This first one is an isekai with an overpowered main character, a lot of busty women around him, and just a lot of tropes. Yet, it still amused me. I also liked that it wasn’t someone from the current world reborn into a fantasy, but someone from a fantasy world reborn into another one.
This next one is an ecchi rom-com wrapped with an urban fantasy skin. It isn’t what I would call amazing, but it’s an enjoyable way to pass the time.
This next one is a bit older, but it is an awesome futuristic noir story. The world building is amazing, the characters are not just tropes, and the story is pretty damn compelling.
This one is a fantasy harem comedy that I enjoyed. Plus it has some neat twists on the standard genre.
I normally do four, but I’m doing five this month because I want to give an honorable mention because I love the concept, setting, and the characters. Unfortunately, I’m just not into yaoi (gay romance). I’m not enlightened enough to look past it to make it through more than a few episodes. But, I think those that can should give this one a try.
Gather ’round and hear the tale of Foxfire Ridge. A tale that nearly spelled the doom of the Fifth Legion and the rending asunder of the Great Allied Army. The cunning elves outmaneuvered the Southlanders and found their way to the very heart of the Allied forces. But fate, as it so often does, intervened in the form of a humble shepherdess, herded no less than the very winds of change with her flock. It was she who, with unyielding resolve, set her beloved paddock aflame, signaling the rangers with billowing smoke. Thus were the forty-three rangers brought forth, standing firm and steadfast upon the ridge for three days and three nights against the elven horde. Yet it was not these valiant rangers alone who turned the tide of battle. No, the true heroine of this tale is none other than that selfless shepherdess, whose name remains unknown. The rangers, in their gratitude, sought her name in vain. They could only pay tribute by calling themselves the Shepherdess’s Children, in honor of her bravery and sacrifice. – Knight Alonis, chronicler of the Great Allied Army, “The In-Between Stories of The Reclamation War”
RIN
“The Protector damn Marteen,” Rin swore as he ducked into a deserted restaurant. “What was he thinking with that attack?” The Edess Kul wasn’t stupid. As soon as Marteen’s insane attack on the trebuchets was pushed back, she followed up with a fast counterattack. Purist musket troops marched in companies down the main boulevard, stopping only long enough to kill whoever got in their way. Farther up the street came the ragged, throaty cracks of the Purists’ volley. It didn’t sound like the defenders were faring well.
“To his credit, Hero Madrigal’s plan did manage to destroy the trebuchets,” Morelli answered in a whisper. “They didn’t manage to crack the Aponte Wall. That’s got to have screwed up her plans.”
“It may have disrupted her initial plan, but it won’t stop her. If the Edess Kul can’t break the Aponte Wall, she’s going to use it like an anvil, with her good troops as the hammer,” Rin said.
“How do you know that?” Morelli asked.
“It’s what I would do in her place,” Rin answered. Why did the Edess Kul seem so familiar? They sat in silence as another two companies of Purists marched by. Another kilometer until the Purist camp. Then, find Shafford and deal with him. Maybe they could deal with the other Acolytes while they were in the camp. Rin peeked out the restaurant door. He looked up and down the street. Rin couldn’t see any more Purist musket men, but he heard the echoes of marching. The two rangers needed to get around the attack so they could sneak into the Purist camp. Grunting, Rin crouched behind an overturned table. Not the best cover, but it would give him some concealment if the Purists decided to loot the store.
“Those bastards are damned good for a bunch of religious fanatics,” Morelli whispered as they heard the Purists unleash another volley against the defenders.
“Yeah, but it sounds like our brothers are giving them hell,” Rin said as the higher pitched cracks of rifles replied to the volley. “They must be raising havoc among those Purists.”
“Will they be enough to blunt this attack?” Morelli asked.
“It wouldn’t be the first time rangers pushed back an elven attack all by themselves,” Rin answered. “We even have the less than fifty rangers against hundreds of elves.”
“I’m not sure our allies would like to be reminded of Foxfire Ridge,” Morelli replied.
“I have a feeling some of the Reclamation Army veterans will pick up the similarities all on their own,” Rin said. A series of deep booms stopped their conversation. It sounded a lot like heavy cannon.
“What under the Protector’s Eyes? Did the Capitol Army finally make it back?” Rin asked.
“No, I think the Purists got a bit too close to the docks,” Morelli said.
“Huh?”
“Our merchantmen aren’t about to let another Night of Fire and Blood happen again. That sounded like they just laced Dockyard Avenue with cannister.”
“Ah, that makes sense,” Rin said. He didn’t have much experience with artillery. Not enough to pick out the differences in the booms between the different types.
The front door banged open. Two Purists were silhouetted in the doorway as they swept the interior of the restaurant with their muskets. Morelli touched off both barrels of his grapegun. The two Purists went down under the hail of pellets. A third Purist stormed into the doorway. Rin took him down with a rifle shot. The two rangers retreated to the back of the restaurant as they reloaded their weapons. Dozens of musket barrels sprouted in the doorway. Rin pushed Morelli to the ground as the Purists fired. Already deafened from the grapegun and rifle shot, the muskets sounded like they were on the other side of the street. Rin emptied his revolver into the Purists at the door as the two rangers stood up and fled into the kitchen. Morelli kicked open the restaurant’s back door and quickly checked to make sure the alley was clear. They sprinted out of the building.
“Head that way!” Rin shouted pointing towards the Purist camp. Morelli nodded, and they sprinted through the back alleys of Lisandra.
Hospital Happenings – Okay, the TLDR is everyone is okay. Last Thursday, The Wife sent a text of “I feel weird.” Okay, that piqued my interest. Especially after her TIA scare a couple of years ago. I went into our room and started asking. Chest pain, but not sharp. Shortness of breath. Okay, that could be residuals from Disney trip. But it also could be something worse. After some discussion, we hopped in the car and ran down to the freestanding ER. They did some tests and such, but couldn’t find anything. However, the doc there recommended The Wife be admitted to the hospital linked to the ER. A moment of lightness while that process was going on was the housekeeping person said my hat looked “very Indiana Jones.” Okay, not the usual response that I get, but it amused The Wife and me. The paramedic took a look at the file and told The Wife “I’m not seeing anything here of concern, but you said the magic words – chest pain. No way you’re getting out quickly with that.” Apparently The Wife and the paramedic chatted about meeting their respective spouses online. He was definitely the gregarious sort. We got her ensconced in a room about 90 minutes before visiting hours ended.
We don’t sleep well apart. It was a rough night for both of us. I showed back up as soon as visiting hours started. They said that they couldn’t see anything wrong, but they wanted an ultrasound to make sure the heart was working properly. As you can imagine, it was a lot of hurry up and wait. Although it was funny explaining to the ultrasound tech that our hairless cat got the same procedure every six months. By mid-afternoon, we were both ready to get out of there. I mean, about to tell the nurse to get the AMA papers ready. We got the final clearance. Essentially, it wasn’t anything cardio, but no good answers from that. So, we packed up The Wife into the Ward Wagon and got her back home. Needless to say, we weren’t really good about diet when we got back home.
No Concert Happenings – At the end of last year, Sabaton announced they were going to be doing a North America tour – including a Tampa stop. After talking with The Wife, we decided to do a work-cation in which we would go up and stay at a hotel, work from the hotel room, then I would go to the concert and we would go home. January came, and word came down that Sabaton was postponing due to one of their members having a medical issue. Shit happens, but we ended up having to eat the hotel costs. We decided to wait and see when the concert would be rescheduled. Then we got word last week that the Tampa show was cancelled. My guess is that they couldn’t get a place in the time frame. They added an Orlando show, but I’m thinking over if I want to do that. And my refund is going to probably take 14 to 21 days. Yay Ticketmaster.
One of the less talked about features about living in Central Florida is the impact of the space program. Sure, you can see it on the Space Coast around the Kennedy Center, but even on the other side of the state, the space program has added some unique color to my life. Case in point. Last week Space X sent up one of their rockets in the early morning, and due to atmospherics we got an amazing sight.
The Wife and I discussed, and we agreed that I could order the ELINT. So, I went to my dealer of choice and found out they just released a heavy weapons version. Yeah, The Wife encouraged me to get both. So, this fall should be interesting.
Orlando Happenings – Last weekend was the annual Disney trip. Some of The Wife’s coworkers do this marathon at Disney, and for the last few years, we have gone over to give her time to hang out with folks she normally only sees virtually. It’s also time for us to hit some of the Disney parks. This year, her boss, who is a dear friend to The Wife, was going to be flying in to Orlando from a conference out west. So, we offered to pick him up so he didn’t have to get a rideshare to the resort. At least that was the plan.
Thursday, The Wife and I packed up, ran a couple of errands, and went to Disney Springs to kill some time before Boss Of Wife (BOW) arrived. The Wife has been going back and forth on getting Magic Bands, so she wanted to see the selection there. I wanted to go to the Star Wars store to see if they had the Vader lightsaber because it wasn’t showing up on their online store. I was happy to find one in the case – and they had the pack with the blade and the stand. We had a pleasant walk around the complex and decided to head over to the airport early to beat commute traffic. That’s when the fun started. Anytime I have to go to an airport other than Tampa, it shows me how spoiled I am. Trying to find Orlando’s cell lot ended up with us in the economy lot. Then, BOW’s plane was delayed 90 minutes and there was even more uncertainty as to when he would actually get in. After going back and forth for a bit, he finally convinced us just to go to the hotel, and he would grab a rideshare to the resort. That going back and forth put us three minutes over the 10 minute grace period, and we had to hand over five bucks. Annoying, but that was on us. The transit back wasn’t bad traffic wise, but the GPS just wouldn’t find our resort. It would find the one next to it, but then default back to just finding Walt Disney World. Then, we had multiple instances of “take the next exit to your right” which would involve having the ability to swing across multiple lanes of solid traffic. Stress level increased. Then finding parking. Yeah, I was annoyed, tired, and stressed by the time we entered the hotel. We did end up meeting with BOW later that night to hash out plans and to hand over the shirts that The Wife made for him. She was pleasantly surprised when he showed up with a stuffed animal he picked up for her at the conference he’d attended. We finally crashed into bed much later than normal.
Friday’s events started with the adrenaline inducing sound of the smoke alarm going off. We learned that Derek cannot enjoy his normal scalding long showers without the steam causing issues. We managed to get things settled down, get dressed, grab a bite to eat before meeting up with BOW. From there, we hailed an Uber. Slight hilarity when we saw the same make, model, and color before we found our actual driver. Apparently, silver Toyota Siennas are popular. We were dropped off at Universal’s new Epic park. I was kind of meh when they asked if I wanted to go a few months ago. It was more, I’ll go if everyone else goes. We meet up with another Co-Worker of The Wife (CWW). At this point, we go through security. And of course, Derek takes forever because security gets antsy about my trauma shears. They take them and say I can pick them up after I leave. Then their sergeant proceeds to tell me that they have trained medical staff and paramedics, and yada yada yada. It was clearly his opinion that I didn’t need to have an IFAK while I was in his park. I kept polite and semi-obsiquious because I didn’t want to cause a scene, but in the back of my mind I’m thinking Dude, if I need a tourniquet, I’m not fucking waiting for your myriad of medical people. I need one RTFN. Which is why I keep that red bag in my backpack.
We made our way to the Harry Potter section, and I was very disappointed when we walked onto a facsimile of a Parisian street instead of Diagon Alley or something else. Before I could really get annoyed, we get herded into a hallway, which turned out to be a line for a ride. Of course, we didn’t realize it was a ride until we were well into it. It was just having to follow a mass of people that I originally thought was going deeper into the world. Anywhoo, we ended up on the Harry Potter and the Battle At The Ministry of Magic ride. Okay, it was neat seeing a bunch of stuff I’d seen in the movies, and the ride itself wasn’t bad. The storyline they were pushing made no fucking sense in canon, but the group enjoyed it well enough. From there we decided to go to the Super Mario world. Holy hell that was a very crowded and loud area. We did a look around, and then went to the “Dark World” section, which was based on old monster movies. BOW went on another ride while we rested. At that point, I was kinda done. Honestly, I wouldn’t go back to Epic unless there were strong extenuating circumstances.
Saturday we went to Magic Kingdom. What I knew is that The Wife had booked a breakfast buffet. What I didn’t know was that it was a Winnie the Pooh themed breakfast buffet. The food was excellent, and we got pictures with some of the characters. From there, we walked around the park. We did the Monsters Inc show in Tomorrowland and rode It’s a Small World. The Wife and her coworkers split the cost of a photo package where we could get photos taken at several areas. If you can afford it, I would highly recommend it. We got lots of really good photos, and the photographers are really good at making things amusing. We also got a lot of compliments on our shirts that The Wife made for the team.
We met up with another co-worker of The Wife who was running in the marathons (aka Running Co-Worker, RCW) and RCW’s husband. The plan was to go to Hollywood Studios. Since this blog post is already going to be long, suffice to say that RCW insisted that we needed to go one way to Hollywood Studios, and we all followed because she was the Disney veteran. It turned out not to be the case and we spent an extra half-hour getting to Hollywood Studios and required me going through security twice more. As we walked into Hollywood Studios, I was tired and my feet hurt. I just wanted to get to Galaxy’s Edge, see some neat stuff, and go back to the hotel. RCW sort of made up for the inconvenience by getting me on the Millennium Falcon ride. That was truly awesome. And we got some decent photos. Not as many as I would have liked, but a few.
Sunday was our EPCOT day. The Wife and I love walking through the World Showcase. We met up with the rest of our party at Space 220, which is a restaurant with the conceit that you are eating at a space station. The food was good, the atmospherics were interesting, and the conversation was excellent. The Wife and I had a plan to “eat around the world” instead of drink around the world, but lunch was good enough that we sort of, didn’t.
I did find a ceramic parrot in Mexico, which was cool because I couldn’t find one last year and thought they’d been discontinued. So, I now have a pair hanging in the home office. We skipped Norway because it’s less Norway and now Frozen with a taste of Norway. We introduced BOW and CWW to the China film that Disney’s been using for at least the last 40 years. BOW got a grapefruit beer in Germany that he said was surprisingly good. I’m not a big drinker, so I’m taking his word for it. Japan was the normal “go through the big store and get my supply of Kit Kats.” This year they had orange, a cinnamon roll, and I think a dark chocolate (haven’t opened it yet). They also had macha, but I hate macha. BOW also got a purple sake drink he said was good, but too sweet. The Wife and I also took CWW through the Kawaii display, and she really enjoyed that. By that time, we were all flagging, so we agreed to go through England/Britain before heading back to the hotel.
Monday morning, we agreed to take BOW to the airport so he wouldn’t have to spend money on an Uber. It wasn’t a bad drive over, but again, reminded me how much I prefer TIA’s layout. Anywhoo, then it was make the trip across the state. We’ve had worse traffic coming back, but it was still annoying. What was more annoying was coming back to find the home offices without power. First thought was a breaker decided to die since we had one flipped. Electricians came out. Not the breaker. They went into the home offices and unplugged everything and then went one-by-one to find out which one was causing the breaker to flip. Turned out to be an old power adapter to a dock we haven’t used in a while. It looked like there was some melting and was drawing enough power to flip the breaker. So, a quick fix.
TLDR – We had fun, but some of our planning did not stand up to the rigors of the real world. We need to have better checklists and planning for our trips. We still had a lot fun. I also much prefer dealing with Disney security instead of Universal. The Disney folks always seem either appreciative or understanding of why I have an IFAK, while the vibe I got from Universal Security was “only ones.”
