#the team doing their best to feed themselves on their limited knowledge and looking out for each other | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

crystalmaeson · 3 years

Text

Official Readme by Maeson

Pokemon Crystal Maeson - Public Version 1.0 - Internal Version 15.0.3

IT IS RECOMMENDED TO READ THIS WITH NOTEPAD++, BUT YOU DO YOU.

o--------o |Sections| o--------o

[1] Installation [2] Introduction [3] General List of Changes [4] Patch Differences [5] Pokémon Changes [6] Type Changes [7] Move Changes [8] Stat Experience, Vitamins and Fruits [9] Mechanic & Gameplay Changes [10] New Kurt Balls, new ways to obtain Apricorns [11] The New and Improved Battle Tower and Trainer House [12] Visual Changes [13] Credits

o-----------------o |[1] Installation| o-----------------o

Patching a game is usually a very easy process, specially with IPS Patches.

There's a variety of programs that work with IPS files, but the most famous one is named Lunar IPS, also called LIPS.

This hack is to be patched on a Pokémon Crystal 1.1 ROM file.

More specifically, this rom: Pokemon - Crystal Version (UE) (V1.1) [C][!].gbc CRC-32 : 3358E30A

You open your patcher, and then point to it to the IPS patch and the original, unmodded ROM. It will apply it and inform you when it's finished, it should be quick.

Now, there's two versions of this hack, and each one has also two varieties.

CHOOSE ONLY ONE. To know which version you want, check the details at the not-surprisingly-named "Patch Differences" section.

And yes, the patch weights almost 75% of the original game.

o-----------------o |[2] Introduction| o-----------------o

Hola, welcome to another ridiculously long readme of mine.

I go by the name Maeson and I made other hacks for a handful of other RPGs. For the most part what I usually aim for with these hacks is to create a different experience, tweaking what I can to give games that I've played time and time again a gameplay facelift to keep them fresh for me, sometimes also trying to improve aspects of a game that I think could make it more fun, varied, better paced or just more challenging after many playthroughs and knowing stuff by hand.

These hacks are made for me in first place, so they're shaped in a very personal manner and of course through my own tastes and ideas, but it should goewithout saying, I hope.

But anyway... What can I say about Pokémon?

My feelings toward the main series of Pokémon have changed a lot since its inception. Just like millions of other fans of video games, I lived the Pokémon craze back in the day, and I grew playing most of those games. I was there without fail up until the fifth Generation, then I started to get tired of the series gradually, and I sort of stop caring with time.

Thing is, I really didn't stop liking the Pokémon themselves, and I still enjoy spin-offs like the Trading Card Games or Mystery Dungeon games, and some like Pokémon Conquest and Pokken are quite cool crossovers, so there's still some appeal to me, even if it's waning with each day.

And hey, then you get things like Pokémon Snap, which it's one unique and very memorable game, one of the very, very few games about photography. it's a really chill, fun time overall.

...What it does not appeal to me all that much since a long time, though, is Game Freak and The Pokémon Company. The choices and "philosofies" they've been doing and following for several years now have been some of the most frustrating ones I've seen besides Square Enix, and their interviews equally leave some wonderfully baffling pearls of "wisdom".

They've done a remarkable job at making me wanting to distance myself more and more throughout this last decade, to the point that I lost pretty much all my appreciation for the franchise.

And it's not just with the main games, their choice of pushing aside console spin-offs for more and more mobile based Games As A Service (that usually failed and died quickly) also left us without many interesting games that could at least keep us somewhat happy.

And the less we talk about the lies, misinformation and the worrying use of younger audiences as a shield to deflect criticism from their business decisions, the better.

I... Just can't support or stand that anymore. I feel drained.

And I would have been completely away from this franchise, barring some old games, if not for one day finding that a collective of people were working on disassembly projects of older games.

I found them to be really interesting, and my mind kinda played with the idea of having a version of one of those old games with changes that I've been wanting and waiting to happen for many years. Who knows, I could even *attempt* to improve what was already there and even add more stuff to it.

Checking the available games with disassembly, I chose Pokémon Crystal, as it seemed the most complete and evolved project of all, in combination with also being one of the longer games thanks to the large post-game it originally had, plus being an earlier Generation game also gave me more room to do changes and improvements.

So little by little, with no idea of assembly, I kept hitting walls and messing around for a time, and what you downloaded is the result of spending the free time I had working in it... For quite some time. In fact it has been over 2 years of constant work, this started in 2018.

The aim of this hack is simple:

Create a new "balance", make the game more challenging, and iron out stuff I find could be improved, or I have the ability and knowledge to do while I add more value to certain aspects of the game. Make a version of Pokémon that I'd like to replay and have every monster be a fun addition to the team and a foe I just can't roll over with little to no thought, so I want to try all of them.

If you were expecting a new story, or a new region, or whatever pipe dream that most probably would end up incompleted and not stable, sorry to disappoint, but you won't find it here.

And no, I don't really care if this hack doesn't have an "epic" name. There's so many other more important things to care than that...

o----------------------------o |[3] General List of Changes| o----------------------------o

Here you have a quick list with some of the biggest changes all around, but there are sections for most of them to talk more in detail.

· Attempt to reach a new balance. This has been said above, but what it actually means is that elements as Types, Moves, Pokémon Stats and such have been changed deeply to move away from the conventions of the original games, making many species feel entirely different gameplay-wise.

Among other things, this means no more disappointing creatures with bad typing and many weaknesses, or low Base Stats filler. It also means parity between the Types, with each one having the same number of Weaknesses and Resistances. The intent is for every Fully Evolved Pokémon to feel useful or, at the very, very least, usable in a way where you don't feel handicapping yourself to the point you ask yourself if it is even worth doing it.

· Moves and TMS have been changed a lot in order to accomodate the Physical & Special Split, each Type now has both Physical and Special moves of different Power tiers.

Many old attacks have been removed and many others have been added. What moves each evolutionary line learns also has been changed, in order to make all Pokémon have decent movesets depending on what their archtype is.

· DVs (IVs on later generations) No longer matter on Stat Calculations. This means that every member of the same species will have the same potential. This also means you can have female Pokémon with good Attack, and Shiny Pokémon with good stats, what a novel concept.

This way any monster you come across will be equal, so you can focus on having fun, while still having to care of it by training, feeding him vitamins and fruits, choosing the best moves for it in a given situation, making a balanced team, and you know, the actual RPG bits instead of the RNG ones.

If you liked the eugenics experiment experience the original games give you, sorry but that's not here. I apologize for nothing.

· Trainers changed all around. Better AI than in the original game, more varied teams, their Pokémon have Stat Exp, meaning that the further you go, the better trained their Pokémon are, and better trained your own monsters should be. I also removed several limitations imposed on NPC trainers to make them factually inferior to you. This is made trying to make the game more challenging instead of the usual cake-walk.

There's no ridiculous stuff like giving Hyper Beam to everything or illegal moves for NPC trainer's Pokémon (although bear in mind, many Pokémon have changed types, and many have changed movesets so their moves are the new "legal" moves, but again, nothing impossible for you to have or to add fake difficulty).

If you're asking yourself this, no, in this hack NPCs do not change Pokémon constantly, that tends to drag the game too much. They still do it occasionally, but not at every time Type matchups that go against them.

· Quite a few changes related to Items, from how strong some Healing Items are, to changing Kurt Balls, changing the effect (or power of the effect) on several Held Items, new types of berries, and others.

Healing items are no longer useable in battle, neither for you or the NPC Trainers. Battles must be won only with your Pokémon, their held items, and strategy.

...Or well, over-levelling through mind-numbing grinding. We can't exactly get rid of that.

· Added a whole LOT of improvements here and there to make the game flow, feel and play better.

Things like changing how Item Storage works to have more space overall, much faster egg hatching speeds, making every monster available in this hack, having the Pokédex show you a bit of meaningful game information, as now it shows a species Base Stats and also the Shiny variations, make saving a faster process, making TMs infinite (but not abusable), improving the scrolling while moving around making the game feel and look much better, large improvements on the Battle Tower, expanding the Trainer House to be more interesting end-game stuff, adding Rematches, making PokeGear rematches better, a way to change PC Boxes remotely, move tutors and quite a few others.

There's many things more, but that's what the individual sections are for.

o-----------------------o |[4] Patch Differences | o-----------------------o

Now, there are four patches, so let's explain this quickly.

First, we have the Original versions, and the Alternative versions, these last ones offer a tweaked experience in case you want to play this hack again with some differences.

In which ways it is different?

Well, the Starters have been swapped, so when you begin a new game, you get to choose between Bulbasaur, Charmander and Squirtle.

MUCH bigger difference, though, is that all the Gym trainers, the Leaders, other important NPCS and the Elite Four no longer have their teams limited to following the thematic "Type" standards.

Other trainers such as the Rival also have different teams, (and like the original patch, he develops a different team depending on the starter they steal).

Without that restriction each of those trainers have way more varied teams, making the game less predicable because you can no longer coast on the Type disadvantages most of the Pokémon of a Gym Leader share.

This of course changes how you make your teams. You no longer "have" to bring "this or that Type" because later on the road there's a Gym weak to it. It's more about making a team that you feel it can withstand anything it may come.

The order of certain Ingame Trades have also been changed.

There's other smaller changes to make the bigger ones sit well, such as small text edits or change the order of the Pokédex.

But Original and Alternative are divided in two too, one that I'll call "Intended Versions" and the other two are "Items in Battle" variations.

The "Intended Versions" disables healing Items in battle and it forces Set options, meaning you don't get free switches after knocking out a foe Pokémon. You can't change the option, because it's not even there anymore.

That's how I'd like people to play my hack, but knowing how some people can be, there's an extra patch, "Items in Battle", that gives you the possibility of using Items and to change the battle option, but there's a price to pay.

If you choose to play with enabled Items/Switch in battle, a few Items will be unavailable to you, the price of several Items will increase, and the HP they restore will be lowered. Also, NPC Trainers will also use Items.

That's simply because Items can be easily abused, and that is the opposite of what I wanted in this hack. If you choose the "right" to abuse Items during battle, then I have the right to make adjustments to annoy you with your choice.

It's not like Hyper Potions will heal 1 HP or anything crazy like that, but because in my hack you can't use Items in battles, they're more powerful than the usual vanilla items so you could recover better between battles.

The items you lose access to are all new, by the way. A set of consumable Held Items that raise a stat whenever the holder is attacked or under other circustances, similar to the berries in the Third Generation, albeit they're activated differently.

Another change is limited access to a team-healing item that I made, and restores all your Pokémon to perfect shape. Intended to be used in a pinch, like being lost in a cave, or between hard fights, but you can only have in small amounts. In the Original patch, you can carry 3 of them, but only 1 on the "Items in Battle" versions.

You're free to choose how to play. Of course, you only apply one patch.

If for some reason you started a game with one version, for example, with the patch for Items in Battle, and you later on want to go to the No Items in Battle version, you can actually use that save file and not start again.

But I recommend you to save first in a Pokémon Center before doing so. Once you did that, patch a clean ROM and rename the .SAV file into whatever the new patched rom is. Now you can continue with your game. Remember to always make backups before doing anything of this sort.

I do not recommend changing between the Original and Alternate versions.

Lastly, trading and battling with vanilla Pokémon Crystal is not going to work. Not only many of the fixes made already impossible to be compatible with Vanilla Pokémon Crystal, but the gigantic load of changes I made to the game would render any attempt become a glitchy mess.

But you can trade and battle with other copies of this hack, and the four versions of the patches should be compatible with each other for both trading and battling. I'd recommend using the No Items versions because it gives you access to those extra Held Items, though.

o--------------------o |[5] Pokémon Changes| o--------------------o

Probably the most obvious and central change, these creatures are the core of the franchise after all.

As you may imagine, there have been changes to most aspects of them. While some of those have their sections to talk about, Base Stats are probably the most important one here.

That is because for the most part there is parity in Base Stat Total for all evolutionary lines in this game.

Pokémon to me has become a rather painful series of games to look back, because there has never been that much of an interest to improve or balance out their creations to make a more varied, balanced and fun experience, and when they try to do something is more on the lines of "adding" to fix instead of improving what's there already.

And don't get me wrong, trying to get "perfect balance" is impossible with such a large amount of creatures, but at the same time, Game Freak has done very, very little in this regard, most other developers would at least try something, specially if they had the decades of game releases Game Freak has had.

But back on track. This is why in this hack, almost every non-Starter, non-Legendary fully evolved monster has a Base Stat Total of 650, making each all of them feel have the same potential overall.

This means there will be no "early useless Pokémon", nor so called "Filler".

And yes, this means your beloved Tyranitar, Dragonite, and such have the same potential as a Raticate or a Wigglytuff. On the other hand, this also means you don't need to train a Pupitar or Dragonair to ridiculous levels to have them evolve into their final forms.

If you ask yourself "why such high Base Stat Total", well, its simple: The higher the roof, the more space you have to scale stats. The more space you have to scale stats, the better you can "personalize" stats for the different species.

Besides, the Base Stat Total stops being important when everybody is at the same "level".

Now, that's for "normal Pokémon". The first two Generations had two trios of "pseudo-legendary" monsters, those being Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres, and Raikou, Entei and Suicune. These critters have 660 Base Stat Total.

Starters also have a total of 660. This is mainly because starters are usually the back bone of most player's teams (although I usually roll without them), and I saw fitting for them to be slightly stronger. But fear not, because those extra points don't really make much difference, as they're used to make them more well rounded instead of just dumping them on their highest stats.

Finally, true Legendary Pokémon keep their 700 Base Stat Total of the original games. To this day I never used legendaries beyond wanting to see their back sprites, never cared about them, so they have the least number of changes, really.

Some other changes are:

·Many Pokémon had their overall archetypes changed besides their Stats improved. Furret is now a Fast Special Attacker, for example.

·Almost every Pokémon now has a 50% Male/Female Ratio, except for the Nidorans, Tauros and Miltank. Pokémon like Blissey, Chansey, or the Hitmon-family now can be both male and female. Magnemite, Voltorb and such are still genderless.

·The two Legendary Trios have genders and can in fact breed, thus they can be seen almost as normal Pokémon.

·The Pokédex had the entries for each Pokémon modified. This is because now it shows actually useful information instead of the continuously repeated "scientific" info that usually is full of lies and ridiculous stuff that could make an Indian Elephant have a headache, but hey, it may not be the Pokédex info, it may just be a bit too close to a Magcargo and it's experiencing how one feels being next to the Sun.

Happens to us all sometimes.

Now, the first page of each species shows its Weaknesses and Resistances while the second page of each one now points out the Base Stat spreads it has, which is a much, much more useful ingame data, specially when this hacks aims to change heavily most things related to battling and "the RPG elements".

Oh, and by the way, if you press Select while looking at a Pokémon's Data, you'll activate "Shiny Mode", and every Pokémon shown will be seen with their Shiny Colors!

·Talking about Shiny Pokémon, those are far more common. While I personally don't care too much about them, specially nowadays when they've become so... Uneventful and common, not to mention how much they've been related with hacking and cheating, Pokémon being shiny lost appeal to me, yet they're still a big thing for many players, so why not make them easier to obtain?

The means for finding a Shiny Pokémon in Generation II were rough. REALLY rough. With the way it works now, you should find quite a few of them throughout your adventure, and also finding female shiny Pokémon should also be a more common occurrence than before.

You're bound to find a fair share of them. This being a modded game, it doesn't really matter if they're not as rare or hard to find.

NPC trainers will have Shiny monsters here and there, so you should also have the chance!

·As you already know, wild Pokémon may be holding items. In the original game, many species had nothing with them. Now, most species have them, and the variety is much, much bigger. Not only that, the chances for finding Pokémon with items has increased.

Now there's a 50% of not having an item, 40% of having a "common" item, and 10% of holding a "rare" item. Better than the 2% on the original.

Lastly, I've made another improvement in held items. Now, whenever you battle with a wild monster that has an Item, an little icon (similar to the one in the party menu) will appear on the enemy's HUD. Specifically between the Pokeball icon that appears when you fight a monster that you already have in your Pokédex, and the Gender icon.

Again, only for WILD creatures. If monsters have items in trainer battles is a secret to everybody!

·A big one, already mentioned in the introduction: DVs (or IVs, if you rather call them that) NO LONGER FACTOR INTO STAT CALCULATIONS!!

This means that now only Base Stats and Stat Exp matter in each Pokémon statistics. Oh, and by the way, the formula to calculate stats has changed very slightly. Remember that +5 bonus at the end of the calculations? Now it's a 6. That means that a 100 Base stat (Not HP) of a fully trained monster is 300 and not 299.

This also means you can now have Female Pokémon with good Attack power, and Shiny Pokémon no longer are weak, two rather big things for me at least.

No more you will have to waste hours of your life breeding and abandoning dozens if not hundreds of Pokémon for good DVs (what a great lesson!). NPC Trainers also get good Pokémon too, making things better for everybody.

·Evolution has been streamlined and homogenized. This means that Pokémon that evolved by trades, special events, and such have simpler, more direct ways to do so now. But also, all Pokémon evolver on similar levels.

After all, if they are supposed on equal footing in Power, they should also be on the same level on this matter too.

Here's a few examples:

Pokémon with three stages evolve at levels 20 and 32.

Pidgey evolves to Pidgeotto at level 20, and to Pidgeot at level 32. Chikorita evolves to Bayleef at level 20, and to Meganium at level 32. Dratini evolves to Dragonair at level 20, and to Dragonite at level 32.

Pokémon with two stages evolve between levels 22 and 24.

Rattata evolves into Raticate at level 23. Venonat evolves into Venomoth at level 24. Rhyhorn evolves into Rhydon at level 24. Hoothoot evolves into Noctowl at level 22.

Of course, there are a couple of exceptions. Caterpie and Weedle are still the fastest evolving lines, and of course Pokémon that evolve through stones can do so anytime you want.

Oh, and by the way, in this hack, you WANT to evolve when Pokémon want to. You won't get much from stopping an evolution, and with Pokémon that evolve through stones and such, you should do it before too late.

This is because many species learn better techniques at the same level they evolve, and it would be a waste to not learn them.

You can find at which levels are recommended Pokémon to evolve through stones in the specific Pokémon Stat list txt. But if you want to make it easy:

If the Pokémon has two evolutionary stages > Use the stone at Level 22 or 23. If the Pokémon has three evolutionary stages > use the stone at level 30 or 32 (to reach the last stage).

That said, if you feel like not evolving for whatever reason, you've not lost everything. The game has a Move Reminder, and you'll be able to remember freely any move from a species learnset.

Oh, and the Time Capsule seems to work as long as you of course follow the rules. But a few notes:

Any Pokémon you bring from Generation 1 may have their moves changed upon arriving your game. The moves may turn into a very uncharacteristic one for the Pokémon, because I repurposed many moves into new ones.

The stats of the Pokémon will change from Gen 1 to Gen 2, and most notably, the HP of any Pokémon that reaches Gen 2 will not be fully healed, because of the change in stats, but there's no problem at all as far as functionality, just heal.

That said, have in mind there's NO NEED to use the Time Machine. You do so under your responsibility.

o-----------------o |[6] Type Changes| o-----------------o

Yet another big shake to the, in my personal point of view, rather badly balanced formula.

I'm not going to discuss or waste time with this. This is how it works here:

Defensive wise, each type now is weak to two other types, while resistant to three, one of them being itself. There are NO immunities. Every type is equal as far as weaknesses and resistances, except for Normal.

Normal has no weaknesses or resistances, period.

Offensive wise, each Type is effective against two Types, and is resisted by three, one it being itself. Normal does not hit for Super Effective damage nor does it get resisted.

So, among other things, Ghost will get hurt by Normal and Fighting moves, Normal will get hit by Ghost, Dragon is no longer weak to itself, and Ice is not such an awful and pathetic defensive Type that exists to be mocked.

Oh, the Fairy Type has been added too, but how it works doesn't exactly resemble the original game, just like the other Types.

Now, because I know how certain part of the community can act (and let's not kid ourselves pretending it doesn't happen), to make myself clear and blunt:

I don't care if you think Type X should be weak/resistant to type Y. I don't care if you don't want to learn new Type Matchups. I don't care what Game Freak does with types now or in the future.

I'm not Game Freak and I have made this wanting to break away from their norm, I don't have to follow any rules, not theirs, not yours.

Making a more even ground for all types, trying to make each monster good, so I could play with all of them and have fun was one of the important things for me, and to reach that goal I made as many changes as I saw fit.

You're free to stop reading and go look for another hack if this will bother you that much.

End of the "serious" moment. Good? Great, let's continue!

With this change, every Pokémon will always have more good points than bad points, not to mention that the maximum number of weaknesses a Pokémon can have is 4, and if it has 4 weaknesses, to compensate it will have 6 resistances.

Another thing I want to point out is that the number of Normal Type Pokémon has been lowered. While there are still a bunch of them, it's a way lower number, making many of these previously Normal Pokémon have completely different Type Combinations. I mean, I'm sure you won't miss all the Normal/Flying types. I hope so at least.

If you think Normal Type not having weaknesses could be "broken", far from it, specially since, as I said, in this hack having *more good points* is a given for any non-Normal Pokémon. But of course that's just talking. They can make for great members, in one of my several test-playthroughs, a Furret was one of my best Pokémon all thoughout the game.

There is an image in the RAR file with a Type Table to show you how Types work now, but beyond that, in Violet City's Pokémon Academy, there are two books that teach you the differen Types and their strong and weak points.

And then, if you're so lazy to figure it out, the weaknesses and resistances for each individual species is listed on the Stats text file.

And theeen, if you're even lazier than that, you can also check the Pokedex Entry of a given *captured* Pokémon, as it gives you useful info such as this.

Basically what I'm trying to say is that you have a number of ways to find out how types work. Use them to your advantage.

Oh, lastly, in this hack there are NO Pokémon with double weaknesses. I've never liked them to be honest, and to me just show how unappealing some types were designed to be that they make such awful combinations.

I still remember how excited people were for Aurorus until they saw its typing, and then it all turned into either jokes at its weaknesses or pure disapppointment.

No fun.

o-----------------o |[7] Move Changes| o-----------------o

Alongside the previous two changes, the Moves have been changed A LOT too.

Instead of just "copying" what Game Freak has done in later generations, this hack had in mind to actually modify moves in ways to make them more interesting based on the limitations of the GBC games, and also another little thing:

There is a Physical/Special Split in this hack, so one of the big changes of this hack was to give each Type a number of both, Physical and Special moves to cover different Power levels so Pokémon can have good STAB moves that go along with their stats.

After all, that was probably the best thing Generation IV did for me. While it took some toys from some Pokémon (like Elemental Punches from Alakazam), it really was a big change for the better for most species.

So for example, we have Rock Slide for Rock Pokémon with high Attack, and Rock Launch for Rock Pokémon with high Special Attack. For this, many old moves were removed and reworked into new moves, mostly moves that were redundant and exactly the same as other moves (Like Whirlwind and Roar, or Wrap and Bind, they're the exact same thing).

While this gives every type and every Pokémon solid Stab moves, the limitation of 254 moves makes it so I can't add many "wild" and unique moves, but oh well, it's already much, much better than what it was originally on Generation II.

...No, really, I forgot how rough and unfair the move list was in old Generations, with some Types having almost no good moves at all, or moves that Pokémon couldn't take advantage of because their Stats and their Types didn't match. Hoo boy...

Another big change is that most attacks now have secondary effects, and very often, the lower the Power of a move, the higher is the chance to inflict those secondary effects.

For example, Fire Breath (New move) has a 15% Chance of causing Burn and 70 Power, but Flamethrower only has 10% chance of causing burn and 95 Power. This makes moves with lower Power a bit more useful.

As you may imagine, Pokémon Movesets have been changed tremendously, not only for those critters that had their Types and Stat distributions changed, but also to accomodate all the modifications related to Moves.

Movesets in this hack are in no way attempting to copy later generations of official games, specially since Generation 2 Movesets were incredibly sad to look back.

Instead, they're focused on attempting to give what that certain species needs. So no Pokémon will be let without good STAB moves, and you also won't see Pokémon that are obviously Physical attackers getting Special moves or viceversa.

A handful of moves also got their priority changed.

Safeguard, Haze, Mist, Transformation and Bide now go before other moves. This change actually shakes up battles a bit, it was fun to see the AI read my moves from time to time and prevent Status, and hey, with Transform having priority now Ditto is more usable too!

A list of the moves, what they do, and their other data is in its own TXT file, although with ingame descriptions, it is not necessary.

As far as TMs and HMs, things also have changed.

TMs no longer get consumed when used, so they have infinite uses. The Moves they teach have also changed for the majority of TMS, with most of them teaching both Physical and Special "end-game" moves. There's also a total of 55 TMS now.

None of them can be found in shops, you must find them by exploring or obtained from an NPC.

HMs have also changed a bit, making them more useful. Cut now is a 70 Power Normal move with a High Critical Ratio, and Fly is a strong move with 110 Power that causes Recoil damage. Flash causes damage and can lower Accuracy. Strength is now is Fighting type and causes Flinch. And Whirlpool is a bit more powerful and now takes more HP at the end of turns, so its a rather cool combo alongside Toxic on bulky Pokémon.

Also, HMs can be forgotten like normal attacks, so you can swap attacks easily in case you want, and unlike in Gen. 1, because you can't drop them, you can't get stuck.

Or rather, you wouldn't get stuck, because there's another change. These moves:

Headbutt Rock Smash Cut Surf Strength Waterfall Whirlpool

Don't need to be known by a Pokémon to be used in the overworld! You only need a Pokémon capable of learning such move, and the needed Medal in the case of the HMs.

That only leaves Flash and Fly out of that list, right?

About Flash:

I also added an item that will let you light dark caves so you don't need to have a Pokémon with Flash, but you get it quite a bit later than the HM. Just look around Mahogany after things calmed down.

It can be assigned to Select for quick use, too!

About Fly:

There's a small sidequest you can do later in the game that will net you a special object. This item will let you use a different version of Fly. Mechanically, it's the same, you can fly to places you've explored. Animation-wise is different, though.

Because all of this, you no longer need to have any HM on any Pokémon unless you want it (because most of them are actually respectable attacking moves), which gives much more freedom to parties and movesets!

o----------------------------------------o |[8] Stat Experience, Vitamins and Fruits| o----------------------------------------o

TLDR VERSION: Use Vitamins, use Fruits. They improve your Pokemon's stats, and you need to take care of your team to withstand other trainers which have properly trained monsters. Use them intelligently, don't waste them with Pokémon you don't want to have in your team, at least early on when you have limited resources.

Vitamins are no longer as limited in effect, or as expensive. Fruits are new, and are twice as good as Vitamins.

Pokémon games have a system in which, through adquiring certain points through different means, a creature can improve its Stats. In Generations 1 and 2, these are called Stat Experience. This is a system Game Freak has never informed the players about at all, and the games never came even close to mention it in any trully useful detail, so bare with me if this is your first time with this stuff, although I doubt you found this hack knowing nothing about it.

Stat Experience points can range from 0 (Empty) to 65535 (Maximized). Unlike later generations, In Gen. I and II, you can maximize the experience of all the stats.

Stat Experience points are divided and exclusive for each stat. HP, Attack, Defense and Speed have their own Stat Exp Table. Special Attack and Special Defense share the same Stat Exp Table. So reaching 65535 Stat Exp in each Stat will make your Pokémon perfect stat-wise. Even Pokémon at Level 100 can get Stat Experience, but to gain the effects, they need to be stored on the PC so their real Stats can get updated with the current Stat Exp. they have at that moment.

The ways you get Stat Exp are these:

By battling -Each time one of your Pokémon defeats another, the Base Stats of the enemy's species is added to your Stat Exp in each stat. This is the slowest way, but it's also free, and will raise your stats by just playing through the game.

If you defeat, let's say, a Caterpie, it has these Base Stats:

HP 75, Attack 60, Defense 70, Speed 95, Special Attack 90, Special Defense 70. As I said, Special Attack and Defense use the same Stat Exp Table. The game takes the Base Stat related to Special Attack, so in this case, your Pokémon will be awarded 90 Special Stat Exp Points, alongside the rest. Training only through battles is not only pointless when you have other means, but also incredibly tedious. While in my hack Pokémon have higher stats that make training this way faster, battling for Stat Exp should only be relied on when you've already fed your Pokémon Vitamin and Fruits, to get those last Stat Exp Points needed for a Perfect Stat.

But of course, any Stat Exp gained through battles is benefitial, just don't battle *only* for the Stat Exp unless, as I said it's to finish Stat Exp training! By the way, there's a special condition named Pokerús, which is a benefitial virus that will double the amount of Stat Exp you get from battles. This is very rare to get, and you will be noticed by a PKMN Center Nurse. The games don't tell you what it does exactly either...

It can be very useful, and it propagates through your Pokémon team, and disappears after some time. If you ever get Pokerús, try to keep a Pokémon with active Pokerús on your PC so you can pass it to other Pokémon. But as I said, it's very rare!

By Vitamins -Vitamins in the original game were pretty useless. They raised very little, and they could only be used up to some point, which is less than half way the Stat Exp total.

In this hack, though, they're much better, and even necessary, as the people living in Johto and Kanto have *actually* trained their Pokémon properly and they have Stat Exp, so they'll be stronger and more challenging, and after a certain point, all trainers you'll find will have maximized Pokémon, like any trainer worth their salt would be doing.

Each Vitamin gives 10.240 Stat Exp Points per use, and they can be used until the Stat Exp of the Stat that you want to raise reaches 51.456, at which point, the Pokémon wont get any benefit from it (it won't be wasted, so don't worry).

To make it easier to understand, let's put it this way:

An untrained (either just catched, or just hatched) Pokémon will have 0 Stat Exp on everything. If you feed it HP UPs, it will be able to eat 6:

10.240 1 HP Up 20.480 2 HP Up 30.720 3 HP Up 40.960 4 HP Up 51.200 5 HP Up > Doesn't go pass the limit so you can eat another one. 61.440 6 HP Up > Passed the limit, so you can't feed more, but it's almost Maximized! You can get the rest by battling.

If you're used to Effort Values from Gen 3 onwards, let's make it even easier:

The way it works, each modern EV means 256 Stat Exp, so if it's easier for you, just divide Stat Exp by 256:

Each Vitamin gives 10.240 Stat Exp, that means 40 EV. The limit of Stat Exp is 51.456, that means 201 EV.

So with a Pokémon without EVs, you can go from 0 to 240 EV through vitamins.

You can obviously give Vitamins to a Pokémon you've been battling with no problem, but an untrained Pokémon is better to use as an example.

Their price is much lower so you can keep up with enemy trainers, although they cost enough to make each purchase a bit of an investment early into the game.

By Fruits - Fruits are almost exactly the same as Vitamins, but they give twice the Stat Exp.

Each one gives 20.480 Stat Exp (Or 80 EV if you want it that way), and the limit is 41.216 Stat Points (or 161 EV). This means that your Pokémon can eat up to three Fruits in a stat to jump for 0 Stat Exp to 61.440 (or 0 to 240 EV) and almost maximize it. Let's again use an example of raising HP with Fruit now:

20.480 1 Salty Fruit 40.960 2 Salty Fruit > Doesn't go pass the limit so you can eat another one 61.440 3 Salty Fruit > Passed the limit, so you can't feed more, but it's almost Maximized!

Thus, fruits are much better overall than Vitamins, but they're scarce, and should be better used for Pokémon you know they have little to no training in a certain Stat.

You can combine Vitamins and Fruit without problem, but if you do, first use your Fruits, then the Vitamins so you don't waste Fruits unnecessarily.

Why the limit - If you're asking why the limit is 51.456, or 240 EV for Vitamins, and 41.216 or 161 EVs for Fruits, it is simple to answer: If you feed a Vitamin/Fruit to a Pokémon in a way that would go over 65535, a bug would happen and the Stat Exp of that Pokémon would roll back to 0. I think it's obvious why that would suck. So, by putting these limits you're safe from that to happen, but you also get very close to maximize a stat. It's the best balance I could achieve.

o--------------------------------o |[9] Mechanic & Gameplay Changes| o--------------------------------o

Already said that under the hood, there are many, many other changes. Some (not all of them, not by a long shot) changes are as follows:

· The Clock Reset function now has a much easier button combination to open it. The combination is like this:

1: Hold Select + Down 2: Release Down while holding Reset. 3: With Reset Held, now hold Up too. 4: Release Select. The Reset Clock menu will open.

It requires less buttons, making it easier to do, or able to do at all depending where you are playing. You still need to input the password, though, removing that would let you abuse certain things very easily.

· Prices for several things have been lowered on the "Intended" Versions of this hack. Because you no longer can abuse Items to progress, I saw no real reason to make you pay as much as usual. You're still going to need them, because the need for healing between battles is still a thing.

Another reason to do this is because you will also spend much more money than usual on Vitamins and other stuff to properly train and prepare your team.

· Catching Pokémon grants you Experience now! The Exp. is the same as if it was defeated, and every Pokémon that fought in said battle will get a share of it.

· The Odd Egg will always give you a Shiny Pokémon between 7 ramdonly selected species, and both genders. Each Species get a unique move, instead of all of them getting the same (now non-existing) move.

· Talking about Eggs, Pokémon now hatch much, much faster, so there's less walking up and down through Goldenrod. Not only that, but Egg Moves also changed all around. Pokémon also lay Eggs faster, and Nidorina & Nidoqueen can now breed, alongside both "legendary" trios.

Now each basic species has between 3 or 4 Egg Moves for the most part they are different from vanilla, and basic Starter Pokémon have 5 Egg Moves.

· Trainer AI has been much improved. Now they know much better what they do, and they can priorize stuff like Status Effects, they take better advantage of weaknesses and resistances.

They also carry Items with them, if you play with the patch that lets you items in Battle, of course.

Trainers also have properly trained monsters, with Stat Exp increasing throughout the game. Feeding your team vitamins and fruits is now important to stay on toes with them. Of course, there is more variety in species of monsters used by NPCs, their levels are higher, and team sizes have increased a bit.

Making each trainer a full 6 Pokémon team would drag the game, though, and probably couldn't fit, I already was suffering the lack of space with what I added, because when adding Stat Exp, custom Movesets, and such the space gets used way too fast.

Also, the game was very, very unfair to the NPC trainers. Not only were they hard-coded to fail more often, have mediocre AI, and Low-Level Pokémon, you also got your Stats and Types boosted as you got Badges, so they became completely inferior and disappointing... At least, if you want to have any challenge.

That's why any bonus that Badges give you was stripped down. No Stat Boost, no Type Boost. This will make the game far more fair and chalenging, in turn making it more enjoyable if you look for having to think and put a bit of effort, which is, you know, the point of this entire hack.

Another thing changed is the money that many types of trainers reward you by beating them. In this hack you have many more things to buy as mentioned above, from Vitamins, to Held Items, to Decorations, and more Healing Items because of the higher difficulty, so a better income was needed.

On the other hand, if you lose, which is much more plausible now, you won't get your money halved. Instead, you lose money depending on the number of badges you have, like more recent games. It's much more fair early on, specially in this hack since it is expected of you to buy vitamins and held items for your monsters as you go through the game, besides all the other items.

· Stat increase percentages have been changed.

Stat-improving moves like Accelerate or Meditate, and Stat-decreasing moves like Growl or Scary Face can go from Level 0 (normal stat), to Level +6 or -6, depending if it increases or decreases a stat.

Before o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o |Level -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 | |Perc. 25% 28% 35% 45% 50% 66% 100% 150% 200% 250% 300% 350% 400%| o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o Now o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o |Level -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 | |Perc. 25% 30% 35% 45% 60% 75% 100% 130% 160% 190% 220% 250% 300%| o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o

This has been changed for one main reason: to make better balance between critters, Stats are now higher. With stats being higher, stat-increasing would get too broken, specially with +1 bonus being a whole 50% increase. So bonuses are softer now, but so is stat-reducing -1 Level, so it's not too harsh.

· Item Storing Changes

For starters, there's two new pockets, one for Berries and Fruits in which 13 kinds of items go in it, the already known berries, plus the new Fruits used for powering up your monsters. Fits all of them.

The other new pocket is for Battle items, specifically Held Items. There are several dozen of them, and having such type of items be mixed with consumable and healing items was a bit of a mess, even more if you have an organization obsession and want everything neatly grouped.

Every item of this type fits in this pocket, that's over 50 different types of Items!

Apricorns are now stored in your Ball Pocket, and there's space to have every ball plus Apricorn, so they will never become a nuissance to you by filling your bag like before.

Item Pocket now can store 35 different objects instead of 20, and because Berries/Fruits, Apricorns, and Held Items do not take space in this pocket anymore you have much more freedom.

There's one catch, though, now you can only store 30 types of items in the PC, instead of 50. It won't be much of a problem because you don't need to store any Berry, Fruit, Apricorn, Ball, or Held Item, so I think it's a good compromise.

Another change is, as mentioned above, about wild Pokémon. Now, many different species will hold items. These range from Berries and Fruits, to sell-able Items, Apricorns and a few others.

This not only will make getting new monsters more interesting, but will also make way, way more useful the move Thief, and also the new Peck, which also has the effect of taking the item the foe holds.

· The Pokegear Map has seen a huge facelift. Not only is a bit prettier to look at, it's also more informative, with standout places or landmarks pointed out in the map. I even added different little icons to quickly see which poblated areas are Towns or Cities, just because why not.

· A new Building in Goldenrod has been opened. This place will sell to you all the Decoration items you previously would get through Mystery Gift or through your Mom.

Some of the dolls also have been changed, to offer something new, because the game now is not limited to the original Pokémon icons for the Party Menu. This is also true for the bigger dolls.

Talking about that, your Mom will no longer buy you Decoration items, and the items it buys are now much more useful and simply put, better than Super Potions and such.

· A Move Reminder has been added to the game, but unlike how Move Reminders work in vanilla games, here it will let you remember moves from a species, as many times as you want, for free.

This is because this hack, having higher difficulty than your usual Pokémon game, may require you to reshuffle your Movesets or try different strategies, and I WANT you to do so, punishing you with constant farming of Items to change Movesets so you can try different things sounds very counter-intuitive to me.

To make this even more useful, each fully evolved creature can remember a number of Moves from prior evolutionary forms too.

The types of Moves they'll retain from earlier forms are usually moves related to Stat changes, Status Effects, and Attacks that may have special traits or effects.

Basically, Pidgeot won't be able to remember Wing Attack, which is a simple, straightforward Attack move, but it will remember Quick Attack and Peck, the first one having Priority, and the second one having the new effect of stealing Items from other Pokémon.

You can find the Move Reminder in both Johto, and Kanto. In Johto, he lives with the other useful NPCs, Name Rater and Move Deleter in Goldenrod. In Kanto, you can find a similar group of NPCs in Lavender Town.

· Pokegear Rematches are now much stronger, they have more Pokémon and more varied, and often enough their Pokémon have nicknames.

To give you an idea, many Pokegear trainers will end up with teams of Lvl 80 Pokémon! So be very careful when fighting again these trainers, they may surprise you!

Also, a big change in how they work: Originally, if you didn't rematch a trainer and you kept playing, when you came back to it, it would challenge you with a very outdated team.

This is because they only get better if you fight them earlier each time. This is no how it works anymore. They upgrade their teams as you advance through the game, and you could very well meet them for the first time after battling them originally and find out they have a full team of very strong Pokémon.

This makes Pokegear rematches far, far more interesting and better paced.

Talking about rematches, I added end-game rematches to the game. Once you beat Red for the first time, a whole bunch of new battles gets unlocked: The Pokémon League levels get bumped, with some changes on their teams. Counting your Rival's rematch, levels range from 80 to 85.

All Gym Leaders end up their training, and they await you to fight in Lvl 100 Rematches. If they didn't have originally, every Leader will have a full team, and all of them have some changes to their teams.

The default trainer in the Trainer's House in Viridian City also goes from Lvl 70, to Lvl 100. And there's a few extra Lvl 100 battles that I'll let you discover, although they're not precissely hidden!

If you ask yourself why Lvl 100, well, that's to make sure you don't win by overlevelling them. Once you beat Red, you also unlock a way to Level Up your Pokémon much faster. Just check the Battle Tower once you do so, although be warned, it requires some effort!

· Buena's Password had its rewards changed, now it's more useful overall.

· Ingame Pokémon trades are different, and they ask for hard-to-get monsters, but give you very nice ones in exchange, I hope you like them.

· Bill's grandfather has seen some neat changes. His time killer of seeing Pokémon you bring to him stays, but not quite the same as it originally was. Now he'll tell you riddles that talk about a certain Pokémon, and if you guess them correctly by showing him the right species, he'll gift you some very neat Held Items for your pals! He put quite of effort in those riddles, they even rhyme!

· Fishing has been tweaked a bit.

Now the chances for Pokémon to bit are higher (who wants to press Select several times for nothing?) and the Pokémon available by fishing are much more varied, yes, even the Old Rod.

Levels are also higher. Old Rod ~10, Good Rod ~20, Super Rod ~40.

Talking about the Old Rod, now you can get it sooner, before even getting the first Medal. The Fishing Guru has moved to the gate that connectes Route 31 with Violet City. This expands which Pokémon you can get early on, and more options is better.

...Unless you're me, then it just makes it harder to choose which monsters you want to have.

· Fruit Trees now give 2 Berries/Fruits/Apricorns each day!

· On Violet, Azalea and Goldenrod cities you can find the new Berry Scouts. These green-cladded folks will sell you the basic Status-Healing Berries, in order to help accomodate you a bit on the higher difficulty of this hack compared to the usual stuff.

The price on the "Items in battle available" patches are a bit higher.

· While there's absolutely zero intention of creating a new "story" or "region", there are new maps here and there. For Example, there's an actual Viridian Forest again, with trainers, Items and such, even!

Other maps got extended a bit here and there, maybe to hide something...! Some areas also have changes made to look or feel better to explore. Others have been extended to feel more like a full place.

The Gyms also had changes. It's interesting how... "small", and simple most of them where. I expanded most, give some light puzzles to most of the ones that didn't have anything going on (I even rescued unused map movement for one of them!) to make them slightly more interesting.

Of course, please don't expect Zelda-level dungeons or anything like that. ...Although that could be a pretty cool thing as its own game!

· Because I made quite a few changes in the Types of the Pokémon, I reformatted Bill's PC a bit. Now when browsing around your monsters, you can see their types on the upper left side of the screen.

· I changed a few textbox frames, some to fix them up a bit, and two of them are entirely new. I like Frame 5 myself.

· The order of the Pockets in your Bag differs when youre outside Battle and when you're in middle of one.

This is to make the Poké Ball pocket right next to the default Item pocket, instead of being 3 pushes away to the right.

· Status Effects no longer are shown with 3 letter "words". Now they have their own little Icons, which make things cleaner both in Battle and specially on the Party menu.

· Of course, I decapitalized all the text I found. What a tedious thing...

· Smashable Rocks now can give stone-type Items alongside being a way to find certain Pokémon.

· Once you heal Moo Moo, one of the twins opens up a little shop!

She'll be able to make Berry Juice for you, and you have two ways of doing it, for convenience.

Talking about Held-healing Items, RageCandyBar have been also reworked to be eaten during battle.

They're more powerful than Gold Berries, but less than Berry Juice.

· Many things have been fixed. For example:

Daisy's Haircut was buggy and could in fact reduce Happiness, has been fixed. Magikarps in Lake of Rage were in fact smaller than normal and not bigger, and other Magikarp related bugs also existed all around. Fixed. A bug where Defense could be lowered by attacking a Substitute with a -Def move existed, now is fixed. A bug where Mirror Coat and Counter would damage foe after they used an item existed, now is fixed. A bug that made supposedly fleeing Pokémon not able to flee is fixed. Now Fast Balls are more useful. A bug that made a foe under Nightmare's effect still be hurt if it was healed with items is fixed. A bug where the HP Bar would deplete way slower than intended existed. Yes, you're reading right. The speed at which the HP Bar emptied, specially at higher levels, was not intentional, making high level battles way, way slower. This has been fixed and is much better, albeit not Gen. 3 "fast".

Other bugs and stuff has been fixed too.

There's more things I could put here, but when you spend so long doing something you start to forget each individual thing...

o-------------------------------------------------o |[10] New Kurt Balls, new ways to obtain Apricorns| o-------------------------------------------------o

Yes, every Kurt Ball has been replaced. Why?

Well, actually, for the first year and a half of "development" of this hack, Kurt Balls were pretty much as they were originally, with exception of changing one for more utility, improving their effects to make them overall better and fixing the quite-a-few glitches related to them.

But during the many tests I (and a few friends) did, all the feedback I got is that they did not use them much, if at all, because how situational they are, and because you can only get them in limited amounts.

So I decided to create a new set of Balls with very simple yet very effective effects. Each of these new Poké Balls offer a x3 Catch Multiplier if used on a certain Type of Pokémon, with each new Ball being useful for 3 different Types each.

For example, the Poké Ball made with Red Apricorns (named Red Ball to simplify things), will work best while trying to catch Fire, Fighting or Ground Pokémon! Other example would be the Pink Ball will do so with Poison, Psychic, or Fairy ones.

There's no tricks, nor complexities. If the types match, you get a stronger effect than an Ultra Ball. This makes each one way more versatile, every Apricorn as useful as the rest.

Descriptions of each new Ball points to which types are most effective.

Now, because I want people to use these Balls more often, there are a few more ways to obtain these Items. The first and most simple is getting Apricorns from Trees, from which you get two for every one each day.

Pokémon themselves also carry Apricorns, as many species hold them randomly.

But I also added a new face to Johto, a traveling monk! He's easily recognizable thanks to his sandogasa (a traditional traveling hat). Because he travels around Johto, each day you'll find him in a different spot, and each day will offer to trade 5 Apricorn of a certain color for one specific Item. The Items he ask for can be obtained from wild Pokémon, and sometimes found somewhere lying on the floor.

For Red or Green Apricorns, he asks for a Tiny Mushroom. for Blue, Yellow or Pink Apricorns, he asks for a Pearl. For White or Black Apricorns, he asks for a Stardust.

Tiny Mushrooms can be held by Pokémon such as Paras, Ledyba, Oddish, Vulpix and others. Pearls can be held by Pokémon such as Shellder, Horsea, Seadra, Octillery and Corsola. Stardust can be held by Pokémon such as Geodude, Jigglypuff, Phanpy, Staryu and Tentacool.

Of course those are just a few examples, there are more. I hope with all this, Kurt's custom Poké Balls are more useful all around.

o--------------------------------------------------------o |[11] The New and Improved Battle Tower and Trainer House| o--------------------------------------------------------o

The Battle Tower was the first time Game Freak offered anything sort of similar to a Challenge Mode inside the main games. We got Pokémon Stadium 1 and 2, which were great little things, designed to be a battle simulator, with different rules and difficulties, among other things like mini-games.

But the Battle Tower was a bit... Lacking. And HARD.

This is because, for one, the trainers you met here had a quite low variety of Pokémon, so it kinda became a bit boring (I guess Game Freak knew most Pokémon had middling stats!).

On the other hand, the monsters here sported pretty much PERFECT stats, and with strong moves along with them.

This last sentence is worth noting because in older generations, training your Pokémon to their fullest potential, A.K.A. giving them the max Stat Exp. was a total pain and a ludicriously slow process. And trying to get good DVs (old IVs) was a much, much, much worse process than that.

You couldn't make use of ANY mechanic to get Pokémon with good DVs, they were random, and unlike more recent Generations, you could not improve a Pokémon DVs by using items or such. You had no control besides soft resetting ad nauseam. If it sounds bad it's because it is.

So to have a chance not only you needed High DV monsters (pretty much impossible by normal rules), but also fully trained and with the best moves possible. And you only got ONE SINGLE TM for many moves, and Pokémon learnsets were for the most party pretty lacking if looking at them from a competitive point of view, so you were screwed there, as you may imagine.

All in all, it was often seen as unfair and just not very fun. And if you wanted to try it anyway, add to that that the rewards were laughable. Vitamins that you could buy, and didn't help you at all because they became useless quickly, they only helped for less than half of the Stat. Exp total!

But here's the thing: I love the concept! The idea of having 3 monsters each, with the same level, where only your strategy, knowdlege and adaptibility can take you out of trouble, sounds great!

Even more, maybe if you got something worth your time as a reward it could be even more fun!

That's why a good chunk of the effort of this hack was about trying to balance types, moves, Pokémon and such. And also why the Battle Tower got so many changes!

So let's list the changes:

For starters, each of the ten Levels of the Tower got their Pokémon changed, both to update the new stats, but also to give much, much needed variety to the types of monsters you would see, as originally the game sported just a small number of different species.

Instead of 7 battles per round, now you have quicker rounds of 3. This makes for a much more brisk pace, a far less frustrating event if you lose, and easier to pick up and play.

About difficulty, it should still be a good challenge, although this time, there is some balance, as now you can properly train your monsters through vitamins and fruits, TMs hold a good selection of high-Power moves and they're infinite and of course DVs/IVs are the same for everybody.

Oh, and you can remember old moves, too!

There's also two Shops available for players, in which you can buy a selection of Held Items so you can prepare yourself to challenge the Tower, or to progress through the game, as trainers will start using Held Items more and more once you reach this point in the game.

Up to that point is the basic stuff... But the Battle Tower has also opened several shops and services, and there's even a bit of a progression system built into it, too!

Whenever you participate in the Battle Tower and come out victorious, you'll be rewarded a new type of Item: Battle Medals!

You get three for each victiorous round (so each three battles).

These objects are, basically, the coin of exchange for almost any service inside the Battle Tower. They are stored in your Item Pocket and can be used in a variety of ways.

For one, they're pricey objects, each one sells for 12.000P, thus they can cover costs for training Pokémon. Selling all 3 you win nets you 36.000P, which is pretty good if you realize you can buy enough Vitamins to fully feed a Pokémon in three different Stats (or four if you use Special Atk/Def Vitamins!).

So two good rounds of Battle Tower lets you set up the Stat Exp. of a Pokémon really, really quickly! Or you can buy other stuff with it, too. But that's just a bonus compared to their real use!

In the Main Hall of the Battle Tower, a new Receptionist hangs out close to the Battle Tower's usual lady that takes you to the battles themselves. This new NPC can reward you with a Silver or Gold Trophy in exchange for a number of Battle Medals. They're shiny decorations for your room... And hold some use.

The Battle Tower has been expanded and now there are new rooms that host several services. One of them, and one I'm rather excited to manage to put in the game is a Reward Shop that exchanges Battle Medals for Special Eggs!

Do you remember the event Pokémon from the Stadium games?

They were gifted to you after accomplishing something, and in Stadium 2, they had moves they couldn't learn normally. It was a nice little thing, and always made me feel curious about Pokémon with Moves that couldn't learn normally. You know, what new strategies could I come up with and such.

This service is located in a room behind the Main Hall. There, a Receptionist will take one of your Battle Medals and will gift you an Egg with a special Pokémon that knows a unique move!

There's a total of 50 different species you can get through these Eggs, and the one you get for each medal is selected at random. And every species has the same chances, no dishonest stuff like 0.0001% to get a certain Pokémon, like a Gatcha game.

Oh, and if you're one of those, don't waste your time resetting trying to get Shiny Pokémon from these Eggs... Believe me, it won't work.

Another service is the inclusion of Move Tutors!

There are two Tutors and each one can teach 4 Moves each. Seven of those are unique to Tutors, with an Eighth Move being Toxic, a TM you get veeery late, so I added it for earlier access, as some Pokémon (like defensive ones) do benefit from it or need it to work well.

Tutor Moves can only be learnt by Fully Evolved Pokémon, and you can do so only in exchange for one Battle Medal.

The move selection is composed of Non-Damaging moves to give more utility and so they can be applied to all Pokémon in one way or another, unlike damaging moves, and I would have liked to have more, but I hit the limit before the entire game gets corrupt, so these will have to do!

Both of these features not only offer much, much better rewards for your victories in the Battle Tower, ones that not only can be enjoyed throughout the rest of the game making it more entertaining, but also give you a chance to get a few monsters earlier and gives new possibilites to make teams to challenge the Battle Tower too.

...And that's not all you can do here now!

Besides normal Move Tutors, the Battle Tower has also hired a very special NPC: The Egg Elder... Or in other words, an Egg Move Tutor!

Basically, in exchange for 3 Battle Medals, this old man can teach a Pokémon an Egg Move that its evolution line can learn through breeding with other Pokémon!

And yes, any member. Pidgeot and Pidgeotto can learn moves that a bred Pidgey could hinerit, so no worries on that front!

This way you won't longer feel like your early-game teammates (or any Pokémon for that matter) feel gimped or "lesser" because don't have this or that move only available through breeding.

In a way it's like every species has its own specific Tutor Moves!

But let's continue.

The receptionist in the main hall (the one who gives trophies) also offers a new Key Item: The Box Changer. It does what it says, it gives you the ability to switch the Box on Bill's PC anywhere you want. Just remember that you still save your game when changing boxes this way.

Once you reach the "endgame", meaning, after defeating Red, two other Receptionists will open up new services. And are neat ones!

The first one is a Rare Candy shop! You will be able to exchange one Battle Medal for 5 Rare Candies. This will let you manage the Levels of your Pokémon faster, either to battle the new Lvl 100 Rematches, or to Level up your monsters to reach the Levels required for Battle Tower Rooms.

The other, it's quite different but way more interesting too.

You see, a new group of candies capable of changing the Level of a Pokémon to a fixed one now exist! There's Candies for Levels 10, 30, 50 and 80!

No matter what Level the monster is, it will change into the Level of the Candy!

If you give a Level 30 Candy to a Level 4 Pokémon, it will become Level 30. And If you give a Level 30 Candy to a Level 82 Pokémon, it will also become Level 30!

This is mostly for a reason: To be able to use your favourite pals in any Level of the Battle Tower!

Once a Pokémon Level goes up, it no longer can access the Battle Rooms of lower Levels, and if you wanted to use a monster of a specific species you already raised, you were forced to train another one. But no longer you will need to do that!

Now any Pokémon can battle in any Battle Room by using these new Candies in combination with Rare Candies, and you can perfectly control the level of your team for this challenge while also needing a bit of a resource (Battle Medals) to make use of it.

Not to mention, Level 80 Candies can make HUGE time savers for training Pokémon for those Level 100 Rematches, specially if we're talking about bred Pokémon, or Pokémon from Battle Tower's Special Eggs!

Now, be warned, you CAN NOT make use of all these features from the beginning!

Remember those Trophies I talked about? Yeah, they do more than look nice in your room. Each one unlocks features of the Tower!

Once you win the Silver Trophy, you unlock: Move Tutors (Accessible the moment you get the Trophy). Rare Candy Shop (You need to beat Red too). Level 30 Candies (Accessible the moment you get the Trophy). Level 50 Candies (You need beat the Elite Four too).

Once you win the Gold Trophy, you unlock: Egg Move Tutor (Accessible the moment you get the Trophy). Level 80 Candy (You need to beat Red too).

So yeah, you must prove yourself and get the Trophies to use all the Battle Tower has to offer.

But don't fret! There's not really much grinding to do. You'll see that the number of Medals needed to obtain each is pretty reasonable for what they unlock.

The game does not ask for hundreds of them for each, not even close! I know how tedious is to collect Battle Points for an Item or one-time use TM back in Generation IV.

And hey, if for some reason you still need a bit of a push, you can win Battle Medals by participating on Buena's Password.

They cost 2 points, you can get one Medal every two days. It's a much slower pace than actually fighting, but it certainly adds up if you play often.

And you also get a handful of them in Kanto, a certain NPC will gift you a bunch if you manage to do something, and some Gym Leaders will gift you one too.

Lastly, also in Kanto, there's the Trainer House.

Originally it was a cool little feature in which you could battle the Pokémon Team that a friend had when you two did a Mistery Gift.

Because I don't expect people going around doing IR connections with a Romhack, the Trainer House has been changed around.

I really don't want to say much, but here's this:

Normally, you can battle a special Trainer daily in this building. But once you've beaten the strongest trainer in all the land, levels are raised, and you can take Lvl 100 battles... With the difference that the Pokémon used in these new battles change depending on the day of the week!

And if you win, you also obtain Battle Medals!

It's a little extra end-game thing alongside the other end-game additions.

o-------------------o |[12] Visual Changes| o-------------------o

Many, many visual changes have been made throughout the game to make the world a bit more cohesive, to make Pokémon look better, or to simple improve stuff here and there.

Pretty much every Pokémon not named Unown got their colors changed, for ones that look better, closer to the original colors of a particular species, and also got their sprites touched up and cleaned up.

Because the games were originally designed to be displayed on the tiny screen of a GB, the graphic artists would try and take advantage to use the 4 colors available to a Pokémon sprite to give it more details. With the advent of the GBC, now they could use colors too, and because the screen wasn't backlighted, they needed to use stronger, more saturated and often darker colors.

The issue is that nowadays these games are pretty much always played on backlighted screens that are also much, much bigger than the original Game Boy's screen, so these graphics that originally looked fine now I don't find they've aged as well with the ways we play them today.

Now, let's be fair here. This is not a criticism for the sprites or the artists. These sprites were made to be seen under a specific hardware, and they worked with what they had, and the gigantic jump in design quality from Generation 1 to Generation 2 is to be applauded.

But at the same time, I think it's fair to say that there's nothing that says they can not be revised and/or improved. That's why I took the horridly tedious job of cleaning up every single sprite (and each of their animated frames) to make them look more clean when played on bigger screens.

I also took the liberty to tweak many of the colors used for Shiny Pokémon. This is something I've seen many people point out throughout the years, and it's true that the use of color for Shiny palettes leaves quite a bit to be desired, with many Pokémon being painted with what I saw called "Puke Green", and others having really dark and simply not appealing combinations of colors that sometimes would make the sprites look worse.

Several of those examples could be Blastoise, Raichu, Aipom or Golbat, and this last one even gets its shading screwed up. Or something like Rhydon, that looks exactly like the official art, while its normal color is much darker; with Pokémon like Phanpy, Sunkern, Xatu, Scyther and others looking very similar to their default colors.

Just have in mind I'm working with the limitations of the GBC and 4 Colors per sprite, so I do what I can do, although it's surprising what nice colors the GBC can display compared to the ones they used, but of course, I'm not doing this to be seen on real hardware, so I do not have that limitation.

You can check a couple of examples in the pictures inside the RAR file for both, sprite improvements and Shiny changes.

I also improved all the Back Sprites too, to keep consistency. And some Pokémon got entirely different sprites, such as Mr. Mime, or Wigglytuff, as there was better designs elsewhere, like Mr. Mime's Silver sprite. It's so much better in my eyes. And yes, they have animations.

Oh, and a handful of Pokémon got redesigns here and there. Don't panic, the changes where made only to humanoid Pokémon to remove incoherent stuff like Machoke and Machamps' underwear or the boxing gear of Hitmonchan.

This is because as time has passed it "snowballed" into a gigantic ball of nonsense. Now, it's not that I hate Pokémon with human-made things on them, for example we could make logical arguments on why they have them in the first place.

Very early Pokémon (back when it was Capsule Monsters) had a lot of very... morally dubious stuff in it. Trainers had whips, the monsters were sold in cages and there was a pretty clear aura of animal abuse in it all. The artwork was intriguing... And a bit worrying.

When you find out about that stuff it can make sense that humans would put things to restrict their Pokémon like the "strength-reducing" underwear for the Machop tree. Who knows, maybe that's why Pokémon such as Primeape have what looks like shackles on their limbs too.

And back in generation 1, there was only ONE Hitmonchan, given to you by a human. We can simply think the objects it wears are given to it by that person, and it would make sense. Jynx is also another Pokémon which can only be received once, also given by a human and looks like one, maybe there's something going on too.

And all those examples would be fine but then they're turned into nonsense when you can find these Pokémon living in nature with all that stuff on them, or they magically appear when evolving. It just feels... dumb to me, it is something that I could see other developers adress in different ways, but here they just where completely forgotten.

Because this thing is tailored-made for me, I decided to change it.

And talking about Jynx, when the beta sprite leaked from Red & Green leaks among others, it was pretty exciting to see that this Pokémon once upon a time was very different, with more of a yeti-like design, which can be traced to japanese Kaiju tv shows, like many early Pokémon designs such as Nidoking (look up Baragon). It apparently had a name that was a very easy to see nudge at Ultraman.

You can read about it here (and also see a bit of the darker Capsule Monsters stuff I mentioned above, but you can also search for early concept art):

https://helixchamber.com/2019/02/16/what-dreams-may-come/

During the development of the hack I went so far as to create sprites to change Jynx into this Yeti-thing, but as time went on I did not feel very satisfied, it felt like a random addition that felt out of place.

I thought of going back to the original Jynx, but I ended sending the entire evolutionary line away and substituting it with another Ice Pokémon from the third Generation.

...Anyway, moving on from that, each species has its own unique icon on the menu and the overworld too, which is a great thing to give flavour to the game, and seems like a new standard for Pokémon Crystal hacks (with good reason).

The overworld also got some big changes to improve visually, and sometimes, gameplay wise. Besides visuals, some places also changed in design a bit, for a number of different reasons.

For example some Kanto cities had their design changed to look more on par with Johto, as if you compare maps between places, and Gen. 1 and 2, you'll see they kinda look off and weird, as if it didn't have the same time and effort put into it compared to Johto (they didn't).

Places like Celadon and Fuchsia City for example look rather different, although they keep their overall structure, they just got a bit more going for them.

Also there's a few improvements on sprites. For example, I drew new sprites for when you're surfing, similar to those in Gen 3 with your character over a undefined Pokémon. And yes, they're different for both the male and female player characters.

There's also HUGE CHANGES in how information is displayed in several points, with the biggest improvement being the Pokémon's Stats Page. It took me quite some time to get it to look nicer and more organized / easier to read, and I even expanded it by adding a fourth Stat Screen to show some extra "for fun" info.

The font was also changed for a thin yet wider one, to make it less empty between letters, and also more consistent with the different characters, like numbers.

Also, HUGE, HUGE thanks to HyperDriveGuy's amazing work and effort, a way of improving the scrolling and movement on the overworld to make it much more smooth and, to be blunt, less disgustingly choppy if you're used to smooth scrolls.

This change to me is like magic, it makes the game feel so much better! To be fair, finding this improvement refueled my interest in continuing this hack, so thanks again HyperDriveGuy, your work is not just great, it also really did drive this guy forward, pun no intended... Or maybe a bit.

That said, coding this introduced some bugs, some of them harmless, and others being progress-halting or even game-breaking. But fret not, as I managed to fix them all with a bit of work, some trial and error, an a lot of luck, but it was all worth it because the result is a much more fluid experience that translates into a more fun game.

Overall, the game uses much less aggressive colors too, because 99% of the people that may play this (which that would make a total of 4 to 5 individuals, probably) will do it on a lighted screen. Also there's little touches here and there.

Another tiny change that makes a bit of a difference in the long run is battle effects. Most of them on Gen 2 used the same palette: Gray tones! Well, that's not that way anymore.

Most of the effects now have color added to them, and make battles look a bit more fun. A few effects were changed visually, even. For example, Pokémon no longer see "chickens" when confused. Now Pidgeys fly around their poor heads!

The Trainer's card also got a bit prettier, specially the Badges section. Oh, I also added a third page to your Trainer's Card, showing your progress through Kanto's Gyms. You only need to press Right while on Johto's Badge screen when you get at least one Badge from Kanto!

Asymmetrical Badges also spin correctly. Funny enough, the game has coded that function in, but it is only assigned to a medal that was symetrical (Clair's badge). Sounds silly, but once you start seeing Game Freaks coding it's... Actually par for the course, in a way.

o-----------------------o |[13] Tips and Questions| o-----------------------o

Tips: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ What type of beginning you want? Each starter is going to change your early hours.

Taking in mind how things work in the Original version of this hack, Cyndaquil would make your first steps more easy than the other two, as his Fire/Rock typing would make him effective against the first two Gyms, while Chikorita's Grass/Ground typing would make it a bit harder than normal. Totodile, with its Water/Ice typing would be a medium difficulty.

But of course, the point of the game is to make more friends and balance your team! You could also ignore the starters and make your team without them. That's how I usually roll.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ You can get an Exp. Share very early on.

Once you brought the Egg to Prof. Elm, and you're ready to go away on your adventure, go back home and leave 2.000P with your mother. Once you battle once (With Youngster Joey on Route 30), she will call you, telling you she bought something for you. It can come in handy this early!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Talking about saving with your mother, she will buy many useful items, so it's in your best interest to send her money from the beginning!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ During your first few Gyms, look for people in green clothes near the towns and cities' main Sign. These people will sell to you Berries to heal Status Effects!

They will come in handy to prepare against the trainers and leaders there!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Don't waste your Fruits and Vitamins without having in mind what team you want! This becomes more important the further you go, because NPC trainers will have trained Pokémon either you've raised your own properly or not.

As you get more money, or get more fruits you'll be able to quickly prepare Pokémon, but early on you need to think ahead.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Talking about team, while I tried to make all Pokémon good and be on the same Level, that doesn't change the fact that having a balanced team can make things smoother.

Making a team of only slow, defensive Pokémon, or only quick but frail monsters can make things harder for you at certain points. Although, of course, you could just play with your favourites and tough it up. That's what I usually do.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Take advantage of Pokémon such as Meowth or Spearow, capable of learning stealing moves! They will help you to get ahold of many items, that you can either use or sell to make a profit.

Also, be aware of said Pokémon, as they may steal something you have!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Experiment! Because TMs are infinite, HM moves can be forgotten easily, and you have access to the Move Reminder freely, you're given the chance to try all sorts of combinations for a given species. Not to mention, the further you advance through the Battle Tower, the more options you'll have through Move Tutors and the Egg Elder to teach new moves, thus increasing the number of strategies for each species!

You'll only need to watch out for "Event" moves, such as the Odd Egg Pokémon, or the Special Eggs gifted in the Battle Tower, as each have a unique move and you cannot remind it if forgotten.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Check the Game Corner on Goldenrod when you arrive!

They've expanded the number of prices you can get. For one, you can get HP restoring Berries there, with Golden Berries being really useful early on, and they're not that expensive.

Even more, new species of Pokémon have been added, and they're Pokémon hard to come by during the early parts of the adventure! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Can you get every single Pokémon in the game? How can I get Mew?

Yes, of course, what would be the point of a Pokémon Hack if you couldn't get every monster available in it by yourself?

There's a lot more variety early on, both so you can get your team-making juices boil sooner, and because different people like different monsters, and having a bigger variety helps with making more people happy.

Although for Mew, you'll have to buy my exclusive and new Park Ball Plus and send it to your game through my exclusive Park Ball Plus-To-GBC Link Cable(tm), or upload it to my exclusive service PokéMaeson Hostage Holdings, previous payment of course, and then you can connect your game magically to it through Infrared connection.

Really, it just works. Wait, are you going to play this on an emulator? Tough luck then, no Mew for you.

...Nah, it's somewhere in the game, you just have to find it, like the rest.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Are you going to do more Pokémon Hacks?

Niet. Nee. Ahneo. Tidak. Nej. Nope.

...What I mean is, don't count on that. The amount of time I put into this is so big that I could have made several other things, the testing has been killing me the most. I have reached the point of burnout, I've been working on this almost on a daily basis for years. You can't imagine how many times this thing has been reworked and changed over time. Beyond that, my love for the franchise has pretty much being forced to disappear.

And even if I wanted to do more, I wouldn't be able to use any other disassembly project thanks to current DevkitPro versions being incompatible with 32 Bit systems; I'm not going to get a new computer only to do more of this, and going back to the older "Hacking Tools" is not a very welcoming idea, mostly because they're so much more limited and risky to use.

So, sorry but no, I have no intention, I have no energy, I have no passion for it anymore. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

o------------o |[13] Credits| o------------o This wouldn't exist without a lot of people involved with the Pokémon Rom hacking community.

Thanks and Credits to every single person on PRET, a community dealing with disassembly for many Pokémon games. These projects look like THE WAY going forward, how awesome they are.

Check it Here: https://github.com/pret -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks and Credits to Rangi42, and all people on places like the Skeetendo and Pokecommunity forums, and many others that shared their findings and information about ASM, going so far to make great tutorials to teach stupid people like me how to do do a whole lot of things, fix several of the bugs in the game, and many other things.

Check it here: https://github.com/pret/pokecrystal https://hax.iimarckus.org ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Oh, and of course, credits and thanks to Rangi42 again for Polished Map, an amazing utility for map editing, very complete and absolutely essential.

Check it here: https://github.com/Rangi42/polished-map -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks and Credits to the TPP Anniversary Crystal 251 Project to create the code for the Move Reminder, which I adapted to my hack. I couldn't even have known where to start with it, and my hack is only better thanks to it. Also for giving me an idea of how to make Caught Data be shown in the Stats Page. My approach to how the information is displayed is different, but again, without TPP I couldn't have know where to start.

Check it Here: https://github.com/TwitchPlaysPokemon/tppcrystal251pub -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks and Credits to HyperDriveGuy for its example and implementation of "60 Frames per second" project, which created a new way of programming a Run Button, but even more incredible, it made the scrolling of the game as you walk, run, and ride so, so much more smooth. It's amazing.

Check it here: https://github.com/hyperdriveguy/pokecrystal-60fps-example -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks to Chamber, Soloo993, Blue Emerald, Lake, Neslug and Pikachu25 for their Pokemon Icons. While I did a number of them myself, I also used a good amount made by them, and also remade some of them from their initial work, so they deserve the credits!

You can see their work here: https://github.com/pret/pokecrystal/wiki/screenshots/minidex.gif https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wiki/pret/pokecrystal/screenshots/minidex.png

Also, if you play my hack and find any of the icons or tweaked sprites I made good enough to use it yourself, go right ahead. Just give credit and you're good to go, don't even ask. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Credits and Special thanks to Vice04 for helping me test my hack over the years. May you never be assaulted by Level 168 Slowbros ever again.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Music Credits:

Credits to FroggestSpirit for "Hoenn Wild Battle" and "Hoenn Trainer Battle" themes.

You can find FroggestSpirit music in this Soundcloud link, check it out: https://soundcloud.com/froggestspirit -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Credits to Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm for "Hoenn Rival Battle", "Route 101", "Cipher Peon Battle", "X/Y Rival", "Hoenn Champion Battle" and "Shoal Cave" themes.

You can find Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm music in this Soundcloud link, check it out: https://soundcloud.com/mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm-1 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Credits to TriteHexagon for his Night Theme music for cities and his tutorial on how to implement them in the game. His ASM files and his Soundcloud can be found here:

https://pastebin.com/u/TriteHexagon https://soundcloud.com/user-930339535 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I hope I'm not forgetting anyone, it's way too much people hacking around the world!

#Pokemon #Crystal Maeson #ROM hack #Maeson #RPG

1 note · View note

recentanimenews · 4 years

Text

FEATURE: Actually Good Beach Episodes In Anime

Ahh yes, the anime beach episode. The typical "filler, fanservice episode." Truth be told, not all beach episodes are the same, and some actually have more to offer than summertime steaminess. Some beach episodes offer a nice break from the action for both the characters and the viewer. Other beach episodes provide the perfect environment to ignite the flame for those two characters who have been crushing on each other for quite some time. Finally, some beach episodes are just so wildly insane, there's no point to them other than to show off everyone's favorite characters in swimsuits and lay down the comedy — but hey — there's nothing wrong with that! With a variety of episodes to choose from, here are some suggestions for good beach episodes you shouldn't skip.

"Island Time" and "Action Time"

Assassination Classroom Episodes 17-18

Image via Hulu

Play hard, kill hard! Assassination Classroom is the perfect example of an anime beach episode that shows not all beach episodes are senseless filler, and just because you're switching up your location to a tropical paradise, doesn't mean the plot of the series is going to press pause. Ansatsu Kyōshitsu is your average school anime where the students of E class learn all your typical academic subjects. Math. Science. How to assassinate their teacher Koro Sensei before he destroys the world ... you know, normal school stuff. Season 1 Episodes 17-18 is the start of E class' summer vacation, or should I say assassination vacation to Okinawa. Now when you only have a few months to protect the Earth from certain doom, you don't really have any time to waste, and the students have to take advantage of every opportunity to terminate Koro Sensei, no matter where. While it looked like the students were enjoying their time scuba diving, hiking, and hang gliding, all of that was just for show, they were actually preparing themselves for their most ambitious and elaborate assassination attempt yet.

"Shooting Star Moratorium"

DARLING in the FRANXX Episode 7

Anime will always find a way to go to the beach, even in a post-apocalyptic world like in DARLING in the FRANXX. With the first few episodes dedicated to fulfilling missions and engaging in battles, the characters are mentally and physically exhausted from pushing their limits to connect and pilot mechs, and worrying about each others' well being. Squad 13's sole purpose and identity are based on piloting a FRANXX, and they don't understand a life apart from fighting klaxosaurs. Then comes Episode 7. Squad 13 is sent on a trip to the beach after their last battle. If only for a moment, the beach episode was a nice break, allowing them to experience pure freedom and happiness, and for the first time, let them be who they truly are ... kids. It's during this trip��Squad 13 was able to really explore their adolescent emotions, questioning the knowledge of the outside world when the boys ask Hiro about kisses and love. Squad 13's curiosity about human civilization grows when they stumble upon something unexpected. Up to this point, these characters lived such sheltered lives, it was nice seeing them form their own thoughts about humanity and life outside the plantation. Squad 13 may have left the beach, but their lives were forever changed.

"Reminiscences... of Paradise Lost"

Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions Episode 7

The Eye of the Wicked Lord will not leave you disappointed when it comes to this beach episode. What makes Season 1 Episodes 7-8 of Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions so great isn't so much the episodes themselves — although, it's pretty enjoyable in part thanks to the comical antics of frenemies Dekomori and Mori-Summer, I mean Nibutani — but how the episodes impact the future of the story. Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions starts out as a wacky series, full of fun and "magical battles," but trips to the sandy seas and Rika's hometown take the series down a more serious route where we learn about Rika's childhood. Not everyone in this series can accept Rika as chunibyo, and there's this constant battle between what's "real" and what's "fantasy." This beach episode further establishes the hardships we see the characters face for the remainder of the season. It's from here on we see more of their character growth. Needless to say, the time spent in paradise served as the turning point for the series, setting forth the emotional journey to come.

"Summer Illusion of Steel"

Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu Episode 3

Personally, I'd have to say everything about Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu as a series is fabulous, and the beach episode is no exception. Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu has a very different tone than the previous season, and what stands out about this beach episode by far are the characters and their situations. This isn't an episode where we get loads of character development, but it's an episode where we get to see more of our secondary characters' personalities, and how Sousuke socially interacts with everyone in a normal, civilian state. Sergeant Sousuke Sagara is introduced as a young military man, tasked with protecting Kaname Chidori. Coming from a strict military background, it's near impossible for Sousuke to adapt to a mundane lifestyle seeing as his instinct is to immediately use military tactics or weapons in day-to-day situations. I mean, his idea of smashing a watermelon is shooting it with a gun. It's absurd but also entertaining. Also, this episode has a bit of romance! It's obvious there's a connection between Kaname and Sousuke, but they are on two different wavelengths. The episode starts out with them on opposite ends of the spectrum. Kaname's even a bit bothered that Sousuke didn't notice her appearance at the beach. But by the end, as different as they are, and as irritated as Kaname gets with Sousuke's rash decision-making, the beach presented an opportunity for them to see just how much they care.

Bleach Episode 228

Episode 228 of Bleach is exactly what I think of when I think of the phrase, "anime beach episode." This episode, which basically has no connection to the rest of the series, is the quintessential anime filler beach episode with lots of blatant fanservice and is just pure nonsense but in the best way possible. After their pool was destroyed, the Women's Soul Reaper Association decides to hop on over to the World of the Living for a beach day, but of course, "normal" isn't in the cards for this day of fun in the sun. The episode has the ladies choosing their swimsuits, followed by the sexy beach body glam shot, but hey, let's not ignore the washboard abs. The dialogue is so random and Orihime and Rangiku get very ... creative when it comes to collecting water for their beach art competition. There's a "funeral" for Ukitake. The team takes their jobs of creating cute sand sculptures very seriously and instead of smashing watermelons, the team is tasked with breaking weird watermelon sea monsters with tentacles? This episode is all over the place, but sometimes, this style of anime beach episode is exactly what you need, and something you just can't pass up.

What are some of your favorite anime beach episodes? Let us know in the comments!

Pro hero Veronica Valencia is an anime-loving, hot sauce enthusiast! You can follow more of her work as a host, writer, and producer on Twitter and Instagram.

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: [email protected]

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

2 notes · View notes

therainroguefanfiction · 4 years

Text

🔥 ℝise Ⱥbove I̾t ◈ Chapter 014 [Social Interaction? Effort.]

📑 Table of Contents | ◂Backward

Word Count: 2,680 ☁

⊱ ────── {⋅. 🔥 .⋅} ────── ⊰

〈“All I want is a place to call my own. To mend the hearts of everyone who feels alone. You know to keep your hopes up high and your head down low.” A Day to Remember, “All I Want”〉

⊱ ────── {⋅. 🔥 .⋅} ────── ⊰

Bzzt. Bzzt. Bzzt.

I groaned, forcing my eyes open. My hand shot out, feeling around for my annoying ass phone. I had three unread messages. The first was, surprisingly, from Aizawa.

✉ ‘Careful on your way to school.’

Weird, but okay. The next was from Toshi.

✉ ‘The school entrance has been swarmed by reporters. Ignore them, please.’

Reporters? Is that a normal thing for U.A.? The last message was from Murder.

‘Ur face sux’

My eye twitched as my fingers flew across the keyboard. ‘Uve never even seen my face fool’ I stood up, throwing my phone onto the couch before getting ready for school. After grabbing a bottle of Dr. Pepper from the fridge and scarfing down a bowl of cereal, I grabbed my phone again and slipped my sneakers on. A message was waiting for me.

‘Doesnt matter ur face still sux’

I rolled my eyes, ‘Ur an idiot‘

As I got closer to U.A., I heard the chaos before I saw it. The entrance was swarmed by at least two dozen people, some holding microphones, others holding large cameras on their shoulders. They were screaming at the students as they tried to enter the school, blocking their path. Talk about being a hindrance.

“Strange. I’ve never heard of such a thing happening in the past.”

I glanced over at Fumi as he stopped beside me, arms crossed firmly over his chest. “So this ain’t a normal thing, then?”

“Not to my knowledge. Though, if I were to make a guess, I’d say this has to do with All Might being a teacher.”

“You think so?” I scratched my cheek, watching as a female reporter roughly grabbed a student’s shoulder when he ignored her. “He’s the top hero, huh? So heroes are practically celebrities that people go nuts for here… how fucking annoying.”

He tilted his head, looking at me curiously. Right, he doesn’t know anything about me not being from here.

I cleared my throat. “Should we get it over with? Don’t wanna be late… again.”

He nodded, “Yes, they will only become more aggressive over time.”

The fucking vultures spotted us before we even got close, shoving microphones into our faces and screaming over one another to be heard. The only thing I could clearly make out was the name ‘All Might’. Fumi didn’t even spare them a glanced as he headed for the gate, but a woman grabbed his arm and shoved a microphone in his face, demanding an answer.

I felt a surge of annoyance and I grabbed her wrist, my hand turning red as I increased the temperature until she let go of him. “Keep your fuckin’ hands to yourself, bitch. The fuck is wrong with you, grabbing a kid like that. Grow the fuck up and get a real job!”

She cried out in pain and frustration and I released her hand. Muttering profanities under my breath, I put my arm through Fumi’s and tugged him past the archway.

“Thank you,” Fumi spoke softly, his feathery cheeks turning a light shade of pink.

I didn’t even know it was possible for him to blush but this world keeps fucking surprising me, don’t it? “Don’t worry about it,”

“If you won’t bring All Might out, I’ll get him myself!”

I glanced over my shoulder as a loud buzzing filled the morning air. Sheets of metal shot out of the ground, blocking the entry and towering above the stone walls that surrounded the school. The woman screamed in surprise and I scoffed. “That’s what you get, invasive bitch.”

Fumi sighed, placing his hand over his beak. “Your vocabulary is quite vulgar, Jen-san.”

I grinned at him. “Pretty sure I was a fucking sailor in my past life.”

A breeze blew past us, ruffling my hair. A shiver went down my spine, but I didn’t feel cold. I felt… exposed, in danger. What is this strange sense of dread that I’m suddenly feeling? Why do I have the urge to run? I suppressed another shiver, glancing back at the metal sheeting.

“Is something wrong, Jen-san?”

I snapped out of my daze, giving Fumi a forced smile as I followed him into the school building. That feeling lingered in the back of my mind, like someone breathing down my neck.

⊱ ────── {⋅. 🔥 .⋅} ────── ⊰

“Decent work on yesterday’s combat training, you guys.” Aizawa stood at the front, his eyes sweeping the room. “I saw the video feeds and went over each of your team’s results. Bakugo – you’re talented, so don’t sulk like a child about your loss, okay?”

“Yeah, whatever.”

Pft, that bitch is totally sulking. I glanced around Big Boobs, but I could only see the back of his head since he was sitting in the same row. Truth be told, I had been a bit worried about him, but he seems to be in better spirits. His aura ain’t as dark as it was, anyway. I wonder what Midoriya said to him yesterday.

“And Midoriya – I see the only way you won the match was by messing up your arm again. Work harder! And don’t give me the excuse that you don’t have control over your quirk. That line’s already getting old. You can’t keep breaking your body while training here.” His voice softened. “But your quirk will be really useful if you can get a handle on it. So show a little urgency, huh?”

“Right!”

I snickered at his caring tone and his eyes snapped to mind. Shit, is he gonna call me out, too? I didn’t do that bad, did I? I slowly moved my body back behind Big Boobs, slumping over the desk so he couldn’t see me. I still haven’t apologized for the other day, either. Damn, I should really have a talk with him and Toshi, but effort. Emotional effort, too.

“Let’s get down to business,”

I breathed a sigh of relief.

“Your first task will decide your future.”

The classroom grew tense at his words, but I had the distinct feeling that he was trolling everyone again.

“You all need to pick a class representative.”

He said that so seriously, what the fuck. Still, the classroom started to erupt, overflowing with excitement and energy. I hate it.

“Pick me, guys! I wanna be class representative!” Do you even know what this job takes, Red?

“I’ll take it!” Sparky is definitely not smart enough for this.

“Yeah, you’re gonna need me.” Somehow I doubt that, Punk Rock.

“Someone with style should be -”

“Ooh! I’m totally the right pick!”

I guaran-fucking-tee you that Alien does that to French Fry on purpose. She’s going for the record of how many times she can interrupt him in three years. Or she just hates his guts, which I can understand.

Everyone’s voices started to overlap and I slammed my forehead onto the desk. What the fuck is wrong with these idiots, seriously? Don’t they realize how much work and responsibility that role entails? No fucking thank you. Oh, great taco god, even Bakugo wants the job. Depending on who gets the role, my school life could become hell. I’ve seen plenty of school anime to know that class reps and the student council give students hell.

“Silence, everyone! Please!” Prep shot up, his voice booming over the others. “The class representative’s duty is to lead others! It’s not something just anyone can do.” Especially not most of these dipshits. “You must first have the trust of every student in the classroom. Therefore, the most logical way to fill this position is democratically. We will hold an election to choose our leader!”

That’s a great idea and all, but… that hand of yours is raised higher than anyone else’s. It’s pretty obvious he wants the job.

“Is this really the best idea?”

“We’ve only known each other a few days, how do we know who we can trust?”

That’s a bit dramatic, isn’t it? It’s not like the class rep is gonna be trying to bring nations together or some shit.

“‘Sides, everyone will just vote for themselves.”

“Most people will, but that means whoever does receive multiple votes must truly be the most suitable person for the job. It’s the best way! Right, sir?”

Aizawa had slipped back into his sleeping bag at this point, looking bored out of his mind. “Do what you want. Just decide before my nap’s over.” And with that, he fell to the ground, hidden behind the long lectern.

I sweatdropped. For someone that can show so much care for his students, he certainly loves to act like he hates his job. I wonder… is Zawa part tsundere? Is that even a thing? It’s gotta be.

“Thank you for your trust!” Prep turned to the class, pushing up his glasses. “Everyone, please write your vote on a piece of paper and fold it!”

With a sigh, I dug through my bag for my notebook and a pen. So far, it had only been used to draw cute tacos and the sacred taco bra. I swear, I’m gonna take this fucking grudge to the grave and then come back to haunt that bitch. I tapped my pen on the paper, scanning the room.

I don’t really have a relationship with any of these people. I had that one awkward moment with Bakugo; Ochako introduced herself to me; I helped Midoriya to Granny, but he probably don’t even know about that; Peppermint likes to glare at me for no reason, but he has a really nice voice; Then there’s Fumi.

I glanced over at him, watching his pencil scratch across his paper. Did he even want this job? He hadn’t said anything about it, and he doesn’t seem to be especially social or extroverted. He’s the closest thing I got to a friend here, though.

Damn, I’m really shit at interacting with people. Now that I’m thinking about it, the only people I ever interacted with during school was Travis, and even that was limited to a few times a month, and then there’s Skye and Heather, but something tells me those two are invalid. And twats. They’re definitely twats.

Maybe I should make more of an effort to get to know these people, but that sounds like a serious pain in the ass. Most of these people annoy me, anyway, and the only one that’s made an effort with me is Ochako and Punk Rock, but I blew her off.

“I will collect the votes now!”

Well, shit. I stared at the blank piece of paper and hummed thoughtfully. Oh… a grin split my lips as an idea popped into my head. I quickly scribbled down the name and balled the paper up, tossing it at Prep as he walked by. After collecting them all, he headed to the front of the room and started to calculate the results, writing names and numbers on the board. There were a lot of single votes. Guess people really did vote for themselves. Losers~

“Who voted for Aizawa-sensei?!”

“Pffft,” I bit my lip hard to stop from laughing, but his offended tone really fucking got me, man. Big Boobs and Peppermint turned to look at me, one with a weird expression, the other glaring in annoyance.

Prep slammed his hand on the lectern repeatedly. “This is an important decision, please take this seriously, Winchester!”

“Che. It ain’t that serious, fam, take a chill pill.” I huffed, leaning back in my chair. “One vote ain’t gonna make a difference.”

“Every vote matters!”

“For fuck’s sake, fine.” I scratched my cheek, glancing at the students as they looked back at me, some snickering. “I vote for Fumi,”

“Fumikage Tokoyami,” Prep nodded in satisfaction, turning to the board to add the vote. I caught Fumi’s eye and he smiled, sending me a nod.

Thankfully, I got zero votes.

Midoriya was in the lead with three votes, while Big Boobs, Momo Yaoyorozu, got two. Man, that name is hard for me to say, I hate it.

“How did I get three votes?!”

“Okay, you idiots!” Bakugo shot up from his seat, angrily slamming his hands on the surface of the desk. “Who voted for ’em?!”

“What, did you honestly think anyone was gonna vote for you?”

I mean, I thought about it doing it just for shits and giggles, but the risk that he would win, no matter how low, prevented me from doing so. Imagining that loud ass as the class rep makes my head hurt.

“What did you just say?!”

Prep sat down at his desk, his body shaking. “Zero votes… I feared this might happen, but I can’t argue with the system I chose!”

“So you voted for someone else, huh?” Yaoy… what was it again? I squinted at the board, eyes narrowed at her last name. Fuck it! I’m calling her Momo whether she likes it or not.

“But you know it was best to vote for yourself, right?” Sumo asked. “What were you trying to prove here, Iida?”

Iida, huh? I leaned back in my chair, folding my hands behind my head. I don’t know, I like the name ‘Prep’ better, honestly.

Midoriya stood up, his whole body shaking like a leaf as he headed to the front of the room, Momo standing beside him.

“Alright, the class rep is Midoriya. And our deputy is Yaoyorozu.”

“R-Really? It’s not a mistake?” Midoriya squeaked in disbelief. He’s such a timid little shit. How did someone with such little self-confidence become All Might’s successor? Makes no sense to me.

“This might not be so bad!”

“Yeah, I can get behind Midoriya, I guess.”

“Yaoyorozu was totally on top of it when it came to our training results.”

I glanced out the window at the azure sky, tuning out the class. That sense of dread is getting stronger and it’s making my fucking stomach turn. I guess I can add fucking paranoia to my list of issues.

⊱ ────── {⋅. 🔥 .⋅} ────── ⊰

Lunch arrived and students poured out of their classrooms toward the cafeteria. I hung back, not wanting to get stuck in the crowd of hungry teenagers.

“Hey, Winchester!”

I paused, glancing behind me. “Oh. Hey Rin.”

He gave me a bright smile when he finally caught up and we started down the hall. “I’ve been trying to find the right time to say hi. I’m glad you passed the exam!”

I grunted, shoving my hands into my pockets. “I only passed because of you,”

“What do you mean?”

“I didn’t know you were there,” I muttered with a shrug, looking away from him. “I just wanted to test my power, I completely forgot about the exam and about getting points. I only got in because they thought I saved you.”

He nudged my arm, smiling when I looked at him. “Whether you knew I was there or not, you did save me, but that’s not important. We both got in, right?”

“Guess you got a point. Thanks for saving me, by the way.”

He nodded. “You’re in 1-A, right?”

“Yeah, what about you?”

“1-B and guess who’s in my class~”

My brow furrowed as I thought back to the exam. “Uhh… wait, not that blonde idiot.”

“Yup! His name is Neito Monoma and he’s certainly an interesting character.”

I opened my mouth to respond, but a loud yell from in front of us stopped me. “Get the fuck outta my way, Deku!”

“You guys got the arrogant prick, Monoma. We got the loud chihuahua, Bakugo.” I commented, sending him a blank look.

Rin chuckled as he watched the blonde stomping away from Midoriya. “I think we’re a bit better off. But only a little bit.”

“Probably are. My class is fucking nuts.”

“Sounds fun,” He paused for a moment, tilting his head. “Do you mind if I join you for lunch today?”

“Hmm, sure.” I usually just sit at the end of the table, listening to my classmates ramble on and argue about stupid shit. Wait… if he sits with me that means I have to put in the effort to try and carry on a conversation with him.

Fuck my life.

⊱ ────── {⋅. 🔥 .⋅} ────── ⊰

▸ Forward

📜 Read more by checking out my masterlist 📜

If you enjoy my writing, please considering tipping me on Kofi or Cashapp. Every little bit helps and means a lot, thank you so much ^~^)/ If you can’t afford to do so, that’s okay, too, thanks for reading!

#rise above it #series #bnha #mha #boku no hero academia #my hero academia #writing #creative writing #writeblr #scenario #scenarios #anime scenarios #anime scenario #fanfiction #fanfic #fanfics #anime fanfic #anime fanfics #anime

2 notes · View notes

londonbestescaperooms · 4 years

Text

Want A Great Experience At The Best Escape Rooms London? Try Out These Things!

Thanks to their interesting puzzles, fun themes, and engaging atmosphere, it’s no surprise that the best escape rooms London are gaining more popularity. Players can immerse themselves in exciting fictional scenarios, roleplaying as detectives, kidnap victims, special agents, and more as they try to find the clues needed to accomplish their goal. Even better is that the more escape rooms you participate in, the better you’ll be at solving the puzzles.

Whether you’re an experienced escape room enthusiast or just a casual player, there are many things you can do to get the game to the fullest. Here are some of the best pieces of advice you can follow for your escape room adventure

Get lots of sleep the night before

In order to notice subtle clues and work out what needs to be done to get your team out of the room, you’re going to need to be on top form. If you want to be able to coordinate properly with your team, notice all the important clues, and generally do your best, you need to get proper rest before the game. Getting a good night’s sleep will ensure that you’re mentally sharp and ready to take on the escape game challenge.

Bring a watch with you

A wristwatch is potentially the only thing you’re allowed to bring into an escape room and use during the game. It will let you keep an eye out for exactly how much time is left, which is very helpful when the game does not provide a clock, or only provides a clock in one of the rooms. If your watch can glow in the dark, that’s even better. This function can let you shine a light on some dimly lit areas of the room.

Don’t worry too much about losing

Some of the most satisfying escape rooms were ones where you failed to escape. The game is a lot more fun when you solve puzzles genuinely and don’t rush chaotically to finish the game. The best escape rooms London can be really nerve-wracking and difficult, but once you manage to solve them, it will be extremely satisfying. Enjoy yourselves, and embrace the game and your friends, not the outcome, and you will have lots of fun!

Work fast and ask for hints immediately

Usually, participants are given an hour to escape the room. This might seem like plenty of time at first, but this false sense of security might make you dawdle early on. By the time people realise what kind of trouble they're in, it's usually way too late, and the unsolved clues have piled up.

The same thing applies to hints. Often, people will refuse to ask for their hint because they think it feels like cheating. They will usually hold off on asking for a hint until the last minute, and this won’t do them any good by then as it will already be too late. Don't let pride get the best of you. It's natural to want to solve the room like a true Sherlock, but teams that win act more like Columbo: they ask questions.

Divide and conquer

As soon as the game begins, divide the room into different sections and assign people to thoroughly search for clues inside. This helps make sure that the room is thoroughly inspected, and helps prevent the case where certain areas are overlooked, and certain other areas are repetitively combed over.

With the limited time, you have to find things it’s best to do as much as possible. The more things you are all doing or looking at, the better. If everyone looks at the same thing, then you’re leaving other potential clues and solutions untouched while the clock is ticking. Also, if one or two of you are feeling stuck on a puzzle, get someone else to take over. They might see something you didn’t.

Tell everyone what you find

In the early stages of the activity, you should focus more on finding things instead of solving them. The more you just call out what you're seeing, the more you're feeding data to the hive mind so that everyone's working from the same pool of knowledge. Otherwise, you're likely to find yourself in a situation where you and your team members are focusing on totally different things and not working together.

Attending the best escape rooms London based is one of the best ways to spend your time, since you’ll get an immersive, engaging, and exciting experience no matter who you are. Regardless if you’re looking for a fun family activity, team building event, or social gathering, the complex puzzles and unmatched atmosphere will surely satisfy everyone involved. If you keep the tips listed above in mind, you’re guaranteed to make the most out of the game. And who knows? Maybe following some of these things might be the key to your success.

#escape room London #best escape rooms London #fun activities in London #team building activities London #team building London #escape game London

1 note · View note

soveryanon · 5 years

Text

Reviewing time for MAG136!

- In a very interesting way for an episode dealing with The Web (both as an active force outside of the Institute and… very close to it: Annabelle sending Alison there, Jon being unable to focus on his lighter), this episode dealt, in a lot of small ways, with the idea that members of the Archives team are… regaining control of themselves and their lives?

Melanie is attempting therapy! She’s cautious about it but she’s taking measures to try and get better, she’s putting efforts into it, she wants to feel better!

(MAG136) ARCHIVIST: If you don’t mind me asking, [STATIC:] where are you off to…? MELANIE: Therapy. [STATIC ENDS] … Wait. ARCHIVIST: Oh…! Oh, God, Melanie, I’m, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to, uh… MELANIE: [EXASPERATED SIGH] It’s fine. I would probably have told you eventually, anyway. ARCHIVIST: Even so, I shouldn’t have– MELANIE: Just… forget it. [SILENCE] ARCHIVIST: [SIGH] It’s good, though. I–I’m glad you’re getting help. MELANIE: Yes, well. We’ll see. There’s a… a lot of crap therapists out there. ARCHIVIST: I guess. Still, it–it is a good step.

Jon is right on this and… there was already something hopeful in the way that Melanie didn’t explode at Jon for accidentally compelling her; she wasn’t pleased by it but… she could have shut the conversation down. Instead, she tried to minimise a little what Jon had done and asserted her boundaries, which she did again with the therapist, but without cutting either of them out. She’s clearly not in the bestest of places, was uncomfortable with the topic… but I’m so glad and proud of her for taking this “step”, for deciding that she had to deal with her demons – possibly from way before she even came to the Institute for the first time?

Meanwhile: it wasn’t so much about Jon’s actions but about what he finally admitted – that he’s aware that he made a choice, that he’s actually had… a very twisted and casually self-destructive way of facing the coffin and of considering his own life since he’s woken up:

It has been a process for Jon, too; the theme of “choice” has been sneakily prevalent in season 4 so far, following up on season 3:

(MAG087) Georgie: [SIGH] Look I’ve, I’ve got work to do. You listen, or don’t listen, or cross-record, or whatever you want, just… just think about it first, okay? You can choose to leave it alone. [DOOR CLOSES] ARCHIVIST: [SIGH] [TAPE PLAYER IS LOADED] [CLICK]

(MAG092) ARCHIVIST: I never chose this! ELIAS: You never wanted this, no. But I’m afraid you absolutely did choose it. In a hundred ways, at a hundred thresholds, you pressed on. You sought knowledge relentlessly, and you always chose to see. Our world is made of choices, Jon, and very rarely do we truly know what any of them mean, but we make them nonetheless.

(MAG111) GERRY: Thing is, it’s harder than it looks. What’s out there doesn’t care about blood. […] But they care about your choices, your fears.

(MAG117) ARCHIVIST: [SIGH] You– you know what, no. I’m… I’m done with that. No more paranoia. It’s almost got me killed more than once, and… Georgie was right. If I am… slipping, then I need people I can trust. And I… I don’t think that can happen naturally for me an–anymore, so… I’m making a decision. I trust them. All of them. E– except Elias, obviously, that’s not– I mean…

(MAG121) OLIVER: The thing is, Jon, right now, you have a choice. You’ve put it off for a long time; but it’s trapping you here. You’re not quite human enough to die, but – still too human to survive. You’re… balanced on an edge where The End can’t touch you – but you can’t escape him. I made a choice. We all made choices; now you have to– […] Make your choice, Jon.

(MAG132) DAISY: I don’t want t–to be a s–sadistic predator again… I–I don’t want to… hobble around, like some pathetic, wounded prey either… I don’t know which would be worse. And I’m sc–scared, now, that I’ll never get the choice… ARCHIVIST: One thing I’ve learned, Daisy, is that we all get a choice. Even if it doesn’t feel like one.

(MAG134) PETER: … Look. I’m not gonna pressure you into doing anything you don’t want to. It won’t even work unless you’re willing to commit.

(MAG136) DAISY: Get over yourself! You’re always talking about choices – we all made ours. Now I’m making the choice… to get some drinks in. Coming?

So, although his memories are still missing and he might not remember Oliver either (Jon has never mentioned him so far, and given how Jude had been able to kick Jon out of her dreams, he might have done the same thing despite giving a live-statement), Jon is aware that he made a decision – maybe without knowing in the details what was at stake (there could be a few things we could still scream at Elias in MAG092 re: informed consent :w), but he was faced with two options and elected one over the other. It has its own shades of tragic undertones and heartbreak, but it’s also… his own choice, this time around, and still more controlled than “sign papers to become Head Archivist of an eccentric Institute (sells your soul to a Fear god that you’ll now have to feed through other people’s terrors or your own)”. By pushing and questioning Jon, Daisy had been able to make him say what he chose to do (and as seen above, why), and his handling of the coffin was one of such things. Even if, indeed, the Web sent him in that direction (leaving MAG131’s tape for him, maybe manipulating him to some extent through the lighter), Jon, like Martin, is still appropriating what they did as being his own decision:

(MAG134) PETER: What does puzzle me, though, and I mean that genuinely, is… why you were piling tape recorders onto the coffin, while Jon was in there. [PAUSE] It’s a question, Martin, it’s– it’s not an accusation. MARTIN: I don’t know. And I just… felt like it might help. He’s always recording, I thought… it–it might help him… find his way out. PETER: Interesting. Were you compelled? MARTIN: [SULLEN] … I don’t know. … M–maybe? I–I, I definitely wanted to do it… PETER: But? MARTIN: I’m… I’m not sure where the idea came from.

(MAG136) ARCHIVIST: I… [SIGH] I don’t feel like I’m exactly in the best place to judge the… intersection [CHUCKLE] between free will and humanity. Still trying to figure that out myself. [SILENCE] DAISY: Jon… when you went into the coffin. Was it you choosing to do that? Did you actually think you could save me, or was… that something telling you to do it? [SILENCE] ARCHIVIST: It was me. I was… drawn to it, I’ll admit, but it was my decision.

Jon agreeing to Daisy’s proposition to go get drinks may also be going in his own right direction – back in season 1, Jon would have probably shrugged off the offer? But as Helen told him, “people change” and right there, Jon had a micro-choice; he could have refused and, still, after a small hesitation, decided to go along with it instead.

Of course, when it comes to reclaiming their life back in this episode, the most striking was Daisy; Daisy, who had already explained who she wanted to be (MAG132: “I d–, I don’t… I don’t know who I am without, without the chase… I just know… that I… I don’t like who I was back outside. I don’t want to be her again. I want… to be… better…”) and who, so far, has managed to stick to that; Daisy, who handles herself as best as she can even (especially!) though it requires other people because she wants to avoid being alone for PTSD reasons:

(MAG133) [CLICK–] DAISY: You sure? ARCHIVIST: No, uh, it’s, hum. It’s fine. DAISY: It’s just… Basira’s busy.

(MAG136) MELANIE: Well… uhm. Daisy’s been, erm… I’ve been keeping her company. Er, while… while Basira’s busy. She’s, er… ARCHIVIST: Oh, no, I, uh… I–I know. […] DAISY: [QUICKLY] You’re not babysitting me, alright?! I know that’s what the others think, sometimes, but… that’s not it. I just… don’t like… being on my own if I can help it. You know. Flashbacks, panic attacks, the usual. Just trying to avoid it if I can. ARCHIVIST: I know, Daisy, I–I do. It’s hard. DAISY: Yeah, well. Don’t let me get in your way.

There is currently something so strong in what we’re seeing of Daisy? In the way she’s aware of her limitations and manages to prevent the conditions leading to potential breakdowns? I feel like she’s following the same logic as when we knew her as a Hunter: when she was seeing a problem, she would just… neutralise it. Hence beating up Mike, hence immediately going for Jon’s voicebox; hence her Cold Factual Violence overall against spooks/vampires/“monsters” of various kinds. Basira had said that she liked Daisy because she was “solid”, because of her certainty, and this is still the same Daisy – though not hurting others anymore! And she pulled an incredible power move:

(MAG136) ARCHIVIST: It, uh… Hm. Is, uh… Weird question, but… I… [EXHALE] I haven’t seen you in my dreams? The last couple of weeks? DAISY: … Oh, uh, no. I… I work here, now. I figured it seems to protect the others, so… ARCHIVIST: Oh. Right, so… Wait, did you talk to Lukas, or…? DAISY: [CHUCKLE] Broke into Elias’s old office. Found an employment contract; filled it in, and signed it. ARCHIVIST: And that worked. DAISY: Seems so. ARCHIVIST: And you’re not… worried about… DAISY: Basira’s trapped here. So are you. Not gonna be going anywhere anyway. ARCHIVIST: … I suppose not. So… no more dreams. DAISY: Not of you and your weird eyes. Just the coffin. ARCHIVIST: Is that better…? DAISY: ’T’s mine. ARCHIVIST: … right.

She weaponised what they have gathered, through experiences and guesses, to get free of the dreams she hated! It’s not absolutely clear whether she signed to become an Archival assistant or a regular staff member; on the one hand, Jon’s concern hints towards archival assistant, since as far as we know, the Archives seemed to be their own business, including trapping their staff (though damn, I remembered MAG102 being more explicit on the matter but: actually, no, since Martin saying that regular crew are able to quit was immediately followed by “Hannah just left to have her baby, though.”: was that “though” a “by the way” or a way to tamper what he had just said, and this is the most they can do, but still not quite quit…?); on the other hand, Daisy hasn’t specified what it was.

Anyway: it’s such a POWERFUL MOVE to… 1°) break into Elias’s office, 2°) just sign herself up like that?, 3°) ESPECIALLY given how Elias had initially coerced Basira into signing herself up to avoid turning the scene into a bloodbath, even before being told of the repercussions (that she couldn’t quit, that Elias dying meant that they would die too). What Daisy did sound like a direct answer to MAG092, and I’m loving it, loving that Daisy… just used what they had learnt of the dreams’ mechanism to protect herself and chose to bind herself to the Institute while exactly knowing what it meant, without anything blackmailing her into it. Elias hadn’t bothered to tie her down for who she was? Watch as she’ll decide that for herself.

This is also the first person of Extended Team Archive to… have given herself to The Eye fully knowing what she was doing. You better be grateful for the gesture, Big Eyeball!!! The others had to be misled or coerced into serving you, and Daisy, of all people, chose to give herself to you!!!

(- If Daisy became an Archive Assistant: I hope that she’ll get to read a statement at some point? Well, technically, best thing would be for nobody to read a statement but. Martin did it a few times (and read one in MAG134!), Tim ALMOST did it, Melanie did it twice, Basira did it once… it’s a bit of a Tradition. (And who wouldn’t want to hear Fay Roberts for almost an entire episode outside of Daisy’s own live-statements?! I’m a simple woman, okay.))

- I’m really curious about how Elias and Daisy would interact, now. Would it be biting/tense/mutual snarling, or taunting about Daisy still being a “rabid dog” at heart…? Or precisely not anymore: because Daisy acknowledged in front of Jon that Elias had not been that off about her (MAG132: “Did you ever hear the, the story Elias told me? About what I did. How I am… He, he didn’t get a detail wrong. The Hunt… Hunger was in me all my life.”)…? I also… get the feeling that maybe, the current Daisy might be perceiving her encounter with the Institute as a chance, since it ultimately led to her snapping out of the Hunt (though she would have reasons to want to break Elias’s arm for the fact that Basira got trapped because of him).

- I wonder if Martin saw Daisy’s name pop up amongst the new staff members? Or if Peter just told him right away what she had done? Is Daisy now actually getting a salary from the Institute? (I’m not sure that Elias “We really don’t have the budget for that” (MAG067) had even bothered to pay her when he was using her ~services~ so… drain Peter’s money, Daisy, gogogo!! And Use Your Powers to give everyone in Team Archive a raise, Martin :w)

- The fact that Daisy said that she had broken into “Elias’s old office”… Well, Elias’s office had been characterised by the clock in the background; since we could hear one in MAG126, I was assuming that Martin and Peter were in there (especially since Martin was doing Peter’s directorial work) but had noticed that there was no such sound in MAG134. Were they outside of the Institute? Or has Martin stopped working in Elias’s office since Daisy had forcefully gone inside of it, deeming it unsafe?

- Anyway: Jon-Melanie-Daisy seem to be creating an awkward support network, right now, and it’s ADORABLE and good (+ extra cookies to Melanie for seeking therapy!). They still have trouble talking: there were sooo many pauses and silences when Melanie was in front of Jon; Daisy is still not… super at ease speaking about how she feels (while she’s way chiller when it comes to describing how she broke into Elias’s office. Daisy, ilu.); Jon searched for his words a bit to describe how he was perceiving himself at the moment… But they’re trying and still getting those words out and explaining themselves to each other a bit. And it’s PRECIOUS, godsdamnit.

- ALRIGHT, NOW TO DIVE RIGHT INTO THE SILK-STICHED MEAT OF THIS EPISODE:

(MAG111) GERRY: Nice lighter. You a spider freak, then? ARCHIVIST: What? Oh! Er, no. I-I never really, uh… I never really thought of it. I–I’m Jon. I’m with the Magnus Institute.

(MAG136) DAISY: [SCOFF] She’s… Web. Spider’s sneaky like that. [PAUSE] Like that lighter you’re always using. Where’d you get that? ARCHIVIST: Mm. [STATIC] Good point. We should keep our eyes open. Anyway, how’s Basira doing?

………………. It was impossible to tell whether or not there was static back in MAG111 (at least for me: there was a constant static-y background due to Gerry being there), but here, yep, there was some. So something is DEFINITELY preventing Jon from lingering too much on the lighter (like an oily surface his attention keeps slipping on?) and what it means. … And apparently, he still has it with him – I had wondered if he hadn’t lent it to Martin for MAG118’s plan, burning statements? I mean, maybe he did and the lighter found its way back to Jon anyway, or it was still with Jon during the Wax Museum explosion, but Jon still has it with him at the moment.

How many silken strings have tied around Jon’s body and head without him noticing, I wonder… the episode was about a “Puppeteer”, after all (or… maybe a bit more about the puppets.)

……………….. Sounds like Jon is back to smoking again, too, given Daisy’s comment? And Jon’s smoking habits have been Smelling Like Web Spirit: he had apparently stopped around the time he began to work at the Institute (since he told Leitner he had “been quit for five years now” in MAG080, in February 2017); Elias had ranted about Jon smoking in MAG039 (“He’s not smoking again, is he?”: was it because he knew of Jon’s smoker history? Or because Jon had gone back to… smoking a lot since he discovered that the lighter had been delivered to him in MAG036?); Tim implied that he might have noticed that Jon had been smoking again recently at the end of season 2 (MAG079: “he’s going to do something, and it’s going to be bad. And I don’t mean like ‘sneaking a cigarette’ bad. Like properly bad.”); Jon ~conveniently~ felt the urge to smoke a cigarette and left Leitner alone to face his death (Elias.) in MAG080 (Jon minimised it at the time, but… it means that he had cigarettes on him.); and after that, we only got the mention from Daisy digging through his stuff in MAG091, and him offering Gerry a cigarette in MAG111.

One thing that makes me Hysterical every time:

(MAG091) DAISY: One wallet, brown leather, no cash. One packet cigarettes, Silk Cut. One lighter, gold, spiderweb design.

OF ALL THINGS, JON SMOKES “SILK CUT”

“SILK

CUT”

COME ON, SPIDER, COULD YOU TRY TO BE A BIT SUBTLE WITH THAT BOY?!

- Actual footage of Jon forgetting about his lighter (ft. Daisy):

- I find it very interesting that Daisy was able to notice the lighter and Jon’s lack of oversight about it since… when Daisy was introduced through Basira’s words, Basira explained that Daisy had first been sectioned over a Spider-related case:

(MAG043) BASIRA: […] Daisy was sectioned years before I was even on the force. She’s never been that forthcoming about any of her own experiences. Takes Section 31 very seriously. The most I could get out of her was that she was originally sectioned for something she referred to as “spider husks”. The way she described it, it sounded like she’d found a bunch of shells. The sort crabs leave behind when they grow, but… I could never figure out if it was meant to be the husks of people-sized spiders, or the spider-like husks of people? And Daisy never seemed like she wanted to clarify. I’m sure she mentioned vampires once as well, but… I think she was joking. … Probably. … Maybe…

We have learned, since then, that it wasn’t exactly true: Daisy’s first section’d case had to do with the coffin, but Daisy also told Jon that only her superior had known about it prior to Jon's pulling the story out of her (MAG061). So Basira couldn’t have known that Daisy had lied or dodged to tell the truth, but still… one of Daisy’s first cases had to do with Spiders.

(And Daisy has been ~taking care~ of the vampires, too, which are known for their mind-controlling powers. When Trevor had met a Spider-Woman, he had mentioned that his experience with vampires had probably helped him to identify that the compulsion to get out and get high wasn’t his own… So it seems like Hunters might have a little immunity or at least resistance to manipulation. I’m EVEN MORE RELIEVED that Jon got Daisy back.)

(… And afraid, oh so afraid for Daisy’s life-expectancy, since she’s already so important when it comes to potentially dealing with threats, and being a presence which allows the Archive team to re-form a bit.)

- MAG110 and MAG136 are quite good to listen to one after another, besides Neil Lagorio’s existence – they dealt with the same movie-making world, of Web apparently, and there were some tiny things which were quite interesting? Both statements were given by women isolated from their peers and put into a situation they probably wouldn’t have picked if they’d been allowed to retain more options and Choices:

(MAG110, Alexia Crawley) “I’d held some ambitions about directing myself one day, but it soon became obvious that that wasn’t going to happen. Maybe if I’d got a feature under my belt before I was outed as trans, it might have been different, but… as it was, this revelation burned too many bridges, and when the dust had settled, it was made abundantly clear to me that I was never going to get a movie of my own. And it was either cinematography, or nothing. So I stayed.”

(MAG136, Alison Killala) “He even kept in contact when I left to have my baby. It wasn’t planned […]. Anyway, even once I’d sorted out childcare arrangements, I found myself… more and more unwelcome in the industry. It wasn’t that people weren’t willing to hire me – by this point I had a hell of a special effects resumé – but the hours you were expected to be working, the way shoots were set up, the culture of drinking, networking… none of it was really possible alongside parenting.”

There was, also, the obvious theme of… the fictions reshaping reality, or becoming a reality: Dexter was obsessed with a Spider that seemed to only exist in his dream of a story, and he recreated it on the set in the end. Neil managed to finally recreate his last story with himself:

(MAG136, Alison Killala) “he would twist his fingers into all sort of bizarre, intricate shapes, until I could see the strings flowing over them… ‘We made them dance,’ he would say, wonder and nostalgia in his voice. ‘Oh… how we made them dance.’ […] He told me later his… greatest regret was not being able to finish his final film. An arthouse piece simply titled Dancer. He never explained what it was about, nor do I think it actually… came out in the end. […] And as I walked away from Neil, the last time I saw him alive… he was dancing. The cables shifting, and moving him in a graceful, sweeping ballet. And he was crying with joy.”

On the theme of “smoking” as related to the Web, it’s ~curious~ to note that it was also present in MAG110 and MAG136’s statements, and not in moderation either:

(MAG110, Alexia Crawley) “[Brandon Alma] took to the role immediately, with a gravity and a weariness that I don’t think could have been entirely feigned. He was the only one who didn’t seem excited by the movie, and spent his off-hours smoking and reading quietly in one of the trailers.” (MAG136, Alison Killala) “I had to fight every instinct inside me, everything that wanted to burst out in admiration for his work and his… profound effect on my life. But instead I chain-smoked and laughed, trying my best to come across as my hero’s peer…!”

So, hum. Smoking hadn’t been exclusively a Web-thing before (there was of course the Anglerfish’s baiting, and its shells smoking to disguise the odour of death), but I still find that noticeable.

- There is an OBVIOUS problem with the timeline of Neil’s death, from MAG110 and MAG136’s given mentions:

(MAG110) MARTIN: Martin Blackwood, archival assistant at the Magnus Institute, recording statement number 0121403. Statement of Alexia Crawley, given March 14th, 2012. (MAG110, Alexia Crawley) It seems like a sick cosmic joke that that was the day the press broke the news of Neil Lagorio’s death. Half an hour after the cast walked into that building, one of the grips stumbled across the news story whilst idly checking his phone. Lagorio had been privately suffering from Parkinson’s for almost a decade, and had been bedridden in his Connecticut home for the last year.

(MAG136) ARCHIVIST: Statement of Alison Killala, regarding her time as friend and carer to special effects artist Neil Lagorio. Original statement given 1st December, 2012. Audio recording by Jonathan Sims, the Archivist. (MAG136, Alison Killala) “It was almost six months ago when the woman came to our door. […] I don’t know how long I was watching those films. They don’t… It was hard to keep track of time. According to my daughter, I was missing for five months. When Annabelle let me out, Neil was dead. […] She told me to come here. She told me to give them to you. I resisted for some time, but I’m done now. She’s won. And I’d… very much like to go home.”

If Annabelle visited Neil’s house six months before Alison gave her statement, it should have been in June; while Alexia’s statement put Neil’s death before March (presumably February, since Martin added as part of the follow-up that “Apparently, over the last five years, every February, a corpse is found washed up on Redondo Beach.”). It’s not clear either if Alison lived in the UK but she did mention the “UK press” at some point; while according to the official version given by Alexia, Neil had lived and died in the US.

So what happened…? Has someone in the Archives been purposely messing up with the dates regarding The Web…? Were there two “Neil Lagorio”s towards the end…? Did The Web messed up the files a bit through someone? (Noticeable, too: Jon who ~listens to all the tapes~ didn’t mention the echoes with MAG110’s statement, which was read by Martin. Did he listen to this one, or had the tape… disappeared when he went back?)

(I know that the popular theory regarding MAG114’s statement and what was happening in Hill Top Road is “parallel worlds”, but it always sounded textbook Spiral to me – we also have been demonstrations of entities rewriting reality to erase people or twist people’s memories, see the Not!Them and what happened to the statement-giver’s husband in MAG038. But I’m a bit short on explanations regarding the obvious problem of timeline in MAG110 and MAG136……………..)

- Relistening to MAG110, I just realized that someone had completely flown under my radar: Brandon (Brendon?) Alma, the main actor, who… was the one controlling the story and the set, actually?!

(MAG110, Alexia Crawley) “Most impressive to me though, was a guy named [Brandon Alma]. He was playing the closest thing the film had to a protagonist, a… homeless ex-Methodist minister who’d found himself on the island by chance and served as a connecting thread, wandering between the scenes and the vignettes of the inhabitants, after each ended with their march to the Spider. Brandon took to the role immediately, with a gravity and a weariness that I don’t think could have been entirely feigned. He was the only one who didn’t seem excited by the movie, and spent his off-hours smoking and reading quietly in one of the trailers. It was a shame because, for whatever reason, he also seemed to be the only one that Dexter would listen to. I only saw them talking once or twice but every time, Dexter would be wrapped, nodding at… whatever Brandon might have to say. […] [Dexter] then gathered up the cast and, with Brandon leading them, took them through a small door in the side of the workshop. And they disappeared inside.”

He was playing a character who was the “CONNECTING THREAD” between people getting eaten by the spider, Dexter “would be WRAPPED” and agreeing to everything Brandon told him, and Brandon was the one to lead the actors into the workshop where they were all killed/consumed/drunk hollow, UHUHUHUH. Maybe the book that Dexter had found wasn’t actually the (only?) thing that messed up everything? Or did Brandon come from the book? Was he actually the spider himself, or just there to ensure that the spider would emerge and be fed…?

(MAG110, Alexia Crawley) “I don’t know when he first mentioned his spider film. It didn’t… bubble out into a full obsession until two years ago, but I know he talked about it plenty before that. […] [蜘蛛が食べている] (Kumo ga tabeteiru). I think that was the name, anyway, something like that; he was normally slurring quite badly when he said it. He thought it translated to “The Spiders That Devour” but a Japanese friend once told me it was actually closer to just “Spiders Are Eating”. According to Dexter, Kumo was an old tokusatsu movie which, he believed, had come out sometime in the mid-to-late sixties. It was about a Spider – just the one, despite the title – that grew to a colossal size and terrorized a small unnamed island off the coast of Kagoshima. What struck him about it, though, was the utter absence of anything resembling a hero or a protagonist. No one fought against the monster, and although there were vignettes in the lives of those under the Spider’s shadow, they all ended the exact same way – with the character in question marching slowly, and calmly, into its waiting jaws.”

(And it would sound EXTREMELY Web to have all the attention focused on Dexter… while the true puppeteer would be somewhere else, hidden.)

- Something striking in many Web mentions is that: it likes Order (… and apparently drinking people hollow – requiring the fluids to sustain itself? To be able to moult and grow in size?)

(MAG127, Breekon) “We had some luggage once. A thrumming, silk-wrapped thing of The Spider, hiding away in an old steamer trunk. We stepped heavy through the dining car and found an old woman near the caboose. 'Something strange in the luggage car,' he said, and I finished as was our way. 'You should come and see it.' She stood and walked with us readily enough, though tears flowed silent down her cheeks and pattered onto the faded carpet. The Spider’s always an easy job – no fuss, no complication, everything planned and prepared. It knows too much to truly be a Stranger, but hides its knowing well enough to endure. We knew she wouldn’t scream as she was hollowed out and drunk.”

(MAG110) MARTIN: Apparently, over the last five years, every February, a corpse is found washed up on Redondo Beach. It will be a shrivelled husk, with all moisture and internal organs apparently removed.

(+ Daisy’s early Section 31 case with the “husks” of people/spiders/etc.)

On the matter of order: the victims in Kumo (MAG110) also weren’t making a fuss when they marched off to get eaten, it was the same behaviour as what Breekon described. Regarding Alison’s story, it seems like although she was officially the puppeteer of Neil’s body… SHE was the one who had been puppeteered around:

(MAG136, Alison Killala) “I became his carer a few months later. It just seemed to make sense. A frugal life, lucrative career and… prickly personality had left him with lots of money but no real support; while my life had left me in a position where I cared… deeply about his well-being and was in… desperate need of money. Everything just… lined up so neatly. […] he threw himself into a new project, one I would never have expected, but that suited my engineering background perfectly. […] I protested, of course! This man was my hero, I–I loved him, and there was no way I could subject him to this… awful indignity. But my objections were ignored, as always, and Neil insisted that this was what he wanted. So I built that… strange contraption. Using the skills I had developed across my whole life, to fill every corner of Neil Lagorio’s house with wood, and steel, and cable. […] I barely even noticed when the harnesses were no longer necessary; when the loops for those hooks were now embedded directly into his body. I must have asked him about it. But at the time, it just seemed like… such a natural progression.

Neil had exactly the Right Person available for what he needed when his body started to shut down; Alison wanted to refuse and ended up accepting. Even before Annabelle came in, it… doesn’t really sound like Alison had been the one in control in that whole situation.

And on the matter of people being at the right place at the right time for The Web’s purposes: SQUINTS at the fact that 2012 was when Jon started working at the Institute. We witnessed Melanie, Basira and Daisy’s first steps there, we know that Tim went to get a job there because he was looking into his brother’s death, Sasha might or might not have been interested in the supernatural for years (it could have been the Not!Them rewriting that bit; we at least know that Sasha wasn’t particularly well-off so… maybe she just plainly needed the money); we know that Martin just happened to be hired after submitting his CV everywhere he could (the question of why ELIAS, who PERSONALLY INTERVIEWED HIM, hired him is… another Big Question), but… why did Jon start working at the Institute? He didn’t particularly expect to Georgie to identify what the Institute was, so it wasn’t a life-long dream of his that he would have mentioned many times as a student…

(Re: the Web and Order, SQUINTSSQUINTSSQUINTS again towards the one particular person who has mostly been associated with that: “loves scheduling”, has specific days on which he eats lunch with the Institute’s librarians, insisted on Tim doing the paperwork for his absences, That One Thing About Keeping Receipts If You Want To Claim Your Expenses (Unless You Die)… that guy.)

- I still wonder how the Web works on people exactly, though… especially given all the talks about making choices and decisions, it would seem a bit odd to end up concluding that “anyway, the Web will make you want and do whatever IT pleases, you can’t do anything about it”…? (Though yeah, THAT is frightening.)

Given that Alison compared herself to Frankenstein, I wonder, in her case, if despite her ~adamant refusal~ to puppet her friend and idol…

(MAG136, Alison Killala) “Even pyrotechnics, while… impressive and visually spectacular, they just didn’t give me the same sharp joy as making something that could move, that came alive, directed and controlled by my hand… I always felt Frankenstein should have been an engineer, not a medical student, as reading that book I couldn’t help but see myself in that obsession. But I suppose everyone’s already done the-monster-as-the-robot, haven’t they?”

… some parts of her didn’t actually want it? And this is how The Web might operate overall? Humans are complex, we’re always mixing up emotions and different desires at the same time; maybe The Web mostly just brings to the surfaces the ones it needs to push people in the direction it wants…? (In that case, re: Trevor and the Spider Woman… it wouldn’t be surprising, as an ex-heroin addict, that some part of him would still feel the tinge of the craving…)

- What was Neil, in the end? Was he a Web avatar who found a way to feed his god mostly through fictions? Was his ex-partner “Gabe” Gabriel, the Spiral’s Worker-In-Clay…? Was he a plain person, able to use some powers here and there? The thing is:

(MAG136, Alison Killala) “his satisfaction with his latest and… as it turned out, last… foray into horror, with The Harvestman. He’d always had a fondness for spiders, he told me. And I of course reminded him that harvestmen… weren’t technically spiders.”

She is right! Though this could be a case of misleading us to focus on the symbols rather than their effects; Neil’s work was… indeed clearly linked to the idea of hidden control:

(MAG110, Alexia Crawley) “he claimed to be working with Neil Lagorio to make the Spider. Now you might never have heard his name before, but I guarantee you you’ll have seen his work. From the mid-seventies right into CGI, Lagorio was THE name in Practical Creature Effects: suit work, stop-motion, animatronics, whatever the method, he was the master. […] I’d had the pleasure of working with him way back in 1989 on Orbit – a medium-budget sci-fi vehicle for some… aging action star. Neil was working on a twelve-foot tall animatronic robot that featured heavily in the climax. The picture was, unsurprisingly, a flop; but I still remember his work. How he brought a… lump of wood and steel to life. Th–the huge, intricate mechanisms that allowed his crew to puppet it into motion that was so natural you could forget that the back of it was completely hollow…!”

On the one hand, he sounded pretty harmless. On the other hand, there were these “original cuts” (and the cruel broken SMILE you could hear on Jon’s face when he mentioned them while reading the statement was… gosh.). Was Dexter Banks invited to one of those screenings, and is that why he was haunted by the memories of a movie he couldn’t find again…?

-… So, what does it mean for ANNABELLE to send these original cuts to the Institute?

(MAG136, Alison Killala) “There were two sorts of people in the world as far as Neil saw it: those who were worth his time, and those who were not. And if you were in the latter group, he honestly couldn’t care if you lived or died. Not that most people could tell which side of the line they fell on; there were even days that… I wasn’t sure myself! Sometimes, I remember, he would invite people over to his studio that I was sure he hated, for screenings of his “original cuts”. I was quite… jealous of this at the time, as I’d never got such an invitation. But it was probably for the best. I didn’t… realise it back then, but… [SIGH] those guests… they never quite looked the same afterwards. […] She told me to take the films. His… “original cuts”. She told me to come here. She told me to give them to you.”

[…] ARCHIVIST: [INHALES] Statement ends. Hm. Neil Lagorio… You ever see any of his work? DAISY: No. Not really into films. ARCHIVIST: Oh, they were… Well, let’s just say that it’s not a complete shock there was something unnatural to them. Didn’t know we had copies in the Institute, though; let alone original cuts. [CHUCKLE] Records indicate they [PAPERS RUSTLING] ended up in… Artefact Storage. DAISY: Probably best that they stay there. ARCHIVIST: … Yeah. Yes, of course.

(…………. You could HEAR that Jon was dangerously close to going to check them out if Daisy hadn’t reminded him that Jon, No.)

At the time, Gertrude was still running the Archives… but, again, it’s also around that time when Jon integrated the Institute as a researcher. (He said he had been working there for “four years” in MAG001, which was set sometime in the second half of 2015 – though I wouldn’t past it s1!Jon to round up, like, 3 years and 20 days to “four years” to sound… more impressive. However, we know for sure that Jon was working at the Institute in 2012 (MAG051: “One of my first cases as a researcher for the Institute in 2012”).) So why did Annabelle send the “original cuts” to the Institute, and who were they for…? Was it to send a message to Gertrude? Was it because the Web was veeeeeeeeeeeerrrry aware that the boy who had ~gotten away~ (el-o-el) was now working there (and was apparently a bit versed in Neil Lagorio’s work)? Was it a way to sneak into the Institute? Was it for Elias? Was it to avoid the “original cuts” affecting innocent bystanders? Was it a proclamation from Annabelle – demonstrating that the older generation was fading out and now she was taking over?

That last point is something that I really felt with Annabelle’s visit and Neil finally dying (… or moulting like a spider). It’s interesting that in both MAG110 and MAG136, there was something about the character the story was about… not having a keen relationship with modern technology:

(MAG110, Alexia Crawley) “And so it was for the first few weeks. Dexter… clearly wasn’t sleeping. He had insisted on using old equipment and avoiding digital almost entirely, to the point where several of the crew were using pieces of kit they’d never even seen before. This meant that workprint had to be made manually for the dailies, something he refused to let anyone else do.”

(MAG136, Alison Killala) “We stayed in touch over the next few years, even worked together on the Wire-Runner, his one, underwhelming foray into CGI.”

We saw in MAG123 that Annabelle had started working using Internet, though using someone else to achieve it. I don’t have many theories or speculation about that one – I only find it curious that, given how MAG065 had introduced the idea that tape recorders… are digital, too, we’re still not sure about what it is that prevents Spooks from recording on Jon’s computer. Gertrude had commented that the tape recorders were a bit ~old-fashioned like her~ to defend her use of them to Lucia (MAG130), so… I don’t know! But potentially, I wonder if there might be something about the younger generation of avatars being more fit to use modern technologies, because some elements are their own idiosyncrasies while older techs were their predecessors’.

- Hi, do you sometimes get just PUNCHED IN THE GUTS by Jon.

(MAG136) ARCHIVIST: My– [PAUSE] [INHALE] [SIGH] My memories of the coma are not clear. But I know I made a choice; I made a choice to become… something else. Because I was afraid to die. But ever since then, I… I don’t know if I made the right decision; I–I’m stronger now, tougher, I can… … If I do die, now, or get sealed away somewhere forever… I don’t know if that’s a bad thing. And I don’t want to lose anyone else so, if I can maybe stop that happening, and [DRY CHUCKLE] the only danger is to me, I– I’ll do it in a heartbeat; worst case scenario… the universe loses another monster. DAISY: That’s messed up. ARCHIVIST: [LOW SELF-DEPRECATIVE DRY LAUGHTER] … Yeah. I suppose it is. DAISY: Did you know the coffin wouldn’t kill you? ARCHIVIST: I– guess I thought imprisonment wouldn’t… wouldn’t be as bad as it was. DAISY: [SHAKY SIGH] ARCHIVIST: And it’s a lot easier to make that choice than it is to actually… endure the result. You might have noticed when I was in there with you, I… I had regrets. DAISY: Yeah. I remember. ARCHIVIST: Plus, I thought… [PAUSE] W– [SIGH] Well, I didn’t know what being down there had done to you. DAISY: You thought I was gonna kill you? ARCHIVIST: I was a possibility. DAISY: Guess so. […] ARCHIVIST: I am alone, Martin is– DAISY: Busy. doing. paperwork. Not like he’s dead. Beside, he’s not the only other person here, you know. There’s me; Melanie; Basira– ARCHIVIST: Traumatised; traumatised; and paranoid, because of me.

;; I’m worried about these missing memories and what it means / what happened… Jon had told Basira that he could remember most of The Unknowing:

(MAG122) ARCHIVIST: My turn. What… what happened to me? BASIRA: How much do you remember? ARCHIVIST: I don’t… Music. Everything was wrong. Gertrude was there, and then… dancing. I think? Then… pain. And I was somewhere else. Dreaming. BASIRA: Dreaming. ARCHIVIST: Yes. …

(MAG123) ARCHIVIST: Two years ago. … That doesn’t seem right. It doesn’t feel like… … There’s just this… great… gap of time, where I wasn’t.

Back in MAG122, I had feared that he would have gotten something cauterised in the process, probably guilt, hence Tim’s death being erased… But no, it’s FAR from being the case: Jon has been a guilt-ridden ball of softness and caring and heartbreak since the beginning of season 4. So why are these memories still absent…? What happened in his dreams, for him to not remember exactly how he got to choose…?

(EXTRA-WORRIED since Elias had told Basira that Jon was “at a very delicate stage right now” in MAG127; and as much as I think that Elias probably doesn’t want to risk Jon managing to successfully compel him or extract a statement out of him right now… I’m Really Worried about the fact that he described Jon as being in transition. Choosing should have been the end result, right? So… so what is the next step……………)

Sobbing a lot about the fact that Jon isn’t sure that coming back was worth it, and that he’s been very casually self-destructive about the coffin. He kind of finished his sentence from MAG132 here:

(MAG132) ARCHIVIST: I’m… I’m scared. [SHORT CHUCKLE] When does the fear go away…? A–anyway, I–I’m sorry. You too, Basira, if you’re hearing this. I know you’d… stop me. You’d be right to, but… But if this goes wrong, all you lose is– … I’m not risking anyone else.

“If this goes wrong, all you lose is” / “worst case scenario… the universe loses another monster”. A o u c h. He’s been the most outrightly emotional we’ve ever seen him in season 3 and 4, he was so afraid of becoming inhuman starting MAG092, he finally chose (and is aware of it) the avatar option because he was afraid to die (that’s one of the most human things he could possibly admit…?), and, since he’s woken up, he has dealt with rejections one after another: Georgie was thrown-off by him badly enough to leave (clearly dissatisfied with… the fact that Jon kept saying he was “fine”, when a normal human being shouldn’t have been), Basira was extremely cautious and still refuses to trust him, slaughter-infused Melanie BLAMED HIM FOR TIM&DAISY’S DEATHS, Martin avoided him time and time again:

(MAG122) ARCHIVIST: Honestly, I… I, I think I’m alright? I mean, that’s… good, right? I… GEORGIE: After a six months coma? No. It’s not. This isn’t how it’s supposed to go, Jon. ARCHIVIST: I… What? Y–you, you’d prefer I was… brain-damaged? Dead? Or– […] Georgie, I– GEORGIE: Jon. If this really is a second chance… please, try to take it. But I don’t think that it is. ARCHIVIST: Georgie, I don’t und– GEORGIE: Take care of yourself. ARCHIVIST: [SIGH] [DOOR OPENS AND CLOSES] [SILENCE] ARCHIVIST: … What about you? Disappointed to see me alive? … Basira? BASIRA: We can deal with that later.

(MAG123) MELANIE: Tim is dead. Daisy is dead. And you, what? You’re just fine? ARCHIVIST: No, I’ve been in hospital for six months! MELANIE: Something has been in hospital. Something that’s got your face like– I warned Basira, I said not to let you back in here, but she just doesn’t listen! [STOMPING? AND FURIOUS STRANGLED NOISES] ARCHIVIST: Melanie, Melanie: it’s… it’s me. MELANIE: Oh! Okay, so what, “Hi Jon, how are you, get anyone killed lately?” ARCHIVIST: … I… MELANIE: Wipe that look off your face. Like you’re not the reason all of this is happening. Like you’re any better than– ARCHIVIST: [MESSY STUTTERING] MELANIE: –than him! ARCHIVIST: Basira said Elias was gone!

(MAG124) MARTIN: … Look, Jon, I, I’ve really got to go, so… ARCHIVIST: Oh, er, okay… MARTIN: I’m, I’m sorry that you– ARCHIVIST: Wowowow, it was… good t–, it was good to see you. MARTIN: … Yeah. [STEPS LEAVING] ARCHIVIST: … yeah… [CLICK.]

(MAG129) MARTIN: Please, stop finding me. ARCHIVIST: … What happened, Martin? [SILENCE] MARTIN: You died. ARCHIVIST: I came back. MARTIN: Yeah. [OPENS DOOR] I’m not gonna let it happen again. ARCHIVIST: … wait… Wait! W– [DOOR CLOSES] [SIGH] [CLICK.]

(YES, GRATUITOUS QUOTE-COMPILATION, BECAUSE THAT’S A LOT.)

It’s been a rough two months since he woke up, alright. I’m so glad that he managed to get Daisy back: not only it was a victory that actually felt like one (the removal of Melanie’s bullet meant that things got… strained), but Daisy has been asking the right questions and they’re so… like-minded? kindred spirits? lately, two Survivors able to understand each other, that it feels good and… a bit more hopeful.

(- I still want Jon to get the chance to have a discussion with Georgie, to explain himself and what happened, to explain that even though he decided something she’s disapproving of… he still wants to do some good, as much as he can? é_è To thank her for having watched over him and having given him so much valuable advice? For Georgie to accept that Jon did the best he could do in the situation he was in? Basira used to listen to Georgie’s podcast while in the car with Daisy so maybe Daisy heard some bits of it. Let Georgie and Daisy meeeeeet too!!)

- So much for Jon getting a stronger hold on his power, he still accidentally slipped and compelled:

Still too curious and not the best at self-restrain, though… he had been doing way better lately. I think the last time he had accidentally compelled was in MAG114, with Tim? On the other hand: it looks like his Insights are a bit more controlled since, unless he reveals that he has Known for a while, he… doesn’t seem to know about Basira’s activities. So maybe sternly forbidding him from peeking worked with that one, given that he had motivation to not screw things up (even more) between them…? He was a bit more relaxed with Melanie this time around! (Well. And Melanie was way more relaxed around him too, which… says something considering their previous exchanges.)

- What is wrong with Jon’s body. This makes the second mention of casual weirdness, after Jared commenting about Jon’s rib:

(MAG131) JARED: Huh. That’s a weird one. Not sure I like it. Still. Mine now.

(MAG136) DAISY: Not of you and your weird eyes.

Too many eyes, or something else…?

- I’m so emotional over the fact that Daisy is… currently giving back to Jon? Telling him that his way of thinking or his overall situation is “messed up”; reminding him that he’s not responsible for everything that’s happened to Melanie, Basira and herself; pushing him to snap out of it and have a nice time…? The fact that she included herself in the (short) list of people around Jon, and that:

(MAG136) ARCHIVIST: And you’re not… worried about… DAISY: Basira’s trapped here. So are you.

She listed him alongside Basira when justifying why her decision to tie herself to the Institute was worth it – they’re in this together and it’s not only just “with Basira” in her mind. It includes Jon.

- … and not Melanie there, BUT!! PROGRESS:

(MAG112) DAISY: Yeah. Couldn’t find Tim, but he’s gone with Martin and… the other one. BASIRA: Melanie. DAISY: Sure.

(MAG136) ARCHIVIST: I am alone, Martin is– DAISY: Busy. doing. paperwork. Not like he’s dead. Beside, he’s not the only other person here, you know. There’s me; Melanie; Basira–

She marked a verrrry slight pause before saying Melanie’s name but still: Melanie is now her own person in Daisy’s mind!

- And I’m SO EMOTIONAL OVER MELANIE OVERALL but also so proud that… apparently, she took it upon herself to take care of Daisy, and went as far as to go ask Jon to replace her when she couldn’t do it?

(MAG136) MELANIE: Well… uhm. Daisy’s been, erm… I’ve been keeping her company. Er, while… while Basira’s busy. She’s, er… ARCHIVIST: Oh, no, I, uh… I–I know. MELANIE: W–well, I’ve kind of got to… uhm. I’ve got somewhere to be. Do you mind if, if… she hangs around, with… […] [IN THE DISTANCE] Hum, yeah, he’s, he’s fine with it. So… […] DAISY: I didn’t ask her. To do that. ARCHIVIST: I–it–it’s fine.

I’m glad that Melanie makes sure that Daisy doesn’t end up alone, and that… she went to Jon for this ;__; Melanie knew better than everyone how it felt to be not emotionally supported by someone, namely Basira (MAG131: “Basira is… um. Basira deals in ‘intel’ these days, in usable data, assets. Not feelings. Not people.”), so I find this super-sweet that she… is apparently making extra efforts to not replicate the situation with Daisy? Some feeling of community/teamwork has been recreated lately, all around Daisy, and aaaaah… I’m so glad ;; Really sad that Martin isn’t there and that Basira is still closing herself off, but so glad about the faint Melanie-Daisy-Jon dynamic… (And so worried. Because now, I wonder how Jonny is planning to rip it away from us.)

(Though: Melanie didn’t try to set-up for Helen and Daisy to stay together. Is Helen mostly absent/can’t get out of her door much…? Or was it because Melanie didn’t absolutely trust Daisy’s Hunter instincts to not kick back in, if she was too close to a Spook-she-doesn’t-know-yet for long…?)

(I wonder if it’s Helen who suggested therapy to Melanie, or if they talked about it? In any case, having Helen around seemed to have helped Melanie a bit, overall ;__;)

- Though logistically: it’s hilarious that Melanie&Basira probably still live in the Archives, that Daisy is probably doing the same (unclear whether or not Jon Still Has A Home outside)… and that Daisy didn’t even mention that hi, she had signed some paperwork and was now an Official Member of the Institute. It took Jon two weeks to learn about it, and only because he asked about his dreams. (Daisy must have done that quite fast after getting out of the coffin? For someone who “missed dreaming”, she reacted immediately x”))

………………… I’m not sure that Basira will take that the news that Daisy is now tied to the Institute kindly, though, given the current state of things.

- Elephant in the room, Melanie’s ~therapist~ is ringing SO MANY warning bells:

(MAG136) THERAPIST: Right, have a seat. Do you mind if I record our sessions? MELANIE: I do mind. Yes. THERAPIST: Ah? I mean, it’s just for my own notes. MELANIE: I categorically and completely do *not* give consent for you to make any recording of me, ever. Turn it off. Please. [SILENCE] THERAPIST: I… I see. Yes. Of–of course. [CLICK.]

…………………. See, even besides the use of a tape recorder (who would use that in 2018 for very professional, serious and health-related purposes, if they’re not spooky?!), it’s how the therapist handled the act of recording in itself which makes me shiver. During a first session, a first encounter, when you’re supposed to not make the patient uncomfortable, turning it on before asking Melanie if she would be fine with it. Trying to argue with Melanie’s refusal when Melanie explicitly said she would be bothered by it. That small silence before complying – while Melanie was just stating her rights… (Though on that last one, Melanie’s background as a podcaster is showing; she was very efficiently able to state her will without leaving room for any loophole!)

There are many options for What The Deal Is With That Therapist:

1°) A totally normal person who just happens to use tape recorders in 2018 and was startled by Melanie’s professional-sounding declaration.

2°) Someone tied to the Lonely…? It would be a terrifying job for a Lukas, totally twisting the purpose of a therapy by… cutting you off from others? ;; (Peter had mentioned the possibility of therapy to Martin back in MAG120: “Oh! And if you want to talk to a counsellor, the Institute will of course cover any cost.”)

3°) Someone tied to Beholding: Gertrude had the contact information for one (MAG130: “If that’s your primary goal, my dear, I would suggest you speak to a qualified counsellor. We can suggest one, if you like […]. Hang on, let me see if I can find you the number for that counselling service. They’re actually quite good.”), and that last “I see” was quite striking, Avatars tend to make small references to their patrons all the time – though this one could have also been a nod to Melanie’s…

4°) … since the therapist seemed so taken aback by Melanie offering a resistance: … W e b…? Annabelle was even created during, specifically, a psychological experiment (though we don’t know if she was a psychology postgrad herself, or just a random test subject with a different background; the voice sounded maybe a bit too old for someone who still looked like a “student” in 2012, but then Elias is supposed to be middle-aged so, eh). It wouldn’t be the most subtle thing ever but then: given that Jon didn’t give any reason, why did he pick this specific statement this time around? Outside of the statement, who is a “puppeteer” in this episode? Which would raise, once again, the question of What Is Behind tape recorders; and, if Web, what allowed Melanie to not obey: was it because she used to be Slaughter-infused…? (I had wondered, especially after MAG125, about the relationship between the Slaughter and the Spider: the way Elias had specifically mentioned that Melanie had a “visceral hatred of being trapped” in MAG102, was run by “the self-determination you prize so highly” in MAG106, and the fact that Melanie had described him as “pulling all the strings” in return, had left me with the lingering of impression that… potentially, there was more something about Web than Beholding at work here, and that obviously, The Slaughter, being uncontrollable violence and chaos, wouldn’t be the best of pals with the Eight-Legged-Mrs.-Order Fear entity…)

The way Melanie described therapists at the beginning of the episode (“We’ll see. There’s a… a lot of crap therapists out there.” and it’s true, and she’s still trying!!! Good!!) already introduced cautiousness about the whole process; if this one turns out to be Bad, it wouldn’t be representative of every one of them. Still, kinda hoping (for Melanie) that unless this one manages to prove that her first few seconds were absolutely not representative of what she can offer, Melanie will try to find another one elsewhere ;; I’m impressed that she didn’t just go “Nop ahaha bye” when the tape recorder began to get used… without her consent. It wasn’t good when Jon was doing it, but from a therapist, there is something very, verrrry chilling, and this new character absolutely managed to sound as untrustworthy as Peter in just a few seconds ;;

- On the list of worrying things: URKKKKK that… Basira apparently still hasn’t told the others about her visits to Elias. She’s likely doing her own researches, as Elias had suggested, to check if there were some truths amongst what he told her about The Dark’s activities… but URRRKKK that she hasn’t said a word about it yet. Not good, Basira ;; Elias is spilling his poison and she’s drinking it raw – it will most likely mess her up… and mess up the others, too, if they’re not aware that Elias still has, in all likehood, Plans.

… On the other hand, I got the impression that her relationship with Daisy had improved a bit? Daisy sounded less… heartbroken, this time, giving me the impression that, yes, things aren’t perfect, but not excruciating either?

(MAG136) ARCHIVIST: I haven’t seen her much since… Well, she seemed a bit… tense, the last few times we spoke. How are you guys– DAISY: [CLEARS THROAT] ARCHIVIST: –doing? DAISY: N–no, Basira, she’s… She’s been good. We’re… together so it’s good. [SIGH] Wish she wouldn’t keep treating me like a china doll. But it’s alright. ARCHIVIST: That’s understandable, I suppose. DAISY: [BREATHING HARDER, FASTER] Yeah, well… What do you think?

See, I can’t really decide whether Daisy’s awkwardness was because it was a touchy subject and she was aware that no, things aren’t fine… Or if it was a matter of “oh lord, no, I can’t tell Awkward Nerd Guy that YES, things have been super-steamy in the tunnels lately, he would probably faint if he knew we were doing it in his Institute.”

(… reminder that in this episode, Jon had to read “He even kept in contact when I left to have my baby. It wasn’t planned, but while I may not have had much time for make-up and monster suits, the bodies inside of them were, er, a different matter.” with his own tongue.) (That’s not topping Timothy Hodge’s statement and Jon’s annotations from its patreon Deluxe transcript, but eh, it was still a beautiful line <3)

And the parallels between Daisy&Basira and Jon&Martin keep piling up! First Basira and Martin both were “busy”; now, it’s the single-minded longing for the other when they’re separated – Daisy having thought that she would never see Basira again when she was in the coffin, and now… Jon’s first reaction when Daisy taunts him about acting like he’s alone being to say that YES HE IS… because Martin isn’t there.

Holy Arceus on top of Giratina, Jon, what would your season-1 self would say about the Current You. (“Things change. People change.” Helen told him a few episodes ago, AND YEP. Y E P.)

- I’m… a bit worried about how Daisy handled Martin, however. It fits her and the… individualistic? bits of her that we had seen: if she sees a problem, she’ll try to deal with it through her own actions – Jon is sad because Martin isn’t there? Then no, she’s not going to drag Martin kicking and screaming back to Jon if she wants to cheer Jon up; she’ll push him to stand back up on his own.

(MAG136) ARCHIVIST: I’m, I’m not “swanning around”– DAISY: “Boo-hoo, I’m so alone and a monster!” ARCHIVIST: I am alone, Martin is– DAISY: Busy. doing. paperwork. Not like he’s dead. Beside, he’s not the only other person here, you know. There’s me; Melanie; Basira–

1°) She’s partially not wrong? Though I still feel like, without knowing what Martin is doing behind the scenes together with Peter, there would be causes for concern and that Martin… is not in a good place nor there on his own: his lines in MAG124 and MAG129 sounded, more than anything, like he was straightforwardly blackmailed into not talking with the others (we know that, from Martin’s point of view, it’s a bit more complicated and not the end-goal; but still, his insistence to Jon about how he couldn’t hear what he had to say, had to leave, etc…. weren’t reassuring at all). Daisy might be projecting a bit on that one since she has deepened her network since she came back, probably because Basira was astray: she now remembers Melanie’s name, she listed Jon together with Basira as people trapped within the Institute (implying that she would not leave them behind). She might see Jon as hyperfixating on something that can’t be resolved right away, like her situation with Basira…? Unless it’s plainly because “Blackwood” hadn’t impressed her much in season 3 (she doesn’t know him! Even if Jon cares for him, maybe she doesn’t see him as all that valuable), or because… spooks are happening and the Lonely is managing to cut the ties that Martin die have with people, who are now just not finding him relevant anymore…?

2°) So nowadays, people are aware that Martin is doing “paperwork” – are they aware that he’s basically doing Peter’s work as an ~assistant~? Or are they plainly assuming that “Peter Lukas” is his alias…?

3°) ;; I’m super happy about Daisy inviting Jon for drinks, and Basira possibly joining them… but also worried about how Peter might just rub that into Martin’s face? Jon used to not be… social with the assistants. It would be so easy to tell Martin that it’s finally happening because Martin is not there… (And yes, Martin made his choice to protect the others, presumably Melanie&Basira, because Jon was away! And nowadays, it still stands, the fact that it would also protect Jon was only added to the pile! And he was told by Peter in MAG126 that he might “not want” to share what had happened with Jon at the end of it, implying that he would change; Martin knows these aspects of the deal! But Martin is not absolutely selfless either, and there could easily be some envious outbursts at the idea that Jon seems to be… happier, nowadays…?)

(… Martin had been so snappy to Basira in MAG088, and there was the whole talk between Basira&Melanie about how Martin seemed to think they would “steal his precious Archivist” in MAG106; who would have thought that Daisy and Jon would ultimately be the ones to go out for drinks together.)

- ANYWAY, Jon & Daisy & potentially Basira are going out for drinks and I don’t know if it will be an awkward mess or a nice time for all but. The potential for silly Tipsy Activities is strong – trying to make Jon guess ridiculous trivia facts through his Insights? Basira noting that Jon is behaving exactly like Martin presumably did at the end of MAG098 (talking a lot about a certain someone who isn’t really there at the moment)? Daisy sharing cop stories?

(… I also can’t help but think about the whole assistants-and-assimilated gang going for drinks during Jon’s kidnapping between MAG099–MAG102. Worst moment ever until they’re too inebriated to Coherently Think about why their lives suck and… see, that episode from Brooklyn 99? Going out of their way to find the most ridiculous kinda-harmless ways to exact revenge on what’s pissing them off at the moment, ie Elias? … Going to his office to wrap his whole desk in cellophane. While he’s standing there, just unable to do anything (they’re too many and too far gone for his power to work). While Tim is throwing serpentine streamers everywhere, Martin is crying because Elias’s paperweight suddenly reminds him of Jon, Daisy is seductively slurring the worst pick-up lines to Basira, and Melanie had stolen a spoon in the bar and tries to recreate “The Horribly Slow Murderer with the Extremely Inefficient Weapon” on Elias, again and again and AGAIN AND AGAIN– (maybe Basira told the truth in MAG106 and Melanie had indeed managed to make Elias cry, she just can’t remember about it). Basira was absolutely sober through it all, but when Elias tries to get explanations from her passiveness, it’s a mix of Her Iconic “I don’t know.” and the fact that she’s trying to get better at this new job of watching without doing anything. Elias would almost begin to regret Gertrude.)

Title for MAG137 is out and W O W is that an interesting one?! I have no idea if it will deal with one of the current threads or give information about other ones; it’s… a broad title which works for a lot of things. Tied to a very small mention we got in MAG105, so could be dealing with Gertrude’s studies on The Slaughter (and possibly her dealing with that one’s ritual)? If dealing with The Dark again, there are many angles which could work: attack on the Institute (get to meet The Creature, Jon.), Julia in present-time, Robert Montauk in the past, orrrr even something about the Elias-Rayner relationship that we now know was a Thing? (Though I feel that, if we get some information about that last one, it’s likely to be given in Ny-Ålesund.) Could also work for Hill Top Road, specifically Agnes and Ray? Could work for The Corruption (since The Hive had… personal feelings about The Institute) and maybe shed some light on whatever it was trying to achieve in the tunnels with the ring of worms (ritual attempt, or had Gertrude taken care of that one already?), or even something about John Amherst (Melanie… ;;)? Could work with Gertrude’s activities overall – with Elias, with Peter, with Jude… (Would be hilarious if it was about Elias and Peter, what the heck are you to each other, you terrible beings.) Could also work for Annabelle if it’s about balance? Aaaah, so many possibilities!! And it’s probably not even one that I thought of! =D

… and we’ll be getting a mid-season break, after all. Given how the break had been narratively inserted in season 3 (matching Jon’s kidnapping), will it be the case again and, if it is: what could possibly go wrong that we wouldn’t get a recording in-universe for three weeks? Four episodes left, a rushed trip to Ny-Ålesund could still happen before that and… leave them (/the surviving ones) in tatters afterwards, uuuuh…

#1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #the magnus archives #tma liveblog #tma season 4 #mag136 #long post/

11 notes · View notes

makeste · 6 years

Text

BnHA Chapter 022: Needs More Corporate Sponsorships

Previously on BnHA: A dozen pro heroes showed up at USJ. Kurogiri and Tomura were forced to blow the coop. Back at their secret villain hideout, they had a chat with their secret villain boss over Skype. We met All Might’s unnervingly cheerful detective friend. All Might talked about how great class 1-A is (spoilers: really great). Aizawa announced the upcoming sports festival.

Today on BnHA: The heroes discuss Tomura and his fellow villains and keep me guessing. We learn more about the sports fest. Ochako gets fucking possessed by the Spirit of Gambatte and it’s something to behold. All Might has lunch with Deku and tells him he needs to get out there at the sports fest and be like “HEY WORLD, WHAT’S FUCKING UPPPP.”

(As always, all comments not marked with an ETA are my unspoiled reactions from my first readthrough of this chapter. I’ve read up through chapter 37 now, so any ETAs will reflect that.)

OCHAKO PROFILE! :D :D :DDD

FUCKING YES, FINALLY MORE INFORMATION ABOUT HER QUIRK

THIS SERIOUSLY IS MY FAVORITE QUIRK, I LOVE IT

apparently she’s gotta touch something with all five fingertips on one hand in order to float it

she can float anything under three tons! interesting! so she can’t go floating aircraft carriers around or anything, but she could float a couple of cars if the situation ever called for it. she’ll puke but she could do it!

still no word on a time limit, so I’m just going to assume the thing floats until she releases it, and she herself probably doesn’t know what the limit is because she’s never reached it yet

(ETA: having now watched her fight against Bakugou, it appears to be more of a stamina limit thing than a time limit thing. all of my questions have thus officially been answered!)

her hair’s not bizarre! I take offense

she’s so cute

she sure does wear those tights, all right. you rock those tights Ochako

on to the chapter!

ahh! so they were able to at least find Tomura through the Quirk Registry!

(ETA: I read this completely wrong lol. they were not able to find anyone under that name.)

he can disintegrate anything he touches, but we already knew that. I WANT TO KNOW ABOUT THE HANDS

it occurs to me that the hands might not actually be his, they might belong to the Main Villain and that’s why Tomura appears to be talking to them sometimes. maybe that’s why they’re not mentioned in the registry. they also seem entirely unrelated to the disintegration quirk

and Kurogiri apparently is still a mystery. or at least he’s not a man in his twenties or thirties. maybe expand your search then. forty-year old villains exist too, surely. or else who will Iida fight

heehee the Sheriff is using his old timey cowboy slang again

I’m a simple person. I see the word “varmints”, I click the like button

All Might doesn’t seem convinced that Tomura was actually their leader

hmmmmmm

the more I think about it the more I’m convinced that the real Main Villain was involved with those hands somehow and was feeding some of Tomura’s dialogue to him to boot

All Might has really good instincts to have picked up on all this from the relatively brief interaction he had with him

yeah I think he’s correctly pegged Tomura as a Belphegor-type

apparently they offer quirk counseling in elementary school! I love hearing these little details that help expand the canon like that

they apprehended 72 fucking villains. I actually thought there were even more, given how many people seemed to be attacking each of the kids’ groups despite them being split into so many groups. anyhow, that’s still a lot of villains. but then, it was a league

now they’re discussing why all of these redshirt villains would follow a guy like Tomura

so clearly Tomura is just a puppet and the real guy who was pulling the strings is still out there, we get it. actually, we already knew that. I wish these guys would arrive at that conclusion already, or if they’re not going to, maybe change the subject unless there’s some other point they’re trying to make here

do not fucking start redeeming this person you guys. don’t start!! go ahead and do whatever you want but don’t expect me to just be on board like that! :/

(ETA: okay, one big thing that seemed to get lost in Viz’s translation, though. when I watched this scene in the anime, it seemed like they were using the word kodomo to describe Tomura, though I could have misheard it. anyway, for whatever reason, Viz translated this as “man-child”; I guess maybe to emphasize Tomura’s immaturity. however, to the best of my knowledge, kodomo actually translates directly to “child.” like, literally a kid.

so here’s the thing... it seems to me that what they’re hinting at here is that Tomura may in fact actually be a teenager himself, possibly not much older than the kids in class 1-A. he wasn’t in the registry, and they speculated that he might not have received quirk counseling, implying that maybe he wasn’t in the school system. anyway, this makes a huge difference to me as far as whether or not I think he’s redeemable, and if it’s true, then I will reverse my stance on that entirely. if he’s still just a kid himself, and is being manipulated/groomed by this mysterious Skype Villain character, that goes a long way towards him getting a pass for being a complete shithead. I mean, he is most definitely not stable from what we’ve seen, so. gotta say I’m pretty curious to see where this goes now. and also if this is true, fuck you Viz for making this so needlessly unclear.)

back to class 1-A!

apparently they’re going to have extra security during the sports fest, but they plan to move forward with it despite the recent attack

I’m torn on whether something else is going to happen, or if it’s just going to be them causing all the chaos on their own, because they’re more than capable of that even without help from villains lol

(ETA: so far it seems to be the latter and I’m loving it)

“our sports festival is the greatest opportunity you’ll get”... for what?

oh wow apparently this thing is a big deal and they all already know all about it

well if you’d all be so kind as to clue me in then

wow so it’s basically the Olympics

a high school sports festival is on the same level as the Olympics???

there’s not even any element of competition between different schools lol. it’s just U.A.

apparently lots of pro heroes use the event to scout for future sidekicks. kind of like how colleges and professional teams scout players at some high school sporting events

well that does sound like a fairly big deal, but surely it’s not as important for these first-years as it is for the older students

not that that’ll stop any of these kids from setting their sights on the big leagues right away, I’m sure

(ETA: okay so now that I know a little bit more about the sports festival, for some reason the question I haven’t been able to shake from my mind is: why are there no corporate sponsorships?

like, if this really is supposed to be BnHA’s equivalent of the Olympics, brands like Nike and Apple and Coca-Cola and various other car and beer and telecom and apparel companies should all be trying to snatch up as many of these kids as possible to push their brands. I mean, they even have an entire Business Course over at U.A., so what are those guys even studying then if stuff like this isn’t a thing.

I do realize of course that these kids are only 15, but their age really shouldn’t be a factor, given that plenty of Olympic-level athletes become well-known and are getting sponsorships and such well before they turn 18. it could also be that the brands concentrate more on the second- and third-years who’ve established themselves in past sports fests, but even if that were true, you’d think that the kids of 1-A would be a special case after the USJ incident thrust them into the spotlight. they practically became celebrities overnight. you’d think at least one or two of them -- Todoroki and Bakugou especially, since they were both already known to a degree -- would have gotten a few last minute calls with some lucrative and tempting offers.

the only other explanation I can come up with is that they’re forbidden from doing this sort of thing. which seems unrealistic since the school would undoubtedly be saying no to a LOT of money, but I guess they’re not hurting for it and don’t need it. (they sure do throw enough of it away on entrance exams.) or I suppose it’s also possible that this actually is going to be a thing, and I just haven’t seen any of it yet due to the aforementioned “they’re only first years” bit. I just think it would potentially be interesting, even just as a background thing.

anyway, I really went off on a tangent, but it’s just something that keeps nagging at me. like it’s a key element that’s missing in order for this to feel more realistic to me. you know, because Jump mangas about superpowers are always so realistic!! but this one actually is for the most part, so it feels all the more out of place.

okay I’ll shut up now.)

now it’s lunchtime!

lol it’s the cement guy. just chilling in the hallway

Cementoss...? pretty sure that was it

I don’t want to go look up his name because I found out the other day that their full names tend to be listed on the wikis, and if they haven’t been revealed in the manga yet then I don’t want to know dammit

the Internet is a treacherous place with dangers lurking around every corner

anyways. all the kids are abuzz with excitement

Iida looks like he’s forgotten how to breathe

I wonder if there’s any chance we might get like, a U.A. dance party at some point. I just want to see Iida try and dance. I think it would be really great

wow Ochako has shadow eyes, that’s a first I think

wow she is fired up

oh my god Ochako. you do know how fucking badly I want you to wreck some bitches, right. you know that? I put it on my wishlist and everything

please, more of this

YASSSSSS. SLAYYYYY

the trio is now walking downstairs on their way to lunch, presumably

LMAO WHAT

OCHAKO WANTS TO BE A HERO FOR THE CASH MONEY

EVERY TIME I LEARN SOMETHING NEW ABOUT HER IT GETS BETTER AND BETTER

now she’s embarrassed because compared with Iida, her motivations are less noble

but Iida flaps his arms around and tells her there’s nothing wrong with wanting to rake in that dough

boy but I sure do ship these two little oddballs

??? wow, she says her family runs a construction company, but that they’re somehow poor. here I would’ve thought they’d be in constant demand, what with villains constantly running amok and destroying shit. maybe there’s too much competition? or maybe heroes with construction-related quirks are putting them out of business somehow?

omg baby Ochako

her slightly oversized sweatshirt that says “SUPER” is making me wibbly eyes

I need to pick up this sweet little cinnamon roll right this instant and give her lots of hugs and cuddles

oh my god and just like that her goal of “making money” is the noblest fucking thing on earth goddamn

they’re fucking speechless

-- ALL MIGHT SUDDENLY APPEARS OUT OF NOWHERE

WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING WASTING YOUR ONE MEASLY HOUR A DAY AND YOU’RE NOT EVEN TEACHING A CLASS

OMG

IT’S GOT BUNNIES ON IT

GO DEKU, BE HIS FRIEND

down in the cafeteria, Iida and Ocha are speculating on what All Might could possibly want with Deku

“perhaps he’s taken a liking to him” y’all have noooo idea

what is this sudden shot of Todoroki

somehow I feel like he’s gonna be the first one to actually put it all together. he’s been listening and observing all this time, and he’s pretty sharp. he knows they have similar abilities; he saw firsthand how Deku behaved around All Might and how he dove in to save him; and I don’t know, but he’s just a pretty smart cookie and I wouldn’t put it past him

(ETA: he was so close. “illegitimate child” is close enough to get full marks IMO. also I’m now positive that Kacchan has figured it out, but I’ll save that speculation for another day.)

oh jesus the time limit is worse than I thought now. only fifty minutes

Deku apologizes even though it had nothing to do with him, aww

and All Might already knows him so well by now that he cuts him off before he can finish

he wants to talk to Deku about the sports festival!

oh yeah that’s right. we don’t want him dying yet again

Deku mentions that he was able to use the power once against Noumu with no side effects. so All Might asks him what he did differently

hmmm

hm. interesting. here I was thinking that it was only coincidental and it might’ve just been because of Noumu’s shock-absorption abilities. but I guess that wouldn’t have completely negated the impact. so I guess Deku would know better than me here

“sounds like you managed to pump the brakes without even knowing it” are you telling me he was worried about overdoing it against the guy who was trying to disintegrate Tsuyu’s face?? why is his heart so pure dammit

still, he’d better figure out how to do this at will, and sooner rather than later

:(((((

“and among those with villainous intent... there are some who’ve started to realize that.” yeah we kind of figured that one out

still, it’s not like Deku’s just going to be able to instantly replace him. he’s only fifteen for crying out loud

All Might what did I just fucking say. FIFTEEN

but I guess that’s not too young to be an inspirational hero though

wow he’s so earnest... he totally won me over in like two seconds

wowwwwww I just got fucking fired up. the intensity lines for no damn reason. and even with All Might coughing up blood at the end there lol

but yeah I’m sold, okay Deku go be a star

BONUS:

HE LITERALLY ISN’T HUMAN????? I WAS WONDERING BECAUSE HE KEPT SAYING “YOU HUMANS”

YOU’RE TELLING ME FUCKING RATATOUILLE HERE SOMEHOW MANIFESTED A QUIRK AND BECAME SO INTELLIGENT AND SUCCESSFUL THAT HE’S THE PRINCIPAL OF THE WORLD’S PREEMINENT SUPERHERO ACADEMIC INSTITUTION

HE’S 85 CENTIMETERS TALL. THAT’S TWO FEET AND NINE INCHES

WONDER WHAT IT WAS LIKE FOR THIS GERBIL TO SUDDENLY BECOME SELF AWARE AND DECIDE TO GO TO COLLEGE OR WHATEVER

AND WE MAY KNOW HIS NAME NOW BUT TO ME HE’LL ALWAYS BE THE RAT PRINCIPAL

(ETA: LITERALLY I’VE FORGOTTEN HIS ACTUAL NAME AGAIN ANYWAY)

LOOK AT HIM SMOKING A TINY RAT CIGARETTE. THAT’S SO BAD FOR YOU MISTER PRINCIPAL GOODBYE I AM DONE GOODBYE

#bnha #boku no hero academia #makeste reads bnha #uraraka ochako #shigaraki tomura #all might #midoriya izuku #y'all can't tell me the baku-todo-deku trio wouldn't absolutely slay a 'just do it' campaign though #like can you even imagine that ad #it would be the campaign to end all campaign #on a somewhat related note #do you guys think all might has like his own sneaker line #like jordans #but all mights #because if he doesn't #then he totally fucking should

83 notes · View notes

evolutionsvoid · 6 years

Photo

The Panthelis is a species of wolf-sized predatory invertebrate that lives exclusively in the Underworld. More specifically, the Panthelis can only be found in the Underworld's fungal forests, which I bet you folk didn't know existed! (Unless you read some of my other entries...) Though surface dwellers like to believe that the Underworld is nothing but fire and brimstone, there are actually a wide variety of ecosystems that can be found down below! The fungal forest is a habitat that occurs in massive caverns, where mushrooms and other fungi have grown to titanic proportions. By that I mean mushroom stalks that grow to the size of trees. Huge pillars of fungal flesh that go so high that they practically fuse to the ceiling! And from these columns sprout even more fungi, whose branching forms or slimy shapes give the impression of branches and vines! It's almost like walking through a jungle at night, but everything is made out of mushrooms! It is an extraordinary sight to see! These places are so massive and bountiful that you will forget that you are miles beneath the surface! And since these ecosystems are filled to bursting with fungi, there are a wide variety of species that call these forests home! The Panthelis is one of these, as they quite enjoy the amount of prey species that are lured in by such a buffet! Though I have seen many beasts and critters in my time, I have to say that the Panthelis is one of the weirder looking ones. Just look at that head they have! While many would view that curved, spiky carapace as its face, it is actually more like a rather fancy helmet. The mouth of the Panthelis is actually beneath this giant bladed shield, its mandibles facing downwards. As for eyes, this beast has none. Though the fungal forests possess a large amount of bioluminescence, the Panthelis has chosen to ditch its sight for impressive senses of smell and hearing. This is probably for the best, as the undergrowth of these forests can get quite dense, which makes for a rather small field of vision when combined with the gloominess. The long tangle of antenna that flow from the back of their headpiece are coated in sensitive hairs that can pick up the scent of prey and the vibrations emitted from sound. They even have jointed appendages near their head that sport these hairs, making it easier for them to follow a trail as they barrel their way through the vegetation. What they seek is the sign of prey, be it the sound of a wounded animal or the smell of blood. When their senses pick up a viable trail, the Panthelis will let out a whirring call to alert its compatriots. When it comes to the hunt, the Panthelis never do it alone. The Panthelis are pack hunters, working in teams of four to five to track prey and take them down. While some may expect there to be a pack leader, the Panthelis do not seem to have one. When one observes their hunting patterns, you will find them moving in perfect formation, each one performing their duty without hardly a sound or signal. These hunting packs can consist of any amount of males or females, though there will often be one female left out during the breeding season as she cares for the young. When a whiff of potential prey is caught, the pack will gather in a V-shaped formation and run to the source. This is when you will see why they possess such strange heads, and you will be quite impressed to see what these crazy things can do!

The first use of their extravagant head shield is when they are chasing down prey. It comes from the curved structures that make it look like a boomerang got stuck through their heads. These wide blades are actually quite sharp, and they can slice through the soft flesh of fungi with ease. As they sprint through the vegetation, the head plate will protect them from obstacles and cut a path through the stalks and strands. With the whole pack running, they can clear quite a trail! You would think a mob of scythe wielding farmers came by! As the pack is running, they will keep their senses out for their target, making sure their meal doesn't slip their notice. When at last they find their prey, they will pick a strategy and take formation. From what has been seen, it is believed that the Panthelis have two major strategies they use when bringing down prey. Which one they pick depends on the creature they are looking to topple. The most common of the two is used when they come across armored prey. Beasts like the Isodon and the Propabis are covered in thick plates that can repel tooth and claw. Any attack on this impenetrable shell would be useless, which makes hunting difficult when your prey is coated in the stuff. The Panthelis know this, so they would never just dive in and try to brute force it. What they also know, however, is that this armor is not everywhere. The tops and sides may be covered, but the underbelly is not. With this knowledge, the pack will take formation as they close in. The two hunters on the outer edges will break off and flank the animal from both sides. The remaining hunters will slow their charge, waiting for the two to catch the prey's attention. The flankers will converge on the beast and aggravate it, swiping at their face and rear with long claws. What they are doing is baiting out a clamp down. Since Isodons and Propabis have thick armor and vulnerable underbellies, they will use their many legs to anchor themselves so that their plates touch the ground. Against most predators, this tactic keeps them from crawling under and removes their major weak point. For Panthelis, it is the one move they are waiting for. When the prey has stopped moving and has locked itself down, the others will join the party. Arranging themselves in a horizontal line, the rest of the hunters will run full speed at the side of the hunkered down animal. They will bring their head plates low so that the bottom spiked lip is almost cutting through the dirt. At full force, the pack will ram into the side of their prey. With their tough carapaces, such an impact hardly effects them, but it will be quite a blow for the victim! This attack is meant to surprise their prey and dislodge some of their legs. Against younger Isodons or Probabis, this initial ramming attack can completely dislodge them and send them tumbling. When up against adults, this merely weakens their hold. This is fine, as the Panthelis are not done yet. As you may have noticed, their head plates have sort of a plow-like shape to them. The ramming hunters will slide this sharp bottom beneath the target's plates and begin to push. With their strong back legs, the Panthelis will try to push forwards and upwards, looking to expose the vulnerable underbelly. While the team tries to pry the creature free, the two flankers will continue their assault. Swipes at the face will keep the prey focused on protecting their head, making it harder for them to resist the dislodging. As prey is slowly peeled up from the ground, the sharp noses of the prying team will slide forward and bite into the flesh. This helps weaken the animal even as they struggle to topple it. If they are capable of pulling it up high enough, the two flankers will dash towards the exposed underbelly and begin to slash and tear. They aim to disembowel the target or at least take it out through blood loss. Even if the prying team doesn't have the strength to hold the target up for the long, the horrible injuries they cause may weaken it enough for them to finish the job later. If the Panthelis are faced with prey that is not armored, like the Halugyth, they will bust out their other strategy. The pack will spread out to surround the prey, running in circles to keep them pinned down. One by one, the hunters will take turns charging at the target. If the animal is taller than them, they will run at its legs, letting their sharp blades slice at their skin and flesh. If the prey is smaller, they will curve at the last second so that the sides of the head plate cut them. As one runs at the target, the rest will keep out of striking distance and will work to annoy the creature. Their goal is to either cut the legs out from under them or weaken them enough that the pack can converge and finish them off. When their prey drops, they will rush in and use their claws to kill them. Then they shall feast, using their serrated limbs on their belly to carve out pieces to feed to their mandibles. If the pack has young, they shall carrying pieces of the kill back to them and the guardian mother. For breeding, the strongest female from the pack is the one that will bear the offspring. She shall select the healthiest male, which is often determined by the width of their side blades. When the time comes, she shall lay three to four eggs in a carefully selected spot. What the female is looking for is a very specific species of mushroom, which is known for its foul odor and noxious spores. It seems that the Panthelis are immune to the choking clouds it lets out, so they lay their eggs in clusters of this fungi so that they are safe from predators. Even then, the mother will keep close watch. She will no longer participate in the hunts, instead remaining with the eggs until they hatch. Even when the young do emerge, she shall stay with them and protect them. The mushrooms will continue to aid her and the offspring, as they keep away potential threats. In return, the fungi will get plenty of Panthelis dung from group, as they do not move far from the spot. Honestly, I find this relationship pretty interesting! A predator and a waste-eating mushroom working together! To the demons and shades that call the Underworld home, the Panthelis are a very situational hazard. While they are indeed a threat to those who traverse the fungal forests, they are incapable of traveling through small tunnels due to their wide heads. Creatures like the False Olm can be a danger in any environment, but these guys are limited to the forests they dwell in. What also helps is the fact that they cannot climb the mushrooms pillars that dominate the forest. Their sharp limbs are too good at slicing through the flesh, so they just slide down whenever they try. When demons and shades travel through these ecosystems, they will climb up on the stalks and make their way atop the branches and nets. If one was foolish enough to walk on the ground, they would risk being targeted by a hungry pack. Demons have the unfortunate problem of being tall, which means the Panthelis will look to cut their legs out from under them. Shades that are not inhabiting a false body can easily lose arms to their blades, eventually being cut down enough for the pack to dive in with claws unsheathed. Though they are dangerous, some hunt these beasts for their claws and famous head plates. The head plate can be carved up into a weapon or shield or even both! As for their meat, it isn't really worth it. It seems they do not give enough flesh for hunters to bother, and even then, it is said that it tastes like copper. The odd thing, though, is that demons will still harvest the meat from killed Panthelis and they will still totally eat it. Valac did that after he finished off a wounded one that we came across during an expedition. As we sat around the fire, he went on about how nasty Panthelis tasted as he proceeded to eat the whole thing. I tried a bite and spat it out, but he just kept going. I didn't have the courage or stupidity to tell him to either stop complaining or stop eating it. If I had, I probably would have become the target of another prank. Besides that, watching a Panthelis pack hunt as we sat atop the fungal stalks was an absolute delight! It was a little tough to see due to the low lighting, but I ate up every second of it! The toughest part was getting up there to begin with, as I am not that great of a climber! I had to awkwardly shimmy up one of the stalks as Vespar climbed behind me and made sure I didn't fall off. I don't know how they did it so easily, as mushroom flesh is not as sturdy as tree bark, and I felt like I slipped farther down than I actually climbed. The nice thing was that I knew Vespar would catch me if I fell, but the bad thing was that I had to deal with Valac constantly cracking wise that me and the fungal pillar should "get a room." Chlora Myron Dryad Natural Historian

#monster #creature #arthropod #marrella #art #drawing

23 notes · View notes

classyfoxdestiny · 3 years

Text

FREEZE! Animals on the Prowl

If you thought human beings were expressive, take a look at these animals; they beat us hollow!

And, to prove that, it is that time of the year again — The Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest.

Developed and produced by the Natural History Museum, London, it offers a peek into the lives of various animal species from around the world.

The exhibition, which is held at the Natural History Museum, opens on October 15, 2021.

This year’s competition attracted over 50,000 entries from professionals and amateurs across 95 countries.

The winners will be announced via a virtual awards ceremony, streamed from the Natural History Museum on October 12.

Take a look at some of the stunning entries.

Please click on the images below for a better look.

The Great Swim

IMAGE: When the Tano Bora coalition of male cheetahs leapt into the raging Talek River in Kenya’s Maasai Mara, Dilini feared they would not make it.

Unseasonable, relentless rain (possibly linked to the changing climate) had, by January 2020, caused the worst flooding local elders had ever known.

Cheetahs are strong (if not keen) swimmers and with the prospect of more prey on the other side of the river, they were determined.

Dilini followed them for hours from the opposite bank as they searched for a crossing point.

Male cheetahs are mostly solitary but sometimes stay with their brothers or team up with unrelated males.

The Tano Bora (Maasai for ‘magnificent five’) is an unusually large coalition, thought to comprise two pairs of brothers, joined later by a single male.

‘A couple of times the lead cheetah waded into the river, only to turn back,’ says Dilini.

Calmer stretches — perhaps with a greater risk of lurking crocodiles — were spurned. ‘Suddenly, the leader jumped in,’ she says.

Three followed and, then, finally the fifth. Dilini watched them being swept away by the torrents, faces grimacing.

Against her expectations and much to her relief, all five made it. They emerged onto the bank some 100 metres (330 feet) downstream and headed straight off to hunt.

Photograph: Buddhilini de Soyza/Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2021

Net Loss

IMAGE: In the wake of a fishing boat, a slick of dead and dying herrings covers the surface of the sea off the coast of Norway.

The boat had caught too many fish and when the encircling wall of the purse-seine net was closed and winched up, it broke, releasing tons of crushed and suffocated animals.

Audun was on board a Norwegian coastguard vessel, on a project to satellite-tag killer whales.

The whales follow the migrating herrings and are frequently found alongside fishing boats, where they feed on the fish that leak out of the nets.

For the Norwegian coastguard — responsible for surveillance of the fishing fleet — the spectacle of carnage and waste was effectively a crime scene. So Audun’s photographs became the visual evidence in a court case that resulted in a conviction and fine for the owner of the boat.

Overfishing is one of the biggest threats to ocean ecosystems. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, more than 60 per cent of fisheries today are either ‘fully fished’ or collapsed; almost 30 per cent are at their limit (‘overfished’).

Norwegian spring-spawning herring — part of the Atlantic herring population complex — was in the nineteenth century the most commercially fished fish population in the North Atlantic; by the end of the 1960s, it had been fished almost to extinction.

This is regarded as a classic example of how a combination of bad management, little knowledge and greed can have a devastating and sometimes permanent effect, not only on the species itself but on the whole ecosystem.

The Atlantic herring came close to extinction. It took 20 years and a near-ban on fishing for the populations to recover, though it is still considered vulnerable to overfishing.

The recovery of the herring has been followed by an increase in the numbers of their predators, such as killer whales, but it is a recovery that needs continued monitoring of herring numbers and fisheries, as Audun’s picture shows.

Photograph: Audun Rikardsen/Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2021

Raw Moment

IMAGE: Bright red blood dripped from her muzzle – oxygenated blood, indicating that her wildebeest meal was still alive.

Perhaps being inexperienced, this young lioness had not made a clean kill and had begun eating the still struggling animal.

Now, with a paw holding it down, she gave Lara an intense stare.

More than two million wildebeest move through the north of Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park on their annual migration in search of greener grass, providing the Serengeti lions with a seasonal glut of food.

Lara had spotted the lioness just as she pounced.

Lions’s primary hunting strategy is stalking, but this one had just been resting in the long grass when the wildebeest wandered by.

‘She was already quite full,’ says Lara, ‘probably after feeding the night before, but she grabbed the opportunity for an easy meal.’

Though most successful when hunting with a pride, a single lion can bring down an animal twice its weight.

A lion would usually pull it down backwards or sideways and then lunge for the throat or nose, gripping firmly until the victim could no longer cause injury with flailing horns or hooves.

Lying in a specially adapted vehicle, with the sides folded down, Lara framed her low-angle close-up. Her arresting portrait captures the rawness of the moment and the intensity of the lioness’s stare.

She didn’t eat much, says Lara, before leaving the kill to walk off with the male whom she had been lying up with, seemingly more interested in mating than feeding.

Photograph: Lara Jackson/Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2021

Apollo Landing

IMAGE: As dusk starts to fall, an Apollo butterfly settles on an oxeye daisy.

Emelin had long dreamed of photographing the Apollo, a large mountain butterfly with a wingspan up to 90 millimetres (31/2 inches) and now one of Europe’s threatened butterflies, at risk from the warming climate and extreme weather events.

In summer, on holiday in the Haut-Jura Regional Nature Park, on the French-Swiss border, Emelin found himself surrounded by alpine meadows full of butterflies, including Apollos. Though slow flyers, the Apollos were constantly on the move.

The solution was this roost, in a woodland clearing, where the butterflies were settling. But a breeze meant the daisies were moving.

Also, the light was fading.

After numerous adjustments of settings and focus, Emelin finally achieved his emblematic image, the whites standing out in stark contrast and just daubs of colour — the yellow hearts of the daisies and the red eyespots of the Apollo.

Photograph: Emelin Dupieux/Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2021

Lockdown Chicks

IMAGE: Three rose-ringed parakeet chicks pop their heads out of the nest hole as their father returns with food. Ten-year-old Gagana, on the balcony of his parents’ bedroom, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, was watching.

The hole was at eye level with the balcony, in a dead areca-nut palm in the backyard, which his parents had deliberately left standing to attract wildlife.

In the spring of 2020, during the long days of the island-wide lockdown, Gagana and his older brother had hours of entertainment watching the parakeet family and experimenting with their cameras, sharing lenses and a tripod, always mindful that the slightest movement or noise would stop the chicks from showing themselves.

When incubating the eggs, the female stayed inside while the male foraged (for fruit, berries, nuts and seeds mainly), feeding her by regurgitating the food.

When Gagana took this picture, both parents were feeding the growing chicks. Only when they fledged did Gagana realise that there were as many as five chicks.

Also known as ring-necked parakeets, these medium-sized parrots are native to Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan as well as a band of sub-Saharan Africa, but feral populations are now found in many countries including the UK.

These are often found in urban settings, where they sometimes even breed in holes in brick walls.

Photograph: Gagana Mendis Wickramasinghe/Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2021

Beautiful Bloodsucker

IMAGE: The best way to photograph a female ornamented mosquito, says Gil, is to let it bite you.

The elegant Sabethes mosquitoes, found only in Latin America, are just 4 millimetres (0.16 inches) long and skittish.

Only the females bite — they need a blood meal to produce eggs — and, in doing so, can act as vectors of tropical diseases such as yellow fever and dengue fever.

Their long legs sport brushes of hairs (possibly important in attracting mates) and their hind legs are typically raised and waved around as they bite.

With large compound eyes and sensitive, feathery antennae, they can detect the slightest movement.

So when this one, in central Ecuador, landed on Gil, he kept stock-still as he framed it, head on, proboscis poised to pierce his finger knuckle.

Focus-stacking six exposures, he captured it in perfect symmetry, highlighting its jewel-like body and iridescent wings against the neutral background of his hiking trousers.

Its bite, he admits, was rather painful.

Photograph: Gil Wizen/Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2021

The Gripping End

IMAGE: Clutched in the coils of a golden tree snake, a red-spotted tokay gecko stays clamped onto its attacker’s head in a last attempt at defence.

Named for their to-kay call, tokay geckos are large — up to 40 centimetres (16 inches) long — feisty and have powerful jaws.

They are also a favourite prey of the golden tree snake.

This snake, common in the lowland forests of South and Southeast Asia, also hunts lizards, amphibians, birds and bats and is one of five snakes that can ‘fly’, expanding its ribs and flattening its body to glide from branch to branch.

Wei was photographing birds at a park near his home in Bangkok, Thailand, when his attention was caught by the loud croaking and hissing warnings of the gecko. It was being approached by the golden tree snake, coiled on a branch above and slowly letting itself down.

As the snake struck, injecting its venom, the gecko turned and clamped onto the snake’s upper jaw.

Wei watched as they wrestled but, within minutes, the snake had dislodged the gecko, coiled tightly around it and was squeezing it to death.

While still hanging from the loop of its tail, the slender snake then began the laborious process of swallowing the gecko whole.

Photograph: Wei Fu/Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2021

Storm Fox

IMAGE: This fox was busy searching in the shallows for salmon carcasses — sockeye salmon that had died after spawning.

At the water’s edge, Jonny was lying on his chest, aiming for a low, wide angle.

The vixen was one of only two red foxes resident on the tiny island in Karluk Lake, on Alaska’s Kodiak Island, and she was surprisingly bold.

Jonny had followed her over several days, watching her forage for berries, pounce after birds and playfully nip at the heels of a young brown bear.

Taking advantage of the window of deepening atmospheric light created by a storm rolling in, he was after a dramatic portrait.

But working with a manual flash, he had to pre-set the power for a soft spotlight — just enough to bring out the texture of her coat at relatively close range.

Now he was hoping she would come closer. As she did, his companion and fellow researcher raised up the diffused flash for him.

It was just enough to pique her curiosity, giving Jonny his atmospheric portrait — studio-style — moments before the deluge of rain.

Photograph: Jonny Armstrong/Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2021

Deep Feelers

IMAGE: In deep water off the French Mediterranean coast, among cold-water black coral, Laurent came across a surreal sight — a vibrant community of thousands of narwhal shrimps.

Their legs weren’t touching, but their exceptionally long, highly mobile outer antennae were.

It appeared that each shrimp was in touch with its neighbours and that, potentially, signals were being sent across a far-reaching network.

Research suggests that such contact is central to the shrimps’ social behaviour, in pairing and competition.

In such deep water (78 metres down — 256 feet), Laurent’s air supply included helium (to cut back on nitrogen absorbed), which enabled him to stay at depth longer, stalk the shrimps and compose an image at close quarters.

Against the deep-blue of the open water, floating among the feathery black coral (which are white when living), the translucent narwhal shrimps looked exceptionally beautiful, with their red and white stripes, long orange legs and sweeping antennae.

Between a shrimp’s bulbous stalked eyes, flanked by two pairs of antennae, is a beak-like serrated rostrum that extended well beyond its 10-centimetre (4 inch) bodies.

Narwhal shrimps are normally nocturnal and often burrow in mud or sand or hide among rocks or in caves during the day, which is where Laurent was more used to seeing them.

They are also fished commercially.

When shrimp-fishing involves bottom-trawling over such deep-water locations, it destroys the slow-growing coral forests as well as their communities.

Photograph: Laurent Ballesta/Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2021

Toxic Design

IMAGE: This eye-catching detail of a small river in the Geamana Valley, within Romania’s Apuseni Mountains, took Gheorghe by surprise.

Though he had been visiting the region for several years, using his drone to capture images of the valley’s ever-changing patterns, he had never come across such a striking combination of colours and shapes.

These designs — perhaps made sharp by recent heavy rain — are the result of an ugly truth.

In the late 1970s, more than 400 families living in Geamana were forced to leave to make way for waste flowing from the nearby Rosia Poieni mine — a mine exploiting one of the largest deposits of copper ore and gold in Europe.

The picturesque valley became a ‘tailings pond’ filled with an acidic cocktail, containing pyrite (fool’s gold), iron and other heavy metals, laced with cyanide.

These toxic materials have infiltrated the groundwater and threatened waterways more widely.

The settlement was gradually engulfed with millions of tons of toxic waste, leaving just the old church tower protruding and the sludge still piling up.

His composition — ‘to draw attention to the ecological disaster’ — captures the elemental colours of heavy metals in the river and the ornate radiating banks of this shockingly toxic landscape.

Photograph: Gheorghe Popa/Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2021

Up For Grabs

IMAGE: In southern California, USA, a juvenile white-tailed kite reaches to grab a live mouse from the clutches of its hovering father.

A more experienced bird would have approached from behind (it’s easier to coordinate a mid-air transfer if you are both moving in the same direction), but this cinnamon streaked youngster had been flying for just two days and still had much to learn.

It must master aerial food exchange until it is capable of hunting for itself (typically by hovering, then dropping down to grab mainly small mammals).

Later, it needs to perform aerial courtship rituals (where a male offers prey to a female).

To get the shot, Jack had to abandon his tripod, grab his camera and run. The result was the highlight of three years’ work — the action and the conditions came together perfectly.

The fledgling missed but then circled around and seized the mouse.

Photograph: Jack Zhi/Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2021

Mushroom Magic

IMAGE: It was on a summer night, at full moon, after monsoon rain, that Juergen found the ghost fungus, on a dead tree in the rainforest near his home in Queensland, Australia.

He needed a torch to keep to the track, but every few metres he would switch it off to scan the dark for the ghostly glow.

His reward was this cluster of hand-sized fruiting bodies.

Comparatively few species of fungi are known to make light in this way, through a chemical reaction: luciferin oxidising in contact with the enzyme luciferase. But why the ghost fungus glows is a mystery.

No spore-dispersing insects seem to be attracted by the light, which is produced constantly and may just be a by-product of the fungi’s metabolism.

Juergen crouched on the forest floor for at least 90 minutes to take eight five-minute exposures to capture the dim glow at different focal points, which were merged (focus stacked) to create one sharp-focus image of the tree-trunk display.

Photograph: Juergen Freund/Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2021

The Nurturing Wetland

IMAGE: Houses on the edge of Kakinada city reach the estuary, buffered from the sea by the remains of a mangrove swamp.

Development has already destroyed 90 per cent of the mangroves — salt-tolerant trees and shrubs — along this eastern coastal area of Andhra Pradesh, India.

Mangroves are now recognised as vital for coastal life, human and non-human.

Their roots trap organic matter, providing carbon storage, slow incoming tides, protect communities against storms and create nurseries for numerous fish and other species that fishing communities rely on.

Flying his drone over the area, Rakesh could see the impact of human activities — pollution, plastic waste and mangrove clearance — but this picture seemed to sum up the protective, nurturing girdle that mangroves provide for such storm-prone tropical communities.

Photograph: Rakesh Pulapa/Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2021

Lynx On The Threshold

IMAGE: A young Iberian lynx pauses in the doorway of the abandoned hayloft where it was raised, on a farm in eastern Sierra Morena, Spain. He will soon be leaving his mother’s territory.

Once widespread on the Iberian Peninsula of Spain and Portugal, by 2002 there were fewer than 100 lynx in Spain and none in Portugal.

Their decline was driven by hunting, killing by farmers, habitat loss and loss of prey (they eat mainly rabbits).

Thanks to ongoing conservation efforts — reintroduction, rewilding, prey boosting and the creation of natural corridors and tunnels — Iberian lynx have escaped extinction and, though still endangered, are fully protected.

Only recently, with numbers increasing, have they begun to take advantage of human environments. This individual is one of the latest in a family line to emerge from the old hayloft.

After months of waiting, Sergio’s carefully-set camera trap finally gave him the picture he wanted.

Photograph: Sergio Marijuán/Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2021

A Caring Hand

IMAGE: After a feed of special formula milk, an orphaned grey-headed flying-fox pup lies on a ‘mumma roll’, sucking on a dummy and cradled in the hand of wildlife-carer Bev.

She was three weeks old when she was found on the ground in Melbourne, Australia, and taken to a shelter.

Grey-headed flying-foxes, endemic to eastern Australia, are threatened by heat-stress events and destruction of their forest habitat where they play a key role in seed dispersal and pollination.

They also come into conflict with people, get caught in netting and on barbed wire and electrocuted on power lines.

At eight weeks, the pup will be weaned onto fruit, then flowering eucalyptus.

After a few months, she will join a creche and build up flight fitness, before being moved next to Melbourne’s Yarra Bend bat colony, for eventual release.

Photograph: Douglas Gimesy/Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2021

Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/ Rediff.com

. Source link

0 notes

sheminecrafts · 3 years

Text

Anyone is building a marketplace for advice, one 5-minute call at a time

Anyone, an audio app that’s building a ‘marketplace for advice’ one five-minute phone call at a time, is launching new versions of its iOS and Android apps today* and beginning to large-scale onboarding after operating in a limited closed beta for the past six months.

The app — which was founded around 18 months ago (so pre-pandemic) — has a simple premise: Advice is best delivered verbally, concisely and one-to-one, in a time-limited format.

Video is distracting and a hassle to fit into busy people’s schedules. Text is time-consuming and prone to misunderstandings. But a simple phone call can — quickly and usefully — cut through, is the thinking here.

Hence the decision to hard-stop at a five-minute phone call. The app automatically terminates each call at the five minute mark — no ifs, no buts (and, well, hopefully fewer time-nibbling ‘ums’ and ‘ahs’ too).

To fund development of the marketplace, the team has raised around $4 million in total to date — mainly comprised of a $3.6M seed round led by Berlin-based Cavalry Ventures with participation from Supernode Global, Antler and a number of high-profile angel investors (contributing angels include Atomico’s Sarah Drinkwater and Sameer Singh; and ustwo’s Matt ‘Mills’ Miller, among others).

Broadly speaking, online audio has shown its staying power through a sustained podcast boom and, more recently, a buzzy moment for social audio, via developments like Clubhouse and Twitter Spaces — which speak to a general sense of pandemic-struck ‘Zoom fatigue’ as remote workers max out on video calls at work yet still crave meaningful connections with other people at a time when opportunities to mingle in person are still limited vs pre-COVID-19.

A lot of social audio can still be very noisy, though, and Anyone wants to be anything but. This is short-form, topic-specific audio.

Clubhouse closes an undisclosed $4B valuation Series C round, as tech giants’ clones circle

Why five minutes? It’s short enough for a busy person to almost not have to think twice about taking a cold call from someone they’ve probably never spoken to before — while being just about long enough that some useful advice can be distilled and imparted across those 300 seconds of one-to-one connection.

Naturally the short format does not allow for group/conference calls. It’s one-to-one only.

Anyone’s CEO also reckons this “intimate”, short-form audio format could help drive diversity of advice by encouraging people whose voices may be underrepresented in traditional mentorship fora to feel more comfortable offering their time and knowledge to others. (He touts a current 50:50 user-split between men and women offering expertise through the app — and 25% people of color.)

“It’s not about taking long form meetings and compressing them — it’s about taking those conversations that would never have happened… and making them happen,” says CEO and co-founder David Orlic, pointing out that mainstream calendar apps have a default meeting slot that’s set to half an hour or an hour. So the wider thesis is that our current tools/infrastructure just aren’t set up to help people give and grab bitesized advice. (And, well, on the Internet anyone can claim to be an expert — but of course you can’t rely on the quality of the ‘advice’ you find freely floating around online.)

“Our belief is that there are a lot of five minute problems that we could be solving — whereas there are a lot of 30 or 60 minute problems that have solutions designed for them already. So we’re kind of building this for those conversations that aren’t happening,” he adds.

Orlic hints that the intention is also to leave Anyone’s callers a little hungry for more — to feed demand for more five-minute conversations and so fuel transactions across the marketplace.

“If you look at the demand side — the callers — there’s always multiple calls involved. So people will call a lot of people and ask them basically the same question or bounce ideas. And then they will aggregate those insights into something that’s much more valuable than one conversation,” he continues. “So it’s like building an advisory board for yourself.”

The idea for the platform came after Orlic and his co-founders realized they could trace key career decisions to a handful of short conversations — brief moments of advice that ended up profoundly influencing the trajectory of their working lives, to the point where they were still looking back on them years later.

“None of us in the founding team had any networks to speak of when we were growing up. And we had fairly little exposure to opportunity. Alfred is from a small village in the middle of nowhere in Sweden, I grew up in an immigrant family, and Sam is a working class bloke from Leeds. And looking back at our careers we could track them back to this handful of conversations — these haphazard moments when someone gave us a piece of critical advice,” he tells TechCrunch. “For them it was just another five minute chat but for us it turned out to be life-changing.”

“For Alfred it was some quick advice on how he could land a job at Google which he managed to do and spent almost a decade there working as a growth guy on Google Chrome and other stuff; for Sam it was how to start a company; for me it was the suggestion that I as a creative should pursue an MBA — which I ended up doing. So we started thinking long and hard about the concept of advice, and we became obsessed with opening up these closed networks.”

The aim for Anyone’s marketplace is to make similarly pivotal moments accessible to all sorts of people — by giving the app’s users the chance to call any expertise provider on the network (provided they can afford the fee) and ask their question.

A slogan on its website poses the question “imagine if you could call anyone in the world” — which is certainly a poetic-sounding moonshot to be shooting for, although the size of the user-base remains far off that global vision at this early stage.

“What we’re building is really the phone book of the future,” says Orlic, slotting his elevator pitch into our ~30-minute phone conversation. “We’re building a place for unique, one-to-one, five minute experiences — which is something really different from most social audio plays.”

He points to a trend of other apps intentionally applying limits to change/define the user experience in behavior-shaping ways (like Poparazzi, a self-styled ‘anti-Instagram’ photo sharing app that doesn’t let you take selfies to make you take more pics of your friends and vice versa; or the dating app Thursday which limits users to one active day of use per week to prevent endless swiping and nudge matches toward going on an actual in-person date).

The marketplace component of Anyone’s app is another intentional limit too, of course. Calls are not free by default.

Putting a price on Anyone’s one-to-one advice is one way to try to weed out unserious (or indeed abusive) users from those genuinely seeking others’ expertise on specific topics.

But primarily it’s there to provide an incentivize for people who have expertise worth sharing to make themselves available to take cold-calls (even very short ones) from strangers/those outside their existing contact networks.

Pricing for a five-minute call is set by Anyone users. So the call fee can vary from nothing at all (if the user distributes a free voucher code) to as little as $5 or all the way up to $500 (!) which does sound pretty crazy expensive. But Orlic notes users can choose to donate their fee to a charity if they do not wish to financially benefit from the advice they’re dishing out (so there may be instances where a high fee includes a philanthropic component).

With such highly variable fees, the app will need to have a good safety mechanism to re-confirm a user really does want to be charged the specific fee. (And, god forbid, to avoid the risk of butt-dialling…

)

“If you want to connect with someone I think it’s reasonable to put a cost on the scarcest resource on the planet which is someone’s undivided attention,” Orlic argues, suggesting that plenty of mainstream tech confuses transient ‘access’ with attention. “We can ‘access’ people everywhere — we can listen to them, read them, follow them. But that’s not the same as attention… Someone’s undivided attention is a remarkable, remarkable thing. And the five-minute cap forces you to be very clear and to the point about what you want to chat about.”

With its intentionally attention-slicing infrastructure — which manages ephemeral contacts into precisely measured and billed units — “all of a sudden you have all of these conversations that wouldn’t have happened happening thanks to this manageable way of connecting with people”, is the claim.

Anyone users wanting to list themselves on the marketplace to sell one-to-one advice will need to create a profile that specifies their availability to take calls and some basic details (name, career details, location etc), as well as setting their five minute fee.

They also need to provide details of the “conversation topics” they’re comfortable giving advice on.

Co-founder Alfred Malmros’ profile includes examples such as: “Make the leap. Quitting a dream job to make it on your own”; “Rising quickly in a large organisation — politics vs. talent”; and “It takes a fool to remain sane. Thriving as an employee” — so topic steerage looks intended to be not only specific but maybe also give a flavor of the individual’s personality to further help advice-seekers decide if they want to shell out for five minutes of that particular person’s time.

The risk of imposters or low quality advice is being managed by “vetting and verification” processing all advisors have to go through prior to being able to sell, per Orlic. “Beyond verification, we put a lot of work into making sure that everyone on Anyone understands what constitutes good advice, how to avoid projection and biases in conversations, etc,” he adds.

The platform also incorporates a rating system — again, in an attempt to keep quality up across the marketplace.

Anyone’s early users are a blend of creators, founders and investors, per Orlic — including a lot of first and second time founders, as you might expect, with the pandemic having limited in-person startup networking opportunities.

He also says they’ve attracted a lot of people mid career, looking for advice on how to quit their jobs and pivot into something totally new — again, likely fuelled by the pandemic reconfiguring many things around how we work (and, more broadly, how we may be thinking about work-life balance).

“When you’re doing that kind of big life decision you really want to connect with a lot of people and ask around,” he suggests on the interest from established professionals looking for advice on a career switch. “Also there’s a high willingness to pay, I’d argue, when you’re in that position.”

“Business is a huge thing as a marketplace for advice,” Orlic adds, noting that a record number of businesses started in the last year too. “Investors — by the way — love this for deal flow because they can speed date a lot of founders and then pick who they continue with.”

Parents are another community of early users he highlights — saying they’ve been both offering and soliciting advice during the early test phase. He says one of the best pieces of advice he’s personally gained through the network was a conversation about parenting, adding: “I’ve had some really profound conversations with other dads. People that know a lot more about parenting than I do — where I’ve gotten really actionable advice and support. So that has been a big thing for me personally.”

Orlic also says he’s excited about potential in the area of mental health — suggesting the short-form format could be helpful to get people to have conversations about therapy which, since they’re so bitesized and bounded, may be a non-intimidating introduction toward taking up more sustained support.

He also mentions that he’s excited about the potential for civic society to make use of the platform as a tool for driving public engagement and awareness around issues and campaigns.

Appropriately enough, Anyone’s team has been dogfooding by using the app to get advice to help build the startup. (Orlic admits he asked someone on the network how to get TechCrunch’s attention and was advised, by the unnamed investor, to pitch this reporter — so it sounds like he got some solid advice there ;)

The app has had around 1,000 test users during the closed beta period — with some 12,000 on the wait-list that Orlic says they’ll be onboarding over the coming weeks.

Network building — so growing the size of the user-base on both the expertise and demand sides — is clearly going to be a key challenge here. (And notably Orlic emphases the network effects expertise of its angel backer, Singh.)

Anyone’s five-minute format may be bitesize enough to encourage users to spread the word of any good experiences they have on the platform to their (wider) social graphs on mainstream social networks. Although the calls themselves must surely remain private between the two interlocutors — so there are some hard limits on the app content being able to go viral.

(At the time of writing, a link to Anyone’s privacy policy wasn’t working so we asked for a confirm on the privacy of calls — and Orlic told us: “All calls on the new app are completely e2e encrypted, and there’s no way to listen in on an ongoing conversation. For user safety, calls are recorded, anonymised and stored in a secure environment for maximum 30 days. So in case a user reports a specific call in the app and wants a refund, or if an advisor flags up harassment or other serious issues, we can deal with that in a sustainable way.”)

At the same time it’s not hard to imagine a platform like Twitter (or, indeed, LinkedIn) seeing value in offering a similar one-to-one user call capability — and bolting it on as a feature on an established network where users have already built up extensive social graphs. So If Anyone’s idea really takes off the risk of cloning could get very real — which means it will have to balance network building/growth with attention to the quality of the community it’s building and innovating to keep its users happily stuck to its own (inevitably smaller) network.

Commenting on backing the app in a statement, Claude Ritter, managing partner at Cavalry Ventures, said: “What sets Anyone apart from other audio apps is the quality and connection of 1:1 advice. The team saw the potential of audio and the emergence of the creator economy long before the hype. We’re impressed by what they’ve accomplished to date and by their mission to build the phone book of the future.”

Around 9,000 five-minute calls have been made via Anyone’s platform so far, per Orlic — who says the goal they’re shooting for as they open up access now is to get to 100,000 calls within a year.

The business model for now is to take a straightforward 20% cut of the advice fee.

On the fee side there’s also potential for things to get bumpy if momentum builds around the concept — given that platform giants have been known to take a predatory approach to pricing when trying to close down creator-supporting upstart competition via their own fast-following clones. (See, for example, Facebook’s recent dive into offering a newsletter platform — for which it’s both paying writers upfront for contributions and, at least initially, not taking any cut of their subscriptions.)

It’s clear that Anyone will need to pay particular attention to the quality of the advice and community it’s building. It may even end up needing to hone in on serving particular niches and specialisms in order to leverage differentiation vs larger more generalist networks which have the advantage of larger user-bases should they decide to move in on the same ‘quick call’ turf.

At the same time, there are signs that some of the buzz around social audio may be fading away to more of a hmm as the hype dies down and app users tire of all the noise. But again, that’s why Anyone keeping the audio side intentionally short looks smart.

“We feel that we are part of a movement that is rebuilding the Internet as we know it and building something that is more sustainable and healthy — and really creating value,” says Orlic, discussing the changing landscape around social apps. “Closed social is a topic that I’m really excited by. We’ve seen this for years, with Slack channels and WhatsApp groups. We’ve seen social closing off because of a tonne of different reasons — and with Geneva and a lot of new really cool startups and platforms we’re seeing everything focus around communities. People building communities around specific verticals and then monetizing them in different ways. So we’re definitely a part of that wave.

“A lot of our most active users are people who have built audiences around specific topic and want more meaningful connections with those audiences — the Substack writers that use us as a way to both connect with their existing readers but also gaining new superfans, if you will, because when you’ve had a five minute chat with someone and then sign up to read their Substack, you will read everything they write after that kind of intro. So we’re definitely a part of that closed social. But as a business we are a marketplace — because again we’re obsessed with that idea of someone’s undivided attention being a very scarce resource and the fact that we’re seeing the ‘cameo-ification’ of everything and everyone. And that is also here to stay.”

“Monetization — in one way — sounds like a really crass and cynical concept but at the end of the day we want people to build income streams around things they’re passionate and know a lot about. At the end of the day that is a wonderful, wonderful thing,” he adds. “A creator middle class is a very exciting concept because looking at all the big platforms, old social media, we know where the money is going — it’s going to the top 0.1% of influencers and creators. Whereas small and mid tier creators are not making money to sustain themselves off their passion. For that you have all of these cohort-based courses through Maven. And platforms like us — that enable people to connect directly with each other in a one-to-one setting.

“We think it’s very cool that we’re doing an opinionated, one-to-one, five-minutes, audio-only platform because that gives us a unique positioning. And this is what excites the team. Seeing these stories come out of it — and those stories would not come out of it if it was just another broadcasting or Clubhouse thing.”

There is of course no small irony that it’s exactly because of the proliferation of mobile connectivity and apps — which have driven increased utility by providing people with on-demand access to so much data (and people) — that the traditional ‘quick call’ of old has been derailed, creating conditions where a startup feels there’s an opportunity to build a dedicated marketplace for scheduled quick phone calls. (Albeit, one that’s aiming to scale to a far wider network that the average person would have had in their phone book back in the 1980s, say.)

But as software and connectivity keeps eating the world, enforcing tech upgrades and reconfiguring learned behaviors, it’s clear that the resulting disruption can recreate the right conditions for new tools to come in and repackage some of the old convenience — which maybe got a bit lost in the noise.

*App Store review gods willing

Social networking app for women, Peanut, adds live audio rooms

LinkedIn confirms it’s working on a Clubhouse rival, too

from iraidajzsmmwtv https://ift.tt/3i6H0y2 via IFTTT

#IFTTT #iraidajzsmmwtv

0 notes

jorjathomas · 3 years

Text

Existing brands

When discussing our ideas, our group found it important to look at existing competitors and what qualities they have that could inspire our brand and its purpose to make a positive change. We mainly looked at the business called We Are Tala in this post however there is come other competitors which share similar ideas to us which we wanted to research. Below is some of Sushila’s research regarding the brand WeAreTala as well as another brand which I believe we could take inspiration from.

Sushilas Research; (italics is my analysis)

Packaging- Tala’s packaging is advertised as made out of 100% recycled plastic and is able to be recycled after use. Their tags are biodegradable with seeds inside which can be planted.

I think our brand should research into biodegradable seeds for tags as this could be an interesting way to engage consumers to unconsciously help the planet. These subtle changes could be a big change for customers to make a difference to the fashion industry. I think Self Made should aim to use a little plastics as possible and try to keep paper and cardboard to package our products. This is because although plastic packaging can be recyclable, the brand relies on the customer to put the waste the recycling or for it to disposed in recycle waste. Most of the time this might not happen so plastic is disposed into landfill. Cardboard is biodegradable as it is made from wood fibres so if this did occur after highly advising the consumer to recycle the packaging, it would be able to start a biodegrading process in comparison to plastic which takes hundred of years to decompose. Laura Parker (2018) from The National Geographic reports that ‘ the 8.3 billion metric tons that has been produced, 6.3 billion metric tons has become plastic waste. Of that, only nine percent has been recycled. The vast majority—79 percent—is accumulating in landfills or sloughing off in the natural environment as litter. Meaning: at some point, much of it ends up in the oceans, the final sink.’ I defiantly believe it would be beneficial to stay away from plastic packaging as it is possible as seen from fashion business such as ZARA.

Customers-Their customer base are women aged 20-35 who care about their bodies and the environment. These women are likely to be very active on social media, TALA suggests this in the way they show their clothes, the women are posing in scenes like what would be seen on Instagram. They show that they are inclusive of all sizes and people by using women of different sizes, ethnic backgrounds and disabilities in modelling. This shows what outfits look like on different sizes and that they are inclusive which encourages minorities and plus size women to purchase their products.

This is what inspired us to research into their brand as they welcome all women in society. We are defiantly going to convey Self Made with the same intentions as this will align with our vision and purpose. Overall making us a brand who focuses of making a change rather than making profits, with the help of imagery and encouraging illustrations, can help our brand achieve this message and engage all women who have the need to feel better mentally and physically.

Price-£30-£50 for leggings made from recycled materials, their price is similar to Gymshark so they are average for their market. They often do sales to get rid of extra stock with like this current one for 30% off selected lines of underwear, this encourages first time buyers to try a new garment which helps build their customer base. They also have a 10% off discount if you refer a friend to the brand, this helps promote the brand for very little cost using the customer and offering a good reward. If a brand is recommended by a friend they are likely to trust that friends opinion and make a purchase.

TALA is very similar to what kind of brand we want to create, they are environmentally aware and make clothes for the customers we wanted, their price range is good and they are also an online brand which is what we want for our brand so the prices appear to be realistic for us. They use more interesting colour than most environmentally aware brands and don’t limit their style to ‘looking’ sustainable (off whites, loose cottons) they found a way to be sustainable without compromising their brand idea which is something we were concerned about struggling with.

Vision and Purpose- But what does Tala actually stand for?

This fashion brand is known by their amazing activewear clothing but also by their sustainable style. Tala is a slow fashion brand that stands for the best for this planet, having a lot of partnerships with facilities who provide them the best sustainable technologies, processes, and materials. They also care about how their products are produced and who makes them, they research wisely before working with any supplier to make sure they hold the right intentions.

“We’ll only work with suppliers whose practices align with our values, and we ensure this through the use of regular external audits and by maintaining a conversation to constantly improve conditions.” – Tala, #itscooltobekind.

When it comes to being sustainable, we have to be ethical too and tala is a brand who cares about the ethics of their supply chain. Their mission right now is to create 100% recycled and upcycled sustainable styles that are accessible to everyone. On their webstore they also have a blog included called “Tala Talks” where they approach things such as sustainability, mental health, body confidence and other important themes, these talks are a good way for their team to express themselves, share their opinion and as well explain important topics, also, this is a good way to people get to know them a little better.

I defiantly believe that this brand has been a catalyst for certain areas of our brand, I have gained a lot of knowledge about sustainable materials off their website. I think we will defiantly create our brand similar to this but our pivotal point would be using more colour and techniques that would engage our younger audience and give of powerful moods. I will talk about colour psychology later. From my perspective, I think we should sell as much stock as tala does as keeping our brand small to an extent makes a consumer feel more unique when wearing our items. This could all change depending on the popularity of our brand of course but at the present moment, starting with less stock will keep our budget low and reduce stock waste problems and having create sales.

A brand ,which I surprisingly found on my Instagram Ads, uses a range of bright colours in order to influence a customers shopping habits. They incorporate brighter colours with crucial environmental information as well as their own promotion to create a positive message for their brand. This business is called The PanGaia.

What I love about this brand is that they don't just post their products advertising on Instagram but also create really good information surrounding their clothing. This helps a potential consumer become educated on certain environmental lifestyles aswell as becoming interested in their brand. I think this is a really smart way of using this platform as they use the standard ways of marketing such as influencer engagements. However, they also use these other posts that impact the audience more significantly. For example; You read a post on their profile explaining the impact fast fashion has on the environment. They explain popular fashion brands which impact fashion pollution and you realise that you shop their frequently. You most likely now feel bad and aren't happy with your shopping habits and how it is damaging the planet. Then as you scroll, in the following post PanGaia gives you an alternative solution to this problem by advertising their garments which causes you to engage and potentially want to buy from them as you know you are doing good to the planet. The void is filled and the brand has made you more conscious about fast fashion problems.

In addition to this smart technique, they also set out their feed based on particular colours trending at the time. They incorporate every post around garments and have them match one another which you can see in the images above. I really like this idea as it looks much more visually pleasing in my eyes as well as heightens their overall message as most of the posts relate to the environment in some sort of way. I think Self made should try to do this with their social media as this platform is one of the most important factors when trying to engage our audience. Keeping our Instagram with the same morals but with our own vision of helping women as well as sustainability could really help our brand become successful. A tutor mention doing a colour of the month which I thought was interesting to follow up on. Using our colour psychology knowledge and posting our products and inspiring posts similarly to PanGaia could make our brand stand out in comparison to our competitors.

To conclude, both of these brands can be considered as our competition in different ways however as our overall message is to create positivity I don't really feel the need to compete with them as they have the same message as us. They are both sustainable and want to help reduce fashion pollution. They inspire me more than anything and help me visualise what sort of identity I want this business to have. I think we should definitely use some of the techniques which I have explained in this post because they are adequate ways for our group to show our initial ideas for Self Made.

0 notes

stone-man-warrior · 3 years

Text

February 12, 2021: 4:21 pm:

https://www.cbs.com/shows/the-takeout/

https://twitter.com/CBSNews/status/1360306116685565954

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_Garrett

All signs point to The Takeout.

Major Elliot Garret, CBS news Chief Washington Correspondent.

The hostess with the mostess.

Bring him some Krispy Kreme’s, my treat.

================================

4:38 pm:

The record will show that a small airplane buzzed low and slow over my house at 4:38 pm.

=========

4:52 pm:

For those keeping score, I am winning.

https://www.premierguitar.com/articles/31382-mesaboogie-bandlander-50-100---winter-gear-slam-21?goal=0_93db14e670-536d3a40aa-65512397&mc_cid=536d3a40aa&mc_eid=941be062ce

Mesa Engineering: Badlander 50:

Made in USA at the World Wide Arm Wrestling Championship HQ City, Petaluma California.

When the terror takes over, they always go straight to the very best, first.

Mesa Engineering, World’s Premier Amplification Manufacturer.

Made in USA, by Canadian terror soldiers.

I like that Badlander 50.

==================

5:52 pm:

Here, you can watch and listen to two Canadian terror soldiers, Brad the Guitologist of YouTube fame, and Jeff Kiesel of Kiesel Guitars, as they use coded language on Google/YouTube to explain to other terror soldiers the intricate details of how US Citizen, disabled Medicare, Social Security beneficiaries make good targets for many reasons. They openly talk about “Partner Production”, forced experimental surgery on US disabled citizens, with use of Music Industry terminology as a shell basis for the terror language about kidnap and murder of US Citzen disabled people, the income that such people have, and how such Social Security income can be perpetuated after the victims are killed. They talk about a lot more than that with their coded language.

Kiesel has sent me two exploding guitars in my lifetime to my knowledge, and I suspect he sent others that were stolen in transit, and exploded when others in my neighborhood opened the case.

I may have been wrong when I reported that Mark Kiesel exploded along with Donald Trump at the Fred Meyer Gas Station on January 6, 2021, it looks as though I got Mark and Jeff Kiesel mixed up in my memory, so, that man I saw at the Fred Meyer Gas Station was more likely to have been Jeff Kiesel who exploded in a white bus when Donald Trump who was with him, and some others in the bus, opened the guitar case the Kiesel was going to send to me.

The Bus exploded out front of the Grants Pass Oregon Department of Motor Vehicles on Beacon Drive.

When US national Security is done jacking off, and wants to know more, I can say a lot more about Kiesel Guitars, Donald Trump, Fred Meyer, where the C-4 comes from, and a lot about kidnapped US Citizens of all backgrounds who are kidnapped and used as experimental amputation and plastic surgery victims and kept as pets by SAG members.

Until then, you can learn a lot by watching all of the Brad the Guitologist YouTube presentations to learn how to use music industry terms as basis for saying Canadian terror marching orders from Google/YouTube.

The way you can know that Kiesel Guitars are tools of terror soldiers, where buying one will be followed by an assassin, is to see that Kiesel Guitars are sold only factory direct. That is a common formula for terror take out of many “Businesses”. And, see that they make very pretty guitars, is bait, shiny, like a fish lure, and, especially, see that Kiesel makes weird, 8 string, and 9 string, maybe 10 string guitars at their shop, that tells musicians who are in the know about terror takeover to stay away from Kiesel to avoid confusion. The guitars are only a front for mass murder there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00ReU6IGACo

youtube

https://www.youtube.com/c/BradLinzyTheGuitologist/videos

================

6:22 pm:

https://twitter.com/Pontifex/status/1360204506743545865

The progression of Pope Tweets is a online Vatican request to purchase or otherwise obtain military grade arms.

The Twitter feed malfunctioned when I went to read the Pontifex account and presented that photo of “The Hanging Gardens of Babylon“ there. That photo is a part of today’s Trump Impeachment hearing, in a number of extremely complex ways that US national security is simply not interested in learning, they absolutely refuse to do their jobs, and are allowing ... assisting hard core mass murders who took over US Government, the current US Congress and President is who I mean when I say hard core mass murderers, to continue to kill and replace the population.

This is in response to the Pontifex request for conventional military weaponry: Melania is open for business, again.

https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1360356524531601418

Those drapes where the gold is showing through, is another piece to the “Hanging Gardens of Babylon“ terror comm.

What that is, the “Hanging Gardens of Babylon” is usually Nancy Pelosi’s nick name when money, or goods, or services are requested by terror operatives, she becomes the “Hanging Gardens of Babylon“, as the “Speaker” who is doing the babbling. This time is different, Melania seems to have taken on the role of the arms dealer, while the senate hearings are the “Babylon“, they just keep talking about bullshit that does not matter and won‘t make any difference ever, while all eyes are fixed on the the bullshit hearing distraction, meanwhile, a Biblical Sized set of terror events are taking place in the shadows, behind closed doors, probably in the same building where the bullshit hearing is being done.

Those gold hanging portions of draperies in the Senate hearing room, combined with the Twitter glitch that made that add come up with that gal in the bikini, means all systems are GO!. the Pieces, two of them for a Hanging Gardens Terror scenario, are all present and accounted for. There is a ton of other comm from the hearing that goes with this Vatican request for US Military conventional weaponry where Melania Trump has set up a “Pop-Up” arms vending kiosk, right there at the Capitol Building, not Mar-a-lago.

US national security personnel will likely be told some other bullshit, and they will be the ones that make the arrangements for the delivery of the tanks, airplanes, boats, big guns and bullets that will be taken to places that suit the Vatican, British, and Hollywood terror leadership.

This is not the first time the “Hanging Gardens of Babylon” has been used for supplying the Canadian/British/Vatican terror army with US Military equipment from the US Fake Congress and Office of (SAG) President at the White House.

Read carefully:

The people who are occupying the US Government are terrorists who took over, they are draining all of the US Military equipment out of US Possession, and into the hands of terror army platoons elsewhere, and within USA for use later on against the remaining population, and against other nations for Global Domination Under the Cross, Vatican/Britain rule, and Screen Actor Guild leadership who will become what they call themselves as “The Master Race” who train and command many custom surgically altered slave people to serve the needs of the terror leadership. That is what the “Partner Production“ has been for, to do experimental surgeries for the surgeons to learn what limits there are to crafting custom tailored human beings to use as slaves.

Do a search for: “US Military equipment on a train“ to see a small glimpse of the truth, the amount of equipment being sent away is enormous, and what you will find is only what people were able to see and film, a small percentage of what really is happening is shown.

Say Bye-Bye.

youtube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGp6AmhUv4g

=======================================

Military leaders convention Q & A from reporters:

☺ “I have a question for the Admiral of the Pacific Fleet, US navy”

☻ “I am the Admiral of the Pacific Fleet, what is your question?”

☺ “Admiral, I need to know who you take your orders from“

☻ “Military commanders take their orders from the Commander in Chief, who rely’s on US Congress to make military decisions”

☺ “Who would take your orders from in event that Congress and White House were hijacked, and the people there have been fooling everyone, and then you were made aware of that, that all of government was fake, and was fooling every one?“

☻ “I take my orders from the Commander in Chief”

☺ “You don‘t understand the question... in event that you learned that the Commander in Chief was a false president, then, who would you take your orders from?”

☻ “I would adhere to my duty to take orders from the Office of the President, the Commander in Chief”

We are all fucked because there are no rules anymore.

==========================================

8:52 pm:

Local Conditions:

40 degrees (F) and drizzle. Absence of wind.

new terror assassins team at 445 Jackpine, looks like a group of four so far. They are associated with Chartrand 376 Jackpine, and with US Postal Service terror cell. That group is likely to be the source of some new and different computer hacking I experienced today.

My guess is Vintage King Audio terror associates is also nearby. VKA and the US Postal Service are key players in “Partner Production”. The USPS is known as “The Stork” because part of the mail carrier’s normal daily routine as a terror army operative is to bring small kidnapped children to the Seventh Day Adventist nannies who raise them as disposable terror soldiers for doing the more dangerous attack and spy work for the Canadian terror army under Screen Actor Guild command hidden in Twitter news stories and in email promotions from the music industry. I suspect the new terror pansies at 445 Jackpine are hear in response to enlightened email I sent to Vintage King Audio in anticipation of luring some hard core murderous terror soldiers to my home, so that I can defend myself, and in doing so, perhaps gain attention from real national security personnel, so that maybe they will help me to regain some freedom, and interview me about what I have learned about global terrorism over the course of my lifetime, and mostly over the past twenty years or so here in Oregon.

The email I sent to Vintage King Audio was such that it should have produced a quick response, and indeed there are signs of such a response, so, all I need to do, is wait for the pansies at 445 Jackpine to make their move. They are likely to play the “Friendly new neighbor routine” where someone comes over to say they moved into the neighborhood, and brings some baked goods, while asking for some kind of item, tool, container, or other thing in return. They attack while the victim is looking for the thing they say they need.

Deadmotherfuckerswaitingtohappen are at 445 Jackpine, in league with whoever is occupying the Chartrand terror cell at 376 currently, as all of the Chartrand’s have been dead for more than six months, yet all of their belongings and vehicles remain at 376, and other people are always there watching, spying, and continuously scheming to try to kill me, while keeping me imprisoned inside of my home.

I suspect Portland Postal Police could be the terror cell at 445 Jackpine, there is one who goes by the name Officer Goonze, hence, the “Goonze Squad” name given to the Portland Postal Police.

“Lick it, stamp it, send it” is their motto.

The grey Mazda Oregon License 098 MDE I think it was, that was at 520 Jackpine, the people that had hopped the fence and stayed there for only one day, with big dogs, is no longer there at 520 Jackpine, and the place once again looks deserted as it normally does until new assassins come to occupy that for attack at my house, happens about one day per week, I don’t often get a chance to see their vehicles though.

I heard one gun shot in the distance from the direction of Grants Pass Community Church just one minute after passing by the cameras that are pointing at my driveway at Monroe’s terror cell. The cameras are everywhere, as I take a walk, I pass by where the terror bastards know where I am, and when I am there, and that is the time they begin their offensive attacking, County Sheriff is always on call to do the necessary frame work, replacement terror soldier plant, and the dirty job of paper work.

I took this photo on February 3, 2021. There, on that stump, on that thin pole at the top of it, is a camera. I am standing on my driveway near my driveway gate, that camera is fixed on the place where I walk, and is where I need to park to open and close the gate when I drive through there. That wire fence is the fence line that separates my property from where Monroe’s took over the property at 434 Jackpine about five years ago.

I have some other pictures I tried to send to my email, but the terror bastards have my phone hijacked, and the photo won‘t send until I kill the son of bitch at 445 Jackpine, then, it will send.

========================

10:01 pm:

Another short walk outside, and that’s one down. Three to go at 445.

They have accomplices stationed at Strong’s at 3747 Russell Road it looks like, there is a dead terror soldier evac happening now somewhere near 598 Jackpine, Manning terror cell, could be at 600 Jackpine Taylor terror cell.

=========================

10:29 pm:

Two more pictures taken on February 3, 2021. This is another angle of that same camera pointing at me for murder hit information as I walk by on my driveway, there is nothing else for that camera to see, it’s pointing at me all of the time, and that is only one of many such cameras pointed at me from many places at Monroe’s. I think the cameras they use for trying to kill me were sent to me by potentially helpful people who don‘t understand that I am the last remaining US Citizen for hundreds of miles around, the terror army is not going to allow me to get anything in the mail or by other delivery other than a bill for electricity, insurance, mortgage, phone or internet service. They certainly will never allow me to get any packages in the mail.

This one is a telescope on a tripod. That too, is pointed right at me when I take a walk or drive somewhere, it looks like it has a camera attached to the side where the viewing scope is at. That telescope has been pointed at me for a long time, from different places, they move that one around from time to time.

Please send help.

There are no public safety persons in Oregon.

All of the citizens have been killed and replaced with terror soldiers from Canada, some US Citizens may be held captive as slaves.

There is no more US national guard, they too were all killed and replaced long ago.

There are no medical services for US Citizens, so, if you do come to help, you need to bring your own hospital.

Please send US Military. There are approximately 50,000 armed terror soldiers in Josephine county. About 75,000 in Jackson county. About 25,000 in Douglass county, and about 25,000 more in Klamath county. Those are conservative estimates.

Be prepared for a verity of poison gasses, armed people who conceal small weapons, swords, nitrous oxide and other “Boutique” airborne gasses that make you sick, unable to defend.

Be prepared for an army that looks like white Christian church goers, married “Mating Pairs” of terror soldiers mostly from Quebec Canada, are bi-lingual French and English, most are illiterate, cannot read English, have “British Still” custom education, is all backwards and alternate English language use.

Please send help.

==============

February 13, 2021: 1:13 pm: Extra:

https://twitter.com/ReutersUK/status/1360622398098309123

Reuters UK requests more BBC information about the “Hanging Gardens of Babylon“ US Military Arms arrangement where the US Shill government does not “sell” arms to Vatican/British terror forces, but rather “hands them over, up the command chain“ because that is what they are there in the US Government to achieve.

So, by request:

“Hanging Gardens of Babylon” terror comm turns into a “Chest of Drawers” after the transfer of the military equipment is complete, for communication purposes.

“Chest of Drawers”:

“Birds of a Feather, Flock to Heather”

She’s dead though, so, that is an old saying for terror comm, is obsolete.

When Tom Fitton Jehovah’s Witness is involved in the comm, “Chest of Drawers” looks more like this:

All is symbolic, and is dependent on the intended recipient of the terror comm.

One man‘s gun is another man‘s bullet, when real terror speaks.

=========================

February 13, 2021: 1:44 pm:

“Time Warp Terror”

What we are seeing on Twitter and presented on all of the news media everywhere about US Government activities, such as the fake impeachment, is all old news that never really happened.

Think about this:

When an author writes a book, it can take many years to complete the book, then get a publisher, then make changes the publisher demands in order that they will print to book.

Also, when musicians write music, the songs are often ten years old before they are ever recorded and made available to purchase.

Those ideas can help you understand that the reality of news media, is all fake, old, and augmented.

That Hanging Gardens of Babylon arms arrangement is old, has been done before with the very same video presentations at the same fake impeachment in 2008 on Beta Twitter, a time before Twitter was made publicly available, but was presented all on fast forward in Oregon, about ten years worth of Twitter time line played out over about a two year time frame.

All of the people we are currently seeing as US Congress, are all either much older than is shown, and are somewhere other than at the US Capitol, or, have died of old age by now.

The scenes are all pre-fabricated to produce some kind of result in real-time, with use of Time Warp of old video made possible by the skills and expertise of Screen Actor Guild and the complex experience of the SAG Writers Guild, in association to the worlds leading cryptographers at GCHQ SIS MI6 Britain.

The pre-fabricated videos work to produce the desired results, while also making enough questionable activity at US Capitol to draw in investigative people there. I suspect there are some wicked traps set up at the US Capitol for capturing those who might go there looking for answers.

Whatever the case is, the videos are all fake, are old, been done before, will work again later. They produce desired results for SAG/Britain.

The people involved don’t do what they do for money. Rather, they are all protected, they are all safe, and they all live comfortably while they are killing everyone, so, a money trail to find the leaders is not going to work, could find the terror army, but not the leaders with following a money trail.

This is the prize they are working to gain control of:

All of it.

That, and everyone, and everything on it, is the prize.

That is why they do what they do without much money involvement to follow to find the leadership, although astronomical amounts of money change hands to achieve the goal, it’s all done in ways that are made to look legit.

0 notes