- - foile pour un @lostsovl

England, Byrne Estate, in the aftermath of the Treaty of Paris, 1814

An amicable bustle of light conversation mingles with the early summer air, laying comfortably mild across an otherwise lukewarm soiree; It is a modest congregation of gentlefolk that has come to dawdle in the gardens of the good Captain's estate, ladies in arms and men of the states, men of war, gathered far and not so far at all to partake in the clandestine performance of aristocratic repertoire. To show face, so to speak, as contracturally obligated by their standing in light of recently wordly events which might merit such a perfectly muted display of tactful camraderie.

It's almost impressive how dutifully they perform the charade of civility, expressions downright cordial, regardless of which sir or dame might otherwise stand to be associated with whom amongst their neighbour at any other time of day--

Or night, at the risk of tempting indiscretion. But that is to digress. What stands to matter is that the neatly trimmed lawn is host to many fine people on this particular eve, milling about to the strum of vaguely convivial chords and partaking in the finest selection of quaint appetizers His Majesty the King's money could afford. What stands to matter is the arrangement of finely laid out tables, neatly framing the grassy borders at the far brickwall, offering their bounties of fruits and tarts and fruity tarts with, at their center, a truly impressive layered trifle.

What stands to matter is that that's the one she goes through, first.

A cacophany of shattered glass and ungraceful clatters heralds it. The aftermath of one sly figure's improvised fence vault rings a discordant note throughout the merry gathering she interrupts, affronted gasps and startled squeaks taking the attendants like a wave as their baffled gazes tear from each other to fall upon her character - and she must look quite the image indeed, gaudy in her swallowpaint tailcoat and dandelion undershirt, the distinguished rosy-pink pantalons a sight to catch the eye even before she'd bepeckled herself with the benobled's early-dinner desserts. And stunned as they be, she doesn't stop at simply thus.

She breaks into a dash across the lawn, swift, steady, footing hardly lost from the fall and weaving through the crowds with little but quick nudges and darts of 'Pardon Me's'. At the heel of her wake, two constables struggle to make it over the wall in pursuit, clumsy in their scrabble of alarmed shouts whilst a third appears further down the lane - having evidently opted to spare himself the dignity and go through the gates, instead. He sprints whilst his companions drop onto what remains of already turned over tables and tarts, attendants splitting aside from his beeline to allow him to catch, to reach--

His target, however, is not yet lost for diversions.

"Spare a hand, lass?" The swallowtailed interloper ducks, for lack of a better word, into the brace of a singled-out lady ahead, dark-haired, fair-figured and keen eyed all at a gaze; A flash, for a blink, strikes her of something poignat she can't quite put her tongue to, through she does not wait to find the words, nor does she wait for a response before her arm shoots around the woman's waist and her hand finds a clasp in hers. With a smile and a mischievous glint, she spins them both aback - letting go to twirl the other straight into the arms of the constable behind, who promptly stumbles in reach for propriety. That'd be her cue to leave.

"Much appreciated. Enchanté--!"

Did you go into I Feel You Linger In The Air with a lot of expectations? Personally I'm a huge fan of Nonkul so when the cast was announced I was quite livid and my expectations raised a lot when the pilot trailer was dropped but Dee Hup House followed that pilot trailer with Step By Step, Show Me Love and Hidden Agenda so by the time IFYLITA aired, I felt like I had to try minimizing my expectations as much as possible because it's Tee Bundit & co. I can't quite put into words but what about IFYLITA that makes each episode builds up so well and I never really feel like it lost its pace? plot? narrative? (except for maybe a few plot threads I could overlook). What do you think Shan? What do you think are the key elements that keeps IFYLITA's narrative so engaging even though this could have been like any other modern-guy-accidentally-time-traveled-to-the-past-to-fall-in-love-with-guy-from-the-past series?

My friends can attest, I went into I Feel You Linger in the Air with unreasonably high expectations, because I fucking love historicals and time travel romances and before this year we had precious little of either from Thailand. I was so hype for this project from the moment it was announced. And then Step by Step happened and I decided to willfully ignore the Dee Hup House and Tee Bundit parts of this project in order to stay hype. Surely, it would be fine!

And it has, mostly. I can't pretend we haven't seen some Tee Bundit hallmarks in this production. For the first half of the show, he seemed pretty uninterested in the romance, focusing most of the story time on building out the side characters and the politics of the period and leaving Jom and Yai's connection underdeveloped. He has given us almost no information on the time travel mythology, so the finale will either be jam packed with last minute exposition or leave Jom/us with no real understanding of the rules of this universe. He seemed unable to figure out how to make the romance and time travel and queer politics plots co-exist, so instead he kind of chunked them out, taking them one at a time and leading to some kinks in the pacing of each given plot. He spent a lot of time very carefully building serious conflicts only to hand wave them away in one very easy denouement.

But despite all that, this show just works, doesn't it? Usually when I am picking up this many structural issues in a show, I will lose my emotional connection to the story as my brain kicks into analytical mode. But that didn't happen here. The emotions of this story stuck with me throughout; I care about all the characters, I am invested in everyone getting what they deserve, and I was sobbing my little heart out last week as Jom and Yai said their long goodbye. It's been such a beautiful journey, if imperfect, and I credit that to a few things:

Writing aside, the other aspects of this production are all around phenomenal. The cinematography, the set and costume design, the lighting, the music. It's all working together to make this time and place feel so vivid and real. It's so gorgeous to look at and the show really makes you want to just sink into it and get immersed.

Bright and Nonkul were perfectly cast in this, and they have been absolutely killing it in these roles. Jom and Yai feel so real to me, both as individuals and as a pair. I really believe in their connection, which is no small thing given the aforementioned underwriting of its development. In a story like this the romance needs to be strong enough that you believe these two would seek each other out across time and space, and I do believe it for them. A lot of that can be credited to the remarkable chemistry these two performers have built together.

The non-romance aspects of the plot are actually compelling. It's always risky to add in a bunch of side stories to a simple romance; you risk distracting from the main story in a way that actually does some damage or leaves the audience bored or confused. But here, the choices about what to add made for a compelling cast of characters, a stronger tie to real history, and an all around more queer show. I love that we got a proper lesbian romance, that we got to see an oppressed woman come into her power, that we got a het dude learning how to be an ally, and that we got to see a queer community form around and bolster Yai and Jom. It's really special and the best of what Tee's interests can lead to when he marshals them well.

So yes, I do think this show stands apart from others in this genre for what it brought to the formula that feels new and fresh. I wish it was more widely accessible because it's truly one of the most beautiful dramas I have ever seen and easily one of the best Thai shows of the year.

I don't? understand? how you only have? 200? I deadass thought you had 700 um chile anyways big boobs- you desserve more dkdksk

could I please request an au with mattsun and ' forced to share a table in a coffee shop because it's busy and there are no more seats '? I found it and thought it would fit you well 👉👈 best of luck though baby 💖 I love you so, so much. you're so hard working 💋

fhdhdhfg peachy pleaase!! thank you sososo much for coming through and always hyping me up with nona and runa 🥺 and thank you for requesting!! i had an idea as soon as i read your prompt and i had lots of fun writing — i hope you’ll like it! ✨

THE OASIS IN THE DESERT ➽ ISSEI MATSUKAWA x READER

genre: fluff

au: coffeeshop

warnings: none!

mattsukawa’s absolutely sure he can feel his heart stop inside his chest when his eyes find you.

the picture you paint for him is otherworldly — the sun shines down on you from the glass window and shrouds you in a beautiful yellow light as you focus on whatever your laptop shows you, perhaps an assignment from one of your classes if he has to guess. your eyes squint in a familiar sight of concentration that he’s grown to used to admiring from a distance, the way your tongue sticks out from between your lips and even the way you absentmindedly play with a strand of your hair — it’s all been stamped into his mind and sings its melody of admiration for you in his heart. and issei mattsukawa, he’s a boy who’s so helplessly in love with you, with everything that he feels for you, with every emotion that runs wild on the backs of thundering stallions that pound inside his chest, he’s never once worked up the courage to approach you.

it’s an unreasonable fear, he knows it well; the constant presence of his anxieties and worries whenever he so much as thinks about talking with you causes the breath on his lungs to run dry and vanish away on a scorching desert breeze that leaves him parched, and the only thing that could ever hope to quench his thirst is you. your cherry-glossed smile is the hypnotizing oasis that dances on a heated mirage, the one that pulls him in by his collar and erases everything and everyone from his mind until all there is, all that’s left, is the thought of you. your kindness is the lullaby that soothes his heart beneath midnight stars, as he recounts his affections to the watchful moon — the only witness to his hopeless pining, the one who listens to him talk about the girl who stole his heart until the sun would rise. and you, you’re the angel that visits him in his dreams and leaves butterfly kisses across his skin, traces the letters of your name with ghost touches of your fingers along his body and leaves him wanting more of you. you’re like an illusion that’s constantly dancing in and out of his vision and has him chasing breathlessly in your shadow. and today, as he’s sitting right across from you, you’re right within his reach, close enough for him to smell the sweet citrus perfume that you love to wear. it fills up his senses and weaves a bed of flowers and orange blossoms and — oh, you’re looking up at him now, you’re smiling — issei forgets how to breathe.

“did you already start on our assignment from eco class?”

your voice washes over him like a warm ocean wave, and he nearly loses himself on your question as he basks in the feeling of ease and familiar comfort that fills him up. clearing his throat, he tries to return your kind smile, and finds that smiling at you somehow comes as easily to him as breathing. “to be honest,” he’s grinning at you, entirely wrapped up in the way the sunlight twinkles on your pools of (e/c) — the very ones that marvel at the way his image is painted like a greek god before you. when his eyes squint slightly, you feel your heart skip a beat and your breath catches in your throat, and you can only pray that the man you admire doesn’t notice it. “i haven’t even looked at it.”

issei feels his heart soar on the waves of your laughter, a sound so melodious that it lights up the entire cafe. you’re so bright, he thinks: a pocket of sunshine that warms his body and showers him in gold. “i’m at the point of giving up,” you confess to him, allowing your eyebrows to freely tell of the exasperation you feel. “the professor didn’t even give us that much time to finish everything,” a helpless laugh falls from your lips as you sigh. “i’ve been losing my mind over it.”

the boy chuckles softly, eyes closed as he drops his head for a second before meeting your gaze once more. “yeah, i felt that.” there’s an opportunity in front of him, he realizes; dangling from a red thread for him to reach out and grab, and issei decides that he couldn’t let it get away from him. and so, he reaches his hand out, dips his toes into the warm water, and he hopes you’ll take it and let him walk along that sunkissed beach with you. “say, would you mind if we worked together?” you watch as he shyly averts his eyes, entirely fascinated by his boyish grin and the way that a red colour dances on his brown skin. he’s beautiful, you marvel: he’s a chilly autumn evening that wraps you up in warm sweaters and the weight of a hot cup of coffee. he’s the ambience of the coffeeshop that envelops the both of you like a blanket, the smell of coffee beans roasted on a low flame and dancing with sweet creamer and caramel. “i feel like i don’t understand half of what the prof is saying most of the time, so i don’t even know how to start.”

when he finds the courage to meet your eyes once more, he sees that the very same oasis that was once so far away is now right in front of him, it’s image no longer dancing on heat induced illusions and very, very real. your cherry painted lips are the date fruits that hang from green plants: the blue of your sweater is the colour of the sky above, the reflection of it in the shallow waters that wets his mouth. and you, you’re the golden sun that kisses his skin, the one that lights up his blood with undying love and a yearning so powerful that it replaces his oxygen with you. you feel like home, he thinks as you smile at him with so much radiance that he could never imagine going a day without admiring your beauty — he wants nothing more than to see you smiling for the rest of his life.

“i’d be happy to work with you, mattsukawa-san.”

davi hits 200 followers — haikyuu!! au writing event! 💕

general taglist: @aiiishiiiteru @bootylikepeachy @tsumue

send an ask to be added!

💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞 I CAN'T SEND ENOUGH HEARTS. THANKS FOR GIVING HIM THE DEPTH THAT UCHI DIDN'T

ooc. UCHI WHO? THIS RP BLOG IS FOR MY OWN ORIGINAL CHARACTER

but seriously tysm tev… ive had this horrible man in my repertoire ever since i decided to adopt him 4 years ago and i am Ever diligent on my quest to fix his godawful writing. fwiw your portrayals of the Rest of his family are absolutely a+ 100% amazing and i can hear every post in their voices w/o a hitch ;w; i get unreasonably hyped every time i see one of your replies and i find myself going back to read and reread our threads multiple times BASICALLY I LOVE YOU AND YOUR WRITING IS INCREDIBLE

U.S. President Donald Trump during the daily press briefing on the Coronavirus pandemic at the White House, Washington, D.C. - March 17, 2020 - (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)

Multi-Pronged Approach Means Trump Will Win on Coronavirus

As the coronavirus crisis rapidly develops, the Trump administration must cope with two paradoxical problems looming above the race to prepare the public health service and shield the population as much as can be done, before the full force of the pandemic arrives.

An imaginative campaign by the government of the Peoples’ Republic of China to represent its response to the coronavirus as a triumph of Chinese efficiency predictably has won the hearts and minds of the credulous Western Left. In fact, it was a disaster of complete unpreparedness, insolent official refusal to pay the slightest attention to incoming facts, totalitarian dissembling and censorship, and the persecution of those who gave unheeded warnings.China now purports — with what must be acknowledged as majestic (though not simply admirable) aplomb — to be laying out a "silk road" of medical assistance to late-coming sufferer-nations. Of course, these nations are all victims of China’s official lies about the medical dangers it had inadvertently fostered and negligently transmitted. 

Having inflicted this pestilence on the world, China now claims to be the indispensable world leader in mastering the problem.Of course, the Chinese must not be allowed to get away with this colossal rodomontade. The United States must take the lead in repatriating pharmaceutical production from China, demanding the World Health Organization cease to be a shill-and-whitewash operation for the Peoples’ Republic, and render a truthful and objective account of how this virus got started and how it got so completely out of control.

The Chinese role must be exposed in effectively assuring the exportation of the coronavirus to the whole world, including through the large concentrations of Chinese workers building the self-important "Belt and Road" with which the Middle Kingdom will assert itself across the Eurasian land-mass, and through its failure to give advisory warnings to international travelers.China deliberately ignored the universally recognized responsibilities of all countries to report outbreaks of communicable diseases promptly and accurately.T

he world must understand that the Hong Kong protesters and the huge numbers of persecuted Uyghurs in their concentration camps (which China denies) are not freakish aberrations from some almost uniform munificence of the Peoples’ Republic.

They are the successors to other completely inoffensive groups who have been trampled underfoot, oppressed and traduced by the Beijing regime, from the long Civil War (1920s-1949) through the Great Leap Forward (1958-1962), the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), the occupation of Tibet and persecution of practitioners of all the world’s religions, especially Christianity, but also authentic Chinese religions.

There are limits to what the world can reasonably aspire to do in jurisdictions that are not our own and boil down ultimately to Chinese internal affairs. But this attempt of the Chinese government, as it blames the United States for this debacle and threatens to be sluggish about the transmission to the United States of medical supplies produced in China by American companies it had induced to invest there, requires a sharp rejoinder.

Where this creates a conundrum for the United States is that although all Chinese comments on the coronavirus have to be somewhat, or even substantially, discounted, China’s partially plausible claim that it has turned the corner and that the virus is now in retreat, is extremely useful in combating the profound panic which is sweeping the United States and the entire Western world.

In democratic countries, the media are free to hype any version of events, no matter how terrifying, and the temptation to do so in the United States is aggravated by the possibility presented to the anti-Trump media to hammer the president for incompetence and deception in an election year, and destroy the benefits of his skillful management of the economy.

This is going to require the administration to execute the sophisticated maneuver of exposing China’s duplicity and negligence, while citing the fact that even despite the Beijing regime’s blunders and disinformation, the incidence and impact of the coronavirus are clearly now declining in China.

Proper emphasis on this point will close the door that has been hurled open to unlimited panic. It has been impossible to steady the country’s nerves, and especially the shaky-legged, sweaty-palmed managers of the nation’s and people’s money, who flee like asphyxiated cockroaches whenever any threat appears that can’t be measured precisely. 

The prudent course is to assume the worst and plan and act for it. But when the worst is indiscernible, the usual response is for the great money-managers to drink the Kool-Aid of outright panic, and flee to the front of the unsettled masses and lead them over the cliff. This can be combated in only two ways: a plan of believable action based on the assurance that the country possesses the ability to deal with the problem—FDR’s genius exhortation that “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself, nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. 

"As he said at his first inauguration on March 4, 1933, our "difficulties, thank God, concern only material things." That is not the case here, and no one knows exactly where this might end since it is distinguishable from previous pandemics. Where the danger could be infinite, the Roosevelt response is not a complete solution. 

This is why, as China’s official misconduct, ineptitude, callousness, and deceit must be highlighted, the demonstrably finite character of the coronavirus threat must also be emphasized.As a completely legitimate reference point to cure panic and focus on “flattening the curve,” as the scientists say, we are doing what China did not do: take every appropriate action to minimize the human damage and shorten the life of the crisis. 

And this is where the second paradox arises: the commendable scientists, who are senior in managing the official American response, seek the most radical measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.This is natural.But the possibility of a shut-down on almost the entire population, which is already in effect in Italy, France, and Spain, and is creeping upward in the United States also, reduces the likelihood of severe attacks of an influenza that is often much nastier than any flu but is not life-threatening to more than a tiny fraction of healthy people beneath the age of 70. 

This will shorten the duration of the medical crisis. But we saw in China that it also strangles the economy, which collapsed for at least two months—there were almost no sales and little production of durable goods in China during that time.The remit of the scientists is to end the medical crisis, but the administration has the challenge of imposing total risk-avoidance measures on the susceptible elements of the population (the infirm and elderly), and urging those with minimal chance of serious, much less, mortal illness, to pursue their occupations as best they can on as risk-free a basis as they can.These are delicate balances the administration will have to sort out.

The results of the national voluntary mobilization the administration has led are already emerging. A preliminary vaccine was tested on Monday in Seattle, and the ability to test Americans — which had a very wobbly beginning, aggravated by Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar’s promise of four million tests last week, the almost complete failure to occur he blamed, a bit unconvincingly, on a "less seamless" passage from production to application — seems to be coming in a week late. 

Tests are not cures.They’re only useful for quarantining, and a person who is virus-free today may be infected tomorrow. But the psychological impact of the testing failure and the reflection on the administration’s credibility and competence were significant, but not irreversible.I predict that the administration will thread this needle and that the coronavirus crisis will be seen to be receding before the end of May.

Great teaser. Looks even better after reading /u/4rollingstock's awesome post on animated sequel timing. Frozen 2 may start with the disadvantage of coming too slow to catch the hype at its crest, and too fast to launder nostalgia, but it's smart to have the franchise grow up with its original target audience. One would anticipate states with multiple cities would have their populations per city would have lower scores. This might apply to Pennsylvania with Philly vs Pittsburgh or California with LA vs SF, but SF is actually multiple cities of the bay area:SF, SJ, Oakland. Similarly with Texas Houston, Dallas, San Antone, but would you really consider Dallas and Fort Worth separately. So that is luckily only a small concern. She earns more than me at the moment. That could change as my career path has shifted. I had an abortion dec 2016, I had only known my boyfriend (now fianc so there is hope) for a year and we were not in a financial spot to raise a child. He wanted to keep it as he is older and thought it would be his only shot at being a dad. I was 26 and in no way ready to raise a child (I had just started a new job like a month prior).. Which is why young athletes 김천출장마사지 are given a huge amount of media training and support. They are expected to behave professionally even when flustered, even when uncomfortable, even when pissed off and even when provoked (not that Max was even close to being provoked here). And it wasn a pressure situation or moment either an unwise outburst straight off the track is understandable and even the media themselves will show understanding and even discretion where they can there. My pimples are minimal and usually due to my own fault. My PIH is 김천출장마사지 fading. I am content.. 1 point submitted 4 days agoSpecial Fighter is right. H!Niles is really fast already, so save that Bold Fighter for someone else who needs the auto. Doubling.I would say that Null Followup is actually pretty overrated. This whole damn thread is cancer. Everyone is arguing about why or why not the kid was justified in beating this old man, essentially comparing the old dude to a Nazi or a KKK member, when I reality it not okay to do this under any damn circumstance. Politics in this country has become so damn divided and polarizing that noone has any humanity anymore, on either side of the spectrum.. Sutures/fractures/child screaming from ear pain? Those are a different shade of emergencies and I don think it is unreasonable to know how long the wait time is. If you needed sutures would you go to the ER with a 10 minute wait or the ER with a 6 hour wait?Would you book a flight on a day where you are told to show up and wait with no idea when the plane leaves? Would you go to a restaurant and have no idea how long it will take to get a table? Would you go to a movie with no idea when it starts?When I get a call in the ER asking me about wait times, I give them an accurate picture of what the wait time is at that moment with the caveat that it can change in an instant and let them decide if they want to come in.One other observation. If ER only saw true emergencies, about 90 95% of ER nurses would be working in a different fields because there would be no ER jobs for them.

Story Time once I was a wee lass and super into the RPG maker community and very interested in every new project coming out. Back then the amount of actually genuinely finished RPG maker games was probably in the double digits at most, and a huge majority of them weren’t commercial products.

There was however one game that was intensely marketed and hyped, and it was a “real” game that was going to cost money, and it had some nice looking graphics and all. Pretty much everyone was on the edge of their seat and once it was released I bought it immediately. It was supposed to be open world, some 40 hours long, with a sweepingly epic plot and like a billion characters.

Only it was a bit strange all in all, because the game was not only extremely slow paced and very grindy but also full of bugs, crashed suspiciously often, and had even weirder things like essential npcs or passages blocked off by geometry, clearly unsolvable puzzles, unbeatable enemies leading to abrupt game overs, and so on.

Now, mind that back in the day RPG maker games weren’t pathetically easy to unpack/decompile into working, editable projects - it was a brand new version of RPG maker with brand new encryption and, as far as the general public knew, completely inscrutable. Some people were able to make incremental progress in the game by getting around impassable obstacles and unbeatable enemies by using hex editors, or cheat engine - that’s how hardcore dedicated people were, because it was SO. HYPED.

I was even more highly determined though and with the help of my partner, who deep dived into some japanese-language forums and figured out how to work the one functioning decryption tool, we finally cracked the game open. We had it as an editable RPG maker project laid bare, with access to all of its maps, scripts, everything.

Here’s what we found: the game-breaking bugs, numerous “mistakes” throughout and the unsolvable puzzles? Were no accident at all. They were there to mask the fact that the game ended abruptly about an hour into it, with nothing close to a plot resolution and not even close to the full advertised party of characters.

Since I’d been VERY diligently cataloguing all the bugs and glitches and crashes on the game’s forum, super excited to help, I obviously felt more than a little bit cheated when it turned out there was basically no game. So I went public with all the receipts immediately, posted screenshots that clearly showed that there was no more game at all after a particular unsolvable puzzle. I think my thread was called something like “[Bug Report] After the cave, there is no more game”

The dev, who’s been seemingly helpful and “working hard on fixing the bugs” up until that point, went silent for a few days. Then they claimed that they mistakenly uploaded an older, unfinished version of the game. The community was obviously in an uproar at that point. Finally, after “attempting” to upload that entirely fictional finished version for something like two weeks, and things mysteriously going wrong all the time, they owned up to the fact that yes, this was all they had, they wanted the money (the game was something like $30) for a school trip ASAP and were basically planning to string their fans along - by pretending the unsolvable puzzles and unbeatable bosses were just very hard, and no one found a way past them yet - for as long as it took them to finish the other 90% of the project.

In the end I got my refund and became very suspicious of any indie games that lock their obviously paltry content behind irrationally long grinds (looking at you graveyard keeper).

Since this is not a callout, I’m not putting the name of the game here - it was eventually finished, several years later. Its own website - and especially the forums - have been carefully scrubbed from existence. It’s available on steam for $10, with mixed reviews - a lot of them pointing out that the game is extremely tedious, boring and slow, and that a huge majority of the advertised 40 hours comes from the unreasonable amounts of grinding required to progress. It also seems that a lot of its pretty graphics were traced or outright ripped from older, more obscure games.

The Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl situation.

*Op-Ed*

The Hype

Pokemon fans tend to be among some of the most abused fan bases when it comes to classic franchises. Some would say things started going south with the release of Sun and Moon, some would say X and Y, and then, of course, there is the "Gen Wunners," as they're usually called, who tend to believe strictly in gen 1 and 2 superiority. One common thread in all Pokémon discourse is that no Pokémon fan can agree with another what constitutes a "good" Pokémon game looks like.

I was born in 1992, making me the perfect candidate to be a "Gen Wunner," and I technically wear it, while I do resent the title. that is only to preface that when Diamond and Pearl was released, I was in 9th grade and found most of the Sinnoh Pokemon to be overly designed and ugly. But to the generation of Pokemon fans younger than me, Diamond and Pearl is to them what Red and Blue is to me, meaning there are thousands of people in their early 20′s who believe this to be one of the if not the best Pokemon entry and will defend this game at all cost.

So it's 2001, and the Game Boy Advanced just launched, a console incapable of trading with the previous Game Boy. This presented a problem for Gamefreak, with older Pokemon being harder to find in Generation 3′s Ruby and Sapphire, so they made remakes of the first generation of Pokemon games as Fire Red and Leaf Green. This started a trend of remakes, the latest 2014s Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire (or technically Lets GO Eevee and Pikachu). This created quite the expectation for several growing early 20 somethings. “Where is my Diamond and Pearl remake?” they collectively asked. 

The Announcement

Despite the cynical takes I’ve seen on the Pokemon 25th anniversary "Pokemon Presents," I didn't think it was nearly as bad as they claim it to be. For example, I thought the intro movie was an entertaining and nostalgic look back at almost every Pokemon game in the last 25 years. The attention to detail with the titles they chose to highlight was impressive and almost like a sign that they remember when the series was overall of higher quality. While I am a bit skeptical, another highlight for me was Pokemon Legends Arceus announcement. The idea of an open-world Pokemon Game set in a past version of Sinnoh sounds intriguing, I saw how Gamefreak handled open-world areas in Pokemon Sword and Shield and you can color me unimpressed and apprehensive.

Then they show the highly anticipated and expected, Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl. The trailer starts off pretty strong, with a montage of memorable scenes from the original DS game, which in hindsight only made the reveal of the games visuals all the more devastating.

Cut to a shot of the character Dawn in her starting home but wait, what's wrong with Dawn? she is now horribly disfigured. Im usually a fan of “chibi” aesthetics but this one felt immediately lifeless. The character has been foreshortened with the grace of someone using hacksaw for the first time. It seems as if no artistic consideration was put into how these characters would look in this new style. This feeling only grows as you continue to watch the trailer and see how the "chibi" style fared with all of the non-player characters, which, in my opinion, is far worse. It seems as if they were more concerned with making 3D models that matched the origional games sprites that they didnt stop to consider how these models appeared. 

Then comes the larger models used in battle, what some people claim to be the remakes saving grace (visually speaking at least). It’s understandable why people claim those models look better than the overworld models, but the improvement is minimal, to say the least. These battle models are larger and more detailed but just as stiff, lifeless and flat as the overworld models. Not to mention the Pokemon are using the same tired models they've been recycling since generation 6 and continue to battle in spaces that remind me of what a low budget high school play looks like.

Besides goofy and awkward walking animation, the trailer doesn't really have much else to say past this point. It really does feel like ILCA said, "you like Diamond and Pearl? here it is again, but we made it ugly".

The Fallout

This is when the situation begins to unfold in different pockets of social media, I primarily experienced it on Twitter. While it did seem like most Pokemon fans were rightfully disappointed in Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearls appearance, both in terms of technical graphics and art style, it seemed like another group of fans seemed vehemently opposed to any and all criticism of the trailer claiming "we finally got what we wanted"

While it merely comes down to a matter of artistic preference, I don't think it's unreasonable to hold one of the highest-grossing franchises in the world to higher standards. Additionally, this is only one in a long series of disappointment from Pokemon titles, and I liked Pokemon Let's go. Die-hard fans who have been with the franchise from the beginning are scared that they'll never see what they consider to be a high-quality Pokemon game ever again.

Hope?

There might be light at the end of the tunnel after all. Like I previously stated, Pokemon Legends Arceus seems like an intriguing enough concept, although I do remain skeptical. Also, Pokemon Diamond and Pearl were good Pokemon games, so while the art style might look silly and animate stiffly, the general game should be fun.

After all, I am looking forward to playing this game and will more than likely buy it at full price.

What the heck is wrong with the Pelicans?

The New Orleans Pelicans are in the middle of a lost season.

The Pelicans problems are bigger than just missing Zion Williamson.

Months after being a popular pick as a darkhorse playoff contender in the aftermath of the Anthony Davis saga, the New Orleans Pelicans stink. Head coach Alvin Gentry being escorted off the court after receiving his second technical foul for arguing a non-call in the third-quarter of a 130-119 home loss against the Orlando Magic signals new lows. The Pels have dropped 12 straight games, leaving them with a 6-21 record. That matches the Hawks and Knicks, and only bests the hapless Warriors.

The Pelicans are missing their central piece. Zion Williamson is supposed to be the franchise-saver that makes losing Davis hurt less. But the rookie’s absence shouldn’t make New Orleans drop this low in the standings.

In the 12-game losing streak, New Orleans has been outscored by 12.6 points per 100 possessions, per StatMuse. Zion’s yet to play an NBA game, but the team still has Jrue Holiday, Brandon Ingram, Lonzo Ball, J.J. Redick, Derrick Favors and Josh Hart. They aren’t playing a glorified G-League core like the Warriors. So what’s wrong with New Orleans?

The Pelicans have turned in some rough performances

New Orleans is playing uninspiring basketball right now, and they haven’t won a game since Nov. 21 against a Suns team missing three of its four best players (Deandre Ayton, Ricky Rubio and Aron Baynes.) Three of their other six wins have come against the Portland Trail Blazers (Damian Lillard didn’t play), Golden State Warriors (D’Angelo Russell, Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry didn’t play), and Los Angeles Clippers (Kawhi Leonard didn’t play). The only true wins New Orleans owns are over the Denver Nuggets on Halloween and Charlotte Hornets.

Some of the Pelicans’ losses have been egregious, too. An 11-point home loss to the Magic stings, as do 11-point home and 38-point road beatings by the Mavericks in a four-day span. A 15-point loss to the Bucks, 25-point loss to the Clippers, 18-point loss to the Raptors, and double-digit losses to the Warriors and Nets don’t help either. This team isn’t chasing the eight-seed. It’s chasing more lottery balls.

What’s going wrong?

The Pels have the No. 26 net rating in the league, getting outscored by 7.01 points per 100 possessions. Their offense ranks No. 20 in the league, and defensively, they rank No. 29, better than only the Wizards.

We may have placed expectation a bit too high on the young Pels. Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, Josh Hart, Kenrich Williams, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Frank Jackson and Jaxson Hayes combine as seven players in the rotation with four or fewer seasons experience. Williamson will make eight.

The defensive side of the ball has been weighing New Orleans down more than anything else. Mike Prada broke down the common threads of what’s gone wrong, including botched switches, late rotations, and maybe even an ill-fitting scheme for a team this new and raw. The Pels’ defense is led by former Rockets guru Jeff Bzdelk, but his methods might be too intricate for a contingent of unfamiliar kids. New Orleans is allowing two more points per 100 possessions than last year.

It’s hard to pin blame on any one player for what’s gone wrong on either end of the ball, but Ball is having an especially disappointing season, and has lost his starting job. On the defensive end, he and Holiday were to form a stout perimeter, but that hasn’t happened. His reformed jump shot has fallen, too. He’s shooting an ugly 37 percent from the field, and just 34 percent from range.

The loss of a stud rookie coupled with a plateauing core piece and a mess of a defensive ensemble is causing this slip. It’s unreasonable to think Zion can clean so much up so quickly.

There is one big win from this mess, though

Brandon Ingram is, at long last, playing at an All-Star level. The biggest piece of the Anthony Davis trade is scoring 25 points per game on 50 percent shooting from the field, and 41 percent off six attempts per game from three. He’s improved his free throw shooting to make 84 percent of six tries per night, too, along with seven rebounds and four assists.

Ingram is a star — on the offensive end, at least — which is enough in the long term if Williamson is able to hold up to a percentage of his hype. Ingram’s been a really bright spot for a team that stinks.

So what should New Orleans do?

The Pelicans have a number of tough decision ahead, but some are simpler than others. At this point, with such an outside chance at the postseason (and really, for what?), New Orleans should be a big-time trade deadline seller. Starting right now, the Pelicans should start a thoughtful search for Redick’s and Favors’ next homes, hopefully stockpiling more draft picks and young pieces along the way.

At 35, Redick is still shooting 46 percent from range on seven tries per game, and he has another year after this one remaining on an NBA-affordable $13 million per season contract. Could New Orleans land another first-round pick for him? Favors is a utility big man off the bench on an expiring deal, too. The Pels should be in no immediate rush to ship either of them off. But they should let buyers know now, and let the bidding commence.

The more difficult questions lie on the coaching staff. Is Gentry the right fit for what’s to come long-term? Will Bzdelk modify the defensive scheme that worked so brilliantly in Houston? Those decisions carry more weight. And it may be too unfair to make those calls before Williamson plays a game. But monitor them closely.

What is clear is that Zion won’t even save these Pelicans. New Orleans tried to field a competitive team but couldn’t, and that’s ok. It’s Year One of what’s to be a long and arduous process, and the franchise has more than most do at this early stage. Maybe that’s why we expected too much.

Rum Arc Discussion Series: Iori Muga

Iori Muga is the latest recurring character that was introduced. There are many that has dismissed him as a potential Rum suspect, so I’m gonna go through everything worth noting in his introduction case(File 981-983).

Previous Discussion Topic (The Kohji Case): http://masterdetectivexx.tumblr.com/post/156678770474/rum-arc-discussion-thread-plot-characters

Iori’s plot involvement

As we know, at the end of Iori’s introduction case(File 983), we found out that he was Momiji’s butler, who was spying on Heiji during the case. The moment he was revealed to be connected to Momiji, a romance-subplot-related upcoming-movie guest, a majority(me included) almost immediately disqualified him as a Rum candidate, in the first few seconds. Many seems to think that Momiji’s story will end, or that the love drama will conclude, in the movie, due to the movie focusing on Heiji and Kazuha’s romance and Momiji being a love rival, as well as due to the cover art(drawn by Gosho) where Momiji is crying(as if a heart-break took place). There are however two important points that contradicts this notion. The first point is the fact that both Momiji and Iori are canon characters. This means that they started as manga characters and will without a doubt end as manga characters. Judging by Gosho’s history with the movies and how he treats the canon relative to the movie, the manga is not dependent on the movies. This ultimately means that Momiji’s and Iori’s story will be dealt with within the manga and not conclude in the movies. The second point is the anime schedule, relative to the movie. The anime and the movies always goes hand in hand, in which the anime schedule is always adjusted to the movie premiere. Recently, it has involved adding special side-episodes that are supposed to tie the movies with the anime. Since the anime has no chance of catching up to Iori’s and Momiji’s latest appearances(File 983) before the movie premiere, there’s no chance for the movie to smoothly connect with their anime appearances(in which Momiji is still an active love rival) so that it can conclude her story in the movie. This means that the movie will not impact Momiji’s love story and her appearance will likely just serve as fanservice and teaser for her manga appearances. This means that Gosho’s cover art was just another red-herring(like the M18 cover with Akai being targeted) to generate hype for the movie, and this also means that Iori has the potential to be involved in the main plot like any other new character in the Rum arc.

Iori’s identity

So far, Iori has only appeared in one case, but in this case(File 981-983) there was a lot of indications that makes him a valid Rum suspect. I’ll go through all the individual descriptions of Rum. Rum is said to be a “strong man”.

Iori hasn’t shown any physical feats that can portray him as a strong man, however, Gosho gave us an important hint that suggest that Iori has certain physical capabilities. During his first intro chapter(File 981), he intervened in Heiji’s and Amuro’s conversation. That moment, Iori took Heiji and Conan off-guard, and they reacted by thinking that they couldn’t sense his presence.

Considering that Iori revealed his presence when he intervened in the conversation, it’s safe to assume that he didn’t intend to keep himself hidden. This means that he sneaked up on them unintentionally, meaning that it’s a habit. The habit of concealing oneself is a very common trait by infiltrators, investigators, and assassins. This indicates that Iori is at least physically trained in concealing himself, which usually follows with other physical capabillities that could portray him as “strong”(depending on his original occupation). During the second chapter of his intro(File 982), we find out that he was standing in front of the exit after the blackout ended. Amuro suspected that Iori was trying to flee, but Iori excused it as him trying to stop anyone that would attempt to flee, after hearing a scream.

Iori’s excuse is very questionable. Based on his excuse, it means that his first instinct was that the scream was a murder. This is a very suspicious preconception, since it would imply that Iori is used to hearing screams during murders. For him to react that fast after hearing one scream, it would imply that his reaction, of going to the exit, was also a habit. This habit is also very suspicious, because it’s commonly associated with someone who’s used to being present during crimes. The most common people that are involved in the heat of a crime are usually the criminals themselves. Following this line of thought, it would mean that his habit could be something that stems from him being an assassin. A common assassination strategy is usually to blind the target with darkness, sneak up on them and finish them off, and then immediately hurry to the exit before the lights turn on. This could be why Iori reacted to the scream by trying to flee(because he’s used to fleeing the moment he hears screams that he instigated). If he’s an assassin, then it would naturally come with physical capabilities that are meant to take down your target(just like how Rum was capable of physically taking down Kohji, before drugging him), which coincides with the “strong” description of Rum. Rum is said to be an “effeminate man”. At the end of Iori’s intro case(File 983), we get a glimpse at Iori’s true appearance(without a hat) and he’s revealed to have long curly hair. This instantly fits with Rum’s description about a feminine appearance.

Rum is said to be an “old man”. There’s another hidden information about Iori that Gosho was hinting at. The first thing Iori did during his intro(File 981) is that he intervened with Amuro’s and heiji’s conversation. The historical references he was mentioning, connected to the “unlucky day friday 13th”, all originated from Europe. They were specific instances in European history that are not common knowledge in Japan. This was alluding to Iori having a European influence. If we however connect this indication with a very clear appearance that Iori has, we can come to the conclusion that Iori is most likely half-European. The appearance I’m referring to is his eyebrows. Iori’s eyebrows are light-coloured/blond. That seems to suggest that his natural hair colour is actually light/blond.

Since he showed knowledge of a Japanese superstition(Butsumetsu, File 981), and since no one has commented on him having a foreign look, Iori is most likely Japanese, and based on his natural hair colour and knowledge of Europe, he’s most likely half-european(probably British). This would make him a young light/blond-haired Japanese, which is very rare and would attract a lot of attention when seen in public.

Iori most likely dyed his hair black to blend in with other Japanese people. With his natural appearance however, it’s not hard to believe that he could be described as an old man, if seen from afar, because only old men, that are japanese, usually have light-colored hair. Rum has a prosthetic eye. During Iori’s intro case, we didn’t get many opportunities to observe his movement and behavior that would suggest that he can’t see with one eye. However, in File 988, Rumi, who seemingly has two functioning eyes, got suspected of having one disfunctional eye(the right eye). This was well crafted by Gosho, since he made sure that most of Rumi’s head movement were consistent so that it wouldn’t reveal that she has two functioning eyes. In my Rumi discussion, the evidence that I used to prove that she has two functioning eyes was that she turned both sides to look back without turning her body. Her left side is proven to work, since almost all her movement when looking back is to the left side. Her right side however was only one instance in File 968, when she was arguably looking at Genta’s direction.

It’s very hard to tell if her pupils are on the right(because she picked up on the robbers’ presence behind them, like Haibara), or if she’s really looking at Genta. If it’s not the latter(which I first assumed it was), then her being one-eyed isn’t necessarily ruled out, meaning that Haibara’s suspicion in File 988 isn’t a completely unreasonable outcome. The point of this Rumi topic however is the fact that both of Rumi’s eyes have been shown to move around, depending on the direction she is looking, and yet, Gosho is showing that she’s valid enough to be suspected as someone with an artificial eye(which shouldn’t be able to move). This could possibly mean that Gosho is disregarding the eye movement of characters with unnoticeable prosthetic eyes for plot conveniences(similarly to Conan’s voice-changing bowtie not being noticed as the sound from a speaker). If that’s the case, then Iori, who has shown to have moving eyes(like when he looked at the door to the side or at the phone below, File 982), might still have a prosthetic eye.

If he has a prosthetic eye, then it’s probably his left eye. My reasoning for that is based on Gosho’s artistic choices when he creates a reflection effect on Rumi’s glasses. All those times when the reflection covered one eye, it was always the right eye, which is being suspected to be disfunctional(File 968/979/980/988).

Simarly to this, the two instances in Iori’s introduction case, both reflections covered the left eye(File 981/982).

If Iori is Rum, isn’t he too young for the 17-year-old case? By the time of the Kohji case, Iori was at least 13 years old(since his “Iori identity” is 30). That was the age that Shiho became a full-fledged high-ranked scientist of the Black Organization, due to her being an academic prodigy. Similarly to that, Rum could’ve also been a prodigy, that showed so much potential in an early age and was able to carry out assassinations. Teenagers mature at different rates, so it’s not impossible that he had an acceptable build and a lot of techniques to take down his opponents before finishing them off(in this case, with poison). Following my previous speculations on the potential Wakita-foreshadowing(About the boss betting so much on Rum and that Wakita sees Rum as weak), it’s possible that Wakita’s underestimation of Rum is based on Rum’s inexperience and how he’s too young to be the second-in-command, while the Boss disregards that(similarly to Sherry’s case), and bets a lot on Rum’s potential of being an excellent commander. Iori’s overall portrayal of being “Watson”, in his introduction case, could be Gosho’s foreshadowing to Iori’s overall role in the story. Since the boss is supposed to be a parallell to “Holmes”, then Rum would equate to “Watson”. The boss is most likely a sherlockian, due to him using “Sherlock Holmes” references to the experimental drug(Apotoxin [4869=Shi-Ha-Ro-Ku=Sherlock], and “incomplete detective”[APTX database password: “Shelling Ford”]), so Rum being “Watson” to the boss isn’t an unreasonable assumption. Also, since friday 13th(Iori’s intro day) involved major main plot development before(Akai’s “death”), it’s not weird that Gosho would intentionally use that day as a little nod to the readers that Iori’s introduction is just as important.

Iori’s goal

If Iori is Rum, then the only possible reason to why he would be Momiji’s butler is her family, the Ooka, or someone the Ooka family are close to. So far, we don’t have enough information to go beyond that, but if that’s the case, then his butler behavior is definitely an act, in order to achieve something bigger. Summary:

- Movie 21 will not resolve Momiji’s and Iori’s current subplot.

- Iori is a valid Rum suspect, and could in fact be Rum.