The Atomic Dreamer

Safety Warning: This Receptacle Contains Copious Amounts of Whimsy

Hello, friend. Yes… you. You right there! The one with the gaze of wonder and the desire to learn! Come closer into these wreathed halls of the Atomic Dreamer. There are drinks in the fridge and plenty of room on the couch. Welcome, welcome! Make yourself at home — there’s plenty of space, and even more sorts of tales to come from this place in the future.

Now, where was I? Ah — yes — this receptacle of the Dreams Atomic! Think of it as a flow-of-consciousness weekly reflection on multiple facets of pop culture and digital media, with a slice-of-life element drifting in whenever the mood strikes. There will be traditional reflections, of course, but also reviews, contemplations, curiosities, rants, and even more peculiar paths than you can shake a spanner at.

Now, as you look around this place, I’m sure you’ve noticed the ornate wall fixtures and the multicolored items scattered across the shelves. Here is but a sampling of some of my faves:

✦ Comics:

Nightcrawler

She-Hulk

Cassandra Cain

Kyle Rayner

✦ Vtubers:

Matara Kan

Ren Zotto

AliciaxLife

Hakos Baelz

✦ Games:

Persona 4

Overwatch

World of Warcraft

Mass Effect 2

✦ Movies:

Belle

Hot Fuzz

Jurassic Park

Hellboy

✦ Music:

Ado

Orville Peck

Soundgarden

Stray Kids

Beyond these, there’s a copious trove of other curiosities abound: tabletop RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons and Monster of the Week, the colorful chaos of pro wrestling, manuals on combat robotics, and much, much more. The world is vast — both physical and digital — and this little corner is my way of exploring, celebrating, and sharing the intersection of the two.

Hello, Friend. Hopefully our departure from the atmosphere of Antares Station-1 did not render you with that much vertigo or motion sickness, if it did please head to the Sick Bay on the 5th floor. What is more likely however is that you are mourning the brief period of time we spent on Antares and miss our luxurious accommodations at the Crimson Meridian. Since we formally exited the artificial gravity ring of the station, I have heard many staff mourn the quick departure of the Receptacle. Some of the senior officers saved two whole Saukel Pies and stored them on 3A's dining hall, but I know that is not the same as taking in the glamour and glitz of a ritzy station like Antares. Take your own time to reflect on the time we spent on the station and focus on the happy memories and the fact we got to go there, perhaps that will lend some solace. In the meantime, enjoy your morning meal, reflect on your time on the station, and savor some new tales from halfway across the galaxy.

Recently, Crunchyroll hosted their 2026 incarnation of their yearly Anime Awards and by and large, I was really pleased with how things panned out this year compared to the previous year. Some major moments include MHA's final season definitively and deservedly taking home Anime of the Year as well as Gachiakuta deservedly taking Best New Series(The Summer Hikaru Died would've been fire too). I really like that LAZARUS got Best Original Anime, I think it's a real testament to Shinichiro Watanabe's continuing effort tenure as a longstanding visionary in the space. Some other big standouts for myself include Dandadan! nailing Best Comedy Anime & Best Anime Opening Sequence alongside IRIS OUT deservedly sweeping when it came to Best Anime Song. The whole medium continues to get super varied and high-quality year after year from so many creatives and studios, I'm excited to see what the next year ahead brings! When The Mandalorian first premiered in 2019, it singlehandedly became my favorite thing in the Star Wars Universe and rocketed my love of the franchise to new heights especially for the bond between Mando and Grogu. It's now 2026 and I am very happy to report that the full-length film starring and titled after the duo is insanely good, Dave Filoni killed it again(and shows how much he knows his stuff/deserves his new leadership position), and it's one of my favorite films of the year. There's a really vivid mix of old and new both in the universe and the themes and concepts explored in the film and it feels very vivid and stylized in a way a mainstream Star Wars film hasn't been before. It feels like an old-school summer movie, there's a lot of humor and heart but also genuine peril and intrigue. I love the return of Rotta as well, Jeremy Allen White kills the role and he's got a great character arc as do both the titular characters. Without spoilers, there's another Filoni favorite that makes a cameo and it was so cool to see them in live action, I really liked the variety and stylization of the action sequences too, there's a sequence towards the finale where we get our first look at a sci-fi trope completely reimagined for the Star Wars Universe I'm still thinking about. Side note but Ludwig Goransson's new music for the movie absolutely slaps, particularly Shakari and Rotta's theme. Can't say enough praises high key my favorite Star Wars movie thus far, its a love letter to the franchise that soars high from the start and never lets up. This Is The Way. Despite the inherent chaos that comes with Spotify's DJ feature, I recently struck platinum when the algorithim recommended that I check out Groovy Kaiju. I love Kaijus and Future Funk so it was already a total match made in heaven, I've been binging their stuff nonstop over the past few days. Their stuff kinda reminds me if Yung Bae and TWRP did the fusion dance but they have their own distinct electro-slick style sound and tone that almost reminds me of 2Mello. At the same time though, they aren't married to any one particular style or design vision and always seem to be trying new things across sound and style-go listen to Cheetahs in Barcelona and compare that to VTEC, it's almost impossible to believe they're the same artist. I love the goofy stylized tone of their cover art and album/song names too, I've been really enjoyed the New Game Plus version of Destroy All Monsters. I'd recommend starting with the original Destroy All Monsters going from there but their stuff is so accesible you can start from anywhere. Some of my favorite songs thus far across all their albums include Take Me Back To Shinjuku(mood), Arcade Dates, Sailor Neptune, Orca Adventure DX, and Ruled By Venus to name a few.

On the Shelves This Week

Reading:NYX by Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing

Playing:Star Wars Battlefront II(2006)

Watching:Deli Boys(Hulu)

Listening: CEREBRO(Spotify)

Creative of the Week:Saiken, MD

Creative Spotlight Video:Doctor VTuber Explains Hantavirus

Hello, Friend. I hope that your state at the Crimson Meridian was just as pleasant as mine! I understand that beyond a particularly boisterous group of Majestrian tourists and a synaptic storm shortly after the station lights dimmed, there were no major issues with the accommodations. As said before, please feel free to take advantage of the deviled eggs here at the complimentary breakfast buffet, or quite frankly any of the delicacies here. I understand that at 9AM they have a rare cache of Torian Saukel Pie that goes out next to the muffins. In the meantime, as we process the new crimson morning on Antares Station-1 and enjoy some quality food and drink, I'll tune to the Receptacle's telemetry signal for some new tales. Recently, the Eisner Awards(Oscars for the Comics Industry) announced their list of nominees for the various categories such as "Best Limited Series" and "Best Anthology". DC in particular had a really impressive spike in awards owing to the breakaway success of the Absolute line, which has been really well executed across the board, especially Absolute Wonder Woman and Absolute Martian Manhunter, both of which were some of my favorite series from DC in recent years. Marvel is no slouch either with a number of series like Storm and Black Cat being nominated for various things as well. I totally agree with a lot of the nominations this year, in particular Assorted Crisis Events, Ghost Pepper, Beneath The Trees Where Nobody Sees:Rite of Spring, and The Power Fantasy. The latter is my personal hope to achieve Best Continuing Series despite the tough competition, Kieron Gillen nailed it again and it feels genre-defining and powerful in a similar vein to what Watchmen did. Regardless of who ends up winning, there's a ton of wonderful series and talents on the nominations list and I look forwards to seeing how the full ceremony plays out July 24th.

One of my all time favorite games from Blizzard and a genre-defining perfect bastion of creativity and innovation, Overwatch recently hit its 10 year anniversary and the accompanying event has proven to be an insanely fun and frantic experience. It feels surreal that I remember going to the original website just looking at all the profiles and footage of Temple of Anubis and now we're squarely up to 51 heroes across an impressive amount of international variety with the most recent being the drone-slinging Sierra who was the new hero released with Season 2. She's got so much personality and I love her voicelines too, gameplay-wise I love being able to zip around with Dorothy the drone and scale tall buildings to get key angles on the enemy, right now I am Level 6 with her. With the new event comes a whole bunch of really cool lootboxes, dev sketch sprays, and an insane amount of new skins. I am definitely aiming to nab a lot of the new skins in the near future particularly the Bunny skins for Zarya and Domina, the Firefighter Skin for Wuyang,and the Druid Mauga collab skin with Diablo 4. Here's to another awesome 10 years Overwatch y'all are the gold standard for creativity and player freedom in my book, will definitely nab the Season Pass too, the Fey skins look super cool! With the spring season of anime kicking off, I notice there's been a solid number of high profile and quality romance-comedy series coming out recently like Gals Can't Be Kind To Otaku?(the OP is so good). It feels like a big resurgence of the genre in a very defining way since Love is War wrapped up formally. My runaway favorite of the season so far is You And I Are Polar Opposites, it's really really funny, emotional, and well-executed. Both Suzuki and Tani have super vivid personalities and dynamics with each other and I think that extends really well to the supporting cast, I particularly like the spotlight and character development that Yamada gets. There's a lot of great humor and realistic/heartful character arcs throughout and I find the use of Gen Z slang hilarious and endearing w/ a lot of great visual and action gags throughout. I think the English dub is honestly really good too, everyone is having so much fun and nailing their roles, it definitely feels like a spiritual successor to Love is War in that way w/ the quality and energy of the dub. The series is super adorable and well-executed and I'm excited to see what happens to Suzuki and Tani when Season 2 kicks off July 5th.

On the Shelves This Week

Reading:Roku's House of Oddities by Atsushi Nakamura

Playing: Call of Juarez: Gunslinger(Steam)

Watching:The WONDERfools(Netflix)

Listening: NDN Kars-Keith Secola

Creative of the Week:Kinkymation

Creative Spotlight Video:ARTIST GROOVES AGAIN WITH MARVEL RIVALS

Hello, Friend. The Naumali are now fully transported away from the Receptacle, it was a relatively quick process and was painless for them, so we consider it a win-win. With our Parallelum stock a bit more dwindled than usual and the Antares primary orbiter station having been significantly upgraded since we were last here, we may take the night and rest in port. They've added 2 new floors as well as an entirely revamped food court which includes a Taco Bell and a Qux'San's. I know the crew is going to be very enthusiastic to have a day or two beyond the cobalt-blue walls of the Receptacle and take in Antares Station-1. As the full schematics of the Station Load in, please prepare your individual boarding parties accordingly and make sure you recieve your disembarkment keys, we will be using the lodgings at the Crimson Meridian Hotel. As you prepare for and begin the process of exploring the station, feel free to listen to a few brand new tales we've been scrouging up.

I recently got a chance to watch Mortal Kombat II(2025) and overall I walked away pleasantly surprised and overall enjoyed it! It's slow at the start and I'm still a little confused on why Cole exists(love Lewis Tan though) but they do a great job at balancing characters old and new and also have some super bloody and beautiful fights throughout, especially Liu Kang. They do a great job at representing everyone's signature styles and movesets and also having some really effective parallel characters arcs, especially with Johnny Cage and Kitana. I loved how they reintegrated Scorpion into the narrative as well, it was very emotional and powerful and the ensuing combat that he's part of is super stylized and vertical + arguably my favorite in the movie. I love that Baraka got to show up and there's a lot of really fun/cool easter eggs throughout including a surprising cameo towards the beginning of the movie. Overall, the movie was a total blast and there was some super metal fight sequences throughout, Liu Kang in particular gets some particular great ones. On a whim, I downloaded the indie game Wax Heads since it was on sale and have been completely loving it! You're running a record shop and dealing with all sorts of crazy coworkers and customers while also navigating a completely homebrew network of musicians and indie city and workplace drama. It's got a really distinct Scott Pilgrim meets Indie Band Magazine vibe to it it's very simple but has so much personality across the board it's infectious! Some of my favorite memories so far include going to a gig at a local bar with some of my coworkers, calling out a banned customer who sings really badly, and reading a coworker's zine while helping to matchmake 2 customer over a band called Brick Dog. From a gameplay perspective it's very simple and effective and I also like that the prompt is kept throughout when looking at stuff for customers, it really helps a lot! I just got to the point where the store's upstairs just finished renovating and I'm super excited to play more! As part of my long-running homebrew superhero universe and as a possible setting for an upcoming MASKS campaign I want to run, I've begun fleshing out the established heroic scene in San Francisco and it's been a really cool process. The players would start as incoming Students at Steadman Academy, the 3rd oldest superhero university in the United States and get a chance to get really solidified in the local community as well as enjoy campus life! I did a lot of research on San Francisco architecture and the campus was inspired by a couple of local colleges like SF State and Minerva University. Some of the favorite faculty and students that I've conceptualized thus far include Alcatraz and Bellringer as well as Binwitch and Greasemonkey respectively. As I work on the Modern Era heroes and villains, I've really tried to use the sprawling history and city landscape of San Francisco as inspirations and also draw upon a combination of MHA and Dispatch for tone and scale. I am in the process of finalizing the major heroes and villains of the modern day and will begin work on the Maelstrom Age(Iron Age Equivalent) and Miracle Age(Golden Age equivalent) in the very near future.

On the Shelves This Week

Reading:Fables by Bill Willingham

Playing:Overwatch(Switch)

Watching:Devil May Cry Season 2(Netflix)

Listening:Canon Eyes -I Fight Dragons

Creative of the Week:Good Time Society

Creative Spotlight Video:Extension Cord All The Way To The Mall

Indie Creative Spotlight:Fenari Mori

Originally premiering on Webtoon and since then striking off on their own, one of my favorite modern webcomics is St. Denis, a unflinching madcap drama/comedy series set at the titularly named boarding school inspired by Bully. The cast is super massive and stylized with a lot of really fun and unique personalities that intertwine both in absurd slapstick humor and comedy alongside genuine emotional depth and character progression. It kind of feels like the closest thing to a sequel to Community where there's a lot of craziness going down with the characters but there's a lot of genres being tackled casually and on top of that, there's a lot of background things and one-off lines that end up changing the entire story and character dynamics. The latest stretch of the comic has been really fun, introducing more detailed profiles on the Wicca Club and a power struggle going down in the LARP club.

On the Shelves This Week

Reading:Hellboy:Seed of Destruction by Mike Mignola

Playing:Mission:It's Complicated(Steam)

Watching:Star Trek:Lower Decks(Paramount)

Listening: Peacock Tail by Boards of Canada

Creative of the Week:ElToroRyan

Creative Spotlight Video:Coaster Idiots Go To Knotts Berry Farm

Hello, Friend. As this latest communication reaches your ears or other auditory-processing aspects, you've awoken to find the Receptacle in a bit of a curious position. About 15.4 parsecs after we departed from our banquet with the Esali, some of the trainees on the 10th deck reported that they spotted a colony of floating multi-eyed marsupials with low appendages raiding the West Food Storage. We were able to quickly identify the mysterious critters as Naumali, scavengers native to the Esali's neck of the woods. We've dispatched some of our internal naturalist corps members in order to aid in relocating the Naumali to a safe place on the ship for now so that we can drop them off at a primary outpost later. In any case, drink whatever sort of coffee or beverage you desire from the fabricators and watch the Ross 154 system come into view while entertaining a few new tales.

In advance of the World Cup kicking off in early June, I recently learned that one of my favorite artists of all time collaborated with Adidas recently to create the official theme song for the Japan national team's uniform, KIRA . I've been a fan of Ado ever since I discovered her last year and she was my number 1 listened to artist of the previous year, she has an incredible voice with insane range and variety(compare say their take on Odoru Ponpokorin to something like Backlight or Usseewa) and is also a wonderfully nuanced personality who's not afraid to be super candid and a bit of a gremlin be it her janky minecraft streams or Uma Musume karaoke. The song itself is a vicariously frenetic and powerful anthem that kinda reminds me of her work on the One Piece Red soundtrack alongside the grimy tone shifts and hard-rock electronic instrumentals of something akin to some of her newer stuff like Angelseek. I've already been listening to it a minimum of at least 60 times and considering the status of the "official" world cup anthem, I'm considering KIRA the main anthem of the event, I think she did a great job and it really fits the action and excitement of the event especially alongside the killer music video. Wizards of the Coast is no stranger to official DND live plays from the company itself be it something like the PVP focused Champions of the Realm Tournament to the Spelljammer-focused Legends of the Multiverse. With their latest venture into the live play space with Dungeon Masters however, Wizards is clearly aiming to make a long-term flagship series in the space aiming to rival familiar names such as Critical Role and Dimension 20. Beyond the great production and design that Wizards has invested into the series, the grand standout is easily the actual cast, with Jasmine Bhullar as the GM and a number of other big names in the space like Christian Navarro, Neil Newbon, and Devora Wilde. Jasmine does a killer job as usual and the cast has a really rich in-character and above table dynamics with lots of banter, fun, and genuine intrigue. The neo-gothic atmosphere akin to Curse of Strahd lends itself to a wonderfully vivid cast of characters like a Hexblood Shadow Sorcerer and an Elven Winter Walker Ranger. So far the first 3 episodes have dropped and I highly recommend you check it out, super excited to see the series hopefully get future seasons as well, they've done a great job so far! For many years now, Fullmetal Alchemist has been my favorite anime and manga of all time and has been life-changing for myself. When I found out a few years ago, Hiromu Arakawa was doing a brand new series, I was cautiously optimistic but super anxious. Once I checked out Daemons of the Shadow Realm though, I was already hooked and have been loving it ever since, Arakawa did a really incredible job with taking familiar themes and her distinctive character designs and reimaging everything for a brand new urban fantasy story with a setup that kinda of reminds me of the tail end of Revenge of the Sith into A New Hope. As of recent as well, I can very happily report that the anime adaptation does the series justice in so many ways, both the dub and sub voice casts are super fitting and there's a lot of really well done action sequences and gags throughout, Studio Bones did a great job. I love how the OP very deliberately calls back to Fullmetal Alchemist, that's about the most perfect thing they could do in referencing the old but invoking new tales and I'm excited to see the saga of Yuru and Asa continue in both the manga and the rest of Season 1 of the anime.

On the Shelves This Week

Reading: Excalibur by Tini Howard

Playing: Merchants of Rosewall(Steam)

Watching: Stranger Things: Tales From 85(Netflix)

Listening: Body to Body by BTS

Creative of the Week:Ginny Di

Hello, Friend. As this bulletin goes live from the command center, I imagine you are among the various staff and crew now nursing a massive food coma from the Esali banquet. The Qu'Asal'Rhom more than lived up to expectations for myself, though the pickled Rhon'Tee and the Po'Ju'Po were also favorites of mine. I found a lot of the conversation to be fruitful as well, I am grateful we were able to find the Esali and establish good relations with them to this degree. Even when across the Galaxy in an entire new quadrant, you can always rely on the universe dispensing some flavor of goodness. With festivities concluded and 99.9% of the crew back on board the vessel, we will be departing this solar system in a few hours. In the meantime, relax in your quarters or holo-quarters and enjoy some new tales from across the cosmos. With Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 getting rave reviews across the board, Matt Murdock seems to be going through a bit of a continued creative renaissance on multiple fronts with the first issue of Daredevil by Stephanie Phillips debuting with art by Lee Garbett. 616 Daredevil is notable for a near perfect run of creative teams and acclaimed writers covering the Man without Fear like Brian Michael Bendis, Ann Nocenti, and Chip Zdarsky. I am very excited to say that after reading the first issue, they've excelled at bringing Daredevil in a bold new direction as a law teacher at Empire State University and introducing a mysterious new adversary known as Omen. At the same time they introduce new things, the team does a great job at reinforcing all the things we love about Daredevil be it the radar-sense sequences or the quippy yet stoic style of speaking, with Garbett's art super cinematic and kinetic throughout. I am excited to see what Phillips and Garbett have in store for Mr. Murdock. I recently got the chance to start watching season 1 of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy and as a longtime Trekkie, I walked away surprised, excited, and overall enjoying the experience. I'm a sucker for a good academy-style narrative and while I definitely had some questions when I first learned they were doing this and found its janky at times, I think big scheme they did a great job translating things over to Star Trek. the cast is really varied with lots of talent and personality, with names such as Holly Hunter, Paul Giamatti, and even a fan favorite from Star Trek Voyager. While it's still early on in the show, my favorite characters so far are Sam, Lura Thok, and Jay-Den. You can tell making the show was a blast and everyone is having a lot of fun and there's a lot of great moments, some of my favorites being the various exclamations of Lura Thok and Jay-Den navigating his own path among Klingon culture. I am excited to watch the rest of the season and check out Season 2 when it eventually emerges from hyperspace, it has so much heart. Ever since I've started watching Critical Role, some of my favorite cast members amidst the group of wonderful creatives are and were Talesin Jaffe(who is a big inspiration to me) and Ashley Johnson(who is such a gem). When I saw that Critical Role was uploading episodes of their previously Beacon-exclusive Podcast Weird Kids starring both Jaffe and Johnson, I immediately stopped what I was doing and put on Episode 1. It's everything I was looking for and more, it's such a compelling, fun, and thoughtful experience to hear the two of them banter about everything from growing up as childhood actors, death, favorite obscure movies, and even more bizarre stuff. They have such a natural rapport that perfectly transfers over to the more intimate podcast format and I appreciate how vulnerable they are about different topics but also about being themselves, it's empowering to listen to. One of my favorite moments thus far is in Episode 5 where they unbox unknown offbeat items like a cursed doll and a vintage Indiana Jones swag bag. On the Shelves This Week

Reading: Cat Girl by gloomypunks(Webtoon)

Playing:Artifact Foundry(Steam)

Watching:Broadchurch(Netflix)

Listening: CUT-Panchiko(Spotify)

Hello, Friend. Good News! Those peculiar aliens we encountered last week, we've been able to fully decipher their language in full! Their language is based on sound-driven pulses and clicks, and after a series of successful recordings and translations, we were able to map out their core vowel structures and establish official communications. They refer to themselves as the Esali, a hive-mind social species with a collective structure somewhat reminiscent of Myconid societies. With the language barrier finally being cracked, some of the Esali have invited us to the surface of their planet for a banquet to celebrate our arrival! Initial scans of the banquet hall have revealed that the interior folds inwards into the second dimension, which will be exciting to experience and catalogue. All of you are welcome to attend as well, just be sure to use the leftmost wing of teleporters to conserve quantum energy and follow the signage once you arrive, we'll meet just outside of the structure shaped like a giant purple hexagon.

In a genuinely exciting twist, I recently learned that one of my favorite writers, Kieron Gillen, has been releasing a sequel series to arguably one of his own most acclaimed works, DIE. The original was a beautiful and complex fantasy drama that melded together aspects of DND, Jumanji, Lost, and Beef into a wonderfully executed narrative reflecting on the power of choice and the ability of roleplaying games to influence the self and the world around us. DIE is also super notable for having an official TTRPG version of the game within the story that won a handful of big awards too, I love how Gillen and company reinvents a lot of traditional fantasy tropes into complex stuff that weaves together concepts of power and identity, especially with the unique classes such as the futuristic Neo or the chaos-driven Fool. I think the way how the sequel series is set up directly after the events of the first series and reinterprets and explores some of the same characters and families is really well executed, especially with the continuing gorgeous art direction by Stephanie Hans. I think it's a bold and compelling new direction to have all the characters slowly introduced one at a time as well, with the new Godbinder being the initial starting point and seeing the story evolve from there. I am excited to see what Gillen does next with Die Loaded, if it's anything like the first one it's going to be a blast to experience. One of the most recent regions in my homebrew DND world that I've been making a lot of progress on is called Asha'Tek, which draws a lot of inspiration from the Caddoan Missippian people of the southern-based Piney Woods region of the United States. I had first learned about the Mississipians by playing Humankind and Civilization 7 so when I started to flesh out one of the island nations located in the New World, I thought they'd make a perfect inspiration. Right now, I have things stylized in a Honest-Hearts-esque manner with a few scattered cities like Nokomi and Atowa but most of the region is very verdant with varying levels of verticality which lends itself to a neat exploratory gameplay loop. There are going to be 6 immediate known regional biomes for players at the start including the Twin-Hearted Basin and the Waya Pine Reserve. I am conceptualizing a long-term West March scenario based out of the city of Talonka where players will have to rebuild the city and help its scattered inhabitants to thrive amidst complex societal and mystical problems be it bandits, other factions native to the region, and even a scheming tea company. Recently, Spotify recommended I check out the Jazz Fusion trio Liquid Stella, probably because I've been a fan of the genre for a bit and have listening to a few other things in the genre like Flying Beagle and PALM STREET. Despite the music streaming service sometimes being confusing and temperamental with their recommendations, I checked out both their 2025 album BRILLIANCE and their 2023 album AUTHENTIC and was immediately hooked. There's a great variety in tone and instrumentals, the latter especially standing out to me due to how everything melds together into a fluid and beautiful beat but at the same time, every individual instrument gets a lot of clarity and room to shine on their own. I'm also really appreciative of the fact that the trio seem to be adept at and enjoy melding together aspects of different subgenres of jazz like modal jazz and acid jazz. On BRILLIANCE some of the standouts to me were Roof Roof and Blue Ornaments and then on AUTHENTIC, All of you and Spring Kiss are some of the tunes on the album I've been playing nonstop.

On the Shelves This Week

Reading: The Ambassadors by Mark Millar

Playing: Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines(Steam)

Watching:Cosmic Princess Kaguya!

Listening: Calling To The Night-Natasha Farrow

Creative of the Week:Kumi

Hello, Friend. As of 3 hours and 40 minutes ago, first contact with a brand new species of alien life has been made. We followed the interspatial signal from the previous week around 15 lightyears to the West and discovered a previously unrecorded gas giant. The species resembles a hybrid of a Giraffe Stag Beetle and a Grecian Cyclops and has four sets of eyes. Despite their peculiar appearance they have proved peaceful and cooperative, but we are still trying to decipher their language so that way we can promote positive relations with them. As our analysts go over the linguistics, please feel free to find refuge in the newly renovated third-deck relaxation quarter or any of the other public quarters. In the meantime as you dim the lights, here's a handful of recently compiled newfound tales to tide you over. After getting the chance to watch Project Hail Mary, I can confidently say it’s one of the most bold and beautiful sci-fi films I’ve seen in a few. It’s an incredibly impressive adaptation that feels both classic and new-school at once and never lets up on being optimistic and evocative throughout. The visuals are otherworldly, the script is solid, and Daniel Pemberton absolutely nails the score and also makes it super varied. I've been a big fan of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller for a while and this easily stands as one of my favorite films from them. At this point in time, Project Hail Mary also tentatively stands as my film of the year alongside worming its way into my top 10 films list. What really makes the film shine for me(and arguably my fave piece altogether) is the nuanced and beautiful evolving relationship between Grace and Rocky, there's so much nuance, genuine emotion and heart from the first instance that they meet and the bond only grows stronger as things progress. Big scheme, the film strikes a near-perfect balance between humor, suspense, and raw feelings, it will definitely be sticking with me for a while. Among the massive success of World of Warcraft's newest expansion Midnight on a few fronts including the long-requested Player Housing, one of my favorite aspects of the new expansion is the new playable allied race, The Haranir. New prospective races in World of Warcraft are always going to be a contentious topic be it discussions around the Nerubians or Amani to name a few, but I really love the Haranir's primeval feel in design and culture, they feel like prehistoric fey that blend together aspects of the Night Elves and the Zandalari Trolls in a really fresh and vivid combination. I think the introductory experience for the Haranir is really impressive as well, The Den/Harandar is very vivid and expansive not only in terms of primal environments but also verticality as well, it really adds to the vastness of their home city and feels very old-school WOW. They've also got a decent selection of Racial Traits too most notably Lash Out and Rootwalking, the latter does a great job to really emphasize and connect them to their subterranean origins. In the near future, I am planning to roll up a Harandar character for the Alliance and Horde respectively and am excited to see what adventures they get into.

Hello, Friend. As it turns out, last week's technical difficulties may have been a blessing in disguise. When we arrived in full at the Outer Room, the technical teams intercepted a unique interspatial signal coming from 192 light years away that we believe belongs to an previously unknown alien race. The whole staff is very excited about this possibility and have begun a multi-stage transcription and logging process. Provided we can establish contact and the aliens are friendly, we will attempt to travel to the planet where the interspatial signals are coming from and greet them in person. To celebrate, the cafeteria staff are preparing a massive buffet dinner blending togethers foods from all sorts of cultures and comprising of all sorts of flavors. Feel free to use your keycard to grab a plate or two and once you've had your fill, feel free to peruse the recently updated logistics quarters for a handful of new tales we've been processing. As fans of NADDPOD continue to wait for Campaign 4 to eventually get kicked off, the Two Crew have recently delivered the start of one of their most off-the-wall mini-campaigns yet, episode one of Gangs of Neo Galaderon. Set in the aftermath of Campaign 3, the premiere episodes steps on the gas from the first minute and never relents, feelings like a mixture of Mean Streets of Gadgetzan and Mad Max with splashes of TMNT and Shadowrun. The party for this plunder-focused caper extravaganza is equally wild and all over the place, my favorite of the bunch being Atom who is a repurposed ATM who wears Hawaiian shirts and has a incredibly fun voice courtesy of Calder. I really like how some previously unrevealed choice bits of lore of Campaign 3 are getting fleshed out and I am excited to see what the Kill Screens get up to in Episode 2 of the campaign. Riding high off the critical success of Wonder Man, Marvel Television seems to have kicked off a mini-renaissance which season 2 of Daredevil: Born Again gleefully continues without breaking a sweat. Building off the new calamities in Matt Murdock's life and the election of Wilson Fisk to the Mayor of New York, things delve even deeper into the noir drama styling and brutality that defined the original series while also pushing the characters in new directions. I am loving the return of Jessica Jones in the series alongside the introduction of entirely new characters like Matthew Lillard's Mr. Charles. I'm really excited to see how the rest of the season looks as I have a feeling that this season is going to be a loose adaptation of the Devil's Reign event and I'm curious to see how they pull things off.

Despite being one of the most critically acclaimed indie games of recent years, I had never gotten the chance to sit down and play The Binding of Isaac until now. I recently picked up the Rebirth version of the game on Steam and have found it accessible and supremely challenging and fun. The art and story are simple but deceptively dark and there's a lot of randomized variety across levels, enemies, and items. Even though it's very unrelenting in difficulty and demands a lot in timing and moving, it never feels discouraging and you always have an idea of where you went astray. In my latest run, one of my favorite items that I picked up let me fire over rocks and bypass a few dangerous rooms and I was also able to overcome a few disgustingly memorable mini-bosses like Gemini and Monstro. For now, I'm going to keep on trekking and experimenting with the game, hopefully unlocking a few more characters as well. On the Shelves This Week Reading: DUO by Greg Pak and Khoi Pham Playing: Coffee Talk on Steam Watching:Shangri-La Frontier(Hulu) Listening: television by Night Tapes Creative of the Week:DistantCoder

Hello, Friend. Tonight, the Receptacle is moderately displaced and mildly damaged, so we’ve taken rest in orbit around Kashyyyk since our dimensional navigator is fortunately still functioning and got us into the Star Wars Universe. We were in transit between the 2nd and 3rd dimensions when a herd of space whales blindsided us as our navigator is missing a few of the latest upgrades. Once we return to our home dimension, we’ll be installing those to avoid future incidents like this. In any case, all 100 floors of the Receptacle have been checked, and thankfully, everything is largely intact. In the meantime, feel free to wander the ship as you please. We’ll be making use of the newly installed sound system to share a handful of tales, and you may notice a set of headphones waiting beside the couch if that suits your fancy.

After what feels like forever, the 4th season of Invincible has finally debuted and has liberated us from a deluge of new brainrot memes from the Invincible fan community. As someone who's read the whole story, I find it really interesting that Robert Kirkman and company are deciding to use this season to tell an original narrative from beyond the main storyline, I think it's a bold decision that allows the creators to really push the envelope and surprise even longtime fans, I'm excited to see how the latest episode with Damien Darkblood making a return pays off. On that note, Episode 2 of the season thus far is one of the best episodes of the entire series, this is the Alan and Omni-Man dynamic at its finest and there's some really cool long-term reveals in the episode that transcend the original narrative in an exciting way.

With Chainsaw Man finally ending, I checked out Hand Jumper on Webtoon on a whim and long story short I am totally hooked. From Page One, the artwork is super gorgeous and kinetic and they do a great job introducing us to the world of Aberrants and the complicated relationships that Sayeon starts off with even before the main plot gets underway. The lettering and careful use of sound effects help to bolster the dialogue alongside the effective using of striking colors to make the various action and drama sequences more distinct. There's a lot of great character designs too like Officer Ahn and the whole thing strikes a great chord between urban fantasy stuff like Kemono Jihen and dark supernatural dramas like Tokyo Ghoul.

Lately, I've been getting into the music genre of Dream Pop and one of the first artists that really caught my attention when browsing was the Colorado-based Candy Claws. While the band hasn't released a new album since 2013(although they did release a single in 2023), the members ended up refining their sound and membership and shifted to become Sound of Ceres. They've got a really bright and ethereal sound that feels rustic and acoustic with just the right bit of surf-rock-style Daikaiju-esque twang and reverb. My fave songs thus far from them are Brave Rainbow Rider, Pangaea Girls(Magic Feeling), and Five Heads of the Sun, with honorable mention to Diving Knife and Snowflake Eel Wish as well.

On the Shelves This Week

Reading: The Power Fantasy by Kieron Gillen

Playing: LEGO The Incredibles

Watching:The Amazing Digital Circus Episode 8

Hello, Friend.

The Receptacle has been navigating unknown territory for the past day and a half, we were navigating the ancient Indonesian city of Palembang during its founding in 682 AD and turned left rather than right at the future site of the Ampera Bridge. Despite needing to readjust our sensors and chart a new course home, this enabled us to cut through the Dvarati Civilization in what will be modern day Thailand and try Nam Phrik for the first time, we found it to be very pleasant. If you are intrigued, we have a few samples stored in the pantry. Now, put your shoes at the door, grab your snacks, and join us up above-there are many tales to be told.

With the magic of DC Universe Infinite, I've been able to catch up on a handful of solid comics from across the various eras, it's a really cheap monthly price as well. More recently, I've finally gotten the chance to start reading the critically-acclaimed James Robinson run of Starman and I think it's already one of my fave series of all time from DC. As much as it's because I'm a sucker for legacy-focused superhero stories like the JSA, I think it resonates at another level because of how masterfully Robinson manages the complexity and humanity of the characters. As crazy as things get in Opal City between the return of the villainous Mist or the machinations of the mysterious Shade, Starman is ultimately a story about Jack and his father Ted and how they rekindle their bond and evolve as family and individuals. It's a really beautiful character study with all sorts of twists and turns and I love the level of accompanying narrative complexity where small bits of dialogue or random things in the background have lasting implications for the world and characters.

While I love Overwatch dearly and consider it the premiere game in the Hero Shooter genre, I'm also super excited to see Valve's upcoming game Deadlock become publicly available beyond its current alpha status. It's a really unique Hero Shooter/MOBA combination set in a gorgeous steampunk universe that reminds me of Hellboy and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. I appreciate the frequency and quality of the recent updates as well with the most recent adding 6 new heroes alongside a revamped item system and map. Arguably my fave part of Deadlock however is the character design variety, everyone has such a distinctive visual profile and personality combination. Some of my favorites thus far include Abrams, Dynamo, Celeste, and Silver. There's also a handful of offbeat heroes who have been endeared to me by hearing their interactions with other characters, like the acerbic Vyper and the adorable Rem. For the upcoming Call of Cthullu setting I'm constructing, I've been using Deadlock as a key visual inspiration for helping to construct the vibe of the world and I'm excited to see how the final product evolves-stay tuned!

Recently when going through podcasts on Spotify, I learned about the vtuber-led podcast known as Vchibanter and I was immediately curious as two of my fave indie vtubers(Rosedoodle and Buffpup) are two of the hosts. I wasn't familiar with the rest of the cast(ShiaBun and Ai Candii) but needless to say I gave it a shot and was immediately hooked. I really enjoy the relaxed conversational energy of the podcast and the fun synergy between everyone, you can start with any episode and any segment and just get sucked in as if you've been listening the entire time from the beginning. The hosts are all super supportive of each other but also great at playfully poking fun at each other which invokes a nice found family dynamic. The episodes are always very freeform in a fun and approachable way too, some of my fave segments so far include Rosedoodle sharing her account of attending the Streamer Awards, the group debating how to pronounce Chili Con Carne and Ai's beef with pastel purple colors.

On the Shelves This Week

Reading: Stumptown by Greg Rucka

Playing: Deponia(PC)

Watching: Cloak and Dagger on Hulu

Listening:You Can See My Love by Jackatchan

Hello, Friend. As the Receptacle continues its voyage across space and time, the first blooms and bursts of rain have begun to manifest themselves on the radar, making the start of a new season with new beginnings. This week, the team was able to observe a live Ollamaliztli game for the first time in ancient Aztlan and also begin work on an ambitious new project to create a bridge between the 3rd and 4th dimensions. We hope that the sound system through The Receptacle is proving sufficient, some friendly Grey aliens just installed it last night. In the meantime, as we listen to the rain reverberate against the cobalt-blue chamber of the Receptacle, here's a handful of recently finalized reflections from the team. Since the start of the latest solar cycle, Disney has seen a lot of positive updates and progress across the board(Go watch Hoppers!). The staff here at the Atomic Dream adore Disney and technically fall into the Disney adults category. We are very excited for Josh D'Amaro's upcoming tenure as the new CEO, owing to his great previous work as Chairman of Disney Experiences for the parks. Almost all of the U.S parks are receiving new expansions in the near future including DCA with an Avengers Ride and a new Avatar land, Animal Kingdom with Tropical Americas, and Hollywood Studios with a Monsters Inc land and a revamped Animation-focused experience in DHS(we have long wanted the original Animation Courtyard revamped or removed so this is exciting). We obviously mourn the recently losses of the Muppets ride and Dinoland USA, but we have full trust in the Imagineering Team, especially with Joe Rohde returning to the roster. Recently, some of our staff have begun watching Agents of Mystery on Netflix and it has proved an absolute delight. The Korean-language series blends a celebrity reality show with immersive open-ended escape-room/puzzle elements and an ARG-esque mystery narrative to masterful effect. The cast has a range of fun personalities, the sets are gorgeous and varied, and the level of exploration and interactivity that the cast has is shocking in a good way. One of our favorite instances in the first major mystery involved some of the cast doubling back stealthily to a previous explored secret room to get components to help rescue the rest of the cast from a cult. Both "The Followers of the Evil One" and "The Deep Sea Mystery" were a blast to watch and we're excited to watch the recently released Season 2 in the near future. Behind the scenes at the Atomic Dream, we’ve been curating a brand-new corner of our longstanding superhero universe: a branch of the in-universe company Power Shifters Incorporated, which blends traditional superheroics with office drama and corporate structure. When Dispatch released last year and quickly became our GOTY, it inspired us to completely refine and rework the Heroes-for-Hire-esque PSI into a more regional, “white-collar” superteam organization with branches across the United States. The staff at the Cincinnati branch was inspired by the cast dynamics of The Pitt and boasts a wide range of unique personalities and powersets. Some of the blue-collar heroes currently involved with the Cincinnati branch of PSI include the Robbie-inspired Tough Crowd, ex-geneticist Polymyriad, and the half-catfish hero Mudcat. I’ve had a lot of fun refining both the core staff and the city itself within the universe, and I’m looking forward to running some MASKS content in this setting in the near future.