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arscriptura · 1 year

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Dear Rose

“I have known the body of my mother, sick and then dying.” —Roland Barthes

Let me begin again now that you're gone Ma if vou're reading this then you survived your life into this one if you're reading this then the bullet doesn't know us yet but I know Ma you can't read napalm fallen on your

schoolhouse at six & that was it they say a word is only what it signifies that's how I know the arrowhead in my back means I'm finally pretty a word like bullet hovers in an amber

afternoon on its way to meaning the book opens like a door but the only one you ever read was a coffin its hinges swung shut on lush descriptions of a brother I point to you to me today a Thursday I took a long walk alone it

didn't work kept stopping to touch my shadow just in case feeling is the only truth & there down there between thumb & forefinger an ant racing in circles then zigzags I wanted significance but think it was just the load he was bearing

that unhinged him: another ant curled & cold lifted on his shoulders they looked like a set of quotations missing speech it's said they can carry over 5,000 times their mass but it's often bread crumbs not brothers that get carried home but going too far

is to admit the day ends anywhere but here no no Mom this is your name I say pointing to Hồng on the birth certificate thin as dust Hồng I say which means rose I place your finger on a flower so familiar it feels synthetic red plastic petals dewed with glue I leave

it out of my poems I turn from its face—cliched oversize head frayed at the edges like something ruptured by a bullet I was born because you were starving but how can anything be found with only two hands

with only two hands you dumped a garbage bag of anchovies into the glass jar the day was harmless a breeze hovering in amber light above us gray New England branches swayed without touching to make fish sauce you said you must bear the scent of corpses salted & crushed a year in a jar tall

as a boy they dropped with slick thumps like bullets each word must stop somewhere—why not a yellow poet I put in the fish sauce I take out the fish sauce I dance on the line until I am the line they cross or cross out they nearly killed me

you said for being white with a toilet plunger you pushed the fish down sound of bones like gravel the violet vein on your wrist glistened your father was a white soldier I had amber hair you said they called me traitor called me ghost girl they smeared my face with cow shit

at the market to make me brown like you & your father the eyes glared from inside the jar they shot my brother you said looking down but away from the dead eyes my little brother if reading is to live in two worlds at once why

is he not here Ben said you can do anything in a poem so I stepped right out of it into this one to be entered is to be redefined the bullet achieves its name by pushing flesh into flesh I was struck by these words we say I was caught by this passage it moved right through opened

me up these eyes reading not yet healed shut but full of lead -en meaning which parts a red sea inside me sinew dusted to soft tissue my blood a borderless translation of errors in the reader's hands a gaping rose Hồng I say which also means

pink the shade every bullet meets before finding its truest self Calvino said human instinct is to laugh when someone falls the soldiers were cracking up as they fired your brother running his sky -blue shirt pink on the ground our evolution as hunters Calvino went on

the collapsed body a signal of meat thus hunger leads to lethal joy it's almost perfect you smiled your nose deep in the jar because the bullet makes you real by making you less which is perfect in poems the text amplified by murder

-ous deletions leads to inevitable art the pristine prisoner in his marble coffin the length of a fish a timeline across the page to document days the dead a measurement of living distance the corpse blooming

as it decays Pink Rose Hồng Mom are you reading this dear reader are you my mom yet I cannot find her without you this place I've made you can't enter within months their meat will melt into brown mucus rot almost -sauce the linear fish-spine dissolved

by time at last pungent scent of ghosts you said you named me after a body of water ’cause it's the largest thing you knew after god I stare at the silvered layers the shadowed line between two pressed fish is a finger in the dark gently remembered in the dark his finger

on my lips Ma his shhh your friend the man watching me while you worked the late shift in the Timex clock factory why am I thinking this now the gasped throats mottled pocked fins gently the door its blade of amber light widening as it opened shhh it sounds like an animal

being drowned as you churned the jar your yellow-white arms pink fish guts foaming up gently you must remember gently the man he's in the ’90s still his face a black rose closing do you know what it's like my boy my boy you said sweating above the jar

to be the only one hated the only one the white enemy of your own country your own face the trees they were roaring above us red leaves leaving little cuts in the sky gently I touched your elbow the fish swirling in their gone merry-go-round

sightless eyes no no Ma I said holding my breath I don't know what it's like & turned my head up toward the sun which brightly cancels if you're reading this then I survived my life into yours you who told your brother you were hungry

so he stole a roasted chicken so he tucked it under his sky -blue shirt & it's not your fault reader you had to work you had to get up in the blood-blue dawn to warm up your car you who held instant coffee with both hands

ate your lunch of Wonder Bread dipped in condensed milk in the parking lot alone you bought me pencils reader I could not speak so I wrote myself into silence where I stood waiting for you Ma to read me do you read me now do you copy mayday mayday you who dreamed of dipping shreds of chicken

into fish sauce as you hid in the caves above your village you white devil girl starving ghost but I shouldn't have been so hungry you said looking up at the leaves vermilion through the brother -blue sky I hated my hunger the veins on your fists the jar all amber crush

empty as a word -less mind stop writing about your mother they said but I can never take out the rose it blooms back as my own pink mouth how can I tell you this when you're always to the right of meaning

as it pushes you further into white space how can I say the hole in your brother's back is not a part of your brother but your brother aparted who is still somewhere running because I wrote it in the present tense the bullet held just behind his death an insect

trapped in amber the charred chicken clutched to his chest dust rising from sandals as he sprints toward the future where you're waiting by the rain -warped window wet footsteps on Risley Rd but dear reader it's only your son coming home

again after school after the bullies put his face in brown dirt what if I said the fastest finger pointing to you Ma is me would you look away I point to you no no I went right through you left a pink rose blazing in the middle of the hospital

in Sài Gòn reader who cannot read or write you wrote a son into the world with no words but a syllable so much like a bullet its heat fills you today a Thursday (ours not Vallejo's) partly

cloudy a little wind I kneel to write our names on the sidewalk & wait for the letters to signal a future an arrow pointing to a way out I stare & stare until it grows too dark to

read the ant & his brother long home by now night flooding the concrete black my arms dim as incomplete sentences reader I’ve plagiarized my life to give you the best of me & these words these

insects anchovies bullets salvaged & exiled by art Ma my art these corpses I lay side by side on the page to tell you our present tense was not too late

—Ocean Vuong

#poetry #vuong

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lifeofkaze · 3 years

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An Art of Balance #21

Orion Amari x MC

Warning: use of alcohol, underage drinking

A/N: Fabulous Judith belongs to @judediangelo75, KC is the creation of my favourite @kc-needs-coffee and Ira belongs to the queen of OCs @slytherindisaster

Word Count: ~ 3.000

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Chapter 21: Seizing the Chance

Even behind the closed flaps of the changing room tent, the roar of the crowd was deafening as McNully fired the students gathered on the stands up for the match. Orion had seen the masses of making their way down to the pitch from high up above as the teams had warmed themselves up for what was to come.

It was almost time for the game to begin and Orion gathered his team around the blackboard with their key manoeuvres for their moment of vivification.

“My friends, the time to prove to ourselves of what we are capable of in the face of adversities has almost come. But before I will enlighten you with the wisdom I want you take with you into the air, one of ours has something to unburden her mind from.” He stepped aside and Skye, who had been tugging at the hem of her Quidditch robe while he had been speaking, stood up and took his place.

She took a deep breath before she tried to bury her hands in her pockets as she would often do with her signature jacket; when she realised her robe had none, she crossed her arms in front of her chest.

“I’ll make this short,” she said brusquely. “I know I didn’t act the way a teammate is supposed to and I want to apologise. I’m not the only one with stuff on my mind, I see that now. It was wrong to let it out on you guys. Said some things that were not my place to say,” she glanced at Lizzie, who would have had every right to be mad at her, but she just smiled encouragingly, “and I hope that you accept my apology.”

She turned to Orion and rubbed her neck with her gloved hand. “Orion, you are a smashing captain and you’ll know what to do to make us win today. And if anyone is as stupid as I and disrespects you again,” her eyes flickered to Everett and her nostrils flared with indignation, “I’m going to shove a Beater’s bat right up their- “,

“Thank you for your heartfelt words, Skye, I think you made your point,” Orion cut her off hurriedly. Skye glared at Everett one last time before she sat down next to Judith, who muttered “As long as you don’t take mine, go ahead,” under her breath, making Skye grin.

Orion took his place in front of the semicircle of his teammates once again.

“There is little time left before we have to depart, so I, too, will make this shorter than usual. Every one of us knows what is at stake today. I don’t need to set your minds because I can see the fire burning in every single one of you. But beware, my friends, a single flame is not enough to build a fire; I ask you to join our flames together and make our fire blaze brighter than ever before. Let us show Slytherin that our House is not to be messed with.” He gripped the handle of his broomstick tighter as he looked at every single one of his teammates. “Let our fires burn as one, for we are one team!”

“One team!”

The team had taken Orion’s vivification speech to heart. Despite all of the problems they had had to deal with beforehand, the Hufflepuff team finally managed what had always been their greatest strength; they moved as one conscient being, every position complementing the others perfectly.

It hadn’t taken them long to carve out a comfortable lead; the tactic Orion had chosen was working splendidly. He had decided to take Skye’s concern into consideration and had assigned each Beater a specific task. Everett was perfectly suited to bang the Bludgers into the Slytherin Chasers with his brutish strength. As soon as they formed anything resembling a formation, he was determined to scatter them.

Judith, on the other hand, had an eye for the flight paths of the Bludgers and was a lot more experienced, so she was set to clear the path for their own Chasers to score.

And score they did; the Slytherin Keeper was known to be the strongest asset of their team. But fortunately for them, he didn’t seem to be in the best of forms today. More than one shot, that he usually would have deflected, found its way past him, the enchanted rings lighting up along with the roar of the crowd.

“And Amari scores with a spectacular off-hand throw!” Murphy shouted from the commentary box, “The score now stands at 100 to 40 for Hufflepuff! If the Slytherin defence doesn’t get these Chasers under control very soon, our chances at a new record score for this season lie at an impressive 68.9 %.”

McNully was right; the rut of their best player had unsettled the Slytherin performance gravely and Orion and his teammates were ruthlessly using their opponents’ disorder to their advantage.

Orion himself had scored quite a few times already. But Lizzie and Skye were a force to be reckoned with today; they were tearing around the pitch on their Comets and every Bludger sent after them was immediately deflected by Judith, who seemed to have her eyes everywhere.

It was unbelievable how well she and Everett were working together despite their differences. Everett had just beaten an attacking Bludger in Judith’s direction, who diverted its flight path into the forming formation of the Slytherin Chasers.

McNully completely lost it as he commented on the events unfolding in front of him. “What an incredible display of teamwork! The Hufflepuff Beaters show off their newest attack: Everett sends his Bludger over to Harris with force; Harris deflects with a well measured swing of her bat! The Bludger changes direction and oooh- “ he winced audibly as the crowd erupted in cheers, “that must have hurt! The Bludger’s change of direction was 82.5 % unpredictable and hits home as it scatters the wavering arrowhead formation of the Slytherin team! A tactical masterpiece if I might say so!”

Orion suppressed a laugh; as if McNully hadn’t made sure Judith and Everett had his new manoeuvre understood to a tee before letting them test it out in a real match situation.

One of the attacked Chaser had dropped the Quaffle and Orion raced towards it, snatching it out of the air only moments before the Slytherin Chaser reached for it again. They nearly collided mid-air, but Orion managed to lean sideways at the last moment; half hanging sideways of his broom, the other player zoomed over him without contact.

He swung himself back into an upright position and gripped the Quaffle tighter as he whipped his broom around on his way to Slytherin goalposts once more. But this time, the Keeper had guessed the ring Orion was going for and managed to block the Quaffle. He sent it back into the game with a well-practised kick of his foot.

It was too far away for him to reach in time, but he saw Lizzie react immediately. As the Quaffle flew over her head just inches out of her reach, she pushed herself off her broomstick and hopped onto the handle without giving it a second thought. Standing up, she was able to interject the pass and claim the Quaffle for herself.

Still balancing on her broom, she ducked under the Bludgers sent in her direction and started surfing back towards the goalposts at ridiculous speed. The Keeper looked surprised at her attack, but steadied himself as she approached.

Lizzie knew exactly what she was doing, though; crouching down low, she shifted her weight just enough for her Comet to change direction at the last moment. She held her stance as she performed a barrel roll, using the momentum to shoot the Quaffle through one of the rings.

With complete trust in her footing, he heard her cheer as she surfed past the screaming Hufflepuff stands. With a grin, Orion remembered how many times she’d fallen when he had taught her his favourite move all those years ago; unbelievable how far the tenacious girl with no idea about Quidditch had come.

“Jameson scores for Hufflepuff, raising the score to 110 to 40! And what a show she’s giving us!” Murphy jubilated as Lizzie zoomed past the commentary box.

“According to my facts, we haven’t seen Jameson score that way for seven House matches in a row. This marvellous feat of flying even sends the master of this technique into daydreams it seems,” McNully’s voice was vibrating with badly contained laughter before it grew serious again, “but they could quickly turn into a nightmare as a Bludger is headed on its way to see whether Amari can hold onto his broomstick quite as well as Jameson.”

Orion snapped out of his musings and had just enough time to dodge the Bludger that zoomed past his head. Judith followed it immediately to get hold of it; however, the Slytherin Chaser she directed it against still had the time to pass his Quaffle onto his teammate.

Before he could set after it, Lizzie shot past him, her hair trailing behind her in the wind. She turned around for a split second, her eyes meeting his.

“Focus, Captain!” he heard her snap at him before she concentrated on bumping into her opponent to relieve him of his charge.

Right she was; Orion cleared his mind as he set after her, catching the Quaffle she passed him with one hand. They had a game to win.

It only got worse for Slytherin as the match progressed. Although they did manage to score a few goals against Hufflepuff eventually, with every goal they received in turn, the confusion grew between them. They had been off track before, but trailing so far behind a team they had deemed an easy win had their own players turn against themselves.

Their youngest Chaser, a brutish boy named Marcus Flint, was on the verge of picking a fight with his Beater for allowing a Bludger to hit him, when all eyes on the pitch suddenly turned on Lucy and the Slytherin Seeker, who were in a head to head race for a tiny golden spec glittering in the sunlight below the Gryffindor stands.

“This match could find a preliminary end as the Seekers of both teams appear to have spotted the Golden Snitch!” Murphy exclaimed. The Slytherin Seeker was slightly in advance and if she were to reach the Snitch first, all their scoring would have been for nothing; Hufflepuff had a comfortable lead, but it wasn’t enough to cushion a boost of 150 points.

The stadium had fallen completely silent as everyone’s eyes were glued to the two girls racing for the Snitch. The Seeker in the emerald robes already had her hand outstretched, when all of a sudden a Bludger from Everett hit the handle of her broomstick, knocking her clean off. Luckily, they weren’t high enough to do her much damage as she fell to the soft lawn underneath her.

Lucy didn’t miss a beat as her opponent fell; she was lying almost flat on her broom to get all the speed out of it that she could. When her fingers were only inches away from the Snitch, she pushed herself against the footrests of her broom to give herself the reach she needed.

Orion couldn’t see properly what she was doing but was spared further guessing when Lucy’s scream of triumph carried through the air and the whole stadium went into a frenzy as she presented the gleaming Snitch in her raised fist.

“O’Connell gives it her all and succeeds! The match is over!” Murphy’s voice almost cracked as he shouted over the noise of the crowd. “Hufflepuff gains 150 points and wins with a crushing score of 310 to 70. Dear spectators, if you allow me a calculation on the top of my head, I’d say we have a new contender for the Quidditch Cup!”

To nobody’s surprise, Murphy’s calculation had been completely right. They had been able to score so many points against Slytherin that Hufflepuff was back in the game for the Cup. As Gryffindor had been able to rack up a spectacular victory against Ravenclaw in one of the shortest matches Lizzie had ever seen, their last game of the season would simultaneously be the final showdown for the priced trophy.

When the team had entered their Common Room after properly celebrating among themselves first, they had been greeted by thundering applause and chants. Contrary to the last post-match party, everyone was pumped and the atmosphere exhilarated. Tulip and a few other Ravenclaws had decided to join their celebration as well; it wasn’t particularly difficult to gain entrance to the Hufflepuff Common Room after all. She and Tonks had wasted no time and had poured some Firewhiskey into the gigantic, self-refilling bowl of punch in the middle of the room.

Lizzie had already drunk more than her fair share of it. They had celebrated with a round of butterbeers in the Changing Room directly after returning from the pitch and by now, her head felt fuzzy and her cheeks were flushed from both the heated air in the room and the Firewhiskey warming her from the inside. She was glad the alcohol numbed the countless bruises and cuts littering her body; it was no secret Slytherin knew how to play rough and the frustration at the course of the match hadn’t improved their physical gameplay.

Ira, one of the other Hufflepuff girls in Lizzie’s year, had lectured Lizzie, about her carelessness when she had patched her up, like she always did. She had a natural gift for Herbology and healing and often took care of the minor injuries all of them brought back from the pitch. Her abilities and Penny’s secretly brewed Wiggenweld Potions had more than once spared Lizzie a trip to the Hospital Wing.

Lizzie and Penny were standing near the refreshment table with Skye and a few other Hufflepuffs. All the attention was fixed on Skye, who was recounting the highlights of the match under full usage of her body; just like Lizzie, the combination of adrenaline and alcohol had gone straight to her head.

She was just now replaying the way Lizzie had scored her goal whilst broom surfing, mimicking McNully’s commenting style as she re-enacted the scene. Feeling embarrassed at the praise, Lizzie dropped her eyes.

“You’re exaggerating, Parkin,” she mumbled.

“Only a little,” Skye shrugged, before resuming the show for her onlookers.

“She’s right,” Penny agreed, “you were amazing today, Liz. Rowan and I were screaming our heads off when you scored that goal.”

Lizzie blushed. “Where is Rowan anyway?” She hadn’t seen her friend since lunch.

“She’s got prefect duty tonight,” Penny answered. “She left before you guys came back.”

To say she wasn’t a little bit glad that Rowan wasn’t here would have been a lie. For whatever reason, Rowan had been in a particularly good mood ever since yesterday evening. And while it was good to see her so happy, Lizzie wasn’t in the mood for her ramblings right now; especially if they revolved around Orion, like they so often did these days.

She hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast and was really starting to feel the effects of the alcohol; she felt lightheaded and wondered if it was a good idea to get as wasted as she already was. Lizzie knew she was prone to rambling about things better left unsaid when she was drunk and she had amassed quite a collection of things that had better stay a secret. It took a lot of concentration from her side to not lose track of what version of the truth she had told to whom and her hazy mind didn’t make things easier.

But Rowan not being in the Common Room tonight meant she could relax just a little bit more and Penny was right; she had performed really well today and earned herself a bit of laid-back fun with her friends.

Her eyes scanned the crowd for Orion without really thinking about it. The last time she’d seen him, he had been with Murphy and KC, who had been amongst the Ravenclaws that had arrived with Tulip. A smile tugged at Lizzie’s lips as she saw the red haired Beater sitting on Murphy’s lap, engaged in a little bit more than a heated discussion.

As the door leading out of the Common Room opened, the movement caught Lizzie’s eye. She could just make out the familiar figure of Orion before he vanished in the darkness of the tunnel that connected Hufflepuff House to the rest of the castle.

Penny had seen him leaving as well. “Seems like Orion needs a break from the adoring masses.”

Lizzie only hummed in response, her eyes still fixed to the now closed door.

“Maybe he’d like some company,” Penny suggested with a smirk.

Lizzie tore her eyes from the exit and turned to her. “What do you mean?”

Penny only raised her eyebrows in response.

Lizzie gripped her cup tighter. “I’m not sure that’d be a good idea.”

Gently prying her cup out of her hands, Penny nudged her in the direction of the door. “Just go.”

She stared at the encouraging expression on Penny’s face. It was a bad idea; she should really stay here where she couldn’t do anything stupid.

With an inward curse, she grabbed her drink back from Penny’s hands and downed the remains of it in one go. She shuddered from the strong taste as she put the empty cup down on the table.

Such a bad idea.

Before she could change her mind, Lizzie pushed herself away from the table and through the crowd, slipping quietly through the round door.

#hphm #hogwarts mystery #orion amari #quidditch #orion amari x mc #lizzie jameson #aob #art of balance #the quidditch squad #sorry to all slytherins I love you

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four-loose-screws · 4 years

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FE4 Suzuki Novelization Translation - Chapter 9 Part 1

If you would like to start from the beginning, read a missed part, etc., click here!

FE Game Script Translations - FE Novel Translations - Original FE Support Conversations

If you are interested in donating to support my work, please check out my Ko-fi here. Thank you!

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Chapter 9 - And So, the Door of Fate Opens...

Part 1

The Grannvalian Army chose to occupy Luveck Castle, located to the east of Zaxon Castle.

Sigurd wanted to free it straight away, and return all of Silesse to Queen Rahna.

However, fighting battle after battle had exhausted his soldiers to their limits. There were also many who had wounds that still needed time to heal, and on top of that, all their weapons had to be repaired.

He had no choice but to let everyone rest for a substantial amount of time.

The Grannvalians also realized that Sigurd’s army was stronger than they’d thought, and chose to bide their time and bolster their forces.

Then, winter came earlier than normal, and Sigurd’s army was soon unable to make any moves.

At the beginning of winter, Silvia gave birth to a girl. She looked just like her mother, and even had the same bright green hair. Claud named her Lene, after High Priest Bragi’s wife.

Luveck Castle faced the Yied Desert, so the areas surrounding it did not get much snow, allowing the Grannvalian Army to use the winter to get even stronger.

Lombard was appointed as a general, and deployed with his axe knights from Dozel, Jungby’s arch knights, and two armored infantry units, creating one very powerful army all on their own.

Sigurd called in Oifey, and asked him about their upcoming fight.

“Duke Lombard is probably waiting until the snow melts from around Zaxon to go on the offensive. If we compared only the size of their army against ours, I’d say that theirs is more than twice as large as ours. So if their entire army attacked us all at once, then I predict it would be a very difficult battle for us.”

“I think so, too. I wanted to take Luveck before they were able to get that much stronger, but...”

“I think there’s a way to defeat them.”

“What is it?"

“We can’t fight here in Zaxon because of the snow. But if we were to only march through this area, then we could manage. We’d march through the snow, and be the ones to initiate the attack. Each unit of the Granvallian Army is stationed individually, so we can defeat them one by one.”

“Of course! You’re getting even better and better at this, Oifey.”

The problem was, they would have to set up camp along the way. After consulting with Lewyn, who knew Silessian winters like the back of his hand, they decided that they wouldn’t have any problems if they dug snow caves.

Sigurd’s army chose to deploy on a day of calm winds shortly after the new year.

Since they’d been able to rest back to full health, everyone had high morale.

With Silessian soldiers and their knowledge of winter leading them, they began to trudge through the deep snow.

At night, they entered the caves they’d dug, and were able to withstand even the harshest cold.

During the afternoon of the second day, Luveck Castle entered their line of sight, and there was hardly any snow from that point on.

Every member of Sigurd’s army gathered together, then all charged at once.

The enemy’s first line was a group of armored knights. However, they were caught completely off guard, and didn’t even have enough time to get into formation.

Sigurd’s cavalier unit struck first, scattering the enemy unit. Next, the infantry joined the fray, and cleaned up the survivors. The cavalry also went after anyone who tried to flee, so that there was no chance the second unit could be informed of the attack.

The next day, after eating a filling breakfast, Sigurd’s army marched again.

The second group was also made up of armored knights. Again, they panicked and got into formation, but because they, of course, had not been expecting to be attacked either, their formation was full of holes.

Just like the first time, the cavalry led the attack, and the infantry took advantage of the chaos to rout the enemies.

“Keep going! Let’s make it all the way to Luveck!” Sigurd yelled and raised his sword high into the sky.

“Yeaaaahhh!” All of his soldiers cheered in response.

Sigurd galloped off on Farron, and charged towards the third wave of the Grannvalian Army, comprised of axe knights.

“What are the rebels doing here!? ...Did they take out the front line!?” The axe knight’s commander, Slayder, mounted his horse in a panic.

Only a moment later, a cavalier covered in blood came flying at him.

“Dammit!” Slayder aimed his axe at Sigurd’s torso.

However, Sigurd reacted faster and sliced Slayder’s head off.

Realizing that they had lost, the axe knights fled, and Sigurd pressed onwards.

But the moment he realized the next wave of enemies were arch knights, he brought Farron to a halt. If they proceeded any further, they’d be within the enemies’ range.

“We will deploy and wait for the enemy! When the army charges at us, shoot arrows at them! Leave them no opportunity to counterattack!" The arch knight’s commander - Andorey - ordered.

Upon returning home, Reptor had reprimanded him harshly. “Who could be so stupid as to surrender a castle right after he’d captured it!?”

He knew that today was the day to make up for it. ‘We are the Beige Ritter, who defeated Silesse’s pegasus knights!! We can take care of a ragtag group of rebels no problem!’

And so, Andorey ordered his unit to attack.

But he’d made the most foolish mistake in all of battle strategy - he’d forgotten that units like arch knights were weak in direct combat.

Sigurd’s army baited them to prepare an attack, then charged and counterattacked the moment all the arch knights shot their arrows.

“N-No…! This can’t be happening!”

The sight of his soldiers collapsing on the ground one after the other filled Andorey with so much fear that he felt as if his heart had stopped.

Then, a woman appeared before him, and pulled back on her bow’s string.

Brigid had vowed that he was the only one of the arch knights that she would kill.

“I am Brigid. Words cannot describe how shameful it is that you killed Father, and joined Reptor!”

“Oh, so you’re Brigid? I’d heard that you’d fallen in with pirates. And now you’re one of the rebels? I will be the one to punish you for your actions!” Andorey bluffed.

“That’s my line! Now draw your bow!”

Andorey’s face turned pale at her words. The arrowhead pointing at him looked bigger than any he’d ever seen in his life.

“If you don’t draw, then I will be the first to fire!”

“W-Wait!” Andorey screamed and slowly pulled his bow’s string back.

“Now are you ready?”

“N-Not yet! J-Just hold on!” Andorey screamed, then shot his arrow. However, he hadn’t aimed properly, so it slightly missed its mark.

Brigid took her shot, and in the blink of an eye, Yewfelle’s arrow pierced Andorey’s heart.

Stationed on Luveck Castle’s east side were four ballistae, which the Grannvalian soldiers used to rain down bolts on Sigurd’s army.

“We’ll worry about the castle later! Destroy the ballistae for now!”

The cavalier unit followed his order, ignoring the castle and charging towards the ballistae. They destroyed the ballistae all at once, making the perimeter of the castle safe.

“We’ll wait here for our second unit, then attack the castle tomorrow morning.”

There was still plenty of time before sunset, but since they’d been fighting all day, Sigurd decided to give his soldiers time to rest.

When their second unit arrived, Sigurd decided who would be stationed where, then everyone surrounded the castle.

Sigurd awoke in the middle of the night.

He didn’t know why, but his heart was racing, so he started scanning the area.

He fell asleep in front of the castle, but beyond the sloping fields behind him stretched a large desert.

‘The last time anyone saw Father, he was here, in the Yied Desert.’ He thought, and started walking towards it.

He soon saw a blue light shining about one hundred meters in front of him.

‘What is that?’ He unsheathed his sword, and moved slowly towards the light. When he did so, the light sank beneath him and kept up with his walking pace.

When he stopped, the light stopped. When he walked, the light moved.

‘It’s calling me.’ He realized, and sheathed his sword. He trudged through the desert, following the light.

Roughly two hours later, the light finally stopped moving.

“Is this where you wanted to bring me to?” Sigurd asked, and stepped out of the light.

It grew to the size of a person’s face, then floated into the sky, before an image of his father’s face appeared within it.

“Father!” Sigurd called out.

The light grew and grew, turning a bluish-white color, until it took on the entire form of his father.

‘It’s Father’s ghost!’ Sigurd realized. “Oh Father, what happened to you is such a shame…”

“You finally made it, Sigurd!” The voice was unquestionably that of his father’s, but Sigurd didn’t hear it through his ears, rather, it echoed in his head. “I was murdered by Lombard.”

“I knew it!”

“At the party on the night of my death, Lombard put an anesthetic in our wine. Once Prince Kurt, Duke Ring, and I couldn’t move, three of his men came into the tent and carried us out into the desert. They murdered Prince Kurt at the bottom of a sand dune, then carried Duke Ring and I further away, and buried us alive.”

“How horrible…!”

“You must avenge me, Sigurd.”

“I will kill Lombard. I swear it.”

“Please use this to do it.” The ghost extended his arms and handed a sword over to Sigurd.

“This is…”

“Tyrfing, the Holy Sword that has been passed down through our House Chalphy.”

Sigurd took the sword and said, “I will avenge you and restore your honor. Without fail.”

“You will not be able to do that.”

“I won’t? Why not?”

His father did not answer, instead looking at him with eyes full of pain.

“Why not? Please, Father, please! At least give me a hint!”

“You must take your son…” Byron started to speak, but he winced, cutting his words short.

“Father!? What’s wrong!?”

“...to Isaach…” He managed to gasp before his face became more and more contorted with pain.

“Seliph? I need to take him to Isaach?”

His father said nothing more. The bluish-white light began to darken, until it finally vanished completely. All that was left was Sigurd and Tyrfing.

#fire emblem #fe #fe4 #genealogy of the holy war #nintendo #super nintendo #snes #famicom #super famicom #japan #japanese #translation #novel #light novel #fe4 suzuki novelization translation

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ask-beacons-finest · 6 years

Text

Transcript for match 4!

(Teams CNRI and KABM are owned by @bittiblakebelladonna and @allkindsoffandomshere respectively)

“Hello, ladies and gentlemen,” The AI’s familiar face pops up onto the screens of the arena, soliciting cheers from the crowds, “How are all my lovely fans doing?”

“Heh,” Jaune taps the announcer’s desk a few times, “I suppose maybe Blake has a point.” “Indeed,” Ren adds, “We could do with some changes to her personality.” “I could do that right now,” Penny excitable declares excitably, opening up a panel on her forearm and dragging out a wire with a connection port, a process that makes Jaune give off a disgusted face and Ren shudder and look away with a quickly covered mouth. “What,” Penny questions obliviously, “What’s wrong?”

“Let’s get both those teams up here,” The AI struck a pose and continued, “Riiiiiiight now!”

With that announcement the AI’s face disappeared from the screen, being taken up by one of two teams with their aura bars below their faces. The teams themselves raised up on platforms on opposite sides of the arena from the waiting area below, the crowds chanting for their respective favorites. Once the teams finally were situated on the arena floor the AI’s voice boomed out again.

“Excellent,” Her cheery voice captured the hearts of those in the arena and those watching from home, “Let’s get them introduced! Team CNRI you lovely ladies are up first!”

The team responded to the demanding cheers of the crowds and stepped forward. The leader, Cilo Kitrinos, raised both her arms and cheered back, ushering the crowds to jump up and lose their collective minds, Cilo relished in the energy centered around her team and clenched both her fists in determination. The second member, despite seeming incredibly nervous and shy at first, quickly warmed up due to the efforts of her leader and stood there with a burning fire in her eyes, ready to battle on. The third member stood with a smile, overlooking her team with caring eyes, determined to protect them until the end. The fourth jumped around, more so than the leader even, chanting and waving her arms in a sporadic fashion, getting the crowd shouting even louder than the leader could. Four weapons float in front of them.

“Ah Weiss,” Sun cheerfully waves as Weiss enters the Headmaster’s area with a grim expression, his cheer leaves due to this, “Oh? Is everything alright there Ice Queen?” “Yes,” Weiss nodded, clearing her throat and putting on a smile, “Things are perfectly well, just lost in thought on my way here.” “Hmph,” Adderin stared down to the arena, “Lost in secrets child?” Before Weiss could retort he spoke again, “Focus Sun, we will now see a battle between you and I,” Adderin tapped his cane to the ground as his snake-like eyes flittered from one side of the arena to the other, “You will see the might of Shade academy just as Miss Winter Schnee has.” “Well,” Sun let a smirk grow on his face, “You wanna make a bet?” Adderin eyed Sun’s mischievous smile and mumbled to himself, returning his gaze to the arena below without saying a word.

“Team KABM,” The AI cheered with the crowds, “You’re up next!”

Team KABM took up their place, with the leader, Kalinin Kesvena taking the front. A big smile full of mischief plastered upon her face as she stands with her arms crossed which seemingly gains a few worried glances from her teammates. The second member stands quietly, her eyes slowly surveying the team across from them, her fingers tapping the side of her leg as her mind races through thought after thought. The third member stands, unwavering in the face of her opponents, her hands bravely cemented to her hips as she looks onward, receiving admiring cheers from the crowds as her strength is clearly displayed simply by looking at her. The fourth continues casting nervous glances both to the opposing team and his leader as well, his worrying stature, despite being so tall, expresses his obvious concern at whatever nonsense his leader has planned for the upcoming match. Their weapons are also floating in front of them.

“Did I miss anything,” Blake enters the announcer’s box quietly, giving her colleagues a bit of a jump when she speaks up. “No,” Jaune removes his leg from the desk and allows it to drop to the ground with a thud, “No no, we’re just starting. We’re going live in a few seconds.” “Wonderful,” Blake took her seat between Ren and Penny, straightening her jacket and looking out of the glass with a glossy sadness in her eyes, her voice remained cold and unshaken, “Let’s prepare ourselves shall we?” “Friend Blake,” Penny pipes up to question but shuts it down when Blake’s eyes narrow and glares her down into silence.

“Alright everyone,” The AI’s face reappeared on the screens, a big smile spread on her face, “Let’s kick off the match in three...two...one!”

Both teams kicked off to grab a hold of their respective weapons. With team KABM grabbing hold first, Kalinin nonchalantly walks up to a small bag and grabs it, with a fluid motion she reaches in and tosses out a large handful of multicolored marbles across the battlefield in front of her team, then takes another and begins to toss it up again and again with a smile. The second member, Aichi Seiten steps forward to a relatively large shield and fastens it to her right arm, with a few finger presses to a panel along the bracer of the shield it quickly spins around in an intricate fashion. The third member, Bertha Zuckers steps up while sliding a few rings along her fingers and heaves a heavy looking battering ram, her figure slouched back in order to hold it properly, kneeling down she pushes the front handle forward to reveal a hidden compartment, she quickly places in a large multi-missile holder into the slot and pulls back the front handle, a determined look on her face as she stares down her opponents. Schwalb Messer, the fourth member of KABM nervously fumbled with his weapons, wrapping a multi-knife sheathe around his waist, and as if disregarding his earlier nerves, he pulls out a simple combat knife and gives it a few spins between his fingers, readying himself for the upcoming battle.

Team CNRI grabs their weapons quickly, with Clio Kitrinos slipping on a pair of bronze bracelets, with a clench of her fist the bronze bracelets expand and cover her hands entirely, as well as slightly up her arm to form a pair of gauntlets, a shining ring sparkles on the middle finger of one hand. The second of CNRI, Nyx Mavros jumps forward and grabs a crossbow from the floating set of weapons, taking an arrow from a floating quiver and slots it into place, within seconds she fires it out into the middle of the field, she then takes hold of the quiver and hooks it to the side of one of her thigh-high boots. The third member, Rhea Grasidi grabs hold of a staff, with a simple twist of her wrist, it extends and she smashes it to the ground, after a moment of respite and deep breath she shoots her eyes up to meet those of her opponents. The fourth of CNRI shouts out and cheers, charging for her weapon, a long whip with a heavy core along the grip filled with water, once she grabs hold of it she stops in her tracks and turns to the shout of her leader, reluctantly nods an agreement and stands her ground.

“Don’t worry,” Kalinin grinned, tossing the simple glass marble as she surveys the carpeted area around the front of her team, “Enough of these bad boys and no one can touch us.” “Do not doubt an opponent,” Bertha tightens her grip on her battering ram, the front of which opens up, “That will be what leads to a downfall.” “Let’s just get this over with,” Schwalb’s nervousness seems to have returned, his grip white-knuckled on his knife, “I don’t like how they’ve put down a trap too.” “We move,” Aichi spoke, more so to herself than her team, “Only one ranged weapon, if we use proper technique, we can grasp an advan-” “No time!”

Bertha exclaims in a hurry and quickly fires off a rocket down the line of the arena towards the two CNRI member rushing forward. Both Clio and Nyx easily avoid this as Nyx knocks another arrow into place, and with a simple spine of her weapon the crossbow folds and extends into a spear, the arrowhead shining as the tip of the spear with an icy blue tint. They continue their push forward until they reach the arrow Nyx had previously shot into the ground, with a quick nod to each other Nyx halts and raises her hands, her aura glowing as Clio kicks the arrow out of its place in the ground and continues rushing forward. In an instant, the arena is filled with a blinding light as the arrow explodes, Nyx’s semblance activates and shields her leader and team from the light, seemingly bending it away from their eyes. Clio takes the moment of cover to run around the minefield laid down by Kalinin, avoiding them with a general ease.

“What on Remnant,” Ren questioned, shielding his eyes from the blinding light, “What just happened?” “Hmmm,” Jaune, whose eyes were closed having predicted the move, “Blinds her opponents with a special dust arrow, uses her semblance to manipulate light. Now that’s how you enter a battle. It’s probably already won.” “Ah,” Penny smiled, clasping her hands together as she watched on, entirely unaffected by the blinding blast of light, “What an ingenious plan! Isn’t it friend Bl-...Blake?” Penny looked to the ground to see Blake writhing in agony, covering her eyes as she muffled her screams and curses into a bitten lip. “Ah,” Penny nervously returned to the microphone, “To all the light-sensitive faunus in the arena, please remain calm, your pain will only last for another minute or so depending on species!” Jaune shook his head, how reassuring.

“Great work,” Clio shouted back as Nyx returns to her charge, “Let's get them!” “Hmm,” Nyx nods and charges ensuite, avoiding the minefield as easily as her leader, jumping up to the blinded team KABM with her spear raised.

“Well,” Weiss stood, “Blake is surely going to complain about this tonight.” “Hmph,” Winter smirked, “Surprised you didn’t suffer the same fate, Sun.” “I’ll be honest,” Sun lets out a laugh and lowers his hand from his eyes, “They got me the first few times, but eventually I ended up learning their team like I knew my own!” “Oh,” Weiss’s eyes turned to slits, a mischievous tone in her voice, “How’s Neptune then?” “Oh haha,” Sun rolled his eyes, “Sheesh, what’s with you Schnee’s and your attitudes?” “Oh, what’s that supposed to me-” “Silence,” Adderin cut off the cojoined voices of Winter and Weiss, who settled down away from a terrified Sun, he adds sadly, “It appears you have gained the upper hand Mr. Wukong.” “You know,” Sun smiles and puts a hand on the old man’s shoulder, “You could just call me Sun!” Adderin turned his head to glare at Sun’s hand, after a moment he raised his snake eyes to meet Sun’s, “No.”

Schwalb could only glance up after rubbing his eyes and squinting to see the shadowy figure of Clio in the air in front of him, her fist pointed right at him as her ring began to glow. Schwalb’s face revealed his absolute panic in the final second before an incredible blast of fire shot from the ring, sending both Clio and him back, Clio lands easily on her feet and continues her charge as Schwalb tumbles backward, his aura dropping from the point-blank blast. With a quick and final punch to the collapsed boy’s stomach, crushing him down into the ground, his aura drops to the red as the buzzer sounds.

Meanwhile, Nyx charges her own blinded opponent, Kalinin Kesvena, and smashes her spear down onto her head, flipping over her. Kalinin finally shook the blindness from her eyes and desperately looked for her attacker, only to feel a light tap on her shoulder. Before even being able to turn around Nyx stabs her spear into the earth between Kalinin’s legs, instantly freezing the earth around their feet. Kalinin attempts to turn to strike Nyx but slips and lands chin first on an outstretched knee, her aura drops a slight amount before dropping even more when Nyx smashes the rear of her spear into Kalinin’s back. After collapsing onto the icy ground Kalinin flicks a marble behind Nyx, who chooses to ignore it, Nyx presses her foot against her opponent's shoulder and pushes off, sliding Kalinin right in the middle of her own minefield.

“Sorry,” Nyx pulls a bolt from her quiver and tosses it up into the air, “This was meant for us huh?” “Screw,” Kalinin shakily stepped up, another marble in hand, and quickly tosses it Nyx’s way, “You!”

Nyx tosses the bolt into the minefield surrounding Kalinin, setting off a chain reaction of various dust explosions, she watches on until the buzzer indicating a participant is out sounds off throughout the arena. The explosions cease and Kalinin is covered in black soot, her clothes ragged as she breathes heavily, a smile spreads on her face as she collapses. Nyx turns to aide her team, and only out the corner of her eye can she see it, the tossed marble slowly rolling towards the one previously tossed, Nyx had no time to react as the marbles touched, setting off an instantaneous explosion that shook the arena floor. When the smoke cleared Nyx slowly collapsed onto the ground, clenching her fists angrily before passing out, the buzzer sounds.

“They got Nyx,” Iris shouts from her position towards the starting point of Team CNRI, “Let’s finish them!” “I’m almost ready,” Rhea stood still, her head resting against her staff, eyes closed, “Let me focus just a bit more.”

Bertha smashed her battering ram against the blocking gauntlets of Clio, who was sent flying back by the force of the attack. Clio flung her hand out and caught hold of a small flying drill that was headed directly her way, Aichi stood off to the side, controlling the flying drill as well as its double, which flew Clio’s way as well.

“Hurry it up!”

Clio shouted to her teammates as she punched the flying drill out of the sky, turning to watch in horror as Bertha began to charge, her battering ram prepped to smash into her. Seconds before impact, however, Bertha was hit by a heavy stream of water, stopping her immediately and causing her to raise her weapon to block the stream. Further down the arena floor approaches Rhea and Iris, Rhea gripping hold of her staff, a weak cloud above her as she walks, raining heavily, meanwhile Iris is holding an arm out, controlling the water to pool it up and shoot a heavy stream towards her opponents. The pool of stored water is getting larger and larger as they step down the arena. With a smile Iris throws out both her hands before lunging forward, shoving both hands out in front of her as the entirety of the stored pool of water shoots forward, blasting both Bertha and Aichi, the latter of which gets thrown from her feet and smashes into the wall of the arena. Bertha struggles to remain where she stands, her aura glowing as her semblance activates, using her extreme strength to push forward through the waterfall-like current. With a look of determination Rhea grits her teeth and screams out, her aura flashing brightly as she pushes herself past her limits and causes a lightning bolt to shoot from the cloud and directly into the stream of water, electrifying Bertha into submission and sends her flying back into the wall alongside her teammate. The force of her colliding with the arena wall nearly shatters the part she hit, sending cracks throughout the wall. From within the wall, Bertha weakly looks up to the announcer’s box, as if ashamed she did so much damage to the arena. The final buzzer sounds for team KABM.

“Hmm,” Jaune sighed, looking down to Blake, “Hey can you see yet?” “No,” Blake, now sitting on the ground, rubbing her eyes, “But thankfully it doesn’t hurt as much anymore, why did I miss anything?” “Just costly damage to the arena walls!” “Ah,” Ren gives off a nervous laugh, as Jaune just sits there and drags his hands down his face, “Penny...you shouldn’t have...” “HOW MUCH FUNDING DO YOU BRATS THINK WE HAVE?!”

“Alright, ladies and gentlemen,” The AI’s face retakes the screens, “Before Professor Belladonna has a mental breakdown! Let’s call the match! It appears Team CNRI of Haven Academy is victorious!”

The crowd cheers, a sound nearly deafening, the AI struggles to be heard over the excitement, her face showing her irritation at not being paid attention too, “W-Well, it certainly was an amazing match wasn’t it! What an incredible act of teamwork from Haven’s students! I’m sure Headmaster Wukong is proud!”

The AI nods, her hand on her chin with an expression of deep thought, “I bet I bet, yes yes. Now, let’s prep ourselves for the next match! But before that, give one last round of applause for the victors!”

The crowds chant Team CNRI’s name as the team picks up their fallen teammate and gives off flurries of excited thanks. Team KABM pick themselves up, with Bertha irritably taking hold of Kalinin’s hand and dragging her along the arena floor to their plate.

Once both teams have returned to their starting points, the plates begin to sink back into the arena, leading them to the waiting area below.

“Alright,” the AI lets out a sigh, but dramatically turns it around with her usual excitement, “What a fiery match, I’m almost all tuckered out...BUT! There’s no time to rest! As soon as those repairs are done, we’re kicking right off into the next match!”

#vytal tournament #team kabm #allkindsoffandomshere #team cnri #bittiblakebelladonna

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junker-town · 5 years

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Please give us a Chiefs-Chargers threematch

The top two teams in the AFC are in the same division and split their season series. A playoff rubber match is what we need.

Philip Rivers couldn’t have had a worse start to Thursday night. His very first pass was intercepted by Steven Nelson, and — before the first quarter ended — the Kansas City Chiefs used that early jolt to build a 14-0 lead.

The Los Angeles Chargers didn’t get their first lead of the night until eight seconds were left on the clock in the fourth quarter at Arrowhead Stadium. Rivers found second-year wide receiver Mike Williams for a 1-yard touchdown, then threw to Williams again on a two-point conversion to capture a 29-28 win for the Chargers.

The come-from-behind victory meant a few things:

The Chargers are going to the playoffs for the first time since 2013. It wasn’t really in doubt, but Los Angeles made it official and clinched a spot Thursday.

The Chiefs couldn’t win the AFC West this week, and the race is still alive.

Home-field advantage will probably belong to the AFC West winner, but the Patriots and Texans still have a shot.

The Chargers’ nine-game losing streak against the Chiefs is over.

But what the win doesn’t mean is that the Chargers are now on the AFC West favorites. Even after the loss, the Chiefs are still just two more wins away from locking that up due to the divisional record tiebreaker. There’s still a chance for the Chargers (3-2 in the AFC West) to climb to even in the divisional tiebreaker if they beat the Broncos in Week 17, but that would involve the Chiefs (4-1 in the division) losing to the Raiders.

No matter how the AFC West drag race finishes, either the Chiefs or the Chargers will own the No. 5 seed, and the other will probably be the top-seeded team in the AFC. And if we’re lucky, it’ll set us up with a rubber match.

The Chiefs and Chargers are the two best teams in the AFC

After the Chargers’ win Thursday, both teams are 11-3. That’s two wins better than any other team in the conference heading into the weekend.

Kansas City is on pace to finish as the third-most prolific scoring offense in the history of the NFL. Patrick Mahomes is having a season that will probably end with him earning the NFL MVP award, and it will also go down as one of the best seasons a quarterback has ever had.

He’s now at 45 passing touchdowns on the year — the sixth-most in a season — after throwing two more against the Chargers. He’ll have two more games to try to join Peyton Manning and Tom Brady and become the third quarterback to ever reach 50 touchdowns in a season.

And despite all that, the Chargers may be even better.

While the Chiefs are the better team on offense, it isn’t by that much. Los Angeles is light years ahead of Kansas City on defense, though. Down the board, the Chargers are just plain good at everything.

Meanwhile, the rest of the AFC leaves much to be desired.

The Patriots are always dangerous — especially in January. They even beat the Chiefs this season. But they also have puzzling blowout losses to the Lions and Titans, an inexplicable blow-it against the Dolphins, and an early-season loss to the Jaguars that is aging horribly.

Houston notched nine straight wins to climb out of an 0-3 hole. Then just when it looked like the Texans were ready to step into the spotlight, they got pieced up by the Colts’ Andrew Luck in Week 14.

Who’s left? The Steelers, who just lost to the Raiders? Nope.

The Chargers’ only losses were September games against the Chiefs and Rams, as well as a 23-22 loss to the Broncos in Week 11. Prior to Thursday, Kansas City’s only losses were to the Patriots and Rams. The Chiefs lost those three games by a total of seven points.

Without question, the Chiefs and Chargers have been the most consistently impressive teams in the conference all year.

Does home field even matter in Chiefs vs. Chargers?

Kansas City opened the season by traveling to play the Chargers in StubHub Center — which was absolutely loaded with the Chiefs fans.

How many Chargers fans do you see in this image of a Chargers home game pic.twitter.com/F97c2YiQuu

— Rodger Sherman (@rodger) September 9, 2018

Less than two minutes into the game, Tyreek Hill returned a punt 91 yards for a touchdown. Later in the first quarter, Hill caught a 58-yard touchdown, and — just like that — it was 14-3 Chiefs.

Two fourth-quarter touchdowns for the Chargers closed the gap some, but the Chiefs held on 38-28 for a key road win to get the season started strong.

That all sounds really similar to the Thursday Night Football game, right? Except in Week 15, the Chargers actually pulled off the comeback.

The Chargers erased a 14-point deficit in the final 5 minutes to stun the Chiefs, 29-28. Entering Thursday, teams were 0-88 this season when trailing by 14+ points in the final 5 min of regulation. Philip Rivers was 0-20 in his career in those situations. pic.twitter.com/7nk902lypr

— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) December 14, 2018

The win Thursday improved the Chargers’ road record to 6-1. That’s even better than their home record of 5-2. Maybe it’s that they’re a mature team capable of handling adversity, or maybe the Chargers are just used to playing in front of opposing fans, whether they’re home or away.

Whatever it is, the Chargers seem unfazed by hostile territory.

“Games like today. Games like the one in Seattle. At Pittsburgh. This is as playoff-like as you can get,” Rivers told NFL Network after the win Thursday. “We’ve had to be in a lot of close games — we lost a couple, we won a handful — and so I think we’re as equipped [for the playoffs] as you can get.”

That’s a good thing, because — barring another Chiefs loss — it’ll probably be nothing but road games for the Chargers in the playoffs. That doesn’t look like much of a problem.

How likely is the threematch?

In a perfect world, the NFL playoffs are designed to build a path for the two best teams to face off in the conference championship. It doesn’t always work out that way — especially if the two best records are in the same division.

There’s a real chance that a 13-win team will wind up with a wild card berth for only the second time in NFL history. The only other team to do it was the 1999 Tennessee Titans, but that team went to the Super Bowl anyway and literally lost by only a couple feet.

In the case of the Chargers and Chiefs, a meeting as early as the Divisional Round is very possible.

The top-seeded team in the conference — which will likely be the AFC West winner — will play the lowest-seeded team to advance through the Wild Card Round. That could be the No. 5 seed.

It’s not that uncommon for divisional opponents to meet for a rubber match. It just recently happened in four consecutive years with the Vikings and Packers in 2013, the Seahawks and 49ers in 2014, the Steelers and Ravens in 2015, and the Steelers and Bengals in 2016.

The way to guarantee that third game happens for the Chargers and Chiefs is for both teams to just keep winning.

“I imagine they’re going to be deep in the playoffs and for us to get to our ultimate prize, we may have to play them again,” Rivers told FOX’s Kristina Pink of the Chiefs. “Now, I’m not jumping ahead — there’s a lot of other good teams in the AFC — but this is a good football team and we overcame some turnovers early and found a way.

“The Chiefs can still win out and win the division, but at least we gave ourselves a chance and we know we’re in the tournament. Hopefully we get to play them again.”

The Chargers couldn’t come back against the Chiefs in Week 1, and just barely pulled it off Thursday. But they also managed to hold the Chiefs offense to an average of 328 yards in those two games, while the Chargers offense averaged 474.

They found that success Thursday, despite having running backs Melvin Gordon and Austin Ekeler out of action, and No. 1 receiver Keenan Allen sidelined for the entire second half.

Maybe a third game would finally have stars like Joey Bosa, Gordon, Allen, Eric Berry, and Sammy Watkins all healthy and ready to play, and we could see what both teams are close to 100 percent. Regardless, Thursday was more proof that another game between the Chiefs and Chargers is something worth crossing our fingers for.

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swipestream · 7 years

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The Mist: Surprisingly, Pretty Good. Okay, I’m Lying.

Fear. Bad. Storytelling.

It’ll probably shock none of you that the recently-launched and recently-cancelled The Mist TV show sucked. What may shock you is how thoroughly ghastly the suckage was. It permeated the whole show, and came in three varieties: entirely superficial suckage, suckage in central concepts, and suckage in execution.

(Spoilers below. Like you even care.)

Let’s start with the superficial suckage. The first episode of Spike TV’s Maine monster show throws out an array of virtue signals, enough to rival the light from several dozen Las Vegas casinos. There’s the small town teacher who loses her job for teaching Sex Ed against the wishes of the small-minded small-towners she lives among, the small-town Sheriff who covers for his Captain of the Football Team jock son after he’s credibly accused of drugging and assaulting the daughter of the fired teacher, the bisexual guy with heavy makeup who’s targeted for a beating by a bigot, the innocent Middle Eastern man who’s accused of terrorism by a racist jerkhole, and many more I don’t have time to go into. It’s like someone had a control board wired up to every single virtue signal IN EXISTENCE and his boss said “Hit ’em all.”

The thing is, all the many virtue signals are misdirects. Normally they’d indicate a plaster saint, a character who’s just more noble, virtuous, and gosh darn better at everything than everyone else. And yet, if you stay with the show—and Heaven bless your stupid blinkered stubbornness if you do—you find out there are two (count ’em, two) innocent people in the entire town, everyone else being some variety of scumbag, murderer, or psycho—even the people you’d think would end up as saints (or are the apparent main character).

The aging Leftwing Earth-worshipping Baby Boomer former hippie chick whose husband is casually abruptly brutally murdered by some random dude in the pilot? Absolute psycho. The bold, brave feminist Sex-Ed-teaching former teacher? You better believe it. The Goth bisexual assault victim? TOTAL PSYCHO. Everybody, the whole town, both sexes, all races, all sexual orientations, every single person in the entire village is a scumbag, murderer, or psycho. Sometimes all three.

It’s enough to make one cynical about small town America.

Which leads us to problems in the conception of the show. Contrary to what people say, all story ideas are not created equal. Some are good, some great, and some just plain awful. Great ideas tend to stand out no matter how terrible the rest of the material is, shining like solitary diamonds in a bucket full of dung. Bad ideas, in contrast, tend to propagate throughout a work of fiction, tainting everything else with their awfulness, like vomit in a wading pool. The Mist was built atop a pile of awful ideas.

The original Stephen King short story and the 2007 movie (a decent work fatally marred by one of the most nihilistic endings I’d ever seen until now) featured the titular mist descending upon a bucolic New England village, bringing with it a panoply of bizarre and unearthly monsters who proceed to terrorize the town. There’s no indication of what caused the irruption of the monstrous beasties—other than some half-hearted gestures towards a mysterious military project named Arrowhead—and no sign that they’re intelligent or coordinated. They just are. The scenes of the humans having to deal with basketball-sized almost-spiders, forearm-sized not-quite-mosquitoes, and creatures so massive they tear up the freeway just by floating past… well, they’re the only reason to read the story. (Heaven knows the stock characters straight from Stephen King Central Casting aren’t anything to write home about.) The 2017 show, however, threw all of this out.

Instead of an invasion of Lovecraftian creatures from elsewhere in space-time, THIS Mist features a fear-generator. The clouds floating about town intuit your deepest fear and, in thirty seconds to a minute (one of the characters timed it), it materializes out of the mist to attack and probably kill you. This makes for monsters that are COMPLETELY LAME. Leeches. Dogs. Somebody’s overbearing mum. Random hostile homicidal people. A literal dead baby. (Not a joke.) A figure made out of black smoke. A moth that kills a guy by crawling inside his mouth, giving him a moth back tattoo, and sprouting giant moth wings from his back. And the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (who appear but briefly, in silhouette, kill somebody, then disappear.) LAME MONSTERS IN A MONSTER SHOW RUIN THE MONSTER SHOW.

Moreover, the mist-born monsters are barely featured in the 10-episode series. The first trailer for the show made it seem like Spike’s answer to The Walking Dead: a bunch of survivors, walled up in various places about the town, fighting off an invasion of monsters. The Walking Dead, for all its flaws, was at least a zombie show that featured ACTUAL ZOMBIES. They appeared—sometimes out of thing air—ate people and were chopped or shot, then went away until the plot needed them again. They MATTERED.

The monsters of The Mist—again, the focal point of both the short story and the movie—barely make an appearance. All the above creatures count for, at most, 30 minutes of the 10-hour series. Oh sure, characters run through the mist, stare out at the mist, and refuse to venture outside into the mist, but the actual monsters in the mist are almost never seen. People killed in the mist pretty much always die offscreen. A MONSTER SHOW WITHOUT MONSTERS IS A LAME MONSTER SHOW.

The mist itself is also a problem. It’s simply too thick, too obscuring, too easy to get lost in, and too lethal. As the central obstacle / challenge / opponent of a continuing series, it sucks. It makes interesting shots impossible—you can’t see up into the mist to catch a glimpse of a skyscraper-sized thing striding past, tearing great gaping holes in the ground, collapsing buildings with a casually placed limb, you can’t see people running for their lives from some malefic threat, nor can you see the slow but steady advance of some new threat marching towards the last bastion of human life in the beleaguered town. Last, but not least, people can’t respond to the mist.

In the story and movie, people made plans. They utilized the tools available to them and made weapons to fight the monsters with. The utter lethality of the mist in this show means people can’t effectively scavenge for food and weapons, nor can they easily navigate the thick and obscuring clouds, nor can they fight back. All these things are the building blocks of an interesting series. Writers NEED them to tell decent stories. Yet the show makes all of them impossible.

Not that the writers of this show could tell a decent story anyway. The Mist is, as per the usual trend recently, less a series than a serial. One show leads directly into the next, and what plot there is gets spread out over all ten shows. Basically, it’s a ten hour movie. Now, ten hour movies can be done (I guess. In theory.), but not by the writers of this show. (Or Jessica Jones. Or Luke Cage.) Instead we get apparent plot movement that meanders back and forth for too damn long, eventually going nowhere. It’s long, tedious, and MEANINGLESS. In the end, a lot of things happen, but you just don’t care.

Somebody needed to send these jerks to TV screenwriting school. Teach them about a 4-act TV drama structure, mini-climaxes before commercial breaks, and A-, B-, and C-plots. When, and ONLY when, they master these basics (after having done it for a while), then we’ll give them a shot at semi-serial storytelling. LEARN YOUR CRAFT FIRST, MORONS.

Now all of the above is absolutely awful. But it isn’t the awfullest thing about the show. That, they saved for the series finale.

Our hero, the main character, has been trying to reunite with his wife (ex-teacher Sex Ed lady) and his daughter (little miss “got assaulted and then unknowingly made out with her half-brother”. No, really. Because there just wasn’t enough awful in the show.) Daddy dearest shows up at the mall to rescue them and—because of some wholly contrived and altogether stupid reasons—the people in the mall (about 50 or so panicking small town people who’ve been neighbors with them for decades) throw the lot of them out. Into the parking lot where he has a car warmed up and waiting to drive away. So he drives away… then rams the vehicle into the front doors of the mall, letting the mist in and ensuring all 50 of their neighbors meet grisly ends in the mist.

People scream. Blood flows. Lots of people die.

Your hero, ladies and gentlemen!

It’s an ugly and pointless ending, even more nihilistic than that of the 2007 movie, and reveals our main character to be a total and utter murdering psycho. Because THAT’S the kind of hero audiences root for.

The Mist is absolutely awful, beginning to end. If I was thrown out into the mist, my greatest fear would materialize as a small, featureless room where they force me to watch this series over and over and over again.

Jasyn Jones, better known as Daddy Warpig, is a host on the Geek Gab podcast, a regular on the Superversive SF livestreams, and blogs at Daddy Warpig’s House of Geekery. Check him out on Twitter.

The Mist: Surprisingly, Pretty Good. Okay, I’m Lying. published first on http://ift.tt/2zdiasi

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