Chrononaut Cinema Reviews is presented by https://www.skinner.fm and http://hughjodonnell.com, and is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License.
She is, quite literally, an angel of music. Her duty among the celestial people is to play for the gods, a servant and an artist in one. She takes this duty very seriously and has mastered a variety of instruments to serve her masters in any way. She is always surprised when she meets outsiders, who always assume that her talents are ingrained. They treat her as though she were a vessel filled at the moment of its creation. The truth is always more complicated and less satisfying. How do you get to the Divine Hall of Spiritual Harmony? Practice.
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She rose from the water, a being of fire and light, birthed from the sea by a goddess’s will. Her upper half was human, a beautiful woman limned in streaming lava and sputtering flame. Her lower half resembled a fish’s tail ending in a forked fin that trailed in the water. The creature sat on a rock and pondered her fate as she inexorably cooled into lifeless black stone. The Mermaid Statue was later found by human explorers. They marveled at the craftsmanship, believing it to be the work of some lost civilization. Which was exactly what the goddess intended.
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This is how the magic works: For one night a year, he is immortal and all-powerful. In those brief but infinite hours, he races through the sky, spreading goodwill across the world. When the last present is delivered and the final stocking is filled, he sits and watches the sunrise over the ocean. As the sky lightens, he gradually forgets. He forgets where he left his sleigh (the reindeer look after themselves.) He forgets the many places he visited. And finally, he forgets himself. The mission will return next Christmas. But until then, that is the price of the magic.
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The morning sun was already peeking over the forest as he climbed the snowy hill. He was running late. He pulled the fur-trimmed red robe tight around his wizened frame and doubled his efforts. The workshop was old, carved from black stone and blue glacial ice. No reindeer pranced or helpers scurried about. There was no sleigh. The songs and the stories, the presents and cookies were not the magic. They were embellishments. A circle of light stood in the center of the cavernous structure. He sat down in the center and began the song that would renew the world.
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It was the longest night of the year, and the village gathered to celebrate. The visiting anthropologist, who came from a small, distant planet called ‘Earth’ couldn’t help but think of Christmas. Lights were hung on the big tree in the center of the lake, and families set little vessels with lit candles on the water. “Does this ritual bring back the sun or appease the dead?” he asked his host sponsor. Xe blinked and tried to form a satisfying answer. The human came from an advanced civilization, but he was weirdly obsessed with superstition. “It looks pretty?” Xe ventured.
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The ship’s crew huddled around a monitor as the probe beamed back the first images of an extraterrestrial city. The scale of the abandoned ruins dwarfed anything human. They stared at a fountain, hundreds of meters tall. A crowd of humanoid figures stood on a plinth. A brown, murky liquid streamed from wide vessels where their heads should’ve been, dripping into cups in their hands. The pilot carefully brought the robot close enough to take a sample. “What do you think it means,” he asked. The chemist frowned at her tablet. “Well, we know they liked their coffee,” she replied.
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The Skinny: A delightful little adventure about photography and community Toem is a little gem of an indie adventure game about photography and perspective. This comforting little puzzle box is full of puzzles to solve, characters to help, and tiny locations to visit. Created by Swedish indie studio Something We Made, Toem only takes a few hours to play but is all about relaxation and comfort. Designed to be played in short bursts, it is the perfect game to wind down with at the end of the day or de-stress to over a coffee break as you take missions tracking down singing goats and finding the perfect spot to photograph a forest hotel. The game sets you in the shoes of a young photographer on an adventure to find the Toem, with no further explanation given. The tools at your disposal are your trusty camera and a very unusual public transit system that rewards public service with free rides. The game is divided into five zones, and at the start of each one, you’re given a public service card. As you explore a forest, a city, a seaside resort, and a mountain, you are given puzzles to solve in the form of requests of each area’s inhabitants. These can range from the simple, such as taking a photo of a requested subject, to the obtuse, such as recovering lost items or even restoring a power plant. After each puzzle, you are rewarded with a stamp on your card. Collect the requisite number of stamps, and you’re free to move along to the next area. But completionists will still have plenty of challenges to complete, animals to photograph, and hidden secrets to uncover beyond the game’s forgiving requirements. With one notable exception, Toem is presented in a charming black and white art style, and the small, isometric levels have a diorama-like quality. The characters are quirky, and a few of the puzzles are fiendishly clever, but I never felt stuck. Toem is a short and cozy experience that is perfect for unwinding by a roaring fire or relaxing with a hot cup of cocoa. If you’re looking for something to chill with at the end of the year, give this game a shot. Toem is available on PC from Steam and Epic, Nintendo Switch, and PS5.
They call her the Woman of the Woods. Although few have seen her, everyone knows the signs of her passage. The old forest is filled with good, well-maintained paths, hidden caches of supplies, and emergency shelters. She’s almost a figure of legend, a helpful wanderer out of the golden age when immortals walked the world. They say she can sing the forest to sleep and heal with a touch. Nobody sees her gathering herbs or surveying routes. There is little true magic left in her. But hard work makes her eternal life bearable when her grief is all that remains.
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We set the airship down in the mossy water as the sun dipped towards the swamp. The skiff was all elegant lines and swooping sails. It barely made a splash entering the water. The island was close. We’d buried the chest here long ago, trusting the safety of our treasure to flowing water and shifting geography. We disembarked and broke out the shovels. The Lich’s heart was still where we left it, pulsing with an eerie scarlet light. I nodded to my partner. It was time for us to make our move. But I never expected him to betray me.
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Hugh J. O'Donnell 
Podcast Repost: CCRC80 – A Charlie Brown Christmas
December 28, 2021
hughjodonnell CCR, CCR Commentary, Podcast CCR, CCRC, Christmas, Commentary Track, Holiday, hugh, Jurd, Opopinax, Rich The T T Leave a comment
Tonight join your hosts, Hugh, Rich the Time Traveller, Opop, and Jurd, as they Snoopy dance.
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Chrononaut Cinema Reviews is presented by https://www.skinner.fm and http://hughjodonnell.com, and is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License.