Quiver

I'll definitely see Fantastic Beasts, out if brand loyalty as much as anything else... No chance of me seeing Cursed Child, though. No where around here does that sort of thing...

Actually, speaking of Rowling, you guys hear about how they are releasing the scripts for the Cursed Child and Fantastic Beasts stuff this year?

I was referring to Cog -since as I say, she's a kid so she's not likely to actually be able to do anything- but a cameo during a Koschei flashback would be fun

I liked it! Lyla's stocholme inducing background is still rather vague, so. Mind if I include her as one of those kids? (I mean, she's a kid so she's off-screen anyway, so...)

Well, I caught up on the UK Arrow and Flash.

Ya know, I've never watched Buffy. At least, not the whole series in order. I've seen enough of it that I know what happens, and I've seen most of the finales...but still. Really ought to watch it one of these days... (I was a big fan of Angel, though I'll admit it's objectively less-good).

'Ready when you are'. As if Lyla was ever not ready to take photographs of Epics. Granted, it took her a few moments to regain her composure, a few more after that to get her camera ready...but then, she was recovering from a shock. Scribbler -Lucy Lockser, whatever, her epic name was cool- Scribbler was letting Lyla take pictures of her. More than just letting her, actually. After all, if Scribbler didn't want her picture taken, she wouldn't be letting her tattoo's move, right? Right. So she wasn't just getting her photo taken, she was showing off her powers too. This is so going in my collection, she thought, lining up another shot. She's have to try and pass some on to Redlight, obviously, but... Actually, did she? She frowned for a moment, stepping back. Her eyes glanced quickly towards Shiny Sparkle. Shiny Sparkle had epic friends that she was willing to introduce Lyla too. Redlight was an epic whose attention Lyla struggled to get. If she had the one, did she actually need the other- Yes, she reminded herself sharply. Even excusing the traitorous notion of turning her back on an epic, there were all kinds of reasons to get in with Redlight. After all, Shiny Sparkle might have been awesome - had already proven herself to be really sparking awesome in fact - but Lyla rather suspected that of the two, Redlight would probably be the more likely source of information on the Deathless One... The girl's grin grew broader. Well, that just meant she was going to need twice as many pictures; one for her files, and one to show to Redlight. And here, in front of her, were two Epic's willing to be photographed, rather than just enduring it. A really photographic pair, too, she added to herself. Shiny's glowing power could look great on film, as would Scribbler's tattoo's. Of all the Epic's she could have befriended, these were, perhaps, the most perfect. It was so obviously destiny. "Okay Scribbler! Those are great!" Scribbler! She was on first name basis with Scribbler. How awesome was that? Very awesome. In fact, really, there was only one thing missing. "But hey, would ya be able to do more than just stand there?" she added. "I mean, you're an epic -these are gonna be sparking awesome either way- but they'd be cool with a bit more...you know. Oomph. Superpowers. Poses and stuff. You know what I mean, right Shiny?"

Excellent! My plan to guilt someone into doing stuff has worked! Is that a reference to something? I keep looking at the name and thinking of the Three Musketeers for some reason... Also, that's a cruel generalisation to make! You mean not a single other NPC in the clinic isn't some form of cra- Oh right, this is the Dalles. Never mind, objection withdrawn. That...could work. So long as you guys don't mind? (I worry about that being broken as a power...when it has pretty much zero actual use other than a portable plot hook. But still.)

So, my thoughts? It was good. ...I don't wanna be a downer or anything, because I did enjoy this film. The action sequences were good; very good. I'm not sure where I would rank the airport battle in terms of MCU fights, but it's definitely a good one. Black Panther? Cool guy. I liked the juxtaposition between him and Tony; both rich, powerful men, motivated by revenge for their parents, but T'Challa decides not to be consumed by vengeance, while Tony holds onto some pettiness. "My father made that shield," is both wonderfully accusatory -how dare you use it to protect the man who killed it- and beautifully spiteful. And yet, Tony remains sympathetic. I said I was Team Iron Man; this movie paints a compelling reason for Team Cap, and yet both leads ultimately come across as vindicated and valid in their beliefs. Brava movie. Spider-Man was cool. Tom Holland actually reminds me (physically) of Tobey Maguire. I kinda think he stole screentime that Black Panther could have used, but this is Spider-Man in an MCU film. I'll take it. ...but. Let's not act like the movie is flawless. The Sharon-Steve romance, for instance, is terrible. They don't interact enough to earn anything, and the fact the kiss comes days after Steve's ex dies...? And while I like the idea of Zemo -particularly since he both wins and lives, which is a novelty in these movies- I don't think he was quite integrated enough into the movie. The idea is compelling; his remorse for killing T'Chaka paints him as a more complex villain. But, with so much of the movie built around Tony and Cap, he feel's a little divorced from proceedings. He's important, sure, but I didn't feel like he was prodding things along enough. Also, can someone explain why Howard, apparently, was transporting blue bags of "stuff" which give people super powers? Cause that part still confused me. Still, it was a good movie, and one I might see again... but Winter Soldier remains the best Cap film in my eyes.

Yuuuup. I like making up words sometimes when I get really into something, and Lyla seemed like that'd be the kind of thing she'd do. (Between her manic outbursts, Lyla is becoming more Pinkie than Lyra... cupcakes, anyone?)

I...had imagined it as the former. But actually, if Regalia can't do that, then multiviewing might be too overpowered...

And...hope my Sentry post was okay? As I say, trying to go for more of a... paranoid schemer. Think she came across as more impulsive than scheming though...

Are you suggesting piracy?'Cause I'm already reading One Piece... (Kidding. That's why I'm concerned money-wise; I'd rather support official releases) ...but no, seriously. Thanks for the response...event if it's a tad disheartening. Because yeah, I do think some of this latest stuff sounds, if not straight up cool, at least interesting in a good way... I remain, therefore, utterly convinced that the Arrancar arc was the thing that ruined that series. Side note, anyone seen Girls und Panzer?

A mutant who gains super literacy powers? I can't help but picture your guy as Doug Ramsay.

This is more about the manga, but I don't think there is a dedicated manga thread, so tossing it to you folks. Is Bleach any good? Or more accurately, did Bleach ever stop being bad? For perspective... I followed Bleach a few years ago, and I kinda liked it... while it was an adventure story. The early portions of it I found pretty interesting, and Kubo is damnation good at creating stuff which is cool. My problem was... well, it turned into a straight up shonen story. Arguably that happened sometime in Soul Society, when everything starting becoming about power ups (Zangetsu's name, Shikai, Bankai, Vizard powers), but I feel like it was the Arrancar arc where that really came to the fore as a serious problem. People joke about how long fights lasted in Dragonball Z, but I felt it a lot more with reading the fights in Bleach. The Hueco Mundo arc seemed to drag on forever... (Particularly egregious since I think there were maybe two fights in that arc which were actually cool and interesting). So, I ended up dropping the series at some point during the Ichigo/Ulquiorra battle, since I just didn't care anymore. So why am I asking about it's quality you ask? Well, for one thing I started picking up One Piece lately. Again, it's a series I didn't care for when I was younger, which I'm enjoying a lot more now. More significantly, I've read a bit about the more recent arcs of Bleach... and they have kind of piqued my interest, at least in terms of concept. So I'm wondering if the execution is good enough that anyone here would recommend reading the series again. (Yeah, that's my main hurdle, really... I'm a completionist. If I was going to start reading, I'd have to start at the begining... and since the series has some sixty volumes at ten bucks a pop, that would be an expensive way to spend money if it was just "Okay"...)

Hm? Oh, no. I'm mostly referring to the fact that I can buy epics claiming to have powers they don't (or which exceed what powers can actually do), or vanilla's assuming epics really can break the rules since they might not know any better.

In fairness, there is a lot of misinformation going on in the Reckoners books, isn't there? Heck, that's the entire point of David in the first one, sorting out the facts from the fiction... And that's with humans, who have reasons to pool information. Among epics, who seem to be a more fractitious lot? I can buy them not actually knowing how others powers work, or being a lot more... edgy about them. Epics are understandably cagey about their weaknesses, but I figure they probably have similar feelings ofr disclosing what their powers can/can't do, too. So lying to make yourself sound tougher sounds... plausible.

...You get Civil War a day before us. I mean, a local cinema is showing the entire Cap Trilogy today... but that's far too long. Also, it's all in 2D. (I know 3D won't make a difference, but I'm one of those people who, if I don't see it at least once in 3D, will keep wondering if i've missed something amazing.)

So, filtered through the mindset of Sentry... Abaddon did the dumbest thing he could possibly have done. (Which I'll explain via my next post IC, but the reasoning is laid out below) ...Incidently, to reiterate: this is dumb from Sentry's PoV. Because Sentry is someone who wants to scheme and take over Salem, and her confidence comes from being All-Seeing. She's a paranoid backstabber, so this is really a perfect storm of events working against him more than anything...

People sometimes described the mental process as a train of thought, and if there was one (only one?) thing Sentry prided herself on, it was that all her trains ran on time. The sight of her posters defaced, however, have derailed that meticulous schedule. In fact, more than derailed; instead of going off the rails, it felt like a dozen separate thoughts were racing for one another. 'Why.' It wasn't a question, it was a demand. Why would someone go out of their way to draw thick mustaches, or bottle-framed glasses, or... or buck teeth over pictures of her face? She tightened her mouth to a thin line, trying not to think that she might be drawing attention to her upper lip. It had been a long time since she had ever had to think about that, a long-time since she had ever had to think about people looking at her and whispering about her weight, or her hair, or anything else. A long time since she had not been able to use her powers. A long time since she had lost thought about her weakness. Now, all those times were racing at one another full-steam, ready to crash... A crash that was interrupted by a song. She looked at her phone, openly irritated, then winced internally. She shouldn't be that; Sentry was supposed to be nice, and cheerful, a perky, upbeat attitude, not a scowling woman. Scowls were such an ugly expression... "What?" Even so, she didn't quite keep the bite out of her tone. The list of those who would be calling her was small, those who had her number even more so... which meant that any who did should have been afforded more respect. Just because she was having a bad day... "Hi, this is Abaddon." Abaddon? Her eye's narrowed despite her attempts at composure. He strolled in to town, blew some steam at the arena, then went off again. She had never had to pay him too much heed in an official capacity the past; unlike most epic's, he seemed to understand the value of following the rules. Naturally, that meant she had kept a very close eye on him unofficially. "Back in Salem," she said, trying to keep her voice bright. "Well! No doubt Soulcaster will be pleased. However, I am quite busy, and if you want to have a talk, you'll have to put a request in through the proper chan-" "I suppose you've noticed the sharpie on your posters?" That stopped Sentry and her mental trains in their tracks. Everything seemed to shut down for a second, and she was silent. "Well," he continued, as if he hadn't noticed, "I caught the culprit." He... what? Her eyes flickered. "...Well," she said slowly. "That's... good. Very good. I don't know when you got back, but I commend you on completing your civic duty! Soulcaster will be very pleased, I'm sure." She kept her tone bright, tried to maintain the matronly affect she aspired towards. If Abaddon could see her face, however, he would have been able to read a very different response. 'That slontze.'

I really like this idea. A lot. As I said, I'm kinda focusing more on Sentry as a Machiavelian, "Master Planner" type (or at least, that's how she'll present herself). Having some actual political elements to interact with would definitely help with that particular image.

Spoiler: Lyla is not a "cool kid". And... I'll try and get Sentry posted asap!

If Shiny wanted to fan the flames of passion, she couldn't have done a better job if she tried. The lights that sparkled around the pair were downright rapturous. And yet. The flame that burned twice as bright was notorious for burning only half as long, and for a moment, it looked like Lyla's flame had been snuffed out. The energy seemed to have sapped out of her body, the grin she wore replaced with an almost empty frown. "You're an epic?" Her eye twitched, and the wildfire started. "You're an epic and you wanna be friends and you have epic friends and you wanna introduce them and you're an epic and I kinda thought maybe you just changed your name to Shiny Sparkle 'cause it was cool but of course it's cool 'cause it's an epic name 'cause you're an epic and you're using your powers on me and that's so cool and your eyes are all shiny does that mean you have mind control powrs and are you using them and you're an epic and and and-" And it was a good thing they were in a clinic, because at the rate she was going, Lyla was gonna to talk herself into passing out. Sparks. It was so unfair. Why couldn't she even have 'not needing to breath' as a power? That was the only way she's be able to say everything she was thinking right now and- And breath. And for Koeschi's sake, slow down. Shiny was an epic who wanted to be her friend. If she kept babbling, she was gonna scare her off. Right. No ramble. Just be cool. What did cool kids say in situations like this? "Ly-Lyla. My name's Lyla." She paused, stammered, tried to think of something to prove to the pair that she wasn't just another, run-of-the-manilla "...Can I take your picture's now?"

...she probably should, actually. How ubiquituous are mobiles beyond Necago, though?

...am I the only one who think his American accent sounds weird? I mean... I'm not complaining about the trailer. But maybe I'm too used to him from Sherlock, because he just sounds so weird.