one of the lesser talked about fun things about intentionally reading more books is finding new stuff to be a bit of a hater about tbh

ten Skills Every Successful Master of Ceremonies (MC) Has Mastered

Successful Masters of Events (MCs) know their particular job inside out and about. They're driven simply by passion; they continually develop their expertise; and so they learn coming from their mistakes. That they have an outstanding onstage presence, a new captivated audience and a fat shell out check after every function. There are hundreds of skills to get better at. Listed below are 10 regarding the most crucial. 1. They've obtained a knack intended for connecting with individuals There is a strong feeling of mutual like in addition to trust between a prosperous MC and their very own audience. They develop a powerful relationship and are welcome into their audiences' world. Because they may liked and reliable, the group are much even more receptive to the MC. Their stories become more entertaining and relatable; introductions take on the much more inviting meaning, and everybody in the audience becomes eager to book the Rockstar MC intended for their own major event. 2. These people get knocked down, but they're strong enough to get back up once again Sometimes, stuff goes wrong to have an MC. That's life, appropriate? Maybe they made a mistake, or even it was merely plain old awful luck. But precisely what sets top degree MCs apart through the rest is their ability to be able to require a hit, study from it, and come back stronger than ever. Whenever they mess up, these people don't hyper-focus on the errors. They carry on with the show, and so they don't make it possible for it hinder their performance. Afterwards, top rated MCs recognise their very own mistakes as being an opportunity to reflect, understand, and improve. Do they smash it, or perhaps keep lying issues back? What do you think? 3. Their very own personal brand is usually rock solid The MCs commanding the maximum salaries all have got something in accordance: their personal branding is excellent. The knowledgeable MC expert; typically the down-to-earth guy who makes everyone laugh; and the glamorous female with a love associated with all things classic. The secret to a highly successful private brand? It's always depending on an present facet of their unique personality. They adopt their uniqueness and have absolutely it off towards the whole world. more info can never an extend so they can snap quickly to their MC mentality. 4. They realize their scripts off of by heart The particular best MCs never ever wing it. They will might look like they actually, because that they seem very natural. But actually, they are yet to rehearsed their pièce, jokes and figures a hundred instances. MCs are extremely skilled at weaving cloth inspiring stories, interesting anecdotes and succulent information they've found at the occasion within their scripts : which is what makes them look thus spontaneous. The audience is pleased when their MC flawlessly introduces the particular bride and shows how she decided to ditch your ex high-heels to travel unshod at the very last moment. website smiling when typically the MC smoothly presents the CEO onto the stage just after telling the powerful story regarding her unfailing ability to inspire everyone around her. 5. They're Life Long Learners There isn't a magic level where you've discovered all you can. The very best MCs create a growth way of thinking and devote them selves to self-education. These people never stop looking for out information in addition to absorbing everything that they can about their craft. Yeah, studying does take time, and if you're busy. I find it. But consider me, the outcomes an individual gain from spending some time to learn are really just deserving. You are going to discover new strategies, form connections using intelligent people in addition to ultimately ensure of which your MCing and personal brand never ever grows stale. So you know what else you have? You received it - the particular power to make more from every single future client. 6. They're impeccably professional Top MCs are usually cool cucumbers for sure. They're always sooth, positive, and within control. Nothing becomes within the skin involving a successful MC. At every celebration, they flick a new mental switch plus instantly embody their particular personal brand which impeccably professional MC attitude. Not perhaps a dance ground full of shouting kids, drunken hecklers or broken gear can faze all of them. They know exactly how to deal with all that. Importantly, the best MCs don't let their very own private life influence their performances. Their very own world could always be falling apart and their audience wouldn't have got the slightest suspicion. All they observe is the specialized, utterly captivating MC your client chosen one to be. 6. They look amazing in every MC hat The MC is usually almost always the busiest person on the event. An MC's many hats are the many different roles they must fulfil, plus the best MCs are experts from every one of 'em. So throughout addition to building flawless introductions, bulletins and speeches, the successful MC is really a leader, communicator, time keeper, researcher, author, entertainer, motivator, acting professional, arbiter of design, diplomat, housekeeper and even well-prepared problem solver. Phew. 8. These kinds of are segue wizards Some sort of segue - not to be confused with a segway - is a public speaking technique, used very effectively by good luck and most ingenious MCs. It's typically the last 'hat' involving an MC: this program link, or disposition changer. The segue allows you to smooth the changeover between one event and another, plus one emotion plus another, effortlessly. It's like magic. On one moment, typically the audience is laughing at a hilarious anecdote about the particular groom, as well as in the next, their hearts are filled with admiration when they hear about his unshakeable passion to help make the world a far better put in place his own small way. 9. They never, ever before bad-mouth other MCs or professionals Typically the most successful MCs regard other MCs as friends, not enemies. They never ever say anything negative about their colleagues. To not their clientele, to never their buddies, not really to their particular dog following a couple of drinks a lot of. Aside from appearing incredibly unprofessional, pitting oneself against your fellow workers is an extremely damaging mindset in order to be in. Getting portion of an encouraging community is many preferable to believing you've got adversaries and competition all around. Other MCs are friends to be able to laugh with, study from, share using, get work from and pass job to. Similarly, zero matter how disappointed you are using the late DISC JOCKEY or unprofessional catering staff - always keep it to yourself. Always treat them and talk regarding these the utmost respect. 10. That they get a lot of bookings, recommendations and repeat clients Successful MCs are savvy businesspeople. The best MC in the globe isn't will make the cent if no one can find them, or perhaps knows who they will are. MCs make certain they're highly obvious to their fantasy clients with pro-active marketing. They put just as much time, hard work and money in to their marketing since they do into their planning and flawless performance at events. The hard work pays off. Everyone in the audience is usually eager to recommend or hire them, and thrilled consumers book them time and time again. I'm Peter Miller. I mentor aiming and established Corporate and Wedding MCs to reach their very own full ROCKSTAR prospective. Would like to rocket-boost the MC career, joy your clients and even earn (a lot) more from prospect events? Visit InstantMC. com [http://www.instantmc.com/] to check out out our great Wedding and Business MC resources.

Personalities

Guess I’ve never really did one post like this one, but I wanted to list out how I envision the guys to be like, generally. My creativity has been going down the drain lately, so hopefully that’ll boost me up a bit !

-- Leo --

Leo gives out that tough, serious vibe, mostly because he’s the leader and wants to show that he’s in control.

...

But in general, that dude does like to laugh and have some fun!

Don’t worry though, he knows when he has to be serious!!!! ... At some points he just has to relax, you know?

A Man of Culture ™ , he owns some bonsai trees and loves to meditate so he can have a clearer mind. Tranquility is his way to recharge his batteries (yes, I do see him as an ambivert, with a strong introvert side).

 A comic books fan, shares that passion with Mikey! He’s more of a Marvel fan, personally - some of his favorites are Spider-Man, Black Panther, Captain America, and probably a bunch of others).

Anger and strong emotions can hinder his leading choices. Anxiety rises in him, which can cloud his thoughts, but he’s working hard on that (and he’s kinda good at hiding his panic, generally).

Even if he doesn’t say it often - he does love spending time with his brothers! Watching basketball matches is definitely a must for those four.

A Leo in love is a smiling Leo. A true gentleman, he can turn into quite the passionate lover when alone with his s/o. He’s not much a fan of PDA, but his s/o shouldn’t worry much about that as the affection is multiplied tenfold later on.

Actually has a good singing voice, but he would prefer to die than to let people know.

Values Splinter’s opinion highly and often goes to him for guidance about many things - mostly regarding his leadership.

It’s a bit hard for him to let new people enter his life, since he’s scared for his family to be discovered and out in the open by any means possible, but he’s slowly starting to trust his instincts and his brothers’, knowing when it’s safe to let certain people in their world or not.

He’s an avid reader. Has a preference for classic litterature, but also enjoys horror, crime stories, and a bit of romance (if he really feels like it).

-- Raph --

Sir Raph bitchinson is in DAH HOUSE.

He’s not afraid to speak up and call out anything wrong in this household.

He and Donnie love to gossip and bitch around - you can’t change my mind. But they do that in secret though (wouldn’t want to hurt people with their judgements!!!)

Can be pretty much eloquent, when given the chance. He’s more street smart than book smart, but all knowledge is good knowledge.

He always likes to come up with some challenges for himself and his bros. Some sort of “friendly” competition amongst them, just to spice things up. He does consult Splinter sometimes to see what could be done in order to train certain skills.

Raph has a lot of love to give, but doesn’t like to show it plainly. He’s gotta show that big buff strong man attitude !!!!!!!!!! ... But he does have a big heart.

He and Mikey definitely do some music on the side - which has sparked the hilarious idea of a Hip Hop Christmas album. ... Mikey does call himself “MC Mikey”, but Raph is a better rapper.

Suprisingly good with arts and crafts (ex: woodcarving, knitting). Patience, precision, and carefulness are skills he has to work on often.

Training and lifting weights are his prefered ways to think back and analyze various things. That’s why when he’s angry, he goes out to train. It gives him the opportunity to calm down (somehow) and review the situation.

Even though his arguments with Leo can turn quite bitter, he knows he’d miss them if they were to stop. Butting heads with the leader is what brings them together (some would argue it’s not a healthy relation, but both are strong headed so it’s just always gonna be like that, you know~)

-- Donnie --

You know that shy, awkward, nerd stereotype? Throw that out the window, please.

Donnie sure is quiet when he first meets new people, but that’s only so he can observe them better and get to know how to interact with them better.

Once he’s starting to grow more comfortable, he’s probably one of the chillest dude you could hang out with.

Sure, sometimes he’ll start blabbering about his projects and throw out some complex terms, but that’s just because he’s always happy to include people into his things (IF the project is going well, that is...)

A patient teacher. Yes sometimes it’s tiring having to explain whenever he says a big word, but he doesn’t mind overall explaining and bringing forth new knowledge to those who seek it.

He’s not one to flaunt his intellect. He is not above anyone and he understands that not everyone has the same passions as him. Everybody can learn something new everyday - himself included.

Has a good sense of humor, mostly sarcastic. Is always up to doing some pranks around the lair with Mikey.

Donnie’s anger management could be described as “the calm before the storm”. He usually has a good control over his emotions, but if they ever get to explode, he can be quite ... “sharp”. He doesn’t hold his words and can be a bit judgemental when angry - but he’s quick to rectify the situation and apologize. Overall, when he’s facing a situation that displeases him, he is silent  and thoughtful. ... A lot goes on in his mind.

When in love, Donnie’s heart is soft and he’s a big romantic/cheesy dork. He’s often caught gazing at his s/o, with a smile on his face. He’s not afraid to lay his feelings in the open and doesn’t mind some PDA, but when he and his s/o are alone together, you can say it gets cranked up a bit ;)

Listens to various music genres. Has a preference for 80′s-90′s rock, jazz, and various types of electronic music.

Sometimes does some remote tech support jobs on the side so he and his family can have some money to spend.

Loves to play videogames! The first one he ever completed was Super Mario World on the Super Nintendo (hence why he has a SNES controller with his gear - an object filled with good memories!).

The self proclaimed “handyman” of the lair. He loves tinkering around and find ways to upgrade simple things in the house. He’s always up for a good challenge! (May or may not have a suggestion box for his bros and his dad to drop ideas once in a while <__< !!!)

-- Mikey --

Searching for a litteral ray of sunshine? Look no further; Mikey is here.

For him, finding joy and positivity in anything is a must - at least, most of the time.

He knows his family is not of the ordinary kind with a normal house, but that doesn’t mean things have to be grim and miserable!

This mindset does come at a price though. It does happen for Mikey to have his morale drop considerably low, but in those moments he knows he has his family to support him and make him feel better.

In return he is extremely supportive of anything his family does and will always encourage them when they’re going through a rough patch.

He and Raph love to collect various human items. Mikey has a tendency to go for art related items, which sparked his interest in arts (painting, spray cans/graffiti, drawing).

He also developped an interest in cooking.

Both skills are well received by his bros and he loves to teach them some tricks here and there, along with providing creative inputs to anything (mostly Donnie’s projects).

He’s an empath and doesn’t mind when his brothers vent to him. He wants them to know they are heard and valued! The best medicine he can provide is humor.

He’s a big flirt. Everyone is beautiful in their own way and he’s not afraid to express his admiration.

A party needs to be organized? Leave that to him. He always come up with some cool playlists, lots of booze, various activities, and a theme (if needed).

Loves to reference a lot of movie quotes, popular stuff and such. And it’s never out of place too, which can be surprisingly clever!

Belonging

Here again for the @toa-secret-santa of this year! So happy to participate again, I love these events! 😍😍 Hello @spellcasterdouxie, I’m your secret santa! Merry Christmas and festivities, hope you like my present! ❤

Summary: In which being stuck in New York to protect a magical being and save the world in the process is no excuse for not celebrating Christmas with your friends.

Also on AO3

So… Nari was a terrible liar.

Extremely powerful being, the purest pretty soul, but horrible at lying.

Douxie didn’t have the slightest idea of what she was plotting, granted that she used to be part of an evil congregation of wizards that wanted to take over using an ancient artifact – meh, like that was the weirdest coming from his friends –, but he was fairly sure that her claim regarding the leaking sink of the bathroom was some sort of decoy.

Did that convince him to ignore those big adorable puppy eyes?

“It looks good to me, but I’m gonna give it a double check just in case!”

“Thank you Douxie, much appreciated! Please make sure everything is working, do not overlook a single thing!” Absolutely not. He was a master wizard, not a beast.

Their little apartment was neither pretty nor particularly clean. Which considering the little money he accumulated over the years with all of his jobs back in Arcadia and given the fact that they were in New York City, was kind of a given. But it had a perfectly functional bathroom, basically a gift from above, or some kind of karma retribution from putting up with three different apocalypses in the same summer – and he had all suspicions that another one was coming, but possibly another season. That being said, he wasn’t sure why with her plant like appearance, Nari with all people was so interested into their sink. Besides maybe for spraying a bit of water over her head – one very curious and endearing scene really, like a pot plant watering itself.

Then again, he wasn’t completely sure why he was going along with it instead of asking directly what was this all about. Maybe he liked to study whatever thought somehow as peculiar as her could come up with. Maybe there was nothing else of particular interest to do while waiting for his mac and cheese to be ready… maybe that little nightmare of his from last night got him a little too down, and doing anything but think about it was a better solution than most. And it was a pretty annoying maybe, because dreams about his master were as common as breathing lately.

He thought he was over it. It was probably too soon… hopefully he was at least getting closer to the not too soon part of it.

One long silence followed, from which he was fairly sure he had heard a few whispers a little lower than Nari’s light tone. Great, what now? Was she actually plotting something?

“Is everything okay over there? Arch? Nari?”

“Fine, everything is fine! Keep checking please!”

“Are you serious?” Okay now it was ridiculous. “Nope, I’m getting over there, and you two better not be up to no good!” They were a surprisingly compatible pair, especially since his familiar had made it his mission to teach her the marvel of pranks – she wasn’t even malicious about it, that made it all even more devious somehow. Douxie left the wrench on the ground, getting out of the bathroom and towards the living room. “You all keep forgetting that I’m the master wizards here, so technically I’m in charge, so if you’re scheming something- Whoa, Mordrax’s miracles!”

The last thing he had expected, after leaving their lonely living room that was made of four faded walls with a random kitchen connected to it, was to get back to it completely transformed into a messy, happy Christmas themed little chamber.

Filled with very familiar faces.

“Merry Christmas, Teach!” Claire almost knocked him off his feet with that hug. She looked radiant, all wrapped up in one big purple sweater with ‘Feeling Wicked Sassy’ written on it – appropriate. Behind her Steve, Toby and Archie were all smiling.

“Sorry, you would not leave the house,” Nari looked all cozy and a little guilty in that big mint green sweater – with ‘Every Day is Green Day’ written on it, where did she get that? –, waving at him. “And it felt like claiming we were being attacked by Skrael and Bellroc was a bit excessive.” Thank goodness his roommate and protegee had some common sense – considering his latest adventure, more than him for sure.

Claire giggled, shrugging innocently.

“We honestly hoped you were that bad of a plumber and would give us more time…”

Douxie snickered, because this was ridiculously endearing and he loved it all already.

“Too bad I’m not completely hopeless.”

“Could’ve fooled me!” Steve, it was Steve, not even worth turning around to recognize him. But a random fist bump, that much he could concede – especially with that massive blue sweater ‘Silent Knight, Holey Knight’ he had on, like really what was even that. “Ready to have the best time of your life?”

The master wizard arched an eyebrow.

“Said from you? Should we call the firefighter in advance? Or the police?” The blonde pouted very dramatically, Claire snickered. He had really missed these two. “Wow, this place looks amazing! The landlord can’t see this or she will force me to pay more for the rent.” His wallet was already gasping enough for breath and money. “All this stuff, all the decorations… is this beef?” Ah, that was why it all felt like such a sudden change, this paradisiac scent had definitely not been here before. “It smells delicious!”

“Thank you!” Second shock of the day, but Douxie could hardly blame himself considering the most time he had spent around Jim had been during his huge troll moments – he kinda looked like a twig now in comparison. “I’m pretty well known for my festive feasts.”

“Also known as festeasts!” Toby showed one enthusiastic victory sign, pulling off his orange ‘Rockin’ This Christmas’ with plenty of little gems and stones all around – the forever geologist.

Jim rolled his eyes with a grin.

“Tobes we’re not calling them that.” The Warhammer holder frowned, only to beam when he got handed a spoon for a taste. “I made most of this from home so it’s all ready and warm, but I wanted to make something on the place while I was at it. Freshly made food tastes way better on Christmas.” Toby hummed around the spoon, smacking his lips, then he rubbed his fingers together towards the chef, who caught it as to add more salt.

Douxie couldn’t help but scoot closer, peaking inside. That looked like food. That looked like real, delicious, extremely well-made food.

“What in the world, how did you make that?” Jim snorted.

“You moved on without much of a comment from me turning into a half-troll, a full troll and then back to a human, and this surprises you?”

“My friend, there were Thai leftovers, one instant ramen, an onion and an egg left in the fridge so yes, this surprises me!” All speculations died when he was offered a taste too. “… so it turns out I know nothing of magic. I must bow to the real master wizard here.” If happiness had a flavor it had to be this one. The former trollhunter snickered, giving him a little elbow before going back over his creations. And if the most classic ‘kiss the chef’ apron on him wasn’t already extremely fitting, the cyan sweater underneath reciting ‘I’m In The…’ on the back barely left to the imagination what list was written on the front.

A very well-deserved sign, really.

“Buttsnack’s managed to make these too, take a look!” Steve waved at the little counter that was the only thing remotely looking like a table in this place. And smelling just as heavenly as everything else, there they were, mince pies, just like the ones from Camelot. “But I don’t know if they’re as good because someone slaps my hand every time I- OUCH!! I didn’t even try this time!”

Archie’s tail could be surprisingly useful as a whip, in fact.

“You were thinking about it! So don’t, these are for later.” And wow, if his most loyal companion wasn’t absolutely adorable wearing that little red sweater – ‘Santa Paws’, he was going to complain about it all day long. Douxie wished he hadn’t left his phone in the bathroom. “We’re still waiting for the tree, the last decorations and the music. But we’re almost ready.” So apparently his familiar had been behind all of this. That actually made perfect sense.

Of course this little wizard associate had known this was going to do him good. It was the kind of bond that came with being around each other for over 900 years.

Archie smiled at him, and Douxie couldn’t not grin in return.

“Can’t wait for them! Even thought I did have some when we had that travel… well technically ages ago, we were actually in Camelot, but it wasn’t- Ah forget it, time loops are too confusing.” There was a consensual groan including all of them but Toby and Nari, who just looked at each other and shrugged. “Well, this is awesome, how did you even get everything here so fast?” On second thought, that was more than just bizarre. His eyes crossed Claire’s right away. “You get so tired with transportations through the Shadow Realm usually, and you got to bring along all of these people and decorations?” The thing was, this wasn’t supposed to be possible. Another thing was, Lady Claire of house Nunez was so insanely talented it would had not surprised him.

The girl waved her hand in denial.

“I wish I was at that level, but no. Still, we did travel back and forth pretty quickly.”

“Without magic? How?”

“I should take offense from that highly questioning tone.” Third shock, his poor heart – he came back from the grave once, and he really didn’t recommend it. He was fairly sure the apartment he had rented didn’t include interdimensional portals opening in the middle of the living room. “And from the fact that you humans keep forgetting I invented a perfectly functioning wormhole generator. But please, continue with your predicaments, ignore the scientific feat I’ve accomplished!” For an alien that barely understood human sarcasm, Krel Tarron was made a whole half of it.

As he walked in from the portal, holding one edge of a box filled with Christmas balls, on the other side Zoe stepped in carrying along the rest. And between a black ‘I’m Back, Witches’ sweater and a gray ‘DJ Kleb’ one with four sleeves, it was one curious and fantastic view.

“Yeah yeah, you bent the rules of physics, congratulations!” Zoe’s tense tone implied that she must had heard that complain already. “Stop talking and get working, I’m going the extra mile here!”

“This doesn’t sound like a good time to have a walk.”

“For the love of…!” The pink haired girl let out a muffled scream, let go of her edge of the box – lucky for Krel to have four arms to catch it – and jumped over the master wizard to grab his shoulders. “I hate you so much, you left me alone dealing with all of these new knuckleheads! Like the local dummies weren’t enough!” The collective offended ‘Hey!’ coming from both the Akiridion and the village’s idiot – a marvel that Steve actually responded, fully aware of his status as knucklehead – was somehow even more endearing than funny.

Meanwhile Zoe was still wrinkling his favorite jacket, frowning aggressively at him like the fact that he was out there saving the world was unforgivable – you could say anything about this pink head, but not that she didn’t have priorities.

Douxie snickered, easing the hold onto him.

“Sorry for trying to give my friends a place to live in this crazy wild world, then!”

“… apologies accepted.” Zoe narrowed her eyes. “But only if we finally hunt for niffins and get those forsaken burgers after you did the deed. I’m calling dibs on you.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “Besides, you owe me. I didn’t snitch and told that Hex Tech got annihilated and we’re in need of new personnel because someone needed to hide from the big bad villains.” Those blue gems were screaming not to mess this offer up, because it was certainly not going to come back.

Even with a pressure like that, in some way inside of him, Douxie felt freed of a little weight. Despite the distance and everything that had happened, some things stayed the same. So he quite happily held up his fist, smirking at the girl.

“Alright, as soon as this is over with. Deal.” Zoe glared at him a few more seconds. Then she nodded, and finally bumped their knuckles together.

With a thud Krel finally put the box down, sighing soundly.

“Thanks Seklos this is done. I believe we are only missing the dead tree that will be then covered in artificial garnishments as a form of apparent belittlement of nature.” He stayed still for a few seconds, mindlessly throwing a little sphere on the ground that divided in four pieces, generating a portal. “… I feel like I’m getting so accustomed with humans’ savageness that I’m even quite looking forwards to it. Especially for that useless invention called ‘tree’.” He snickered, getting inside the wormhole that disappeared as soon as he was in.

Luckily the impossible dimensional gateway appeared of not leaving any trace behind. And luckily the creature – or elf, demigod, Nari was still a bit of a mystery – most connected to the nature that had just been denigrated was way more interested in whatever chef wiz Jim Lake Jr. was preparing.

“You knubhead, I just told you not to!” Archie’s spiteful voice came along, as apparently Steve had managed to take advantage of the situation – a scientific miracle happening in front of them, fair enough – to finally get himself a mince piece. Only to get slapped to the ground.  “That’s it, until these cool down you’re getting nowhere near! Douxie, out with me, we need to guard the treasure!” That was some attachment for one tray of soft and delicious little pastries.

Douxie shrugged and complied, picking up the meal under the jock’s renovated pout and heading to the balcony. The chilling air got to his nose right away, but he endured, appreciating just the tiniest breath. There was barely space for once person there.

Well, one person and his familiar. He placed the tray on the railing, making sure it didn’t fall.

“How did Jim even get the recipe?” Archie grinned.

“Well, apparently his troll friends did remember a certain meal very appreciated by humans from back then, but they have their own idea on how to make it. I don’t know the details, but I certainly know it involves socks. Plenty of socks.”

“… you want to see Steve’s reaction to them later.”

“I want to see Steve’s reaction to them later with all the others. Christmas is supposed to be a family festivity, right?” His grin disappeared right after. “So… it didn’t sound like you were sleeping too well last night.” Yep. He knew. Of course he knew. He would had even if he didn’t have to habit of sneaking into his bed to get warm. “Something you’d like to talk about?”

Douxie breathed out, gently buffing his fluffy ear.

“I’m fine Arch, not need to get all sensible on me. It was one of the usuals.” He tried a weak smile, not really feeling like keeping everything in. Not with so many people inside, on this particular day. “… you know, thinking it now, somehow it was easier celebrating Christmas on the streets back in Camelot. Getting something good to eat, have fun, that was enough. Considering how tense was everyone in the Pendragon castle it’s not much of a surprise, but still… I wonder if Merlin ever had a proper Christmas in there.” He sighed. “He certainly didn’t while I was around.” The noisy streets of Camelot overlapped NYC’s busy ones. He swallowed a lump into his throat.

That legendary town was such a faraway place right now, coming back from a single memory was a slap from reality. Douxie shivered, taking in a freezing breath, gasping when Archie jumped over his shoulder and curled all around his neck. His fur was nice and warm.

“We have no way of knowing. But one thing’s for sure, that old man got a surprising, unexpected present in any case.” Archie smiled, eyeing him softly. “One very sneaky, very foolish, very brave apprentice.” They had been there, the both of them. And in any possible way, in the good, the bad, and the best, he had found a life to call that way. The one Merlin had asked him about.

The master wizard smiled, snuggling his cheek against his loyal friend.

It didn’t take long, the winter air acted like a freezer over the little pies. But as they went back in, the place had already changed – and that was besides AAARRRGGHH!!, with one gigantic hat on his head, holding up the tree while Blinky, wearing a scarf, was reading a manual on how to decorate it, where did he even get that? –: there was a table, appeared again out of nowhere, with all the most delicious looking dishes placed all over between branches of holly and little bells. Jim and Nari were putting down the last dishes, Steve was clumsily getting the statue of a reindeer to balance over the tv, Toby was checking the lights to make sure they were functioning.

And Claire was suddenly in front of him, beaming, clearly hiding something from behind her back. It immediately grabbed everybody’s attention, like it was some sort of event.

Was it?

“We’ve organized the present exchange for after lunch, but this one you need to put it on now. So, her it is!” She uncovered the secret and- Oh. It was a sweater. It was a sweater. For him. “There you go, you’re officially part of the wool club, a Christmas-limited association only.”

“Founder of the association Nancy Domzalski, mostly because it was Nana who made them all!” Toby caressed the front of his sweater, smiling softly. “She’s that kind of grandma that thinks that everything that’s made with love can bring warmth, and I’m kind of a believer too.” He shrugged, crossing his fingers behind the back of his head. “I know this isn’t your cool punk rock wizardy style, but Nana had her midlife crisis in her own time and I’m not exactly looking forward to one before my very own eyes!” That was probably not a sight a grandchild wanted of their grandma, that was understandable.

It was. It was, right? It was getting a little hard to focus on something, anything that wasn’t a soft bundle of black and navy blue stripes, welcoming and warm, with ‘Fuzzbuckets’ written on it. It was getting weird. A little unsettling even, because he just got out in the cold but his bones weren’t freezing anymore and he felt all fuzzy inside and now his eyes were warm and-

“… oh, curse me, not the waterfalls…!” Centuries spent transitioning from hopeless bard to punk rock guitarist, only to tear up at a random surprise Christmas party.

From there, he didn’t understand much. Only Claire’s probable ‘Aww Douxie!’, Toby’s sudden ‘There’s no Christmas without the sad moment’, Steve’s surprising ‘I know what to do, come on everybody, let’s all hug it out!’. And all of the sudden he was enveloped with so many arms, so many different people he had gotten to know and had managed to befriend and appreciate. That were part of his world, his life, and what was coming for the future.

So when he managed to open his eyes, there was so much to uncover, between a pink head, a scarred eyebrow, a lock of leaves and a paw still so close to his cheek. And it hit him that perhaps there was a reason why Camelot had always felt so far away lately.

That age was over. But this, it felt like it had only begun. Douxie smiled, closing his eyes again.

Embracing how good it felt to belong again.

Owl House AU Ideas, ZA FIRST!!

Hello all, this has been a long time coming on my part. After procrastinating on the subject, I have decided to upload my personal AU ideas for the Owl House. Here’s hoping ya’ll like them, and feel free to make your own stuff based on them as you please!!

Tough Love: This AU is my own twist on the classic Siblings AU, in which I fleshed it out into my own little niche using whatever I had available in my brain.

Victoria Noceda: My name for Beta Luz, who in this Idea is the oldest of the three Noceda sisters. Brash, belligerent, always ready with a smart remark, Victoria is a tough girl who takes no crap from anyone, with her weapon of choice being a metal bat carved with glyphs. A short temper mixed with both a strict demeanor and a flippant attitude has earned her a reputation as a thug, one which she has done nothing to reject or deny. Growing up, Victoria quickly grew familiar with the uglier side of humanity, and when her sisters were born vowed to shield them from the harshness of the world, by any means necessary. She is highly cynical, yet being around Luz chips away at this persona of hers. Despite her attitude and behavior, she is highly intelligent, graduating from school as valedictorian to the shock of everyone bar her teachers. Victoria first ended up in the Isles by chasing down Owlbert after the Palisman tried (and failed) to pickpocket her. She and Eda, to their mutual surprise, hit it off rather well, with Victoria often acting as her Stall Manager, Gopher, Muscle, etc., and has amassed a large quantity of glyphic spells, which she keeps as tattoos climbing up both arms (she actually has enough to cover nearly her whole torso and part of her neck, but uses illusion glyphs to hide them so Eda doesn't ask how she discovered them... some of them were highly unpleasant for lack of a better word). Using her work with Eda to avoid getting a job on Earth, Victoria has a LOT of money, mostly due to Eda paying her with whatever bills and coins Owlbert brings her without consideration for how much they actually are worth. Offered to house her sisters so they could "branch out and get some real world experience," really an excuse to get her sibs away from the toxic environment at school. Convinced (threatened) Principal Hal to have Luz sent to stay with her for the summer. Her aggressive tendencies and willingness to use incredible violence to solve her problems has resulted in her relationship with her sisters partially atrophying, though she is unaware of it herself. Her first encounter with Boscha, in the body swap episode, is meant to illustrate this as she very clearly and deliberately tormented and ridiculed the girl for bullying Luz, refusing to let up even when Luz begged her to stop until Boscha apologized and begged for forgiveness; Luz rushing off to help bandage Boscha's nearly broken hands implies this isn't the first time she has done this, or at least something like this. Victoria has a bad temper when roused and often resorts to extreme verbal haranguing when she's cross with Luz, not knowing that this reinforces the idea that she doesn't like or care for her youngest sister, as she can't bring herself to raise a hand to her sisters. Finds Amaryllis hot and enjoys teasing her. Will answer to Victoria, Tori, or Ria, NEVER to Vic or Vicky, which will result in her threatening to break the offender's legs, THIS IS NOT A BLUFF SHE HAS DONE IT TWICE BEFORE. Mari Noceda: My name for Pilot!Luz, the middle child. Easily the most well-behaved of her siblings, though that isn't saying much. Unlike her hyper-impulsive younger, and her super aggressive elder, Mari is calm, logical, and significantly more easy going. However, she is an absolute snoop with a very poor understanding of personal privacy, resulting in her being sent to the principal for breaking into other students' lockers, on multiple occasions. After Victoria basically dropped off the map, she became hellbent on tracker her down, resulting in her discovering the Boiling Isles and magic. As is her usual, she quickly got over whatever shock she felt and proceeded to brow beat her mom, Victoria, AND EDA to let her stay in the Isles by homeschooling (Camila doesn't know she went to the Isles, just that she wanted to move in with her sister... it hurt her more than Mari thought it would), she soon set herself to studying everything the Isles has to offer, to Eda's chagrin. While her repertoire is much smaller than Tori's, she knows quite a few spells herself, all of which she has studied to a ludicrous degree. After reading up on some of Luz's fantasy novels, she has started viewing herself as an artificer, blending magic and technology together. Is VERY GOOD FRIENDS with Vela Blight (they are dating but don't want anyone to know). Often puts down Luz's fantasies as ridiculous. Luz Noceda: Canon cinnamon roll, sorta. Plucky, sweet, optimistic, and, oh yeah, Kinda mental. Was introduced to the Boiling Isles and Eda via Victoria picking her up and driving through a portal that opened up in Eda's living room. When she asked her sisters' to share what they know about magic with her, they both laughed and told her they would teach her how to use any spells she figured out on her own, and no more. Basically the same as canon, she is somewhat more fragile emotionally as a result of Mari's unintended put-downs, and Victoria's angry rants. She is convinced that part of the reason she didn't have friends was due to everyone being afraid of Victoria beating them silly, or Mari invading their privacy. While very similar to her original self, this version of Luz has a lot of repressed anger, which manifests as a slight twitch in her left eye and a compulsive hiccup when stressed. Eda: Due to taking in Victoria and Mari, she is much more in touch with her caring side earlier on than Canon, welcoming Luz easily and more willing to play the mentor role. Quickly picks up on the warning signs in the sisters' interactions but is repeatedly shut out, to her frustration and concern. King: Mellower than in canon due to having Mari, who considers him a fount of demonic knowledge, and Victoria, who appreciates his street wise wisdom when it peeks through his megalomania, to talk and interact with. Clings to Luz as a "new general in my Army! Rejoice, Mr. Ducky, REJOICE!!" Amaryllis Blight: My name for Beta!Amity, and the eldest sibling. Ruthless, ferocious, and feral, Amaryllis always possessed the hallmarks of a problem child, bucking her parents authority at every turn, which she got away with due to her immense magical power even as a toddler. Wears green hair dye to spite her parents after they virtually disowned her. Regularly forgets any and all information that she deems useless, which includes her parents' names, resulting in her always referring to them as Mr. and Mrs. Blight at all times, even in her head. Leads the Predators, an elite section of the Emperor's Coven tasked with locating and sealing dimensional breaches, as well as purging anything that crosses through. Has a severe survival of the fittest mindset; if you don't have the strength and will to survive and succeed, you are nothing. Ironically, she hates bullies, claiming them as weaklings who tear down those with true potential for greatness, and often curses herself for being too weak to separate from Belos. Her sheer power and accomplishments have forced the Blight parents to recognize her as their child, if only to capitalize on her success and prevent difficult questions being aimed their way, yet none are comfortable with the arrangement. Strongly admires Eda, genuinely believing her to be the greatest Witch of all time, which leads to her verbally, and sometimes physically, tearing a new one in anyone who speaks ill of her in Amaryllis' presence. The biggest inspirations for Amaryllis were Katsuki Bakugo from My Hero Academia, and Esdeath from Akame Ga Kill, being strangely friendly and amicable to her fellow Predators and anyone who she finds sufficiently impressive in terms of combat, though she has no ability to register those she thinks of as weak, often being incapable of recalling any real information about them beyond whatever part of their appearance stuck out most to her. She has no respect or regard for Emira and Edric, regarding them as fools and cowards, and is genuinely incapable of telling them apart, despite the fact that they are different genders, and often needs a moment to remember who they are. Often verbally scolds Vela for being weak, with the first "kind" thing she has ever said to her since graduating was congratulating her for taking the first steps to realizing her true potential. Admires Amity's dedication to be the best, but detests her kowtowing to their parents. Has a huge crush on Victoria, but is both better at hiding it than Amity, by a mile, and severely conflicted over it, due to regarding humans as "the weakest existence on the whole of the Isles." Amaryllis' animalistic mentality is considered extremely unusual, even by the standards of the Boiling Isles and results in everyone being incredibly wary of her. Amaryllis is insanely loyal to those she holds regard to and works with, viciously destroying anything that dares bring harm to her comrades, or "pack" as she insists on calling them, and has a win by any means necessary mindset, being genuinely puzzled by the crowd and Amity's distress at Lilith's cheating during the Covention, seeing the power glyph as a perfectly acceptable tactic and applauding Luz and Eda's mines to circumvent the Human's lack of spells, however even she disapproves of cheating that can result in permanent injury, which is her sole complaint about the duel. Vela Blight: My name for Pilot!Amity, and the Middle child of the Blight Triplets. Timid, meek, and polite to a fault, Vela is near totally lacking in confidence. Is hopelessly mediocre in every form of magic, despite her higher than average power, and regarded as a failure to the Blight name. Her parents disowned her shortly before Canon, but allow her to stay in the Manor as her siblings' attendant, even Amaryllis is better regarded than she is by the Blight parents. Is good friends with the Detention Track kids, and eagerly jumped on the bandwagon when they became multi-track students, joining Luz as an All-Tracker, which also exposed her immense talent for magic mixing, allowing her to merge different forms of Magic with ease and fluidity. Vela's sheer passion for learning magic exceeds both Amity and Luz combined, and is genuinely puzzled why more witches weren't trying to multi-track too. Is something of a teacher's pet, to her own embarrassment, as even with her poor abilities her sheer passion for learning has caused many of the Teachers and Bump himself to develop a soft spot for her. Has a complicated relationship with Ed and Em, as while she loves them, she envies their talent, and despises their pranks, as she is often punished for them whether she had a hand or not, and often when she tried to stop them. When her trip-mates decided to prank Amity, she lividly tore into them with a brutal "The Reason You Suck" Speech before storming off in tears, resulting in Ed and Em chasing after her and leaving Amity and Luz alone in the library. During the trip to the Knee, she was still bitter, and went out of her way to be as difficult for Ed and Em as possible, only forgiving them after took on the Slitherbeast. Vela is very close to Amity, as well as the Nocedas. Vela regards Amity as a treasure and has the healthiest relationship with her out of all their siblings, instantly pegging to Amity's crush on Luz (She ships them so hard), though she doesn't call her out on it. Vela is scared of Amaryllis. Ed and Em: Are wilder than in Canon, willing to resort to harsher pranks to meet their goals. They adore Vela, and assumed she adored them; having her verbally tear them a new one served as a massive wake-up call to how jerky they could be, and often were, provoking them to be better siblings and people all around, still tricksters though. Are jealous of Amaryllis due to her being unshackled from their parents, and are often rendered livid by her casual dismissal of them. Amity Blight: Mostly the same, but a bit more assertive against the toxic influences in her life. Idolizes Amaryllis due to her power and freedom, and trusts Vela with the same secrets as her diary. Sallix Park: Name for Beta!Willow. A maverick and an agitator, she enjoys stirring up trouble for the heck of it, but only when she's the one to cause it. Adores her little sister, but insists on her fighting her own battles, and enjoys training Willow through random plant attacks. Has been secretly gaslighting Boscha, in the hopes of the brat having some kind of epiphany and cleaning up her act, not knowing that her actions were causing the triclops to develop conflicting impulses and feelings regarding Willow, as well as an unhealthy fixation. Is good friends with both Victoria and Amaryllis, resulting in her serving as referee whenever they fight, which is often. Willow Park: Same as canon, but more assertive over her behaviors.

Let me know if any of you have any questions or opinions on it.

Psycho Analysis: Joker (Suicide Squad)

(WARNING! This analysis contains SPOILERS!)

Boy oh boy, talking about the Joker is always fun! Who are we talking about this time? We’ve covered Ledger’s creepy anarchist and Nicholson’s unhinged mobster, so who do we have left? Romero’s madcap clown? Hamill’s multimedia masterpiece performance? Maybe Joaquin Phoenix’s fresh new take on the most iconic villain in comics?

No… sigh… we’re talking about Jared Leto. Might as well get him out of the way. And while this is certainly not a Joker I like dwelling on, I think there is a fair deal to discuss in regards to this incarnation the Joker, in particular why he fails as a take on Batman’s most famous enemy and what could have been done to fix him, because really, it would not have been hard to make this Joker work.

Actor: Jared Leto is not necessarily a bad actor, but he is certainly not the kind of guy you’d expect to play someone like the Joker. Sure, one of his most famous roles is in Fight Club where he gets his face pulverized, so we know he’s good at getting the crap kicked out of him (a requirement for being the archenemy of a superhero who loves to beat up criminals), but that was a minor role. Here he’s taking on the one comic book villain that even people who have never read a comic could probably name, and I just don’t think someone who is better in supporting roles could pull it off.

Not helping his case is his extremely creepy on-set behavior, where he method acted in incredibly disturbing ways to the point he harassed his costars. Even more baffling is that all the weird, edgy stories of his method acting showed he had no understanding of who Joker is as a character; Joker is not some weird, cringey stalker who sends people dead rats, he’s an unhinged madman who would probably bake a dead rat cake and send it to someone’s house with a bomb inside that would explode at their kid’s birthday, raining dead rats everywhere, all because the kid’s dad cut in front of him at the grocery store. 

In all honesty, Leto is probably the biggest problem because of this. It’s the same problem Eisenberg had as Lex Luthor: he doesn’t understand or care about the character he’s playing, and it shows, because it is almost entirely off the rails from what one would expect, and not in a good way.

Motivation/Goals: The Joker in film typically has the goal of causing a ruckus, overturning society in some way, or just being evil in general… but with a fun twist. Joker is always supposed to do stuff because it amuses him. Nicholson’s Joker got this down the best, but even Ledger’s anarchist take on the character got this down extremely well.  Here though, Joker is pretty much a bit player in the story, and his entire purpose in the narrative is showcasing Harley’s origin and then showing him coming to rescue her. That’s about the extent of his being in the film: he exists solely to help Harley break free from captivity, which he fails to do until the very end of the film.

This is disappointing in an extremely obvious way: this is THE JOKER. This is a character who demands to be the center of attention. This is a character who hijacked the plot of every single one of the best Batman video games ever made. This is a villain who just won’t die. This is the archenemy to end all archenemies, and yet here in this film he’s playing second fiddle to a CGI witch. A lot of his scenes were apparently cut, which makes things even worse, because we could have perhaps had a better grasp of who he is. As is, Joker is really nothing but a satellite love interest to Harley.

Personality: What little we see from this Joker is mostly unappealing. He’s creepy, he’s crazy, he’s strange, but a lot of it feels recycled from other Jokers and not a unique spin put on by Leto. However, there is one aspect of the character that is truly great and deserving of praise: this Joker almost certainly genuinely loves Harley Quinn, in his own demented way. Finally, an adaptation brings Joker and Harley’s relationship back from “romanticized domestic abuse” to the Mad Love it excelled at being. The director’s cut actually added in a little bit more to really showcase these two do love each other, as crazy as the two of them get. It’s like the saying goes: She was fearless, and crazier than him. She was his queen, and God help anyone who disrespected his queen.

Final Fate: They make it look like Joker dies in a helicopter crash… but it’s Joker. You can count on one hand the amount of times his death actually sticks in any continuity. He survived and busts Harley out at the end, ending the film on a kind of sweet note, honestly. 

Too bad it’s one that’s doomed to be undermined by later films, as Birds of Prey is almost certainly going to have Harley kicking Mr. J to the curb and Jared Leto is seemingly cut from the DCEU, and even if he wasn’t it’s doubtful he’d ever be able to get out of Joaquin Phoenix’s shadow at this point. I can’t even jokingly say “Press F to pay respects” here, because neither I nor anyone else respects Jared Leto in the slightest anyway. 

Best Scene: I’m a bit fond of the scene where he dives into the chemicals with Harley, if only because it really reinforces that their love, while utterly insane, is genuine in their own twisted way. I honestly really like this take on their relationship.

Best Quote: This entire exchange, because as corny and silly as it all is, again, it reinforces what I think worked with Joker:

The Joker: Question! Would you die for me?

Harley: Yes.

The Joker: That's too easy. Would you... Would you live for me? Hmm?

Harley: Yes.

The Joker: Careful. Do not say this oath thoughtlessly! Desire becomes surrender. Surrender becomes power. You want this?

Harley: I do.

The Joker: Say it. Say it. Say it. Pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty...

Harley: ...Please?

The Joker: God, you're so... good.

Final Thoughts & Score: Jared Leto’s Joker gets a lot of flak for things such as his design, his mannerisms, the overall performance… and I can’t really argue with much of that. While the base design isn’t terrible, the overdone tattoos, particularly the infamous “Damaged” tattoo, really don’t feel much like the Joker. His mannerisms for the most part just don’t scream Joker either, or at least not a particularly new or interesting take on him. And, overall, the performance in general is weak, lackluster, and inconsequential to the film as a whole. I believe even the director has stated Joker would have made for a better antagonist than the magical Enchantress, and frankly I have to agree, especially since it would have given Leto’s Joker more screentime as well as a more grounded threat for the Squad to face on their first mission. Really, considering most of the characters are just normal people with highly trained skillsets or mild mutations, wouldn’t it make more sense for them to fight off an insane gang leader clown rather than an interdimensional witch demon bringing about the apocalypse?

Combine that with what little is good about him in the actual film – namely, his genuine affection for Harley – and it may have actually made for a good, compelling plotline, with a conflicted Harley forced to choose between an insane relationship she loves and her newfound ragtag group of wacky friends. Not only would it have strengthened Harley and Joker’s roles in the narrative, it would have almost certainly given a better lead in to Birds of Prey. Leto’s Joker could have had more of a chance to exert his charm over Harley and perhaps even be more of an intimidating presence on the screen, maybe even use some classic Joker gags. As I said at the start, this character would have been seriously easy to fix. Just clean up the costume, give some better direction, and let him have a more central role that naturally creates conflict while allowing the Squad to develop closer bonds with each other.

Joker shockingly gets a 2/10. Yeah, I don’t think this is the worst abomination ever put to film, and honestly, even among bad comic book villains he’s nowhere near as bad as someone like Malekith, Weapon XI, or Fant4astic Doom; at the very least, this Joker has some redeeming qualities to him that I can’t ignore. He’s certainly one of the worst adaptations of the characters ever, but still, credit where credit is due, he does some things right. It was all just mishandled, as often things were in regards to the DCEU at the time.

Do you listen to any podcasts? If you do, have you got any recommendations???

y’all. i’ve been listening to podcasts literally since i was nine years old. have i got recommendations for you. i’m literally going to list every single podcast i currently listen to, so buckle up for this list

wait wait, don’t tell me is the OG. i used to listen to it every saturday morning growing up, but as i got older and busier, i started listening to the podcast. the hilarious news quiz is amazing, and i highly recommend it for anyone who wants to keep up with USA current events and likes funny celebrity interviews

all of the howstuffworks.com podcasts are amazing, but stuff you should know is the classic. covering a HUGE range of topics, josh and chuck are hilarious and have got their dynamic down given they’ve done thousands of episodes on anything you can think of. the first show i can remember really changing the game of what popular podcasting is like

i’ve listened to my brother, my brother, and me literally since the first episode. the advice show for the modern era is awesome, the mcelroys are all hilarious in their own ways, they’re all genuinely good people, and the show itself is hysterical

oh no ross and carrie is a show that investigates conspiracy theories, claims of the paranormal, cults, and other weird pseudoscience-y things. ross and carrie are funny, smart, and great at describing their investigations, and i’d definitely recommend them if you’re into 

last podcast on the left is the best true crime/horror/paranormal podcast out there. marcus, henry, and ben have the perfect dynamic as hosts, do extremely detailed and informative research, and make talking about some of the darkest subjects out there hilarious 

mission log is an awesome star trek podcast that reviews each and every episode of star trek across all the series. ken and john are extremely detailed in their analyses and interviews, and are superb at talking about the episodes in such a way that gets to the heart of why star trek has lasted and has been as popular as it is for over fifty years

the flop house is a show where, in the words of the hosts stuart, dan, and elliott, they “watch a bad movie and then talk about it”. simple in concept, hysterical in execution. the guys offer summaries and analysis of the movies, and it’s always fun to see if they end up actually liking the terrible films they are forced to endure

alphabeatical is no longer producing regular episodes, but if you’re a beatles nerd like i am, it’s a fantastic show. alex, pete, adam, and john go through every beatles studio track and talk about the history, recording process, and review the song. episodes are really short, so it’s fun to listen to a bunch at a time

the faculty of horror was recommended to me by someone on here earlier this year; alex and andrea are two amazing horror journalists and scholars who analyze horror movies, often uses critical lenses regarding gender, sexuality, race, etc. they’re super smart and offer insightful and entertaining views on films ranging from the classic to the campy

i love terrible, thanks for asking for its open discussions on pain, loss, grief, and what is means to really answer the question “how are you?” it can be extremely sad to listen to, given people are sharing their often traumatic experiences, but it is also uplifting and powerful in its frankness and honesty (also, nora mcinerny is an awesome host)

just a few to get you started

twelve Skills Every Successful Master of Ceremonies (MC) Has Mastered

Successful Masters of Services (MCs) know their job inside away. They're driven by simply passion; they continuously develop their abilities; and they learn coming from their mistakes. They will have an spectacular onstage presence, a captivated audience in addition to a fat pay out check after every event. There are a huge selection of skills to expert. Listed below are 10 involving the most essential. 1. They've acquired a knack with regard to connecting with people Will be certainly a strong a sense of mutual like plus trust between a prosperous MC and their very own audience. They construct a powerful rapport and are welcome into their audiences' world. Because they're liked and trustworthy, the group are much even more receptive to typically the MC. Their anecdotes become more entertaining and relatable; opening paragraphs take on some sort of much more cheery meaning, and everybody in the audience will become wanting to book the Rockstar MC with regard to their own big event. 2. That they get knocked decrease, but they're bold enough to get right back up again Sometimes, stuff goes wrong to have an MC. That's life, appropriate? Maybe they made a mistake, or maybe it was merely plain old negative luck. But what sets top stage MCs apart coming from the rest is usually their ability to be able to have a hit, find out from it, in addition to come back better than ever. When they screw up, they don't hyper-focus issues errors. They carry on with the show, and they also don't permit it hinder their particular performance. Afterwards, top rated MCs recognise their very own mistakes being a prospect to reflect, learn, and improve. Do they smash it, or keep lying on the back? What carry out you believe? 3. Their personal brand is definitely dependable The MCs commanding the maximum salaries all possess something in accordance: their particular personal branding is definitely excellent. The knowledgeable MC expert; the particular down-to-earth guy who else makes everyone chuckle; as well as the glamorous female with a love regarding all things classic. The secret to a highly successful private brand? read more 's constantly based on an current facet of their very own personality. They embrace their uniqueness and have absolutely it off to the whole world. It's never an extend for them to snap quickly into their MC way of thinking. 4. They understand their scripts off of by heart Typically the best MCs never wing it. They might look like they do, because they will seem very spontaneous. But actually, they already have rehearsed their canevas, jokes and figures a hundred instances. MCs are remarkably skilled at weaving cloth inspiring stories, funny anecdotes and hot information they've picked up at the occasion within their scripts -- and that's what can make them look and so spontaneous. The group is thrilled when their MC flawlessly introduces the bride and shows how she made a decision to ditch your ex high-heels to travel barefoot at the extremely last moment. Everyones smiling when the MC smoothly introduces the CEO onto the stage merely after telling a powerful story concerning her unfailing capability to inspire everyone all-around her. 5. They may Life Long Enrollees There isn't a magic stage where you've discovered all you can. The very best MCs promote a growth mindset and devote on their own to self-education. These people never stop in search of out information and absorbing everything they will can about their very own craft. Yeah, mastering does take time, and most likely busy. I acquire it. But feel me, the results a person gain from finding the time to learn are just deserving. Likely to discover new approaches, form connections together with intelligent people in addition to ultimately ensure that your MCing and even personal brand by no means grows stale. So you know what more you will get? You acquired it - the particular power to earn more from just about every future client. 6th. They're impeccably specialist Top MCs are cool cucumbers for certain. They're always calm down, positive, and inside control. Nothing gets under the skin regarding a successful MC. At every event, they flick some sort of mental switch and even instantly embody their particular personal brand and this impeccably professional MC attitude. Not even a dance floor full of shouting kids, drunken hecklers or broken products can faze them. They know precisely how to handle all that will. Importantly, the very best MCs don't let their very own private life affect their performances. Their very own world could be disintegrating and their audience wouldn't have got the slightest suspicion. All they observe is the specialized, utterly captivating MC your client appointed that you be. 7. They look amazing throughout every MC cap The MC is usually almost always the busiest person on the event. An MC's many hats would be the many different tasks they need to fulfil, and even the best MCs are experts at every one associated with 'em. So throughout addition to helping to make flawless introductions, press releases and speeches, the particular successful MC is actually a leader, communicator, moment keeper, researcher, author, entertainer, motivator, actor or actress, arbiter of design, diplomat, housekeeper and even well-prepared problem solver. Phew. 8. They're segue wizards Some sort of segue - not necessarily to be mixed up with a segway - is a public speaking technique, used extremely effectively by all the best and most ingenious MCs. It's the last 'hat' involving an MC: this software link, or mood changer. The segue allows you to be able to smooth the transition between one occasion and another, in addition to one emotion plus another, effortlessly. It's like magic. In one moment, the audience is giggling at an amusing anecdote about the particular groom, and the next, their spirits are filled using admiration when these people hear about the unshakeable passion to help make the world a much better place in his possess small way. on the lookout for. They never, at any time bad-mouth other MCs or professionals Typically the most successful MCs regard other MCs as friends, not necessarily enemies. They by no means say anything bad about their colleagues. To not their clientele, not to their friends, not really to their particular dog after a several drinks too many. Apart from appearing incredibly unprofessional, pitting yourself against your colleagues is an extremely damaging mindset in order to be in. Being a part of an encouraging community is very much preferable to bearing in mind you've got opponents and competition almost all around. Other MCs are friends to be able to laugh with, study from, share along with, get work through and pass work to. Similarly, no more matter how frustrated you are using the late DISC JOCKEY or unprofessional catering staff - retain it to on your own. Always treat all of them and talk concerning associated with the highest respect. 10. These people get tons of reservations, recommendations and duplicate clients Successful MCs are savvy businesspeople. The best MC in the globe isn't will make a cent if nobody can find them, or even knows who they are. MCs ensure they're highly visible to their fantasy clients with pro-active marketing. They pour equally as much time, effort and money into their marketing while they do to their planning and faultless performance at occasions. The hard operate pays off. Everyone in the audience is usually eager to advise or hire these people, and thrilled consumers book them again and again. I'm Peter Callier. I mentor aspiring and established Company and Wedding MCs to reach their own full ROCKSTAR possible. Want to rocket-boost your current MC career, satisfaction your clients plus earn (a lot) more from potential events? Visit InstantMC. com [http://www.instantmc.com/] to check out out our great Wedding and Company MC resources.

Ruby’s Thoughts on the Super Mario Bros 35th Anniversary Direct Earlier This Morning

ok!!! let’s talk about those silly mario announcements today, because, if ya know me, i love me my marios so much. in fact, some of my favorite games of all time include super mario world 2: yoshi’s island, super paper mario, super mario galaxy, mario & luigi: bowser’s inside story, super mario rpg, & super mario odyssey; it’s safe to say ive been a mario fan for a long time, and i love him alot.

and considering its marios big year (shhhhhh, hes turning 35 this year!!!), you’d expect a lot of big things. and, like i said, we got a bunch of mario announcements!!! some of them huge!!! and some of them i’m mixed about, but we’ll get to that once we start talking about them. so, let’s start with the very first announcement down below!!!

1) Game & Watch: Super Mario Bros

So like, as the first announcement, ummmmmm. This doesn’t look too bad. and I know this was made as a collectors item for like the most extreme Mario fans & game collectors/”historians”. And I’m one of those, a huge Mario fan. So like, I really really want it, even though it’s just a Game & Watch with Mario 1, The Lost Levels, a clock, & a Game & Watch game, priced for $50. And I’m on the fence. Like, ehhhh??? Should I pay $50 for games I could easily emulate on my laptop for free??? But also, this is a collectors item, and I know Nintendo fans will buy these in bulk and sell them for a higher price on Amazon & eBay, so like. Maybe I will get this. Just to see all the Mario stuff on there!!! And I’ll keep the box as well as the thing itself, and yea, I might actually get it for Christmas. yay :)

2) Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury

Now this was definitely an exciting announcement!! We all knew this was happening, from all the rumors, just to the fact that this was inevitable. I’m very glad Mario 3D World will get another chance on the Nintendo Switch!! If you’ve heard from many Mario fans & Wii U owners, it has to be one of Mario’s most underrated adventures in recent years; and that’s coming from someone who’s favorite underrated classics happen to be Super Mario Land 2 & Super Mario Galaxy 2! So it’s very exciting that we got one of the best Wii U games ported on the Switch! And this time it’ll have online multiplayer, but I don’t think that’s what I’m excited for the most. What I’m really interested in has to be Bowser’s Fury. What is that? Will it be harder levels, will it just be more of what we already loved from the game, or will it be a whole new campaign/story after beating the main campaign? Nintendo has been very vague about it, and we can only really know once it get’s close to coming out next year. So I’m very excited to see what that’s about!!

And yes, I should warn you, this is the only bit of new Mario content to come out that I can actually play. Everything else will be pure nostalgia bait, for both good and bad reasons. We’ll talk about that later, but all things considered: I’m very excited for this game, and I can’t wait for it to come out on Switch :)

3) Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit

OK, so like. If I was 7-11, I would be very excited for this, and I’d be begging my parents to get this. This would be something fun to play with if I was younger. But not only am I not in the age group appropriate for this, our house is messy as fuck. If I wanted to properly play this, I’d have to clean everything up our house, which will take a lot of work. So, this will be one I will pass on. Not to say it isn’t cool as fuck and I’d love to get it, I just won’t be able to play it ever in my house. Plus, it can only be played indoors, meaning I can’t make cool as fuck courses outside. This’ll be one of those Nintendo Labo things to me personally, where I’ll see it, go “Wow!! Cool as fuck, wish I had that,” I won’t get it, and I don’t think my life will be personally too affected. Still really cool though, I’ll admit that.

4) Super Mario Bros 35

OK OK, so this was another one of those “WOAH, WACKY NINTENDO COMING AT US FROM LEFT FIELD” things that like, seemed so obvious. Why hasn’t Nintendo conceived a Mario Battle Royale? Well, only because they were holding it for Mario’s 35th Anniversary, and, I love it!!! This seems like a game I’ll play alot, and I’ll have to play as much as I can, because compared to these other games, this one will be limited!!

Yea, would you believe it?? If you have a Nintendo Switch with Nintendo Switch Online, you can only play this from October 10th to March 31st. Which seems very dumb!!! Why would you get everybody excited over a cool game that alot of people might love, only to take it away from us, like, barely six months after it came out? This makes no sense! But trust me, we’ll go more in-depth on this soon. Before we talk about that, let’s talk about the other stuff!

5) The other stuff

I wanna get those cute new Mario overalls. I also wanna get those Splatfest keychains when they come out, as well as those Mario pins!! Sadly, you have to buy one of the new $60 Mario games when they come out, which sucks! Because I don’t have much money on my Nintendo account, and I don’t even have a job, so I can’t get it right away. Also seems real greedy to give out something for free when you also have to buy something in order to obtain it. But trust me, this is only a setback; I will get those pins if it’s the last I do.

But, of course, it’s time to talk about the most controversial announcement that was made today. The final announcement Nintendo made today regarding Mario’s 35th Anniversary, and that’s

6) Super Mario 3D All-Stars

That’s right! The highly rumored, highly hyped up, highly exciting announcement yet! The one everyone has been talking about, the one we’ve all been getting excited over! And even though I was first excited by this, I was also a little bit disappointed. Now, however, I’m even more mixed on this one!!

Let’s talk about the Pros & the Cons about this one.

Pros

Mario 64, Sunshine, & Galaxy are finally on Switch!!! Wow, that is very exciting!!!

Wow, Mario Sunshine looks so beautiful in HD!! Probably because of the widescreen thing, but that makes it better!!!

The Music Player is cool, I’m glad I’m now able to listen to the whole soundtrack of Mario 64, Sunshine, & Galaxy on the comfort of my Switch!! :)!!!

I’m glad they’re all together in one collection!! That’s super cool too!!

And hey, it’s coming out real soon too, that’s cool!!

OK, that’s all I have on the Pros, let’s move onto the Joycons. Cons, I mean.

Cons

OKAYYYYYY, where can I even start??? The title is very misleading. It is called “Super Mario 3D All-Stars” right?? Why didn’t these games get beautiful HD remastered graphics, or better yet, full on remakes?? With updated graphics, stuff missing from the original prototypes added in there (like playable Luigi in Mario 64), or, hell, even stuff added from the DS remake onto the Switch remake?? Playing Super Mario 64 on the Nintendo Switch in an All-Stars-esque package should mean a total upgrade!! All we’re really getting is like, “Higher Resolutions” (even though fans have been able to port Mario 64 onto PC at 60 FPS & in 4K widescreen resolution, and the way the game looks on Switch just seems to be barely emulating, but whatever) and updated controls for the Switch. Now, it’s not to say that the novelty isn’t cool. I’m glad we’re able to play Mario 64 & Sunshine on Switch, but like, if these are just straight up ports of the original games with nothing added to it, why even release physical copies of it when you could just release them seperately through Virtual Console, or, ya know, just separate releases on eShop?? It didn’t seem too hard to just port them on Switch, why not rerelease them on the platform for a cheaper price? And speaking of,

The price of this. How are you able to justify 3 games that are all more than a decade old for $60 if you’re not even gonna add in any new content besides a music player?? This kinda seems very cheap and reeks of Nintendo trying to make as much of quick bucks as possible from this. You gave the fans what we wanted, you did the bare minimum, and now you will earn in the reapings. And I wouldn’t even harshly complain about this!! Yea, sure, fans are making more beautiful upscalings to Mario 64 on PC for free, but suuuuuure, make your loyal fans pay $20 for a 25 year old game you can easily emulate on your PC. And that’s not even my biggest complaint.

Oh yea, before I go to my biggest complaint: why didn’t you include Mario Galaxy 2?? I know Galaxy is a pretty long game, but at the very least the $60 would’ve felt a lil bit more justified (not totally justified, btw!!! $60 still feels too much to play 4 games that are all a decade old at least). And as it is now, it feels very bare bones. You can’t just rerelease Mario Galaxy onto the Switch without it’s sequel,,, and again, these would’ve been my biggest and only complaints, if not for this one,,,

Nintendo’s “Vault”

Limited Release. Not just limited physical release, but limited digital release too. You can only legally purchase this game when it comes out on September 18th, 2020 til March 31st, 2021. After March 31st, 2021, you won’t be able to legally purchase this game ever again. And this isn’t just a weird thing for the United States. The whole world will get affected by this too. You aren’t safe if you’re in Britain, Japan, Europe, or anywhere else where this game is legally sold.

Out of all of Nintendo’s anti-consumer practices they’ve done in the past half-decade, out of every greedy way Nintendo tried to make money off of your nostalgia, this has to be the most greediest and the most uncharacteristic ever. And I am absolutely anti-capitalist, all of yinz should know this by this point! But even then, this just seems incredibly shady.

Why would you hype up your fanbase over the anticipated rereleases of fan favorite games onto your console, ones that could rank in fans old and new, and only release it for a limited amount of time, before putting it back into a hypothetical “vault”, never to be legally released for an unknown period of time?

And why, as a company trying to heavily protect their image, take down ROMs & ISOs & emulators, but not even clearly release your classics onto modern consoles without doing something weird about it?

You all know what I’m talking about: stuff like “Nintendo Switch Online Nintendo Entertainment System” and “SNES Classic Edition”!!!! Like, limited edition stuff like NES Classic or SNES Classic are at the very least justifiable because they were made to make a quick profit for Christmas by nostalgia-baiting your audience!! Sure, that kinda makes sense. But this is moment that Nintendo seriously crossed the line.

The one chance, the one chance Nintendo could get every Mario fan happy & excited, and they did the bare minimum, in the most cheapest way possible, in the least consumer-friendly way possible, in order to make up for potential losses during this pandemic.

And honestly, we could’ve gotten something better. You could either chalk this to Nintendo’s results from being terribly impacted by a pandemic that forced everyone way from each other, or Nintendo was really planning this all along. And they could easily do this again as well if this game sells well.

Compared to Disney, which tons of people made comparisons to, I can’t currently pirate these Mario games! I lost important buttons from my keyboard for the D-Pad, and the PS4 controller I borrowed from my bro won’t work on my laptop anymore because I lost the proper cord, and other cords I tried using won’t work as well. So, I can’t really boycott this game. Mario is very close and dear to my heart, and I’m willing to buy this game.

However, what scares me the most is that Nintendo could do this again. Zelda’s 35th happens to be next year. What happens if they released the Zelda 64 games for a limited amount of time on Switch as well??? Or what if they released the Gamecube & Wii Zelda games as ports for the Switch in a collection for a limited amount of time as well??? I’ve seen someone predict that Nintendo could possibly do this again, and I can’t really stop it because I want to play Mario Sunshine on my Switch, I want to play Mario Galaxy on my Switch! But I absolutely despised the way Nintendo went along to do this. And I’m gonna hate it even more when they do it again, thinking they could easily fool us again just because it has the “Mario” name on it, or the “Zelda” name on it.

And that’s what I’m more scared and excited for all at the same time.

At the very least, more people are starting to notice.

Garden Gnomes

By shirleytwofeathers

Origin: Teutonic

Emblem: Mushrooms, especially fly agaric or fly amanita

Plant: The presence of galbanum (freula galbaniflua) allegedly invites the protection of gnomes.

Iconography: The standard garden gnome depicts an older male with a long beard and peaked red hat. He wears a big belt over leggings, a blue tunic, and boots. Sometimes they wear gardeners’ aprons.

The name “gnome” stems from the Greek word “genomos” which means “earth dweller”. They are said to be one of the elemental spirits defined by Paracelsus, as representative of the Earth Element.

Gnomes are subterranean spirits now most associated with garden statuary. They resemble tiny people. Paracelsus described gnomes as two spans high. (A span is the width of an outstretched human hand,) Unlike dwarves or kobolds, gnomes are not mine or cave spirits but tend to live beneath human gardens. They have a reputation for emerging at night to do a little helpful garden work. Garden gnomes allegedly bring luck.

Gnomes tend to be quiet, private, taciturn spirits, but they respond well to gifts and offerings. They can be persuaded to become loyal allies, guardians, and helpers. Female gnomes may be especially taciturn; they are rarely depicted. However folklore indicates that their are entire gnome communities with male and female gnomes of all ages. Gnomes maintain good relationships with birds, rabbits, foxes, hedgehogs, and squirrels.

Originally, gnomes were thought to provide protection, especially of buried treasure and minerals in the ground.  Gnomes were regarded as good luck charms by our ancestors and would often be found living in the rafters of barns where they would help watch over livestock. They are still used today.

Garden Gnomes vs “Actual” Gnomes

Modern garden gnomes are based on the legendary “Gnomes” of myth, mysticism, and fairy tales. Gnomes have historically been described as small (from a few inches to a foot or two in height) stout beings who live in Nature – usually underground. European magicians and other mystics considered gnomes the most common and important elemental spirits of the ‘Earth’ element (the other three classical elements being: ‘Water,’ ‘Fire,’ and ‘Air’).

Gnomes were said to wear conical hats and to be able to move through the earth itself as easily as we humans walk upon it, yet if any of these underground dwellers were caught out in the daylight it was said that the rays of the Sun turned them into stone.

Sometimes gnomes were said to have magical powers to protect or punish people – or to reward them with happiness. Gnomes are also said to be guardians of secret underground treasures – especially gold! Even in modern times gnomes are said by some –such as the highly influential mystic Rudolph Steiner – to be involved in the hidden processes of plant life. In fact many farms, including prize-winning wineries, follow principles based on these beliefs.

Garden Gnomes Today

More modern descriptions of gnomes usually emphasise their bright red pointed hats, solid coloured clothes, and the long white beard of the typical male. Though sightings of female gnomes are rarely reported, gnome women are generally thought to be beard-free.

The name ‘gnome’ is said to come from the Latin word ‘gnomus’ which is thought to possibly come from the Greek word ‘gnosis’ meaning “knowledge” (i.e. of hidden treasure), but is more likely rooted in the word ‘genomos’ meaning “earth dweller”

A garden gnome adds a bit of whimsy and a connection to the old world, where farmers believed the good luck charm could help their fields yield more produce and protect them from thieves, pests and other problems. They were also thought to help gardeners in the night, which we all could use!

The earliest gnome statuary was produced in Thuringia, Germany, in the early nineteenth century and was based on German folklore. Gnome statues potentially welcome and attract real gnomes, as well as Flower Fairies or other benevolent spirits. The earliest statues were carefully wrought, hand-painted terra-cotta and were exceptionally popular.

By the 1960’s, cheaper plastic and resin versions were mass-produced. The old terra-cotta ones are now extremely valuable and are family heirlooms. Garden gnome statues tend to evoke very visceral responses. Some people adore and collect them. Others loathe them so much that they feel justified destroying or removing other people’s property.

Gnomes are the subject of modern entertainment as well as old folktales. The animated children’s television show The World of David the Gnome was highly unusual in that it depicted both male and female gnomes. The gnomes in J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series are garden pests, not helpers.

Some Handy Garden Gnome Trivia:

Gnomes are banned from the Royal Horticultural Society Chelsea Flower Show. We think that’s a crying shame, personally.

There are three categories of mass-produced gnomes: Worker gnomes, who always carry tools like fishing rods, shovels, or hammers; at-ease gnomes who typically carry a pipe and cultural gnomes who have a musical instrument in hand. Rock stars.

Gnomes have a life expectancy of 400 years.

Their main enemies? Mean humans who destroy the environment and trolls – obviously.

Male gnomes always wear red caps.

The world’s oldest garden gnome, called Lampy, has been living at Lamport Hall in the UK for 125 years and is worth a cool £2 million, or €2.4m!

In the 1980s, the Gnome Liberation Front stole gnomes and sent the owners photos of them from landmarks around the globe.

Gnomes are generally vegetarian and eat foods like nuts, mushrooms, peas, beans, potatoes, applesauce, fruit, berries, tubers, spices, vegetables, and preserves for dessert.

They like to drink mead dew made from fermented honey, fermented raspberries, and spiced gin as a nightcap.

Gnomes kiss by rubbing noses. They also use nose rubbing as a greeting equivalent to human handshaking.

Forest Gnomes:

There are gnomes that live in the forest in the Philippines.  You can tell where they live if there’s a hill of dirt that’s a bit higher than everything else. And when you go by them, you’re supposed to be really, really respectful and say:

“Excuse me. I’m just walking by. I don’t mean any harm.”

Even if you’re not doing anything, or no one said anything, or you’re not sure. You’re just supposed to do it. If you don’t, there could be blow back as per the following:

“There was a story on the Philippines news channel, about a kid who had huge swollen lips. You could hardly see his eyes. He was speaking to reporters and he said that he was walking by the hills and his friend told him that you’re supposed to say sorry and he said, “No, I’m not. I don’t care. I don’t believe in that stuff.”

Then the next day he woke up with a tumour on his face. Not so much as a tumour, but as his lips were super swollen. It looked like someone blasted air into his lips. Like super Botox.”

Walking Gnomes

The following story is very interesting in the fact that this is one of the few stories from Mexico where inanimate objects, that are not haunted, come to life. The Mexican culture does not traditionally include creatures such as gnomes but instead, it consist of larger creatures and ghosts. This is because the country did not originally have gnomes until places, such as the United States introduced them to there.

“In Mexico they believe that garden gnomes come alive at night. The proof they have of it is that my grandma used to own gnomes and her neighbours used to own gnomes in Mexico. And the garden gnomes the next day would be found in different places and a lot of stuff was broken and sometimes my mom and her sister would wake up at night, and they would hear things, but when they looked outside, they would never see the gnomes there. So there’s that story that they become alive at night in Mexico.”

“Recently I was talking to one of my cousins who told that story to some friends whose parents were also from Mexico. And this friend told my cousin that he actually believes that story, because one night the garden gnomes were not where they had placed them. They found them inside the house one night in the house and they were rolling in the hallway. Since then, they got rid of the gnomes, or at least they tried to. They threw them away but the next day they were in the same place they had put them before.”

The Secret Lives of Garden Gnomes

From Neopets.com, here’s a story about what Gnomes do at night. I’m pretty sure this is a made up story, but I thought it was fun, and who knows? Maybe it isn’t altogether fictional. You be the judge:

The reason Garden Gnomes come alive at night is because they don’t want anyone to see them moving around. This is pretty practical, considering the fact that if any regular person saw them talking and moving, they’d want to put them in some sort of abnormality museum!

But what do garden gnomes do at night? Well, I was watching out my window at the gnomes in my garden one night, and I saw one, a Bruce gnome, have them all line up in a row as he paced back and forth in front of them, a small twig in his hand like he was the instructor of a military camp.

He was telling each gnome which direction to go in order to pick up free food. You see, garden gnomes thrive like ants. They all go off to find food that people may have dropped accidentally or on purpose, and sometimes they even venture into houses and borrow food with no intention of returning (also known as stealing, but they take such small portions most people never even notice).

After retrieving food they rush back to their home centre (which is usually a tunnel in the ground leading into a large, dug out room, since gnomes are not claustrophobic) and report to the leader, in this case the Bruce gnome. He then tallies their lot and tosses the foot morsel into another room in their tunnel, where they store their food. They act sort of like chipmunks, storing food and hunting for it, of course, gnomes are not carnivores though.

And, to their enormous pleasure, when they have collected a lot of food, they sit down at have a feast! Yes, a feast! It’s a feast of little sweets, candy peas, popcorn pieces, and sometimes even whole flower cakes (although they take more than one gnome to carry). But besides eating, what else do gnomes do? Well, I’m glad you asked.

You wouldn’t suspect this, but when they have leisure time, gnomes enjoy swimming. They are very pleased to find a Neogarden where someone owns a pond. They jump right in, clothes and all, and swim and dive around in the cool water for hours at a time. And when they want to dry off, they take a large leaf and wrap themselves up in it, drying off quickly.

Aside from swimming, gnomes also enjoy crafts. They may take green blades of grass and weave adorable little baskets or even blankets. They can also take pieces of bark off of trees and sticks and carve them with sharp stones into little sculptures. Gnomes are very talented in the artistic field, and if you see a stick carved into a Meepit, you know who did it.

Aside from swimming and crafts, another thing gnomes enjoy is sports. They might play their own version of soccer by kicking around a rounded stone, or even play basketball by throwing a rock into a hole. This not only provides exercise, but gives them lots of time together to just have fun.

But when they aren’t playing and having fun, what do they do? Throughout the whole day, they sleep, and at night they either have fun or look for food, so there’s only a little bit of time left for something else-note-taking! This is sort of like their education, which is actually an education of…what else? Neopets!

Note-taking is when gnomes grab their oversized pencils and paper, which they “borrow” from Neopets, then marching through the sleeping pet’s house and going to their bedroom, where they climb up on the bed and observe the neopet’s sleeping habits. They are trying to find out where Neopets came from. Maybe all Neopets evolved from Myncis!

Another sort of educational activity that gnomes practice is counting. It isn’t counting like 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, though, no, no no! It’s counting in a different way. The gnomes version of counting may be why your plushies eye was missing when you woke up.

Gnomes will trample in when you are catching some Z’s (it seems all of their educational activities are while Neopets are slumbering) and then they will be assigned a number (by there leader, the Bruce gnome) and then they shall go “counting” which, in other words, is another type of stealing. They have to pick up ten, for example (or however many their number is) trinkets, like plushie eyes, toothpicks, or buttons, and bring them back to their tunnel, storing them in a safe place. What they do with them I do not know, but I suspect they might make furniture or something of the sort using what they found.

One last thing I found out is that gnomes are a fan of bright colours and patterns. In the early morning, I saw them getting ready for bed and they were wearing long pants and long sleeved shirt PJ’s of hot pink, bright purple, lime green, and sunny yellow colour. Some had stripes, some had polka dots, and some even had swirlies! Gnomes are very interesting, no?

Now you know what gnomes do when you aren’t looking, what their secret life is all about. If you look out your window at night, you might be able to see them moving and hear them talking in their high pitched voices. But be warned-if they see you watching them, well, I won’t go there…

Sources:

House and Garden

Encyclopedia of Spirits

Love To Know

Folklore USC

Just Say Gnome

https://shirleytwofeathers.com/The_Blog/powers-that-be/garden-gnomes/

An Interview with Royal Beasts

Royal Beasts describes themselves on their Facebook page as, “dynamic, groove-oriented, guitar-driven, synth-friendly, melodic, post-rock featuring live visuals. An instrumental outfit of sound,” and I could not agree more. The Cleveland, OH band’s shows are full of extreme energy, musicality and captivated crowds. With no vocals, you are given the space to appreciate the ride that their music invites you to jump onto. Royal Beasts has several shows coming up, and their next up is at Mahall’s in Lakewood, OH on March 22. If you are in the area, I highly recommend grabbing a drink, snagging a spot on the floor, and watching their set.

NEXT ROYAL BEASTS SHOW: https://www.facebook.com/events/606323463161839/

To get to know the band and how they arrived to their unique sound, I sat down with them and asked a few questions. If you want to hear about their camaraderie, their starts, and their future shows, check out the interview below the images.

INTERVIEW WITH ROYAL BEASTS:

Jason: My name is Jason Dunlap. I play guitar and synthesizers in Royal Beasts. I am a transplant to Cleveland, Ohio…been here for 7 years. I spent a lot of time out on the west cost in Seattle. Originally, though, from Northwest Ohio. Grew up playing piano and guitars since I was a little baby boy. 

Alec: My name is Alec Schumann. I’m a Leo, I’m 27 years old. I’ve lived in Northeast Ohio my whole life. I play drums and synthesizer in Royal Beats; I also make the backing visuals for our live shows. I have received my musical training at the Kent State University, where I studied Percussion. I’m self taught in synthesis, but I took piano lessons for a while—so make of that what you will.

William: My name is William Hooper and I’m also from Cleveland. I lived here my whole life and I play guitar in Royal Beasts. I started playing when I was 11 years old in 1999. It’s when I got my first guitar. I went to Cleveland State University for a couple of years for Music Theory and Jazz performance.

Devon: One question that I always have with musicians, because I know everyone’s story is a bit different, is what got you into what you play? Was there a moment when someone played something and you were like, “that sounds really cool, and I want to do that?” Also, what was your first instrument and how did you get it? 

Jason: My first instrument was a piano from when I was younger, and having to take lessons early on. Then, when I was a teenager probably around 13 or so, I distinctly remember telling my mother I don’t want to play piano anymore because girls don’t want to kiss boys that play the piano; instead, I wanted to play a guitar because it was a guitar. I think my mom in her infinite wisdom was just more concerned with me sticking around playing music. So, I shifted over and started playing the guitar…then really stopped playing piano until I got to college. Then, I went a totally different path in school. I wasn’t a music major by any stretch of imagination, but still self taught. But, I enjoyed taking electives, and I took an audio production sort of elective just for kicks—it was all about synthesis and it blew my fucking mind wide open. Because I was a massive fan of bands like the Talking Heads and The Cure and that kind of shit from being way younger. Then starting to understand how groups like that were actually able to manipulate sound; then able to use that training from so young and long ago in piano just cracked everything open for me and I never really looked back. Then, I got bored with how a guitar sounded and so I started just fucking around with all sorts of different pedals before pedals became the phenomenon that they are now… but just trying to discover different sounds and make my guitar sound like the things I can do on synthesizers. I was always fascinated with artists and bands that didn’t need to rely on vocalists and perform very profoundly. So, I had always wanted to be in a project like this where it is driven and dynamic in so many other ways without the need of someone coaching you upfront on stage or being a front man— that sort of idea. That’s the journey. 

Alec: I got my first snare drum when I was 8. I was in 2nd grade and I really wanted a violin for Christmas, but, I was going back and forth between a violin and snare drum. My older siblings were really musical, so my dad and mom were like oh well, clearly you should play something, what do you want? I was like oh, snare drum or violin. Then I got a snare drum for Christmas right after I decided violin and I was like never mind, I’m going to play snare drum now because this thing is cool and loud— immediately broke it a week later. I broke the bottom head so I assumed the whole thing was ruined. When I was in 4th grade, I started taking private lessons at a local music shop. That continued until I took private lessons with a couple of different people throughout high school. I went to school at KSU [Kent State University]. I vaguely wanted to be “a musician” whatever that meant. Then my sophomore year, I fell through a really deep depression of just being like, “I don’t know what I want to do actually,” because I didn’t enjoy being a member of the classical world. I didn’t enjoy the academic world around music. Then, one night I was just like well, if I’m going to like be broke and try and make myself a “professional musician”, why don’t I just do that with Indie rock? That was a lot of the stuff that I grew up with, a lot of the more mainstream alternative like Radiohead and like the Shins and Beck. When I got into college, I discovered like Animal Collective and I got really into the noise scene for a while. That, really, I would say pushed my love of synthesis. Like I said, I took Percussion lessons but I bought my first synthesizer when I was a freshman in college and from there, I learned like how to make sounds happen and what all that world was. While I was in college, I joined a band called Half an Animal and moved to Cleveland and that’s when I became a member of the Cleveland music scene. I joined a bunch of bands. Then, this one formed because Will was jamming with Jason. They knew each other and Will and I had been trying to be in a band multiple times. 

William: I wanted to do some kind of instrumental project, like a post rock kind of project, and I knew that Jason was interested in that kind of music—and he had a friend who plays trumpet who played with his old band. So, I initially reached out to Jason because I wanted the trumpet player’s number. But, he wasn’t really interested. So, I got together with Jason and I’ve known Alec for a long time too and it just kind of…

Alec: Will and I had a couple of bands together. Will is in another project called Ottawa, and there’s been one or two occasions where they’ve needed drummers and I’ve been the one to fill in because I love all those dudes and that’s the end of my story. 

Devon: How about you? [William]

William: I have a similar experience because a got a bass guitar first because I thought it would be easier to play. I was like 11 years old so I thought 4 strings would be easier. Then I got a guitar soon after BC Rich red mockingbird. I thought it was really cool. I thought it was jam set field literally. Well I loved like metal music like Metallica and like really embarrassing stuff like Dream Theatre…but, mostly Metallica. Then eventually high school came around then I got into like the Beatles and then after that Devo and Frank Zappa and all that stuff. 

Alec: We’re all excited for each other and for ourselves. 

Jason: That’s something that’s really interesting about this… It’s been about a year and some odd months, and we’ve already gone through a little bit of heart break in that an original member of our band isn’t with us anymore. But, we knew that the 3 of us that had this thing from the outset, and the reason it works is for things like that. We genuinely get so fucking excited by each other seeing each other do things sometimes and sounds come out and we’re generally just like, “that was amazing! Do that again!” It’s just so happy with the 3 of us and because we also are these long winded rambling people, it allows for us to also share a constant narrative with one another and play along with each other in that regard too. Because, we get a kick out of telling stories. 

Alec: Kind of going off that, like, there’s not any taking advantage or like losing appreciation I guess. I am always amazed by like both of your guitar abilities. No offense, Will especially because your synth shit, I’m always amazed, no offense [To Jason]. You’re a strong interpolator and a strong synth player like our sound sculpting is amazing and like you’re I don’t know how to play this and it’s going to work and that always blows me away and it’s something like… I’ve been in bands where we all really get impressed by each other and then we all get bored. Like there’s a honeymoon period and then it goes away. 

Devon: It’s like a relationship. 

Jason: We’re still having amazing sex. Like, a year and a half into this relationship, we still actively fuck. 

[Collective Laughter]

William: You’re my favorite drummer I’ve ever played with in my entire life.

Alec: You’re my favorite interpolator, you’re my favorite, like, multi-instrumentalist. You’re crazy,  man. 

William: It’s funny because for like 5 years I’ve known you and I just wanted to start a band with you so bad. 

Alec: We’ve tried a couple… 

Jason: The thing is, I had never met Alec before a year and a half ago.

Alec: Yeah no, one day you showed up. We used to practice in my basement and then one day you showed up. I thought you were a base player, and the first thing I ever said to you was that’s not a base amp. You started going and I was like, oh! But, yeah, no the cool thing about this band is we think of an idea, and it isn’t like that sounds like a lot of work, it’s that’s sounds like a lot of work lets do it. Which is how we got to the point where we have backing visuals and stuff. 

Devon: How did that start? The backing visuals?

Alec: I’ve been wanting to do that in the project forever. One of my hobbies is video editing… I’m very basic at video editing stuff,like it’s just something I kind of learned how to do on my parent’s computer in high school. And every once a while, I jump back in and be like oh yeah I can sort of figure it out. But I mentioned that we had talked about the idea of backing visuals. Then one day I was like I have a projector and I know how to make the stuff. And everyone else in the band was like oh alright I guess let’s try it. Then the set up that we have is I actually trigger the next video to be played like for the next part of the song. I have a little foot switch next to my hi hat. So while I’m playing, I also like really quickly tap over to the next scene essentially… 

William: And he’s also playing synth. 

Alec: But yes it’s one of the things like kind of going back a little bit too like I never made a new video… We’re really overdue for new visuals so I’m trying to change it up but I’ve just been very busy the last couple of weeks. I’ve never not made like a new visual thing to send to the crew and never not gotten back like whoa holy shit. I always feel very appreciated in this project. And it’s never like oh we should make sure Alec feels appreciated. It’s wow my friend is doing a great job and I feel the same about them. I feel the same about my friends in this room. 

Jason: I didn’t know what to expect the first time when he was hey they’re done, I have the visuals all ready to go. I was like alright I’m excited to see and I know you’ve been working on them all by yourself and I went over to his house and we just listened to the record while he played the visuals and my fucking jaw was on the floor. Because he has this aesthetic for these visuals that are just these trippy analog 80s VHS feedback loops, is what it feels like. And it’s such a…

William: It’s a perfect compliment to the music… 

Jason: Yes. Because we really do [05:49 Unintelligible] a lot to like all the shit that we had talked about before like bands we listen to and all that kind of stuff. And we throw back a lot of like… It’s funny because old metal dudes love us. Because we get a little “prog” at times…

Devon: I’m a huge metal fan that’s why I think I got so into you guys. 

Jason: See I hate metal. No I really do. It’s probably my least favorite genre of music next to like top 40 country music. I really don’t get down with it and so there are times in this band where moments have happened that Alec and Will be like, what if we try this and something comes out. And I’m like whoa that’s kind of starting to touch some boxes I’m not sure if I want to check but then I open it up and I trust it. Then that trust is what I’m like oh I get it. So I’m actually maybe coming around to metal. 

Alec: Even in this band, I don’t listen to a lot of post rock. Being in this band, we did a couple of practices and I was like I probably should check out Mogwa and I’ve still only listened to a few songs. My drumming styles has always been really influenced by Deerhoof and Lightning Bolt. All these really fast insane dudes who just kind of break the rules of what you should do. Then it was like okay Alec, be in a post rock band. Which is like oh that’s like a lot of being in the background and holding a gun drumming…

Jason: … I think it’s perfect. I didn’t mean to interrupt you, I just want to chime in and say I think it’s perfect that you don’t listen to a lot of the genre because that’s what allows how far we bend in the genre to exist. It’s because you don’t know how to be a post rock drummer. 

Alec: I think all 3 of us started under the idea of like let’s be post rock and halfway through our first album we were like lets bend that a little bit. 

William: …Yes, literally the last 2 songs we did a little different, a little more progressive. 

Alec: And the 2 most recent songs we’ve written have been very much against… not against post rock, they are very heavy heavy parts. Like this is not in that realm at all. 

William: I think they’ve been more like experimental instrumental music. Just less like post rock.

Alec: Especially the way we’re talking about changing things up to with the recent loss of our base player, there’s a minute where we were like whoa should we get another one and now we can kind of explore this area where it’s like well do we need another one? Do we need somebody to play base? The 3 of us are all multi instrumentalists. We all know how to play synths, we all know how to play guitar, we all know how to play base. I know how to play drums and you two know how to play drums too. I’m on stage so I don’t have to play like a beat the whole time. I have a few samplers and that’s a world I would love to jump in with this band. What if we rotated roles a lot more? 

Jason: Switch instruments up a lot more…

Devon: And that’s very unique. I think it’d be very cool and very fitting. 

Jason: Yes, that’s our next step. We have this show tonight and a couple of shows the next couple of months but then we are hunkering down into figuring out how we’re going to keep progressing with just the 3 of us doing things like that; experimenting more with really shifting around a lot of instrumentation and the overall soundscapes themselves. I think they’re going to change pretty drastically to what we’ve done right now. 

Alec: I would say the term post rock is not going to apply to our second album. Not going to say it’s going to be gone, I’m just going to say it’s going to be much less and it’s hard to say. 

William: I do love post rock though. It’s always been like a… not a guilty pleasure but like a secret pleasure like none of my friends know. None of my friends are into it until really I met.

Alec: That was like me and Chillwave for a while, like I totally get that. 

William: I could not relate with anybody about it. 

Alec: Yes, it was like this is mine. I’m going to go home into my bedroom, close the door and just listen to this for a while. 

Jason: Well it’s also hard to meet a new friend and be like here let me put on this record by a band called ‘Godspeed, you Black Emperor’. And the first 6 minutes they’re just like “umm….has it started?”

Devon: Returning back to you said you have a couple of more shows coming up. What are those shows so the listeners can know when they’re going be and where they’re going to be so they can attend. 

Jason: I can tell you real fast.

Devon: Sorry, I know it puts you on the spot. 

Alec: We’re doing a tour April 4th, 5th and 6th. We’re going to Chicago, Detroit and Columbus. 

Devon: Is that your first tour as a band? 

Alec: It’s our first all weekender. We’re also doing Friday March 22nd. That’s our next show. That one’s going to be with Times Ten and BirdDog Cats. That one’s going to be at Mahall’s in Lakewood Ohio. 

Jason: Then yes the 4th, 5th and 6th we’re on the road, then Monday April 22nd, we’re playing with a band from New York called You Bred Raptors. That is at Mahalls as well, the same spot.

William: 30th of April is with Blessed at the Grog shop. 

Alec: That weekend prior we’re also playing a show. 

Jason: We don’t have a whole lot of information on it yet but April 27th and 28th, the ACLU is having a fundraiser in public square in downtown Cleveland and we’ve been asked to play that. That’s going to be really great. That just confirmed this week. We don’t have a lot of details other than we know that it’s going to be Saturday, April 27th we’re playing but the fundraiser is the 27th and the 28th.

Devon: The one question I do have is your first time on the road as a group and as a project. What are some concerns or excitement that you have for being on the road with each other? 

Alec: I don’t have any concerns honestly. 

William: We’re all pretty easy going as far as personality wise. It’s more about what we’re going to eat.

Alec: That’s a concern, it’s like being well fed and making sure we can be. We’ve all done that kind of thing. The thing I’m personally excited about is going to be a thing like wow we’re really going to know the deep dive stuff. Speaking from experience where you can be in a band for like 4 or 5 years and then go on a tour and then you learn stuff that you never knew about the other people. Because it isn’t just you’re getting together once a week, it’s you’re in a car with somebody for the whole day. Then you go to the venue, you don’t know anybody else and if you’re not feeling it, you just hang out with your band again. I personally am excited. I hope the 3 shows that we play are good and I hope they’re encouraging to keep going on tour. Even if they’re bad, they could be encouraging to go on tour because then we’ll know okay this is what we’ve got to switch up. 

Jason: Yes, I concur with all of that. I’m excited for learning the little weird quirks about spending 24 hours a day with somebody. That kind of excites me. I just want to make sure that we have a good steady supply of comic books and cheap pulp sci-fi novels. Just stuff to like burn through and Alec is not allowed to have the playlist control for longer than 2 hours. [laughs] That’s what I’m most excited for and honestly to spread this a little bit more to see what… Because, we’ve come to a point in Cleveland where we know what we’re doing here and we know people’s reactions to it and it’s been very positive and very encouraging. So now we’re ready to see what other places have to think and say about it.

Devon: Well thank you so much for your time and we hope to hear from you soon. 

An Interview with Royal Beasts was originally published on RockRevolt Mag

LONG POST ‘CAUSE BIO!! (I’m still a n00b with tumblr formatting... halp...)

I finally got his details down in a way that I'm happy enough to share them. I do know that some of the stuff I've got with him may be a little... is it cliche? I don't really know and I don't particularly care. As it is, I like him as I've made him, but I'm more than willing to have discussions if anyone has an idea that may make things even better.

Critiques are welcome~!

~*~

Real Name – Lonán [approximately pronounced “loo-nan”]

Alias – ‘Cat-Eyes’

Age – Believed to be 500+ but he’s not sure

Birthday – September 22

Gender – Male

Species – Cursed ‘Human’/Cambion

Ethnicity – European

Place of Origin – Ireland

Languages Spoken – Irish Gaelic, English, and Latin, although he can puzzle his way through Italian, as well due to its lingering similarities to its parent language, and he can also apply this –to a lesser extent– to the other ‘romance languages’

Eyes – Usually light aquamarine but tend to become much more vivid when using his racial abilities, vertically-slit pupils, always has black marks akin to eyeliner all around the eye

Hair – Black, strip of red in the middle of his goatee (if he didn’t shave, he would also have patches of red on both cheeks just below the ridge of his cheekbones)

Skin – Pale, almost translucent

Build – Lean, almost perfectly-defined musculature for his build, extremely flexible, 6’0”

Typical Outfit – Lonán doesn’t like to weigh his body down with unnecessary cloth, and so tends to underdress. He’s usually found wearing the following ensemble: • Teal hooded zip-up sweatshirt with thumbholes in the cuffs of the slightly-elongated sleeves, frequently worn completely unzipped • Grey wifebeater shirt if it’s actually cold enough that most other people would wear two or three layers of clothing • Indigo sweatpants • Black thongs/flip-flops, which he has no particular care for whether he loses them or not as he actually prefers going barefoot

Personality – Usually fairly aloof and secretive, viciously vindictive, arrogant, driven, cunning and conniving, highly-curious, can be playful when in a good enough mood, ‘I meant to do that’, fickle, showy when he believes he has the time to be, will manipulate others until the cows come home (especially if it means he gets to keep his own hands clean), wants to ‘shape humanity up’ and gets increasingly frustrated when people seem to repeat old mistakes, becomes an absolute hot-head when he actually loses his temper, technically has a rather flexible personality so as to present the ‘correct version of himself’ to those he approaches, prone to snuggling if he gives in and gets a ‘sexy fix’ (once he wakes up again, he either leaves them or kills them)

Likes – Being warm, being touchy-feely with people, sleeping, learning and reading, dishes that involve rabbit meat, classical and folk music (it calms him down), snowflakes and ice crystals, watching fire

Dislikes – ‘Normal people’ (calls them ‘the unenlightened’), having to prove himself in any way, times when information is actively kept from him, music that relies on electronics to be able to be played ‘correctly’

Orientation – Bisexual, and bi-romantic… but he will have intermittent bouts of either particular leanings or ‘literally anything works’

Fears – Losing all complex thoughts and becoming nothing more than a beast, deep or rough water, drowning

Voice – Smooth, ‘svelte’, tends to be mildly amused and playful, gains a low and almost-constant growl or hiss when irritated or otherwise losing his cool

Strengths: • Stemming from his inhuman parentage, Lonán has the ability to hypnotise and ‘bewitch’ other people into doing his bidding. By using a particular tone of voice or by keeping their gaze on his eyes for long enough, he can begin to influence his targets to do almost anything he requests of them. Alongside this, he has phenomenal skill with words and mental manipulation, even without utilising this power.

• Also thanks to his parentage, he is capable of a form of mind-reading, with two distinct levels of potency. By simply being in the general area –within eyesight range– he can get a reasonably-clear impression of a person’s ‘self’ and the general style of their surface thoughts, but when he instigates some kind of skin-to-skin contact, he is actually able to read more clearly into their surface thoughts and even –to a much lesser degree– their memories.

• Lonán has the ability to replenish his energy reserves by absorbing sexual energy, whether directly or by ‘soaking in the atmosphere’ in a sexually-charged space. If he makes use of it, he can essentially live without ever resting.

• His body is extremely flexible, enabling him to manoeuvre himself through and into spaces that he doesn’t appear to be able to, according only to his size and stature.

• He was taught various magic spells and the like, which he could feasibly use to do any number of things that a more ‘normal’ individual could never dream of. Thanks to a tendency to improvise and improve upon what he actually does, this versatile set of potential capabilities has the chance to expand exponentially.

• Lonán regularly brews and drinks a potion that allows him to survive up to eight fatal injuries in quick succession. After beginning to use it, his nails became retractable cat-like claws and his eye-teeth both sharpened and lengthened.

Weaknesses: • For all of his innate skill with it, Lonán’s hypnotic power isn’t infallible. He cannot use it to make people completely bypass their moral code, not to mention the fact that some people are simply more resistant to being hypnotised –unlike ‘regular hypnosis’, however, he is able to affect anyone. The effects aren’t permanent, either, and the victim can be broken out of it by being knocked out… and some can even shake it off themselves, particularly in the appropriate circumstances as determined by the individual in question.

• Lonán can make various missteps with his choice of words and actions while trying to manipulate someone. If he makes a small mistake, he gets a bit flustered… which often leads into more and more being made as he gets more and more frustrated with himself.

• While ‘getting a basic read on someone’ is practically instinctual for him, it is more than possible for him to get even that wrong, let alone the more complex contact-based forms of reading people’s minds. Truthfully, he tries his hardest to avoid using it, and as such is very inexperienced in its use.

• Lonán’s hesitance to indulge in his hereditary nature doesn’t only leave him lacking in practice with his mind-reading, but also in ‘metabolising’ any sexual energy that he absorbs. Not processing it properly tends to wind up with him acting as if he was drunk or even high, along with all of the downsides of such states.

• A lot of what he was taught about magic has since been forgotten due to a lack of use upon learning about the more subtle technicalities regarding the potion. With how magic has changed in the eyes of the world, refreshing his memory is difficult at best and almost impossible at worst. With that being said, he still tries to recall what he learned; these almost invariably have unpredictable results, not all of which being remotely pleasant for him, let alone useful.

• Using the potion that he does has definite downsides to it, and he needs to drink some every couple of days to keep its effect from being interrupted. In the event of going through a period of time where he doesn’t take any, however, the withdrawal symptoms quickly rear their rather ugly heads; to begin with, his temper takes a definite turn for the worst, but then he starts to grow increasingly restless with no apparent method of easing it –aside from the potion itself. Once that has begun to sink in, Lonán’s demeanour and even his way of thinking turns into something more bestial, with the last symptoms that he’s ever experienced being the early stages of a physical transformation into some sort of monstrous feline biped. He has deduced that, should he ever allow these symptoms to progress any further than that, then it would become permanent. Unfortunately for him, each instance of withdrawal progresses at a quicker rate than the previous one, and he has even noticed some of these occasionally popping up when he loses his temper.

How They Can Die – Lonán is just as susceptible to injury and other forms of damage as any normal human, but his heritage has granted him an indefinite lifespan and the potion he takes has given him the ability to essentially ‘shrug off’ up to eight instances of ‘fatal damage’ in the –typically short– time between taking the potion.

Physiological Conditions – Withdrawal symptoms (intermittent and wildly-varying in effect)

Psychological Conditions – Nymphomania (barely ever fully indulges, but is incapable of completely neglecting his urges); Sociopathy; Antisocial Personality Disorder (to some degree)

Quotes – “You people never learn…” “This immortality thing… it’s very high-maintenance.”

Primary Reasons for Killing – Resources and Proving a Point

Weapon of Choice – Although Lonán possesses sharp claws, he prefers to restrict their use as much as he can. Instead, his favoured weapon –when he actually expects the potential of running into trouble– is a kopis ‘machete’, with a lancet for any more precise cuts for gathering ingredients.

Primary Targets – Those with seemingly-healthy bodies, regardless of age

Avoids Targeting – Anyone who is obviously-unwell, regardless of age

Preferred Method of Killing – Convincing the victim to attack either themselves or another victim by way of hypnotic suggestion, and if that fails then he will ultimately aim to knock them out and slice their throat open nearly to the point of decapitation. After the target is dead, he removes a number of body parts from the carcass, most of which are then either preserved in ethanol for later use or are quickly put into the next batch of his potion.

Details of the Potion – Crafted from a plethora of ingredients, ranging from a salad of mint and various other plants, to a black cat’s tail, paws, and ears, to human body parts. The ingredients used in the recipe that Lonán originally learned are the heart, lungs, liver, stomach, and both large and small intestines; he has, however, adapted the recipe over the years in an attempt to limit the symptoms of withdrawal and to increase the maximum gap between doses, and these newer components are the eyes, ears, tongue, and hands. Once properly brewed, it is strained and boiled once again, before he actually drinks it.

Taking ingredients from human bodies actually has a number of requirements that need to be met. For starters, it is best if he is able to take them from a willing victim, although knowing what they’re agreeing to is not necessary –he is able to twist the will of his victims using his hypnotic ability to make them more amenable to the possibility. Other than that, these body parts also need to be reasonably ‘fresh’ –with no more than a couple of days passing between being harvested and being ‘put into the pot’, unless he manages to preserve them; however, this does some strange things to the potion, in and of itself, due to the nature of the substances used to preserve body parts. Another detail that Lonán has to bear in mind is that no amount of ‘perfect preparation’ will make the batch succeed if he’s a complete stranger to the individual in question.

Despite what he believes it to be, the potion is not meant for inducing any form of ‘immortality’. It is meant to ascribe traits believed to belong to an animal to a person –in this case, the ‘nine lives’ folkloric property of cats is the primary focus, using black cats in particular due to their believed connections to not only witches and the fey but also to magic in general. Each time he takes a dose, these ‘nine lives’ are replenished, but it also further cements his reliance on it as well as his addiction to it.

Family – Lonán doesn’t know anything about any relatives he might have in the modern day, and he never particularly discusses the family that raised him. • Father – Asmodeus Both father and son barely know anything about each other, to the point that Lonán doesn’t even know for certain who his father even is –let alone anything about the ‘Lord of Lust’. It’s possible that, via Lonán’s occasional interactions with the ‘prime demonic real estate’ that is Lucy Blumenthal, Asmodeus may come to actually meet his son at some point in the future.

• Mother – [Unknown, deceased] She met Asmodeus while she was running away from her family and the makings of an arranged marriage, and saw the demon as a way of escaping her parents’ plans. However, he left shortly after impregnating her (unknowing of the actual success of the act). She found a couple who owned an inn in the next township over, and was given a place to stay in return for working for them. Lonán’s mother took care of him there for the first two years of his life, before dumping him in the care of the innkeeper and his wife and disappearing.

• Adopted Family – Paidin and Elyn O Cleirigh [deceased] Until they met Lonán’s mother, nothing of particular interest had happened in their lives. Elyn took pity on the pregnant woman when she showed up on their doorstep, and Paidin readily offered her a job at their inn. When Lonán was two years old, his mother disappeared from the inn and never returned, leaving the child entirely in the care of the couple who had effectively become his godparents.

Being left to care for him, however, was something they came to resent to some degree, especially considering the boy’s strange traits which became more obvious as he grew older. Once Paidin deemed him to be old enough, Lonán was given various chores around the inn; he particularly took to kitchen tasks and to chores in the stables, although he also had a knack for convincing customers to stay another night or to order more expensive food and drink.

During his childhood, Lonán cared a lot about them both, but as he grew into adolescence, this started to twist into a form of grudging resentment regarding their hesitance to talk about his birth-family beyond ‘his mother left him in their care’.

• Other Family – …Various… It’s practically a given that he has at least some half-siblings, courtesy of his father’s activities, just as there is a definite possibility of some other relatives on his mother’s side surviving to the modern-day.

Friendly Interactions – Lucy Blumenthal/Ghostly Ripper (reasonably friendly) [OC]

Neutral Interactions – Generally neutral and even aloof to everyone and everything, with one clear distinction…

Antagonistic Interactions – Lucy’s demonic passengers (especially his former teacher), and then there’s normal people –the ‘unenlightened’– who he almost always treats with either cold aloofness or outright hostility

History – Before Lonán was even born, his life had already been derailed from the norm for the time and place. His mother –whose name he still doesn’t know– had run away from her family, seeking ‘true love’ instead of the arranged marriage that her father expected her to go along with. Two weeks into her escape, she met a foreign man who she fell in love with. Unbeknownst to her, however, this man was the current host of a demon by the name of Asmodeus –all he was after was a fleeting sexual ‘fix’… and he left her after a few months once he’d had his fill.

Lonán’s mother took another month to realise that she was pregnant and that’s when she started to panic. With winter already on the doorstep, finding somewhere that she could live in safety was her first priority, but she was terrified of returning to her family –pregnant and unmarried– but she also knew that almost no-one would marry a woman who was already carrying a child.

When she reached the next town along the vague path through the country that she’d been following, she was able to get a room at the inn for a week. The innkeeper’s wife noticed her growing belly and darkening mood; after pressuring her for her story, Elyn set about persuading her husband to consider allowing her to stay for longer than she’s originally paid for. Paidin agreed to let her, for as long as she was willing to work at their inn.

This arrangement stayed in-place for months, and Lonán was even born in one of the inn’s rooms with Elyn acting as a midwife. In fact, the young mother stayed and worked at the inn until her son was two years old, at which point she left and never returned, leaving him behind. Initially, neither Paidin nor Elyn were sure what to do with the toddler, but having grown somewhat attached to him, they took Lonán in.

As he grew older, Paidin noticed that Lonán had an almost bewitching effect on their customers –he was somehow able to convince them to stay longer or to buy more expensive meals. However, despite that capability, when they started to get the boy to pitch in around the inn, he took especially to the kitchen and to the stables. In this manner, their lives were reasonably comfortable for years. Paidin and Elyn raised Lonán as if he was their own, and he loved them in return.

Not long after he turned 13, something happened which prompted Paidin to keep Lonán out of customer interactions. A family stayed at the O Cleirigh inn –father, mother, and two daughters– and upon seeing the young teen, they requested that Lonán be their primary service-provider during their stay; it wasn’t the first time that such a request had been made and so it was readily agreed to, especially with the additional money the father offered for the ‘privilege’. Things stayed normal for the first couple of days… the daughters seemed to be enamoured with him, and the father was particularly prone to calling on Lonán for the tiniest of tasks. On the fourth night, however, a series of screams woke the entire building.

The daughters had called for Lonán late that night, and each dragged him into their beds in quick succession. Trying to keep a sense of ‘professionalism’, not least of which being because of the sizeable profit the family’s stay presented, he rejected their blatant advances and attempted to leave. Their mother arrived upon hearing her daughter’s raised voices, followed shortly after by the father. Both daughters launched themselves at their mother, crying and accusing Lonán of trying to take advantage of them; while the mother was occupied with comforting the girls, their father turned his attention to the accused teen.

Lonán found himself being attacked by the man, eventually winding up pinned –bruised and bloodied– to the floor by the father’s full weight. It was when his clothes were being torn from his body that Lonán finally started to realise just how much trouble he was in. At that point, he began to struggle even more to escape, running more on instinct than coherent thought… Then, at long last, the father released him and stood, swaying on his feet for a few moments before attacking his own wife and daughters.

The resultant screaming brought both O Cleirighs, along with a number of the other guests, rushing into the room. The sight that greeted them was grisly; the father had practically mauled his family to death before apparently tearing his own throat out. Lonán had pressed himself into the corner furthest from the gore, but wasted no time in trying to bury himself into Elyn’s shocked but ready embrace.

Lonán never told anyone what happened, not even his adoptive parents, although the horrific event did significantly lessen the number of guests they received for another few years. In that time, Lonán was finally specifically told that he wasn’t actually related to the O Cleirighs by blood, leading him to ask question after question about his birth-family. By the time he had turned 17, he’d grown more than a little impatient with the lack of answers they gave him, and even somewhat resentful about the apparent secrecy –not realising that it was largely due to the fact that neither Paidin nor Elyn actually knew that much about his mother’s family… and nothing about his father.

One night, around a month after turning 18, he was woken by the sound of music in the nearby woods. Curious, he slipped out to investigate, eventually coming across a wealthy-looking man sitting on a fallen tree and playing a pipe. The man finished his song before urging Lonán to join him, introducing himself as Faolan.

They talked for a while, each trying to get a decent impression of the other’s nature, and Lonán was shocked to discover that the strange man was the easiest person to simply chat with that he’d ever met. In turn, Faolan –truly the current host of the demon named Belial– had noticed something ‘off’ about his young visitor that he wanted to investigate further. Eventually, talk turned to the teenager’s dreams for the future, and Lonán told his new friend something that he’d never brought up to anyone else; he wanted to change the world, to make it better than it currently was, but he had no idea as to how to acquire the power to do so.

This was the opening that Belial had been waiting for. He regaled Lonán with tales of influential and wealthy people who lived far longer than seemed natural, people who began life with nothing and ended it with everything… Unsurprisingly, the young man begged to learn more and Belial gleefully agreed. They sealed the agreement with a handshake, at which point the demon finally understood who and what Lonán was –a cambion child of the ‘Lord of Lust’, whom Belial had been in a steady disagreement with for years, making the boy a prime candidate for some good old-fashioned revenge.

Over the next several months, ‘Faolan’ taught his new student how to read and write, as well as basic mathematics. Once he was comfortable with what Lonán had learned –coupled with how ready he was to listen to the demon– he began to introduce the youngster to the topic of magic… a topic that the cambion took to like a fish to water. Another month was spent building up Lonán’s knowledge in the topic before Belial finally brought up the potion that he said was designed to grant immortality to whoever drank it. Feeling like he was finally getting to what he was truly after, Lonán dove headlong into this particular series of lessons without a second thought and, eventually, student and teacher brewed up a batch together –the fact that some of the ingredients had been procured from Paidin was something that Belial kept to himself, along with the truth of exactly what those particular body parts were from in the first place.

At that point, ‘Faolan’ left the town on what he described as ‘important business’, returning again a week later to see the result of his handiwork…

Lonán, having been deliberately kept in the dark about any side-effects of the potion, as well as the truth about some of the critical ingredients, was in the midst of his very first bout of withdrawal symptoms. Over the course of the week that Belial had been gone, Lonán had grown increasingly irritable and violent as the ‘beast-like nature’ the potion had imbued into him started to take hold. The inn was in shambles, the guests and their horses had either fled or died before they could, the few staff members had done the same… and Elyn –while trying to calm her adopted son down– had been killed.

Belial was delighted, and after securely tying his student up, brewed another batch of the potion and forced him to drink it. The next day, Lonán finally come down from the manic ‘high’ with no memory of what had truly transpired; this is when the demon finally told him everything –from the truth of the potion’s ingredients, to being a demon, to tricking him, to even the fact that Lonán himself was never entirely human to begin with. With that said and done, ‘Faolan’ vanished, leaving the teen to free himself and escape before anyone could pin the blame for the events on him.

The next primary note in Lonán’s history was much later. In an effort to try to find ways of altering the recipe of the potion that he was now functionally dependant on, he had managed to get work as an undertaker. However, not only did trying to use parts from the deceased not really work, but he was also discovered and run out of town for mutilating the bodies.

~*~

Story is on the back-burner for the time being, but I will write one for him.

It seemed like the transcripts of some of Chronos' videos were lost, so I went ahead and redid them myself.

I strongly believe that my mom was being monitored and harrassed by Youtube, Universal Pictures, and their affiliates, due to a secret, of sorts, she had uncovered within the original trilogy of Jurassic Park films Let me start by saying as early on as I can that I am not crazy - never been diagnosed with schizophrenia, [????] disorder, or any other mental illness. I'm just good at noticing patterns I've always been a big Jurassic Park fan. [near illegible, but I tried my best] I saw the first[firat?] film in the [??] when I was five years old, [etc] It's possible that Youtube's part in the harrassment campaign may have started with the removal of her various tribute videos to Jurassic Park after her passing but those may also merely be the result of the vast machine that is the automated copyright-takedown system. As big of a JP fan as I am though... [yes, just one word gets its own entire block.] [The next two slides are both on screen for like a second or less each, and both very hard to read.] I was never as [Jebus??] into the franchise as my mom was. She would watch the entire trilogy [something something] weekend [something] month She would buy JP-branded oatmeals and sugary cereals, long after her doctor advised her to steer clear of these for [sdffghjh] tribute videos [sasfsds] like those Linkin Park anime music videos, [there seems to be another line below this in smaller text, but all that can be seen due to the "Lost World" logo is an 'n'] I started noticing their absences toward the end of 2015 Without access to her Youtube password [again, the logo obscures a second line of smaller text] videos s[asdf] eate[n???] on her old laptop I contacted Youtube many times regarding the videos, but have only recieved canned auto-responses and unhelpful, yes sympathetic responses from actual employees after pressing the matter

Sudden huge increase in views... I hope anyone reading this is good with computers. Can you help a dude out? Anyone with experience in the "Eratas" or "Erratas" system, if you could send me a message I'd be extremely grateful. I realise reaching out to my Youtube viewers is a stretch, but hey I guess it's worth a shot, right?

This is the current automatic transcript of the song lyrics- note the address is gone.

0:00 yummy with our bodies we go double take 0:16 when double towel and down because you 0:18 will obey yep at the moment a swing 0:24 according and what if they were moving 0:26 out of people put this flag again me and 0:30 where we get the Kyrian's logbook that 0:32 much will be here with norma j whatever 0:35 same time of shipment be ready rings I 0:39 got the swagger bomb dinner she gotta be 0:41 the banker getting hungry mi made it was 0:46 a motherfucker I get the most which is 0:49 one of those bad Mama's lawmakers face 0:54 big to wait before the game silly 0:56 mistakes by me for the legality long 1:00 incremented plan to participate there 1:03 are few things that remain partly in 1:05 fact women brown one jet respect for 1:08 just a sec all want to hear that amana 1:12 fellas 1:14 where's little water water some people 1:20 talk to prepare a while did you dress 1:22 this is probably one night shift with a 1:25 flower wanna sesh with the left yeah I 1:28 came with the girl boy more than I can 1:32 make you feel a bit of summer fun dirty 1:34 hands off what you got this one is 1:37 different cuz of giving up their friend 1:40 not expedia we go up as much me what is 1:44 now for miracles that reason who I saved 1:49 it up for going my life we thought okay 1:52 II didn't see results el Muppet is 1:55 liking the brand back when we flew with 1:58 the what the fucking bag guys what dear 2:01 what I do like her to the finish my blog 2:05 or give it give you burn the neck yet 2:08 before pop pop pop you're already 2:10 because up just a touch the phone fucker 2:14 hit e'rybody chose to be seven dollars 2:18 oof amazing makers Allah fuckin ear for 2:21 my age / or two big horses doing his way 2:26 where we're going 2:28 we're breaking any / you an exact 2:32 digital model for the problems of 2:34 opinion i wanna do you live with my 2:37 first build up an American town to fit 2:42 terrasse de multiple more Chicago's 2:45 that's what we not all results too 2:48 powerful for design code changes

And here's the transcript for the QnA video, copy-pasted from KYM because it's under a spoiler tag on that page and thus won't archive. I don't know why KYM thinks this video was deleted, as it's very much still available.

TRANSCRIPT: [start of video] I’ve been fairly reluctant to really ask anyone for help since the nature of ] like pre[ classic paranoid nutjob ramblings - algorithms controlling things behind the scenes, weird stuff in that vein. But I would never waste anyone’s time with stuff like that. In the past couple of years I’ve asked for help from friends in programming and business circles. but over time, friendships fade, people move, people stop talking to you. You know the drill. As such, I’m very grateful for the help people are giving and I’ll try and answer as many questions as I can here. Cork Top writes: Q: "So with this video, are you essentially trying to see if this system called “Erratas” or “Eratas” will attempt to take down the video because it’s some system/algorithm that takes down videos that… I don’t know, include the term “Eratas”/“Erratas” in them? Which is why you used asterisks for letters in the word in the description, to see if the system could detect text on videos?" [Cont…]

A: Thanks for writing, Cork. Yes. I don’t know much about programming or computer systems, so I’m not too savvy about how to trick them. All I really know about Erratas is that it’s used by dozens of companies. (“recent”, as in, within the last 5 or 6 years) they seem to use it as a copyright-enforcement tool which works as an excellent [?] if you want to take down other things as well. But it has its limitations, and I’m fairly sure that my “test video” helped ferret those out. Maybe. The original Jurassic Park trilogy is excellent, by the way, I highly recommend it. The second film is my favorite, in spite of its flaws. Frank Horrigan writes “what is the erratas system? any documentation?” A: Thanks ]ing, Frank. “Erratas”[?] is something I [?(I’m not sure if there’s a word here or not)] crossed paths with over the years, and in[scope[?] disturb[??(this word MIGHT be “disturbance,” or it might be “disturbs me”)] … The fact that it went after my mom in her twilight years is either evidence of its enormous and uncaring[?] reach in other words, a coincidence, or it means it’s specifically still coming after me after all these years, and to be frank, both options freak me out equally. 3M and Unilever were early adopters, which shows the versatility of the system. Too much faith is put into computers in general, and WAY too much faith was put in Erratas. Lots of people lost their jobs. And Aaron4420 [referring to a YouTuber who posted on one of his videos], it’s easy to talk shit from behind a computer screen but takes a real man to back it up so suck my dick through a straw [end]

rip aaron4420

Hail and well met noble adventurer! I see you have managed to survive the perilous journey that takes you from Greyhawk to Seattle. Unfotunately, the locals can be, to put it in local parlance, 'sticks in the mud' about rival adventurers, or, as they call them, shadowrunners, showing up from far away mystical lands. It is almost as if they don't have enough ranks in diplomacy to understand that is being a terrriiiiiibleambassador for the greatest RPG setting ever made. No no, put your sword away, mindlessly slaying orks and trolls here is a faux pas. Lets get you situated. Because I am assuming you aren't a fool, you probably noticed that the system people gen around these parts is something called 'priority' for the most part, with a few people using lifepaths or karmagen. This means there are no levels. Which makes sense. To give you an idea of the power level of a starting runner, you can imagine them as being about level 6-9 in 5e, and maybe 11 in 4e. At the point where your average guardsman (they call them 'Cops' or 'Pawns' or 'KE' around here) can't really do much to threaten you, but noooot quite the point where the guard doesn't have enough people to drown you or a few magic items (Rocket launchers are magical, right?) you shouldn't treat them like a joke. And veryvery scary people who are as strong or stronger than you exist in those groups, ready to hunt you down if you misbehave too badly. Basically you are a big fish not in a small pond but in an ocean. Don't undersell yourself and cower in fear as a mallcop threatens to call in backup, but remember that you could get smashed if you aren't carefull. People get really upset when you talk about classes as well around these parts despite the fact that shadowrun baaaaasically has classes. But call them roles. Or people will get mad for no reason about it. The main roles everyone agrees exist are Mages, hackers, samurai, faces, and riggers. However no one can agree what any of them mean besides some superficial qualities. And some, like faces and samurai, have suuuper controversial debates around them like which one is actually an infiltrator or is infiltrator a new role on its own. That is just the locals being passionate about issues that affect them, pay them no mind, and always just be very explicit about what you are doing. Also, instead of multiclassing you can, with enough skill, mold two classes into one, sort of like how an avenger is a weird rogue-paladin hybrid in 4e, a combat face or battle hacker or gunslinger mage can be crafted. Unlike in D&D, you often lose very little from this up front, and instead pay in other more subtle ways. It is hard to go wrong, because unlike D&D where you need to be efficient with power because everything around you is scaling up constantly and if you mess up one level you basically can't fight ever again, Shadowrun boasts a metric called "good enough" where you consistently accomplish what you need to accomplish to beat 90% of the opponents and challenges you face. Adventures, or as the local adventurers call them, shadowruns, are rarely, though they sometimes are, a dungeon crawl. Of course, even in your homelands you are familiar with the types of adventures people around here take, and thus talking about how you should throw out all knowledge you have is completely silly. Most 'runs' are heists, where a team of people need to complete an objective that, surprisingly, doesn't involve breaking into a subterranean species's home to kill them for their stuff because they aren't the same species as you or your friends. Steal this, intimidate so and so, kill whoever, find out what is going on somewhere... Standard stuff. Unlike in the good old kingdoms however you generally don't do this solely through force of arms. You can, if you wish, and some runs will be best solved that way. But in general there is a lot more planning in a run. You can think of it like this, dungeons and dr- I mean adventures back home are more tactical, with more choices being made in a fight. In shadowru- Seattle, runs are more about thinking ahead and reacting to bad situations on the fly rather than just overpowering your opponent. You are stronger than most obstacles you face, but if you go head first into any situation, even a fight, you may find yourself shut down to the point you can't recover, and this is considered acceptable rather than unfair. Basically, use your head before charging in, rather than after, even if you 100% know you want to fight. Now, as for your character. A magician, or mystic adept, is a fine choice for a first character. Mages, Faces, and Samurai are probably the easiest characters to make. To be a good mage, you need to follow these basic rules: 1: Have magic at 6 2: Have spellcasting and summoning at 6. 3: Have at least 1, but probably more, ranks in counter-spelling, assessing, and binding. 4: Know the heal spell, and one AOE indirect spell. I recommend fireball, because it is a classic from your homeland. You should know more spells, but an AOE indirect is your panic button, and not knowing heal makes you a diiiick. 5: Carry a gun and use it over using combat magic unless you need to end the entire fight. If you ever cast fireball, it should be for a situation dire enough to overcast in. Use reagents to make overcasting non-lethal. 6: Let your team do the work until it is time to go ham. Then go ham, and continue to go ham until it is safe to stop going ham. Do all of that, and you are set. You could mess up pretty much every other aspect of your character and still be ok. Unlike in 'the homeland' magic has limits that prevent it from easily replacing the skills of others. For example, hiding normally is almost always more likely to work than an invisibility spell, unless the person hiding is rather bad at it, simply because of how the dice work out. By all means if someone needs to be invisible, make them invisible, but understand that every spell you cast is an unsubtle action on the astral and physical plane that may lead to detection. A good mage knows when to act with extreme prejudice and when to trust their team and their abilities. Starting gear is an easy place to mess up. Most gear lists are a bit too comprehensive for my tastes, but I recommend you look at them and understand why a lot of stuff is more helpful than you might think, and you can give serious consideration to just using one if you want. No matter what though, the bare minimum is a rating 3 SIN, fake licenses at the same rating as your SIN for magic, a gun, and something like bodyguard or private investigation, an armored jacket, a comlink of rating 2-3, a TMP, 30 rounds of standard ammo, and trodes. As a mystic adept, you have a few choices. If you wanted to be a mage-adept hybrid, I have bad news as mystic adepts are really bad at this, and while it can be done, I highly don't recommend it for your first PC. You can be a magical swordsman with experience in the system, but it will likely just be a miserable experience on your first PC. However mystic adepts are really good at being mages who are supported by adept powers. In this regard mystic adepts are newbie friendly because you can just take powers like combat sense and increase reflexes to become a very deadly combat mage. Some people find it boring, some people love it. But this is your character and if you find the idea of being the fastest spell-slinger in seattle to be cool then by Pelor's light you should make that character. The absolute worst reason to not do something is over the judgement of magical internet people. That said never be afraid to ask for advice, but be aware that specificity is good. Because the 'classes' of SR are much more open ended, as are the purchases you can make, it is much harder to help someone based solely on knowing their class. Elf-mystic adept tells us very little. I will note right off the bat you should swap attributes with magic, as starting with less than 6 magic is pretty rough on yourself. Its fine to do, but this is your first PC, best foot forward. I would also not advise mixing melee with mystic adept your first go around, because it again can be very challenging to do well. And if your game lasts for a decent amount of time it would be easy enough to learn melee and get very good at it very quickly anyway. Finally, some major genre stuff you really should make a consistent effort to wrap your brain around: It is ok, and even good, to split the party. Due to DNI and microtranscievers, you are effectively always in the same scene as everyone else, meaning many of the problems of splitting the party are gone. Because most runs are heists, the loss of combat power isn't an issue, and you may NEED to split up to accomplish objectives. No, everyone can't piggy back on the face and samurai sneaking into a place. Furthermore, just feel free to always ask your GM, point blank "What should I do in this situation" or "What does this mean?" Unless they are a twat, they will remember you are learning a radically different system and setting. And to the locals.... At the end of the day it is about pretending to be elves with magic beating the crap out of people, with slightly different twists about what kind of elves you are, how you beat people up, and why. Shadowrun is like my favorite thing ever, but it ain't that special, just... cool it yeah? Seriously... imagine if you were trying a big new intimidating hobby and everyone told you that you were doing it wrong and getting upset you misused jargon and that all the experiences you had that got you excited about doing this new thing are meaningless... that wouldn't be fun... it might even intimidate you out of even trying... And that isn't cool.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Shadowrun/comments/67imnz/sr5_chargen_mystic_adept_suggestions/

‘Razgovor’ is very, very dear to my heart. The number is the cutest, it’s pretty much a Shaw-centric episodes with flashbacks to her cute-ass 8 year old self, we see a big bad being bigger and badder, Joss Carter continues to be a boss ass bitch, and the ending is very promising. An A+ episode to make up for the blegh-ness that was the last one.

I have watched the whole show before, so SPOILERS MIGHT HAPPEN. Big spoilers will be blanked out but references and irrelevant spoilers are going to be out in the open.

We start off at the tail end of a previous case again. This time, Shaw saves a paramedic’s life and leaves before he says thank you. Harold is concerned about her bedside manner. LOL Harry, no one cares.

We then jump to Carter’s side project, which has been to follow and investigate HR. She hears Simmons talk about a big meeting between the Russians and the boss of HR, who we know is Quinn, but she doesn’t. And then she sees someone sneaking up on her. It’s John. Carter: John, one of these days, I’m just gonna shoot you. John: I get that a lot.

John was following her following HR, and has known about her side project for a while now. He asks if she needs help, she says not yet, and they have a beer. This might seem small, but the writers could have played that as a big reveal/surprise that John was completely unaware of (which would be unlikely in my opinion, and too much work), or a condescending (and hypocritical as hell) moment of John telling Joss not to do it, or whatever, but they did not. John trusts Carter, and he is there for her. The number of the week is that of Genrika Zhirova, an 8yo immigrant who lives with her cousin after her mom was arrested and her grandpa died, and who is training to be an international spy. Some people are trying to kidnap and kill her, and Shaw is not as kind and bubbly or whatever as Harold would like. He doesn’t trust her yet and I get that, but also, she’s done this kind of work before, Harold, and she doesn’t need to be perky to do it well. Chill the fuck down.

[1993] There is a bad car crash, with a dead father and a scared child in the backseat. The firefighter asks for her name. Sameen. She asks about her dad. “Hang on, kiddo. I’m coming to you”, the dude says.

Sameen and Gen need to hide out and wait for John, and Gen, spy that she is, is trying to get intel on Shaw and what she does. She’s pretty good. Shaw tells her she doesn’t know what they do exactly, and honestly, she’s mostly in it for the dog.

Gen takes Shaw to her listening station, where we learn she has a bunch of apartments wire-tapped, which may be why the Russians are after her. They bond over being spies, and Gen asks Sameen why is she “like this” (as in, not flinching, acting very stoic, not being too good with emotions). Shaw: You know that thing that made you flinch? I don’t get that. Gen: You don’t get scared? Shaw: Or sad. Or happy, or lonely. I do angry okay, but that’s about it.  She tells Gen it’s been that way as long as she can remember, and that she was about Gen’s age when she realized there was something different about her.

I dig that they brought up Shaw’s ASPD again. From her intro episode alone, we had no way of knowing if that was just a comment she made, or a thing the writers were going to play as “ha ha she is quirky and rude” trash. But here, a bunch of episodes later, she gets the chance to explain some of it herself, and we get some flashbacks. So I like it because they fleshed her out a bit more in this regard, but also that they didn’t make her personality disorder the central thing about her, because they let us know her in other ways first too. That said I don’t have ASPD so, maybe this is terrible to y’all in ways I don’t see at all. If you feel like commenting, I would love to know your thoughts.

The Russians poison the air where Shaw and Gen are so they need to run, and cover their mouths in the meantime. So Sameen rips her fucking sleeves off. Now, a shittier show would have taken this opportunity to do some fan service, by having her take her shirt off or something. But no! Instead they took the chance to make her more baddass, and did a different kind of fan service, a much more gay one, in my opinion. The bad guys still capture Gen, though, and shoot Shaw in the shoulder.

[1993] The firefighter chats with Sameen. She tells him that his dad is military so they move around a lot. (And Shaw recognized Gen’s number as a temporary immigrant one, possibly foreshadowing the later reveal that her mom was an immigrant or refugee. Ya learn somethin’ new every day.)

Shaw knocks out the guy who tried to kidnap her, and puts some construction tape over her wound (does this actually serve any purpose other than looking unexpectedly hot??). Harold asks her to please go to a doctor, that they’ll handle the case. She thinks she is being punished for not protecting Gen well enough. My heart is melting and oozing out of my body as I type.

Shaw does angry okay, indeed. She figures Gen’s cousin had something to do with her kidnapping, so she goes and questions him, and then shoots him in the knee. She is bleeding and ready to fight and I’m extremely turned on right now.

Here is a small collage of Shaw being hot in this episode (You’re welcome.):

Thanks to Gen’s tapes, and John tracking one of the kidnappers, they realize it was HR who took Gen, with the help of the Russians. They are making and dealing drugs, and Gen had proof.

[1993] The firefighter is terrible at giving children bad news. He says some bullshit about people falling asleep and not waking up, and so Sameen asks if what he means is that her dad is dead. The dude confirms, and she takes in the info, realizes she is hungry, and asks for a sandwich. He looks mildly horrified, like he’s never been made aware that different people have different responses to death, and different emotional ranges. He then tells his firefighter buddies how there must be something wrong with her, within earshot of her. What a tool.

(Quick moment to appreciate another classic Reese stunt: they’re interrogating one of the kidnappers, who has a tremor, and he puts some liquid balancing on his hand, telling him it’s highly unstable. After getting what he needs, John leaves the guy there, with the unstable liquid. Except, it’s actually just corn syrup. I live for this shit where John just trolls the bad guys, I swear. )

Shaw continues to be ready to kill everyone, and she tracks down Yogorov. He doesn’t know all that much. Because “cops might kill a kid, my people have standards”. That’s real, ’cause #ACAB #fuckthepolice etc. Side note, Yogorov is kind of hot? Like, I wouldn’t kick him outta bed.

But Shaw is way hotter, asking him all these medical questions that make no sense except if she wanted to… Yup! She is gonna plug herself in and get a blood transfusion from Yogorov, right then and there. She also gets Simmons on the phone, and asks for Gen. Shaw: Hang on, kiddo. I’m coming for you.

Shaw demands Harold to give her the tapes, unless he has a better idea. Which he does.

On another end of things, Laskey asks Carter if they can talk about a problem he is having, in private. He asks about her secret meetings and secret friends, and she calls him out on being a mole for HR. That’s right! Y’all think the queen of my heart didn’t know? Psht. And before Laskey’s dirty cop friend can shoot her, she shoots his ass dead. With Laskey’s illegal New Jersey gun, no less.

I’m so gay.

Carter: You don’t work for HR anymore, son. You work for me now. Oooooh shit. You thought you were in charge, sweet summer child? (Boss Ass Bitch plays in the background. As usual.) Back to the case, Harold has a better idea than to trade Gen for the tapes incriminating HR. Carter and John gave Laskey bad intel, driving Simmons and most of the troops away from the girl, thinking they were going to ambush the Man in the Suit, and get the tapes. Instead, Harold keeps the tapes, and John kneecaps most cops until the only one left is Simmons. They both drop the guns and fist-fight, which I don’t understand the point of, besides weird masculinity rituals. And maybe to showcase to us that Simmons can hold his own, indirectly signaling (with this, and his willingness to kill a little girl) that he is a much worthier, scarier opponent than we thought? Meanwhile, Shaw, ready to shoot everyone, gets to shoot a couple people at the drug lab where Gen is. And she rescues her! #SpyGirlSolidarity And then Harold and Sameen blow up their lab, ’cause, y’know, they were in the neighborhood.

Shaw takes Gen to a new fancy school, and Gen gives Shaw a badge that belonged to her grandpa. Gen: I know it won’t mean much to you, but it will mean a lot to me that you have it. Shaw: I’m just not wired for this kind of stuff, kid. Gen: I know. I figured you out. It’s not that you don’t have feelings. It’s just like, the volume’s turned way down. Like the sound on an old tape. 

I am dying. I am dead. I just… I’m dead now. And I want to hug both of them super tight and never let go. I want to adopt both Bear and Gen and move into a big house with my wife and my children. Anyhoo… Ooof. That was a good episode, eh? But wait. We’re not done here. We go take a look at Shaw’s bedroom that night. Gen’s gift is on her nightstand. She is so beautiful, so precious. But that’s not the point. She opens her eyes and sees… Root! Looking at Shaw sleep! Like the creepy-ass lesbian that she is.

“Did you miss me?

Heck yes, we did. And we are ready. So ready.

Today I (re)watch: Person of Interest, 3.05 'Razgovor' is very, very dear to my heart. The number is the cutest, it's pretty much a Shaw-centric episodes with flashbacks to her cute-ass 8 year old self, we see a big bad being bigger and badder, Joss Carter continues to be a boss ass bitch, and the ending is very promising.

We have a new citizen in Mount Phoenix:

                                   Sol Hyunji, who is known by no other name;                                                    a 18 year old daughter of Nyx.                                                     She is currently unemployed.

FC NAME/GROUP: Jang Yeeun / CLC CHARACTER NAME: Sol Hyunji AGE/DATE OF BIRTH: august 11 1998 PLACE OF BIRTH: Dongducheon, Gyeonggi-do OCCUPATION: university delinquent aka unemployed! HEIGHT: 166cm WEIGHT: 49kg DEFINING FEATURES: - straight dark hair - a slim body - deer-like brown eyes (that turn black when she’s angry)

PERSONALITY: while most people find hyunji rather sweet, she was also… bitter. to simply put it, she was unpredictable. indecisive, if you wish to call her. she was always “in a phase”; her attitude changes as soon as her mood does and frankly, her mood swings are extreme. such weird stuff had already happened because of her mood swings, and she really wants to control them– literally, some day. ( although, it would be highly impossible, but she has hope ) among all of this, she is generous. except when she’s not in her evil mood, anyway. she likes helping others but also messes with people at the same time. she’s just. unexpected.

HISTORY: it was the usual routine every morning, nothing new. wake up to the blaring alarm before you get late, eat the breakfast that is the widely popular and always known bowl of cereal and milk combination (Classic!), go to the shower to clean yourself, dress up, and then get ready for another game of test-your-own-temper-today. the kids at her schools would swoon as soon as they see her walking inside the campus. ah, that wrench. some, though, would say. to be blunt, hyunji was nothing special. she wasn’t “iconic” in any way. the only reason she’s the candle out of the darkness is because of her attitude. unlike the girls in her school who had nothing to do but fix themselves in the mirror to lure men– or study all day long so that one day they would have a wonderful heck of a three-decade term of a job, hyunji was something else. a delinquent. hah! good laugh. she was always up to something. the professors at her university know this, but they can’t really kick her out of the school. she always gets away with all the ruckus she causes. I repeat, always.

there was this one particular day. all hyunji wanted was some peace and quiet. but of course, for the love of all beings, her company couldn’t understand that. her friend was yelling at her. now, remember how I described this girl’s mood swings. they were extreme, and during this particular day held the world record of hyunji’s most extreme mood swing. she was being unreasonable the whole day. her company almost kicked her out of the window for being whiny and utterly unreasonable the whole day. it was around two in the a.m. because of hyunji’s persuasive self, she managed to get a hold of her friend to stay with her until the next day. so it was the ungodly hour, and hyunji decides the two of them should play a little game of hiding and seek. though sleepy, her friend just went with it and actually played with her. they were in the dorms of the campus– on the lobby floor. she always has a plan. of course, for this game, she too, had a plan prepared. and that was to seek revenge for the earlier hours. “So you yell at me and think you won’t get away with it, huh?” she mumbles to herself as she fixes her hair, a smirk slowly forming on her lips as she thought of her little plan.

at this point, hyunji has fully realized what her powers were. growing up without anyone to take care of her, she was independent. not once did she ever experience being taken care of. she grew up with her lazy, rich aunt, who didn’t really give hyunji much attention. rich aunt only cared about hyunji if she was still alive, and that was pretty much it. It’s not sad, it’s a mutual feeling, anyway. after three minutes of waiting for her friend, hyunji finally appeared from her dorm room, a sly smile on her face as she met the face of her friend. only one game her friend demands. it wouldn’t last a full game anyway her mind goes. good thing she wasn’t the type to speak her mind, literally. There’s going to be a twist, my dear friend. hyunji says. twist? her friend wonders, but also dismisses this– she really just wants to get this over with. whatever. grinning, hyunji takes small steps towards her desired “hiding spot” while her friend is blind folded, counting one two three up to sixty. the intervals between seconds rather generous. don’t peek, hyunji says. and then, she rushes towards the light switches. she loved playing in the dark.

well… I guess you could say this wasn’t that much of a big plan. all hyunji was going to do was trip her friend every now and then as she searches for hyunji, anyway. nothing ruthless, at all. lucky for hyunji, the hall was wide and long and the switches were impossible to find if there were no lights on. and if the friend were to try to light up the lobby.. she won’t be able to. hyunji can just bring the remaining darkness to capture all the light that attempted to outshine the dark. not gonna happen.

a few minutes later her plan goes well, but there came a problem. at this point, her friend was injured. badly… her ankle almost snapped off her skeleton when hyunji decided to grab her friend by the ankles and throw her “slightly” to the side of the hall. (and then, she promised herself that she would turn on the lights. but of course, that didn’t happen) her eyes darkened, and rage completely filled every vein that was causing hyunji to be alive. she didn’t know if this was because of the previous hours’ events, or… she tried not to think about it. she turned on the lights. with a dull face, she stared at her friend who was wailing for help. hyunji realized then, how bad this might turn out to the school. physical assault? it was out of her own line. she had to run. and fast. but she didn’t really do that. she walked up to her friend, slowly. an index finger put against her lips as she looked at her friend. a sudden shhh heard. echoing all over the lobby floor. with much fear, the friend nodded, rather eagerly. and a small smile appeared on hyunji’s face.

that was the last time the both of them saw each other. why? hyunji decided that this place wasn’t for her. she needed… help. assistance. from someone who can guide her fully regarding her powers. and that’s when she decided to set off to reside in Mount Phoenix.

PANTHEON: Greek CHILD OF: Nyx POWERS: being the demigod of the goddess of the night, it was only natural for hyunji to have at least a tad bit of manipulation over the dark. she doesn’t have a problem with seeing in the dark– some call it “night vision”. STRENGTHS: persistence, courage, bravery WEAKNESSES: impatience, irritable, lazy