war-zone/

from Kansas City Happenings https://kansascityhappenings.wordpress.com/2019/01/17/trump-denies-pelosi-military-aircraft-for-trip-to-afghanistan-war-zone/

[lovesweatyfartcollector-blog]

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