radio414

There was a lot to process in those final interesting minutes of that day, enough that, even after spending the entire intervening day going through it all in her head again, there were still some things Elsie didn’t entirely understand. For example, Jekyll’s response went completely over her head. She’d asked a very simple question (“Are we there yet?”) and sure, maybe it was a little annoying, especially when it turned out she was asking on day one of a three-day trip, but still, to dismiss it completely out of hand like he did? Worse still, though, was how Jekyll implied things weren’t under control. Because of course things had been under control! She could have solved everything if she’d thought they weren’t. But whatever. Jekyll had been observing everything through a scrying orb so maybe he’d somehow seen something she hadn’t. So overall, Elsie’s problems with Jekyll were ones she could dismiss pretty quickly and easily once she’d finally gotten over how angry she’d felt in the moment. Which was good, because it created room for thinking about that final odd Lachlan-shaped puzzle. How did Lachlan not know that she was a witch? She didn’t know what Lachlan “was”, sure, but Lachlan didn’t wander around with a hat and a broom and a familiar and the ability to conjure magical signs that said “Look at me in all my witchy glory!” or whatever. “Does that mean you’re going to cast a curse on me?” Lachlan had said. She’d been tempted to. She was pretty creative with her curses, too. It probably would have been a fun one. But no, Lach complimented her scariness and that was enough to ward her off (even if he felt the need to apologize for it later). For the record, she had never put any children in any oven. At least, not without a good reason. Besides brooding, Elsie spent the travel time flying around the tower, watching the world pass by underneath. What was especially fun was seeing someone look up at her then do a double-take when they realized just what was going on. Oh, how mundane their life must have been when a simple witch and a tower moving through the sky was the peak of their excitement -- the highlight of their day. Whatever was waiting for them in Setsu had to be more exciting than that.The day started out unassuming enough. They didn’t even land in the village proper; they plopped down on a nearby hill. Elsie was the second one out after Lachlan (okay, counting Jekyll, she was third), with Corbin dutifully riding along on her shoulder. She remembered being told about all this in the initial briefing. She was ready. That wasn’t to say there wasn’t any new information in Jekyll’s little reminder speech. The Dragon Slayer’s name was Sieg! Exciting! The name sure fit, at least. Not that she could do much with it other than file it away to remember later. But also, why did he get to be in charge? Just ‘cause he hit Lachlan really hard way back when? Or maybe he hit Alexandre really hard and that was it. The point was, she should at least have been given some sort of consideration, and she didn’t think Jekyll really had. Not that she complained out loud. Like Jekyll said, this was their first mission together. Maybe it rotated? Or maybe she just needed to prove herself a little bit more. Lachlan wandered in the direction of the church, and Elsie was tempted to follow him, but the bar -- The Naughty Crow -- caught her eye, and not just because of the name. It was still early enough that it wouldn’t be too crowded yet, but bartenders were natural fonts of information, right? And besides, she was somewhere new. The least she could do was sample the wares. “I just hope they don’t think I’m their crow,” Corbin said. “You’re not going to break their door doing one of your grand introductions, are you?” “I was thinking of something a bit more mysterious this time.” Elsie stood just in front of the door and took a deep breath. She was already backlit a little bit from the sun, but a little hint of magic light placed just behind her and some adjustments to her glamour helped to exaggerate her shadow so that when she opened the door in a single fluid motion and remained still to observe the interior, her shadow stretched far into the main room. Yes, this was certainly a good place to start. Satisfied with her impression, Elsie strolled over to the bar, sat down at one of the seats, and started by ordering another lunch, confident that the information she was looking for would come swiftly after.

call me lucky seven samson, that's my natural-born name

the last three seconds are significantly louder than the first three-ish minutes yes this is a gag but not one i want to ruin your eardrums over

2 answers 2 furious

Feels like kind of a weird question 'cause I don't normally play games I had a bad experience with to push past their perceived inadequacies, but I guess I can see it in terms of, like, hard or even unfair games like I Wanna Be The Guy (there's a throwback for you) or even something more modern like Dark Souls. But as I think about it more, I do have one specific answer, and it is this: Risk of Rain. The first one, I mean. I picked it up back when I was in high school and the whole thing felt a little inscrutable at times? Like, some of the item descriptions make no sense, and that's just the start of it. I had no idea what the map layouts were nor did I have any impulse to find out, a lot of the enemies felt unfair, the timer always seemed to be moving too quickly. I just dropped the game after about a dozen hours and didn't look back. I don't know why I started playing it again. I think I was just going through the old roguelikes I had in my Steam library just for kicks (FTL is fun too, but then again, I never hated that one) and booted it up. I still find some of the design choices kind of weird and its gameplay loop, once I found a rhythm of map progression and item acquisition that I liked, doesn't change beyond those first hours, I do like it much better now and will still do runs occasionally when I have a spare hour.

Getting the rat off Chris was no easy task, but it was much easier once it was finally dead. And with three other people helping, it was enough to roll the thing off and return Chris to a functional member of the group. One sword-retrieval-from-the-underbelly-of-a-dead-rat later, and the only way left to go was down. In contrast to the previous claustrophobic and dank hallways, now they were in a dank cavern, replete with mushrooms and all the other things Chris expected to find in such a place. Even goblins! Goblins were a step up from rats in Chris’ opinion. Sure, both of them had the potential to be screaming balls of fury and hate but at least if one leapt at him, he wasn’t about to fall over catching its weight. Sergei, who, of course, was leading in front asked Estellise if she could blind them. And that was a good idea, all things considered. Chris was pretty sure he could make that sprint without the distraction but maybe not everybody in the party could as well. But there was a niggling thought in the back of Chris’ mind. If it didn’t work, and conflict became inevitable, they’d have lost the element of surprise. Those brief moments -- those times when someone saw you but before they’d done anything about it -- were what Chris thrived in, and he wasn’t sure he was so ready to give it up. “Alternatively,” he whispered to everyone else, “we could lead with that and charge in, maybe take out the ones with slings first so they can’t hit Estellise and then it’s a fairer fight. Taking care of the problem now also allows us to not have to watch our backs later.” He paused to let everyone absorb that. “I’ll leave that decision to you all, though. Just tell me where and when to run.”

This is my mom's bean salad recipe. She used to make it all the time for potlucks and it was always a hit. It has since been passed on to me. 1 can chickpeas drained and rinsed 1 can dark red kidney beans drained and rinsed Small bag of frozen edamame Small bag of frozen sweet corn Large ripe avocado Put the edamame and the corn in a microwaveable bowl with about 1/2 cup water and microwave on high till they are just on the hot side but not steaming. About 2 minutes. Keep checking. Drain and rinse the canned items and leave them in the colander. Once the corn and edamame are hot pour them over the beans in the colander. In a large bowl combine 2 tbls of grainy mustard with 1/4 cup olive oil and 2 tbls of white wine vinegar (white balsamic and champagne vinegar are best) with a whisk. Salt and pepper to taste. Pour the bean mixture in with the dressing and combine. Cut avocado into cubes and add to the beans. Mix gently. Serves a bunch but refrigerates well when covered

Fun unrelated fact about me: I used to live in New Zealand. I don't remember much of it because we moved back to the US when my sister was born but when my parents and I were there, my mom fell in love with these candy bars called Chocolate Fish. They're really simple, actually, just marshmallow covered in chocolate and shaped like a fish, but the one I did try once upon a time was pretty good as far as candy bars go. But they're impossible to find in America. And I know, not just because my mom told me, but because I wanted to get her some for Christmas and the only way I could was to find this Kiwi candy store's website and get them to ship internationally. They nearly got lost in customs! Anyway, my favorite candy is Swedish Fish, which are entirely dissimilar except for the name, though the name is misleading for other reasons, first and foremost being that they're made in either Canada or Turkey these days.

First of all, I'm assuming the scenario involves times are not being what they are (that is, not just buying more foodstuffs and toilet paper). I'm also dropping the moral obligations to give to charity like these paladins did (I don't think I'd be moral enough to be a paladin anyway) and assuming that this is Jeff Bezos' own money so I don't feel like garbage giving money to Amazon. With all that being said... I've been eyeing getting a Nintendo Switch for about as long as they've been out but, like, the cost and realism about my free time to use it has hindered that specific acquisition for equally as long. Remove both of those from the equation and Bob's your uncle I guess. It'd need some games too. I don't have any specific ones in mind but we'll say two random ones get added to the cart. After that? I don't know. My current personal wishlist is mostly boardgames I'll probably never get to a table and rpg sourcebooks I'll probably never get to play. There are some (actual) books on there too, though -- Vladmir Nobokov's Pale Fire is the current standout there -- so those would be nice to have I guess. Any remaining money would be spent on a vinyl record for my friend who likes vinyl records and a full-size snickers bar.

I know you shouldn’t ship real people, but if you two had a ship name, would it be Yai or Sui? Or something else?

Who’s your current profile pic? And if it’s from Borderlands 3 (and that’s why the style looks familiar even if I don’t recognize them), how is that game?

Your introduction thread said you would like to write fanfiction, but what about?

Favorite RP character you’ve played? What about favorite you didn’t play?

Your rates music thread caps off at seven minutes, but what’s the longest song you’ve ever (willingly?) listened to?

What’s the weirdest name you’ve heard a pet called?

What do (or did) you want to be when you grow up?

What’s your favorite (or Top X) April Fools gags?

Would you rather fight one hundred duck-sized horses or one horse-sized duck?

Trying not to think too much about what comes after this one while I'm still this early in the series lol. I imagine there'd be a poll of some kind involved, though. How I chose this specific anime to talk about was something I was going to cover this coming Saturday but basically I wanted to talk about it and, well, this seemed like a good outlet for that. And I wanted to watch it again.

Online classes, mostly. Other than that I've been writing more and trying to find new ways to keep up with friends and family.

Next Post→ Next Topic ("Someday, My Revolution Will Come" Let's Play)→→ Duel 01 -- The Rose Bride or: I'm Not Going To Be Able To Explain Everything But I'm Sure Going To Try And Explain Something Once upon a time, years and years ago, there was a little princess, and she was very sad, for her mother and father had died. Before the princess appeared a traveling prince, riding upon a white horse. He had a regal bearing and a kind smile. The prince wrapped the princess in a rose-scented embrace and gently wiped the tears from her eyes. “Little one,” he said, “who bears up alone in such deep sorrow, never lose that strength or nobility, even when you grow up. I give you this to remember this day. We will meet again. This ring will lead you to me, one day.” Perhaps the ring the prince gave her was an engagement ring. This was all well and good, but so impressed was she by him that the princess vowed to become a prince herself one day. …but was that really such a good idea? So begins Revolutionary Girl Utena, a school-set coming-of-age anime. But here’s the thing, the fantastic elements of the prolog never really go away, so on top of the relationship drama that will inevitably stem from, like, seven different dysfunctional relationships, there’s also, to borrow from The Princess Bride, fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, true love, and miracles. To put it another way, imagine if Scott Pilgrim was written by this guy: “This guy” is Kunihiko Ikuhara, someone who people more into anime than I might recognize as the director of the first four seasons of the original Sailor Moon. And one can definitely see some of the inspirations Sailor Moon brought to Utena, especially with regards to some of the “magical girl” tropes common in that particular genre such as transformation sequences and an overarching theme of love conquering all obstacles. But Revolutionary Girl Utena is also really weird. Perhaps the most famous example of this is from the movie adaptation where the climax involves Utena turning into a car. Much of the series is like that too, largely involving non-sequitur cuts (a stopwatch is particularly prominent), or a plot involving an escaped kangaroo. This has caused Utena to be deemed “pretentious” by some, but I’m not entirely sure that’s a fair label. When you strip away everything else, Revolutionary Girl Utena’s plot, while not always straightforward, still exists and can be followed episode to episode. So that’s what I’m going to do here. There are forty Saturdays (including today (at orignal time of posting)) left in the year, thirty-nine anime episodes, and a handful of other versions (such as the aforementioned movie) to talk about, so hopefully, we can ring in the new year with the end of Utena. A couple final notes before we get into the meat of things. I’m going to try and avoid explicit spoilers, but talking about themes will inevitably lead to giving things away on some level, accidentally or not. Speaking of themes, a pretty major theme of the show involves not just the dysfunctional relationships I mentioned earlier, but actual depictions of abuse. More specific content warnings will likely preface later posts (I imagine a couple flashing light warnings will be needed at the very least), but I did want to get that out of the way now. (Edit: A more complete list of content warnings can be found here, I'll still reference the major ones in posts involving them but this is a good place to start for anyone worried about getting into this show. It's okay if you would rather not!) Also, the Youtube playlist provided by the distributor only seems to work in America. If you want to follow along outside of the US, you’re going to have to look elsewhere for these episodes, or at least find a VPN that works for you. The first scenes set in the present day lay the groundwork for Revolutionary Girl Utena’s thesis regarding gender roles. Utena Tenjou is a tomboy by every definition, not only in the activities she prefers, but in the way she dresses as well. The societal disconnect between the image of a girl with pink hair and blue eyes and said girl’s desire to become a prince is very apparent. But we’ll have to go into what exactly Utena the show and Utena the character mean when they say “prince” later. In the meantime, the first episode is largely devoted to establishing the majority of the other main characters and the plot of the first arc: Members who bear the Rose Crest may challenge each other for possession and therefore engagement to Anthy Himemiya, The Rose Bride, under duels outlined by an enigmatic being known only as End of the World. Utena herself is drawn to this tournament after the current champion, Kendo captain Saionji offends Wakaba, Utena’s best friend who crushes on Saionji despite (or perhaps because of) his acerbic nature. Other elements introduced are the rest of the Student Council, though only President Touga Kiryuu is referred to by name, the element of music present in Utena’s duels, and the first appearance of the shadow play girls who represent the show’s Greek Chorus, commenting on the events of each episode, though in the future these will largely be through symbols and metaphor. We’ll get into these elements in more detail later. The only really big image to talk about is the castle in the sky, almost akin to the Sword of Damocles in how it looms over the dueling arena. Saionji dismisses it as a trick of the light, but its presence is going to be felt in a majority of these episodes. To ascend to the castle, the duelists believe, is to gain the power to revolutionize the world, and every episode a duel takes place is an opportunity for the challenger to present their case as to why they deserve that power. It’s important, then, that the classic naivete that anime protagonists tend to have works in Utena’s favor here. Utena had no knowledge of any of this when she challenged Saionji, she only knew that she had to fight for her best friend. And when Saionji attacks Himemiya, Utena resolves to fight for her as well. To reiterate, Utena doesn’t display that same desire for power, and, in fact, the anime might argue that that is why she wins. All in all, this is one of the more straightforward episodes of the show. What you see is what you get, really, and the threads left open are things that can largely be answered with “It’s Episode One. It’s supposed to start intrigue, not answer it.” But I’ll leave the comments section open if there are any questions about things I might have missed, and I’ll see you all in a week. -r Next time: Rematch! Roommates! A monkey! Link to Episode -- Next Post→