#'cultivator' is clunky but closer

[snackugaki]

fandom history can be a circle if we try really hard

(last link a bit sketch if only for the little 'Not Secure' flag)

via https://www.phoenixanime.com/links.htm

[anamelessfool]

Outlaw F!Reader x "The Ghoul" Cooper Howard (18+ MDNI) Full Fic here on AO3

Chapter 2: A Good Word (AO3 Link Here)

You're not running away from your sins, you're running towards the truth.

The expectation of an Overseer is to be of pleasant temperament, with a neat and well-manicured appearance. You are the friendly face of your Vault, a representation of the hospitality and amiable atomosphere cultivated here at Vault-Tech Industries. And the family at Vault-Tech Industries knows that the best leaders are in their hearts the most dedicated followers.

Tags: Read Em All on AO3, Blood and Gore, Gunplay, Broken Bones, Bandits & Outlaws, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Dystopia, Blood and Injury, Mystery and Intrigue, Western

Full Chapter because it's small below the cut!

White sails…white sails against the blue steel of the vault doors. Dangling like the shattered wings of a seagull. Or at least what you think are seagulls. You have read about them and it is important to keep oneself in the know when it comes to extinct creatures.

Your breath coats the glass of your hazmat helmet while the RAD meter on your PiP boy crackles, whines. It's the historic fog of the estuary. The wind off the ocean blows the moisture almost daily across the land. Fog thick with radiation. The foliage has responded in kind, growing small and meek and clinging to rocks like slime. Around you are the blackened bones of ancient trees, some you knew were hundreds of feet high and thousands of years old. Some of the oldest life forms on the planet. Now their remains stick out from the soil like toothpicks on a cheese platter.

But back to the white sails. You see them now as you come close. It was some sort of glider. A ridable kite.

Your surface recovery team had discovered the craft after hearing a loud bang across the outer vault doors this afternoon. The crash was soon after the thick fog rolled in. The occupant was dying, but he requested to see the Overseer.

He requested to see you. Alone.

And the moment you see him lodged in the ruined cockpit you freeze. He's wearing a gold jumpsuit with blue striped details, an unmistakable mark of authority. An executive. An Overseer of overseers. If the Vaults in Area 33 are little hives of productivity and human civilization, the Executives are the beekeepers. They have their own vault in the center of the molecule that is Area 33. And from there they do what they please. And apparently that includes joyriding gliders along the coast.

You know, rich people stuff. Successful people hobbies.

Your heart starts to pound, but it's not with dread or fear or despair for the pilot.

The executives give out promotions sometimes. Transfers. And even though this one's dying, you always want to give a good impression. You have been working on your resume for a while now, anyway.

“Hello! Welcome to Vault 66!”

You try to be friendly and upbeat, even though the man has been slowly dying from a shattered spine and skull injury for two hours now. “This fog sure is a real chestnut, isn't it?” You chuckle. “Although I bet the views of the ocean from up where you were flying were spectacular.”

“They….were…”

You cheerily give him your name. Your title. You would shake the man's hand if it wasn't permanently pinned under some sort of crumpled control panel. “You wanted to see me, sir?”

“Yes…” He coughs, groans. “Come close. Closer.”

You position yourself as deep into the cockpit as your clunky hazmat helmet will allow.

The executive winces and recovers. “Unzip my jumpsuit.”

“Uh…” Your brow furrows as you search your mind for protocol. You don't remember this being a scenario from the training slideshows. Is this considered workplace harassment? Quid pro quo? Personal space issues? To be fair, the destroyed remains of a vehicular accident could be classed as a hostile work environment. You give him a small, polite smile. “Repeat that again, sir?”

“Unzip my jumpsuit. That's an order, Overseer.”

“Sure thing, sir,” you laugh nervously, and unzip the front to expose his stained undershirt.

“Inner…left…pocket….” He screws up his eyes in pain, expelling air across the glass of your helmet.

“Heh, right away,” you say, reaching a little too close to a man you just met. That pocket is usually reserved for private things. Vitamins. Tissues. Feminine products. Fertility Tablets. Anti-fertility tablets. Intimate….devices. Not really something that another person reaches in unless they have a headcold or are busy repopulating the planet. What comes out of his inner pocket is an item you've never seen before. It’s small, half the size of a PiP boy screen, and thin. Made of a gold material. The front has a small digital panel that displays a long serial number that as you stare at it, wipes away and reconfigures every thirty seconds. You flip the little device over and a shine slides across it— you're convinced it's made of pure gold with some sort of tiny nuclear battery inside. A pocket atomic clock. To tell what, you're unsure. On the back is stamped a few mysterious numbers:

34.8559704, -111.7801052

You flash him a friendly smile but you feel the strain behind your eyes. “Um sir, what is this?”

“Vault Tech Company Property. Absolutely top secret. Override previous protocol. You are to keep this in your intimates pocket until further notice. You are not to inform a soul.” He coughs again, and blood flecks across the glass of your mask. “Got, that Vault 33-66 Overseer?”

You throw on your professional service smile, nodding with gratitude. “My pleasure, sir! Would—”

You start to request that he put in a good word for you but then you suddenly remember that the only other executive he's going to see soon is his own Maker.

“And another order, Overseer.”

“Hmm? What's that?”

“I'm giving you authorization to put me out of my goddam misery.”

“Oh…right.” You laugh nervously, pulling your gun from its holster at your hip. Lucky for him it was mating season for the RAD Seals and without a solid authentic piece a topside forager would be a pile of bone and jelly on the beach. You cock it and press it to his head, leaning back and getting into Stabilized Proper Armament Form (SPAF). “Well, sir, it's been a pleasure. Thanks for stopping by.”

And you pull the trigger.

My Fic List (Oops all Ghost!)

[rainydaydream-gal18]

Soooo like. I have a headcanon that Captain Hozwer along with the Syndulla’s speak French (or at least the Star Wars version of the French language)! And would love to request Reader hearing captain hozwer speak French to a little Hera and just *heart eyes! * maybe with a lil flirtation? 🥰

(The Bad Batch)  Captain Howzer x Reader: Language

Author's Note: OMGOSH THIS IS JUST-

This headcanon right here killed me. I've now adopted it as well. I’ve been excited about quite a few requests that have blessed my inbox, and this for sure is one of them!!!!

MY GOODNESS. The cuteness,

Anyway, I hope you enjoy!

   “We will need to strengthen our offense if we are to drive the droids out for good,” Syndulla noted.  His gaze burned with passion at the thought of ending the long war in a victorious stand.  “Howzer.”  His tone evened as he addressed the captain.  “How are your men faring?  Perhaps we should take time to recuperate.”

   There was no complaint or veiled insult.  As much as liberating his people meant to him, Cham Syndulla wasn’t pushing.  He was a fighter on all fronts.  He was a revolutionary against the politics of Ryloth’s senator, and even resisted the Republic at first...But he did not hold these feelings toward the men he fought beside anymore.

   Appreciation flashed across Howzer’s features, and his tone was optimistic as he replied.  “It won’t take long to formulate an effective strategy, Sir.  We will make sure your people break through the clankers’ defenses.”

   Of course the men needed time to recuperate.  But they would organize that much faster for the twi��leks.

  Your heart burned with admiration at both parties present at the meeting.

   The soldiers and the twi’leks had formed a strong bond fighting alongside each other, and it was not something that either group took lightly.  Everyone was giving it their all and sparing no effort.

   “Well then,” Eleni spoke up, gently clasping her hands together in a concluding gesture.  “Why don’t we take a break?  We can meet back here to discuss strategy.”

   Cham nodded, giving the attendees permission to leave.  The briefing room cleared out, and you exited alongside Captain Howzer.  You found yourself drawn to him as the days went by.  As a representative, you were originally stationed on Ryloth to try cultivate the twi’lek’s hopes in the Republic and make reports to your superiors.  Over time, you began to understand their political position in the war and sympathized...  You also got a closer look at what exactly was going on in the galaxy, ending up in a few battles even.

   It was quite an adventure- one that you never expected when first setting foot on that world.  And you had not anticipated forming such close friendships that went beyond the professional capacity you were used to.

   “What do you think?” you asked, stealing a glance at the handsome captain who walked beside you in the hall.

   “I think we’re closer than ever to ending this war,” he replied.  His tone was calm, even - like his demeanor usually was.  Cool under the most stressful situations.  But one should never mistake Howzer’s restraint as indifference.  The determination was evident in his gaze as he exchanged looks with you.  “It’s only a matter of time before the people of Ryloth are free.”

   You nodded, joining in his hope.  Just then, you saw a familiar form come bounding down the hallway with the clunky, sassy droid close behind.  Howzer’s expression shifted into amusement at the young girl.  His eyes crinkled at the corners in a 

   “Woah, there,” he warned with a chuckle.  “Ralentis! You’ll get in trouble for running in the halls.”

   Your ears perked at the unfamiliar word thrown in there.  It didn’t sound like galactic basic, but perhaps you’d misheard?

   Hera was clearly out of breath from her sprint down the hall.  It took her a moment to utter a greeting.  "Salut, Howzer."

 Your jaw dropped as Howzer replied in the young twi’lek’s native tongue with a flawless accent.  "Salut ma grande. Quoi de neuf ?"

   "Rien!"  she exclaimed.

   He nodded as if considering her response with suspicion.  Then, he gently patted the top of her head and nodded in the direction where she had been running, a signal to continue on her way.  His smile was so gentle, affectionate, as if he were conversing with a child of his own.  “Reste hors d'ennuis, ma grande.  Eh?”

   Hera tried to shield her giggle from him with her hands, but there was no mistaking the glint in her eye as laughter escaped her lips.

  “À plus tard!“  With that, she scurried down the hallway.

   Howzer turned his attention back to you.  Your gaze was already shamelessly locked on him in utter fascination.

   “What?” he asked, though part of you suspected he already knew exactly what.

   You lifted a brow.  “I’ve been here long enough to pick up a few words and phrases, but that...”

   “Well, early on, there was a bit of a language barrier.  I decided it would be helpful if I learned the language for practical reasons on the battlefield as well as to relate better to the people.”

   “Captain Howzer, you are a man of many talents.”  You shook your head, smiling.

  “I’m glad to have impressed you, Ma dame.”

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Translations:

Ralentis - “slow down”

Salut - casual greeting "hi"/"hey"/"hello"

Mon grande - "kiddo" “my big girl”

Quoi de neuf ? - "What's up?"

Rien - “nothing”

Rester hors des ennuis - “Stay out of trouble.”

À plus tard - “See you later”

Madame - my lady

[littleeyesofpallas]

I was wondering if there was anything funky about the term "Kamikake," either the kanji or the English translations. And there kind of is, but also kind of isn't?? For one, both "God Sworn" and "Divine Vow" are sort of a weird degree removed from what I feel would be an accurate translation, but they do still rub up against the right idea... so they aren't exactly wrong either? But they feel like they lack context to be read correctly in English.

The immediate word/term referenced here is kamikakete[神掛けて] which most English translations seem to take as "swear by god" but very specifically it is an adverb, not a verb. Alternatively, "absolutely" shows up in a few sources, and less frequently "utterly," "dead," and "perfectly." So the practical use seems to be to describe something as being done with great certainty or without fail. Kubo however, uses just the kanji [神掛] in quotes and as a noun.

So right off the bat, the English use of it based on the adjectival "God Sworn" is wrong, because that seems to put the emphasis on the act of swearing (swearing how? to god.) rather than the idea that a different act was what was sworn. (you did what? how did you do it? in a godsworn fashion.)

To put it another way: The word is used more in the sense of something like, "I swear to god, I'm telling the truth!" where the phrase is kind of more clunky in English, rather than being a singular article in Japanese, but what it's describing is the act of "telling." In this kind of way a synonymous phrase might be something like "In all honesty, I'm telling the truth!" or "Without a doubt, I'm telling the truth!" the phrases don't actually involve or evoke an act of "swearing" or "vowing" the way it might otherwise imply in English, it's an emphasis of on the assurance of the action it's linked to. With all the certainty that "God assures..." or perhaps which "God has been assured..."

Sorry, got kind of carried away... Point being: That term I just described is the thing that Kubo turned from an adverb into a noun, and not the very similar sounding adjective in English. So, obviously this means we need to break down the colloquial phrase to the root words if we expect any kind of clarity...

The individual kanji read as [神]: "god(s)"/"[the] divine," and is of course pretty commonly used, so it's not like there's a lot of room for variations there... but [掛] can read a few ways...

The most readily available interpretation is "credit (as in finance)" or "money owed." Another is "-rest"/"-rack"/"-hanger" and although these might seem wildly disparate it does make a certain linguistic sense, especially in this particular case; A thing upon which someone's money "rests" is effectively a financial credit, or a debt depending on context. That upon which "god rests", or "god's credit(account)", or "a god debt" all describe Ukitake's circumstances with a little more clarity than "god sworn" or "god vow." (Also, a bit of a tangent, but it does evoke something like "god is resting on you" in a sense, which kinda relates to a point I'll get to later...)

So, it is effectively, "[The Thing] Sworn to God" or "Indebted to God" or with a little liberty, "What God is Assuredly Owed." And certainly calling it something just "Divine Vow" doesn't really imply all that. (or did it make sense to everyone else and I just did a lot of talking to point out the obvious?)

And what is the god Mimihagi "owed?" What was "sworn" to it? Ukitake's body and longevity, which was granted to him and his parents, effectively on loan, and which Mimihagi then collects on. Ukitake's parents basically sold their child to a creepy hand deity, because so long as that deity had use for him one day, it would keep him alive until then. And Ukitake understood that he owed his life to Mimihagi, so when he invoked the Kamikake himself, he was effectively choosing to repay his debt: Choosing to make good on his (parents') "vow."

And interestingly it's actually very much like what YHWACH's powers and the Sternritter Schrift were described as; Where YHWACH was born without any powers, or even basic bodily senses of his own, but could grant health and powers to others. Then they develop and cultivate further power by their own effort and merits, only to eventually die and give their accumulated power, talent, and experience back to YWHACH, making him stronger. And in the case of the Sternritter specifically, they also swore themselves to him via their blood oath, like what we saw Uryuu do. (Which btw links back to the christian references in the Vollstandig's use of the kanji for Eucharist/Holy-Communion)

Both Mimihagi and YHWACH have this ability to effectively loan their power and more importantly to collect on that loan with interest. (And if Kubo hadn't retconned Chad and Orihime's powers as having come from their proximity to the hogyoku, instead of Ichigo, we might have even been able to say Ichigo had such an effect as well...)

So, what's interesting about Szayel (and really, Kubo) bringing it up in the new chapter is that it's not just a random fancy epithet he's throwing at Ukitake, he's evoking that debt as a part of Ukitake. It makes it sound like Ukitake's being in Hell is somehow part of his debt. It's part of what he owes Mimihagi or the Soul King or perhaps a more nebulous god/the gods. So it may very well be that Ukitake is uniquely the new big scary skelly-door knife-hand guy because of that, and not because of a more general process of being a powerful shinigami in Hell. It's possible that other captains like Yamamoto and Unohana are in a role closer to Szayel's as prisoners, than they are to Ukitake's position or relative power as some kind of enforcer of Hell's boundaries.

[ziyal]

What exactly is the untamed about?? I know a lot of people who like black sails recommend it which is cool because they obviously have good taste. It looks pretty good

Hi anon yes I think it is pretty good! I will do my BEST to give you a quick primer

The Untamed/CQL (that abbreviation is based on the Chinese title, Chen Qing Ling) is a Chinese tv series that is an adaptation of a serial web novel, Mo Dao Zu Shi (”Founder of Demonic Cultivation”).

A bad back-cover summary: 16 years ago, our protagonist Wei Wuxian died. Everyone knows him as a despicable necromancer, an evil person who even turned against his own family. However, his side of the story was different. When he’s resurrected and meets up with Lan Wangji, a man who was once very important to him, he must confront memories from his first life of how everything went wrong. .....also they’re in love!!

IT'S GOT

ROMANCE! the central pairing is a beautiful and sweet canon gay romance*

the other major ship things going on are two separate problematic gay murder love triangles. for me, this is precisely the correct shipping ratio. thanks.

REALLY excellent complicated fraught family relationships that get me just as much as the romance does

fun worldbuilding with a lot of lore and backstory to dig into and think about like, magic systems and history and class structures

some v sexy villains for my villain fuckers out there hey-o

really good acting?? Wang Yibo (who plays Lan Wangji) is particularly impressive for all his little micro-expressions in a way that is very "Spock from Star Trek". everyone else is also very good. and also so pretty. excellent show for looking at extremely beautiful people who act good.

charmingly mid-budget fantasy special effects... love that...

the world's most ADORABLE BABY. who doesn’t love BABY

the costumes and music are great

a big fanbase which has so far really pleasantly surprised me with the quality of fanworks and analysis. lots of great fic, vids, thoughtful meta, etc. like every fandom is annoying sometimes but MDZS fans seem to mostly be very smart and funny, good for us

( * = chinese censorship laws mean that they can't ~technically~ say that it's gay but it's... not actually made non-romantic by this. they just say and do a bunch of things that are obviously romantic but aren't allowed to kiss. like, everyone behind the scenes knew exactly what they were doing and we know this, it’s not AT ALL a case of “adaptation made it straight”)

This is one of those fandoms where it’s hard to give an elevator pitch “sell me on it” summary because if you just like, describe the premise, it doesn’t sound particularly special but it’s just that everything it does is executed REALLY well? Amazing acting, writing, character relationships... like it’s not PERFECT (what is) but for me it’s close! It really grabbed me and sucked me into an obsessive binge, which is saying a lot since I hardly ever watch tv shows and yet this one I sped through all 50 episodes in a month.

My TOP pieces of advice for watching the show are: stick it out for the first few episodes even if you’re not feeling it right away because you WILL BE confused by episodes 1-2, but once you get past the first few the story becomes much more straightforward. Also, look up a character list or something and keep it on hand for reference because they throw a lot of people at you and it is confusing.

I have never seen any of Black Sails, so I don’t know what the crossover appeal is there, BUT I asked a friend who is in that fandom and she said that some of the commonalities are: “canon gays, theme of condemnation of ‘civilized’ society for the harm it does to marginalized people, morally gray protagonist at odds with said society”. perhaps this helps sell!

Although there are several adaptations of MDZS, I would personally recommend starting with watching The Untamed as your gateway, for a few reasons:

the only full English fan translation of the novel is... fine, but the prose quality is a little clunky (there's a really nice, better written translation by someone else that's ongoing at this blog, but they're only about a quarter of the way through atm)

like I said there’s Lots of Characters so I think it really helps to have visuals to keep track of who's who at first lol

the adaptation rearranges the timeline in which the story is told to a way that I personally find much more palatable (from cutting back and forth intermittently between a present & past timeline, to opening with the present and then jumping back and showing you the entire backstory in order)

Besides the novel there's also a manhua and an animated series, which are both closer adaptations of the novel but aren't completed yet, and an audio drama (which I haven't listened to most of).

The show is on Netflix, Viki, and also free to watch on Youtube!

If you have any other questions feel free to hit me up (I’m probably more quickly responsive on twitter though, you can shoot me a DM there if you want!)

[merryfortune]

heya! could i request 25 for angelmakershipping?

heya! sorry for the delay! this took forever because I wasn’t sure what “25″ came from. I’m fairly certain it came from a different list of numbers but I’ve gone with what inspired me which was “25. as a yes” rather than “25. wet kisses after finding refuge from the rain” and whilst that has delicious s3 opening aesthetics, it didn’t inspire me but anyways, here I am. at long last.

Word Count: 799

    Aoi thought that he was a trick of her imagination at first. A ghost or something similar. He looked as thin and pale as one and she was fully expecting that he would be gone in a blink of an eye. The image of someone that she used to know but had up and vanished. Went missing for months and months, without word and without end but instead of disappearing when she blinked. He moved closer.

   Closer and closer until Aoi could see his eyes up close. Pretty and green but edged with tears. What was scary about that was that they were happy tears, on the curve of an uncertain smile which raised hands to her slowly.

   She felt as though she were the only girl in the world right now. Not one of dozens upon dozens, quite literally. They were in the middle of the plaza. People were passing around them, giving them space out of courtesy but other than that, largely uncaring as she mimicked his movements. Her hands rising to his face until they touched each other with clumsy caresses which flicked over their cheeks.

   “...Playmaker?” she whispered. “Fujiki-kun, is that really you?” Her voice was so fragile.

   “It is.” Yusaku said. “I-I’m back. You're the first to know.”

   Aoi’s heart wrenched. She thought her own voice was fragile but Yusaku’s was something else. Something even more spun so thin that it was fit to break at any moment now.

   “I did it.” Yusaku continued on this not quite stutter or stammer but something very close, something very similar. “I logged out as soon as I could. Before anyone else could feel me. See me. Sense me. I wanted to find you first. I - I know Takeru’s gone back home, good for him, so that’s why I’m here. To tell you. I found Ai.”

   Aoi’s eyes widened and then flicked to her right so she could look at Yusaku’s duel disc. Ever out of date and ever out of fashion; she saw a purple light illuminate it and she gasped.

   “...Yo.” a grumpy voice greeted her. Then huffed and made something of a tantrum of himself before disappearing.

   “D-Does this mean?” Aoi tried to ask as she thought of the Ignis she came to think and feel as her own.

   “It does.” Yusaku replied.

   His hands were so clammy. His lips were even worse. Aoi didn’t know why and she didn’t fight it either but Yusaku kissed her. She smiled into this breakable kiss and felt tears on her cheeks. She wasn’t sure if they were Yusaku’s or if they were her own; it felt as though there was little separation between such mixed and melded emotions. Yusaku was back, her heart was singing with joy that absence had cultivated, and Ai was back and - and Aqua was back to.

   So, Aoi surrendered to this kiss, as clunky and even awkward and far too chaste as it were. It simply meant that much to her. To have all the misery compounded for good to be brought back, that’s what this kiss meant to her and maybe silly, ickle crushes too. And so, they kissed for what felt like a long, long time, under the clear sunshine, in the middle of all these busy people, and so forth.

   And when the kiss finally did break, they felt stronger for it, sucking in new breaths of oxygen and smiling fondly at each other. Hands slowly coming off each other’s faces as the realness, and what wonderful realness it was, set in to them.

   “It’s good to be back.” Yusaku told Aoi, almost sheepish, eyes now averted.

   “It’s good for you to be back.” Aoi replied and she had a sneaking suspicion that she would never tire of telling a cat like Yusaku that. She then shrugged and let the less than specialness of this moment sink in. “Y-You should probably keep spreading the message that your back, yeah?”

   “Yeah…” Yusaku mumbled but his gaze returned to her, even briefly, and he outreached a hand. “Do you have time? I’d love for you to help…”

   “That sounds nice…” Aoi murmured.

  She reached out for Yusaku’s hand. It was still clammy, and also bony and wiry, but it was oddly securing when she threaded her fingers through his own. She smiled, more to herself than to Yusaku, and realised there was still plenty to ruminate on when it came to such a mysterious figment of her life: classmate, vigilante, missing person but she didn’t mind. She even laughed when Ai poked and prodded and pouted, causing Yusaku to scold him, albeit goodnaturedly, as they walked together so more people in their little, circular world of connections could know the truth. That Playmaker was back - and so were the Ignis.

[spiral-chronicler]

hanborn said: "Teppelin-sensei." The pause was coupled with a furrow of mix-matched features. "I guess you'd know better than anyone. If I were to have to go higher into the atmosphere than say, a plane, the lack of oxygen non-withstanding; Would it be better for me to acclimate to a lower or higher temperature, since my body can withstand either better than most, so I don't. Mm.. Die?"

💫—He hated how seriously Todoroki asked his question. The resulting sense of unease was natural, he supposed, considering which of the 1-A students was asking, and what the subject matter involved. Viral certainly didn’t want to consider the prospect of Todoroki hurtling himself into the stratosphere, but here they were. Though he was visiting UA in order to study the remarkable evolutionary scope of Quirks, he was also a supporting teacher at UA, for the duration of his stay. It paid his temporary housing, and rewarded him every day, in seeing the passionate, selfless young aspirant heroes working hard for a better future. 

   He would... answer the best that he was able. Astrophysics was a subject he knew by experience, not necessarily by curriculum. And this matter concerned less the stars, and more the components of the planet’s atmospheric conditions. But he would make an attempt. The Beastman lifted from his desk, a metallic device that resembled a clunky cellphone - a Gan-Phone, from his own resources. It was powered by Spiral Energy, so its functions weren’t hindered, regardless as to what world or reality he was visiting. The blond tapped in a few computations, and a small, translucent model flickered comprehensibly above the Gan-phone’s display screen.

   ❝We’ll go into this assuming that you have a breathing apparatus, and that you are wearing something that mitigates air pressure. And, without even examining the data, I can tell you that you are going to need heat. A lot of heat, Todoroki.

   Your takeaway definition of the lesson is going to be “thermal inversion,” which is, in all honesty, an interesting concept considering your Quirk. Let’s begin here, on the surface. For the first nine thousand to twelve-hundred meters, the temperature is going to drop cruelly and rapidly, downwards of negative sixty in your Celsius unit. Water freezes at zero, yes? That’s dangerously cold, Todoroki.

  In any event, that negative  temperature remains stable to twenty kilometers up.

  Now we’re back to thermal inversion - depending on how high into the stratosphere you’re aiming for, it warms up from there. Why? Something about the air being thin and so the ambient energy of UV, while sparse due to the ozone, warms it more easily than it would as closer to the Earth’s surface - where the atmosphere becomes dense and tumultuous with weather, again.❞

  Viral glanced to the side, to gauge whether Todoroki was following along, on the holographic depiction of the Earth’s atmospheric composition. The language was in the format native to Viral’s reality, but he was doing what he could to translate it and paraphrase the information from Leeron’s unfathomable intellect. He tapped into the holograph with a claw, and the soft, metallic green glinted around the intrusion.

   ❝When I say ��warmed,” I mean the temperature raises to zero Celsius. You’d arrive just back to the point of freezing.❞

  He set the device down, and the model of the Earth’s atmosphere, its temperature to altitude ratios floating for a few moments more, before it closed out.

   ❝The point of interest is that there is a window of pressure and time where light conducts heat more swiftly and more rampantly in thin air, even while we know that stifled oxygen will choke a flame out. You could feasibly determine your own atmospheric conditions by utilizing your Quirk to alter the density of the air around you, using heat and cold to force the air to rise and sink, to ultimately generate more warmth while using less energy.

   You would be creating the surrounding state of inversion at that point, not just changing the conditions of tolerance in your body.

   It’s just a thought. I’d rather you not need it. But it could avail you some extra energy if you ever did have to contend with an altitude like that.

    Does that assist you at all, Han-Cub?❞

  He certainly hoped it did; it was a lot of learning for both of them. But part of what he appreciated about working with the rising youth of UA, was how enriching the transactions were between students and their teachers. It was willingness to learn on both their parts. And a willingness to teach, on both their parts. Adding to one another’s strengths, and cultivating the best tomorrow -  step by step. He partly understood, he thought, how Yoko could devote her life to this. How she did it without access to the Chouginga’s Spiral Archives was incredible, though.

[maggiesause-blog1]

Creative Problem Solving Interviews

Adriana Nova, SVP, Creative at LippeTaylor

How do you generate ideas?

How, when, and where are you inspired?

I’m inspired anytime something makes me look twice, lean closer, listen repeatedly, or just want to break it down. Curiosity is at the heart of my inspiration. Anything that makes me want to take it apart and understand why I’m attracted to it. I’m a strategy-driven creative. I accept that lots of brilliant work is just inexplicable but when I can unpack its elements, it’s very satisfying and inspiring in and of itself.

What inspires you?

I know this is a cliché creative answer but: everything. Truly. Sometimes it’s as straightforward as a painting, a song, an anecdote, a book, etc. Other times there’s no apparent connection between the spark and its outcome. I was an ACD on Dove during their Speak Beautiful campaign and I did my best writing for the brand whilst listening to DMX. So there you are.

What obstacles do you face in coming up with a new idea and how do you overcome those obstacles?

I worry over an idea being innovative enough. Will it get attention? Will it stand out? Will it exceed the client’s KPIs? I always want to build on whatever I did last and make it better. But it’s easy to get stunted when you imagine conclusions before you’ve even begun, to the point that just taking the first step can feel futile. I’ve gotten better about this in the past few years, though it’s an ongoing lesson. When you’re a commercial creative, you don’t get to chase - or blame - the muse for too long. Clunky work on the page is at least work on a page. Nothing comes out fully formed, and sometimes I have to force myself to live in that uncomfortable space. Also if you’re a perfectionist, sometimes the strongest solve really is the straight line between A and B. Don’t create for the sake of impressing yourself.

What process(es) do you use to solve problems?

Describe the steps of your problem-solving process. Explain your journey from inspiration to implementation.

Two things: continue to revisit the brief/RFP, and accept the support of your team. I’m afraid I don’t have any recent examples that illustrate step-by-step process but I can explain how and why these two help me problem-solve.

I mentioned before that I’m a strategy-driven creative. Like any creative, though, I can get lost in the life of the mind. That’s where all kinds of ideas come out to play in your head, be they ones that answer the brief or not. When I think I’m veering off-track, I re-ground myself in the ask to remember that I’m there to solve a business problem, not write The Great American Novel. So, practicing self-awareness when I feel stuck is one of the ways I problem-solve.

Second, I collaborate with my team. At those times, I’m not a creative director or an executive. I’m one in a group, and we’re trying to arrive at a place together. It might seem like that’s straightforward but to do it well requires a deliberate shift in how you see and position yourself in the room. Drop the ego, open up room for others’ critique and solutions. Winning ideas will not always generate from you. Understand that by letting others shine, you don’t dull your own sheen. In fact, the mark of a good leader is that they foster environments to bring out the best in others.

When you can help cultivate tons of ideas as opposed to just your own, you’ve automatically installed a problem-solving system that both benefits others and strengthens the work. Also: call out and credit team members when someone else compliments a good idea. You’re in a leadership position already; you’ve proven yourself to the extent you’re in charge.

Tara Hart, Visual Merchandising, Founder HOTHOUSE NYC

How do you generate ideas?

How, when, and where are you inspired?

I find that inspiration comes on the fringes of ‘the process’ and outside of routine. So If I can be mindful while in those spaces something might stick or strike. If I cannot break from routine (jobs, responsibilities) I try and change the perspective or approach.

What inspires you?

What sticks for me are the stories and the people behind a particular object, place or body of work. For me, the journey and layers beneath how something comes to be is what ignites the spark and makes something special. To find this inspiration you have to be curious, ask questions and listen. So my job sometimes is just to be inquisitive, poke around and to sniff out what hasn’t been revealed before.

I have a strange relationship with memory. Mostly just not a very acute one. So memories can be a strong source of inspiration. Like suddenly remembering a particular garment of my mothers, a summer routine of packed lunch on the beach or a childhood toy. When the memories come they lead you down a new path of things forgotten that are suddenly new. These new found memories reveal how small objects or smells, or textures can trigger powerful emotions which can be very useful in the field of visual communication.

I am inspired by people who have that unwavering dedication to a particular craft or work. I am not a specialist. I have never felt that I have one particular talent or calling so when I meet people that have that relentless pursuit of something specific or a bit obscure I am delighted and fascinated - and a little jealous.

What obstacles do you face in coming up with a new idea and how do you overcome those obstacles?

Modern societies obsession with “productivity” can be a burden. Who gets to define what a “productive” afternoon looks like? How do you put a value on the ‘big idea’ you’ve had in the shower? So I try and apply a looser definition to productivity to leave some headspace for ideation.

I believe that modern corporate structures (as enforced by humans) do not cultivate or sustain creative thinking. So I try to remove myself from those constraints even if that’s a just a mindset (ie this is not a full time job, this a 12-month creative residency)

What process(es) do you use to solve problems?

Describe the steps of your problem-solving process. Explain your journey from inspiration to implementation.

I never received formal creative or artistic education after 4th grade. Despite that I have wormed my way into a very creative field. As a result my problem solving approach is a little scrappy.

I am a big communicator. I want to get a group together and have a rounded conversation. I want to hear stories, feedback and different perspectives. So, whether it is for a project kick off or sudden issue, a verbal assessment is my first stop.

With the gathered insight I can create a brief or outline to really pinpoint the outcome I am seeking. I look at past experiences, problems or projects that may shed light on a possible approach or reveal what risks might be lurking.

Defining the desired outcome or goal, and making sure other stakeholders are in agreement at the beginning ensures the task at hand is set up for success.

Sometimes a break down is necessary to whittle the task down into a few stages. Make the problem feel more digestible. No one eats the whole sushi roll at once.

Once this outline is in place you have created the guardrails from within can happen the concepting and ideation. Research and references can be gathered and the seedlings of ideas are recorded. Lots of trial and testing. And of course conversations and feedback. This process can continue until something productive sticks and a resolution is revealed.

William Sause, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow NYU Langone Medical Center

How do you generate ideas?

I am often inspired at times where I am struggling with my own work or ability to generate novel ideas. I find that after a period of being down on myself, I seek inspiration in order to rebound. These periods often provide the best ideas and motivation.

I am inspired by the brilliance and ingenuity of people I respect and admire. These moments of inspiration often come during discussions or seminars with these individuals. In my academic background, these moments come at the hands of professors. An example of this would be hearing a seminar that overlaps with my own work and interests, I often leave these settings feeling more motivated to finish and succeed with a project. This comes from inspiration and competitiveness.

The best ideas in my line of work are ones that require an individual to reexamine overlooked or neglected concepts to find gems. This is very difficult but can be paradigm shifting when it happens. An example of this in science would be the discovery that a pathway, which has a canonical and widely accepted function - turns out to have a much more dynamic and powerful role in biology...an unappreciated function.

What process(es) do you use to solve problems?

clearly state the problem

exhaustively research the literature and establish a comfort level with all preexisting knowledge

assess how your idea is innovative and how it distinguishes yourself from what exists

determine what you can accomplish on your own and what you will need your colleagues to help you with

set forth a linear path to your goal. in my case this involves laying out series of hypothetical figures that will make up a manuscript.

Donna Sause, Hemostasis Sales Consultant at Instrumentation Laboratory

How do you generate ideas?

What inspires you?

I’m often inspired when I don’t expect to be and mostly when I’m alone. Sometimes the idea is relevant to what I’m doing, for example if I’m doing chores around the yard an idea will pop into my head about landscaping. Other times it won’t be relevant to what I’m doing for example I may be walking the dog and I’ll think up a new recipe  idea or a new way to make a sales pitch to a customer.

I’m mostly inspired by nature. I’m more clear headed when I’m surrounded by trees or near water. I also take a lot of inspiration from books eg. Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert and occasionally from podcasts particularly NPR “How I built this”.

What obstacles do you face in coming up with a new idea and how do you overcome those obstacles?

When I put pressure on myself to come up with something I will usually draw a blank (eg my MSc thesis), if I leave things to the last minute it is also difficult for me to generate ideas. It doesn’t happen often but if I get overwhelmed by things and start to compare myself negatively to colleagues or classmates I don’t find it easy to come up with new ideas.

I make a conscious effort not to do these things. If I know I have a deadline for a presentation I will prepare ahead of time so that I am in control of the situation. I try to think of the positive contributions that I can make to my company and customers instead of feeling inadequate by making comparisons.

For me inspiration happens when I’m happy. I am a happy person by nature but if I’m feeling down I will refer to my favourite book of poems by Mary Oliver or I will follow advice from author and speaker Catherine Sanderson on how to increase happiness.

Describe the steps of your problem-solving process. Explain your journey from inspiration to implementation.

I am a practical thinker, if I am faced with a problem I’ll try to tackle it with a level head. It is important to me that if I have a problem then I deal with it immediately and most often by myself. I never pass my problems on to others. If I’m having issues solving a problem I find writing things down beneficial, that gets things out of my head and puts them into perspective.

When I’m inspired I generally act fast, I don’t like to spend a long time teasing an idea out or over thinking it. I will jump straight in, make an attempt and if that fails I’ll figure out a way of looking at it from a different angle.

[happymetalgirl]

The Body - I Have Fought Against It, But I Can’t Any Longer

Since 2004, The Body have been crafting strange and experimentally depressive industrial metal, and injecting their signature sound into collaborative projects with bands like Thou, Krieg, and Full of Hell, pushing their boundaries somewhere a little new with each release of their own along the way as well. Marking their musical sculptures of torturous depression and existential darkness with distinctive, incoherent, distorted, high-pitched screams, The Body have always made this mission to sonically embody the verge of suicide as expansively, experimentally and uniquely as possible their core tenet. Yet the duo hit an unexpected high with the consistent integration of more classically metallic distorted heaviness on 2014′s I Shall Die Here, an album that blended the most tortured side of their sound with dense, sludgy, industrial metal beats for something closer to DSBM than simply industrially experimental dark ambient music.

Their follow-up in 2016, No One Deserves Happiness, took pieces of what elevated I Shall Die Here and spread them out over a deeper venture into different realms of suicidal sound experimentation. While on one hand I’m glad the band didn’t try to simply repeat themselves with another album just like I Shall Die Here, the mix of crushingly heavy songs like “Starving Deserter”, "For You”, and “Hallow / Hollow” and more ambient pieces like “The Fall and the Guilt” and extra-genre experiments like “Adamah” both felt somewhat disjointed, and highlighted just how successful of an experimentation I Shall Die Here was.

Nevertheless, No One Deserves Happiness still felt like a respectable follow-up, and though the band’s two subsequent collaborations with Full of Hell saw both bands only putting in just the required effort, The Body established their stance as citizens rather than visitors within the more violent side of metal’s sound.

The duo’s new album incorporates an expected array of new sound combinations, but tends generally back more toward the ambient side of the band’s sound they grew from. While more beat-driven tracks like “Nothing Stirs” and “An Urn” recapture the fire of the band’s trek through depression through punchy, enticing beats, much of the album focuses on incorporation of strings, female vocals (done frightfully masterfully on “Nothing Stirs”), and new industrial drones.

The droning opening of string-and-choir-filled melancholy of “The Last Form of Loving” and “Can Carry No Weight” leads into the welcomed vocal departure on “Partly Alive”, which integrates a more sardonically berating type of shouting that fits well over the more fast-paced horn-and-tom led industrial backing that serves as one of the stronger moments on the album, not to completely dismiss the gorgeousness of the dark ambiance the previous two tracks cultivate. The following song, “The West Has Failed”, is a more clunky, distorted amplifier-drone industrial dirge that seems to take a page from the Sunn O))) playbook, eventually awkwardly integrating an unusual vocal sample that, once all put together, isn't one of the band's more thrilling experiments.

The series of beat-driven tracks on the album begins with “Nothing Stirs”, which leads with a catchy distorted bass beat that swells into more horn-backed agonized screams, and the gradual increase of the sinister delivery of the song’s female vocals. Though not as fiery as its predecessor, the black metal vocals and manipulated cymbal crashes on the subsequent “Off Script” is nicely reminiscent of “To Carry the Seeds of Death Within Me” (from I Shall Die Here of course). The subsequent distorted cymbal abuse coming from the burning wood-sounding distortion on “An Urn” calls back even more vividly to I Shall Die Here, and with such an unusually catchy beat. The agonized female shouts near the tail end elevate the song even further, probably to the point if being the strongest moment on the album.

“Blessed Alone” and “Sickly Heart of Sand” form kind of an ambient/drone lull near the end of the album, though the latter track does bring in a bit more life and energy to its finishing moments. But the closing of the album after the tense violins and soprano vocals of “Ten Times a Day, Every Day, a Stranger” is where The Body really impress with perhaps one of the most genuine and tangible examples of their many depictions of suicidal tendencies. 

Finishing with a slightly pitch-shifted spoken word piece on the last track over minimal, yet fittingly defeated piano playing, the speaker of the piece narrates the pain of his own helpless wallowing in self-loathing. He details his avoidance of his own reflection and his lonely, mundane routine and how at every step of the way through everyday events, “everything hurts”. He speaks about reaching “the peak of emptiness” and how the ubiquity of his pain has gently led him toward suicide, only to step back from the ledge at the last moment to simply continue suffering alone. It’s a gripping, and realistic depiction of the type of torment the album and the band's whole career have been soncially abstracting up until this point, and it’s a subtly shuddering conclusion to the object of what the album’s title suggests.

[hardwareabstractionlayer]

Resident pinyin hater back to repent my ways, a little.

There's another thing pinyin does that I didn't give it credit for:

Four, to abstract a concept when it would be abstracted for a native speaker.

I didn't realize this until I had to translate a bunch of palace names. Let's take Yǎngjū Hall/养居殿 from NiF and look at all the meanings a native speaker might associate with the name:

The literal meaning: 养 = cultivate + 居 = residence. It can be read as verb + noun, as in cultivating your place in the world, or simply noun + noun, cultivation and residence. Maybe you'd translate the full place name to something like Hall of Cultivating Residence, though it's rather clunky.

The historical reference: this name likely derived from 养心殿, literally Cultivating Heart Hall, official translation Hall of Mental Cultivation, and the real palace hall many Qing Dynasty emperors lived in the Forbidden City. This reference suggests that the verb + noun parsing is more likely to be correct.

The hilarious meme: a lot of NiF viewers find 养居 funny because 居 is modern slang for pig (deriving from pig/zhū/猪 being pronounced like jū in some dialects), so now the name is Pigsty Hall, and the 🐷 in the sty is, of course, the emperor.

The dirty quasi-pun: yángjù (note the different tones) is yang implement/阳具, or the male member.

The figurative allusion: this name is also quite possibly a reference to Mencius's saying 居移气，养移体, meaning your residence transforms your bearing, and your cultivation transforms your constitution, or that our living environment and daily habits have a huge influence on ourselves. This would suggest the noun + noun parsing is more correct. It's a subtle allusion to Xiao Xuan having lost himself on the throne, his place of power and residence corrupting him into a mistrustful and brutal man (great insight from [x]). Names with hidden meanings and allusions like this are extremely common in Chinese.

Of course, most of these meanings are not being perceived when someone thinks of this name. The brain only holds so much information at a time, and it's very good at abstracting concepts, or else our mental circuits would explode every time we use language, if we constantly think of every single possible definition and association of every word we use.

To me, the most important thing in terms of how the name is perceived is that 养居 isn't an already commonly known phrase. And so a fluent speaker, upon encountering the phrase for the first time, would likely first try to parse the literal meaning, then probably think about the hilarious pigpen meaning, if they're online enough. The rest of the associations are probably not as often thought of, unless you're a big fan of the Qing Dynasty/penis euphemisms/Mencius, especially the last one, which is a big leap. After the initial mental mapping and after Yangju Hall has been mentioned enough times, the name becomes an abstracted blob in a Chinese speaker's head with a sound and series of characters associated with the practical meaning, the place where the emperor lives. That's why I don't think using the pinyin name is the cheap easy way out here, because Yangju Hall is arguably closer than Hall of Cultivating Residence to how a fluent speaker would perceive it once they're used to the word.

In practice, for translations not restricted by word length (i.e. not subtitles), I like introducing an important pinyin name along with its associated surface-level meaning once, footnoting the other meanings and associations, and then using only the pinyin afterwards. So in this case, something like "...Yangju Hall [1], the Hall of Cultivating Residence, ..."

This all ties in with my second point in the previous post: there really may be no easy equivalent in English for a name like this, when there are so many meanings, and none are strong. So I can think of a few things you risk by localizing names like this, even when you do it "correctly" by translating the literal meaning:

Elevating the literal meaning above all else is not how Chinese—a language that has always been heavily implicit, where what's unsaid is as valuable as said—works at all. The literal meaning can even be the least important, because it's only a mask for the real meaning. But using the hidden meaning doesn't seem quite right either: it rather defeats the purpose of, well, being hidden.

Along those lines, sometimes the author intentionally chooses an ambiguous name for effect. To explicitly choose a meaning in translation is to deny the author's agency.

Look at the official names of places in the Forbidden City: Gate of Divine Prowess/神武门, Gate of Loyal Obedience/顺贞门, Palace of Heavenly Purity/乾清宫...To non-Chinese speakers who lack the cultural background of how things are named in Chinese, it can seem that these imperial names are rather silly and dystopian-sounding, whereas in a language like English, the meaning of most place names is not immediately obvious. This is not such a big problem in ancient fanfiction translations, but very much an issue when translating press releases from the Chinese government, for example, when the difference in the literal and perceived severity and tenor of expressions often leads to translations that sound a lot more evil empire-esque than how a native speaker would think of the original (which is probably done on purpose, at least some of the time).

Does that mean I would keep all place names in pinyin? Definitely not! Consistency is overrated, especially when compared to clarity and accuracy, and when there are so many inconsistencies inherent in any language. There are plenty of place names where the strongest association for a native speaker is the surface-level meaning, and that's where I think the literal translation is better, especially the one character place names that aren't particularly valuable to normalize in the global consciousness (point three in the last post), like Tiger Hill for 虎丘 (the fictional NiF place and not the real Huqiu in Suzhou). I think this strikes a good balance between flattening every name with a single meaning and acting as if every single name is too abstruse and profound to be captured in another language. Of course, plenty of names fall in a gray area, and making these decisions is what the translator's job is.

Anyways, that's how much I can change my mind after six months. Ask me again in another six.

my biggest problem with writing nif fanfic is that i can’t decide how to translate 先生. technically it means “mister,” or “sir,” but mister sounds too modern and ordinary, whereas “sir su” sounds weird, because he’s not a knight. he is chief of jiangzuo alliance though, so that may work.

[stranger-who-writes-fiction]

So, you mentioned a Wayne Tech science fair. So, of course, this means Bruce would have to meet smol Alex. Can you tell us about the scenario were Bruce's is like "this kid's good" and Kara is all "YOU CAN'T HAVE HER, BATS"? (Meanwhile, Diana has wandered over and is now instructing a tiny, gleeful Danvers on the finer points of swordplay)

Ofall the things Kara expects to see at the WayneTech Young InnovatorsExpo…

BruceWayne is not one of them.

She’sbeen invited to enough galas and fundraisers hosted by the elusiveMr. Wayne to know that he hardly ever bothers to attend. (She wasinitially confused at his seemingly dogged attempts to include her inthese things, given their somewhat…disparaging worldviews.

Andthen she learned that Alfred was in charge of the guest lists.)

Sowhen she spies Mr. Tall-Dark-and-Brooding across the way on the expofloor, she politely excuses herself from a conversation with one ofthe corporate sponsors and makes a beeline for the League’s grumpiestmember.

“Crawledout of your cave this morning, I see,” Kara says by way ofgreeting, her smirk betraying the fact that she’s entirely too pleased with her own joke.

WhenBruce responds, it’s under his breath, and in the unpolished grumblehe reserves for his…extracurricular activities. Not the smooth,cultivated baritone he saves for the public.

“Thatwas funny the first fifty times,” he tells her. “You need newmaterial.”

“Andyou need coffee,” Kara counters, surprised at the dark circlesunder Bruce’s eyes. He doesn’t usually display his perpetualexhaustion so…openly.

Brucedoesn’t deny the claim, which essentially amounts to ‘yes, give mecaffeine.’ Kara knows better than to expect a formal 'please.’

Soshe rolls her eyes and heads over to the nearest Sundollars kiosk,and orders two of whatever seasonal, sugary latte is available. (Shemay not expect a formal please, but that doesn’t mean she’s going toreward his bad behavior. So, no. She will not be getting him hispreferred dark roast.)

Whenshe returns, Bruce is, of course, nowhere to be found.

“Typical,”she sighs, and begins her search, tempted to down both coffees rightthen and there.

It’safter the eighth—or possibly ninth—foamcore board detailing thelife cycle of the American bullfrog that Bruce begins to regret hisdecision to make a public appearance at the Expo.

Fortunately,only a handful of the children seem to recognize him. (Thesechildren, Bruce notes, tend to have very…eager parents hoveringnearby.) Once he’s clear of the center of the floor, and meanderingalong the fringes, he can move with a little more freedom, and ignorevarious booths without feeling guilty.

Hemaintains a leisurely pace, hands in his pockets, observing the otherprojects from afar. Some are impressive. Others are…less so.

Hecomes a halt near the end of the aisle, and finds himself staring inopen confusion at one of the presentation boards.

He’s…notentirely sure what he’s looking at.

Hemoves closer, taking in the crude drawings, scribbled equations, andclunky low poly 3D models taped to the display board.

“…Isthis Kevlar?” he finally asks the kid behind the card table.

“…Kindof.” she shrugs.

“Kindof Kevlar.” Bruce repeats.

“It’san alternative.” And as Bruce looks back at the write ups, he cansee the slight difference in the makeup of the materials, as well asthe unique plating design of a proposed vest.

Ittakes a minute for Bruce to figure out where he’s seen it before—theoverlapping segments of armor.

“That’sa Trombusan design,” he says, and this time, when he looks over atthe kid, he really looks ather.

Young.Nondescript. Some sort of band t-shirt sticking out from beneath asweatshirt.

“It’s…yes.Kind of.”

There’sthat phrase again.

“Kindof.”

“Well,we don’t have the right kind of science to make something likeTrombusan armor. Not yet, anyway. At least that I could find,” shefrowns. “Maybe…the military does?” She looks up at him, “butnot regular civilians.”

Hestares at her.

“…Howold are you?”

“Twelve.And a half.”

Heshakes his head. “You—how do you know about Trombusans?”  

Thegirl shifts uneasily from foot to foot.

“Iwas, uh, there. In National City. During the attack,” she explains.“I saw the foot soldiers, and that gave me the idea for the platingpattern.”

“…Youbased your design,” Bruce says slowly, “off of an alien speciesyou observed during a hostile attack on a major metropolitan area.That occurred…eight months ago.”

Thegirl takes a moment before answering.

“…Yeah.Guess so.”

AndBruce.

Brucehums quietly and rubs his chin.

“Interesting.”

ThatKara eventually finds Bruce is entirely a fluke. She gave up tryingto locate the AWOL billionaire and decided to see how Alex was doing,only to stumble upon Wayne, wearing that Look.

“No.”Kara says without preamble, or context, for that matter.

Butshe doesn’t need it, because she knows Bruce, and knows what’s goingon in that…labyrinthine mind of his.

“Oh,Kara, hey,” Alex starts to smile, but catching Kara’s stonyexpression, falters. “Um.”

“MissKent,” Bruce smirks, and plucks one of the paper cups from herhand. “Got a little lost on the way to the concession stand, didwe?”

“Don’tchange the subject,” Kara scowls. “And I did not. Also,you’re welcome.”

“Thisis not dark roast.”

“Youcan’t have her, Bats.”

Karadoesn’t bother to explain herself—she’s certain that Bruce has adossier on every single person in the building. Memorized. Andcolor-coded. Down in that damp, depressing cave of his. He’ll knowwho Alex Danvers is, who her parents are, knows they vacation inKansas occasionally, to visit…'relatives.’

“She’sgood,” Bruce says, and takes a sip of the latte. He cringes at thesyrupy sweetness. “We’re talking…Tim good.”

Karaopens her mouth to protest, but after a brief pause, “…Really.Tim good.” comes out instead.

“Mmm.”Bruce considers. “She could be. Given the right. …Opportunities—”

“No.No. No, Bruce,” Kara pinches the bridge of her nose. “No,you are not—you are not drafting another child intoyour…weird, vigilante club.”

“Wouldyou prefer I switch to dogs and cats? Livestock, maybe,” is thepointed response.

“…That’sdifferent, and you know it,” Kara huffs. “I’m notendangering kids—”

“Getoff your moral high horse, Kent,” Bruce interrupts.

Karais caught off guard.

“—What?”

“Shetold me she got the design from alien soldiers,” Bruce levels apiercing stare at Kara. His unwavering gaze makes Kara involuntarilyflinch. “Care to explain how she got close enough to make out theplate pattern?”

Karaswallows, shame burning a faint blush across her face.

“That—thatwasn't—”

Brucesays nothing, but his smile is unbearably smug. Kara desperatelywishes she could throw him into space. (Knowing Bruce, however, thejerk would have some portable bat-themed breathing apparatus.)

“You’llrecall,” Bruce says, smirking over his cup of coffee, publicpersona now firmly in place, “that the aim of WayneTech’s YoungInnovators Foundation is to foster and encourage young innovators.”Kara clenches her fists. “Alex is a young innovator. I’d merelylike to encourage her. And I’m sure her parents wouldn’t mind ascholarship. Or two.”

Karacan’t really argue one way or the other—that’s a decision for Alex,Eliza, and Jeremiah.

Shesays as much to Bruce, who turns to get Alex’s opinion on thematter…

Andis met with an empty metal folding chair.

“…Wellthat's—” Bruce starts to say, only to have Kara cut him off.

“Doyou hear…clanging?” He does not, but then, Bruce doesn’t have thebenefit of alien ears. “Sort of sounds like…swords.”

Bothare silent for a moment, mutual confusion crinkling their brows.

Andthen, in unison:

“Ah.Swords.”

AlexDanvers looks entirely too thrilled to be learning swordplay from theresident Themysciran ambassador, and Kara wonders if maybe she shouldbe worried.

But,Alex is happy, shifting her weight and angling her arm, matchingDiana’s example and following her instructions as closely as she can;Eliza and Jeremiah don’t object (Kara absolutelycalled them, to see what sort of…sword privileges they were dealingwith here) and Brucelooks incredibly jealous.

“Idon’t know what has inspired this frown,” Diana joins the two ofthem as Alex inspects the practice blade Diana just…happenedto have. Because of course she did. “But I approve.”

“Youstole his newest sidekick,” Kara nods towards Alex. Diana’s smilegrows wider.

“Ohyes, I definitelyapprove.”

“Thisisn’t over, Kent,” Bruce vows, accepting, not defeat, but achallenge. “Tell the Danvers to expect some pamphlets in the mail.”

“Iwill.” She won’t. (Alright, she eventuallywill. Let him sweat a bit. He deserves it.) Bruce excuses himself,unable to handle more than one social interaction at a time.

“Heis a strange one, that Mr. Wayne,” Diana says. Kara lets out abreathy laugh.

“Youhave no idea.”

Alexwalks over, and hands the blade back to Diana, clearlyreluctant to do so, but she says she should get back to her project,she doesn’t like leaving it alone for too long.

“Thatkid with the tadpoles was eyeing my research,” she says with afrown. “I need to make sure he hasn’t like, touched anything.”

“Ishould be going as well,” Diana says. “Donna’s presentationstarts soon.”

Theysay their goodbyes and go their separate ways, Kara deciding to tagalong with Alex before diving back into press mode.

“Areyou better friends with Wonder Woman than Batman?” Alex asks asthey walk back to the booth. Kara casts a cursory glance in severaldirections before answering.

“Iwould never choosefavorites. Yes.”

Alexchuckles.

“Yeah,she’s way cooler than Bruce.”

“Thisis very true,” Kara says, throwing an arm around Alex’s shoulders.Alex gets a mischievous gleam in her eye as she looks up at theKryptonian.

“Shemight be even coolerthan you.”

“Whoanow.”

(Clark,of course, learns of the situation from Dick. Who heard it fromJason. Who heard it from Babs. Who heard it from Tim. Who heard itfrom Alfred.

“Goodchoice,” he tells her. “Wonder Woman’s my favorite too. But don’ttell Kara I—”

AndKara is there, mock-glowering at them both.

“Alienears,” she says.)

Notes:- When I originally mentioned the WayneTech science fair, admittedly I imagined Alex as older, maybe mid-teens. And that’s how I started to write her. But this clashed with the ‘tiny, gleeful Danvers’ in the prompt, so the compromise was pre-teen Alex, who probably comes off as a bit too precocious as a result.- Bruce and Diana are almost certainly OOC, I do apologize. 

[sause-usc]

Creative Problem Solving Interviews

Adriana Nova, SVP, Creative at LippeTaylor

How do you generate ideas?

How, when, and where are you inspired?

I’m inspired anytime something makes me look twice, lean closer, listen repeatedly, or just want to break it down. Curiosity is at the heart of my inspiration. Anything that makes me want to take it apart and understand why I’m attracted to it. I’m a strategy-driven creative. I accept that lots of brilliant work is just inexplicable but when I can unpack its elements, it’s very satisfying and inspiring in and of itself.

What inspires you?

I know this is a cliché creative answer but: everything. Truly. Sometimes it’s as straightforward as a painting, a song, an anecdote, a book, etc. Other times there’s no apparent connection between the spark and its outcome. I was an ACD on Dove during their Speak Beautiful campaign and I did my best writing for the brand whilst listening to DMX. So there you are.

What obstacles do you face in coming up with a new idea and how do you overcome those obstacles?

I worry over an idea being innovative enough. Will it get attention? Will it stand out? Will it exceed the client’s KPIs? I always want to build on whatever I did last and make it better. But it’s easy to get stunted when you imagine conclusions before you’ve even begun, to the point that just taking the first step can feel futile. I’ve gotten better about this in the past few years, though it’s an ongoing lesson. When you’re a commercial creative, you don’t get to chase - or blame - the muse for too long. Clunky work on the page is at least work on a page. Nothing comes out fully formed, and sometimes I have to force myself to live in that uncomfortable space. Also if you’re a perfectionist, sometimes the strongest solve really is the straight line between A and B. Don’t create for the sake of impressing yourself.

What process(es) do you use to solve problems?

Describe the steps of your problem-solving process. Explain your journey from inspiration to implementation.

Two things: continue to revisit the brief/RFP, and accept the support of your team. I’m afraid I don’t have any recent examples that illustrate step-by-step process but I can explain how and why these two help me problem-solve.

I mentioned before that I’m a strategy-driven creative. Like any creative, though, I can get lost in the life of the mind. That’s where all kinds of ideas come out to play in your head, be they ones that answer the brief or not. When I think I’m veering off-track, I re-ground myself in the ask to remember that I’m there to solve a business problem, not write The Great American Novel. So, practicing self-awareness when I feel stuck is one of the ways I problem-solve.

Second, I collaborate with my team. At those times, I’m not a creative director or an executive. I’m one in a group, and we’re trying to arrive at a place together. It might seem like that’s straightforward but to do it well requires a deliberate shift in how you see and position yourself in the room. Drop the ego, open up room for others’ critique and solutions. Winning ideas will not always generate from you. Understand that by letting others shine, you don’t dull your own sheen. In fact, the mark of a good leader is that they foster environments to bring out the best in others.

When you can help cultivate tons of ideas as opposed to just your own, you’ve automatically installed a problem-solving system that both benefits others and strengthens the work. Also: call out and credit team members when someone else compliments a good idea. You’re in a leadership position already; you’ve proven yourself to the extent you’re in charge.

Tara Hart, Visual Merchandising, Founder HOTHOUSE NYC

How do you generate ideas?

How, when, and where are you inspired?

I find that inspiration comes on the fringes of ‘the process’ and outside of routine. So If I can be mindful while in those spaces something might stick or strike. If I cannot break from routine (jobs, responsibilities) I try and change the perspective or approach.

What inspires you?

What sticks for me are the stories and the people behind a particular object, place or body of work. For me, the journey and layers beneath how something comes to be is what ignites the spark and makes something special. To find this inspiration you have to be curious, ask questions and listen. So my job sometimes is just to be inquisitive, poke around and to sniff out what hasn’t been revealed before.

I have a strange relationship with memory. Mostly just not a very acute one. So memories can be a strong source of inspiration. Like suddenly remembering a particular garment of my mothers, a summer routine of packed lunch on the beach or a childhood toy. When the memories come they lead you down a new path of things forgotten that are suddenly new. These new found memories reveal how small objects or smells, or textures can trigger powerful emotions which can be very useful in the field of visual communication.

I am inspired by people who have that unwavering dedication to a particular craft or work. I am not a specialist. I have never felt that I have one particular talent or calling so when I meet people that have that relentless pursuit of something specific or a bit obscure I am delighted and fascinated - and a little jealous.

What obstacles do you face in coming up with a new idea and how do you overcome those obstacles?

Modern societies obsession with “productivity” can be a burden. Who gets to define what a “productive” afternoon looks like? How do you put a value on the ‘big idea’ you’ve had in the shower? So I try and apply a looser definition to productivity to leave some headspace for ideation.

I believe that modern corporate structures (as enforced by humans) do not cultivate or sustain creative thinking. So I try to remove myself from those constraints even if that’s a just a mindset (ie this is not a full time job, this a 12-month creative residency)

What process(es) do you use to solve problems?

Describe the steps of your problem-solving process. Explain your journey from inspiration to implementation.

I never received formal creative or artistic education after 4th grade. Despite that I have wormed my way into a very creative field. As a result my problem solving approach is a little scrappy.

I am a big communicator. I want to get a group together and have a rounded conversation. I want to hear stories, feedback and different perspectives. So, whether it is for a project kick off or sudden issue, a verbal assessment is my first stop.

With the gathered insight I can create a brief or outline to really pinpoint the outcome I am seeking. I look at past experiences, problems or projects that may shed light on a possible approach or reveal what risks might be lurking.

Defining the desired outcome or goal, and making sure other stakeholders are in agreement at the beginning ensures the task at hand is set up for success.

Sometimes a break down is necessary to whittle the task down into a few stages. Make the problem feel more digestible. No one eats the whole sushi roll at once.

Once this outline is in place you have created the guardrails from within can happen the concepting and ideation. Research and references can be gathered and the seedlings of ideas are recorded. Lots of trial and testing. And of course conversations and feedback. This process can continue until something productive sticks and a resolution is revealed.

William Sause, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow NYU Langone Medical Center

How do you generate ideas?

I am often inspired at times where I am struggling with my own work or ability to generate novel ideas. I find that after a period of being down on myself, I seek inspiration in order to rebound. These periods often provide the best ideas and motivation.

I am inspired by the brilliance and ingenuity of people I respect and admire. These moments of inspiration often come during discussions or seminars with these individuals. In my academic background, these moments come at the hands of professors. An example of this would be hearing a seminar that overlaps with my own work and interests, I often leave these settings feeling more motivated to finish and succeed with a project. This comes from inspiration and competitiveness.

The best ideas in my line of work are ones that require an individual to reexamine overlooked or neglected concepts to find gems. This is very difficult but can be paradigm shifting when it happens. An example of this in science would be the discovery that a pathway, which has a canonical and widely accepted function - turns out to have a much more dynamic and powerful role in biology...an unappreciated function.

What process(es) do you use to solve problems?

clearly state the problem

exhaustively research the literature and establish a comfort level with all preexisting knowledge

assess how your idea is innovative and how it distinguishes yourself from what exists

determine what you can accomplish on your own and what you will need your colleagues to help you with

set forth a linear path to your goal. in my case this involves laying out series of hypothetical figures that will make up a manuscript.

Donna Sause, Hemostasis Sales Consultant at Instrumentation Laboratory

How do you generate ideas?

What inspires you?

I’m often inspired when I don’t expect to be and mostly when I’m alone. Sometimes the idea is relevant to what I’m doing, for example if I’m doing chores around the yard an idea will pop into my head about landscaping. Other times it won’t be relevant to what I’m doing for example I may be walking the dog and I’ll think up a new recipe  idea or a new way to make a sales pitch to a customer.

I’m mostly inspired by nature. I’m more clear headed when I’m surrounded by trees or near water. I also take a lot of inspiration from books eg. Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert and occasionally from podcasts particularly NPR “How I built this”.

What obstacles do you face in coming up with a new idea and how do you overcome those obstacles?

When I put pressure on myself to come up with something I will usually draw a blank (eg my MSc thesis), if I leave things to the last minute it is also difficult for me to generate ideas. It doesn’t happen often but if I get overwhelmed by things and start to compare myself negatively to colleagues or classmates I don’t find it easy to come up with new ideas.

I make a conscious effort not to do these things. If I know I have a deadline for a presentation I will prepare ahead of time so that I am in control of the situation. I try to think of the positive contributions that I can make to my company and customers instead of feeling inadequate by making comparisons.

For me inspiration happens when I’m happy. I am a happy person by nature but if I’m feeling down I will refer to my favourite book of poems by Mary Oliver or I will follow advice from author and speaker Catherine Sanderson on how to increase happiness.

Describe the steps of your problem-solving process. Explain your journey from inspiration to implementation.

I am a practical thinker, if I am faced with a problem I’ll try to tackle it with a level head. It is important to me that if I have a problem then I deal with it immediately and most often by myself. I never pass my problems on to others. If I’m having issues solving a problem I find writing things down beneficial, that gets things out of my head and puts them into perspective.

When I’m inspired I generally act fast, I don’t like to spend a long time teasing an idea out or over thinking it. I will jump straight in, make an attempt and if that fails I’ll figure out a way of looking at it from a different angle.

[minnievirizarry]

Small Business Branding How to Beat A Big Player

From the smallest acorns, the mightiest oaks do grow. (And you don’t always have to chase after growth either). Being small can sometimes be a surprising source of strength. Haven’t built up a big team yet? Don’t focus on the negatives of having a smaller team—embrace the fast-paced agility of having a small workforce, and be grateful for all those HR costs you aren’t racking up. Small business branding: from staffing to marketing—here is how to create a business environment that is small, yet perfectly formed.

Integrate Sales With marketing

Embrace collaboration to maximize return on investment.

Sales and marketing teams become easily disconnected in large, complex organizations; whereas, in small businesses, they might be embodied in just one single person.

Wherever you fit on this scale, make sure the two departments are always working together.

By staying focused on how sales and marketing can work together, you’ll achieve more on a smaller budget. (Inbound marketing evangelists at Hubspot have even coined a phrase for this model of marketing: ‘smarketing’).

● Keep channels of communication open, and make sure both sides are equally invested in collaboration. You don’t want one side to feel like they’ve been ‘drafted in’.

● Here is what marketers need to learn from salespeople (and vice versa). Focus on sharing insight and knowledge, even if the teams are small. Make people feel like they are central to the company’s success. Make everyone feel valued to encourage better teamwork.

● Get individuals to share their targets and work on key campaigns together. Use tools like Slack to help create a team atmosphere. Recognize the importance of downtime and chatting to successful teamwork. Gamify leader boards to help inspire teams.

● Create a company culture centered on the startup mentality: people working together towards a mutual goal.

● If your sales and marketing team currently comprises of just one person, empower them to do more with their role. Make sure they have adequate budget and sign-off to keep things moving. Sales and marketing need to be allowed to ‘do their thing’ as they will be central to business growth and development.

Be More Agile

 Be more agile to be more competitive.

Use your speed and agility to your advantage by reacting faster than others in your vertical. Recognize the value of being on the pulse; prioritize fast reactions over entrenched business processes.

● Capitalize on emerging trends and try to cash in on any new, relevant product lines or services fast. Start with Google Trends to see where new markets are emerging, but do more granular keyword research to build up an accurate picture before you delve in. Consumers will smell a cheap cash-in plan from a mile, so it’s important that you arm yourself with plenty of knowledge first.

In ecommerce? Start small and drop ship the first few batches of a new product to see how you fare.

Offering a new service? Offer the service out for free to previous customers to test it out on them first. Gather lots of feedback during these early stages.

● Be the first on the scene when it comes to industry events on social media. Publish quick roundup posts, or jump on events hash tags to grow your online following.

● Invest in good inventory management to make sure that your stock is always at its optimal level. Trying to shift old stock will keep you from investing in newer, potentially more lucrative products.

● Don’t be afraid of change. The worst thing a business can do is to cling on to a model that is no longer working. Don’t be afraid of diversification if it’s time to move on.

Socialize With Your Niche

Spend time in the social media trenches to find out all you can about your customers.

● Get to know your niche intimately and learn how to cover it from all angles. To win the content wars, you need to know your customers back-to-front, so spend time actively listening to them online (and in person). This doesn’t take loads of money—just time and dedication.

● Social media is where people got to offload and share; find the places where people are being genuine. Cultivate active listening (and stamina). You might not always like what you hear, but creating content from a place of truth will make your brand so much more genuine and relatable.

● Don’t neglect social media’s customer service and reputation potential; your channels aren’t for one-sided promotional activities. Take time to really talk to people. Build up a brand reputation for helpful and cool content. Here are some brands winning at social media; see what strategies are working for them and find your own way.

● Paid social media is relatively inexpensive and is a great way to seed content campaigns when you’re starting out. Remember, originality and authenticity will take you further on social.

Invest in Business Relationships

Build up a network based on relationships and mutual respect.

It’s a lot easier to score PR and media wins if you invest time into building relationships. Learn how to effectively communicate with media influencers and offer value.

● Large organizations have impersonal media teams—sell access to decision-makers and founders instead. Many media outlets are always keen to feature real-world actionable business advice. Capitalize on your unique founder status to access some cool media gigs.

● Learn how to write a great outreach email—strike the balance between friendly and respectful, and personalize as much as you can for a better success rate. Email is a great way to grow your network, but remember that you have to offer people something valuable. People are busy – don’t waste their time.

● Use your own content to attract the right sort of influencers. Content is a brilliant way to share your expertise and build relationships. By putting out great content, your brand will grow its search presence, expand its sphere of influence, and impress potential collaborators.

● Always put your best foot forward—remember people’s names, ask people how they are, be thoughtful. Offer a great service and people will remember you. Small business thrives on strong personal ties.

Offer up valuable content

Big organizations have the tendency to drone on with editorial calendars, losing sight of the people on the ground. When they try to ad lib, they often get it wrong. (Check out these recent Carrier Fisher tweets which kind of sucked…)

As a smaller outfit, you can get closer to your audience and offer content people actually want to read.

● Answering people’s questions, really answering their questions, is one of the foundations of great content.

Use keyword research tools like AnswerThePublic to trawl through all the weird and wonderful questions people actually ask. There are loads of hidden gems in there just waiting to be snapped up by a savvy content team. Great content doesn’t always have to be wacky and creative—sometimes it can just simply be about fulfilling a need.

● Be reactive and cover seasonal events fast. Humorous roundups and on-the-pulse commentary will help you make a name for yourself. Operating in a B2B niche? Interview industry movers and shakers and ride on the strength of their personal brand and expertise.

● Don’t make the mistake of creating content in silos—get your team’s feedback on content ideas and encourage integration. Get the experts as close to the coalface as possible, and use your team’s knowledge to create meaningful content. Remind people that you are all in this together and embrace a culture of content.

Smart Money Management

Make sure you never run out of money with proper cash flow management, and sort out your financials as soon as you can.

● Embrace software packages and digital tools to help you run a better business. Small businesses don’t have to put up with clunky or expensive software—you can use the SaaS model to your advantage and pay out monthly for a whole range of essential business tools like cloud data storage or accounting software.

(Beware, monthly subscription fees add up fast – annual packages offer you more value for money). These essential business tools will help save you time (and gray hairs).

● Accurate and timely invoicing will be your lifeline. Not sure you’re up to it? Outsource and automate as much as you can.

● If you are one of those ‘free trial’ people, make sure you actually cancel the trials on time!

● By relying on other platforms, you may get hit by fees that aren’t obvious at first. A classic example are the infamous PayPal fees—if you’re accepting payments through PayPal, use this handy PayPal fees calculator to figure out what it’s going to cost you. You may need to invest in another payment gateway before long, but do your research before you commit.

Don’t be in a hurry to grow

Don’t grow too soon—you might grow in the wrong direction.

A mistake that small businesses often make is wanting to grow too fast, too soon.

● Do you really need to rent out an office space and hire loads of staff? Remote team models (especially in the digital space) are super successful, spanning teams across America, Europe, and Asia. Here is Zapier’s take on how they made a success of it with just six people.

● Embrace the startup mentality of growth hacking, hustling and bootstrapping. Use the small business community around you, and don’t be too quick to ‘go corporate’. It could end up ruining the unique fabric of what you have.

Running a small business? Love your size? What pro tips can you share?

Patrick Foster, eCommerce entrepreneur, coach & writer.  I’m currently writing on EcommerceTips.org where I share engaging eCommerce content for entrepreneurs and business owners. You can follow me on Twitter here, or add me on LinkedIn.

The post Small Business Branding How to Beat A Big Player appeared first on Ninja Outreach.

from SM Tips By Minnie https://ninjaoutreach.com/small-business-branding/

[merryfortune]

Cuter with the Glasses On

Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh! Sevens

Ship: Nico/Romin

Word Count: 2.7k

Synopsis:  Romin is enlisted by Nico to help out with a photography competition as a model for her entry. The two bond from there.

  Flash after flash of the camera, Romin’s eyes were dazzled as she oscillated through various poses that she could strike. Some awkward, some sultry, some she hardly thought about, and others she thought way too much about. She simply wanted to do her best for Nico.

  “Yes, yes, yes!” she cried out at the top of her lungs, all but thrashing about where she stood, and she snapped one last photo for posterity in her frenzy. “I’ve definitely got some goods in here, thanks Kirishima.”

  “N-No problem.” Romin said, her hands behind her head, her elbows all stuck out, one leg popped. “C-Can I unfreeze now from this one?” she asked.

  “Oh, yeah, totally.” Nico said and she flapped a hand about flippantly.

  “Thanks.” Romin replied and she sighed as she let her body slacken.

  Suddenly, her whole body ached and so did her eyes. She had definitely had enough screen time after this one, she thought and then she could swear that she could feel her phone burn a hole in her back pocket in spite for having such a thought.

  Nico, meanwhile, was completely oblivious to how Romin commiserated. She was too busy flicking through the photos that she had taken. It felt like she was going through them a dozen a second and she had easily taken hundreds of Romin. She made for such a good subject and then- yes!

  “Score!” Nico squealed to herself.

  “Huh?” Romin said and she wandered closer, her high heels feeling clunky underfoot as she peered around to look at the screen of Nico’s camera. “Did you take a good shot?”

  “Oh, absolutely, I did.” Nico enthusiastically replied. “This here? It’s the money shot. I’m definitely going to take home that prize.”

  Romin blushed. “Glad to be some help.”

  “Definitely, definitely.” Nico replied. “The lead guitarist of RoaRomin in my Junior Youth Photography Tournament entry? I’m a shoe-in.”

  Romin was suddenly less sure of if she was being complimented as a person or as an entity. But she tried not to let that get to her. Nico was an insensitive person, bit of a blunderer and a touch awkward, so she likely didn’t mean anything harmful by it, au contraie, she probably meant it as a compliment but still, Romin thinks to herself, it would be nice to be complimented as a person once a while.

  “Yeah, I only listened to you and your bandmates’ music recently. I’d heard it a couple times before, thought it was okay, maybe catchy, but I never sank my teeth into your discography ‘til now.” Nico explained. “See, when Chief handed me the flyer for the photography competition, I knew I had to go big or else I’d bust so I tried to look around. What’s big around here ‘cept for the man? No way I’m gonna support the censors and do something Goha Corp. themed so I looked for something else, and bingo-”

  Nico latched her camera back onto the lanyard around her neck, so she was free to use her hands. Both her hands. She held them up in rectangles to frame Romin between the slats of her fingers. She cocked a quirky smirk.

  “Who is bigger than the most famous girl in school?” Nico said.

  “Oh, uh. No one. I guess.” Romin said and Yuga did float briefly through her head but his prescence in the big scale of things did seem outweighed by her own thanks to RoaRomin. Nico cackled to herself and Romin perked up. Perhaps she was being complimented on her own merit and not anyone else’s. Nico shuffled in and unlatched her camera again, she seemed to love to fidget with it.

  Nico’s eyes flicked up towards Romin and she angled the camera towards Romin, too, she defensively put up half a hand over the screen to prevent the glare, “See, look at this one.” Nico said.  

  “Wow.” Romin gasped. “That looks better than most RoaRomin’s promotional material.”

  Nico was proud as punch to hear that. “Mama says to snap photographs of what you love the most, and I do love your guitar skills nowadays. Hey, have you considered modelling?”

  “Not yet. My agent wants to me to get a bit taller first since, you know. Only a few more inches, he said.” Romin replied.

  Nico nodded to herself. “Yeah, that makes sense.” she said. “You know, I might be really tall one day, I’ve got good genes. I’ll probably get a helluva growth spurt soon, you know?”

  “Really?” Romin blinked, a little intrigued by Nico’s declaration. “How tall are your parents?”

  “Papa’s six foot one and Mama’s about five foot three,” Nico replied, “I think,” she was chewing hard as she tried to imagine herself standing beside her parents in height order.

  Still, Romin gasped. “Wow, your Papa is really tall.” She exclaimed. “But your Mama sounds like she’s on the shorter side, are you sure you won’t be her height?”

  “I think I’ll be a little bit taller than her one day. Don’t people generally grow taller than their same gender parent?” Nico asked.

  “I suppose that’s true…” Romin murmured as she began to wonder about how tall she’ll ever get…

  “Not that it’ll matter much in family photos or anything, Papa makes everyone look tiny. Especially me.” Nico laughed.

  Romin laughed too. She could definitely imagine that. Some big, strong, tall father beside a nice-looking woman and of course their shaggy haired daughter. Still, she wondered who Nico’s parents were now and of course, she blurted out even her faintest wondering, “So how did your parents meet?”

  “I’m so glad you asked.” Nico all too quickly replied.

  Romin, however, was spooked by her zeal as she had been chastising herself for prying into Nico’s personal life.

  Nico excitedly clutched her camera and she grinned. “My Papa is a retired Duellist, he used to be really famous back in the day and now he’s not even yesterday’s news.” Nico laughed devilishly as she made that remark about her father but then she smiled an unexpectedly soft smile. “He was my Mama’s famous Duellist, see, my Mama is a photographer and a reporter, doing a really big story on my Papa was her first big break. It was this whole ordeal, like you wouldn’t believe. But they met through Mama’s work and have been inseparable since…”

  “That sounds like a movie.” Romin replied.

  “It should be.” Nico replied. “But they haven’t sold the rights yet. Only ‘cause I told ‘em to wait for me. I want to be the one to direct their love story.”

  Romin laughed but Nico looked really proud and sure of herself.

  “I want to be like Mama when I grow up.” she confessed.

  Romin’s heart fluttered and she smiled. “I’m sure you will be.” she said brightly. “And the first step will be winning that photography competition, yeah?”

  “Actually,” Nico began to snidely correct her, “the first step was getting my own camera to take photos with. The second step was joining the Newspaper Club, the third step was becoming the official photographer for the club, that one was easy since there’s only three of us… Now, the fourth step was publishing my first photo to the Seventh Elementary Newspaper, the fifth step was creating a good name for myself locally, and the sixth step was to cultivate my own personal gallery of photographs which I’m especially proud of.”

  Nico paused and she had a sudden gander at Romin’s face. She looked… just a little bit offended. Only a little bit. With how she seemed disappointed that Nico had gone and dashed her well wishes like that.

  “But you’re absolutely right,” Nico added without too much of a beat between, “winning that photography competition is the seventh step and the seventh step is just as important as the ones that came before it. And the ones that will come after it.”

  Romin smiled, confident that she could see Nico’s eighth step. “And the next step is winning the competition?” She offered a sympathetic, bemused smile, too.

  “You betcha!” Nico replied and she gave Romin a finger gun hand gesture.

  It was strange, but Romin couldn’t even see Nico’s eyes from behind those thick, trifocal glasses that she wore but she didn’t need to see her eyes to know that they would be unbelievably all lit up with enthusiasm and excitement.

  “Alright, I’m gonna go and head off to the clubroom so I can upload all these sweet pics of you and hit that submit button on my form but let me tell you, together, we’re gonna rock this comp.” Nico boasted.

  Romin grinned. “Heck yeah.”

  Nico held her hand out for a high five and Romin obliged her. Their hands met palm to palm and without thinking, they both locked onto each other, fingers intertwining and the like. Nico’s hand was just that bit bigger than hers, it was nice, even if her hands were a little rough because, unlike Romin, she didn’t moisturise religiously. And the moment lingered until it was fit to snap.  

  Nico gave a funny expression. “Okay, you can stop holding my hand now, Kirishima.”

  “O-Oh, yeah, totally, it’s just-” Romin panicked and she let go suddenly, “it’s just, er, we’re friends now, you can call me Romin, I don’t mind.”

  “I didn’t want to be too in your face.” Nico abruptly said back. “I’m the press and all.”

  “We’re friends, Nico,” Romin insisted, “I want you to see me as your equal. Not just your… journalistic inspiration.”

  Nico laughed at how earnest Romin was being, but it warmed her heart. She just didn’t know how to play off more serious feelings.

  “Well, it’s been great collaborating with you, Romin, my friend, but I gotta be goin’ now.” Nico said.

  “Yeah, well good luck, break a leg and all that.” Romin replied, friendly and totally casual.

  Nico smirked. “I don’t need luck.” she boasted.

  Romin could half envy that confidence. How nice it would be to go through life that sure of one’s self. It was certainly different.

  Nico made sure to secure her camera to her lanyard around her neck before throwing her head back to laugh. Confidence; assurance; somehow all these sorts of words paled before the might of whatever it was that Nico saw in herself and her talent. Romin barely felt that way about her guitar skills and she was in a popular, established band. If Nico could bottle that, she’d make millions…

  “Okay, well, see you later.” Romin said.

  “Yep, laters.” Nico nodded her head.

  Then, with all that fanfare, she finally strode off.

  Only to completely faceplant not even a second later.

  It felt as though it had happened in slow motion. Nico had twisted on her foot, took one step forward and her toe immediately made contact with some stray little pebble that neither girl had even noticed was there until this very moment. Nico screamed and Romin paled until she was paler than a page of the newspaper. Although, she was screeching too. Possibly even louder than Nico who was the one sailing through the air, primed for a really bad collision when she got there.

  Nico groaned when she went nose first to the ground. She was damn lucky when she pulled herself up and out of the grass that she hadn’t twisted, sprained, or broken anything. The worst she got was a minor bloody nose. She held her head and moaned as she came back up. Everything spun. Everything was so… blurry.

  Romin brought herself to her knees beside Nico, taking her hand to steady her, “I’m so sorry,” she said, “that is so not what I meant when I said break a leg.”

  “Ugh, I’m right. I’ve had worse falls…” she grumbled. “I won’t lie, I am a little bit clumsy. Too fast for my own feet.”

  Nico yanked her hand from Romin’s and she tried her best not to feel offended but then she got a proper look at Nico. Her glasses had been knocked off in the fall. Nico began to search for them, her hands snaking through the grass as she tried to find them. Romin, however, opted to be useless and just stare.

  All she could think was that… Nico looked a lot cuter with the glasses on. It kind of flustered, her to be honest. The difference in Nico’s face. She lost a lot of that bluster that Romin found endearing over all her quirks. Nico grumbled, eyes straining, barely open, as she searched the grass.

  “Oh, uh, do you want any help?” Romin asked.

  “It’d be nice.” Nico replied.

  Romin hummed to herself as she looked around. Her eyes skirted through the grass, only to catch something shiny. A glint of sunshine off glass and she reached forward, half crawling. Wow, she thought to herself, Nico’s glasses were quite heavy, she was surprised that they could be knocked off Nico’s face at all given their weight. She was careful with them as she came back down onto her calves where she knelt beside Nico who had, obviously, made very little progress in her hunt for her glasses.

  “Here you go.” Romin said, offering Nico’s glasses back to her.

  Nico’s hand flailed about but she eventually found her glasses. And also, Romin’s hand. She slid them back onto the haunches in which they ought to rest and flashed Romin a big smile.

  “Thanks again.” Nico said. “Ugh, we should probably get up.”

  “Y-Yeah.” Romin nervously laughed.

  With a huff and puff, the girls held onto each other’s hands and pulled one another to their feet. Romin dusted down her skirt and Nico barely gave herself a shake off.

  “So how do I look without my glasses?” Nico asked as she took a handkerchief out of her back pocket. “I’ve needed ‘em all my life. Papa says I have Mama’s eyes and Mama says the same thing, but they say it very differently.” She laughed at her private joke whilst cleaning up the mess of her bloody nose. It was good that it was only a very, very minor bleed.

  Romin gave a half-hearted snicker in regard to Nico’s private joke. She could suddenly imagine Nico being quite the chip off her mother’s block, all of a sudden, wearing the same or similar pairs of trifocal glasses. It was quite the vision.

  “I bet.” she said, half-heartedly, only to smile softly. “I think you look cuter with your glasses on.”

  “O-Oh,” Nico squeaked and she began to fuss with her fringe, “I don’t really care either way, I’m happy with how I look,” and then she started to pat down her capris as well and then straightened her jacket, “but its nice to hear that from someone as stylish and pretty as you, Romin.”

  “Thank you, Nico, that’s very kind of you to say.” Romin awkwardly replied, blushing. She averted her gaze and was very swift to change the topic of conversation because she thought Nico looked very trendy and low-key the way she was already, especially behind that fluffy fringe of hers, too. “But, um, is your camera alright? It’d suck if it got damaged.”

  Nico doubled checked her camera and smiled assuredly. “My baby is all good, don’t worry Romin. My – our? – win is still guaranteed. But, um, hey, we have drinks in the clubroom, wanna join me after all? Snacks, too.”

  “That sounds nice.” Romin said. Eyes alight, aflame, even, because she was a highly food motivated person.

  Nico chuckled. Together, she and Romin tottered off, perfectly safe and sound this time. Nico rambled about the specs of her camera and Romin happily listened, eager to learn something new but also definitely daydreaming of the types of snacks which might be hiding the Newspaper Club’s mini fridge that they had stashed in the back. Still, she was incredibly fond to think about again that Nico looked cuter with her glasses on but cutest when she was talking so animatedly about her one true passion. Yep, that was very cute.