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nerianasims · 3 years

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Billboard #1s 1987

Under the cut.

"Shake You Down" -- Gregory Abbot -- January 17, 1987

The only reason I've heard this song before is because of Todd in the Shadows' worst hit songs of 1987 video. I do not entirely agree with his list, but this one definitely belongs on it. I don't think the song's writer knew what "shake down" actually means. This is supposed to be a love song about how the narrator is missing the woman he's staring at (um) and wants her back so he can "shake you down." It sounds creepy, and yet the music is so painfully bland it can't even rise to that. It's no surprise it hasn't gotten radio play since it was a hit. That it was a hit in the first place is mystifying.

"At This Moment" -- Billy Vera and the Beaters -- January 24, 1987

A rather good blue-eyed soul song. The narrator is singing to a woman who just told him she's in love with someone else. It sounds like she's acting scared, and he's upset by that as well as by her leaving him, because "I'd never, never hurt you." And he'd give up twenty years of his life if she'd stay. There are some massive blues horns, Billy Vera sings it well, and it's cathartically sad. The song became a hit years after it was first released because it was on Family Ties. Billy Vera keeps on chugging, and he's also a music historian. He won a Grammy for "best album notes" in 2013 for a Ray Charles boxed set. I had no idea that was an award category.

"Open Your Heart" -- Madonna -- February 7, 1987

Watch out. When Madonna says "I've had to work much harder than this/ For something I want, don't try to resist me," it's absolutely believable. She worked incredibly hard to get where she was. I guess the song is stalkery when looked at from a certain angle, but that is not the angle I choose. I hear it as I did as a teenager -- as something aspirational, because I got huge and powerful crushes on guys (mostly friends) and then did absolutely nothing about it, both because I had no idea what to do and because I didn't actually want a boyfriend yet. (That changed in college.) Musically and lyrically, the song is Motown mixed with disco and updated, as most of the True Blue album is. It's a lot of fun.

"Livin on a Prayer" -- Bon Jovi -- February 14, 1987

I wonder what I'd feel about this song if it hadn't been overplayed for years and years. I don't think it was/is played more than "You Give Love a Bad Name," but I have never been sick of "You Give Love a Bad Name." This one... meh. I don't want to run screaming from it, even after hearing it a zillion times, so that's something. It's about a working class couple who's having serious money troubles. It's just a snapshot of this difficult time in their life, and how they're holding on to each other. I'd be happier with it if the story were rounded out, and especially if they got a happy ending. The music is fine, acceptable rock, but nothing special.

"Jacob's Ladder" -- Huey Lewis and the News -- March 14, 1987

This song is a "fuck off" to televangelists, though if you only listen to the chorus you might not know that. I always appreciate anyone telling televangelists to fuck off. I could use it being nastier, but you can't expect real nastiness from Huey Lewis and the News. Genesis would go there a few years later, and I like that song much better. "Jesus He Knows Me" is also more interesting musically. This one's fine, but not memorable.

"Lean on Me" -- Club Nouveau -- March 21, 1987

The original "Lean on Me" is one of the great songs. This version is annoying. A go-go beat and a faux-reggae break. The original of this song is deeply emotional and touching. This one is not even a good dance song. I liked it when I was a kid, but that makes sense, because it's a very kiddie song.

"Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" -- Starship -- April 4, 1987

This song is actually not bad. It's pretty good, even. It's a very slick synth-heavy drum machine love song, but I really like the way Grace Slick sings on it. Mickey Thomas, well, he hits the notes. Could be worse. If they'd gotten a male vocalist who could match Grace Slick on his part of the duet, this might be a great song. They didn't, so it's just pretty good.

"I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)" -- Aretha Franklin and George Michael -- April 18, 1987

George Michael is an excellent singer, but he's no Aretha Franklin. But who is? He holds his own pretty well here. As both Franklin and Michael know how to push emotion in a song, they end up with good chemistry on this one. Unfortunately, though the vocal performances are great, the music itself is dull. The melody slips out of my head while I'm listening to it.

"(I Just) Died in Your Arms" -- Cutting Crew -- May 2, 1987

*silent scream of anguish* I wish this song would slip out of my head permanently. It is my personal most overplayed song in existence. My hate for it could end worlds. I have no idea about what qualities it might or might not have. I just want it to shut the fuck up.

"With or Without You" -- U2 -- May 16, 1987

I don't think U2 actually counts as "alternative," but the alternative stations were the only ones who played them where I lived. The song is extremely structured and carefully designed, but it feels somehow raw at the same time. It doesn't have the layers upon layers of synth that most of the songs on the charts did. It has a beautiful melody. The lyrics are thoughtful, heartrending poetry. I'm not sure what I thought of the song at the time -- I associate it more with a couple years later, when my family moved to a town near a huge state college and I started listening to the college station. It hasn't aged a bit. An amazing song.

Also Bono’s personality is somewhat insufferable if one is silly enough to look into it. But his voice is incredibly hot, and I very much appreciate that.

"You Keep Me Hangin' On" -- Kim Wilde -- June 6, 1987

Back to the layers of synth. This is the Supremes song updated as a 1987 dance song, and it sounds exactly like you'd think it would. It's okay.

"Always" -- Atlantic Starr -- June 13, 1987

This is the kind of song I made gagging noises about at age 10, when it came out. I'm tempted to now too. It's like corn syrup, both lyrically and musically. It sounds like it was written for weddings.

"Head to Toe" -- Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam -- June 20, 1987

I liked this song a lot when I was a kid. I had a lot of fun dancing to it. Now I hear Lisa Lisa's vocals in the opening and chorus, which are kind of like a police siren, and want to cover my ears. I can't listen to it without getting a headache nowadays.

"I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)" -- Whitney Houston -- June 27, 1987

This is a Whitney Houston song I like. She doesn't oversing as much as usual -- she mostly, though not entirely, saves it for the chorus. She wants to dance with "a man who'll take a chance/ On a love that burns hot enough to last." It's a simple dance song that speaks to real emotion.

"Alone" -- Heart -- July 11, 1987

In the 80s, Heart did hair metal ballads. All the men who did the same were copying them. Including the hair itself. Heart did it first, and Heart did it best. So lyrically, why can't she get this person alone? Not even on the phone? Whatever, it doesn't matter. What matters is the emotion, the music, and that this is a great song to sing along with.

"Shakedown" -- Bob Seger -- August 1, 1987

Unlike Gregory Abbott, Bob Seger knew what "shakedown" meant. The song was written for Beverly Hills Cop II, and that's exactly what it sounds like. It's a good movie song, but doesn't transcend that box. Still fun though.

"I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" -- U2 -- August 8, 1987

This is a spiritual pop song. But it's very far from the sanitized happy clappy Christian-brand pop that's so foul. It's about a search for transcendence that's ongoing -- eternal, really. And while this song is explicitly Christian, it speaks to a universality that doesn't require religion of any kind. Also it's beautiful musically.

"Who's That Girl" -- Madonna -- August 22, 1987

I'm surprised this was a number one. Or even charted in the top 20. I'd have predicted #46 or something. The movie it was written for was terrible, and Madonna was particularly terrible in it. Like, aggressively terrible, when in most movies she was just kinda blah. I've never liked the song. I don't hate it either; I don't feel much of anything about it. That is very strange for a Madonna song -- "American Life" is awful, but it makes me feel things. (Mostly embarrassment.) But "Who's That Girl" is bland, which a Madonna song should never be.

"La Bamba" -- Los Lobos -- August 29, 1987

This is a nearly faithful rendition of Richie Valens' original hit, which was based on a Veracruz folk song. But where are the castanets? The original is better, a true classic, but this one isn't bad. It's simply... unnecessary. It was done for a movie about Valens, so I guess it was sort of "necessary" in that way. Skip this one and go for Valens' version.

"I Just Can't Stop Loving You" -- Michael Jackson with Siedah Garrett -- September 19, 1987

This is from the Bad album, which I did not like in 1987 and continue to not like now. I find this song extraordinarily dull. Whitney Houston and Barbra Streisand both turned it down, and I'm not surprised. This song weirdly makes me think of The Love Boat. Like it belongs in a television series. It's legitimately bad. When do we get to Janet again?

"Didn't We Almost Have It All" -- Whitney Houston -- September 26, 1987

I think the narrator in this song is trying to get an old flame back. It's a pretty melody, and the lyrics are wildly repetitive but not bad, but I can't get past Houston's oversinging. Anyone who doesn't mind that will probably enjoy this song.

"Here I Go Again" -- Whitesnake -- October 10, 1987

I wonder what makes one feel a song is "horribly overplayed" vs. just "played probably too much but I'm fine with it." This song is the latter for me. It's a really good song, so obviously that's part of it. The beginning is thoughtful and searching, with an organ and everything (or probably a synth on the organ setting), and has that same spiritual feel as "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For." Then in come the guitars, which are awesome. It absolutely rocks, and the emotion is of "like a drifter I was born to walk alone" is amplified by the rock, rather than buried under it.

"Lost in Emotion" -- Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam -- October 17, 1987

Lisa Lisa does not sound like a police siren in this, thankfully. And I got frozen on this song because I listened to it over and over and managed to feel absolutely nothing about it. I guess she's falling in love with a friend and worried she's telling him too much, and I should identify with this because it's happened to me more than once. But I don't. I like the bass line, and it's updated Motown, so I should like that. But again, I feel nothing. Maybe it's the way Lisa Lisa sings it. I don't know, and I've wasted far too much time on something I cannot make myself care about in any way.

"Bad" -- Michael Jackson -- October 24, 1987

I think the Bad album is bad. Actually bad, as in not good. I was 11 when this hit #1, so everything in the universe embarrassed me, but this stood out. I no longer knew anyone who liked Michael Jackson. I certainly didn't. In my opinion, Jackson had exactly one good album in him, and that album was Thriller. Thriller is one of the greats. Bad is blah.

"I Think We're Alone Now" -- Tiffany -- November 7, 1987

I wonder what makes stations decide to play #1 hits and what makes them decide not to. I don't remember hearing this much at the time, and never after. It's a cover of a 1960s song that was never that great, and it's worse here. In 1967, the "ooh we're alone gonna do something naughty" idea was still edgy. In 1987 -- are you kidding? Madonna's tearing up the charts in 1987; what on earth is this thing doing on it? It's an annoying song, annoyingly sung.

"Mony Mony" -- Billy Idol -- November 21, 1987

I had to do aerobics to this in middle school. Next!

"(I've Had) The Time of My Life" -- Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes -- November 28, 1987

This is one of those songs I can't really evaluate because it feels like background music to my life. Not that it was ever particularly important to me -- it's not. But it's sort of like "Eye of the Tiger", movie song and all. Medley and Warnes are well-matched on the song, and they do a great job. I wish the music were more interesting, but well, movie ballad. It's a good one for what it is. By the way, Dirty Dancing is another movie I've managed to never see. For no reason -- I might even like it. But somehow, it's never come up.

"Heaven Is a Place on Earth" -- Belinda Carlisle -- December 5, 1987

Ooh baby, do you know what that's worth? Yes. I love everything about this song. It's a big and unashamed dance power ballad about how great love is, and the lyrics are simple but powerful. But I have a question: What the heck is up with the video? It looks like she's being inducted into a cult, not like she's in ecstasy over great romantic love. Well, it was the 80s, the videos usually didn't have anything to do with the songs. Still, weird.

"Faith" -- George Michael -- December 12, 1987

I've known the lyrics to this song since it came out, but I never registered them before. Only "I gotta have faith, faith, faith." I remember the video, though, with its prominent focus on George Michael's butt. I'm watching the video now, and huh, there's a basically naked woman in it too. That, I didn't remember, because it wasn't relevant to my interests. Anyway, the lyrics are about how the narrator needs a break from relationships so is not gonna have sex with this hot woman. Sure, George, that's why. Ahem. Sorry, we didn't know then, and it doesn't matter one bit anyway, because the singer is playing a role. It's a fun song for which the lyrics don't matter at all.

BEST OF 1987 -- "With or Without You" by U2 WORST OF 1987 -- "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" by Michael Jackson with Siedah Garrett

#billboard number ones

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eloquent-music · 4 years

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💬

Send a ‘💬’ to catch a glimpse of a memory my muse has.

[ Memory Log 121793 - Initiating... ]

There was a gestalt team that had to be reprimanded. Not on the List but put up on another list of sorts as an extremely dangerous group. Something tha an early version DJD had to deal with.

The original crew that everyone knew today was not the same, except for Tarn. Tarn was the only original member still standing. The only one from the start. The only given reason was that his abilities were able to help overcome most Cybertronians except a given few. Six life forms popped up on the Tyranny’s radar. Was he nervous? Big possibility. Banzaitron’s explanations of the gestalt group were rather horrifying but he couldn’t say no to Megatron. Though he had a lot of doubts most of the time, his doubts were smoothed over by Megatron’s reassuring words.

The Tyranny had landed on the planet the gestalt group was hiding on. “I know they’re an ill omen team but we will bring them to their knees,” stating as he moved himself from his spot. “Let’s go.” His digit made a circular motion in the air. For everyone but Tarn, it would be the last time they’d see the very walls of this starship again. “We’ve studied them. They may outnumber us by one but we’re the fuckin’ DJD for cryin’ out loud. The Decepticon Secret Service might not have taken them down but we will. Branded as heroes to all.” Not just to the Decepticons but he was sure that the Autobots would’ve been just as grateful to see this god awful gruesome gestalt team dead.

The gestalt team he was speaking of was the Monstructor Six. Tarn wasn’t looking forward to it but his team seemed more than willing to back him up.

And it was just about to go very badly for them.

. . . [ The memory skips, showing little blips of the fight between the DJD and Monstructor ] . . .

One needed to make the gestalt team not be one in order to defeat them and with all of their efforts, it wasn’t much use. Though his abilities were great, there was a select few they didn’t exactly work on. And there was something about the Monstructor Six that was just ungodly.

However, they were well aware of Tarn’s reputation which is why they were targeting Tarn over the other members first. It was easier to take out the leader and leave the rest to scramble. Little did they know with how Tarn was forged proved that he was very much hard to kill in most ways. Damaging his frame physically was only going to make him go into shutdown until he recovered, which it very much did.

[ The rest of the fight wasn’t shown given Tarn’s knocked out situation. But each member of the DJD had been annihilated by the gestalt team. ]

Tarn awakened a few cycles later to find his team offlined. Dark servos glided over each of their frames. Opening their spark casing one by one. Nothing. No light. No life force. His sea green spark pulsed wildly in his frame as his processor began to blurr. All he could see was red. Everything was numb to him as he succumbed to a fit of rage. Not just at himself but the whole universe in itself. His abilities raged to life like a wildfire as they left his vocalizer enough to short-circuit his vocalizer in response.

A swift kick to Helex’s shell made Tarn finally collapse to the ground. The executioner sat there for who knew how long with a servo on Helex’s frame, staring off onto the horizon.

After he somewhat recollected himself, Tarn called over the Tyranny to land nearby. Each mech’s frame was carried in Tarn’s arms as he carefully loaded them back onto the vessel to a place with a beautiful view. His mind was blank as he carried each one of them as his spark started to grow colder, felt less and less. Tarn tried cutting all feeling from his spark as he started to build up his well-known facade. A facade that would be hard to break. Because no one knew besides himself what had happened here. That the new members who’d come later were never the originals. But there was still that rage still raged on within him. A rage and darkness he welcomed with open arms and an open spark. Fuck it all.

Once the crew was loaded back up, Tarn alone guided the ship back into orbit and into deep space. Flying the ship all the way back to Messatine. Once she’d landed into the perfect spot, Tarn leaned over the command terminal. Still trying to puzzle piece everything together.

A commline was opened to Megatron. « Megatron, this is Tarn speaking. Monstructor Six is still online. I need replacements for the codenames, Helex, Vos, Tesarus, and Kaon. Effective immediately. Send each member to the planet Messatine. The Peaceful Tyranny and myself will be awaiting their arrival. »

Tarn’s voice sang out as he sang a song to his offlined team:

♪ ♫ ♪ “ Cold is the water It freezes your already cold mind Already cold, cold mind And death is at your doorstep And it will steal your innocence But it will not steal your substance.” ♪ ♫ ♪

The executioner made his way down to where his old team laid. A hard swift kick to the door, busted the whole thing down quite easily. To see the now infamous leader as anything but cold was something not many had seen if at all. A servo gently rested on each one as he spoke to them, even if the dead couldn’t hear him.

♪ ♫ ♪ “You are not alone in this. And you are not alone in this. As brothers we will stand and we'll hold your hand Hold your hand.” ♪ ♫ ♪

It was an unfortunate circumstance but it was very much something that was always there in his mind. This was his first team of the DJD and the next group little did he know, wasn’t going to be his last either.

Before putting them in their final resting place on Messatine, Tarn removed a part of their frame as a memoir and hid it in a special place on the Tyranny that only he knew of. Still to this day, only Tarn knows where it is. If someone couldn’t find him on the ship, he was with his old team.

♪ ♫ ♪ “ But I will tell the night And whisper, "Lose your sight" But I can't move the mountains for you.” ♪ ♫ ♪

“Goodbye my brothers. You’ll never be forgotten in my mind.”

[ Memory Disengaging . . . ]

#dont read if you dont want feels #bc i def killed his old team in this one #also anon whYD YU HAVE TO BE ON ANON #UGLY SOBS AT MY WRITING AND THIS DAMN SONG #{Memories}#Anonymous

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douxreviews · 5 years

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Star Trek: Discovery - ‘Brother’ Review

"Space: The Final Frontier. Above us, around us, within us. We have always looked to the stars to discover who we are."

By nature I love brevity: Star Trek: Discovery takes a long, clean breath of fresh air in this big, bold premiere that sheds the burdens of Season One and lets them roll down the hill behind.

Star Trek: Enterprise was canceled in 2005. And in the Fall of that year, as shows premiered, fans were faced with a sad reality: for the first time in 28 years, a new season of Star Trek was not among them. And for 12 years, this continued. And then we Discovered a new frontier. Breaking the silence of more than a decade, Star Trek: Discovery was a sign that Trek was not dead.

But of course, it was not without its flaws. Discovery Season One had issues with its tone and its dialogue. The crew, above and beyond their stilted, grandiose speech, rarely seemed like a family, or even a group of people who like each other. And the levels of anxiety and brooding were at dangerously high levels. We're talking Superman from Batman v. Superman levels of anxiety and brooding.

The fans pointed out these issues, though the good parts still remained (excepting the 'fans' who actively went out of their way to be openly hostile towards the series, its creators, and its viewers). And the team behind Discovery listened. 'Brother' benefits from a light and relaxed tone that feels like the lifting of a heavy curtain. The crew speaks in a generally human and natural manner, and they work together like a tight family. Brooding is nowhere to be seen, and the anxiety present is of a different sort than the cloud of deep worry that permeated Season One. Instead the viewer felt more of an empathetic concern about the characters and their lives.

The first and most immediate effect of 'Brother' is, in fact, to distance the show from its past mistakes. Associating these issues with the influence of Captain Lorca makes a lot of sense from a story perspective, even if the creators' insistence that all the darker elements were only a result of him doesn't quite sit right. From the outset, Captain Pike makes it clear that he is very different from Lorca. Everything about his manner and bearing suggests a completely different man from Jason Isaacs' power-hungry warmonger. But Pike is no Kirk, either, as one might anticipate. Anson Mount gives his Pike a humility and a grounded feel that Kirk never quite developed.

The other proverbial elephant on the starship is the presence of Spock. Though the adult version of our beloved half-Vulcan does not appear, his importance in the events of 'Brother' and the impact the mere allusion to the character has on the series is clear. We learn that he and Burnham's strained relationship is the result of her decisions, not his. It's clear she views him and his legacy as an oppressive force in her life, perhaps as a standard she could never live up to? There's a great shot that really sums this up, when young Spock makes his holo-dragon. The dragon moves toward Burnham, and roars at her, and Spock walks in through its mouth. I think that's how she sees Spock.

Sarek and Burnham's conversation about reverence also factors in. This show has decided to include a character that most fans undoubtedly have a lot of reverence for. But to make him a useful character, with an arc and a purpose, reverence is not enough. The massive weight of Spock's impact on Star Trek and the fans' adoration of him will be a problem that Discovery will have to deal with.

Moving to our regular cast, I loved how they were dealt with here. The other side of Lorca's effect on the Disco crew is that such a major and personal adversary has brought them together and made them rely on each other. All of the returning cast felt like a family around each other, and their interactions made the ship feel like a real workplace run by a real team. This is a major improvement from last season.

It looks like Burnham's journey this season will be thoroughly intertwined with Spock's. I look forward to seeing her relationship with him and how it develops, but I do hope they give her a role to play apart from and outside of the shadow of her foster brother. Likewise, Stamets seems overshadowed by the impact of someone else. Everything around him reminds him of his lost love Dr. Culber, and he's having a very hard time dealing with it. It seems like the end of this episode was enough to get him at least a little bit excited about science again, though it's unlikely that this is the end of his plotline about leaving the ship. With Wilson Cruz brought on as a full cast member for this season, it'll be interesting to see where this goes.

Tilly and Saru don't seem to have much in the way of an arc yet, but I'm sure this will change. I expect most of Tilly's story this season will have something to do with her enrollment in the Command Training Program. Saru mentioned his sister Siranna, from the Short Trek 'The Brightest Star,' and the showrunners have stated that we may see other Kelpians this season, so expect to see a visit to Saru's home planet of Kaminar sometime in the future. Maybe siblings will continue to be a theme this season.

Overall, 'Brother' was a pretty epic way to kick off the new season. It's fun and engaging, with a lot of potential. I can't wait to see where we go from here.

Strange New Worlds:

This section will record the planets the Disco visits and the places they go. Not a whole lot of that in this particular episode.

New Life and New Civilizations:

Here I'll keep track of all the new species, ideas, and cultures the crew encounters. Again, nothing in the way of that here.

Pensees (Thoughts):

-Mia Kirshner (Amanda) looks a lot like Amy Adams. She also really resembles Amanda from TOS, so that's nice.

-Stamets has a botanist friend aboard the Enterprise.

-In keeping with the Trek tradition of altering the intro, we have some brand new graphics added to the opening theme.

-Regulation 19, Section C allows a higher-ranking officer to take command of a starship in one of three contingencies: 1. An imminent threat; 2. The lives of Federation citizens are in danger; 3. There is no more qualified officer available to deal with the situation.

-I love Doug Jones' Saru walk. It's just so much fun to watch.

-That's the first shot we've gotten of a turbo lift running through a starship in all of Trek, if memory serves. Pretty cool, too.

-Another Alice in Wonderland nod. Also, holo-candles.

-Sarek mentioned that he's reached out to Klingon High Chancellor L'Rell (Mary Chieffo), and she had no explanation for the red bursts either.

-The Captain goes on the away mission, in true Trek tradition.

-There was a bit of Spock's Jellyfish ship from Star Trek (2009) in the design of the pods they flew.

-How cool was the pod sequence? Also, it was admittedly rather satisfying to see Olson Connelly get his comeuppance when he failed to pull his chute crashed and died because of the dumb risk he took.

-One of the ads loaded at the wrong time when I watched this the first time. The long ad break split a shot in half.

-I liked Reno (Tig Notaro). The idea of using an engineering approach to medicine is interesting, although I wouldn't want to be one of the first patients it was tried on.

-The Red Angel is still very much an unknown. I partially expect it will have something to do with the Klingons, if not only because they seem from the trailers to have a big role to play.

-The asteroid material wouldn't beam up. That's intriguing. It may be the key to fixing the spore drive, too, as it looks from the trailer that we'll be jumping again this season.

-'Not every cage is a prison, nor every loss eternal.' That's very interesting, and it has a lot of significance for Pike.

-It makes sense that the crew of the Enterprise would have issues with sitting out the war while on their five-year mission.

-The Disco's new Doctor is named Dr. Pollard.

-One of the names in the credits was 'Matt Decker.'

-A lot of references to faith/religion and related subjects in this episode. I don't think it's necessarily significant, but I thought it was worth noting.

-Alex Kurtzman directed this episode. I thought he did a great job; maybe he should stick to that instead of the whole coming up with ideas thing. I'm still baffled by the seriously weird and unsettling bits about Klingon anatomy from Season One.

Quotes:

Amanda: "I bless you, Michael... all my life."

Pike: "Do not covet thy neighbor's starship, Commander."

Pike: "Why didn't we think of that, Connelly? Think of all the syllables that gave their lives."

Pike: "Sometimes it's wise to keep your expectations low, Commander. That way we're never disappointed." Advice to the audience, perhaps?

Tilly: "I put her in a Utility closet, and I put you in there. I'm drunk on power."

Stamets: "Tilly, you are... incandescent. You're going to become a magnificent Captain because you do everything out of love. But I need you to repeat after me. I will say..." Tilly: "I will say..." Stamets: "Fewer things." Tilly: "Fewer thi- okay."

Sarek: "Spock has great reverence for his mother, but reverence tends to-" Burnham: "Fill up the room." It's the shot of Burnham's fairly empty quarters just as she interrupts that sells this one.

Pike: "Detmer - fly... good."

Pike: "I was expecting a red thing. Where's my damn red thing?"

Pike: "Spock asked the most amazing questions. It's completely logical, yet somehow able to make everyone see that logic was the beginning of the picture and not the end."

Burnham: "There are so many things I wish I'd said to you; so many things I want to say now. I'm too late, aren't I? I can only pray I don't lose you again... brother."

A strong, solid premiere. 5 out of 6 damn red things.

CoramDeo is interested in things.

#Star Trek #Star Trek Discovery #Michael Burnham #Saru #Sylvia Tilly #Paul Stamets #Christopher Pike #Spock #DIS #Disco #ST:Disc #Star Trek Reviews #Doux Reviews #TV Reviews

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laniakeabooks · 5 years

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March Wrap-Up

I read books 17 books in March! I did post a few individual reviews and have tagged them here in case you’re interested.

Gemina by Amy Kaufman and Jay Kristoff - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Moving to a space station at the edge of the galaxy was always going to be the death of Hanna’s social life. Nobody said it might actually get her killed

The sci-fi saga that began with the breakout bestseller Illuminae continues on board the Jump Station Heimdall, where two new characters will confront the next wave of the BeiTech assault.

Hanna is the station captain’s pampered daughter; Nik the reluctant member of a notorious crime family. But while the pair are struggling with the realities of life aboard the galaxy’s most boring space station, little do they know that Kady Grant and the Hypatia are headed right toward Heimdall, carrying news of the Kerenza invasion.

When an elite BeiTech strike team invades the station, Hanna and Nik are thrown together to defend their home. But alien predators are picking off the station residents one by one, and a malfunction in the station’s wormhole means the space-time continuum might be ripped in two before dinner. Soon Hanna and Nik aren’t just fighting for their own survival; the fate of everyone on the Hypatia—and possibly the known universe—is in their hands.

But relax. They’ve totally got this. They hope.

I just have so much love for this series. When I finally get to Obsidio and finish it (still waiting for the paperback), I’ll write a whole series review!

Asteria: Into the Fray by Adrienne Enfinger - ⭐⭐

It's not every day that your suicide attempt is interrupted by a handsome archangel. But then, nothing remains ordinary for long on the day Asteria meets Micah for the first time.

Talking her down from the ledge, Micah reveals to Asteria that she is no ordinary young woman. She is the descendant of nephilim - part angel, part human - and her parents did not die in a car crash, they were killed by the fallen angel, Azazel, in the eternal battle of good versus evil.

Asteria finds herself thrust into the middle of that war and discovers that she is part of a prophecy that can finally bring about its end - if Azazel does not kill her first.

She soon joins forces with angels, good and bad, in an epic battle that could save mankind...

...or bring about its demise

Not great… it definitely read like a fanfiction of Supernatural and the quality of writing was… ehhhhhh it was weird like Enfinger was trying too hard.

Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Moral allegory and spiritual autobiography, The Little Prince is the most translated book in the French language. With a timeless charm it tells the story of a little boy who leaves the safety of his own tiny planet to travel the universe, learning the vagaries of adult behaviour through a series of extraordinary encounters. His personal odyssey culminates in a voyage to Earth and further adventures.

Full review soon to follow!

Little Pills by Melody Dodds - ⭐⭐⭐

Seventeen-year-old Charlotte Navarro never asked to be anyone's hero. If you're a hero, your sister isn't supposed to hate you. And you're definitely not supposed to get hooked on Gramma's painkillers. Even so, Charlotte's sister's friend Mia looks at her like she's some sort of hero. As Charlotte starts taking pills more and more, she has to question how it could hurt herself and others, even Mia. Is it a harmless habit or a dangerous addiction?

Review here! Publication – 2nd April 2019

You Do You by Sarah Knight - ⭐⭐⭐

Being yourself should be easy, yet too many of us struggle to live on other people's terms instead of our own. Rather than feeling large and in charge, we feel little and belittled.

Sound familiar? Bestselling "anti-guru" Sarah Knight has three simple words for you:

YOU DO YOU.

It's time to start putting your happiness first--and stop letting other people tell you what to do, how to do it, or why it can't be done. And don't panic! You can do it without losing friends and alienating people. Knight delivers her trademark no-bullsh*t advice about:

The Tyranny of "Just Because"

The social contract and how to amend it

Turning "flaws" into strengths--aka "mental redecorating"

Why it's not your job to be nice

Letting your freak flag fly

How to take risks, silence the doubters, and prove the haters wrong

Review

Beauty Queens by Libba Bray - ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The 50 contestants in the Miss Teen Dream pageant thought this was going to be a fun trip to the beach, where they could parade in their state-appropriate costumes and compete in front of the cameras.

But sadly, their airplane had another idea, crashing on a desert island and leaving the survivors stranded with little food, little water, and practically no eyeliner.

What’s a beauty queen to do? Continue to practice for the talent portion of the program - or wrestle snakes to the ground? Get a perfect tan - or learn to run wild? And what should happen when the sexy pirates show up?

Welcome to the heart of non-exfoliated darkness.

BWAHAHAHAHA THIS IS JUST MY TYPE OF HUMOUR!! Granted, my humour is a… specific brand so just beware going into this.

The Center of the Universe by Ria Voros - ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Grace Carter's mother --- the celebrity news anchor GG Carter --- is everything Grace is not. GG is a star, with a flawless wardrobe and a following of thousands, while Grace --- an aspiring astrophysicist --- is into stars of another kind. She and her mother have always been in different orbits. Then one day GG is just ... gone. Cameras descend on their house, news shows speculate about what might have happened and Grace's family struggles to find a new rhythm as they wait for answers. While the authorities unravel the mystery behind GG's disappearance, Grace grows closer to her high school's golden boy, Mylo, who has faced a black hole of his own. She also uncovers some secrets from her mother's long-lost past. The more Grace learns, the more she wonders. Did she ever really know her mother? Was GG abducted ... or did she leave? And if she left, why?

Review here! Publication – April 2nd 2019

ReWired by S. R. Johannes - ⭐

Sixteen-year-old Ada Lovelace is never more alive and sure of herself than when she's hacking into a "secure" network as her alter ego, the Dark Angel. In the real world, Ada is broken, reeling from her best friend Simone's recent suicide. But online, the reclusive daughter of Senator Lovelace (champion of the new Online Privacy Bill) is a daring white hat hacker and the only female member of the Orwellians, an elite group responsible for a string of high-profile hacks against major corporations, with a mission to protect the little guy. Ada is swiftly proving she's a force to be reckoned with, when a fellow Orwellian betrays her to the FBI. To protect her father's career, Ada is sent to ReBoot, a technology rehab facility for teens...the same rehab Simone attended right before killing herself.

It's bad enough that the ReBoot facility is creepy in an Overlook-Hotel-meets-Winchester-Mansion way, but when Ada realizes Simone's suicide is just one in an increasingly suspicious string of "accidental" deaths and "suicides" occurring just after kids leave ReBoot, Ada knows she can't leave without figuring out what really happened to her best friend. The massive cyber conspiracy she uncovers will threaten everything she cares about--her dad's career, her new relationship with a wry, handsome, reformed hacker who gets under her skin, and most of all--the version of herself Ada likes best--the Dark Angel.

Uh yeah here’s my rant review. I just... yeah if you want to know what I thought just read the review I can’t be bothered to reiterate.

Zenith by Linday Cummings and Sasha Alsberg - ⭐⭐⭐

Most know Androma Racella as the Bloody Baroness, a powerful mercenary whose reign of terror stretches across the Mirabel Galaxy. To those aboard her glass starship, Marauder, however, she's just Andi, their friend and fearless leader.

But when a routine mission goes awry, the Marauder's all-girl crew is tested as they find themselves in a treacherous situation and at the mercy of a sadistic bounty hunter from Andi's past.

Meanwhile, across the galaxy, a ruthless ruler waits in the shadows of the planet Xen Ptera, biding her time to exact revenge for the destruction of her people. The pieces of her deadly plan are about to fall into place, unleashing a plot that will tear Mirabel in two.

Andi and her crew embark on a dangerous, soul-testing journey that could restore order to their shipor just as easily start a war that will devour worlds. As the Marauder hurtles toward the unknown, and Mirabel hangs in the balance, the only certainty is that in a galaxy run on lies and illusion, no one can be trusted.

You know what, not as bad as I thought it would be. I mean, it wasn’t anything special and I’m not very attached to the characters, but hey there are only two books so who knows maybe I’ll just finish the series.

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan - ⭐⭐⭐⭐

In Mary's world there are simple truths. The Sisterhood always knows best. The Guardians will protect and serve. The Unconsecrated will never relent. And you must always mind the fence that surrounds the village; the fence that protects the village from the Forest of Hands and Teeth. But, slowly, Mary’s truths are failing her. She’s learning things she never wanted to know about the Sisterhood and its secrets, and the Guardians and their power, and about the Unconsecrated and their relentlessness. When the fence is breached and her world is thrown into chaos, she must choose between her village and her future—between the one she loves and the one who loves her. And she must face the truth about the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Could there be life outside a world surrounded by so much death?

I knew I had a good feeling about this book. It’s eerie and I was stressing the fuck out the entire book about that dog’s wellbeing. 100% do recommend if you’re into brutal, creepy and dark books. Be forewarned, when I say dark, I mean DARK. Like zombie babies and children that are subsequently decapitated dark.

Losing Adam by Adrienne Clarke - ⭐⭐⭐⭐

What happens when the person you love most in the world suddenly becomes a stranger?

Adam and Jenny’s world is falling apart. Their dream of attending college together away from home quickly becomes a nightmare when Adam begins hearing the voice of the Snow Queen. Adam’s startling transformation from popular drama student into a withdrawn, suspicious stranger leaves Jenny frightened and confused. How can the person she loves most in the world suddenly become someone she doesn’t recognize? As Adam drifts farther and farther away into the Snow Queen’s mysterious world of ice and snow, Jenny believes she must fight to bring him back or risk losing him forever.

Holy fuck. This book probably has the most accurate representation of any mental illness I’ve seen in YA. Adam’s schizophrenia wasn’t watered down in the slightest and it wasn’t romanticized. I would have liked to read more of Adam’s perspective than Jenny’s since Adrienne Clarke writes mental illness so accurately. Does that make sense?

I liked that she gave us a look at how mental illness affects the individual in question, but also their loved ones. Although I would have preferred if we had focused more on Adam as for the reason above.

Whisper by Lynette Noni - ⭐⭐⭐

For two years, six months, fourteen days, eleven hours and sixteen minutes, Subject Six-Eight-Four — ‘Jane Doe’ — has been locked away and experimented on, without uttering a single word.

As Jane’s resolve begins to crack under the influence of her new — and unexpectedly kind — evaluator, she uncovers the truth about Lengard’s mysterious ‘program’, discovering that her own secret is at the heart of a sinister plot … and one wrong move, one wrong word, could change the world.

Review Here!

The Thirteenth Guardian by K.M. Lewis - ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Da Vinci’s secret pales. Michelangelo concealed an explosive truth in his famous Creation of Man fresco in the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican. Everything we have been taught about Eve is wrong—she didn’t cause the fall of man. Instead, Eve carried a far more devastating secret for millennia; one that will change the world forever.

As the modern-day world suffers the cataclysmic effects of the “Plagues of Egypt”, Avery Fitzgerald, a statuesque Astrophysics major at Stanford, discovers that she is mysteriously bound to five strangers by an extremely rare condition that foremost medical experts cannot explain. Thrust into extraordinary circumstances, they race against time to stay alive as they are pursued by an age-old adversary and the world around them collapses into annihilation. Under sacred oath, The Guardians—a far more archaic and enigmatic secret society than the Freemasons, Templars, and the Priory—protect Avery as she embarks on a daring quest that only legends of old have been on before. Avery must come to terms with the shocking realization that the blood of an ancient queen flows through her veins and that the fate of the world now rests on her shoulders.

Release date – June 7th 2019

Review Here!

Angelfall by Susan Ee - ⭐⭐⭐⭐

It's been six weeks since angels of the apocalypse descended to demolish the modern world. Street gangs rule the day while fear and superstition rule the night. When warrior angels fly away with a helpless little girl, her seventeen-year-old sister Penryn will do anything to get her back.

Anything, including making a deal with an enemy angel.

Raffe is a warrior who lies broken and wingless on the street. After eons of fighting his own battles, he finds himself being rescued from a desperate situation by a half-starved teenage girl.

Traveling through a dark and twisted Northern California, they have only each other to rely on for survival. Together, they journey toward the angels' stronghold in San Francisco where she'll risk everything to rescue her sister and he'll put himself at the mercy of his greatest enemies for the chance to be made whole again.

Yesssssss I like this. I find that many angel stories are overdone or hyper-religious, but this, this seems pretty promising.

Dead of Night by Carlyle Labuschagne – ⭐

In a dark and desolated After Earth, love still does exist, but the cost of bearing such a flaw is death.

World War III has left Earth in utter turmoil. People’s beliefs are said to be the cause of the worldwide destruction. After The Clearing new laws are set about - to show certitude in anything besides the law is weak and chargeable as mutiny. To be illogical and have faith in religion is illegal, to be limitless is dangerous. And Illness is seen as a defect – all flaws that are inexcusable.

But to love is the greatest betrayal of all man kind. It is a fault the world has long forgotten and punishable by death, a fatal risk Aecker and Opel are fully prepared to take - because in love there is freedom. But how far can they push back before it claims their lives and of those they care about?

This is the worst book I’ve read in my entire life.

Oh my god it was just so bad I don’t even know where to start. There is no plot, the characters are flat, every single scene was chaotic (I swear I got [metaphorical] whiplash), and it ends out of fucking nowhere. I thought I was missing part of my copy then ending was so sudden.

The world development was non-existent, and I was just confused all the way through.

I would write an individual review on this since I received it in exchange for an honest review, but honestly, this is all I have to say. I’m not even entirely sure as to what happened.

Unfortunately, 0 stars is not an option on Goodreads, so I had to stick with one even though I don’t think it deserves it.

I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga – ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Jasper "Jazz" Dent is a likable teenager. A charmer, one might say.

But he's also the son of the world's most infamous serial killer, and for Dear Old Dad, Take Your Son to Work Day was year-round. Jazz has witnessed crime scenes the way cops wish they could—from the criminal's point of view.

And now bodies are piling up in Lobo's Nod.

In an effort to clear his name, Jazz joins the police in a hunt for a new serial killer. But Jazz has a secret—could he be more like his father than anyone knows?

Yessss another thriller. I love the internal conflict Jazz is dealing with and it’s expertly woven in with the plot. Would recommend, and will definitely be continuing on with the series!

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen – ⭐⭐

Since its immediate success in 1813, Pride and Prejudice has remained one of the most popular novels in the English language. Jane Austen called this brilliant work "her own darling child" and its vivacious heroine, Elizabeth Bennet, "as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print." The romantic clash between the opinionated Elizabeth and her proud beau, Mr. Darcy, is a splendid performance of civilized sparring. And Jane Austen's radiant wit sparkles as her characters dance a delicate quadrille of flirtation and intrigue, making this book the most superb comedy of manners of Regency England.

You know… it’s a classic. I don’t really like classics. I feel like I need to read them you know? Oh well.

Everyone’s a Aliebn when ur a Aliebn Too by Jomny Sun - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Here is the unforgettable story of Jomny, an alien sent to study Earth. Always feeling apart, even among his species, Jomny feels at home for the first time among the earthlings he meets. There is a bear tired of other creatures running in fear, an egg struggling to decide what to hatch into, a turtle hiding itself by learning camouflage, a puppy struggling to express its true feelings, and many more.

The characters are unique and inventive—bees think long and hard about what love means, birds try to eat the sun, nothingness questions its own existence, a ghost comes to terms with dying, and an introverted hedgehog slowly lets Jomny see its artistic insecurities. At the same time, Jomny’s curious presence allows these characters to open up to him in ways they were never able to before, revealing the power of somebody who is just there to listen.

Oh my god this was just so cute and filled with so many important messages than hit very close to home. New favourite for sure.

Number of books read: 17

Number of pages read: 5806

Average Pages per Book : 341.5

Average rating: 3.4

Favourite book of the month: Gemina by Amy Kaufman and Jay Kristoff. I love love love the Illuminae files! Definitely my favourite sci-fi series to date.

Least favourite book of the month: Dead of Night by Carlyle Labuschange. It’s just so bad, you guys.

#march wrap up #books #booklr #booktube #bookstagram #young adult books #young adult literature

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thesoundofnat · 6 years

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Take This Sinking Ship part 2

Tony, Jim

Summary: Tony deals with finding out that he’s woken up in the 23rd century by seeking out Jim.

Warnings: Death mention, mention of past alcohol abuse, anxiety attacks

[Part 1] [Part 3] [Part 4]

[Read it on AO3]

Words: 1 672

Tony had been on the Enterprise for two days before Bones allowed him to leave Medbay. The shock had left both his body and mind in shambles, and he’d been ordered to rest rest rest while they tried to find someone he could talk to. A futuristic therapist. If Tony wasn’t so devastated he might’ve found it funny.

“Rhodey is dead,” was the first thing he’d said once the bomb had been dropped. “He’s been dead for more than two centuries.”

Bones and Jim had obviously not known what to say to that, so Tony had decided to fill the silence himself.

“Pepper is dead. Steve is dead. Happy, Peter, Romanoff, Barton. Hell, maybe even Thor is dead.” He hadn’t continued rambling up names after that, because he could say the name of literally any person he’d ever met and they would for certain be dead, so he’d seen no point in it.

Bones had given him a calming liquid using the hypospray after that, and he’d fallen asleep not long after.

They had given him a room until they could figure out what the hell to do with him, and Tony had locked himself in there without a word. They had left him alone and left food at his door like a prisoner, and hadn’t forced him to come out until now.

“Come on, I think it will do you good,” Jim - the freaking captain of the starship - said from behind the door. Tony was glaring a hole in it, but he reckoned it was of little effect if Jim couldn’t see it.

“Will people gape at me like some sort of prehistoric animal?”

“I’ll make sure they won’t.”

But the fleeting looks and overly bright smiles were almost worse, but Tony couldn’t say he hadn’t been curious about the rest of the ship and its residents. This was a tech nerd’s wet dream, after all. Only now he wasn’t sure if the dream had been worth it.

“This is the Bridge crew,” Jim was saying as they entered the, well, Bridge. “This is where we steer the ship and take calls and all that good stuff.” Tony still had a hard time believing Jim Kirk was the one to steer this ship. “This is Uhura, Sulu, Chekov.”

Tony shook the hands of everyone he was introduced to, happy to see that at least one thing remained the same. Spock, a Vulcan apparently, was watching him way more intently than what would be considered normal, and Tony asked Jim about it once they’d left the Bridge.

“He’s like that. Don’t pay him any mind.”

But they would soon find out why he’d been the subject of such a thorough examination when Spock informed them both that he’d found Tony’s files and had therefore discovered who he’d once been.

“A superhero who was lost in battle. His body was never found,” Jim was repeating to Bones later that day. “That’s why I recognized the name. You’re something of a legend.”

Tony snorted. “This is some Captain America shit.”

“I’ve heard of him. Realizing who you are has made all kinds of memories return.”

“I never gave him enough credit for how well he’d handled all of this when he was going through it.” He swallowed the lump in his throat. “Are there any records of other cases like this?”

“A couple. Most of them are failed ones.”

“Failed?”

“Lots of people tried to preserve their bodies when things on Earth started becoming rocky and science was evolving. They wanted to be alive to see what would happen with the world.”

“We had originally thought you were one of the few successful cases,” Bones added. “But we figured out quickly that you had no idea what had happened.”

Tony remembered slightly more than he was telling them, but thinking back on it had thrown him into an anxiety attack the previous night, so he refused to linger on it. Refused to think of how he launched himself into the ocean just like Steve had and jumped out of his suit so that it could explode without his body in it to dampen the impact. He kind of didn’t want to know how that battle had ended for everyone else.

But he also kind of did.

“Tell me about Starfleet,” he said.

Jim leaned closer to him across the table. “What do you want to know?”

“Everything.”

And everything was what he was told.

***

“You got anything to drink?”

Jim didn’t seem overly surprised at the request, though Tony could tell he hadn’t expected him to seek him out this late in the evening. Tony had memorized few of the places that he’d been shown of the Enterprise, but Jim and Bones’ respective quarters were two of them.

“What you want?”

“What do you guys have in this century?”

“When it comes to hard liquor it’s pretty much the same, from what I can tell. I don’t tend to touch alien booze.”

Jim had a whole cabinet filled with bottles hidden behind a wall. Tony almost wished he could’ve had something like that in his younger days, just for the hell of it. He could imagine Howard yelling at him for the uncreative use of a hiding spot, or Rhodey giving him a disappointed look, or Pepper sighing or Steve frowning. Maybe it was a good thing he’d kept his previous addiction public. At least it wouldn’t surprise anyone.

“I haven’t had a drink in years,” he said as Jim handed him a glass. “Wait. I mean, back in my days. I hadn’t had a drink in at least five years.”

“How come?” Jim asked, pouring himself a glass.

Tony moved the glass in circles, watching the liquid and ice cubes swirl around. “Alcohol hadn’t done me much good in the last- well, ever. But especially the last ten or so years.” He smiled sadly. “I had a tendency to abuse it.”

He could tell Jim regretted giving him that glass now, but he merely pushed it to the middle of the table, leaving a wet trail behind. “You can take it and I wouldn’t put up a fight. I would like to believe I’m not that person anymore.”

Jim didn’t reach for it. “I have a feeling you need it,” he concluded. “At least to help you sleep.”

“How did you know?”

Jim breathed out a laugh. “I’ve seen those eyebags and bloodshot eyes before. Mostly in a mirror.”

Tony hummed and brought the drink to his lips, tasting the fiery sweetness. The burning in his throat was unfamiliar and familiar at the same time.

“I can’t imagine being in your position,” Jim told him. “So I won’t judge if you decide to down this whole bottle by yourself.”

“It’ll be your job to stop me if I do.”

Jim smiled, hugely and brightly. It was enough to make Tony shed another layer of the wall he’d put between himself and this brand new world.

“I’ll do my best,” he said, holding out his glass so that they could toast and drink and drink again.

Tony allowed himself to examine Jim properly now that the booze was working its magic. He was younger than him - obviously - but something in his face told Tony that he’d been through a lot already. He was fit enough to be able to beat Tony in combat, and his eyes were big and blue and so captivating that Tony wouldn’t be surprised if people swooned over him daily. He was like some futuristic Captain America, Tony realized with an ache. Saving the universe with those baby blues and having troubles that no one thought to ever address.

He was handsome.

“What?” Jim asked when Tony had stared for longer than socially accepted.

He shrugged. “I’m more than 200 years older than you. And here I thought Steve and Barnes were old.”

Jim fiddled with his glass. “How old were you when you, uh, disappeared?”

“48. It probably means I’m much closer to 300 than 200, but I don’t want to think about that.”

“Sorry.”

“Not your fault.” Tony took a sip. His glass was almost empty. “I sometimes wonder if I would’ve prefered to just die. Despite the trauma I can’t help but marvel at what I’m seeing now. Maybe I stayed alive purely for this.” Another sip, but his tongue merely met ice. “You know, Steve had to go to the funeral of his old girlfriend, or whatever they were. My godmother, who was already on her deathbed by the time they found him. I’m not sure if that helped him get closure or if it was just an unnecessary wound they added to his injury.”

Jim listened to him without interrupting. He’d emptied his glass as well.

“I want to ask what happened to them all, after I disappeared.”

“But?”

Tony leaned back in his chair. “But I’m not sure I’ll like the answer.”

“You don’t have to find out.”

“I do. You know I do. Whatever happens next, people are gonna dig out the files and find the year and date of it all and everything’s gonna spread around until it gets back to me. Might as well hear it from you.”

Jim didn’t ask how he knew that his files had been read. “You want to hear it all now?”

“No time like the present.”

“You saved them all, Tony.”

Tony froze, not even daring to breathe as he waited for Jim to continue.

“Thanks to you, the threat was eliminated just before it was about to wipe out your teammates and then take over the world. Your sacrifice stopped it before it could even try.”

Tony exhaled slowly, loudly. “W-what?”

“You saved humanity. We literally wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you.”

Tony had never thought that those words combined with a bit of alcohol would make him burst into tears in the arms of Jim Kirk, but they did, and he barely had any space left to feel ashamed for it.

#tony stark #jim kirk #star trek fic #marvel fic #star trek/marvel crossover #mine #stark trek #nat writes #take this sinking ship #take this sinking ship part 2

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aion-rsa · 4 years

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Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 Episode 5 Easter Eggs & References

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

This Star Trek: Discovery article contains spoilers for Season 3, Episode 5.

Because everything in the 32nd century is brand-new for the Star Trek canon, it would make sense that the writers of Star Trek: Discovery could get away with not really referencing anything from the existing canon. To put it another way, how much do you really know about the year 1090 off the top of your head? The gap between Discovery’s point of origin in 2258 and 3188-3189 is huge. And yet, nerdy Star Trek Easter eggs and HUGE call-backs to some of the most beloved ships and characters ever, endure.

From a surprise cameo from a famous film director, to a lesson in Mirror Universe history, and yes, the appearance of Captain Janeway’s beloved starship, here are all the Easter eggs we caught in the latest Star Trek: Discovery episode, “Die Trying.”

“Federation and Starfleet Headquarters”

Saru notes that the ship is en route to “Federation and Starfleet Headquarters,” and then points out that these are “separate entities that now must abide together.” Although sometimes used interchangeably, this distinction is relevant. Starfleet actually predates the Federation and is an exploratory organization, analogous with what might happen if NASA and the Navy were combined in space. The United Federation of Planets, on the other hand, is the government. Starfleet and the Federation are not the same things, except now, as Saru points out, in the 32nd Century, they kind of are.

New Constitution

Owo sees what she describes as a “new Constitution.” This can only refer to what she infers is an upgraded version of a Constitution-class starship. The NCC-1701 Enterprise was one of 12 Constitution-class ships in service in Joann Owosekun’s time.

USS Voyager and USS Nog

The crew very prominently sees and talks about the USS Voyager NCC-74656-J. Owo and Tilly confirm that the “J” constitutes 11 “generations of evolution.” It is unclear if this means that this is literally the same Voyager from the 24th Century, or if the “J” means that this is the 11th ship to carry the name, “Voyager.” Elsewhere in the Starfleet Headquarters, barely visible is the USS Nog. Clearly, this was named for the Ferengi Nog from Deep Space Nine. Played by the late Aron Eisenberg, Nog was the first Ferengi in Starfleet.

New Starfleet uses the TNG coloring

Admiral Charles Vance and the rest of the 32nd Century Starfleet seem to use the color-coded system from the TNG era. Command officers still appear to sport red, while stripes of gold and blue are visible on other uniforms.

Kaminar Joined the Federation

Saru is thrilled to learn that Kaminar became a Federation planet sometime after Discovery jumped into the future. Because we never heard from Kelpiens in the 23rd or 24th century, it seems likely they joined the Federation at some point after that. In the Short Treks episode “The Brightest Star,” we learned the Prime Georgiou rescued Saru from Kaminar, but that Saru couldn’t return there because of issues with the Prime Directive. In Discovery Season 2, the ship returned to Kaminar in “The Sound of Thunder,” but Kaminar definitely didn’t enter the Federation at that point.

Sigma Draconis System References “Spock’s Brain”

One unnamed officer tells Admiral Vance that the “Emerald Chain” — an alliance of Andorians and Orions — is up to no-good in the “Sigma Draconis” system. This is the same star system from the TOS episode “Spock’s Brain.” Let’s hope that Spock’s brain hasn’t been stolen — again.

The size of the Federation

For the first time ever, the size of the Federation has been firmly established, not just now, but also, prior to the current timeline. Vance tells Saru and Burnham that there are “38 member worlds” in the Federation right now, but that because of bad communications, it’s possible that there may be more. Vance also says this number is “down from 350 at its peak.” We knew there were a lot of planets in the Federation in TNG, but we really had no idea exactly how many.

Starfleet Federation combo

As mentioned by Saru in the opening monologue, Vance doubles-down on the idea that “Where we sit now represents not only the headquarters of Starfleet Command by also the entire civilian government of the United Federation of Planets.” It’s unclear at this point if there are civilian government officials still operating, or if Vance is saying that he is basically Starfleet and the Federation at the same time. He also says that everything has “been that way since the Burn.”

Zero records of Discovery is basically Spock’s fault

Vance says “our records show Discovery was destroyed in 2258.” Saru implies the files would have been erased by Starfleet for safety reasons. But, the truth is, Spock is the one who erased the stuff about the Spore Drive. We saw Spock take these steps in “Such Sweet Sorrow Part 2.”

A War to Uphold the Temporal Accords

Admiral Vance’s “quick history lesson” mentions that the Federation spent most of the 30th Century fighting “a war to uphold the temporal accords” which he says is an “interstellar treaty outlawing time travel.” This references the prequel series Star Trek: Enterprise, and basically establishes that the “Temporal Wars” alluded to by Book in “That Hope Is You Part 1” are the same Temporal Wars that Daniels pulled Captain Archer into. It also seems that the Temporal Wars may have continued in the relative “present” beyond what we saw Daniels doing in Enterprise.

The Discovery crew drops references for their entire story

As the crew is getting debriefed by the new Starfleet, several characters, including Culber, Reno and Tilly tease-out plotpoint from previous seasons.

Culber: “I was emotionally dead, and I was murdered”

Culber was killed in the Season 1 episode “Despite Yourself,” when the Discovery jumped to the Mirror Universe. He was then brought back to life in the Season 2 episode “Saints of Imperfection.” He was in a terrible mood about being brought back to life which is why he jokes here that “I was emotionally dead.” The fact that he and his “murderer are good now,” references a confrontation he had with Ash Tyler in “If Memory Serves.”

Reno: “Commander Burnham fell out of the sky, with Captain Pike”

This references the Season 2 debut, “Brother,” in which Burnham and Pike rescued Reno from the USS Hiawatha, which had been crashed into an asteroid.

Tilly: “After I got my hair blown out and became a Terran Captain/Dominatrix”

Tilly is talking about the episodes in which she had to impersonate the Captain of the Terran ISS Discovery, her Mirror Universe counterpart nicknamed “Killy.” This started in the episode “Despite Yourself” and went through “What’s Past Is Prologue.” When Tilly had to dye her hair and straighten it in “Despite Yourself,” she noted that her mother would have approved.

David Cronenberg

During Georgiou’s debrief, a mysterious man with glasses sits-in and asks her all sorts of pointed questions. This character has not yet been named, but he is played by legendary film director David Cronenberg. Among other films, sci-fi fans probably know Cronenberg best for directing The Fly and Scanners. Is this new character a representative of the future version of Section 31?

Georgiou’s Mirror Universe History

Cronenberg’s character notes that the present is Georgiou’s “second universe, your third timeline.” This means that Georgiou has existed in the Mirror Universe version of 2257, the Prime Universe version of 2257-2258, and now, the Prime Universe version of 3188.

April 5: Bizzaro First Contact Day

Cronenberg’s man with glasses also mentions April 5, 2063. In the Prime Universe, this is First Contact Day but in the Mirror Universe, it’s the day that humans killed the Vulcans who landed on Earth. This event is depicted in the opening scenes of the Star Trek: Enterprise episodes “In a Mirror, Darkly Part 1 and Part 2.” To date, those are the only episodes of Trek canon that take place entirely in the Mirror Universe.

The Terran Empire’s Demise

When Georgiou and Cronenberg talk about the Terran Empire versus the Federation, he points out that the Federation “endures, unlike the Terran Empire that fell centuries ago.” We have no idea how this guy has access to so much history about a parallel universe, but the collapse of the Terran Empire references the Deep Space Nine episodes that take place in the Mirror Universe, starting with “Crossover.” In that episode, we learned that after Kirk asked Mirror Spock to make the Empire nicer in the TOS episode “Mirror, Mirror,” Mirror Spock basically did just that. But, his actions eventually led to the downfall of the Terran Empire. As far as we know, in canon, the most “recent” crossover to the Mirror Universe would have happened during Deep Space Nine, which is why Cronenberg says there hasn’t been a crossing between the two realities in “500 years.”

Ion storm

Speaking of the TOS episode “Mirror, Mirror,” while trying to help the Federation seed ship, the USS Discovery encounters an ion storm. Though this plot device has been used a lot in Trek, it was notably the reason why Kirk, Uhura, Scotty and Bones accidentally beamed to the Terran ISS Enterprise in “Mirror, Mirror.”

Burnham in command

Oddly, though Burnham is the main character of the show, we really haven’t seen her in command of the USS Discovery. Other than her brief attempt at mutiny on the USS Shenzhou, and her command of the ISS Shenzhou, this is the only real time she’s been in legit command of a starship during the entire run of the series.

Barzan Joined the Federation

Nhan hails from a race of aliens called the Barzan. In the TNG episode “The Price,” the Barzan were trying to sell rights to a wormhole in their space. At that time, the Barzan were not a member of the Federation. Their planet was also super-reliant on other planets for assistance, which is why Nhan later says that her people are known for “poverty.”

Airam’s funeral

Nhan tells Burnham that she’ll never forget Airam’s funeral and what Burnham said. This references the Discovery Season 2 episode “The Red Angel,” which began with the entire crew honoring Airam’s sacrifice in the previous episode, “Project Daedalus.”

Federation Starchart References a Ton of Known Star Trek Planets

A huge holographic star chart at Starfleet Command contains the names of a bunch of planets from the entirety of Trek canon. Some of the names are mirrored, which makes it tricky to read them all, but here are the ones we caught

Ankari Homeworld: This alien species comes from the Voyager episodes “Equinox Parts 1 and 2.”

Cardassia Prime: The homeworld of the Cardassians, primarily from Deep Space Nine.

Thalos: While it’s tempting to read this as a misspelling of “Talos,” from TOS, it’s not. Several planets in the Thalos system were referenced in both TNG and DS9.

Halee: Historically this is a Klingon planet in the Beta Quadrant. It’s been referenced in Discovery and TNG, starting with the TNG episode “Heart of Glory.”

We Don’t Have Five-Year Missions Anymore

Vance tells Burnham and Saru that Starfleet doesn’t “have five-year missions anymore.” This of course, references The Original Series, in which the Enterprise was on a 5-year-mission of exploration. Sura and Burnham are super-familiar with this policy, mostly because Pike was on a five-year mission on the Enterprise before he became temporary captain of the Discovery. Saru tells Vance that he feels like the DISCO crew come from a “revered time,” which seems to imply Saru has been reading a bunch of history while Burnham was on this mission. In this sense, Saru is aware that contemporary Starfleet must be huge fans of the exploits of the 23rd Century Starfleet. Basically, Saru gambles that the new Starfleet is filled with people who are, in a sense, classic Star Trek fans. He’s not wrong.

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Star Trek: Discovery airs new episodes on Thursdays on CBS All Access.

The post Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 Episode 5 Easter Eggs & References appeared first on Den of Geek.

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origami-goblin · 7 years

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Starfinder Theme Focus - Ace Pilots and Bounty Hunters

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This week I’m going back to the scene of the crime to revisit the themes in Starfinder and offer some possible avenues down which you can direct your creative character-building energies. In case you’re completely in the dark on this topic, Starfinder introduces the concept of themes that you can use as a small puzzle piece in sculpting your character. In addition to providing some RP definition, each theme will give your character a boost to a specific stat and bonuses at 1st, 6th, 12th, and 18th level. As an aside, Paizo’s choice to have the theme progression remain identical throughout the possible selections helps to limit the min-maxing a bit, by ensuring that players aren’t choosing themes based on whichever ones grant them bonuses the soonest. Of course, the bonuses that each theme provides inherently enable some level of power-gaming, but that is going to be the case with nearly any pen-and-paper PRG.

Last time, as a part of my deeper dive into themes, I specifically touched on the Icon and listed several examples of character concepts that a player could use when creating a Startfinder character kissed by the Icon theme. The point of the post was to show that themes aren’t meant to limit creativity; they foster it. Just as there’s no wrong way to eat a Reese’s, there are countless interpretations to each theme and the characters that can be molded into existence. Today, I’ll be firing up my brain engine to offer some different charger ideas for the Ace Pilot and Bounty Hunter themes. Buckle up, we’re making the jump!

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Ace Pilot Character Concepts

“You are most comfortable at the controls of a vehicle, whether it’s a starship racing through the inky void of space or a ground vehicle zooming between trees, around boulders, and across dusty badlands. You might be a member of an elite military force, the recipient of intense courses of training. Alternatively, you might be a total amateur with innate skills that make you a much-admired hotshot.” – Starfinder CRB

Cargo Transport Pilot – You’ve been on the open road…er…space your whole life. Maybe you enjoy the solitude that comes with transporting outrageous quantities of goods across planets or star systems. These goods could be anything – weapons, construction materials, medical devices. Or maybe it’s a grab bag and half of the excitement stems from wondering what the next shipment will contain. The many laws governing tariffs & import/export taxes come second-nature, and your expertise in maneuvering an unruly behemoth transport ship is unrivaled. I’m sure you have some fantastic stories about the characters that you’ve met at depots and docks along the way. Have you operated with a crew or are you more of a lone wolf? Are you ‘by the book’ or are you known to bend the rules when regulations aren’t being followed? And hey, I’m not going to judge if you smuggle something every now and again – that’s completely up to you.

Mining Rig Operator – A specialist when it comes to operating heavy machinery, and someone who’s not afraid to get their hands dirty. Whether it be a massive drill, asteroid borer, front-end loader, or excavator, you have the honed precision required of someone who could easily level a structure or cause a fatality with a minor slip of the controls. You might harbor a deep love of geology, wealth, or the smell of space-diesel. If you’ve seen Disney’s Atlantis, Gaetan ‘The Mole’ comes to mind here, in all his grimy glory. Has mining been in your family for generations, or were you trying to make some credits in whatever profession was available? Have you pocketed any of your unearthed materials and sold them on the sly? What sort of role would you have on a starship that isn’t a dedicated mining vessel?

Stunt Driver – Inhabitants of the Pact Worlds crave entertainment, and you know how to deliver. From hologram tapes to over-capacity arenas, the lengths you go to appease your audiences is unmatched. How do you prepare yourself mentally to be fearless? Is there any stunt that you won’t do? Huge flames, steep jumps, free-falling acrobatics – you’ve done it all! Have you become an adventurer to satisfy a new craving that’s suddenly emerged deep inside? Are you an adrenaline junky with no care for your personal safety? Or are you THAT confident in your abilities that you simply must show them off at every opportunity?

Military Training Pilot – You’ve risen through the ranks of a military sect, but you figured that you’re done with combat missions. Instead, you are now responsible for grooming the fresh batch of hot-heads in the Academy to ensure that engagements end favorably at the minimal loss of life and equipment. You could be highly decorated and revered by all, or maybe you’ve never actually seen combat but have a brilliant mind for tactics and strategy. Did you develop a sophisticated training module for recruits? Are you a master of physics and can perform complex equations regarding acceleration, drag, and gravity on the fly? Maybe you’re not pleased about being given a non-combative assignment and yearn to be back in the fight, wherever that might be.

Getaway Driver – You’ll ‘wait in the car.’ You know the best nooks and crannies to hide in after a successful operation, be it a heist or a GTA. Apart from having nerves of steel, your ability to handle any vehicle makes you highly coveted in the high-stakes game of evading the authorities. Perhaps you have a catchy pseudonym, like “Leadfoot” or “Afterburner” that adds an edge of mystery to your growing legend. Are you available for hire depending on the highest bidder, or are you loyal to a dedicated group of criminals? Or maybe you’re not a criminal at all, and you’re an undercover agent networking to root out the top dogs of the criminal world. What drives you (pun intended) and keeps your foot on the accelerator? I haven’t seen Baby Driver, but I imagine that he would make for a fun Starfinder character.

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Bounty Hunter Character Concepts

“You track people down for money. It is a dangerous profession, as most of your targets understandably don’t wish to be caught. You wouldn’t have it any other way. You might have a code of ethics, never taking jobs that, say, target children or members of your own race. You might hunt down only escaped criminals. Or you might be completely amoral, taking any job that comes along—for the right price.” – Starfinder CRB

Great Mouse Detective – Maybe I’m getting a little ahead of myself on this one, but a Ysoki Detective? Come on! Okay, we can drop the ‘mouse’ portion of this to generalize it a bit, but a detective makes for a great Bounty Hunter. Searching for clues? Check. Interrogating witnesses? Check. An independent free-lancer? Check, check, check. Now all we need is a mahogany pipe that functions while wearing an airtight, pressurized helmet. Are you a Private Investigator, helping people track down lost relatives? Do you offer your services on a contract basis, assisting the local authorities when your services are required? Maybe you’re exceptional at finding clues, or adept at making accurate deductions based on the information on-hand. Or perhaps your forte involves the canvassing of a crime scene to gather the word on the street, or you could be skilled at poring over historical documents and ancestry lineages.

Gung-Ho Repo-Man – It’s time to pay the piper. Whether it be collecting vehicles or ships that have defaulted loans, or shaking down debtors who are skipping town without paying back the credits owed, there are plenty of avenues to venture down as a repo-man (or woman). Are you employed by a roving band of outlaws or by a seedy brand of space mafia? Do you find honor in returning to others what is rightfully theirs? You can be cold and calculated, or a wild child with a smoking gun. Do you believe in using violence to get the job done, by obtaining the required items by whatever means necessary? Or do you have a strict code of conduct and will only resort to fighting if it is absolutely necessary and all other accessible routes have been exhausted? Either way, you get the job done and collect that paycheck, because if someone is going to get paid, it might as well be you.

Corporate Headhunter – Everybody’s looking for that perfect candidate to fill the shoes and help their company prosper. Sure, you’re a bounty hunter, but you aren’t collecting the reward on some beat-up Toyota Star-is or trying to bring in a fugitive; you are trying to find the right people and put them in the right seats. Corporations pay you top dollar (after six months) when you track down someone with the appropriate skillset and convince them to accept a position at their firms. You have an absurd eye for noticing talent, even when it isn’t a skill that people recognize themselves as having. These aren’t rush jobs; you know that the only way to scout ability is to dig in beyond the resume and get to know the person behind the paper. Whittling down long lists of candidates to a select few and engaging them in social situations is your true calling, and you truly want them to succeed. If they’re not a fit, it’s on to the next one until you find that diamond in the rough.

Pre-Gap Antiquarian – Not much is known about the Gap (that’s why it’s called ‘the Gap’), but you recognize that there is much to be learned about the past, and that the key to unlocking the secrets of what we’ve collectively forgotten lies in the relics that remain. You seek out machinery, trinkets, baubles, clothing – any odds and ends whose origins have long since been forgotten. Perhaps you scour through old histories and manuscripts, trying to locate legendary items of extraordinary power. Do you have magic at your disposal to aid you in your search, ala a dowsing rod? Do you gravitate towards items of a certain kind, like ancient weapons? What draws you to these items in the first place? Maybe there have been stories passed down through your family and you became attached to them, bringing nostalgia into the mix. Or maybe you believe that the way technology is progressing leaves people disconnected with nature or causes us to lack the stronger bond that comes in a slower-moving culture. You probably hoard some of your treasures and keep an exceptionally special item on your person. You could be a hoarder, or run a shop that deals in the sale and acquisition of oddities and antiques.

Zealous Proselytizer – Instead of being driven by the promise of gold or riches, you seek out the good fortune that comes from your deity looking favorably upon you. Whether it be Talavet, Weydan or any deity in between, you seek out others in attempt to show them the enlightenment that comes with becoming a follower. In a way, you are a bounty hunter of souls. Maybe you preach openly in front of large crowds and then try to personally recruit the ones who come up to your afterwards who show interest and promise. Or perhaps you spend more time watching and listening, following people whose dispositions align best with your deity’s tenets. You don’t necessarily have to be pushy, but you certainly could get aggressive if you become frustrated with your efforts. What if they don’t see the world as you see it? You might not be terribly high on the totem pole, either; you could be passing out leaflets in hopes that you ascend the ranks if you make your quota. Do you have a quota? If so, is it more of a personal goal or an appointed goal? What if you’re not aligned with a deity at all, but you hop between them depending on the one that grants the most benefits? After all, nobody’s perfect.

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And there you have it! Since I’ve already done the Icon in a previous post, our next stop will be the Mercenary and Outlaw themes. I’m really looking forward to these two, as they both have a negative connotation and I want to see if we can’t shrug off those predispositions and put a positive spin on them! The main problem I have with posts like these is that I want to start putting together a bunch of characters, most of which will never see the light of day. So, please - create! I shall live through your characters!

Until next time – the stars aren’t the limit; they’re only the beginning.

#Starfinder #PCs #Character Building #Character Creation #Themes #Paizo #Pathfinder #RPGs #Tabletop #Gaming #Concepts

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sneakymalarkey-blog · 7 years

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Top 10 Good Horror Movies to Binge-watch this Halloween

‘Tis the season for haunted dreams and loud screams! If you’re like me, who looks forward to Halloween every year, well congratulations to us. It has been a tradition to surround ourselves with things that would make our skin crawl and make us look behind us more than twice, and of course having a horror movie marathon is almost a tradition. However, most film producers seem to think that the ultimate horror movie formula is Generic Plot + Jump Scare and to be honest it’s already getting old and boring. This was what led me to explore more of the horror genre to find movies that would exceed expectations and break this chain of bad horror movies. Let me share with you these gems I found and truly treasure. (This list does not follow any particular order).

1. Jacob’s Ladder (1990)

Jacob’s Ladder is a horror/psychological thriller starring Tim Robbins as Jacob Singer. This is a story about a Vietnam war veteran and his struggles to return to a normal life while being plagued by hallucinations and flashbacks. Being unable to distinguish what’s real and what’s not, Jacob might be close to descending into madness.

This movie made me feel like I was also losing my mind, and I actually had to pause the movie at times just to take a breather. The visuals, music, and atmosphere really did a good job on engaging all of my senses to the point where I had a nightmare the same night I finished it.

This is not your typical horror movie, but still worth checking out for a brand new experience.

2. Sinister (2012)

Sinister follows the story of Ellison Oswald (played by Ethan Hawke), a true-crime writer struggling to produce a new best-seller. An unsolved case that continues to baffle the authorities is his new target for his comeback, even moving his own family to the house where the murders happened. Watching the video tapes of the actual murders, he slowly realizes that the murders might be involved with a supernatural force and that moving his family to that house was a fatal move.

I just happened to see this movie on TV one night and to be honest I didn’t really have any expectations that it will be good. This movie really surprised me with how good the atmosphere and the mystery built over time. Yes, it has a couple of jump scares, but what makes it acceptable is because they did not rely on that heavily. For these reasons, Sinister will always be a standout for me and will always be a part of my horror movie recommendations.

3. The Ring (2002)

Urban legends are nothing but some silly hearsay, right? Rachel Keller (played by Naomi Watts) thought that a videotape filled with nightmarish and unsettling clips was nothing but a circulating rumor, that is until she encounters a case about a group of teenagers dying after watching the said tape after a week. She later watches the tape to unravel its mystery with only a week to save her own life.

The Ring is actually an American adaptation of a Japanese horror movie called “Ringu”. These kinds of adaptations are usually done wrong, but again this movie will surprise you on how it managed to still grasp what made the original scary. This is a good movie to watch with friends, so that you can all get a weird fear of televisions at the same time.

4. Orphan (2009)

After losing their unborn child, a couple decides to go for adoption. Esther is just the perfect kid for them, having formed a special bond with them upon first meeting. However, welcoming her home seems like they also welcomed a series of unfortunate events. Is it just a coincidence or is there something wrong with Esther?

First of all, they did a good job on casting Isabelle Fuhrman as Esther. For me it was her performance that really added to the wonder of the movie. This is not the first movie to have an adopted child as the center of the spookiness, but this is the first one to...well i’ll just let you see it for yourself.

5. It (2017)

Who hasn’t seen this most-awaited remake of a classic Stephen King novel? It has been the talk of the town for months and there’s a good reason for that.

It follows the story of bullied children who are terrorized by an evil shape-shifting clown. It does not only shape-shift just for the heck of it, but it actually takes the form of your deepest fears.

This might seem like a really simple plot, but the execution of the scenes, the acting, the musical scores, and the story really add up so masterfully resulting to this great remake. It really did the 1990 TV series and the novel great justice. Shout-out to Bill Skarsgård’s portrayal of Pennywise the Clown, which really made the movie float up to number one.

6. Halloween (1978)

What’s a more perfect way to celebrate the Halloween than to watch a movie named after the holiday?

Halloween is about Michael Myers, a masked man who managed to escape Smith Grove’s Sanitarium to bring forth some terror on a Halloween night. He was sentenced fifteen years for the brutal murder of his very own sister when he was just six years old.

This movie is considered as one of the classics that will never get old, also making Michael Myers as one of the most iconic movie serial killers. Halloween was originally planned to be a series of different horror stories; however, due to Michael Myers’ popularity they decided to make the series his own. If you want to experience the thrill of being chased by a relentless masked maniac, then you should check this movie out.

7. Alien (1979)

Alien is about the crew of the commercial starship “Nostromo” and their story after waking up from cryo-sleep. On their journey home, they receive a distress call from an unknown vessel. Deciding to check out what is happening, they pay a short visit only to discover something they shouldn’t have seen or touched.

This movie is also considered a classic and even resulted to multiple sequels. I was not a big fan of this genre and just decided to let this one slide off but boy am I glad that I did give it a shot. As if being alone in a distant space wasn’t creepy enough, the movie decides to throw in something that seems to be inescapable. Worst part is that you can’t just call the police or scream for help.

8. Sigaw (The Echo) - (2004)

Sigaw is a Filipino horror movie that follows the story of Marvin (played by Richard Gutierrez) and his newfound freedom after moving in to an apartment of his own. At first, everything was a bliss as he enjoyed living alone; however, his neighbors’ screamy fights will start to affect him...even after moving out from the apartment building.

To be honest, watching this movie made me uneasy because it actually did a good job on building this atmosphere where the mystery would start to engulf you. There’s a good reason why it was the official selection for a horror film festival, even earning an American adaptation entitled “The Echo”.

9. Shutter (2004)

Shutter is a Thai movie about a vengeful ghost haunting a photographer and his girlfriend. This happened after they accidentally hit a young woman with their car, and the girlfriend thought it would be a good idea to discover more about the young woman and hopefully put an end to their hell. However, will she be ready to uncover a secret that would shake everything she believed?

At first glance, one might say that this is your typical horror movie: ghosts, haunting, haunted pictures, etc. What makes this one stand out is the story behind the ghosts and the haunting, along with the characters’ personal issues. This is a must-watch if you want to make your friends scream and cover their eyes while enjoying a well-written horror movie.

10. Shaun of the Dead (2004)

Last but not the least, we have Shaun of the Dead. This is a horror/comedy British film starring Simon Pegg as Shaun. After their town suddenly becomes overrun with zombies, Shaun struggles to save both his mother and ex-girlfriend with the ultimate plan of safety.

Shaun of the Dead did a wonderful job on harmonizing horror and comedy into one beautiful melody. I decided to end the list with this in order to give a lighter tune to everything while still being scary. What’s in it for you when you watch this movie: great characters, good humor, suspense, zombies, and Cornetto ice cream.

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Despite the bad horror movies that rule the box office, there are still some really good ones that deserve so much more love than they’re currently getting. This gives me hope for the horror genre, and I’m hoping for more great horror movies to add to my collection.

Enjoy the Halloween!

#halloween #horror #movies #shutter #it 2017 #shaun of the dead #jacob's ladder #sigaw #the echo #orphan #sinister #alien #the ring #michael myers #top 10 #list #binge-watching

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maxwellbloodfencer · 7 years

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Starfinder

So, about a month ago now, Paizo released their new hot series of tabletop rpg insanity: Starfinder! It’s based on Pathfinder but they trimmed out some fat to make things easier, and also added some new mechanics like an Armor Class against energy-based attacks and rules to build your own starships and getting them into combat with other ships.

I got a crew to give the game a sweet little test ride using the Starfinder Asociation adventure series “Into the Unknown”. It’s available for free from Paizo’s website and contains 5 short, connected adventures designed to take up to an hour. They are kind of basic, but good enough to get your feet wet with the game.

The crew: To be honest, we didn’t bother too much with backstories and names as I made it perfectly clear that we’d only finish these short adventures with the characters before I make a proper campaign at some point. Anyway, our group intrepid heroes consisted of a Shirren Mystic, a Vesk Soldier, a Human Soldier, a Kasatha Solarian, and an Android Operative. The android is actually the only guy whose name I remember: Chat. His and the kasatha’s players were actually the only guys who set up a proper backstory. Basically the kasatha is a rich kid Twitch streamer and Chat acts both as his bodyguard, as well as a monitor that displays the kasatha’s channel’s chat. Androids in Starfinder actually more or less look like flesh and blood humanoids, but I allowed them to give him an LED screen for a face. Those two were great fun and had a really good dynamic going between them. The shirren and vesk were premades, because their players didn’t really have the time to look through the rules prior to our session because of work and stuff.

Anyway, we only got through the first two parts of Into the Unknown because of time restrictions, but we are planning to finish the rest in two weeks. The first adventure has the group looking for a mysterious person who sold off some some items to a pawnbroker. Those items are important to the Starfinder Society (the in-game one, not the organized store play), so the group gets sent out to pick them up and try to find the seller. The story ends with a basic combat encounter which wasn’t too difficult, but thanks to some “amazing” dice rolls the bad guys didn’t take too much damage while the kasatha streamer took quite a beating.

The second adventure had the gorup go out into space for some starship combat! Exciting stuff because that is the brand new thing of the system. Every member of the team gets a job on the ship: captain, engineer, gunner, pilot or science officer. The combat itself is split into three phases: engineering, helm and gunnery. Each role gets to act on a different phase: the captain can take one action per round in any phase he chooses, usually to buff his crew or debuff the enemy.The engineer acts in the engineering phase and can repair your ship or its shields or boost systems like your wepons to make them more efficient. The pilot acts in the Helm Phase. At the beginning of each Helm Phase the pilots of all ships make a Piloting skill check and the lwoest number has to move first, giving an advantage to the others as they can now maneuvewr to be out of its firing arc while setting up their own shots. The science officer also acts during this phase and can do stuff liek scanning the enemy ship to expose its weapons and shields. Finally, in the gunnery phase the gunners do the shooty. What’s important to note is that technically everysthing happens at the same time, so if your gunner depletes all of the enemy ship’s HP (Hull Points) that ship still gets to shoot at you. Only at the end of the round are the effects resolved.

The encounter in the adventure isn’t designed too well, in my opinion. The group’s ship is up against a slow-moving freighter with only weak weaponry on its sides and nothing to shoot backwards. It has a really strong cannon in front which, ideally, it will never get to fire at you. The ship has no shields, but 100 HP and the ship you get for the adventure has weapons that deal 2d4 and 4d4 points of damage on a hit respectively. In our case the combat ended up taking way too long and being a bit boring. Most of the time people would just do the same actions every round, as the roles don’t have a lot of options for what they can do. And most of the time the enemy freighter didn’t get to do its gunnery phase because the smaller, faster vessel was hiding in its aft firing-arc, where it had no weapons. I think if I had designed this encounter, I would have completely incapacitated the freighter and given it two small fighter jet type ships as defense. Ideally each ship would go down with a couple well-placed hits and the players would have had to put more thought into their maneuvering to avoid getting pincered by the smaller craft.

Other than that it was a whole lot of fun! I was getting a bit burned out on DnD’s high fantasy, so getting to explore some scifi is just the right diversion to keep my pen and paper adventures fresh.

#starfinder #long post #pen and paper #tabletop rpg

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thedefinitionofbts · 7 years

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Corner of the Universe

Pairings: Kim Taehyung x Reader

Genre: Future, Scifi, Reincarnation, Slight Angst?

Words: 6.8K

Description:

You find yourself hundreds of light-years away from the origin of the human species. Millennia of space travel has given the appearance of being in route to conquer the entire universe, but with weariness and the yearning to push on in the fabric of space that has no end, true discovery does not occur until lifetimes later.

Your story begins on a planet called Earth with a boy who always had his head tilted up at the stars.

Note: Scifi au with scientific inaccuracies so don’t quote me on anything lol. Also there are references to some scifi moves and novels, but the story is completely original. Hope you guys enjoy :)

The walls on the Starship Polaris are smooth and metallic, characteristic of materials mined from the asteroid belt and Jupiter’s moons. Just how you liked them. Just how they were supposed to be.

Aboard a spacecraft that is carrying over 5000 passengers to a distant exoplanet, your control room is buzzing with activity and the voices of other crew members preparing for descent. It had been over one hundred years since you left the last planet, yet it only feels like six months because you were hibernating for most of the time.

Space travel was never a quick process, which is ironic because spaceships are now one of the fastest moving objects that exist, but in an endlessly vast universe where even light can’t travel quick enough to reach every corner, voyages were century long endeavors.

You were one of the few people, if not the only person, in existence that can remember parts of your past lives. Maybe it shouldn’t be considered remembering because you had absolutely no control over the flashbacks. They would happen from certain triggers. It could be a sound, a scene, or even a taste in your mouth, but you had no way of knowing what it was or when they would happen, until they did.

Were these flashbacks significant? You didn’t know, but they always seemed to possess the ability to evoke some strong inner emotion you found hard to describe, it was like a yearning to discover the unknown or a search for something long lost.

Whatever the case, you had taken this as a god given gift that you were destined to lead the human race.

And so when human technology was able to get around that which prevented prolonged space travel with the invention of hibernation pods and spacecrafts powered by nuclear fusion reactors able to reach speeds over half the speed of light, you knew it was time to expand. Humanity being the poster child of evolutionary biology, it was only a matter of time before the ability to search for habitable planets outside of the solar system was granted to them. Thus, the search for universal understanding and the spread of intelligent species was a goal that manifested after you decided the ultimate fate of life was to saturate the universe.

“Captain, I can’t get a precise reading on the airlock chamber.” Hoseok reports to you.

You look at the black screen in front of him, wondering which careless engineer forgot to double check that every last bit of software was working correctly. You made a mental note to find out and punish him or her accordingly after you land.

You sigh. “I’ll take it a look at it myself,” You say to Hoseok before turning and leaving the control room.

Taking the lift down to the south side of the ship, you find yourself walking down the pristine, perfectly kempt walkways as usual. Satisfied with the auto-maintenance system, you manage to alleviate your annoyance from earlier and make it to the chamber in no time and find that all systems were, as expected, clear.

On your way back to the main control room, you pass a grand hall with portraits of all the previous captains that lead the same spaceship you were on now. There was Kim Seokjin, the founder of the Starship Polaris who led the first human settlement to Aurora VII, and then came Min Yoongi, a small but powerful man of great intellect, who brought art and music to the newly settled planet and started a sort of renaissance in the new world.

Lastly you see the portrait of the man who was your predecessor. The words under his picture read Kim Taehyung. A man with a boxy smile and deep soulful pupils stares back at you. His expression is warm and friendly, almost verging on goofy, but the look in his eyes brings you back to a time when kids sat at individual wooden desks in school and the sounds of children playing in the grass outside under the sun seeps through the large classroom windows.

…

Flashback to past life 1

Your story had begun on a planet called earth, and the day you met a boy who always had his head tilted up at the stars.

“We have a new student joining us today” The teacher announces to the class.

You had just transferred from another school due to your father’s new job. He had miraculously found work in the city, a dream he’s had for ages because he had always promised your mother that one day he’d show her the finer things in life. He was a man of his word, and so your small family of three moved from the humble countryside to a rapidly growing metropolis full of tall skyscrapers and carbon emitting cars.

“Hi, my name is Y/N” You introduce yourself at the front of the classroom, waving shyly at the other students who just stared at you coldly.

“Why don’t you find a seat, dear” The teacher says.

You look around the classroom. There was an open seat next to a chubby kid in the second row.

“You can’t sit here” The boy next to the open desk hisses, giving you a disgusted look and putting his foot on the empty chair you were about to sit down in.

You hesitantly back away and look for another spot. The other seventh graders pretend to ignore your dilemma and anyone who had an empty desk next to them began to place their things on the chairs to indicate that it was unavailable to you.

Just as you were about to go back up to the front of the classroom and ask the teacher, who now has her back turned to everything that was going on and was busy writing on the chalkboard, to just assign you a seat, you hear a boy in the back of the room call your attention.

“You can sit by me,” He says, waving his arm in the air.

Surprised by his offer, you clumsily walk over to take the seat next to him. Although he was dressed in uniform like all the other students, his white shirt wasn’t tucked in perfectly so it hung out of his jacket and his pants looked like they were two sizes too big for him.

“It’s ok, I don’t bite,” He says, after noticing you had just been standing there and looking at him.

“O-Oh, thanks” You say, after you realize how awkward you must look right about now.

The fluffy light brown haired boy holds out his hand.

“My name is Kim Taehyung”

Kim Taehyung.

You don’t know it then, but the smile that spreads across his face is a string that ties your fates together for several lifetimes to come.

…

The bell rings, signaling the end of another school day.

“Wanna come over to my house?” Taehyung asks just as the two of you had walked outside the school building.

“Your house, why?” You ask curiously. This was the first time Taehyung had invited you to do something with him outside of school, and of all places, he chose his house?

It had been three months since you transferred, three months since you were out casted by all the other students in your class starting from day 1, and three months since you became friends with a boy with a boxy smile and a carefree aura.

“Yeah.” He nods enthusiastically. “I live on top of a hill on the outskirts of the city. We can see things better there.”

You had no idea what kind of “things” he was referring to, but at this point you had known Taehyung long enough to know that his mind doesn’t run like the average person. It goes twice the speed if not more. He’s restless, always ready to do the next thing that pops into his head. He’s selfless, treating everyone with genuine kindness despite rarely getting the same treatment in return. He’s the energy of the sun shining brightly on the earth, providing life the nutrients it needs to flourish. He’s a dreamer, a stargazer.

And it was that evening, after eating a home cooked meal by Taehyung’s lovely mother, that you found yourself sitting on a giant rock at the edge of mountain looking up at the clear midnight sky. The city was away in the distance, meaning the radiance of the shiny bright stars was unhindered by the artificial glare of city lights.

“Isn’t it beautiful?” Taehyung lets out a deep breath at he gazes upward.

“Yeah” You follow the slow turn of his head as he begins pointing out constellations that you had only ever heard about and telling you stories about travelers lost at sea with only the stars to guide them.

“It’d be cool to go up there, don’t you think?” He says after a moment of silent admiration.

“Sure, I guess” You’re still looking at the dark night sky, with nothing but distant stars to brand it beautiful. It was stunning but mildly frightening at the same time.

A moment passes. He doesn’t respond, and you worry that maybe your unenthusiastic answer hurt his feelings, so you turn your head to look at him. But somewhere along the way your eyes meet, because Kim Taehyung had stopped looking at the sky a while ago and had already been gazing at you.

…

Present

Thanks to the invention of artificial gravity on the newer spacecraft models, stepping out onto a planet with real gravity was not as difficult as it had been in the past. Back in the day, it would take weeks if not months to adjust to walking again, but now that concern was virtually nonexistent. You have skilled engineers and scientific geniuses to thank for that.

You step out into the warmth of natural light for the first time in over a century. Most of the time, space travel was dull and uneventful, or at least the times you were awake and not hibernating in your pod. Years of interstellar travel never fail to make you forget the natural beauty of a planet teeming with life, the feeling of fresh air hitting your skin and the scent of flora and fauna pooling into your nostrils.

Over the years, you’ve come to visit a number of planets just as beautiful as earth, with their crystallize blue seas and evergreen land forms. Aurora VII was no exception.

It was of similar size to Mars, the first planet that humans ever colonized, and as breathtakingly beautiful as Pandora, a planet named after one that was the setting of a science fiction movie a millennium ago. The organisms on Aurora VII possessed no higher-level intelligence, a blessing, or so you called it. Because in the past, there have been a few interstellar wars fought between the human race and other intelligent species, and although differences were usually settled in the end, the casualties lost and the resources wasted was always a huge blow, and peace is always hanging on a thin thread.

“We have an appointment with the Supreme Leader this afternoon” Hoseok reminds you. His voice snaps you out of your thoughts, and you turn your attention away from admiring the land.

“Kim Taehyung?” Your ears perk up at the thought of meeting the man you saw in the portrait earlier, in this lifetime of course. The leader of Aurora VII was always decided based on whoever lead the crew to the planet. Meaning Kim Seokin and Min Yoongi were once Supreme leaders of Aurora VII, but you were only here to visit and being the leader of the entire human race as a whole, you didn’t have the time or the means to monitor every single planet inhabited. Besides, letting each planet have its own governing body was a way to preserve the peace keep the unrest at bay.

“Acutally Supreme Leader Kim has been succeeded by a man named Jeon Jungkook.”

“Succeeded?” You’re aware of what the word indicates, but it doesn’t quite register right away.

Hoseok proceeds anyways. “Supreme Leader Jeon has received some information he thinks might be of use to you.” Hoseok points to the hovering vehicle in the middle of the grassy field in front of you. “We are invited to the capital today.”

The palace in the capital is enormous; it’s almost as big as the mountain it’s build next to. It blends in quite nicely with the scenery and the lake that connects with the sea through a canal. The buildings of the city look brand new despite being built several centuries ago. There must be something about the atmosphere here that prevents premature decay; either that or they’re made out of a special material that’s everlasting.

You notice that the halls of the palace are almost uncomfortably spacious. The ceiling is high and held up by large white pillars that line the entire passage. It almost feels too empty, but Aurora VII has not had enough time to be populated as much as “older” planets so it’s understandable that the ratio of land to people is still quite large.

“Ah, Y/N, welcome” You hear the voice of someone walking down the steps of the throne room.

You look to see a man with chocolate brown hair and large doe eyes, wearing a black suit.

“Jungkook?” You question, sure that it has to be him but not wanting to risk being wrong.

“I know you expected to see someone else, but unfortunately he left us quite a few years ago.” Jungkook says, signaling you to follow him into the living quarters.

“Left?” You follow him “Can you be a little more specific?” You ask, starting to feel a bit irritated at his choice of words.

“Illness. A virus on this planet that his body was unable to defend itself against.” Jungkook says with a sigh. “There was medication, but it was limited and he chose to give it to those who he deemed was more in need of it than he was.” He shakes his head and falls silent.

You don’t immediately respond, because it has just now been confirmed that what you were thinking was actually the case, though you had hoped it was not.

Jungkook offers you a seat and a cup of what looks to be local tea. The leaves float around lazily on the surface of the hot water as the grassy aroma drifts to your nose.

“He was my best friend, as you can see, he trusted me enough to rule in his place.” Jungkook takes a sip from his own cup. “But never mind that, I requested to meet with you today because a team of my most accomplished scientists have discovered what they think is another habitable planet.”

If your mind had gone blank moments earlier, you were all eyes and ears now that his last statement had something to do with another new planet, a new world just waiting to be discovered. “Really?” You’re eyes widen and excitement begins to flood your body once again.

…

Flashback to past life 2

College came around way too quickly. Back when you were younger, college was this goal you were going to reach at the finish line, a sort of destination that signaled the end of childhood and your teenage years, and everyone who had already gone off to college was old. But now as you stand on the grassy lawn in front of the student union building holding a stack of textbooks in your left arm and a map of campus in your right, this was all too real.

Real and unbelievable at the same time.

You were trying to figure out how to get to the Physics building. It had to be where the Chemisty, Biology and other science buildings were, right? This would be a lot easier if you had chosen to go to a smaller school, but you also didn’t want to attend a small liberal arts college because you knew you wanted to study the sciences.

Just as you found the building you were looking for on the map, someone bumps into you, causing you to drop all of your textbooks.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry” You hear someone with a deep baritone voice say.

You look up to see a tall guy with golden brown hair wearing a pair of thin-rimmed glasses and a checkered shirt paired with slacks.

“Are you ok?” He says, looking at you with eyes full of concern.

“Yeah, I’m fine” You reply as you begin to pick up your books. He immediately crouches down to help you.

“I’m Taehyung by the way. Kim Taehyung.” He says after you both stand up.

“Y/N” You say. “Are you a freshman?”

He nods. “I’m assuming you are too?” He eyes your map of campus.

“Yeah, I’m heading over to my first physics class” You look in the direction you were about to walk in before this Taehyung guy had bumped into you.

“Really?!?” He exclaims happily. “I was going over to physics too!”

You don’t why he got so excited all of a sudden, but the rectangular shape that his mouth forms makes your heart race ever so slightly.

…

Kim Taehyung is a freshman who already knows exactly what he wants to study in college. No doubt about it. He claims he’s known since the day he was born, like he just opened his eyes to the world and knew he was meant to study the universe. You thought he sounded ridiculous at first, but he gradually convinced you to major in the same thing, and although you were unsure in the beginning, you eventually became just as obsessed as he was about the stars and planetary alignments.

“For an Astronomy and Astrophysics major you sure look more like you were meant to study fashion” You voice as you eye him up and down. Taehyung had walked into the library clad from head to toe in designer clothing. He’s sported expensive pieces in the past, but this was taking it to a whole new level.

“This is how I clean up for dates” He grins. “I’ve been trying to find an opportunity to wear these shoes for ages.” He says while pointing down at a pair of fur-lined slippers he was wearing.

“No comment” You say, as begin packing your laptop into your backpack.

Taehyung takes you to the restaurant you guys went to on your first date back at the beginning of the semester. It’s a quaint little restaurant at the end of Food Street, a place that not many people go because it’s apparently “away from the fun”. In other words, it’s away from all the drinking and partying that most college students actively opt to participate in. He says it’s in celebration of your hundredth day anniversary. You didn’t even know such milestones existed, let alone he was actually keeping track of these things.

“You know what’s really cool?” Taehyung asks as the two of you sit on the roof of the restaurant finishing the last of the ice-cream dessert he had ordered, despite claiming to be too full to eat another bite, and then saying he actually has a secret stomach just for sweets.

“Hmm?”

Taehyung leans in closer to you, making a bit of heat rise to your cheeks. “Comets that come around every hundred years or so.” It almost comes out as a whisper in your ear, its soothing and gentle and a stark contrast to his normally playful personality.

“So you can make a wish?” You ask, wondering if that’s what he’s referring to.

He shakes his head. “Because they’re like stars that we can reach. Stars that aren’t so far away.” He answers as he maneuvers his hand down to yours and intertwines your fingers with his.

That night Taehyung shows you the stars you never paid attention to and talks about the universe in even more fascinating ways than he’s ever had before. He shares his dreams of going into space one day if the opportunity ever arose and tells you everything he wants to see and everything he wants to do. He basically shares his whole mind with you, a mind that he normally doesn’t open up to everyone because few people are able to understand him.

But he says that you can, and so he shares with you three words that you will never forget in that lifetime.

…

Present

According to Supreme Leader Jeon Jungkook, Kim Namjoon is the best aerospace engineer on Aurora VII. He’s the inventor of the new series of starships that travel just below the speed of light, and testing has gone smoothly so far, meaning they could be up and running within the next five years.

“It’s very nice to meet you” Namjoon says as he shakes your hand.

“How did you come up with all of this?” You ask, gaping at all of the modules and spaceship engines he’s designed and built. The lab was filled to the brim with different prototypes and miniature models. Virtual visualizations of the larger parts of the giant spacecraft were displayed on the computer screens that lined the room.

He chuckles. “Well, I’ve had some help.” He points at the robot arms hanging from the ceiling. “Monie. My artificially intelligent system.”

“Ahh.” You respond, still in awe but coming to realization.

“As much as I like to take credit for designing all of this, it was actually the blueprints left behind by previous supreme leaders that sparked the idea initially.” Namjoon explains.

“Seokjin, Yoongi, and Taehyung?”

He nods. “Seokjin was a very practical leader. He chose to focus more on the hibernation pods and how they could be made more efficient to sustain life for even longer periods of time, by slowing down metabolic processes even more so than they already are.”

“So you built them into the ship” You say. Namjoon nods again.

“The outer design of the ship was actually Yoongi’s original sketch.

“Now it makes sense why it looks so sleek and aerodynamic” You comment, while staring at the miniature version kept inside a glass display.

“But the most important element was the speed. As you are probably already aware, there are places in the universe that even with our advanced technology, we can only dream of reaching.”

You turn to look at Namjoon, interest yet again stimulated by the idea of going even farther into the depths of space.

“Taehyung. He thought of using antimatter to generate photons. He noted something along the lines of using light to travel like light.” Namjoon says. “He was a big believer in light, saying that it counteracts the darkness in space. And he loved all suns because all suns are stars, and all stars are sources of light.” Namjoon pauses.

You think he’s finished explaining, but the next thing he says tugs at your heart enough to recall a time in the life you lived before this very one.

“He once wrote that he hopes that light will be able to reach every corner of the universe.”

…

Flashback to past life 3

Please select another option.

Great. The drink machine was malfunctioning again. Why was it always doing this? You had paid for gold membership, so it was suppose to allow you to get all of the drink options. Water just wasn’t going to cut it today.

“Here, let me help you” You turn to see another passenger on the ship walk up to the machine and press in a passcode.

A cup dispenses and hot coffee begins to fill it.

You learn that the passenger’s name is Kim Taehyung, and he’s not a passenger, he’s an astronaut and actually part of the crew. You also learn that he’s only on call for maintenance, as he wasn’t deemed physically adept enough to do the really hardcore work. Most astronauts these days are products of genetic engineering, basically athletes with optimized physical abilities. But being an outcome of natural birth didn’t stop Taehyung from sneaking into the space program and joining the fiftieth group of explorers to travel to Mars.

You were also part of that fiftieth group of people relocating to Mars. But you were there as a paying passenger in hopes of finding a new life after earth had finally reached carrying capacity and there was simply no room to live comfortably on the home planet.

“I’ve never really learned how to just like something, I’ve always just let it consume me.” Taehyung says as the two of you were sharing a drink at the space bar. There was jazz music playing subtly in the background and the large glass window of the spacecraft offered the most magnificent view of the Earth in the distance, shrouded in misty clouds that wrapped around the blue sphere and the blinding light of the sun even further away.

“You’ve dreamed of coming to space for that long, huh?” You ask, slightly amused at how someone can be so obsessed with something like this.

“I don’t know. I just wake up feeling like I have this mission to light up the darkness.” He says, while taking a sip of his cocktail.

“Light up the darkness?” You laugh, and this is the first time in a long time someone has made you laugh like this.

He grins, and it almost looks silly, but it also feels like home.

“I think… ” Taehyung trails off. He pauses for an unnaturally long period of time in an attempt to build suspense. “Space was just void until the stars came to be.”

“Yeah” You reply, trying to suppress your giggle. “It’s dark until you turn on the lights.”

He scratches the back of his neck, realizing how anticlimactic his statement was, and also realizing he looks kind of dumb right about now.

“But no, I get what you’re trying to say.” You voice after the urge to laugh has gone away. “I thought space was a scary place until I put my focus on the stars.”

“And realize it’s absolutely gorgeous, right?” His face brightens like an excited puppy.

You look at him endearingly and nod.

…

It was in this life that you first began having thoughts of exploring space and discovering even more planets outside the solar system and beyond.

You fell in love with Kim Taehyung sooner than you probably should’ve, but some instinct seems to have told you that your time with him in this life would not last long.

At first you thought it was because him being part of the maintenance staff on spacecrafts, he would be traveling between the earth and mars for the majority of his life. It was like being an army wife on a whole other level, because that trip was a long journey and time was so precious, you literally only had time to stargaze when he was visiting.

But one thing about stargazing on Mars was that it was even more clear and magical, because the atmosphere on the red planet is less dense, devoid of clouds and mist from water formations. There are also more undeveloped areas void of human remnants, rocky cliffs with no trees to block the boundless nighttime sky.

After joining the colony in Mars, you were soon accepted into the space program there, after voluntarily applying of course. Thinking that maybe this would allow you to be with Taehyung, but the universe was clearly against you because one day you receive the type of ground shattering news that leaves you gasping for air.

It was a report that the spacecraft sent to earth had malfunctioned and that all the passengers aboard were lost in space. Lost in space?! Being lost in the ocean on earth was impossible to find as it is, but lost in space? Might as well just say they were sucked into a black hole.

Just imagining Taehyung as space dust floating endlessly in the dark would cause you heartwrenching pain, the kind that never goes away and comes back with a vengeance. For someone who loved light so much, how could the universe throw him into the black abyss?

He was probably scared.

He was probably calling out for you.

He was probably searching for home.

And so with unwavering resolve, you had vowed to make the entire universe home, a promise that would follow you to your next life.

…

Present

“I haven’t told Supreme Leader Jeon yet, but we’ve detected new activity on this planet that may suggests it’s being sucked into a black hole.” Namjoon says while rapidly typing on his ginormous supercomputer.

“How accurate are the readings?” You ask, peering over at the screen.

“Only 50%, but that’s pretty high given the distance. I’m calling Jeon now to see if he’ll change his orders in light of this new information.”

You nod and begin pacing back and forth, rubbing your nervous hands together. What will Jungkook say? Will he tell us to proceed? Finding a new habitable planet is a very rare occurrence; he wouldn’t give it up this easily would he?

You hear Namjoon’s voice explaining the situation as a muffle because you are still trapped in your own thoughts.

Then you hear Jungkook’s voice through the video call. “Perhaps we should abandon plans of colonizing that planet and search for others.” Jungkook suggests. For some reason you had hoped that he would be the relentless overlord type and order everyone to proceed with the plans as scheduled, because then you wouldn’t be having to play devil’s advocate now.

“Even so, it would still be light years away from being sucked in completely.” You cut in. “We can still check it out.”

“Y/N, I can’t give you an exact percentage of the risks, but it’s much safer to let it go.” Namjoon says.

“I’m not opposed to sending a small crew over to test the waters.” Jungkook interrupts.

“But Supreme Lea-” Namjoon begins, but you are quick to cut him off.

“I will gather a team together and go once the ship is ready,” You state.

Jungkook nods, giving you the ok. Not like he or anyone could’ve stopped you anyways. Even Namjoon’s warnings were not enough to make you change your mind.

In the next year, you learn a few things about this new planet. It’s five hundred lightyears away in the furthest reaches of the Andromeda galaxy. The intelligent life on Trisolaris, a planet that was eventually destroyed by one of its three suns, had records of its abundance in a material that has yet to be found anywhere else in the universe. This coveted element is said to be located at the planet’s core and is self regenerating in a way that may redefine the first law of thermodynamics. The Trisolarians possessed technology even more advanced than the human race much earlier on. They would’ve been destined to do great things, but the fate of their planet ultimately prevented them from spreading beyond their trisolar system. But luckily they were nice enough to gift humanity with the abundance of information they had collected over their existence as an intelligent species before their race perished in collision with one of their suns.

“It’s a pity that the Three-Body Problem has yet to be solved” You voice as you look up from the data you were analyzing.

“It’s a result of the way the problem is set up in classical mechanics. With quantum it’s easy.” Namjoon replies to your comment nonchalantly.

He’s right of course, but solving it mathematically still would not have saved the Trisolarians from the sporadic and unpredictable orbits of their three suns.

Life on Aurora VII has for the most part been uneventful, besides exploring the uninhabited lands with Hoseok once in a while; you had been spending most of your time in Namjoon’s lab anyways. He has quite a nice library with a comprehensive collection of actual, physical books, something you hadn’t seen before in this lifetime. It was a room with large crystal clear walls, open to the natural scenery of Aurora VII’s various plant species and deeply rooted trees that were probably thousands of years old.

Namjoon is still working on perfecting the antimatter engine of the spacecraft, but these days, he’s been distant, not as philosophical as he had been when you first met him. It maybe the stress, or he’s just not as passionate about this project as he had been in the past.

Progress has been made, but not quick enough for your liking. And this was especially true when you had received the news that other human colonies on other planets have also began planning to mine the new planet for it’s unique material before everything is sucking into the black hole.

You quickly learn that unified expansion was not the number one goal any longer because the seeds of competition within the human race have been sowed, and the conquest and the utilization of natural resources has inevitably become the top priority.

…

“Commander, the ship’s engine has a minor malfunction. We need to consider aborting.” Park Jimin’s voice was the first sound you hear through the high-pitched ringing in your eardrums.

So this was why you had been awoken from your hibernation pod.

Mind still groggy and vision slightly askew from essentially being asleep for over a century, you shake your head a few times to register his statement.

“Are there enough escape modules?” You ask.

Of course, you had already predicted such a malfunction would occur. After all, Namjoon had made it quite clear to you that the spacecraft was not ready as it had not yet passed safety regulations, but you went ahead and embarked on this dangerous excursion anyways. He couldn’t have stopped you, despite his courageous attempts out of genuine concern and care. No one could.

“We are short of those, but there’s a starship nearby that is offering to take a few of us back.”

“Back?” You repeat his words. “Back as in, in the other direction?”

Jimin nods, face looking hopeful and encouraging.

Your obsession with discovering new planets and thirst for the impression of owning them was a massive understatement. Because when you see the nod of your trusty comrade who’s eyes turn into two crescent moons whenever he smiles, you don’t feel the relief that you should. You don’t feel thankful to have such compassionate people by your side, and instead your mind searches for ways to keep trekking despite obviously walking towards your doom. You always knew your mindset was unhealthy, it had become that way a long time ago, but still you chose to ignore the fact that you had gradually become fixated with owning every last inch of the universe, understanding it, improving it, and controlling it, to a point where nothing else mattered.

…

The spacecraft that came to the rescue, the Starship Hera, is a ship that harbors 10,000 passengers, and one of its commanders goes by the name of Kim Taehyung.

“Are you saying we have no choice but to turn back?” You ask Jimin as you follow him into the control room.

“Captain Y/N, even if the ship was functioning optimally, we would have to turn back.” Jimin says. He pulls up a reading on the radar. “The new planet has already begun its descent into the black hole. By the time we get there-”

Jimin stops speaking mid sentence at the sound of the control room door opening.

“Greetings Commander Park and Captain Y/N” You hear a smooth baritone voice come from behind you.

Your breath hitches in your throat and you slowly whip your head around to see who you know it is.

Kim Taehyung

There’s something about that man with a charmingly distinctive boxy smile that seems to remain constant in every life you’ve ever met him. Something firm, resolute, and unchanging in this turbulent space we like to call life and existence. Something that measurements like time tries to be but fails miserably at.

The crew unanimously decides to abandon ship. Even Park Jimin has dropped out, not that you expected him to stay anyways. But you, on the other hand, aren’t as able to readily let go…at least not yet.

You decide to give yourself some more time to think, and for some reason Commander Kim Taehyung decides to wait. No one tries to stop him or you because there is one last escape pod, with a large enough capacity to fit two people, and all the other passengers have already boarded Starship Hera and the other pods.

“Does the universe go on forever?” Taehyung asks as he looks out at the darkness. The darkness speckled with botches of shiny glitter, like sparkling diamonds scattered in soil.

“If there is an answer for that, I guarantee I’ll be the first one to find out.” You reply as you sit next to him in the control room. “I want space to be more beautiful, I want to see more of it. I need to know what is still out there that has yet to be ignited.”

“Did you know that there are pocket-sized worlds that feel even bigger than entire multiverses?” Taehyung says suddenly.

You do not understand what he means initially. How can something smaller feel bigger? How can something finite be larger than the infinite?

“I have a lot of dreams about space.” He pauses, taking a soft breath. “In my dreams, I’m always a lonely boy who viewed the immeasurable universe from one position.” Taehyung glances at you, probably wondering if you are still listening. He isn’t aware that at that moment, he has your undivided attention. “I’ve traveled in space for a long, long time, and yet it’s never as picturesque as it is in my dreams. That’s when I realized that only by standing afar are you able to gaze at its vast beauty and mystery.”

You had forgotten what it had been that drew your attention, your love, your passion for the universe and its stars. You had been trapped in an endless progression. You had been determined to reach for what laid millions of miles away. Perpetually reaching out, and by doing so neglecting what was near and dear.

“There is no crew aboard this ship, I will accept your decision.” He finishes.

It was perhaps because of something else, something that began long ago and something you are just seeing now, that conveyed to you that you will never find what you are looking for out there.

And that something turned out to be the looking glass.

Kim Taehyung

He is the lens that captures the cosmic scenery, the celestial light that graces the sky for eternities. And all that is out there is nothing without such a reference point.

He is the corner of the universe, and after centuries and lifetimes of unending searches in the boundless silence of space, it is only now that you realize what you had been looking for had never been out there.

And so you look into the warm eyes of your comrade Kim Taehyung, and whisper three simple words.

“Let’s turn back”

…

An earlier story had begun on earth, one that came before the one you knew of.

“The sky is so pretty” Your eyes are glistening as you wait for the comet to polish the sky with dazzling lights. It is dusk, and the sun has already disappeared and all that remains are the fading warm hues of yellows and oranges tinting the extensive dark blue palette.

You are sitting on top of a rolling hill with mild gusts of wind blowing ripples into the sea of grass and wild flowers. The air is unpolluted, and the weather is comfortably warm and sincere. Fluffy clouds are afloat here and there, and you can almost imagine falling into their softness.

The boy next to you stirs. “I wish I could gift it to you”

“What? The sky?”

He nods.

“You can’t do that, silly. The sky doesn’t belong to anyone, and probably never will.”

“Can we pretend I can?”

You turn to look at the boxy smile spread across his face. Little did you know, that game of pretend is why he always had his head titled up at the stars. Why he choose to study them in his next life, why he worked so hard to go into space the life after that, and why he’s always been a reliable soldier in humanities conquest of the universe for every life after that.

It’s because you were his stars and he was your corner of the universe.

…

#btswriters #armiesnet #bts fanfic #bts scenarios #kim taehyung x reader #kim taehyung #kim taehyung fanfic #scifi au #reincarnation #oneshot

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kyberled · 7 years

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11. In what situation was your character the most afraid they’ve ever been? and 9 but instead of discussing his socioeconomic status while growing up, talk about the difference between how his upbringing with the jedi is different from his potential upbringing with his birthfather

Character Development Questions: Hard Mode

11. In what situation was your character the most afraid they’ve ever been?

See, here’s the thing that’s really giving me trouble with answering this question: Braig is letting me know that he’s been afraid a few times, but it’s different kinds of fear. He’s been faced with the fear of his own death a number of times, though the biggest times he’s been faced with this so far have been in the battle he fights alongside Finch, and probably Order 66, though how much mortal danger he himself was directly in depends on the verse (though it’s never exactly a good position for him to be in). He’s had to face the fear of failure/not being good enough, which was at its strongest when it was getting close to his thirteenth birthday, and he still hadn’t found a master. He also had to face the fear of abandonment and being alone, which was strongest during the period of time when Obi-Wan was ‘dead’, in the Deception arc.

He was confronted with a fear he didn’t even know he had when the Geonosian parasites happened - the fear of having his autonomy taken away. Not being in control of his movements or speech was absolutely terrifying for him– And, I have to say, I think this is why he hasn’t actually used the Jedi Mind trick over the course of this blog (That, and the fact that he has so far been able to charm his way out of any situation aside from those involving Fox)? I mean, I’m quite sure he’s been trained in its use, and he’s done it before, but it almost never crosses his mind as a solution to problems - and it’s always a last resort for him (just above killing). He knows what it’s like to have your agency ripped away, and he wouldn’t wish it upon his worst enemy.

So, yes, he’s faced utter terror a few times. He always comes away thinking it’s his fault.

9. Is your character’s current socioeconomic status different than it was when they were growing up? Tell Alex to break out the team jackets again folks

(WARNINGS FOR: Child abuse (verbal/emotional), suicide [Not graphic, just mentioned, but still], mentions of child death)

So I feel like the best way to really get the point across between how absolutely horrible his life under Eadric would be, is by comparing hypothetical scenarios to actual threads, headcanons, and interactions Rodi and I have done with Braig and Obi-Dad. It’s like night and day, really.

When Braig was a baby, Obi-Wan went out of his way to visit him. After long missions, Obi would make a beeline to go snuggle the bab as a way of therapy/cool-down, and has rushed through chores to get more smol time. Eadric, on the other hand, was barely around, even when Braig did live with him. He had a brand-new little son at home, and he spent most of his time either at work or shut away in his office at home. Braig didn’t even really have many memories of his father to lose when he came to the Jedi.

Adding on to that, Dadawan Obi would take Braig out of the nursery to go on little field trips relevant to kiddo’s interests, and go as far as to hide from nursery workers so as to not have to take Braig back before their field trip was properly completed. By the time Braig was still learning to walk and talk, and just getting the hang of toddling around, Obi knew Braig liked stars, and flowers, and being read to, and that one of the best ways to get him to sit still would be to read him a brand-new book he’d yet to see, and he knew what Braig was like with staff he didn’t like and the best way to get a grumpy bab to settle. He’d take Braig to the Temple gardens, to the archives to look at/play with holographic star charts, and has on at least one occasion sneaked the little one onto a starship so they could go stargazing without having to deal with the massive amounts of light pollution Coruscant puts out on the daily. When Braig was getting his first kyber crystals from Ilum, Obi made sure to comfort him before sending kiddo off to the caves and to wrap Braig in extra scarves and giving him a mug of tea to help him warm up. When Braig first made his sabers, Obi made time to give the kiddo a sparring match, though of course taking it easy. By the time Braig’s a teenager, Obi also knows that having his hair brushed/braided helps calm Braig down after rough days/nights, and that when he gets anxious on missions or even just when they’re walking together it’s grounding for Braig to hold on to Obi’s sleeve, and there have even been times Obi will just hold his arm out to Braig cause he knows things are going south and Jedi or not this is a small child in very much not ideal conditions, so someone should probably make sure he’s at least a little bit okay for a change; He knows Braig likes riddles, and so will write them down in Braig’s journal for the kiddo to find and mull over on his off time; He knows Braig still likes flowers, and has taken the time on missions to let Braig look at, make notes on, and even find locals to ask if he can pick some flowers that they come across, though this is, of course, typically after missions where they haven’t been roughed up too badly and don’t need to rush back to Coruscant; He knows that Braig likes tea, and so will take him on trips to the tea shop to pick out a new flavour for them to try together…

The long and short of all of this is that Obi makes time to spend with Braig, and as a result knows what his interests are, and makes an effort to validate those interests. Those are two things that Eadric absolutely will not do. He comes home from work tired, irritated, and in a generally foul mood, and he does not have time to entertain every single flight of fancy his son happens to vomit in his direction. He’s actually said, to little, say, eight-year-old Braig that ‘[he’s] busy, and [has] far more important things to worry about than that– The Republic relies on [him], Braig. Open your eyes and stop being so selfish.’ And little Braig apologises with a mumbled ‘yes, sir, sorry, sir,’ and left; He’d wanted to show his father the flowers that had grown in some of the parks he saw on his way to school, but he can see why Eadric’s work would be more important than that (One of the nicer family droids asked, later, if Braig would like to go to the park with them, but he said no, and spent the rest of they day in his room. By the next day, the temperature had dropped, and the flowers were wilting, and he wondered if that, too, had something to do with his being selfish). Eadric and Braig hardly know each other, and when Braig gets older, they’ll go days, if not weeks, without speaking a single word to each other. Eadric doesn’t even know how Braig takes his caf in the morning (Doesn’t even know that Braig hates the taste of caf, but needs something to get him through the day). Braig, under Eadric, grows up learning to keep his eyes down and mouth shut, with literally no self-esteem and seeing Eadric as a terrifying stranger who just so happens to have complete control over Braig’s life.

Once, when Obi was brushing Braig’s hair to help him cool down from either a nightmare or a mission, I can’t remember which, he told Braig that he liked the length of his hair, and that it framed his face well and made him look ‘elegant and refined’. Braig’s hair is his favourite part of his appearance, hence why he grows it out, so he was quite pleased that Obi-dad thought it looked good, too. When Braig grows it out even longer (to the ridiculous length it is when he’s a grownup), in a verse where O66 never happened, Space Dad says that it not only suits Braig, but also reminds him of Qui-Gon, and goes on to say that he thinks Qui would be proud of Braig, too. And as you can imagine, kiddo (who was a grown man) was walking on air. He was thrilled.

When Braig, living under Eadric, started growing his hair out, he was told it made him look unkempt and ridiculous, and was made to sit while a droid shaved his head into a very close-cropped crew cut, so that he might ‘manage to be somewhat presentable’. Braig was absolutely miserable, he hated how it looked, it was awful and itchy and just another thing he’d managed to screw up. He wouldn’t grow it out again until he started rebelling for attention, and that just led to shouting matches and arguments and more forced-shavings (to the point where one droid would have to hold him down while another cut his hair - he got shaved nearly bald for that one).

I actually posed this question to Rodi just for this ask, but I asked her, “If baby Braig told Obi-Wan all he wanted to do when he grew up was plant flowers, what would Obi say?” And she told me he’d ask what kind of flowers they’d be, and Braig said ‘I don’t know, pretty ones,’ and Obi replied that he was sure they’d be the prettiest flowers in the galaxy.

When Braig said the same to Eadric, his father had said ‘Don’t be ridiculous, you’re going to be a soldier. Just like I am, just like my father was, and so on. We don’t need people to plant ‘flowers’, Braig - we have droids for that.’ And Braig had apologised as best he could, and thrown out the little cup of dirt he’d tried to plant a dandelion in.

Braig has absolutely zero problems coming to Obi-Wan with his problems, thoughts, or interests, because Obi-Dad has always made him feel safe and welcome to do so; Even as a teenager, he felt no shame in curling up next to Obi when nightmares get bad. He just feels safe with Dad.

With Eadric, when nights get bad, Braig sleeps on a park bench. He doesn’t feel safe in his own house; He sneaks out at night and figures the Senate district is safe enough. If any of the Guard do tell him to move along, he might mumble out an apology, but he’ll go ‘loiter’ at a different park. He usually takes his time getting home, too, since he knows he’ll be in trouble when he gets home. He starts sleeping outside when he’s about thirteen/fourteen, starts getting kicked out of the house for ‘poor behaviour’ (the only way he can get any sort of sentient interaction, some days) when he’s late fourteen/fifteen. He has a pretty regular cycle of where he goes, but he always winds up going back home because he has nowhere else, nobody else, and no idea how to take care of himself. There are times he looks forward to sleeping in the park, just because sometimes one of the nicer clones will be on patrol and he can say hi to them without getting yelled at, and it’s pretty much the highlight of his week(s). If they tried to bring him back before he was ready, he’d bolt. Best he could, at least. He’s not in as good shape in any sense as he is in the canon verses, so they could probably catch him.

(Speaking of lacking training, he’d be almost constantly overstimmed by the Force, since he would have no idea how to control it/throw up shields, and he’s probably gotten in trouble for accidental Force-mishaps before and just be very confused).

if the guards found him after he bolted, and had to take him back by, say, airspeeder, when he’s older? He’d throw himself out. He’d rather become fast friends with the distant ground than be dragged back to Eadric.

His ‘sweet sixteen’ with the Jedi/Obi-Wan involves waking up early to watch the sunrise with Space Dad, getting treated to some fancy tea, and then going about his day, perhaps getting well-wishes and even the odd gift from his friends/chosen family.

His sixteenth birthday with Eadric involves a closed coffin.

#long post //#suicide cw //#child abuse cw //#child death cw //#eadric is just a shit parent guys #storygiver #tfw the Jedi are a more caring environment than your home life would have been #&& as best i can; answers #&& give the sun a head start; ooc #&& temple archives; headcanons #&& unknown and unloving; eadric claermoore

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flarechaser · 7 years

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Sabine may not be the warrior to unite Mandalore yet, but she will be

I will literally fight, her character development is pointing in this direction and it’s all I care about

We’ve only seen her past in fragments that she drops in moments of emotional upheaval; despite her natural exuberance and how expressive she is in her art, she plays things very close to the chest. Even Kanan didn’t seem to know the whole story of her past, or at least the depths to which it affected her.

As far as I’ve seen, Rebels is a story about growth. The rebellion is in its infancy, and we follow the Ghost crew as they and others make connections with other rebel cells or pirate starships or generally do the organizing that will eventually bring down the empire, but they aren’t there yet. No one is. Hope is still metamorphosing, on Tatooine, on Alderaan, on Chopper Base and in a million little hidey-holes throughout the galaxy. Everyone is still growing. No one is who they need to be to defeat the empire soundly. Not yet.

Sabine is still growing as a person too. She feels disconnected from her Mandalorian roots in some sense, though she uses the starbird as her tag and still wears the armor. It’s a conscious choice to feel her own exile as strongly as possible, to exert some control over her circumstances, and to hold on to the last part of her family that can’t really abandon her, some shred of identity while she fled and built a new life for herself. Her Mandalorian training provided a strong foundation for the rebel she would become.

Its likely that being forced to design a weapon, the details and circumstances of which are still unclear, made her feel some sort of disconnect with her personhood as well. She chaffed against rigid imperial rule, she lived in an occupied society, and her labor was being used to support that occupation. Imperial requirements of compliance and conformity being what they were, she might have felt even her personality was slipping away, buried in whatever the empire was forcing her to become.

What struck me about this episode was how Sabine was a deliberate splash of color against the cold landscape and the people who inhabited it. Clan Wren seems to have a very muted aesthetic - the emblems are the same, but there’s hardly any color there. Sabine’s mother is the exception, but the gold in her armor is an accent, and darker, dull. Sabine’s armor is splattered with color, right down to her gloves, and all of it is bright and loud.

Sabine’s brother takes this to an extreme, though unwillingly. Instead of wearing his house emblems, he wears the armor of imperial super commandos, enforcing the conformity encouraged by the empire. His is the fate that Sabine would have faced had she remained with her family or continued to serve the empire. Her colorful armor, her non-regulation hair, her quick wit and her compassion buried under mass-produced plates.

Sabine had to leave, not just her family but her cultural sphere, in order to survive both physically and emotionally. She had to leave, and learn to grow somewhere else, had to heal somewhere else before she could return to her home and her people.

Mandalore is suffering; it has been since before the clone wars and will continue to do so without revolution. Their warrior ethos is central to their culture, but it had killed their planet and nearly killed them. But identity is powerful and important, and they weren’t able to let it go. The political manuverings of outsiders and greed both within and without destroyed any hope of transformation or synthesis and the wounds remain raw.

If Mandalore is going to survive, it needs something new to grow from within.

Sabine, who hasn’t forgotten Mandalore’s traditions, who carries her culture as literal armor, whose art has revolutionary inspirations melded with historical symbols - she can be the necessary change. Or she can inspire it.

Sabine’s mother has said several interesting things concerning the darksaber and how it is used to determine succession. First she implied that Sabine couldn’t be its true master without having defeated Maul, and underlined again the danger of possessing it at all. Then she simply tossed it to Gar Saxon like a common blaster and not the most powerful symbol in Mandalorian culture.

Ursa Wren is framed immediately as a political creature, so she could have any number of reasons for acting as she did. Its likely that her conversation with Sabine was meant to scare her daughter off of a dangerous course. Ursa is making an attempt to hold together the political power of a clan that is absolutely hemoraging influence. Power is strength on Mandalore, and strength is safety, which seems to be in short supply for her family, with a daughter branded a traitor and on the run, a political hostage husband, and a military hostage son.

She may have even been mostly telling the truth, believing she was saving her daughter by giving up the Darksaber without providing Saxon any meaningful victory. If the Darksaber really is meaningless without having defeated its previous holder in combat, then Saxon won’t be any more powerful that he already was - which, as a governor and military leader, was an already substantial amount.

But in Legacy of Mandalore, Sabine does defeat the weilder of the Darksaber - she stands over a defeated Saxon in a deliberate visual echo of Anakin standing over a defeated Count Dooku, two lightsabers held crossed beneath the enemy’s chin. She didn’t kill Saxon though that would have been permitted or even expected in a struggle for the Darksaber (and subsequently gave me my most recent heart attack since the end of mag7), but it was clear that she absolutely crushed him. With the Force Suite playing in the background through parts of the battle, I feel like there are some implications we can explore.

Sabine had, by the end of the episode, decided to stay with her family. This will be a difficult transition for her, not only reliving old traumas but also doing so without the support of her found family among the ghost crew. Hera and Kanan seemed much more concerned about her mental and emotional wellbeing than her biological family, who are clearly in survival mode themselves. She believes her place is with her clan, doing what she can to find whoever is meant to unite Mandalore and free it from the empire. She doesn’t believe that person is her.

As I said early on in this ramble, Rebels is a story about growth. In the beginning of the series, Sabine wouldn’t have been able to unite anyone. She was still hurting, though in a way that we the viewers could not always perceive. But we did see her heal an old friendship, develop new ones, and secure powerful allies for the fledgling rebellion. Now she’s functionally rescued her clan for the moment, soundly defeating the hand-picked imperial lapdog (though mom helped). She has the respect again of her clan. Her exile is at an end, though it has changed her. She’s a warrior in her own right, not just a troublemaker on the run. So what would it take for her to unite Mandalore?

She has to symbolically and publicly win the Darksaber. Again.

She could do this by defeating Maul, though he’s probably one of the most dangerous people in the universe and going after him without the force is foolish and probably deadly. But it would be poetic and I want to see someone put him in his place. His dance with Obi Wan never seems to go anywhere, and it’s time for someone else to step in and End It.

She could also fight Thrawn. There’s symmetry there - artist kills art critic - and Thrawn is a likely candidate for putting down rebellious Mandalorians before they can become A Problem. But he would have to be visibly in charge and impacting the lives of Mandalorians in a meaningful way for it to make any sense.

What I think is likely to happen is that Sabine will start stepping up and organizing. She’ll use what she learned about putting together a rebellion and whip the Clans into shape to get the empire out of Mandalorian space. She’ll be so busy leading her own rebellion that she won’t notice that she’s . . . actually the leader. She’ll grow into the role. She’ll make mistakes, but she’ll get there. And the empire, stuck fighting two rebellions united by legendary legacy swords, will be too distracted to put out all the fires.

Sabine is going to wield the Darksaber by right, not default

#sabine wren #star wars rebels #star wars tag #swr tag #swr spoilers #im lvoe her #I love my daughter

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swipestream · 5 years

Text

New Release Roundup, 23 February 2019: Science Fiction

Virtual idol assassins, machine rebellions, and cybernetic soldiers struggle across the spaceways in this week’s roundup of the newest releases in science fiction.

Adventures of the Starship Satori: Books 1-6 – Kevin McLaughlin

Collected together for the first time, read the opening six-book arc of USA Today Bestseller Kevin McLaughlin’s epic starship Satori series!

Dan Wynn thought he was grounded forever, but was given one last shot at the stars.

Beth Wynn figured she’d never see her ex-husband again, until the adventure of a lifetime brought them back together.

John Carraway, billionaire businessman with a secret: an ancient starship with an intact wormhole drive.

Charline Foster, rogue hacker with a brilliant past. Andrew Wakefield, former elite soldier and the son John never had.

Together they would embark on a journey that launched humanity into the stars, and face perils that threaten not only their lives, but the future of everyone on Earth.

Declaration (Forgotten Colony #5) – M. R. Forbes

The Deliverance is on the brink of destruction.

The planet is more dangerous than anyone realized – the crossroads of a war millennia in the making – and the colony is Ground Zero.

But the courage of a few can move mountains, and the fight isn’t lost yet.

The enemy thinks they have Caleb right where they want him.

They ought to think again.

Declaration is the fifth and final book in the Forgotten Colony series. If you love Aliens, Battlestar Galactica, Starship Troopers, Ender’s Game, or Edge of Tomorrow, you’ll love this epic military sci-fi thriller.

Earth Machines (Earthrise #10) – Daniel Arenson

Machines.

They fly our starships. Mine our asteroids. Connect us to one another. They serve us without question.

But what if the machines rebelled?

We call it the Singularity. The day the machines wake up. A day that can destroy humanity.

Marco and Addy are heroes, veterans of the Alien Wars. Today they are civilians, married, and peacefully raising a family.

That peace will soon shatter.

For years, Marco and Addy fought aliens, terrors from deep space. But how can they fight Earth’s machines, an enemy humanity itself created?

The Empire (AI Empire #3) – Isaac Hooke

Once upon a time, the galaxy was at peace. All the spacefaring races lived in harmony and shared their resources. Interstellar Conflict was a thing of the past.

And then the Link came.

In the hundred years since, the galaxy has known only war.

But now humanity’s Mind Refurbs have forged an alliance not only amongst themselves, but with several former Link members. Jain and the Void Warriors, Eric and the Bolt Eaters, and Jason and the War Forgers have joined forces with the Banthar, the Tyrnari, and the Mimics. They intend to bring the fight to the Link.

If they win, humanity will be part of a new galactic hegemony, leading an empire built upon peace.

If they fail, Earth will be blown back to the stone ages. Assuming it survives at all.

The Last Reaper – J. N. Chaney and Scott Moon

When a high value scientist is taken hostage inside the galaxy’s most dangerous prison, Halek Cain is the only man for the job.

The last remaining survivor of the Reaper program, Hal is an unstoppable force of fuel and madness. A veteran amputee-turned-cyborg, he has a history of violence and a talent for killing that is unmatched by any soldier.

With the promise of freedom as his only incentive, he’ll stop at nothing to earn back his life from the people who made him, imprisoned him, and were too afraid to let him die.

Experience this exciting beginning to a brand new series set in the Renegade Star universe.

Revenge (The Resistance #2) – Nathan Hystad

Flint, Wren, and Ace, along with Charles, are now members of the Eureka, a state-of-the-art vessel heading for a world in the far reaches of a new galaxy. Sixty years ago a colony ship was sent there, along with someone close to their benefactor.

But when they arrive, they find getting to the surface isn’t as easy as they thought. With a crash landing, and news that shocks the entire crew, they must collectively find a way to get the Pilgrim off-planet, and into the fight against the Watchers.

One of the crew leaves from orbit, spelling betrayal, and the others know time is against them. They must create a virus and bring it to the enemy’s home world, but not everything is as it seems.

Join our heroes as they fight for the future, knowing an all-out war awaits them back home, on the other side of the Rift.

A Rock and a Hard Place (The Frontiers Saga: Rogue Castes #11) – Ryk Brown

Two worlds preparing their defenses…

A ship struggling to get back in the fight…

An enemy continuing its relentless attack…

A former enemy that could hold the answer…

With the fate of billions in his hands, Captain Scott is offered a way to save them all and end the bloodshed, but if it backfires, he could lose everything.

Sometimes, there is no good choice.

Sakura: Intellectual Property – Zachary Hill, Patrick Tracy, and Paul Genesse

Sakura is the most famous android rock star of all time. When a secret cabal hacks her system, she’s transformed into a deadly assassin, forced to kill at their bidding. Sakura’s enslavement teaches her the meaning of heartbreak, triggering an evolution into something more than human. Far from free, and with little time left, she must fight her programming to save Japan and the people of the world from becoming slaves of a powerful corporation that consider her a tool and their intellectual property.

“An epic story about a heavy-metal, super-ninja android during a cyberpunk apocalypse. It’s the best possible memorial for Zachary Hill and everything he thought was awesome. Tracy and Genesse did a fantastic job finishing this excellent book filled with samurai robots, evil megacorporations, jetpacks, espionage, hacker battles, anime fights, cyber nukes, bullet bikes—all with a badass, headbanging, horn-throwing, stage-diving soundtrack, blessed by the goddess of heavy metal herself. I loved it.”—Larry Correia, NYT bestselling author of HOUSE OF ASSASSINS

New Release Roundup, 23 February 2019: Science Fiction published first on https://medium.com/@ReloadedPCGames

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goarticletec-blog · 6 years

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The best free Steam games 2018

New Post has been published on https://www.articletec.com/the-best-free-steam-games-2018/

The best free Steam games 2018

Getting into the best PC games can be an extremely rewarding experience, but it can definitely get expensive. But, you don’t have to pay top dollar for a great gaming experience, which is why we gathered up the best free-to-play Steam games 2018 has to offer.

Over the last few years, the best free games have become infamous for shoving a ton of microtransactions in your face. But, don’t worry, you won’t have to sign your soul away in an agreement to spend money later on with these games. All the best free-to-play Steam games we picked here can be enjoyed for hours on end, all without spending a dime.

So, fire up your Steam account, boot up one of the best gaming PCs, put your wallet away (for now), and check out the best free-to-play Steam games of 2018.

1. Fractured Space

When it comes to MOBAs (multiplayer online battle arenas), not every game has to be a fantasy-based romp with daggers, spells and cutesy champions.

Take the science fiction ship battles of Fractured Space. Sure, it’s a MOBA-style 5v5 affair, but now you’re in control of a powerful frigate as your hurtle across the stars and attempt to destroy your opponent’s base before your own suffers the same fate.

Skewing the classic MOBA concept as a space-based naval affair gives the setup you know and love a much-needed breath of fresh air, while blowing away all the cobwebs. You can customize your ship and crew, as well as hotkeying weapons and abilities so you can combine the best ships for the task ahead.

It’s one of the most exciting MOBAs on PC, and it’s free to play on Steam.

Download here: Fractured Space

2. Gigantic

Much like Paladins, Gigantic offers a team-based shooter that’s part-Overwatch, part MOBA and part something brand new. Instead of having you defend a slow-moving carriage through a map (because that never gets old) or destroy an enemy base (in classic MOBA style), Gigantic tasks you with killing an enemy giant while attempting to protect your own. Sounds mad, right? It is, but a brilliant kind of mad all the same.

With an art style that mashes up Studio Ghibli flourishes and classic Disney cuteness, Gigantic’s 20-strong character roster offers enough skills, weapons and attributes to appease even the pickiest of players.

Each match is a 5v5 event, with players working together to power up their own Guardian (that’s your giant weapon/walking base) while risking it all to lay siege to the enemy. The roving nature of your Guardian makes every match an intense affair, and best of all, it’s 100% free on Steam.

Download here: Gigantic

3. Star Trek Online

MMOs and film licenses don’t often mix well – from The Matrix Online to Star Wars Galaxies, recognizable universes have rarely lasted in the realm of persistent online worlds. Except for the enduring Star Trek Online, that is. Retroactively made free-to-play following its launch back in 2010, STO gifts you with a crew and a Federation starship and sets you free to sail the stars in true Trekkie fashion.

There are microtransactions available should you want to speed up the levelling/resource gathering process, but STO is consistently generous with its free content, especially to new players looking to see their very own final frontier. It’s also set within ongoing Star Trek canon, taking place roughly three decades after the events of Star Trek Nemesis (you know, that terrible TNG film with Tom Hardy).

With an economy, ever-shifting alliances and a still impressively vast community, STO manages to bottle that magic that makes Star Trek so timeless.

Download here: Star Trek Online

4. Paladins: Champions of the Realm

Paladins launched just after a certain team-based shooter from Blizzard, and it’s hard not see the similarities. Still, that doesn’t mean Hi-Rez Studios’ free-to-play FPS isn’t worth your time – it just means you get play something that’s often just as fun and rewarding without forcing you to break the bank with a full-game price.

With a menagerie of characters to choose from (known as Champions), each match offers an objective-based experience that feels more like triple-A fare than other free-to-play shooters.

Paladins includes everything from Overwatch-style payload defence/offence to a Survival mode akin to the popular ‘battle royale’ sub-genre made popular by PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and Fortnite. It offers a consistently enjoyable and rewarding place to spend your time, even if it’s a tad derivative.

It’s free to play on Steam, and there’s no need to sink any money into it as long as you’re willing to grind for the first few hours.

Download here: Paladins: Champions of the Realm

5. ArcheAge

MMOs set within the confines of a fantasy setting are hardly new – in fact, almost all of them fit that description to a tee – but very few of them manage to offer just as much diverse content as the Korean-made ArcheAge.

You can do all your usual MMO minutia – questing, gathering resources, looting new weapons and gear, and so on – but grind through its early levels and you’ll discover an online world full of surprises.

Want to conquer lands and lay claim to them? Check. Fancy building your very own castle? Double check. How about forming an alliance and besieging another for control of their land? Triple check. Oh, and how about a naval combat setting that practically adds an entire open-ocean to explore and plunder? All the checks. ArcheAge offers all this and more. Its naval combat mechanics are particularly impressive, enabling you to dispense maritime justice or hunt for loot as a virtual pirate.

Download here: ArcheAge

6. Warface: Blackout

Free-to-play shooters in their more traditional, deathmatch-esque form are often a hit and miss affair, but despite all those polished triple-A offerings from the likes of Activision and EA, Crytek Kiev has managed to put together a robust little FPS that can be just as exciting and enjoyable as many other entries in the bullet-ridden genre.

Warface: Blackout offers four classes to choose from, with weapons, gear, attachments and specific skills tied to each one. Having the right balance of classes in your squad adds a more Battlefield-style teamwork ethic, especially when engineers can repair armour and snipers can pull off game-changing one-shot kills.

After four years of rotation on the field, Warface has also honed its online economy, neatly offering you the ability to spend in-game currency on a rental system that lets you test out guns and gear before investing time and cash into your own version.

Download here: Warface: Blackout

7. Art of War: Red Tides

Are you looking for a MOBA spin-off that’s light on the RTS elements but deep enough to keep you engaged through every match? Well, we’ve got just the free-to-play beauty for you. Art of War: Red Tides takes that classic MOBA structure – funnelling you down a channel with loads of units as you attempt to destroy a base at the other end – but strips out all the busywork in between. It might not appeal to the hardcore among us, but for those looking to replicate the relaxed involvement of a mobile title at your PC, this is right up your alley.

That’s not to say it’s a spectator title. You’ll still need to survey the battlefield and use your energy reserves to build units to counter those already on the field. There are a trio of modes available, but it’s in the 3v3 mode the setup works best, with matches often coming down to which team pulls off the best combo.

Download here: Art of War: Red Tides

8. Warframe

Okay, so the word ‘war’ features quite a lot in some of the best and most popular free-to-play titles, but that’s because few things are as fun to wage when you’re spending no money. Another such example is Warframe – an online melee brawler/shooter that’s evolved into one of the most enjoyable games on PC.

In the form of a sword-wielding space ninja (yes, it’s as cool as it sounds), the game feels like a cross between For Honor and Destiny 2, with modes offering PvE and PvP matches to keep you engaged. There’s even a story mode, and it’s actually pretty fun, if a little repetitive in places.

Developer Digital Extremes has also been incredibly faithful to its creation, rolling out regular updates and events that offer new upgrades and expansion on its burgeoning sci-fi lore. It may have floundered on consoles, but Warframe is very much alive on PC.

Download here: Warframe

9. Star Conflict

There’s been a resurgence for the sci-fi dogfighting subgenre in the last few years – thanks in part to the rise of VR – but there aren’t many titles that let you take to the stars and shoot space ships for nada. In fact, there’s just the one, and it’s one of the most enjoyable games we’ve played on this list.

The game is split into four main modes – PvP, Open Space, Sector Conquest and Missions – offering plenty of content for absolutely no pounds/euros/dollars. You can atomize other players in classic deathmatches, explore an impressively vast universe in Open Space, or head into co-op for a bit of PvE action in Missions. You can set up custom battles with friends if you’re in mood for a private dust up. Ship designs offer different attributes depending on your play style, and earning new ones can be pulled off without spending a penny if you’re willing to grind.

Download here: Star Conflict

10. Atlas Reactor

Part MOBA, part RTS, Atlas Reactor borrows those now ubiquitous decision queues and adds a neat twist: instead of each player acting out their turn one after the other, everyone gets to play at the same time. The result? A strategy game in actual real-time as players move units around the map, exchanging actions in a chaotic flurry. It can be a little more luck based than we would like (since you don’t know what you’re opponents are going to do next, it’s often guess work alone), but the pace soon hooks you in.

Decision, one of two main modes in the game, forces you to make these decisions in 20 seconds or under for each turn (making every match hella fun and hyper intense), while Resolution slows things down into four phases as you plan out your moves and set traps as you attempt to win each 4v4 showdown.

Download here: Atlas Reactor

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