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apple-grass-and-smiles · 4 years

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Anakin Skywalker and Gifts

Hi, welcome to another round of my Star Wars thoughts. Ever since the Phantom Apprentice aired I’ve been thinking a lot about Anakin and the gifts he’s given people. As a person who spends his entire life with relatively few possessions he can call his own, it is logical to assume that physical gifts are especially meaningful to Anakin. Over the past few months, I have also been thinking a lot about how Anakin is defined by the women in his life more so than the men (male characters often act as a foil to Anakin, which is a meta of its own about Anakin and his more stereotypically feminine characteristics). Then, because my brain does that, it felt logical to analyze Anakin’s gifts that he has given the women in his life and how those physical tokens represent his relationship with them. Below I’ll go over gifts Anakin gives Shmi, Padmé, Ahsoka, and Leia in roughly chronological order. (There’s also a TL;DR at the end if you want the short version.)

Shmi and C-3P0

The gift Anakin gives Shmi is a partially-finished C-3P0. He states in TPM that he is building Threepio to help Shmi and when Anakin leaves, Threepio acts as his stand-in (something that is a bit of a trend for Anakin). Anakin knows that his mother’s life is difficult and that the best thing he can give her is someone who will help to ease the burdens she carries. By leaving Threepio with Shmi he is doing his best to ensure that 1) someone will be there to take care of her the same way she always did for him and 2) that she won’t be alone. While we don’t see much interaction between Shmi and Threepio in Legends or canon, it is easy to assume that, especially in the early times after Anakin left, Threepio was Shmi’s main companion and tie to her son, so Anakin’s gift is more a surrogate son and constant companion than a protocol droid.

It is also worth noting that while Anakin clearly didn’t want Threepio sold (he says so in TPM), the droid could have been sold and brought Shmi money if that was what was needed. You could claim that Anakin also left some financial security and a better chance at Shmi buying her freedom by leaving Threepio; this just has less canon support.

Padmé and...

The Japor Snippet

Anakin gives Padmé tons of gifts over their time together. The first, and most frequently referenced, is the japor snippet. Anakin tells Padmé exactly what this gift is supposed to give/represent for her (good fortune and a reminder of him). From an out-of-universe point of view, the snippet also acts as a great visual symbol of Anakin and Padmé’s relationship. You see it a lot in ROTS as a marker for when Anakin and Padmé get to be themselves instead of their public personas. Ultimately, Lucas uses the snippet as a visual shortcut to remind us of the love between these two and Anakin’s intense infatuation/love/devotion for Padmé. For simplicity’s sake, and in hopes of keeping this from getting too long since the japor snippet’s symbolism can easily be an entire meta on its own, I’m saying that it represents good fortune and Anakin’s enduring devotion to Padmé.

C-3P0

This is a gift that is really only explicitly stated (to my knowledge) in Stover’s ROTS novelization. He writes a scene where Anakin passes Threepio onto Padmé very early on in their marriage as a “devotion-gift”. He explains that he can’t really keep Threepio because he’s a Jedi and that even if he could it wouldn’t make much sense for a Jedi to have a protocol droid. When “giving” Threepio to Padmé, Anakin explains that he “didn’t have many friends when [he] was a kid...so [he] built one”. In this case, Threepio once again acts as a stand-in for Anakin when he is away, but this time the droid is more of a friend than a helper or son like he was for Shmi. Anakin knows he can’t always be there for Padmé so he passes along his childhood friend and one of his greatest creations to her so that she can always have a friend with her.

His Lightsaber

This scene is great because once again Anakin lays out exactly what this particular gift represents. He repeats Obi-Wan’s mantra that the lightsaber is a Jedi’s life before handing it over to Padmé. There’s really not much to explain here, but this does create a nice parallel once Anakin gives Ahsoka her lightsabers, which, partially, symbolize him giving her her life/ability survive. Here he puts his life in Padmé’s hands as a sign of trust and devotion and later he will hand Ahsoka her blades to get across a similar message.

His Padawan Braid

Honorable mention to this *maybe*-kind-of-canon gift that features in the 2003 Clone Wars and the Stover ROTS novelization. In both pieces of media, Anakin gives Padmé his Padawan braid almost immediately after being Knighted. In Stover’s book, he says that the braid is a devotion-gift to Padmé and the “one thing that [Anakin] truly owned, that he had earned, that he was not required to renounce. One gift he could give to celebrate their love.” There are lots of things this gift could represent (I personally lean towards that it suggests that while he has devoted the past decade to the Jedi, he plans to give his future to Padmé), but since the braid really has no presence in things that are undeniably canon that I know of, we’re keeping this short and literal and saying the braid equals his devotion to Padmé.

Ahsoka and Her Lightsabers-

At this point I think there have easily been thousands of words written about Anakin giving Ahsoka back her lightsabers and all of the ones I have seen are stunning. In particular I want to point out Dave Filoni’s interpretation of what the lightsabers, and the fact that Anakin modified them to be blue, represent:

“Him tinkering with her lightsabers while she is gone shows that he was always thinking of her. And the lightsabers are then a representation of her in the story, and his thoughtfulness regarding her.” -Dave Filoni (transcript taken from here and the quote is in this video)

So, for Filoni and I blue lightsabers equal a representation of Ahsoka’s role in Anakin’s life. If you want to read more about this idea, I’d strongly recommend these: meta by @soccialcreature and @novaewalker, fic-like meta by @cross-d-a, and meta by @meandmyechoes. They all say what I’m thinking much more succinctly and clearly!

The other angle I want to point out is written about beautifully by @gffa here. Basically, the lightsabers come to represent not just Anakin’s role in Ahsoka’s life, but also the Jedi and the home and people Ahsoka desperately wants to return to. Lightsabers have always been the symbol of the Jedi both in- and out-of-universe. As has been mentioned and shown countless times in canon, lightsabers are also a symbol of a Jedi’s ability to survive (”This weapon is your life.”) and Anakin giving Ahsoka back her lightsabers is ultimately what keeps her alive throughout the Siege of Mandalore arc and her leaving one of them behind is what sells the story of her death, protecting her from being hunted by the Empire for a while.

Ultimately, the lightsabers are full of symbolism, but it is most worth noting that they represent: 1) Anakin caring/thinking about Ahsoka, 2) the Jedi and Ahsoka’s chance to return to them and Anakin, and 3) Ahsoka’s ability to survive the events that will follow.

Side note: I think it is also worth noting that Anakin tried to give Ahsoka back her silka beads at the end of the S5, but she turns them down. I’d argue that while the lightsabers stand for the Jedi as a group, the beads were a symbol of Anakin asking Ahsoka specifically to come back as his Padawan. When Anakin offered the silka beads he wanted Ahsoka to come back and to have nothing have changed, which is why she has to turn them down. The lightsabers are an open invitation to rejoin the Jedi when she is ready and a promise that he will accept her back whenever and however she chooses to return.

Leia and Luke-

This one is a bit tricky. Leia obviously doesn’t have a great relationship with Anakin and Anakin doesn’t ever get a chance to develop a meaningful one with her. However, I think Leia is fundamental in understanding Anakin and that’s why I felt it was important to include her in this. She is probably the character who Anakin would say is the best representation of his legacy since she manages to symbolize so many parts of what makes Anakin Anakin. (She is a blood relative to Shmi and Padmé and therefore representative, at least in appearance and genetics, of them; she has a lot of Ahsoka’s personality; if you stick with Stover’s ROTS then she’s the child that Anakin sensed was focused on since he didn’t sense Luke...; she’s a great amalgamation of traits and people that defined Anakin.) While we never have an obvious moment where Vader hands over a gift to Leia the same way he does in all the examples above, I would argue that Anakin’s gift to Leia is the most meaningful one of all: he gives her Luke.

People have pointed out over the years (I tried to find the posts about it but couldn’t; if you find one, please let me know) that Leia must have been thrilled to learn Luke was her brother because a twin meant she had family again. Luke is one of Leia’s best friends and a source of hope for her. Legends, and possibly canon that I don’t know about, has moments where Luke helps Leia to find the strength and peace to finally be able to forgive Vader for the horrible things he did to her and that helps her to be able to be happier and more fulfilled. This is definitely the most abstract of all the gifts, but I think it is important to recognize Luke and the love, forgiveness, and peace he brings into Leia’s life as the one gift that Anakin gave his daughter. He gave her so much pain, but also a person to help carry her through it, which is ultimately what all of his gifts have been about. Luke and Leia are the culmination of Anakin’s attempts to give companionship and love to the women he loves most in the galaxy.

TL;DR-

All of Anakin’s gifts to the women he loves are meant to represent something more abstract/deeper he wants to give them. Shmi gets Threepio who acts as a surrogate for her missing son and also provides much-needed help. Padmé gets multiple gifts from Anakin: the japor snippet (representing good fortune and her relationship with Anakin), C-3P0 (to be her friend when Anakin is away), his lightsaber (lightsabers equal the life of the Jedi they belong to), and his Padawan braid (open to interpretation, though I think, and Stover implies by calling it a devotion-gift, it’s a sign of him devoting his future to her). Ahsoka gets her lightsabers from Anakin, which represent that she will always have a place with the Jedi, the place she has in his life, and her ability to survive. The modification of the colors signify that he has continued to think about and care for her while she has been gone. Finally, Anakin gives Leia her twin brother, who helps to fill Leia’s need for family and brings additional peace, forgiveness, and joy into her life. All of these add together to tell a story of Anakin trying throughout his life to pass along love and his companionship to the women that mean the most to him.

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catflowerqueen · 4 years

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Sableye Backstory

So here’s that backstory I promised you all months ago now… and which I worked on instead of writing the actual paper I have due this week….

I’m going to go ahead and refer to the sableye by name throughout the narrative for ease of understanding, but none of them actually had individual names until some varying point after meeting Laura.

General Backstory:

This will also have to be split in several parts, since the six sableye that I lovingly refer to as the “Sableye Gang” actually started out as two distinct groups. Sort of.

Technically speaking, all six sableye and their families were originally part of a bigger clan/tribe of sableye, so they spent part of their early life together. They all had varied relationships to their blood relatives, but the six of them were always very close, and good friends with each other. They had their squabbles, of course, but more in the manner of close siblings—even though only Seis and Trois are actually related by blood. Or at least, they have the closest blood relationship—some of the others could probably be considered cousins, if only distantly, considering how tight-knit the clan used to be, but no one really bothered to do any sort of genealogical study to confirm that, nor do they really care either way. They’re all around the same age, with Cinq being the oldest and Trois the youngest—the age difference between the two of them probably isn’t any bigger than three years or so, however.

The leader of this clan was Seis and Trois’ grandfather. After his death, when the eldest of the gang (Cinq) was around six or seven, there was a schism in the group over which of the grandfather’s two sons should be the next leader. Ultimately, Seis and Trois’ uncle would win—and he ended up banishing the families that opposed him, so the gang was split up when Seis and Trois’ family was forced to leave. I’ll call this group “Group One,” because even though it’s the smaller of the two groups, it makes a bit more sense chronologically speaking to talk about this group first as far as Seis and Trois are concerned.

Group One

This group did not fare well at all. They were smaller in number, and couldn’t take on bigger groups of pokémon, or strong solitary pokémon, and so often lost fights over food/territory. It wasn’t long before their leader—Seis and Trois’ dad—decreed that in order to survive, they needed to get rid of the dead weight. By this, he meant the kids—including his own sons. Luckily for the duo, however, their mother loved them very, very much and protected them, covering their escape. But she was severely injured in the process, and didn’t survive long. Her sons kept her chest gem as a memento, and then buried her before moving on and trying to make a life of their own. The safest thing for them was to keep moving and work on speed (and acting skills, in Seis’ case), since they’d already seen the results of what happened when a too-small, too-weak group tried to assert dominance—and they had the added handicap of being children. They managed fairly well for themselves for a year or two… until Trois got really, really sick when Seis was around 8-9 years old. So sick, in fact, that Seis feared he would die, especially since he didn’t have any medical training and didn’t know how to help.

Luckily for them… when Seis was out looking for some clean water to at least try and keep his brother comfortable, he ran into the Little Imp, who was out with Dusknoir on a sort of reconnaissance mission, and he convinced her to help. She basically bullied Dusknoir into going out and getting medicinal fruits and things—either by gathering them himself in the future or getting Dialga/Celebi to send him into the past to get some (because at this point I’m not entirely sure whether or not Little Imp and Celebi had their brief meeting that forced Celebi into moving away from Grovyle and closer to Dialga, where he could keep a watch over her). With her help, Trois manages to recover—though he’ll always have some health/physical development issues stemming from this incident. The only reason that she doesn’t adopt them on the spot is that Seis’ acting skills are so great, even at this stage, that he convinces her that he is way older than he actually is, and that this illness was a freak occurrence and the two do just fine by themselves usually—he totally has everything handled.

He does NOT have everything handled, but the two adults kind of scare him a little (or a lot) despite how helpful they’ve been—Little Imp because of her intensity and how genuine she is in her kindness and caring (since its something he hasn’t seen since his mother passed away) and Dusknoir because he’s just being his typical suspicious and intimidating self—and Seis fooled him as far as ages go, too. He would have probably toned things down at least a little had he known Seis was a child, and not just Trois, he would have toned things down a bit—given his own backstory, he’s always been pretty good with children. Though, granted, the children he’s most familiar with were actually fairly well-adjusted, considering the circumstances.

In any case, despite him not having nearly as good a grip on things as leads everyone he’s ever interacted with to believe, he actually managed fairly well after this incident.

Group Two:

This group consisted of the remaining four sableye and their families. They mostly kept the same lifestyle that they’d had up until this point, as the group was still fairly large. Nothing major happened with them for roughly four or five years. But when the kids were around 9-10… the group’s leader made a humongous mistake that changed the course of their lives.

Safe spaces to hide and rest are at a premium in the dark future, even for an experienced group like the sableye clan, so when they come across a cave—complete with a sort of door mechanism guarding the entrance—that looks untouched, despite being very well-hidden and near a grove of fruit trees… they decide to try and make it their new base for a while. But the fact that it was so untouched despite being in such a great location should have set off some major warning signals, because shortly after the adults start trying to force the door open… an absolutely furious Dialga shows up. Apparently, this location was the equivalent of a holy place, and Dialga does not take well to the perceived desecration. He starts a massacre, going so far as to actually ignore and push aside the Little Imp—who had been frantically trying to catch up to him and then stop him—and then the next thing the kids know, all the adults are dead. The only reason the kids survive is that the Little Imp shields them with her own body—going so far as to gather the absolutely freaked out kids in her arms and then turn her back to Dialga so that he wouldn’t be able to push her aside again—and then makes a desperate plea and tries to bargain with him. Dialga is too far gone to listen to reason—but he’s apparently still able to parse through plans of vengeance.

Dialga is mad because the adult sableye were trying to break into a location that’s extremely precious to her, right? So if anyone deserves the right to punish the sableye, it would be her. But simply killing them is a waste, when there are more productive things that could be done—like making them into an object lesson for anyone else foolish enough to cross Dialga. And what good is an example if it can only be shown off once? Especially in this crazy world, where people are liable to forget things if they aren’t constantly exposed to it. So even though she absolutely hates the phrasing and implications, the Little Imp finally manages to secure the lives of the four kids by, essentially, putting them under her control and trading their lives for their freedom. It’s the only thing that makes the slightest bit of sense to Dialga, even though he hasn’t quite been appeased by the carnage he already wrought. In his mind, they owe the Little Imp everything—not because she spared their lives, but because they tried to ruin something that belongs to her, so she is owed repayment of some sort. Even if they didn’t actually do anything, and the whole thing was an accident.

But the Little Imp hates it, absolutely hates it, because she doesn’t want the kids to feel like they owe her anything, or that they have to be servants. She just wants them to live, and to be able to be kids. But she knows that because of what Dialga just did and said, and because of what the world in general is like… that can’t happen. Especially not now.

Still, despite the unfortunate implications and the trauma, she—and Dusknoir—try to help the kids and raise them the best they can. She doesn’t feel like she can really be a mother figure to them (which is why she never attempts to give any of them names—along with the fact that, as an adult, she actually has the chance to learn about pokémon naming conventions in general, and how some just don’t give specific names to their kids, for various reasons [such as in Dusknoir’s family, where the tradition is that the eldest child of the family remains unnamed in order to “carry on the family name/line/etc.” while all subsequent children get their own name. So Dusknoir, as the eldest, only has his species name while his younger brother, who remained a duskull, did get an actual name]), and she actually feels kind of awkward around them given the technicalities surrounding their situation… but she still tries. And it eventually starts to work—at least, a little. Their relationship is extremely complicated, and they still think of her and Dusknoir as more their bosses/masters than anything like a family… but they become extremely fond of her. They come to adore her, really, and feel safe enough to express the fact that they’re extremely grateful that she saved them—even if they don’t really get why she did. But before she can try to teach them more, or get them to understand their own worth—or the fact that they’re allowed to be angry that she couldn’t do more for them, that she chose this option rather than trying harder to change Dialga’s mind—she dies. This takes place when the eldest of them is around 12-13… and they, along with Dusknoir and Dialga, are absolutely devastated. Also a bit afraid, since she was basically their shield from Dialga’s wrath… but mainly they’re devastated.

None of them even considers running, event though they probably could have completely escaped during this time of distraction, so they’re still kind of awkwardly mulling around in confusion and grief when Dialga finally regains himself enough to start plotting about kidnapping the Little Imp’s successor. Dusknoir is just as confused and grief-stricken as everyone else, but he also has enough age and sanity to be able to keep ahold of himself and make his own plans and realizes that, given how unhinged Dialga is at the moment, the sableye are in a very precarious position, because their connection to the Little Imp was the only thing keeping his master’s eyes off them. So he quickly takes full control of them himself, telling Dialga that it’s only until the Little Imp’s successor comes of age and can decide what she wants done for herself. Plus, they can still be effective bodyguards as she grows up. Given the nature of the Little Imp, and Laura’s connection to her (and, thus, to the cave that is at the root of this whole mess), Dialga agrees to this pretty readily. Also, he’s half distracted with making preparations and trying to wrest enough control/power from Palkia to be able to open another portal to the human world.

The sableye are pretty on board with this board with this plan, mostly because they don’t really know what else to do, and are fully prepared to take on the role of guard duty/whatever Dusknoir tells them to do—in part because it really isn’t too different than what they were already doing. They and Dusknoir were expecting the new human to be an adult—because, again, only Dialga for sure what is meant by “successor”—and the fact that Earth and the Pokémon world are in different universes means that time doesn’t necessarily sync up exactly between the two [even without the mess that comes from the fact that time is currently messed up in the Pokémon world], so just because… let’s say, ten years or so have passed in Dialga’s perspective from the Little Imp coming to his world to her death, it doesn’t mean ten years have passed on Earth. It could have been twenty. Or a hundred. Or less than month. And by that same token, just because three-ish years passed on Earth from the time Laura was born to when she was kidnapped doesn’t mean that it took that same amount of time back in the Pokémon world. So even though the timing on the Rainbow Child’s personal timeline would imply that the sableye should be around 16-17 or so when they met her next incarnation, by the time they meet Laura they’re all still around the 13-14 they were when the Little Imp died.

So while the gap in age between them in Laura is still a bit large… it isn’t large enough that they aren’t all still basically kids. They’re more on equal footing—and Laura looks at them as friends and guardians more than anything else. The baggage isn’t there on either side, and they can befriend each other without worry—and, actually, the sableye are more or less encouraged to befriend Laura, because friends are what she wants and needs—and their job as her bodyguards is to keep her as happy and safe as possible. So they get to come to like her and be her friends and adore her as much as they want, without worrying overly much about what others think—though they still have to maintain a bit of “professionalism” in order to avoid ticking off Dialga, and they all know that, technically speaking, Laura is their actual boss—even if they’re listening to Dusknoir for now.

In any case, once Laura comes into Dusknoir/Dialga’s care, things proceed pretty much like she told everyone in Relatia’s Cave. The groups wouldn’t meet again for roughly 5-6 years after Laura makes her escape and befriends Grovyle.

The Convergence of the Groups:

As I said earlier, despite the bluffing that Seis managed to pull off in regards to his actual competency level, he and his brother still managed things fairly well and eventually grew strong enough that they didn’t have to be in panic mode all the time, and could actually chill out and take things a bit slower. He was also able to reflect on things a bit more and decide that the Little Imp probably really was just that kind and genuine, and he probably owed her some sort of debt—or at least a more genuine thank-you. He came to the decision in part because Seis kept asking him for stories about the strangers who helped him back then, since he was really out of it and has no recollection of the events. The two of them (though, mostly Seis, really) decide to try and find her again, working off vague clues that Seis half-remembers about her being important to someone with a high status, and the two of them utilize Seis’ acting skills to gather more information eventually come into contact with Dusknoir again. To their utter shock and joy, when they finally do find him, it also brings them back into contact with their childhood friends—who are quick to assimilate them into their group once more. The two of them actually meet up with the group first before coming into contact with their boss. Dusknoir does not recognize them as the duo he’d helped before given that Seis is acting completely different now—or, rather, he isn’t acting, for once—and he didn’t actually get a good measure of Trois given the whole “riddled with illness” thing he had going on the last time they met. Seis elects not to bring it up—because while he was swapping stories with his friends on the way to go ask if they could formally join the group, he learned that the Little Imp had since passed away. He was devastated, of course, since it meant he never got the chance to formally and fully thank her for the fact that his brother is still alive. But Dusknoir hasn’t gotten any less intimidating since the last time he saw him, and considering how close the two were, he’s a little afraid of mentioning her at all in fear of how he might react—that, and he doesn’t want to bring up any sad memories for his friends, since they were really close to her as well. So no one but Trois actually knows that the two of them met her as well, and since Trois can’t actually remember it, he isn’t quite as impacted on the personal level that the others are.

Seis had already planned to join up with his friends in their work for a lack of anything else better to do, plus the fact that it provided more support and stability, and Trois was of course going to follow his brother, but, privately, Seis also decided to join for the sake of Laura—as the Little Imp’s successor (in more ways than anyone other than Dialga and possibly Dusknoir realize at this time), Seis figures that the debt he has towards the Little Imp transfers over to her. …And he guesses he technically owes Dusknoir a debt to, and this does help to fulfill that one as well, but… honestly, it’s more for pragmatic reasons that he elects to stay on the guy’s good side since, again, he’s kind of terrifying. The better bonus to the situation would be that his friends like Laura, and he likes his friends, so helping her helps them as well.

Given his complicated feelings on the matter of the Little Imp, and the way he’s transferred them onto Laura, one might assume that a better way to repay that debt would be to actually help her in her quest directly—but at this point in time, the fact that she and Grovyle are trying to change the past is more of a side note to the fact that she just straight up ran away from home. No one really realizes yet that changing the past will lead to their nonexistence, so they’re more concerned with the fact that she’s constantly putting herself into dangerous situations—which is an undeniable truth, since… yeah, she is. And since he hasn’t spent any actual time with her, he and Trois don’t have the same conflicted feelings that some of the others might have in regards to the reasons why she’s doing what she’s doing. By the time that they figure out the ramifications for their existence if she and Grovyle manage to succeed in their plans… well, he still hasn’t spent quite enough time with her to feel as conflicted as, say, Dos does, but he is fond of her for her own merits—rather than simply for that tenuous sense of obligation carrying over from the Little Imp—and has silently decided that he’s going to try and get to know her better/cheer her up and be as good of a friend as she’ll let him be once she’s captured for good. Or, at the very least, he’s going to make sure that she’s as physically protected as she can possibly be, since he can’t see her being too happy with the actual outcome of getting captured.

That’s the basic backstory (though their ages are prone to flux as I pinpoint down exact dates and things, and how old they all feel in canon compared to how old it would reasonably make sense for them to be able to do things while still being able to keep close enough to Laura’s young age that it wouldn’t be weird for her to think of them and Grovyle as friends/older brothers)—but I do want to get into one last thing before signing off. Namely, how the sableye all got their names. Two of these stories have already been posted, but I’m not sure if I’ll end up doing specific ones for the rest, so I’ll just go ahead and list them here, in the order they were named.

1. Dos: Laura gave him a name after the two of them bonded over painting when he was guarding her cell. She did it for a silly reason, and almost on an impulse, really, after she realized that the two of them had painted portraits of each other—meaning that there were now “two” of them, although she only pointed out her own painting in that explanation. There’s no real reason she decided to give him the Spanish translation of the number, aside from maybe her thinking that since it was in a different language than either of them typically spoke, it would sound more like a name. And “Dos” was less confusing for her to spell out than “Deux.”

2. Cinq: She named him in guilt, after he got extremely injured picking her a bouquet of five flowers. Again… she thought that the foreign language sounded more like a name than the English/pokémon equivalent translation (which is still technically English, but no one realizes/calls it that since their written language has, for some reason, evolved way beyond that to become pretty much unrecognizable. Is that how linguistics actually work? Probably not, but that’s what I’m going with). She chose French this time because, for whatever reason, she just thought that “Cinq” sounded more elegant/better than “Cinco” for a name.

3. Un: Named because he was the first pokémon she ever saw, as he (along with Cinq) was one of the ones who came with Dusknoir to kidnap her from Earth. Since she’d already given two of the sableye names at this point, she just decided to go ahead and do the others as well—though she hadn’t realized that she was establishing a theme of numbers. They just sort of… happened, because they fit the situations she was naming them for. As with Cinq, she chose the French version because she just thought it sounded better in this instance.

4. Cuatro: He was the last one she gave a name while she was still in Dusknoir/Dialga’s custody, and he was was so named because he would typically greet her with four questions/fun facts whenever they saw each other, given his curious nature. This time, the Spanish version of the word sounded better. She still had not yet realized she’d locked herself into the number theme.

5. Trois: The first time she met him (which was when he joined the others in trying to chase her down and capture her) he called her “Laura.” Just “Laura,” no honorifics—and he was only the third pokémon to ever do that (with the first being Dusknoir and the second Grovyle). Since practically no one ever used just her name—even Grovyle tended to call her “Partner” most of the time—this pleased her immensely. Of course, the other sableye were horrified by this, and quickly corrected him on the matter—the next time the group caught up with her and Grovyle, he was calling her “Miss Laura,” to her great displeasure. But she’d already given him a name, so she couldn’t change it now. She elected for “Trois” rather than “Tres” because ‘Tres” sounds like “Trace” when spoken aloud, and she wanted to highlight the “three” aspect in her naming reasoning.

6. Seis: His is probably the most boring reason/story. She had finally by this point recognized the theme she’d inadvertently given the rest of the sableye (or had it pointed out to her by one of her friends), and felt compelled to continue with it. He’s named Seis because it means “Six,” she didn’t want to repeat a number, and the others alternated in language so next up was Spanish. If any other sableye joined up after him, they would have been named Sept to follow the theme and pattern. Seis takes it all in good humor—and probably figured out the reasoning behind his name without having to be told—though he can get a little annoyed when the others—especially Trois—tease him over it. And Trois likes to do it a lot, since he’s an annoying younger brother and revels in the fact that not only was he named first, despite being younger, but his name actually has a cool story behind it.

#procrastination at its finest #pokemon mystery dungeon #the world's treasure #writing #fanfiction #spoilers #explorers of sky

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arctiinae · 6 years

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Some uuh notes on Wes’ relationship with all the companions. This is really self-indulgent. It also got really, really long, so I decided to split it into two posts. They’re sorted, roughly, by chronological order (of the first time they met).

Codsworth: Originally, Codsworth belonged to Wes’ sister, not to Wes. He starts out a bit resentful that neither his master nor her son made it but that her brother did, but then Wes heads out and comes back bruised black and blue and bleeding from saving Preston and friends, and THEN he’s really sick for a week, and Codsworth’s “taking care of family” programing kicks in and he helps with nursing Wes back to health.

After that, they get along, and Codsworth is really happy to see Sanctuary start to live again. Although his bff ends up being Sturges, to… no one’s surprise, really.

Dogmeat: Everyone loves Dogmeat, Wes included. He teaches the dog a bunch of more-or-less useful tricks and gives him fresh meat whenever he can. When he's sick or feeling unwell Dogmeat sleeps at the foot of Wes’ bed and it melts everyone’s collective hearts. A very good boy.

Preston: Their first meeting is a chaotic blur. Wes is stumbling through the wasteland with a shitty gun he doesn't know how to use very well, shaking like a leaf (except when taking aim, courtesy of having had to shoot in sub-zero weather) and very stressed and why are people shooting at him where are we what is happening, and then Preston ropes him into helping them. He gets into a fucking power armor even though he hates them, goes out to shoot at people, gets almost torn apart by a giant lizard, goes back to check if the settlers are alive, shakily gets out of the armor, and goes out like a light. It's a mess.

And then his wounds get infected and he runs a fever and ends up bed-ridden for a good week, while Preston and Co do their damned best to keep him from dying. When the fever finally breaks he’s mostly convinced it was a really, really bad nightmare, and when it turns out it was not he kinda… shuts down into quiet, disbelieving shock.

Preston plays an important part in coaxing out of it. Sturges gives Wes things to do around Sanctuary, but Preston is the one who manages to get him to actually leave the settlement. He totally plays on Wes’ desire to be helpful, which is strong enough to override his absolute terror of the outside world, and gives him purpose. Wes is stupidly grateful for it, and low-key idolizes Preston.

When the re-take the Castle - much later - Wes kisses Preston right in the middle of the courtyard. They’re covered in Mirelurk goop and mud and Preston has a limp and Wes is about to pass out from the poisoning, but it’s still a little bit perfect.

They remain friends, although sometimes they smooch and it’s always disgustingly sweet and domestic. Preston’s main squeeze is definitely Sturges though and Wes is super happy for them when they finally get together. He might’ve had a hand in it.

Piper: They start out on the wrong foot. When Wes finds his way to Diamond City for the first time and Piper gets him in, she badgers him for an interview. He agrees, but it turns out her aggressive way of interviewing doesn’t mesh well with his pretty fragile emotional state at the time. She cuts him off a lot, he fails to communicate anything useful through his stuttering and ends up breaking down crying and running out on her, it’s a bad time for everyone involved.

Later, when he goes to see her again with Nick, she apologizes and they make up. They never really end up more than acquaintances, though, because Piper is too impatient for Wes, and Wes disagrees with her on on a lot of moral things (namely, her “spreading the truth” without thinking about the consequences of her words), but they never really gets a chance to sit down and actually talk about it.

Nick: Nick immediately takes a liking to Wes, who comes into his agency shaking like leaf and trying to pretend he wasn’t crying just before- or running away from Piper. Nick and Ellie calm him down and get him tea and a blanket and are just- super nice. It gives Wes the trust he needs to unpack his life story, which leads to him crying again, which leads to more tea and Nick swearing to get to the bottom of this.

He sticks with Wes and helps him through a lot of the ordeals. They get along like a house on fire, sharing a similar sense of humor and a desire to be helpful and make the world better. They also bond over shitty pre-war puns that no-one else gets. Valentine ends up being the person Wes will go to when he needs guidance or emotional support or good advice, and Valentine tries his best to give him good answers, even if some of those conversations end up being really awkward (like explaining to the very cute, very distressed and guilt-ridden vaultie what polyamory is. Someone save Nick he is not equipped for this shit).

Wes has a really obvious crush on Nick and is basically smiling all the time when they’re together. It’s disgustingly cute.

Hancock: They start out on the wrong foot, because Wes does not approve of stabbing people who haven’t tried to stab him first, and Hancock is very flippant about it, which puts Wes on edge. Once he gets to know Goodneighbor better, though, he revisits his opinion on the mayor, because everyone is fiercely loyal to him and there’s gotta be a reason for that.

Wes runs a few jobs for Hancock and gets him to work out some trade deals with Minutemen settlements in return, they get to know each other better, and while they still disagree on some things they learn to appreciate and respect each other. They end up good friends and partners in crime, Hancock egging Wes on to do stupid, reckless things he would never do otherwise, and then bailing him out of whatever mess he got them in. Wes compliments him on everything and is so sincere about it that Hancock can’t help but believes him.

Sometimes when he’s tired of being sick and overwhelmed by everything, Wes goes to Hancock and they get high on Med-X and Jet together, and Hancock lets Wes crash on his couch and ride out whatever bug he’s caught this time. Sometimes they have lazy sex, most of the time they cuddle and talk morals and world politics and gossip. It’s good.

Danse: When Wes finds out he is gonna have to stomp through the glowing sea, he decides to cosy-up with the Brotherhood so he can get a suit of power armor (the first one got busted beyond repair by the deathclaw at the Museum of Freedom). Danse and him get along as well as you’d expect two soldiers with different ranks to. Wes didn’t much enjoy his time in the U.S. Army and keeps his relationship to Danse strictly professional, which suits Danse just fine. Although Danse does stick up to him in front of other soldiers who try to bully him for being this… scrawny little fuck with a stutter who gets sick way too often, and Wes appreciates that. When he leaves the Brotherhood again (claims health issues and Maxson lets him go easy, never liked him much) they part on amiable terms. Danse is a little bit disappointed but wishes him well.

They will eventually meet again, this time under very different circumstances, Wes a railroad agent and Danse a runaway synth and traitor to the Brotherhood, but that’s another story.

#fallout #fallout4 #fallout 4 #companion reactions #(close enough)#wes (fallout)#the other half tomorrow #it's mostly written #brace for Deacon 8)#this is all ridiculously self-indulgent sue me

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ciathyzareposts · 4 years

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Planet’s Edge: Two Seasons

The Moonbase commander congratulates us on retrieving one of the eight artifacts.

As several commenters have noted, Planet’s Edge has shaped up to have a real Star Trek feel, with the quest titles obvious analogues for episode titles. In fact, it’s safe to say that without budget constraints for things like costumes and special effects, Planet’s Edge‘s scenarios are considerably more imaginative and innovative than the typical Star Trek episode (particularly the Original Series). Like their counterparts on Starflight II, the authors here clearly don’t believe in convergent evolution. We’ve seen aliens based on birds and plants and lizards, some with no mouths, some with multiple arms, although all exhibiting fairly human-like personalities and flaws. I just wish the game had given us more portraits for these creatures; there’s only so much you can tell from the icons.

I remarked last time that their stories were “a bit silly and trite,” and I’ll back off a bit now. At the time, I was thinking primarily of the princess looking to escape her arranged marriage, but the subsequent stories have been a little more interesting.

But while I concede that this game could be fun and interesting, I still don’t like it. There’s nothing in it that I particularly like about RPGs. A certain quality of narrative and variety of quests are important to me, yes, but only when accompanied by meaningful character development or tactical combat. Still, I think the thing that bothers me most about Planet’s Edge is not what it lacks but rather a particular quick unique to me: I don’t like to know exactly how long something is going to last, or exactly how much time I have left. When I have to do a long, boring chore, I typically find a way to hide the amount of work I have to do or how much time I have remaining. For instance, when I decide to walk on the treadmill for two hours, I put a magazine over the display so I never know exactly how much time I have left. If I have to clean 200 data records, I’ll write a process that feeds them to me one at a time without showing me my overall count. I prefer the unknown even when making it unknown makes a task longer or require more effort. If I have to drive somewhere, I’ll often take a longer route with an unknown time rather than stick to the empirically shortest route. Yes, I know I have issues. Irene tells me all the time.

Planet Edge’s sin was telling me that I had to recover exactly eight pieces, then giving me a map that shows the galaxy divided into eight roughly-equal sectors with similar numbers of stars, so that I know each part is going to require about the same amount of time–and that means a 40-hour game at least. I want to know I’m facing a 40-hour game at Hour 37, not Hour 10. This is why I always insists that quests that are about assembling n parts of something always vary the length and difficulty of finding each part. Some you should just be able to walk up and grab. Ultima VI did that particularly well.

I had to get rid of all my weapons just to get six cargo units on board.

My final complaint, though, is that I don’t particularly enjoy blogging plot-heavy games. It’s a bit exhausting. If I ran The Adventure Gamer, I probably would have given up already. There’s always a question of how much I should include and how much I should summarize. Challenge of the Five Realms was a recent challenge; in blogging that game, I erred on the side of describing nearly every plot point. Other times, I’ve tried to summarize large sections of plot. My readers don’t seem to have a strong preference either way. I’ll try to take a middle path here.

When I left off last time, my crew was in Sector Algieba, where we managed to get ourselves appointed as emissaries from the Magin to President Ishtao. The president was on Ishtao station, orbiting Algieba, and I couldn’t even scan the planet until I’d paid 6 cargo units to the orbiting platform. I had to go back to Moonbase, remove all weapons from my ship, and load up with cargo.

Upon my return, I donated the units and the crew was able to beam down to an episode titled “Inauguration Day.”

On television, this would have been a two0-parter.

It was the best scenario so far. The Algiebians are a reptilian race fond of extra-long “s” sounds in their speech, which would normally make them evil, but they don’t seem to be here. They were in the midst of a celebration for the second inauguration of their president, Ishtao. The festivities had been infiltrated by the Geal A’nai, the Algiebian faction that had also tried to kill the princess in my previous session. They also plotted to cripple Ishtao’s space yacht and drive it into the sun, killing all of the visitors to the inauguration, and using a body double of Ishtao to give the order. It was a complicated plot. There were signs that the Geal A’nai may not in fact be the “bad guys” of the scenario, and that Ishtao had been mercilessly persecuting them, but it wasn’t fully explored. I ended up on the yacht almost immediately after entering the palace, owing to my order of exploration, but I think the events could have been done in any order. The inhabitants of the yacht were obsessed with a card game called, probably, “Chasqua.” I say “probably” because the natural speech of the Algiebians put a variable number of letters “a” and “s” in the name. It involves a group of five cards, each aspected to a particular color, which must be inserted into a number of slots in a defined order–specifically, red, yellow, green, orange, and blue. The problem is that there’s no objective way of telling which card goes with which color. They all look the same to humans, I guess. You have to show the cards to other denizens in the station and get their opinions. They look at them and say things like, “I’m pretty sure this #2 card is blue,” but they give no indication how they’re coming up with that information. In any event, they’re often wrong, so you have to take notes to whittle it down and go with the highest probability.

I’m going to get a second opinion.

In the midst of this exploration, a bomb went off on the ship, crippling the engines and the electrical system. The engineer explained that to fix the doors and teleporters, he needed a “gravity bar,” which happens to be the prize for winning Chasqua. President Ishtao’s doppelganger came over the P.A. and announced that he had ordered the yacht to plunge into the sun so that the Geal A’nai saboteurs would die, trusting everyone else would be willing to sacrifice themselves for such a noble end. The ship’s captain, shaking his head at such an out-of-character moment for Ishtao, begged us to get the ship’s engines back online and return with the command code so he could override the order. Meanwhile, the fake president demanded the command code for himself.

In due order, I figured out the Chasqua sequence, gave the gravity bar to the engineer, used the now-functioning teleporters to move around the otherwise-inaccessible parts of the yacht, and got the engines back online. Re-starting the engines involved inserting Chasqua cards in a particular sequence; one of the NPCs remarked that the game had been “designed by engineers as a mnemonic for complicated tasks.” Although a bit more of an adventure game than an RPG, at least Planet’s Edge doesn’t put you in a lot of “walking dead” moments. There’s a lot of backtracking, sure, but I’ve found that if I simply stick to an exploration pattern, talk to everyone, and search everything, I’ll eventually get what I need. There were several battles with Geal A’nai during the exploration, and combat isn’t any more exciting than it was last time. A lot depends on luck. So far, I haven’t found a battle that wasn’t easy enough to win by reloading. I’ve found a few weapon and armor upgrades, which I’ve been distributing according to skill. It also makes sense to keep a couple of different types of armor on you because certain armors defend better against certain weapons. Each item comes with a detailed item description, incidentally, which is something that few RPGs have done thusfar in my chronology.

A description of Reflec Armor.

Once I had the command codes, I tried both potential endings. If I gave them to the fake president, he continued the ship’s course into the sun, rejoicing that, “News will soon reach Algieba IV that a ship full of innocents were killed and they will believe that Ishtao was responsible!” Giving the codes to the commander saved the ship. Either way, my party was allowed to escape in a pod. I decided to go with the “good” outcome (save the ship) because it’s my natural tendency, but it occurred to me while writing this entry that 90% of players probably do that. Since I’m not really that excited about the game anyway, why not spice things up by taking the evil path? Maybe you’ll see that reflected in the next entries.

The party gets the command codes after inserting more cards in those slots.

Anyway, the Geal A’nai weren’t done. They had also infiltrated the kitchen staff and other key positions in the presidential palace and had plotted to kill Ishtao through a mechanism I completely didn’t understand. It somehow just involved pulling a lever. I found a Geal A’nai in a prison cell, and when I showed him one of the amulets I’d looted from a corpse, he thought we were part of his faction and told us where we could find the “sixth key” in a crate in the kitchen. Using it on the lever somehow resulted in the president’s death–which I tried, then reloaded.

The causal mechanism escapes me here.

The “good” path involved getting to see Ishtao by pretending to be reporters (one of his minions assumed we were and gave us a press pass). He wanted proof that the Geal A’nai had infiltrated the palace, which we provided in the form of the amulet. He then wanted us to find the sixth key, which apparently isn’t just a key, but the “holiest of relics from the ages of darkness!” Fortunately, we already had that. He rewarded us with an amulet that would grant us passage to the depository on Koo-She Prime.

The party enables the president’s self-destructive war.

I had originally thought I would finally find the sector’s quest item–Algiebian Crystals–at Koo-She Prime, but they actually turned up as the result of an innocuous side quest in the presidential palace. One of the rooms housed a museum of Algiebian history–each of the exhibits making that history sound all the more brutal. The curator hinted that she was thirsty, so we bribed her with a bottle of wine we’d received from a bartender. She wandered away from her post, allowing us to throw the switch that controlled the force fields over the exhibits. By now accustomed to searching everything, I searched each exhibit and serendipitously found the crystals in one of them. To solve this quest if you already knew where the crystals were, you’d just need to beam down, get into the palace, and kill the curator.

Search everything, kids.

Koo-She Prime kicked off an episode called “Solitaire.” Shortly after we arrived–and got in with the presidential amulet–we tripped a trap that caused three of the party members to get beamed away and held in stasis. William had to solve the area by himself, some of which required referring to clues from random NPCs back on Algieba. There were a lot of traps, hostile beasts, and reloading. After puzzling his way through a series of caves, he arrived in a science facility, where he had to switch bodies with a four-armed creature to operate four levers at once. Ultimately, he released his friends and found some technical plans that allowed for better weapons and ship parts back at home. Back at Moonbase, Commander Polk congratulated us for getting the Algiebian Crystals and suggested we explore Sector Kornephoros next. I was unhappy with being told where to go, so after I scrapped the Ulysses for an upgraded ship–which the game named Calypso–I headed for Sector Caroli for no other reason that it was clockwise from Algieba.

Outfitting my second ship.

Caroli had a lot more stars than Algieba, most with absolutely nothing to do, not even elements for my higher-capacity starship. One planet–Zavijava Prime–had an orbital platform occupied by those goons again, and it was here that I fought and (badly) lost my only attempt at ship combat this session. I stumbled on the sector’s quest at Alula IV, in an episode called “Desolation.” It soon transpired that Alula IV was the agricultural planet of a species called the Eldarini. I never found a description of them, but the species apparently goes into hibernation for long periods of time and then awakens ravenous, killing and eating anything nearby if there’s no other obvious source of food. Alula IV and its “Iozam” grain was supposed to be that food, but both the harvester and the transport ship had broken down. The place was also swarming with hostile carnivores that we had to kill.

The alien explains what’s going on with his species.

We had to get the local boss, Agricol, to take us on as field hands before we could explore the place. This involved a puzzle where he put us in a room with seven items and said they could all easily fit into a pack, but I should select the one that he wouldn’t want to take with him. They were an industrial badge, a levitator, a stone, an assault laser, a gold wire, ceramic armor, and a rifle. I chose the stone because it was the only item that had no real utility, and it turned out I was right. I’m just not sure I was right for that reason. As he welcomed us aboard, he gave us tickets for the “life gallery” on Merak I. Solving the quest required us to go to two other planets–Denebola IV and TK–for the parts for both the vehicles. Denebola IV was the Eldarin homeworld, and its episode was titled “Forsake the Wind.” Exploring the area, we had to be careful not to brush against sleeping Eldarins, or they would wake up and try to kill us. The surface of the planet was filled with hostile sandworms erupting from pools of lava. They occasioned enough reloading that we were definitely here a bit too early. Still, I pushed through.

These worms were no fun at all.

We had to solve a variety of navigation puzzles not worth recounting to get the part for the harvester. Returning to Alula IV, we fixed the harvester, which promptly went out of control when we turned it on and bashed through a fence. This allowed us access to a new area and ultimately the station commander, who gave us the requisition form to take to Oortizam Labs on Cor-Caroli Prime.

The next episode.

Cor-Caroli Prime’s episode was “A Small Matter.” The core part of it involved the party being shrunk to microscopic size and having to navigate our way through the circuit board of some computer while battling hostile nannites. I either missed or didn’t record the encounter text or NPC conversation that explained why or how this happened. We had to switch a couple of computer chips and pull a lever to get out. When we did, one of the items enlarged along with the party was the Gravitic Compressor, needed for the Centauri Device.

Navigating the circuit maze.

�� Eventually, we were able to get the requisition form notarized, at which point an engineer gave us the “ComNav” needed for the ship on Alula IV. We returned, got that ship repaired (thus saving the Eldarins from famine), and were given a note to give to the supervisor on Denebola IV. He in turn allowed us access to the “rare treasures room” and suggested he’d look the other way if anything went missing. The room held two more sets of technical plans.

Good. My newly-evil party is going to need better weapons.

Overall, Sector Caroli’s quests were the first that didn’t seem to have any “evil” or otherwise alternate options, except I suppose just killing everyone instead of actually solving the quests. Before I ended this session, I was interested in checking out this “life gallery” on Merak I, also in the Caroli sector. But when I visited, I found it guarded by hostile blue aliens who killed me when I resisted, so we went back to Moonbase with our tail between our legs.

His assessment of our capabilities was, alas, accurate.

Expect a change in tone in future entries as my party loses patience with this increasingly hostile and irrational universe. Time so far: 15 hours

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/planets-edge-two-seasons/

#retro games #dos games #retro #crpg #adventure #amiga #oldcomputers #8bit #16bit #blog #repost

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jessaadventures-blog · 6 years

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Week Nine: The Final Week!

My painted volunteer rock going under the sign!

My last week in Lobitos was very chill and I spent a lot of time finishing up my work and preparing for Patagonia while I enjoyed some final traditions and experiences! These last few days had their ups and downs (I got sick again), but now I’m on to a new adventure and I couldn’t be more excited :)

The EcoHouse

Yummm mango :)

We said goodbye to Chris on Tuesday, and Michael left for vacation on Tuesday as well, so I said farewell to him before he left on his adventure. That only left Ale, Joris, Anthony, and I with Diego and Nai Ana; a big change from having eleven people in the house last week! The house was pretty chill all week, we all did a lot of reading and sleeping but had some fun nights as well!

On Monday we decided to make breakfast for dinner on Monday with our leftover food (we still had a lot because of the number of people that had just left). We made a whole spread with pancakes with honey, a potato and onion hash, avocado and tomato toast, and eggs; it was wonderful! Taco Tuesday happened for the ninth consecutive week (every Tuesday since I arrived) and it was sad to have my last one, though I hope the guys keep it going. On Wednesday we had a bunch of leftover chickpeas from lunch and the guys decided to create some falafels with homemade tortillas. They were very tasty in a deep-fried way, and the guys got creative with the batter by throwing a bunch of other veggies and leftovers in there, but I’m pretty sure the falafels made me sick.

It might’ve been the large amount of oil that my stomach wasn’t used to or eating some raw flour, I’m not sure, but both Nai Ana and I got quite sick later that night. I had absolutely no appetite for the next two and a half days, though I tried to eat some delicious tomato soup that Anthony made for us sickies (it didn’t stay down). On Friday I managed a banana and some cornflakes, but it wasn’t until Saturday morning that I felt mostly back to normal. I’m extremely relieved that I got (mostly) better by the time I left; traveling while sick would not be fun! I ended up spending a few evenings of my last week lying in bed watching movies and feeling pretty horrible, which was sad, but the end of the week took an upturn!

I made some yummy avocado toast for lunch after a breakfast of cornflakes on Saturday, and ate a super sweet mango for snack (I’m gonna miss the tropical fruit)! For my last dinner I had to cook something good, so I whipped up one last veggie pot pie! I think it was my best yet, and the comfort food felt right before heading into the Patagonian winter. I also baked a really yummy vegan vanilla cake that we ate with fried sweet plantains on top; the combination worked beautifully!

The last veggie pot pie with biscuit dough crust topping!

For my last night, now that everyone was recovered, we drank some delicious homemade maracuya sours made by Diego and played a few rounds of King of Tokyo, a new board game that was really fun and nerdy! Overall it was a really great last night, I’ll definitely miss the EcoSwell pisco and game nights.

My last maracuya (passionfruit) sour! I’m going to miss pisco.

Otherwise, I spent Sunday morning packing everything up (shoving everything in my backpack always takes some time), painting a rock to leave by the sign (a recently-begun tradition), and writing my most famous recipes in the EcoSwell recipe book. It was a chill last morning, and it was nice to not be in a rush to get packed and out the door!

Work

Planting day at the school!

My last week of work was really successful! I finished the manual I was making for the next volunteer, who will be building a new (and better) solar distiller and we fixed and tested the current distiller for the last time and it made more water than any of the other tests (about 15 liters in three days)!! Joris and I also launched a crowdfunding campaign on Friday to raise money to build the next solar distiller, and last time I checked (Sunday morning) we only needed $30 to reach our goal of $1000! That’s way quicker than we expected (thanks to all of you who donated or tried to donate)!! It felt so good to end on a huge high note after my nine weeks of effort at EcoSwell; I managed to finish a whole big segment of the solar distiller project and I feel pretty proud of all I learned.

One of the highlights of the work week was spending planting day at the Lobitos primary school planting native trees and vetiver! Diego had gotten in touch with the school, and they had a small plot that they wanted to plant with some eco friendly plants, so we headed to the school at 8am on Wednesday with some seedlings from our nursery and all of our tools. While we didn’t get to interact the kids much (they were in classes), we had quite a few run up to watch what we were doing and we got to see their PE class that was near where we were planting. It was a fun morning and it was so nice to see a bunch of curious little kids playing around outside; it’s been a while since I’ve been in that environment and it made me miss my little sisters even more than I already do! After planting some trees and vetiver, fertilizing the soil, and setting up protection around the seedlings so the wind doesn’t knock them over, we talked to the teachers for a bit, took some pictures, and headed back to the EcoHouse. It was a wonderful last planting day (and we didn’t have to get up as early as normal)!

Adventures

I’m a surfer girl now, look at that massive wave !! ;)

Because of my stomach bug, I didn’t get out of the house much this week, but I did make sure to do some of the things I’ll miss in Lobitos. I watched the sunset on my last night; I’ll miss walking the beach in the golden glow of the sun or hiking to the water tower to watch the sun go down over the fishing boats.

I also managed to get out surfing for the last time on Saturday, and it was a ton of fun! We went to Piscinas to surf, and though the waves were small there were a lot to catch and I managed to stand up more times than I ever have in one surfing session! I’m definitely thankful I was over my sickness enough to hit the waves, because it really was a highlight (and Joris got some pictures of me surfing)! I wish I had gone surfing more while I was in Lobitos, but I’m definitely planning on heading to Santa Cruz to surf while I’m at school and up to Tofino hopefully next time I’m home (and it’s warm enough)!

One of my last sunsets over the Lobitos pier.

These nine weeks have been an incredible experience, and I wouldn’t change it for the world. I’ve learned so much about the reality of working to encourage sustainable development in small communities (it’s difficult but I’m passionate about it and definitely what I want to continue to do in the future, especially at the beginning of my career), how to go about finding (and building) solutions to community issues and running a non-profit, and how to have patience and include all stakeholders and perspectives when developing these projects. I’ve gone on so many amazing adventures (and managed to survive living in a desert-like environment for two months - I didn’t feel a drop of rain the whole time I lived in Lobitos), and met so many incredible people. During my time at EcoSwell, I’ve met twenty people, and those are just the ones that were living in the house. I’ve made a list, in roughly chronological order: Kyler, Sean, Isa, Dion (I already knew him but we’ll count it), Javi, Ale, Brady, Joris, Jenny, Jack, Orianna, Seth, Claudia, Chris, Anthony, Alejandro, Diego, Andres, Michael, and Nai Ana. I also met and interacted with a lot of Lobitos locals and made friends with some of the travelers that came in and out of the nearby hostels!

I’ll remember this experience forever, and EcoSwell will always have a place in my heart.

And now I’m heading off on another unforgettable adventure: Patagonia! I’m currently sitting in the Lima airport (after almost not making it onto my flight from Talara to Lima because the flight was overbooked) waiting to board the plane to Santiago and then to Punta Arenas, Chile to meet up with my professors and the fourteen other students in the class!

We’ll be in Punta Arenas from September 3rd to the 5th, then Puerto Natales, Chile from the 5th to the 17th, then El Chalten, Argentina from the 17th to the 20th, and finally El Calafate, Argentina from the 20th to the 22nd, when I fly home and get back to campus on Sunday, September 23rd, twenty-one hours before my first class! Woooo, I’m ready!!

I’m going to try to continue posting roughly every weekend while I’m down there, but I’m not sure of the internet situation, so bear with me! I’m sure I’ll have plenty of stories to tell when I do manage to post :) As always, I love and miss everyone and hope the end of your summers are going well!

#EcoSwell #summer2018 #Lobitos #Peru

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