Masquerade 2014 Begins

Info From HERE

The Masquerade has started! Yipee!

Every year on Subeta the Masquerade happens. This is a time of dancing and gives me a reason to really work on dressing up my Human Avatar. I went for sexy and red this year. Plus I needed a little pet to walk around with me. So adorable!

So how do you participate?

First you need to be wearing a mask. Yes, any other clothing is optional. If you weren't thinking that question, another of my readers would be thinking it.

Next you head over to the Dancing Forums where you will be able to choose a dance partner. Then you wait for their reply. Yep, someone can decline to dance with you for whatever reason.

For each time a person accepts your dance invitation (or if you accept someone's dance invitation) you get one of two kinds of trinkets: Lounge or Steamworks.

Lounge Trinkets will allow you to buy items from the Libertine Lounge which has food and drink items.

Steamworks Trinkets will allow you to buy items from the Steamworks Menagerie which has wearables among other things.

So if you see me on the dance floor, don't be afraid to say hi!

New Junko Line: Enthralled

Info From HERE

Subeautique is the place on Subeta where the high end fashion is. It is expensive to get anything there. But if you have the money, it's a good place to shop.

Junko has just released a new line called Enthralled. It seems to be a very fire based line and I LOVE fire. Well...two of their items are fiery.

If I ever get my hands on this line I'd most likely get the Makeup Kit and Folded Top.

Millionaire Center Has New Items

Info From HERE

Spring is in the air. Winter is over! I live in a place where season changes aren't really noticeable, so there's no real change for me.

The Millionaire Center has some new items for the occasion, though.

Items like these:

The Parkstroller Satchel will allow you to open it and choose one item. The Parkstroller Satchel looks like this:

These items will retire June 21, 2014.

Red Dragon (Thomas Harris)

Title: Red Dragon

Series: Hannibal

Author: Thomas Harris

Released: 1981

Rating: 5/6

Basic Plot: A killer called the Tooth Fairy is on the loose and Will Graham is called in to stop him. Graham ends up having to seek the help of the cannibal who tried to kill him. Hannibal Lecter.
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The Tooth Fairy
The villain for this book is complex. He isn't a killer that kills for the sake of killing, he has a reason. He is humanized and I pitied him, but knew he had to be caught. What causes him to kill can be traced back to him being abused in his childhood. So his vision of the world got seriously fucked up. I like when a villain is more than pure evil and you can see why they react like they do. It's not merely that they do bad to do bad, but that they believe they are doing right.

Revealing the Villain
While I don't like Manhunter (the first movie adaptation of this book), the fact is I like that reveal of the Tooth Fairy. I feel that the novel revealed the identity of the Tooth Fairy too early. I get that now that we know who he is we can see the chase from both sides. However, I'd really like the buildup to his reveal to have been longer.

Will's Resolve
Will Graham has been retired but in the beginning of the novel he is brought back in. He doesn't like his work at all. He doesn't like feeling like a killer. Oh, forgot to mention that Will has a sort of superhuman ability to get into the mind of a killer so that he feels what the killer feels. So when he's on a case it can be very disturbing for him. Will mentions at least once in the novel that he goes through Hell so that people will be alive in the future.

Final Thoughts
I bet some of you are wondering why I haven't mentioned Hannibal Lecter in this review. These written reviews are meant to be short and Hannibal doesn't play one of the biggest roles in the novel. Don't get me wrong, he is the one to help Will solve the case and he is also the one to give the Tooth Fairy the ability to find Will's home. But I was trying to keep to the basics here. This is a good novel and it soars over Hannibal Rising (the first book in the Hannibal series I read). If you are looking for a good scare with good characters, I recommend this book for you.

The Eternal Heart: Angelic Savior 7

It had been a few days since I had nearly kissed John. My dreams since then had John touching my lips with his fingers. Unlike reality, however, these dreams always ended with him kissing me. Sometimes they even went further than a kiss.

I had seen John around base and it seemed as though he was avoiding me. I didn't seek him out as I figured that he was deep in thought about what to do. If he was going to choose Katherine or me. Having never been in a relationship before, or at least not remembering being in one, I didn't know how long it would take for him to decide.

After coming back from a training exercise I headed over to the showers. There hadn't been a battle in awhile, but John made sure that we were still in shape. John wouldn't always oversee these exercises himself, but he made sure they went on. While the exercises did give me a distraction, I needed an actual battle with real bloodshed to calm me.

Taking my clothes off, I was very glad that I would get cleaned up some. I hoped that there was running water today but I doubted it. Every now and again the showers would actually work, but it was a rare event.

Once my clothes were off, I headed over for the stalls. I heard someone and sighed as I realized today wouldn't be a good shower day. It would be another day of cleaning with a dirty rag and decently aged water.

Walking around the small room my eyes quickly found the other person. It was John Connor.

"Hi, John." I said and he looked at me.

"You can join me." John said and I walked over to the stall he was in. "I need to talk to you."

I wasn't getting too excited about what John would say. He wasn't looking at me like a lover, but like someone that is about to tell me someone I care about has died. Hopefully I was misreading him.

"So what's the world shattering news from the great John Connor?" I joked as I started to wash.

I didn't want to admit that any term to describe nervous would not even hint at what I was feeling now. I loved John and I wished for that same love in return.

"I met Kate at a very low point in my life." John started to explain. "Before Judgment Day I was trying to hide from the reality that I knew would happen. On Judgment Day she was beside me and hasn't left me since."

I tried to appear like I didn't care. That him choosing Katherine over me was expected and normal. I tried to appear like I was glad to not have ruined a marriage.

But I wasn't happy.

"I hope you have a long life together." I said as I turned away from him.

"Jash," He said and grabbed my arm so I would face him. "I know you're upset and I don't blame you. But Kate has helped me through times that I couldn't have gotten by without her. I love you, Jash, but I can't be with you."

"Why not?" I pleaded. "If you love me then why can't you be with me? You're the le-"

"Just because I'm a leader doesn't mean I can do whatever want. I love you and Kate both. But I won't dissolve my marriage because of something I want to happen. I want a future with you but I couldn't live with myself if I divorced Kate."

"She must be special to you."

A tear went down John's cheek as he replied, "She is."

"And you wish she wasn't."

John just nodded.

A tear fell down my cheek and suddenly John and I were embracing. I was crying on his shoulder and he was crying on mine.

"I understand." I said through my sobs. "I wish I didn't."

"I'll always care for you, but I can't be with you."

After that brief bit of dialogue we continued to cry.
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Of Mice and Lizzie

If you haven't seen The Walking Dead episode "The Grove" you should watch it now. This post will contain major spoilers and you should watch the episode, get your heart ripped out, and then read this post.

Now I am someone with tough skin when it comes to depressing stuff in fiction. I didn't cry when Mufasa died in The Lion King and even Dale's death, though it was hard to bear, didn't make me cry like a little baby. That was saved until Hershel's death.

So when I found out that people said this was a really depressing episode I had to check it out for myself sooner than I had intended. I usually watch episodes a day after they air but this time I had to watch it right before bed.

This is also something that you shouldn't finish right before bed.

The reason why I, and many others, found it so heartbreaking is what happens between Lizzie and Mika. Plus what finally happens to Lizzie is beyond heartbreaking because...I'll get to that soon.

So do I agree about Carol killing Lizzie?

Lizzie is mentally unstable. There is no avoiding that fact. She is crazy.

She thinks that Walkers are like people and that they're just sick/different. In one scene this episode she was even playing with one. She didn't find anything dangerous with the Walker and told Carol that the Walker was a friend.

In another scene Lizzie tells Mika that she never pretended that the Walkers were people, it was always a reality for her.

In an earlier episode Lizzie was shown to nearly smother Judith.

We found out in this episode that it was Lizzie who fed the Walkers so that they caused problems for the people in the Prison (you could also say it was because of Lizzie that Hershel is dead) and she was the one that was dissecting animals.

The final act of killing that Lizzie does is to kill her sister Mika (and she would've killed Judith if Carol and Tyreese hadn't arrived when they did) to prove to the others the 'truth' she knows about the Walkers.

If there was a mental institution in sight, I would say that Lizzie should've been taken there. This is so that she wouldn't cause harm to anyone else and maybe even make a full recovery one day. But this is the Zombie Apocalypse and no one on the show has that luxury.

Because if Lizzie had lived she couldn't stay with Carol, Tyreese, and Judith since having Lizzie around people isn't safe. Another option would be to just leave Lizzie in the house which would've been a slow death if no one came by (and if people came by...yeah, not good either).

So I fully agree with Carol killing Lizzie since that was the best option available at the time.

But the thing that makes Lizzie's death scene so heartbreaking is that she doesn't know what she's done. She merely thinks Carol is mad at her for holding her at gunpoint. She finds NOTHING wrong with having killed her sister.

So Lizzie's death was no real victory in the end since a real victory would be her recognizing what she did was wrong. Lizzie's death was just something that had to happen in the world Carol and the others live in now.

I watched this scene and thought of the ending Of Mice and Men.

Chibi Torrent and Revamped Chibi Clawsion

Did you have fun over Saint Patrick's Day? For those of you who are of age: do you have a hangover from last night?

For either of those instances: here are some cute pets to help make a bright day brighter or a bad day happy!

The Chibi Torrent looks like it wants to give you a hug and play with you. Its smile goes from its eyes to its mouth. So adorable!

The Chibi Clawsion has been revamped. Its pose is the same but the art has been updated.

Here's the old version for comparison: