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loggiepj · 1 year ago

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one day

Summary : Just a short fluff.

The scary thing about falling in love — it had a funny way of sneaking up behind your back when you least expected it. It would claw its way into your heart, build a fort there, take a big portion of space, and probably, either if you're lucky or unlucky, would stay there forever.

At least that's what Wanda felt when she first saw you.

It started when you and your family moved into the house just next to them. It was a rainy Sunday afternoon. Wanda and her twin brother, Pietro, were just fourteen years old. She could tell you were around the same age as well.

You were totally drenched as you helped your parents drag stuff after stuff into your new home.

"Y/n/n, hurry, you're going to be sick!" your mother called out from your doorstep.

Y/n/n. Y/n/n. Wanda could immediately tell your nickname suited you.

You wore a simple white shirt with a colorful rainbow printed on the back, making Wanda wonder about something. You laughed at your mother's scoldings as you carried in your arms a baseball bat, a cassette player and what seemed to be a huge telescope.

What struck Wanda speechless was the way you looked different. And there's something about your smile as you smiled back at your mother that made Wanda's heart skip a beat.

The word beautiful wasn't always in Wanda's vocabulary until that day. It was as if everything else seemed ugly and dull in comparison to you.

You had Y/e/c eyes and y/h/c hair tied in a bun. She immediately imagined how it would look like without the hairtie, how it would feel in her hands when she would thread her fingers through it. She wondered if you'd be okay with her brushing or caressing your hair until you fell asleep.

Wanda didn't even realize she was staring until Pietro made a comment about a drool he saw on her lips. He ended up with a small bruise on his arm that day from Wanda's punch.

Later that night, Wanda didn't even expect they'd have visitors as she came running down the stairs for dinner. But when she immediately saw your face, she stopped on her tracks. Frozen.

It turned out their ever kind and hospitable mother invited the new neighbors for a dinner. A sort of welcoming present.

Wanda's eyes went to send daggers towards a snickering Pietro, immediately knowing he was the one who suggested the dinner this time.

When your mother introduced yourselves to each other, Wanda couldn't stop repeating your full name inside her head, swearing she could have said your name out loud.

Wanda acted different that evening, not when she was seated next to you. She could even pass as stupid, when you asked for the bowl of mashed potatoes near hers yet she gave you her own plate instead.

Before she slept that night, Wanda made a comment to her brother about something weird with the food and what it was doing to her stomach.

It took her a moment to realize that the weird thing she felt inside her were butterflies fluttering all along.

Of course, you'd go to the same school she and her brother went to. It was the nearest one in the neighborhood. Wanda and Pietro rode their bicycles to get there every morning.

Wanda tried to avoid interacting with you, not because you were too pretty for her liking, but because she didn't want you to know how she was treated in the school, or at least by the evil classmates that she had, Natasha, Yelena and Maria. From how thick they put their makeups on, they could be mistaken as seniors.

"Oh, it's the witch again," Natasha sneered the moment Wanda entered the classroom. The joke made everyone laugh. Well, everyone except you.

When your eyes met, Wanda wanted to just run away and disappear from shame and everything. But she had to attend the class or she'd fail that year.

"Beware of her, Y/n/n," Yelena added as Wanda made her way to her seat. "She'd put a curse on you when you say something bad about her."

Wanda tried not to listen. She had grown immune to all the teasings about her.

It started when she went as a witch for a Halloween event back in grade school. Every girl that time were either a princess or a fairy. She was the only one who wore differently. And it wasn't even the beautiful sexy kind of witch, but the one with the green face and pointed nose.

Her brother was unscathed. But of course, he was a boy. Of course, he'd be safe. Unlike her, he was popular with kids. If it weren't for Pietro, she'd be bullied physically by her peers and not just with words.

"That's okay. I love witches," you said back with a smile, making Wanda turn her head towards you.

That must have been the first moment she fell in love with you.

You were different as years passed by. You talked to Wanda as if she wasn't weird. You even biked to school together with her and Pietro. You excelled both academically and in sports, making you popular in just a short time. But what made you more popular that Wanda would hear your name whispered in the school's comfort room or even the library was how you only liked girls.

That made Wanda wonder if all your lingering looks at her she swore she saw meant something. The electric touches. The awkward stutterings whenever you two were left alone by Pietro in their house some days you three decided to watch a horror movie together. And mostly, the way you'd come to her rescue like her knight in shining armor whenever the evil three were present and bullying her.

But she knew she wouldn't ask you out. She wouldn't risk losing your friendship. Especially when she revealed to you that she liked girls too after some guy named Vision asked her as dance partner in your junior prom and she declined, making you ask her why.

For years, Wanda stayed on the sidelines as she watched girl after girl threw themselves at you. She had gotten used to it, how you return their advances yet not too far as meeting their suspecting kisses. She thought her feelings were gone until you finally went out with a senior and dated her for a good couple of months. That must have been Wanda's first heartbreak.

Yet she didn't know she could be any happier than what she felt when news of your breakup spread out so fast.

But Wanda still didn't make a move.

Until it was senior prom. Wanda wasn't looking forward to attend it at all.

"But sis, it's our last year," Pietro insisted. "We wouldn't get to do this when we finally head to college."

"Come on, Piet," Wanda replied, turning the page of the book she was reading. "It's not like I'd miss anything special. Besides, I don't even have a dress and prom's two days away."

Pietro sighed. "You know Mom could always make a way for you when you just asked for it."

"Ask for what? What did I miss?" Your voice made itself known, making Wanda tear her glance away from the book to look at you as you entered then sat on the floor beside Wanda's bed.

"Wanda's not attending prom," Pietro confided, making Wanda threw the nearest pillow at him.

"What?" you asked, then you looked at Wanda. "But it's our last year, Wands. You wouldn't want to miss it."

As much as she'd miss hearing you call her name like that, she'd rather stay at home than watch dancers on the dance floor while she'd be left alone on the bleachers.

"That's what I was trying to tell her," Pietro said as he made his way out the door. "Now I have a party to attend to. And you," he pointed at you, "have a lot of convincing to do."

Then you and Wanda were left alone.

"I know what you're going to say," Wanda muttered as she opened back her book. "And my word is final. I'm not going to attend the prom when those cruel stepsisters of Cinderella are present."

You softly chuckled as you stood. Then you made your way to her cassette player where a cassette tape that you made and gave her last Christmas was already inserted inside. You smiled as you hit the play button.

Wanda's favorite song began playing. She had listened to that song on repeat for days now.

You walked towards where she was sitting then held out your hand.

"Can I have this dance, then?" you said with conviction.

"W-What?"

You smiled. "Would you do me the honors of being your first prom partner?"

It rendered Wanda speechless.

"C'mon, no evil stepsisters are invited in this room," you added.

She softly giggled as she finally got off the bed and took your hand.

It was the dance of her lifetime, nothing comparable to any prom there was in the world. You and Wanda danced and danced for what must have been an hour.

When a slow song came into the background, Wanda swore the tension thickening when she caught you staring at her lips and almost leaning closer towards her. She could even feel the wonderful warmth exuding from your body as you both pressed against each other.

Wanda swore that could have been her first kiss. But Pietro suddenly entered the room, complaining how the party ended so quick.

When you finally had the courage to ask Wanda out, she felt like she had grown wings and she could fly. It was as if you had finally heard her whispered prayers and opened your eyes to see her — the one who will willingly love you until her dying breath.

In a sea of people, you were the most gentleman and sweetest person she had ever known. You took her to see the movies. Then afterwards, you brought her to your backyard where a candle-lit dinner was prepared. You both watched the stars that night. And Wanda had a chance to see how huge the craters were on the moon through your telescope.

Wanda couldn't forget her first kiss with you.

It happened when you two were baking cookies for the school's charity event. She didn't even know she had chocolate left on the corner of her lips from having to taste test the first batch. All she could remember was how you nonchalantly wiped the thing off her mouth with your thumb after which you sucked it clean.

You let out a small moan, too soft she thought she was only imagining. You had no idea, of course. Completely unaware that two darkened eyes followed the tip of your thumb as you took it off your mouth. Not seeing how Wanda was biting her lower lip from said action, stopping herself from doing anything stupid. You were totally oblivious of the effect you had on her.

And Wanda couldn't control herself anymore as she pressed her lips on yours. It seemed as if time stopped as she pulled away and watched your surprised state. And when apology was already on the tip of her tongue, you pulled her back and kissed her. You kissed her the way she deserved to be kissed.

Wanda learned how soft your lips were that day. And how perfect yours and hers fit against each other as you made out all afternoon. How she learned that tongues had the most amazing muscle in the world.

For which she had concluded later on.

"Y/n/n," Wanda moaned one night with your head between her legs. It was when you and Wanda stayed in a hotel as you headed to visit the University you both were planning to attend. Pietro was just in the other room.

"Please don't stop, please don't stop..." Wanda held your head, grinding herself shamelessly against your face. You had no plan on stopping anyway after you made her come for the nth time that night. At least, Pietro's scoldings the following day about how he wasn't able to sleep well from all the noise were all worth it.

Years later and it was still Pietro's complaints when he and his family decided to spend the holidays with yours. To be completely honest, Wanda expected you and her would be alone when Pietro offered to take your twins to go sledding and not even five minutes after they had left the driveway, you and Wanda were shedding all of your clothes off in haste, hungry mouths drinking each other.

"Hey," Pietro called, snapping his fingers in front of Wanda. "I can see the drool all over your mouth."

Wanda blinked, her hand instinctively went to wipe what wasn't there. When she saw Pietro holding his laugh, her hand curled into a fist as she punched his arm.

"Ow! That hurt!"

"Well, you deserved it!"

Pietro complained as he massaged his arm, "Well, it's also not my fault you're ogling your eyes at our new neighbor."

"Ogling? I wasn't ogling—"

When Wanda attempted to go closer towards her brother, Pietro immediately ran out of her bedroom, screaming for help.

Wanda shut her bedroom door with a loud thud as her eyes went back outside her window. You were still standing, drenched in the rain, as you waited for your father to untie more boxes you'd be carrying inside.

She knew then from that moment on, you'd be important in her life. And she was going to make you hers one day, even when it would probably take her years.

#wanda maximoff x reader #elizabeth olsen x reader #wanda maximoff #wanda x reader #wanda #short prompt #elizabeth olsen

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tac0tesseract · 1 year ago

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Glitch Time

“The Boy King is weak,” said High Priest Ay to the general, Horemheb.

Emma shot the priest and he dissolved into dust.

No, that was after.

There were realities where Kira hadn't found them in time, realities where she'd died while out scouting or had never been on Ecates at all. Oddly, there were no realities wherein their little squadron of seven had ever been prepared for the Naiki attack; each and every time, they were caught in varying degrees of surprise.

Emma watched the facility burn, watched the researchers flee as floe worms burst from the ice to devour them like grapes. She watched instances where Marsh and Sarah failed to eject in time. “I can bail you out again, like I did with the worm,” Emma said over private coms to Daughter, “But this time I want something in exchange.”

Emma shot the priest and he dissolved into dust.

None of that happened.

She shivered in the cockpit, blinking in a vain attempt to focus sundered vision. Chaos raged all around her but most of her consciousness was sinking into the Lich's velveteen waters. It was impossible to process time without Sam, but here she was trying to do it all by herself anyway. She had to.

The threads of time were so silver, so beautiful, so cold. Emma reached for one, pulled; Knell began to move faster. That was in the future.

The hammer fell, the hammer fell, the hammer fell.

There were no words in any human language for how horrible the sound was. The Tokugawa caved like an empty soda can and there was nothing left of JW to even scrape out of it.

She jumped.

The hammer obliterated the Lich and turned Emma into human paste instead. She drank deeper, pulled a new thread, engineered a reality where the Demolisher was now meters away. This time, Thresher could react. The hammer never fell. She was back at her soul vessel.

Emma shot the priest and he dissolved into dust.

No, not yet. Breath came ragged; she convulsed in the cockpit. Emma fumbled the threads and the missiles landed and now her mech was missing an arm and she was crying laughing screaming and she couldn't move and she couldn't move and she couldn't move and she couldn't see and she reached for the threads she had to hold the threads she had to pull the threads her team needed her where was Sam where was Sam when was Sam why wasn't Sam here?

A hand caressed Emma's face. She looked up. The field was a ruin of burning bodies. She watched herself, in the third person, lift the Unraveler and fire.

Emma shot the priest and, finally, he dissolved into dust.

The battle was over.

She couldn't even rely on GANDALF to take her back to safety. That, too, she had to do by herself – but by now she was deep underwater. Sound and vision came muffled. She followed on mental auto pilot behind Harvester's blurry outline, only able to track him because he glowed so bright. Somehow, that got her back into the maintenance bay.

Once there she managed to power the core back down, but thereafter vacillated between raving and catatonic in the cockpit, clutching her ankh amulet in both hands. Until today, she could have counted the number of times she'd had to glitch time like this on both hands and still have a few fingers left over. Ostensibly, that was why her boss had wanted to print a Lich in the first place, but...Emma had never had to use the core like this twice in one day, let alone twice in one month. Today, she'd done it twice in as many hours.

New threads of reality kept flowing past her eyes. She didn't know how to make it stop. No wonder Sam felt so exhausted, living like this. Tears flooded in the longer she watched. The facility and the people inside of it were safe �� that was the most important thing, she knew. But it was far from perfect. The generator should have never taken a hit. Actium and Black Baccara should still be standing. That mysterious Monarch chasing Knell should have never gotten away.

The core was out of power now, but maybe...maybe once it was recharged, she could try again and get it right...

For now, all she could see were a thousand-thousand realities, none of which were her own. She saw everything she could have done different. She watched deaths on repeat. She saw angles of existence normally invisible to human eyes, and hidden truths spoken of only in the Lessons. This happened every time she used the core, but...it'd never lasted this long before.

Emma laughed, and cried, and, somewhere in the remaining depths of her fraying consciousness, prayed desperately for it to stop.

#lancer rpg #lancer ttrpg #lancerrpg #horus #emma tansy #just a thingy i wrote in response to last session's battle #it was pretty horrific #anyway i figure messing around with time without proper safe guards is what drives most lich pilots mad #drink deep and descend

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moolamixtape · 2 years ago

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Thoughts on Splatune 3!

I wanted to share some of my thoughts on the soundtrack of Splatoon 3 now that we have the final composer credit for each track. This is my perspective as a musician as well as a fan of the lore!

Ryo Nagamatsu carried this soundtrack HARD man. There were six composers total and he did a third of the tracks, including everything by C-Side which came as a shock to me. I genuinely thought those were all Toru Minegishi, who has apparently stepped up to a supervisor role since Splatoon 2 and is less involved in the making of the soundtrack itself.

The new composers—Toshiyuki Sudo, Yumi Takahashi and Sayako Doi—also did a lot of heavy lifting this time around too. Takahashi caught me way off guard, especially when I found out she is responsible for all three DLC Squid Sisters tracks. Apparently she has inherited them from Shiho Fujii, who only contributed Wave Goodbye for this game.

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Takahashi was able to capture Fujii’s essence while adding some cool harmonic ideas that we haven’t seen from the group’s almost satirical J-pop discography. I think she’s the best out of the new team members at writing chord progressions and strong hooks, and I’m really looking forward to new Squid Sisters tracks if it means she’s behind the wheel!

She’s also a really tight funk arranger, and one of my admittedly few correct predictions was that she was responsible for the vast majority of the lobby tracks. They all reminded me of her tracks from Animal Crossing New Horizons, especially with their mellow chord progressions and laid-back feel. Takahashi’s lobby tracks have energy but don’t carry too much momentum, keeping the tension low and the groove up front while switching occasionally to a more lush and complex progression on the bridge. She is everything I love in a composer lol

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Sayako Doi also had my attention when I found out what she was responsible for. She’s only been with Nintendo for about four years now and barely as any individual track credits to her name. As it turns out, she did all of the Alterna map themes as well as the Tableturf soundtrack. All of the Tableturf tracks are intentionally camp and I think they did her sort of dirty by making that a good portion of her contribution, but the variety in her RotM tracks almost makes up for it. She seems more sound design-focused than Takahashi and it sounds like she focuses more on the overall feel of her tracks than the theoretical details behind them. I’m curious to hear what she might contribute for Side Order!

I said before that Minegishi is moving up to a directorial role as many game composers do, and he contributed significantly less this time around musically. He mainly handled the stage themes in RotM, a couple of which I thought were by Sudo and Nagamatsu. With Flying Colors is marked by orchestral sample spam, which I thought was Nagamatsu’s signature sound, and Ride or Fry sounds like Sudo’s Deep Cut compositions. Minegishi did both!

I don’t know what the best way to do this is on tumblr but I guess I’ll just share this now and edit it later? I wish it was more intuitive to make a thread or something I guess I’m just twitter monkey brain

#splatoon #splatune 3 #composer #reactions #deep cut #c side splatoon #front roe #Youtube

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blackjackkent · 5 months ago

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Moving to a new post cos that thread was getting loooooong. XD

I was tagged by @fireheartedpup to do this quiz:

I got this:

IDK about the cottagecore part but other than that, yeah this tracks and I am happy with it. c: Definitely the vibe I'm going for.

Tagging: @writer86 @rhysintherain @acecasinova @thedarkstrategist @the-night-wizard

#tag meme #fireheartedpup #ty for the tag! :D

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hms-no-fun · 2 years ago

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hey can you just generally ramble about your terezi (and (terezi)) choices? I am interested in your process for her characters this chapter.

yeah! naturally i have a lot to say about a lot of things so spoilers for godfeels 3.2 A1 solo below the break!

let me just start this by saying that (Terezi) has been the BIGGEST pain in my ass of the entire core cast since beginning godfeels 3.

getting A1 out the door in general has been something of a nightmare, in part due to inconvenient irl circumstances but also because this track had a LOT of heavy lifting to do. Double Album is an ambitious project --too ambitious, arguably, considering how much time it takes to write (lots) and how little it pays (nothing)-- and this first glimpse into what's to come needed to do a lot of recapping prior events, moving pieces around on the board, clarifying character motivations, giving everyone a reason to be staying/going, and setting up several hefty dozens of plot threads in both major and minor ways, all while simultaneously being entertaining enough to read that old and new readers alike don't just get bored and peace out before we even get to the stuff that this story's actually about.

i think on balance A1 is going to wind up being sort of an odd duck among the tracks for this reason. i've been thinking of it as sort of a pilot episode, very much in the mold of the pilot of LOST whose very minimal flashbacks belied the load-bearing structural centrality that the flashback device would come to occupy in the series. but it's also a pilot episode for a series that's already three seasons in, which just further complicates the logistical job it needed to do. here again i took inspiration from LOST (get used to this comparison, btw-- everything from chapter 8 onwards has been/will be heavily inspired by LOST in theme and structure), where the season openers always had to pull double duty of cleaning up the mess from whatever bomb dropped in the season finale to completely change the status quo AND giving the core cast time to acclimate to the new status quo in a way that sets the audience up for what this season's gonna be about. it's a fun and punishing challenge that takes a lot of trial and error. there have been so many versions of A1 that all conveyed largely the same information in completely different ways to wildly different ends.

i'm glad i put that work in, because i'm really proud of how A1 ultimately turned out. i think it accomplishes the goals i set out for. and in a serial work like this you just don't get a chance to redo your first episode. if this part didn't work, if every character wasn't utilized with absolute precision, everything that followed would be at a disadvantage. i feel more confident in the future of this side of the story than i did when i first started writing it. but it was hard!

and at the center of that challenge was (Terezi), the character whose desire to go with Silverbark is easily the most obvious of the departing cast and yet simultaneously the most mysterious. i have a document for every writing project where i save cut material just in case, and the one for A1 is over 8000 words. of those, just shy of half are scenes involving (Terezi). because ever since the start of gf3, she's been a delightful, infuriating wrench in all my plans. it's easy enough to understand why she would want to go with Silverbark, but what does she feel about it? how does she feel about what she did to June, what June/Risk did to her, or about the state of Earth C today, and especially about the medicated domestic 30-something Vrisrezi who've just shown up out of the blue?

i wrote the dream strangulation scene in 3.1 chapter 1 knowing it would put a dent in her and June's relationship that would be a pain point through the rest of 3.1, but i'd always planned for them to get on better terms before the end (until Vrisrezi showed up, at which point all that progress would be painfully backpedaled). but as soon as she left the house, (Terezi) completely closed herself off and refused to come to the table again. throughout gf3 and especially chapter 8 i tried to find ways to let her talk about what was on her mind, and she just wouldn't. the Host-intruded memory of them getting into an argument watching Consort Jerry Springer and the birthday flashback where (Terezi) eats leafs both wound up defined in their conflict by (Terezi)'s own silence, her refusal to say what's really bothering her. even as she opens up some in the latter scene, she remains infuriatingly closed off to Risk and us. the question she thinks she's answering is why she's uncomfortable on Earth C, but the question June and Risk are really asking is, why am i not good enough to make this place feel like your home?

this is a dominant theme of Divergence Syndrome-- characters ensconced in noise looking for silence, or characters sick of silence hurtling mortally towards cacophony. the strict meaning of silence vs noise change depending on the person. all the circus flashbacks are moments where characters just can't quite bring themselves to say the thing they really want to say. silence and noise, secrets and truth-- you might draw some comparisons here between this theme and the concept of Voidthought as introduced in A1. i try not to push my hand when it feels like characters don't want to be accessible. it's easy to want to give everyone center stage all at once, but it gets to being too much very quickly. you've got to pick your battles, give everyone their moment when the time is right, when you and they both feel ready for it.

but with (Terezi) i genuinely was like. hey. tell me the thing you really want to say. give me something to work with here. i'm trying to understand how you got here from where we left you in gf2. were you just lying when you said you loved how unpredictable June was? were you lying to Kanaya when you said you liked how boring Earth C was compared to Alternia? what changed in those eleven months between gf2 and gf3 and why didn't i see it until it was too late?

and she just WOULDN'T. every time i've tried to get her talking it felt forced and wrong. she only talks in narration when she wants to. she refuses to humor her guilt even to herself. i wrote a complete version of the scene in Dave's room where Silverbark is much, much meaner, just to try and get a rise out of her. but it was so out of character, it was too much, too forceful. you just can't drag secrets out into the open like that. not with a Mind player as stubborn as (Terezi).

that scene was for me, really. i needed to write it because i was mad at her. i won't share it here because i think quite a lot of it will end up recycled in some form down the line. i don't exactly want to give the impression that (Terezi) is a distinct entity, because none of these characters are. it's more that i see the narration itself, and each characters' varying awareness of it, as having strict rules and boundaries. there's that moment at the end of A1 where Vriska pops into the narration just to say, actually no i don't want my feelings on display right now. i'd planned to have a whole lot of prose there! but when i wrote that interjection, it felt right. it showcases a different form of closing one's self off-- where (Terezi) is doing bullheaded self-harm in her silence, Vriska there is being mature and recognizing that sometimes you just have to let things go. good characterization in this story isn't just about dialogue. every word you read is a function of character in some form. 3.1 was narrated largely by VV. 3.2's narration/structure is what i've been calling "paramniscient epistolary" --basically a roving narratorial eye that can take the form of disconnected third person narration but give way to direct influence from characters whenever they desire. the epistolary part will make more sense come future tracks. but all of that is to say that yeah, to let that device be honest in what it is, to really fulfill VV's promise of letting these characters have genuine agency, i need to be willing to step back and let them be obtuse sometimes.

the original version of that scene between (Terezi) and Silverbark broke rules i didn't yet know, and it taught me a lot about what this story wants to be. gf2 was so much about June expositing her every thought, having revelations, working through shit, coming to terms with her Self. gf3, at least so far, is the opposite. (Terezi)'s lack of answers, her refusal to self-examine, is a protest against the kind of sincerity that June often embodies.

the horror of encountering a Terezi who's well-adjusted and happy is that for (Terezi), it feels inevitable. like a death sentence, a sword hanging over her neck. it's proof that if she ever got what she wanted, she would have to lose so many of the things that she still feels are essential to her Self. i think she tried to force herself to get better in gf2, under the assumption that simply being with someone you love who loves you is enough. but getting better requires work. i don't like the pervasive idea in fiction that couples getting together is the Solution to interpersonal problems, because it's not. it can help! but when you're accustomed to being alone, it's easy to stay alone even when you share every waking moment with someone else. i think Terezi is proof to (Terezi) that getting better takes work, and she despises the notion that she needs to do that work, that this version of her "getting better" is obviously preferable to who she is now. it's revealing that she imposes parentheses on herself so immediately upon meeting Terezi. it's worth noting that when Vriska tries to talk to (Terezi) in the A1 solo, she doesn't use those parentheses.

i think (Terezi) knows that if she even started to have a conversation about all this stuff, she'd lose. there are so many little moments where you can see her resolve shake a little. her harshness is a manifestation of instability. to open that door even a crack is to consent to demolishing the whole house. so she closes herself off altogether. she tells Terezi she'll kill her if she speaks to her again, and when Vriska begs her to seek help, (Terezi) spits in her face.

infinite credit to janet girlpillz for all the art in A1 solo but this panel especially. it took a lot of work to get the mood and tone just right. i cannot overstate how lucky i feel to have her in my camp. this moment would be nothing without her.

it was important for me that the impact of this particular patooie be almost entirely on (Terezi). Vriska's shocked, yes, but in the way of being interrupted mid-sentence more than anything. i wanted to see the moment right before Vriska can emotionally process what's just happened. nonverbal, not overly emotive, surprised, taken aback. but not mad. not sad. not angry. it's (Terezi) who's angry. Vriska laughs it off pretty fast once the fluttersled departs, because she sees the gesture for what it is. it's not really about her or for her. it's (Terezi) kicking the dog to chase it away, maybe because she thinks its for the dog's own good, or maybe because she just doesn't want the responsibility of taking care of a dog, except she IS the dog and she might not even know it.

as to (Terezi)'s turn towards "Justice," i'm not even sure she really believes it. does she actually think June is guilty of a crime? or is this just an extremely elaborate means of tethering her fate to the woman she used to love? and in fact, is that love truly in the past tense for her?

right now, (Terezi) and the rest of the crew are in a state of transition, carried forward by the high-stakes manic momentum of chapter 8 into a new life with new rules without really knowing what that actually entails. i think their commitment to any idea of their role in that future is highly precarious, especially as we proceed out of that manic phase into what will, eventually, become the new normal. right now their motivations are all hypothetical, contingent, abstract. that is not enough in the long term. it will take something real, something personal, to get them not just to stay in Silverbark's company, but to live there. Silverbark has sown the seeds of these in each of her conversations with the core cast. but to paraphrase VV, their ultimate reason for choosing to do what they will do is theirs to decide.

it wouldn't take much to shake (Terezi) out of her present self-destructive funk. it's just that there aren't very many things that could, and most of them are on Earth C. the question for me going forward is, what will it take to transform (Terezi)'s present verve for becoming "a detective" from an elaborate larp into a genuine career conviction? she can't maintain her delusion of moral superiority without that. (Terezi)'s a real piece of work but i don't think she enjoys lying, even and perhaps especially to herself. but she is a serial lifelong liar-by-omission. the currency of her deception is silence.

and that's something that (Terezi) and Silverbark have in common.

my final note (dear god does this woman ever shut up) is on the characterization of Terezi. she obviously doesn't get many lines in this chapter, and that's interesting. I have a hard time imagining that even a medicated 30-something Terezi is particularly good at holding her tongue. part of it is just sheer practicality. there are ELEVEN characters with speaking roles in this chapter, and of those Terezi is the least... i don't want to say "important," because she IS important. least relevant, maybe? none of this interpersonal drama has anything to do with her. when you think about it, Terezi is in a similar position now to the one Silverbark was in when she returned to Earth C. older, wiser, fundamentally different, while simultaneously stepping into the role her less mature younger self occupied in all these people's lives. i think she recognizes that the only thing she can do in this situation is cause trouble, so she mostly avoids contributing altogether. her home base in the scene is Vriska, until at last the space opera drama mamas fuck off to their Very Important Story and she can safely make jokes again. wow, what a bitch. let's go get omelettes.

it'll be interesting to see (when we get to it, which will be a long time from now) how Terezi fits in with Jane and Karkat, and on Earth C in general. how will the media respond to her? how will culture at large respond to her? jesus christ man, it's gonna be such a fucking mess.

anyway, those are some rambling thoughts on Terezi and (Terezi)! i hope your thirst is sated, or at least that you didn't drown.

#godfeels #homestuck #sarahposts #terezi #(terezi)#vriska #silverbark #characterization #fanfic #writing

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currentlyfckingurmom · 2 years ago

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Beneath the Wreckage (part 3)

Chapter Three: Nightmares of Our Past

“Again.” Her feet are bloody in the pointe shoes. “Again.” Her face is blank. “Again.” Her muscles are screaming. “Again.” A wince flashes on her face. “Sloppy. You must show no weakness, Arina. Again.” She slips back into a perfect mask of neutrality with practiced ease. “Again.”

Again.

Show no weakness.

Do better.

Be better.

You are a weapon. You feel nothing. She is nothing to you.

Again.

Blood. Gunshots. Nothing.

The scene changes. Madame B is still there. There is a girl kneeling on the ground with a cloth bag over her head, concealing her identity. “You’re losing your edge, Arina. Do better.”

Madame B removes the bag. Unmistakable red hair. Enchanting green eyes. A silver pendant hanging from her neck. “Kill her.” Arina’s mind is screaming at her to put down the gun, but the metal weapon raises through the air anyway. Her finger tenses and a gunshot fills the room. Natalia collapses, blood pouring from the center of her forehead and all life drained from her eyes. “Good, Arina. Remember who you are.”

Arina shot up in bed, gasping for air. Her hand pressed on her chest, trying to force the oxygen into her lungs. Sweat was dripping down her forehead, her heart racing a mile a minute.

She finally got a breath in, and immediately choked on a sob. Her hands were shaking and her mind was foggy.

Again. Never.

She climbed out of bed and stumbled to the floor, tucking her head between her knees. She drew in sharp, jagged breaths as she tried to calm her breathing.

Show no weakness. Shut up.

If she didn’t get her breathing under control, she feared that she would pass out. Arina established a steady pattern of shaky breathing, only for it to falter as more memories haunted her mind.

Remember who you are. Fuck you.

She stood up on shaky legs and stumbled into the hall toward the nearest bathroom. She fumbled with the light switch as she closed the door. Arina had always hated the dark.

She turned on the faucet and splashed her face with cold water. The hot tears were replaced with new ones as soon as they were washed away. She turned off the sink and sat on the floor. She leaned her head back on the wall and closed her eyes.

Twenty minutes later, Arina stood back up and trudged to her bedroom. She always slept with a lamp on, so there was no need to turn on a light. She glanced at the clock; it was about four in the morning. She got roughly two hours of sleep— typical. She knew she wouldn’t fall back asleep, so she got dressed.

She silently made her way through the bunker toward an old mission room. She was especially careful as she passed the room Natasha was staying in, which was directly next to the mission room. Natasha had gotten the other single bedroom and Yelena was stuck with the bunkroom, mostly because she was the youngest and they said so.

Arina closed the door behind her and stood in front of the bulletin board. Blurry photos, maps, threads, and articles in many different languages decorated the board. It had been years and Arina still hadn’t tracked down Madame B, but if anyone could find her, it would be Arina. What’s that saying about the apple and the tree?

Boxes of files lined the wall and loose papers covered the table in the center of the room. To anyone else, the room would look like a pigsty, but to Arina, it made perfect sense. She spent most of her time in that room. She couldn’t sleep. She couldn’t breathe. She just needed Madame B gone for good.

Natasha woke several hours later. She didn’t move from the bed; her abdomen was throbbing and her head was pounding. She made a mental note to never get shot in the stomach again.

A faint noise caught her attention. Anyone else might’ve disregarded it or failed to notice it in the first place, but Natasha was a trained spy. And trained spies don’t ignore mysterious sounds.

She climbed out of bed and opened the bedroom door, looking both ways down the hall. She didn’t see anything, so she closed the door behind her and waited. She heard the shuffling of papers from the next door down, so that’s where she went.

Natasha entered the mission room and her eyebrows immediately raised in shock. Arina bent over a stack of papers, highlighter in mouth, and brows furrowed in concentration was not what Natasha had expected to find.

“Uh, what are you doing?”

“Nothing, just working on some old files,” Arina lied smoothly.

“Are you sure? Because this seems like a little more than ‘some old files’. Some might even use the word obsessive,” Natasha said, gesturing to the files and papers covering several bulletin boards and part of the wall.

“It’s not obsessive. You try living in a bunker for four years, it gets kinda boring.”

“It’s seven in the morning, why are you doing this right now?”

“Like I said, bored.”

Natasha stepped closer to the nearest bulletin board and when she realized what Arina was working on, her heart dropped to her stomach. With wide eyes, she asked, “Arina, why the hell are you trying to find Madame B?”

Arina hesitated before answering. The truth didn’t matter. “She’s been working for him this whole time. She’s been moving around. You’re the one who took down the Red Room, and I don’t want to risk any loose ends.”

“How can you even be sure? There was no mention of her in Dreykov’s database and nobody’s heard from her since we were teenagers! You’re hunting ghosts, Arina.”

“Because I just know, Natasha! I know her and I know that she’s still working for the Red Room—until you blew it up, at least. Do you really want to risk her putting it back together, or starting some new program? You have no idea, Natasha! I can’t just let her walk around.”

“Stop acting like I don’t get it, Arina! I was there with you, remember? The only thing I don’t understand is why you’re so obsessed with Madame B. She was just a trainer, and not the only one, either. What makes her so important? So dangerous?” “Just stop, Natasha! You don’t know what you’re talking about! This is none of your business. It doesn’t matter.”

“Look...you’re free, Aria. The Red Room is gone. You don’t have to worry about this anymore. I just don’t want you to drown in the past, that’s all.”

“It’s not the past, though, Talia. I can’t escape it. I live with all of it, every single day of my life. If I’m going to keep going, then something needs to change.” Arina’s voice broke as she spoke, and tears filled her eyes. “Killing Madame B won’t fix everything, but maybe I’ll sleep a little better knowing that she’s dead. I know you get it, Natasha, so please, just let me do what I have to do.” She hastily wiped the tears dripping down her face and spun around to look at the board, avoiding eye contact.

“Okay,” Natasha said quietly. “Just don’t get yourself killed. Not when I just got you back.”

She is nothing to you.

“You didn’t get me back.” The words spilled from Arina’s mouth before she knew what she was saying, and they tasted bitter on her tongue. “I just mean that-”

“No, I get what you mean. I’m gonna go wake up Yelena,” Natasha said before turning around and leaving the room, clearly upset. Natasha had never been able to hide her emotions from Arina.

Arina collapsed into a chair and ran her hands down her face, muttering ‘fuck’.

You feel nothing. The cold grip of the familiar words echoed in her mind as a blank expression overtook her face. She rose with a sigh and went to the kitchen to make some breakfast.

Natasha walked down the cold, concrete hall of the bunker with a slight limp. She knocked on the metal door before opening it and walking inside. There were bunk beds lining two of the walls and Yelena was in the bed in the furthest corner.

“I’m up, I’m awake,” the blonde mumbled as she sat up and rubbed the sleep from her eyes.

“Morning,” Natasha said as she sat down on a bunk across from Yelena. Her tone seemed to give nothing away, but Yelena knew Natasha better than everyone. Well, almost everyone.

“What’s the matter with you? Trouble with your little girlfriend?”

“Shut up, she’s not my girlfriend. And nothing’s wrong, it’s just bringing up a lot from the past. Between the Red Room, freeing the Widows, and seeing her again…” Natasha trailed off as she shook her head and clenched her jaw.

“Yeah, I get what you mean. It’s a lot for me, too,” Yelena said with a small, comforting smile. “But we’re okay. We’re together and we’re just fine.”

“We’re just fine,” Natasha repeated with an unconvincing smirk.

As Natasha and Yelena neared the kitchen, the sound of “You Give Love A Bad Name” filled their ears. They shared a look with furrowed eyebrows and kept walking.

They got to the kitchen and saw Arina standing over a pan of pancakes, nodding her head to the beat and silently mouthing the words.

Sensing their presence, Arina said, “Morning, guys. Pancakes are almost done. If you want something else, that sucks for you because I wanted pancakes.” She never even looked up from the pan.

Natasha shook her head with a smirk. A lot had changed, but Arina’s mood swings certainly hadn’t. It probably had something to do with the deep psychological conditioning and torture she had endured, but ignorance is bliss, so Natasha refused to think about that.

Arina plated the pancakes and set them in front of the other two women. After putting Natasha’s plate in front of her, she hesitated before saying, “I’m sorry about this morning. I shouldn’t have yelled.” She turned around and went to the other side of the kitchen before Natasha had the chance to respond. Yelena looked between the two older women with raised eyebrows, but ultimately decided that her pancakes were more important.

Nobody spoke until breakfast was over.

“So, Arina. Natasha says you can replicate the Red Dust,” Yelena said.

“Replicate the what?”

“Red Dust— it’s what she calls the counteragent for the Red Room’s chemical subjugation. I said you might be able to replicate it because you worked with chemicals for a while,” Natasha clarified.

“Oh, yeah, I can try. No promises, though,” Arina said with a shrug.

“Why were you working with chemicals? Weren’t you a Widow?” Yelena asked.

“I was assigned to guard a scientist for the Red Room. I don’t know what exactly she was working on, but it must’ve been important. I protected her and helped her with stuff around her lab. Although, she was a Widow, so she didn’t really need me to protect her. I spent almost two years there, so I learned a few things along the way.”

“Did we know her?” Natasha asked.

“I have no idea. I’d seen her going to Dreykov’s office a few times, but that’s it. I wasn’t allowed to know her name. Should we head down to the lab?”

“There’s a lab in this place?!”

“Of course there’s a lab, Lena. Where else am I gonna cook my meth?”

Series Masterlist

#yelena belova #natasha romanoff #natasha romanoff fluff #natasha and yelena #natasha romanoff x reader #natasha romanoff x oc #black widow #black widow x reader

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still-single · 2 years ago

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Records I Am Glad to Have Found in 2023: Part 1

Instead of rufflin' whatever (feather) maybe it's better that there's just a place where I can tell you that my life is better for having found these records and having them within reach. Maybe you might wanna reach for them as well. Up to you! Maybe feel fortunate that I want to engage with Tumblr at all, but the 16 or so accounts who said (anonymously) that they miss my review content may get a kick out of all this, and see where my head's at now.

New records, not-new records, things I bought, things that were sent to me, things I bartered for. Fair play.

First up, this Beau Wanzer record that I wrote up a while back. I feel exactly the same about it. It's new as of January and there aren't many releases out there like it at the moment. Undead, shufflin' Beau hours. One of my favorite DJs and electronic musicians in Chicago, he really does not seem to walk any path other than his own.

Al B. Sure! - In Effect Mode LP (Uptown/Warner Bros., 1988)

Growing up in my early teens, two songs from Al B. Sure!'s debut album were more or less inescapable: the masterful slow jam "Nite and Day," and the more uptempo quasi-diss track "Off On Your Own (Girl)." I never owned the record (why would I, this always seemed like a "why buy the cow" situation), and it never seemed to turn up used, something I better understand now.

youtube

This thing is great! It's short, mindful of our time and Al's. Side 1 contains four slow jams (the Nite! side), kicking off with the classic "Nite and Day" (so much rooftop glare and World Trade Center fixation in the vid) and cascading down into the whisper/falsetto/snap percussion ballad "Oooh This Love Is So" (kinda like an older brother NKOTB slow jam, really well arranged, FM synths cresting over top with some tasteful guitar buried underneath). His take on Roberta Flack's "Killing Me Softly" is doctor's office soft, but works where the Fugees' take doesn't, as Al seems to know there's no improving on the original, and he's lucky just to put it in his framework. "Naturally Mine" is like the shadowy flipside to the majesty of the opener, and doesn't come close, but also doesn't need to; the Teddy Riley guitar work does a lot on its own.

Side 2 (the Day! side) turns on the lights for some more uptempo New Jack Swing template jams. Opener "Rescue Me" sounds like two songs that were somehow merged into one, but that may just be the tonal difference between the intro and verse structure.

youtube

"Off On Your Own (Girl)" is neatly, nearly perfect, with quiet, pressurized syncopation, Al's bellyache storytellin' (sits by the phone a lot, it seems), and a delivery, particularly in the chorus, which says so much more than the title states. I'm particularly enamored of his switching between judgmental sing-speak/orchestra hit stress and his bracing falsetto. On the stremf! He even throws us a Slick Rick impression in a bridge. Last two tracks seem interchangeable but that's fine; you don't serve surf after the turf, even if you're coming in hot with bass pounds.

Uptown is generally a welcome sign of quality for this time and place; from Al to Heavy D., Guy to Jodeci. Andre knew what was up. Cool cat logo too.

Honestly there are probably other Al jams worth seeking out, and of course his performance in New Jack City when he fingers Ice-T as a narc with those Bert eyebrows of his. Most people don't hit this sort of success right out of the gate, and that's the needle he threads so effortlessly here.

Ron Morelli – Heart Stopper 2xLP (L.I.E.S., 2023)

Ron was one of the first people I met when I moved to NYC in 2000, and for a while I was regularly having lunch with him, Steve Roche, Adam Paterson, and Matt Smith at the Uptown Juice Bar in lower Manhattan, when we were all working in some sort of office and/or dot-com capacity, going to ABC No Rio and the like. I'd fall in and out of that orbit for a while over the next 6-7 years, as bands formed and broke up, people worked up their DJ chops, etc. At some point Ron moved down to Philly and was grinding in a more formal club DJ capacity before coming back to NYC and starting L.I.E.S., living in the trap, and working at A-1 in the East Village. It wasn't easy, even in that orbit, to find the L.I.E.S. releases, but the quality was always there.

I fell off a bit due to life and the like, missed a lot of Ron's Hospital output (as well as a lot of later L.I.E.S., again due to life stuff; the last one I gripped from the initial run was Florian Kupfer's Lifetrax), and last I knew he had relocated to Paris. Living in Chicago has given me more of an opportunity to interface with house music as it happened, with proximity to the records and DJs in clubs, to where it started to click with me. Heart Stopper retains this same sort of focus, drilling down on the repetition and stress/release of the foundational cuts of the initial era. My fave here is "Tangled Trap of Love," a big nod to Master C & J's "Face It," but I've found myself putting this record on and letting it roll to the close more often than most I've favored this year. Didn't make it to the Podlasie Club back in May, but I did appreciate this (paywalled) interview in the First Floor Substack, the guy I remember so well playing stoically to the bozos up front, dialing down style to the horizon where it meets substance and accepting nothing less.

(Doug Mosurock)

#doug mosurock #reviews #2023 #ron morelli #al b. sure!#beau wanzer #still single #chicago #heathendisco #Youtube #Bandcamp

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plethomacademia · 11 months ago

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for the fake fic game!!

title: north star

tags: first time

Answering these!! Title: North Star

Tags: first time, astarion/dark urge, two vulnerable people trying to slightly lower their walls, bad impulse control meets profound memory loss

Summary: After Maeve and Astarion have sex for the first time, they try something new: having an actual conversation.

Snippet below cut bc I said the c word like three sentences in. The North Star would be later when they talk about finding their way if they don't go to Baldur's Gate but uh I went too long.

Maeve raises her arms above her chest, the arch of her back causing every sharp pine needle and root to seem to come out of the ground beneath her. She leans into the scratch of it, lets the pain of tiny cuts mix in with the throbbing her her neck and her cunt, the ache of her back, and the satisfying soreness in her scalp. For the first time since she can remember, it is enough and she finally feels a sense of calm.

Her partner clears his throat. He is sitting up, vegetable matter threaded into his curls. "So, do you think he will be able to cure us?" When she raises her eyebrow in question, he rolls his eyes. "The druid. It seems like a lot of effort, killing a whole pack of goblins on the off chance he will be more useful than the rest have been."

They have seen a whole parade of would be saviors since their adventure had began: a lesser druid, a hag, a devil, a mysterious figure that haunts their dreams. All of them have fallen short and she understands his insinuation: if all of them couldn't save them, why would this druid be any different?

She does not hesitate to answer. "No." He starts to reply and she cuts in, "But, yes it seems like a waste of time but consider, Astarion. Best case, he can cure us. Worst case, he owes us."

"You're forgetting the actual worse case, darling." He pauses for effect and she thinks of actors, of stages, of plays that she almost remembers watching. He might fit on one, if he practiced more. "We could be killed."

"We seem quite difficult to kill so far. No, I think the actual worst case is we manage to kill the druid while we kill the goblins. Then we will have done all that work for nothing."

He laughs, a full bark of a laugh that she has not heard from him before. "Gods, imagine. You know, the others would say it was for the greater good or something."

"Well, they aren't here so we don't have to pretend, do we?"

He looks down at her, not at her bare breasts or torso or legs or even his teeth mark on her neck, but at her. She looks at him as well as she can under moonlight filtered through trees and for a brief moment, they see each other.

He glances away and when he looks back, his smile is sharp and his eyes are guarded. She feels her face do the same.

"That we don't." His red eyes move as if to track down her body now but she doesn't feel them on her. A stage direction. A transition. "Your blood has invigorated me quite thoroughly. Perhaps there's something better we can do with our tongues than prattle on?"

#asks #oops #how many words do you think this is #maevestarion #maeve #astarion #THANK YOU ROWAN THAT WAS REALLY FUN

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isolatednights · 12 days ago

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OPEN TO: fem 25+ CHARACTER: roman hargrove, 25, former military turned private security PLOT: in source ( roman is muse A, your character is muse C ), five and a half months after the dead rose. *note: replies will be posted in a new thread for tracking purposes

they'd been poking around a nursey - trying to see if any of the plants had survived despite the lack of care. he'd eyes his companion skeptically when she'd padded up to him with something hidden behind her back. when a strawberry plant had been revealed with several fat berries weighing down its stems, the man had laughed heartily. returning to where she'd initially found the sweet treat, the pair and stood silently munching away until the familiar groans of the dead drove them move on.

with their initial entry to the store blocked, the duo had been forced around back. boosting her up and over a fence, roman had heard the tear of fabric and hiss of pain as the woman and dropped back to the other side. had they not been forced to sleep the steadily approaching dead, he would've stopped to insist he look at it right then and there.

hours had passed ; night was beginning to creep up on them, and the pair had found a house to hunker down in for the evening. having cleared the space and further ensured no one dead or alive would be busting into the space once dark fully settled, roman had padded into the living room and tossed her a pair of jeans. "not sure they're you're size, but they'll have to do. c'mon. got some stuff out on the kitchen counter. lemme take a look at your leg and patch you up."

#indie rp #indie starter #indie open #open starter #chats ⸻ roman

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botanyone · 5 months ago

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Carbon Cycling Fast & Slow

Carbon Cycling, Fast & Slow https://ift.tt/IrxSsLO Tangarife-Escobar and colleagues have uncovered insights into carbon cycling in boreal forests. The scientists studied a forest stand in northern Sweden, examining how carbon moves through different parts of the ecosystem. The team found that carbon cycles rapidly through living plants, taking just months to years. However, carbon in dead plant matter and wood can stick around for decades. Surprisingly, very little new carbon makes its way into deeper mineral soils, where it could be stored long-term. The scientists measured radiocarbon to track how carbon moves through various forest components. This technique uses the “bomb spike” of radiocarbon released by nuclear testing in the 1950s-60s as a tracer. Higher levels of this radiocarbon indicate more recent carbon, while lower levels suggest older carbon. The researchers discovered that carbon in leaves, moss, and fungi was quite new – less than two years old on average. In contrast, carbon in dead wood and the upper soil layer was decades old. Worryingly, mineral soils below 10 cm depth contained very little new carbon, despite storing large amounts of old carbon. The research provides new evidence that mineral soils incorporate very little new carbon, challenging assumptions about long-term carbon storage in these ecosystems. Altogether, we show evidence of a slow accumulation rate of SOM [Soil Organic Matter] restricted to the most superficial soil layer, which coupled with the fast ecosystem respiration, indicates that boreal forests soils may not be efficient for short-term C sequestration. Tangarife‐Escobar, A., Guggenberger, G., Feng, X., Muñoz, E., Chanca, I., Peichl, M., Smith, P., & Sierra, C. A. (2024). Radiocarbon Isotopic Disequilibrium Shows Little Incorporation of New Carbon in Mineral Soils of a Boreal Forest Ecosystem. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences. https://doi.org/10.1029/2024JG008191 (OA) Cross-posted to Bluesky, Mastodon & Threads. The post Carbon Cycling, Fast & Slow appeared first on Botany One. via Botany One https://botany.one/ September 10, 2024 at 04:30AM

#Botany #Plant Science #Botany One

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this-week-in-rust · 2 years ago

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This Week in Rust 468

Hello and welcome to another issue of This Week in Rust! Rust is a programming language empowering everyone to build reliable and efficient software. This is a weekly summary of its progress and community. Want something mentioned? Tweet us at @ThisWeekInRust or send us a pull request. Want to get involved? We love contributions.

This Week in Rust is openly developed on GitHub. If you find any errors in this week's issue, please submit a PR.

Updates from Rust Community

Official

Announcing Rust 1.65.0

Project/Tooling Updates

rust-analyzer changelog #154

IntelliJ Rust Changelog #182

This Month in Rust OSDev: October 2022 | Rust OSDev

This Week in Fyrox

Cap'n Proto - Generic Associated Types

Gitoxide - Cloning the Linux kernel in under a minute

This week in Fluvio #48: The programmable streaming platform

Observations/Thoughts

Scoped threads in Rust, and why its async counterpart would be unsound

34 Must Know Terms for Embedded Rust Newbies

what if pointer properties were in the rust type system

mmap(1Tb): A Rust arena allocator (ab)using Linux overcommit

Contributing to Rust: Bootstrapping the Rust Compiler (rustc)

The ‘Viral’ Secure Programming Language That’s Taking Over Tech

[FR] Rust par le Métal : move, clone, copy (series)

[FR] Rust par le Métal (Annexe) : Les bases de nombres (series)

Rust Walkthroughs

Tauri vs. Electron for Tray Apps

Running Rust in AWS Lambda with SAM — Part 1

Tower, Episode 2: calling a Tower Service

Writing an eBPF/XDP Load-Balancer in Rust

Floating Point Arcade

[video] Cost-Efficient Rust in Practice, Rust Tokyo

Research

Can Rust-wrapped C++ offer performance and stability benefits?

Miscellaneous

Lynx Joins AdaCore and Ferrous Systems to Bring Rust to Embedded Developers

[video] RUST 1.65 - let-else statements - new language feature!!!

[video] The Rust Programming Language for Game Tooling

[video] Bencher—Catch Performance Regressions in CI @ Rust DC, September 20, 2022 w/ Everett Pompeii

[video] Impractical Rust: The HATETRIS World Record @ Rust DC, October 18, 2022 w/Dave Freiberg+Felipe Suero

[DE] Programmiersprache Rust 1.65 führt Generic Associated Types ein

[DE] Ferris Talk #12: Web-APIs mit Rust erstellen

Crate of the Week

This week's crate is enum_delegate, a crate to replace dynamic dispatch with enum dispatch.

Thanks to Devin Brite for the suggestion!

Please submit your suggestions and votes for next week!

Call for Participation

Always wanted to contribute to open-source projects but didn't know where to start? Every week we highlight some tasks from the Rust community for you to pick and get started!

Some of these tasks may also have mentors available, visit the task page for more information.

FOSDEM 2023 Rust devroom CFP

If you are a Rust project owner and are looking for contributors, please submit tasks here.

Updates from the Rust Project

396 pull requests were merged in the last week

(almost) always use ObligationCtxt when dealing with canonical queries

fix(generic_const_exprs):fix predicate inheritance for children of opaque types

make cpp-like debuginfo type names for slices and str consistent

track where diagnostics were created

rustc_metadata: encode even less doc comments

add multivalue target feature to WASM target

allow use of -Clto=thin with -Ccodegen-units=1 in general

lint against usages of struct_span_lint_hir

stable Lower lint level for read_zero_byte_vec

reduce span of let else irrefutable_let_patterns warning

suggest use .. to fill in the rest of the struct fields

better error for rustc_strict_coherence misuse

correctly resolve Inherent Associated Types

don't silently eat label before block in block-like expr

interpret: fix align_of_val on packed types

make proc_macro_derive_resolution_fallback a hard error

make underscore_literal_suffix a hard error

normalize types when deducing closure signature from supertraits

miri: implement condvars for Windows

miri: initOnce: synchronize with completion when already complete

rewrite implementation of #[alloc_error_handler]

remove bounds check when array is indexed by enum

stabilize the instruction_set feature

implement std::marker::Tuple, use it in extern "rust-call" and Fn-family traits

futures: do not require Clone for Shared::peek

libtest: run all tests in their own thread, if supported by the host

rustdoc: fix merge of attributes for reexports of local items

rustdoc: make Item::visibility computed on-demand

bindgen: add support for the "C-unwind" ABI

bindgen: add the --override-abi option

bindgen: allow callback composition

bindgen: wrap unsafe function's bodies in unsafe blocks

clippy: add allow-print-in-tests config

clippy: add new lint let_underscore_future

clippy: extend needless_collect

clippy: fix ICE in redundant_allocation

clippy: fix unnecessary_join turbofish in suggest message

clippy: improve needless_lifetimes

clippy: move needless_collect to nursery

clippy: shrink missing_{safety, errors, panics}_doc spans

rust-analyzer: add "Convert match to let-else" assist

rust-analyzer: add config for inserting must_use in generate_enum_as_method

rust-analyzer: extracted method from trait impl is placed in existing impl

rust-analyzer: generalize reborrow hints as adjustment hints

rust-analyzer: show signature help when calling generic types implementing FnOnce

rust-analyzer: fix the length displayed for byte string literals with escaped newlines

rust-analyzer: async trait method for unnecessary_async

rust-analyzer: fix reference searching only accounting substrings instead of whole identifiers

rust-analyzer: make custom expr prefix completions to understand refs

rust-analyzer: fixed local shadowing the caller's argument issue

rust-analyzer: lower unsafety of fn pointer and fn item types

rust-analyzer: migrate assists to format args captures, part 3

rust-analyzer: scip: generate symbols for local crates

Rust Compiler Performance Triage

A relatively noisy week (most of those have been dropped below, and comments left on GitHub), but otherwise a quiet one in terms of performance changes, with essentially no significant changes occuring.

Triage done by @simulacrum. Revision range: 822f8c2..57d3c58

2 Regressions, 2 Improvements, 3 Mixed; 3 of them in rollups 39 artifact comparisons made in total

See the full report for more details.

Call for Testing

An important step for RFC implementation is for people to experiment with the implementation and give feedback, especially before stabilization. The following RFCs would benefit from user testing before moving forward:

No RFCs issued a call for testing this week.

If you are a feature implementer and would like your RFC to appear on the above list, add the new call-for-testing label to your RFC along with a comment providing testing instructions and/or guidance on which aspect(s) of the feature need testing.

Approved RFCs

Changes to Rust follow the Rust RFC (request for comments) process. These are the RFCs that were approved for implementation this week:

crates.io token scopes

Final Comment Period

Every week, the team announces the 'final comment period' for RFCs and key PRs which are reaching a decision. Express your opinions now.

RFCs

[disposition: close] RFC 3283: Backward compatible default features

[disposition: close] RFC: Rust SemVer 2

[disposition: postpone] Add named path bases to cargo

Tracking Issues & PRs

No Tracking Issues or PRs entered Final Comment Period this week.

New and Updated RFCs

[new] Create an Operational Semantics Team

[new] Add a --compile-time-deps build flag to cargo build

[new] RFC: Anonymous Associated Types

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Meanwhile the Rust shop has covers on everything and tag-out to even change settings of the multi-axis laser cutter, but you get trusted with said laser cutter on your first day, and if someone gets hurt people wonder how to make the shop safer.

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Thanks to Anton Fetisov for the suggestion!

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theultimatefan · 2 years ago

Text

Kitman Labs announces Performance Intelligence Deal with Danish Superliga Club, FC Midtjylland

Kitman Labs, the global enterprise SaaS company providing the only single, centralized operating platform for performance intelligence in the elite performance industry, today announced a new deal with Danish Superliga club, FC Midtjylland. This deal makes FC Midtjylland the fifth club in the League to subscribe to Kitman’s proprietary, multi-solution advanced operating system, iP: Intelligence Platform. Other clubs adopting the platform include: Aalborg Boldspilklub, Aarhus Gymnastikforening, FC Nordsjaelland and Viborg FF. All five clubs have now been onboarded, the technology has been deployed and will be in use throughout the 2024 season.

In all instances, the clubs have adopted the full suite of Solutions including: Performance Medicine, Performance Optimization and Talent Development. The platform combines medical, performance and talent development data into a single, interactive system that yields actionable intelligence to support specific performance outcomes while providing a complete, comprehensive view of each individual player within the team.

“We are pleased to continue to work with progressive and insightful football clubs the world over. These five clubs - representing close to half of the Danish SuperLiga - show how we can customize each program to support the bespoke needs and objectives of each organization within the League,” Kitman Labs CEO Stephen Smith said. “ Whether it's ensuring a heightened level of regulatory compliance related to personal and medical data or systemizing the most effective talent development pipeline, our technology - combined with the Team’s expertise - has been designed to address the most critical operational needs and objectives of teams and leagues within global sport.”

The Intelligence Platform allows us to gather all of the Club’s data and make it easily accessible to all relevant departments. This applies to everything from training planning to talent development and treatments in the physical sector,” said Sven Graverson, Sporting Director, FC Midtjylland . “With Kitman Labs, the data is available in real time and ensures that there is a common thread from Guldminen to the first team with better insight into the individual player, efficiency of the work process and integration of data into the decision-making process.”

Kitman Labs has an established track record of working with top Leagues and teams across a variety of sports at the professional and collegiate level including, soccer, American football, basketball, and rugby. The company's technology has been used by some of the world's most elite sports organizations, such as Bayer Leverkusen, Malmö FF, and Columbus Crew.

This new business launch follows other recent business strategy moves Kitman Labs has undertaken. That includes the successful close of a $52M Series C funding round led by Guggenheim Investments, a global asset investment and advisory firm with more than $259 billion* in assets under management and two strategic acquisitions of The Sports Office and Presagia Sports, both made in the last two years. The combined companies represent the industry’s largest network of elite and youth organizations (700+) and created the industry’s largest dataset of talent, performance, and medical data for all stages of the athlete lifecycle.

0 notes

horizon-verizon · 2 years ago

Text

*EDITED REBLOG* 11/4/23

Revisiting this Topic: Rhaegar's Actions with Lyanna and Elia

Comments in this thread to Remember:

[winelover1989] it's because cheating is something everyone has actually experienced at some point in their lives so the visceral hate comes from a more personal place compared to the other stuff that horrifies people in more of a news way

[riana-one] Because no one tries to justify what Tywin or Gregor did to Elia while every insane shipper tries to justify, explain away, or defend what Rhaegar did to his wife and children.

[riana-one] Nationally humiliating his pregnant wife. Disappearing after kicking off a major war while leaving his wife and children unprotected and in the reach of Aerys.

[aemontargaryen-bloodraven] Just a warning, Riana-one has dedicated her life to Rhaegar bashing and calling Jon, a Blackfyre for some reason. Also, she is a fan of fics that has Eddard Stark getting Lyanna drugged and forcefully marrying her to Oberyn where she and Jon are constantly abused.

[riana-one] And here we have the disconnect. Rhaegar was not the 'victim', Rhaegar started the entire bloody affair. Disappearing with the Warden of the North's daughter and leaving the diplomatic crisis in the hands of his mad father who burned people alive for dinner theater was the equivalent of throwing a burning match into a barn with all his loved ones aside. You want to reframe the argument about infidelity?

[riana-one] What is worse is leaving your vulnerable wife and children alone, abandoned, and unguarded while a war rages and your mad father can get his hands on them. Aerys regularly savaged his sister queen so badly he maids thought a wild animal attacker her. Elia and her children were in danger, the minute they were ordered to leave Dragonstone. Even leading an army of Dornishmen, Rhaegar leaves his family to Aerys. Then he dies.

[riana-one] You want to minimize Rhaegar's actions but the sad truth that the only reason Elia and her children were in a position to be harmed by Tywin Lannister and his goons because Rhaegar. If Rhaegar hadn't run off with Lyanna, none of this would have happened. If Rhaegar had stuck around to face the Starks, none of this would happen. If Rhaegar had sent his wife and children to Dorne or Essos, none of this would happen. But you want Rhaegar to be the victim.

Tracking Rhaegar's, Elia, and Lyanna's Moves Right Before the Rebellion and During It:

281 A.C. -- Rhaegar gives Lyanna the winter rose crown of love and beauty instead of his wife Elia (presumably, if we traece other fans' ideas, bc of many things: he admired her disguised participation as the Knight of the Laughing Tree; wanted the Starks or Baratheons to become more invested through even their outrage [this was a person's theory]; with the said crown he might have seen a vision with winter roses and Lyanna in it and decided to take that risk in that moment to trigger events he thought he needed.)

281-282 A.C. -- Rhaegar leaves Elia and their kids at Dragonstone "with half a dozen of his closest friends and confidants, on a journey that would ultimately lead him back to the riverlands" (TWoIaF -- the Year of the False Spring). Where they had already been living, away from Aerys, presumably bc Aerys is fucking bonkers and Rhaegar wanted to protect his family from him!

282 A.C. -- around Harrenhal, Rhaegar and Lyanna disappear together, triggering her father and brother to travel to KL by themselves and Brandon (brother) calls out ""come out and die.", not knowing Rhaegar is not in the city -> Aerys tortures and burns both him and his father

(*later, c 282-283 A.C.) Aerys calls back Elia and her kids by his side with -> sometime between Rhaegar leaving and him coming back with his army, where he then speaks to Jaime about protecting the city (and presumably Elia & their kids)

c. 283 A.C. -- Aerys King Aerys sent Ser Gerold Hightower (the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard) to retrieve Rhaegar

283 A.C. -- Rhaegar returns to the crownlands and takes command of the Targaryen army after Jon Connington loses in the battle of the Bells

283 -- Battle of the Trident -> Rhaegar dies

283 A.C. -- Aerys sends pregnant Rhaella and Viserys to Dragonstrone but keeps Elia and her kids with him in fear of the Martells betraying him

Current Thoughts (Which for the most part, hasn't changed)

Rhaegar was dead before the Sacking of King's Landing, as the Battle of the Trident occurred before that sack. and way before that, before he met up with Lyanna, he had left Elia and their kids at Dragonstone, a place where anyone in his and her position would think they would be safe. After he did this, he traveled around with companions for a while.

It was Aerys who recalled Elia and her kids and used their lives to KL to use against his enemies and motivate Elia's uncle Doran--Prince of Dorne--to send his troops and aid him/Rhaegar just before the Battle of the Trident.

Sometime b/t the time Rhaegar left Elia at Dragonstone and when Rhaegar left with Lyanna. We still do not know what exactly Rhaegar what that conversation was like or what he was doing. He traveled around for a long seeming time before he met up with Lyanna in the riverlands.

He never anticipated, I think, that:

the Stark lord and his heir would travel themselves to the Mad King to ask for Rhaegar's punishment instead of some kind of messenger

Brandon Stark would be so brazen to ask for his death directly, triggering Aerys' paranoid violence and defensiveness

Instead of at least--he was going to face the "Mad King"--not calling out his heir to die if he was determined to go to KL with his father

Thus Rhaegar did not have that much reason to suspect that Aerys would even be able to viciously kill Brandon and Rickard, demand Ned's capture from the Arryns, thus triggering them all to call their banners in self-defense & begin the war, AND THEN call Elia back from Dragonstone.

Yes, his running away with Lyanna gave the Starks the motivation to find fault and seek "compensation" from Aerys. Just on the mechanical, practical sense of our knowledge Lyanna is the object on which these men (including Robert) rely for their political alliance.

It seems like the real source of some eople's issue against Rhaegar is not his political decisions or times when he eschewed the political element for the more personal side but that he specifically cheated on Elia, the cheating alone. But his cheating--instead of plotting against him and Aerys and then endangering that plot for his romance with Lyanna--became the reason for his irresponsibility making way for evildoers to successfully carry out their goals. Thus, because he does not stick to his wife and stay close to her, he loses the sympathy of some readers.

If you hated him for just the cheating, valid, since (two things that may not be mutually exclusive, but we don't know for now):

Yes, cheating is wrong and yes Rhaegar cheating vs Elia or a woman cheating means something very different and more negative for the woman if we "reversed" it--His giving Lyanna the Crown at the tourney of Harrenhal while she was there and running off with her in any circumstance b/t her and Rhaegar does not look at all very good for Elia's reputation/her esteem in the eyes of the royal courts and other nobles, if nothing else, even if she vocally consented to any/all his extramarital affairs. Even with Elia being a Dornish noblewoman (Dornish people are less stigmatizing against illegitimate people and mistresses and extramarital sex), her being too ill/frail for sex, their marriage arranged, there being no real sign they were emotionally very very close, etc., her being physically frail while still having to passively and actively represent their kids/her own house in a nonDornish court where people would view her a bit differently, more pathetically, than they perhaps already did due to her health...It'd be harder for her to find and keep some respect in court, or a sense of power and control. Dwellordream writes this post about male vs female infidelity. However, we don't have proof of Elia feeling this way, but it is a valid conclusion to make bc of the circumstances of female vs male intimacies & allowances, the consequences towards their agency or political authority BUT this still doesn't place blame for the war nor her death solely on Rhaegar when it was Aerys' madness, the Stark father-brother, and the Lannisters who all created the setting for the war to happen in the first place, and Tywin, who gave the orders/allowed the Mountain to murder Rhaegar's family & rape Elia. It's crazy to blame the person who did not make the decisions or had final authority over others' actions. Though he

there is a possibility that if Elia did agree for Rhaegar to have lovers while she was frail in body, it's more because she wanted to survive by not getting pregnant again AS WELL AS her acceptance of extramarital lovers being more a male privilege in that nonDornish court--Rhaegar, with her out for the count, "inevitably" going to use that privilege and her not really having the "leverage" or incentive for him to reserve sex for her alone. However, like I said above, we don't have proof or substantial evidence of this, and I tend to go with the idea, that they had a fine marriage, she was too sick or lethargic to really play court either at KL or Dragonstone, and thus felt that she could not really gainsay or care about Rhaegar's romantic pursuits outside their marriage, lowering this in her list of priorities. (more below)

No, I don't think that the "cheating" (bc we simply don't know what was discussed here between Elia & Rhaegar) was moral, but neither do I think that Rhaelys happening & running away WAS THE ONLY nor even the PRIME REASON the war happened. It definitely was the catalyst for it, but the prime and direct cause? That's exaggeration and misplacement of responsibility for the sake of pushing forward nuclear-family monogamist principles for its own sake as if that were THE only right principle of behavior and family. The deaths of the two Starks by Aerys' were not solely Rhaegar's doing as they decided to approach Aerys in that manner despite knowing his craziness AND it is their deaths+their manner+Aerys demanding the lives of Ned & Robert that makes the second trigger for the war. It made Ned and Robert able to quickly use Jon Arryn to amass armies for self-defense. Rhaegar's decision to take Lyanna contradicted his plans for usurping the evil tyrant that is his father because it created a new problem--no one forced him to decide to be with Lyanna, but as one theory states, it's also possible he went to protect Lyanna (KotLT) from Aerys, who had been searching for the Knight since the Tourney at Harrenhal. Which makes the most sense to me.

And this is coming from a person who can't do any sort of ethical non-monogamy and gets nervous at the mere mention of such in relation to how I imagine relationships for myself. I would have rather Rhaegar gotten some message out to Elia or gotten into a conversation with her about this in the year before he flew away with Lyanna--and maybe he did, we don't even know!--and they come to an understanding that Elia, in her heart of hearts, was fine with but made her own set of boundaries for her own face.

The text never once explains or indicates how Elia herself feels about Rhaegar or Lyanna, but we have people claiming that she was emotionally wracked by this? Maybe, likely upset about her reputation or shocked, but we still don't know who this woman was by personality. With no PoV chapters, even fewer direct quotes from her marriage to Rhaegar to learning of his being with Lyanna, and anyone other than her own brother giving details about her facial expressions and body language when this and that event happened-> this is all speculation using on her heritage, her position, her health, and the arrangements of the marriage itself AND our own thoughts & knowledge about marriage, relationships, court life and women in it. One also cannot claim that she was something like Cersei was/would be, feeling totally humiliated, jilted of a perfect and glorious life, hating Rhaegar, etc. Nothing in the text gives strong enough evidence of what Elia thought. even her at the tourney, all we know for sure was that she was there. No details about her expression, what she said to Rhaegar after, nothing. We get more from Rhaegar and Lyanna than we do for her, bc Ned is a witness to Lyanna's final moments as Robert was for Rhaegar and we documentation of their personalities in more detail PLUS the constant winter blue rose symbolism.

But to say that someone maybe cheating on their spouse directly caused their death because they weren't there to protect them is myopic and if or any of all the factors out of Rhaegar's direct control, where the line between personal and political is in this event of Westerosi monarchy rides and it's a condition, and finally, Rhaegar's actions to take the throne for the sake of peace and preparing against the looming threat against pretty the entire world, of which we see Daenerys' visions and Jaime's memories prove.

Then there is the idea that Elia is PoC and that the "white" Rhaegar was negligent of his PoC wife in favor of a white girl. Once again, their marriage was arranged. Rhaegar did not choose Elia, nor did she independently choose him. Her mother pushed for this marriage after the blunder of Tywin suggesting she marry Elia to Tyrion rather than Jaime.

The Dornish can be PoC (some are paler [paler skin, lighter hair and eyes] than others according to region), but they are NOT PoCs in the same way PoCs of real-life modern peoples are. At all. They are more like white Mediterraneans (Spanish and Italian), who northern EUs saw with distrust in real history. GRRM confirms such on his blog in answer to a question about it.

At the same time, in-world they have customs that make them "queer" enough to be Othered and resented for being outsiders "taking" positions that some in Daeron II's court thought were their court/office positions.

Thus AND still, we see no indication that Rhaegar dismissed Elia for her Dornishness.

That model of PoC female partner negligence depends on the circumstance of the couple coming from a background where they, at one point, freely and independently chose each other and worked to love each other romantically. Where is the evidence that Elia and Rhaegar saw each other as exclusive or had a romantic bond in a more personal sense?

In this world, aristocratic marriage doesn't always =/= a partnership and the marital sex used for producing heirs is not automatically indicative of an emotional bond or understanding of limits. Even with women not having the same ability to have open lovers in marriage as their husbands and any male [dwellordream], Elia herself is Dornish and there is the possibility that she would be personally more open to Rhaegar having a side lover than a nonDornish woman. But we simply do not know bc we barely know anything about her herself except in her younger years she had an active sense of humor and is more open/feels freer to tease or speak her mind (her interest in a lord I forget the name of before he farted).

Also, race is weird in ASoIaF, as it was and is in real life and always will be because race makes no rational sense.

First, both Andals and First Men first came from Essos just as Valyrians and Rhoynish people do and Essos is an analogue for the "Orient" (Asia) but somehow the religion of the Andals (analogue of Catholicism, which modern peoples associate the origins to Europe even though it actually originated in the Mid East). This does seem to try to mirror how there were Christian Africans. And the Summer Islanders are definitely African analouges by how the Westerosi (Daella and Cersei) mimic how medieval Europeans thought of actual Africans and their skin color/reactions to seeing them for the first time in their decidedly non-Westerosi attire. They also hold Pacific Islander cultural attributes and live on islands, physically isolated from the rest of the world except other, closer Islands. And instead of the First Men being like those indigenous groups in crossing a land bridge into a human/hominid land, they are the ones to war with hominids and perform acts of cultural extinction similar to Europeans vs indigenous folk.

This actually goes to establish that the Andals and FM are white analogs, but in the medieval ages and earlier, one's skin color didn't automatically equal that you were a completely different ethnic group. That was more about religion, customs, language, and who lives under what military leader. This is why Jewish people, for a long time, were considered people of their own "race" by eugenists and 15th-century Spanish blood purist authorities who wished to "cleanse" Spain of Muslim, ME, and African Moors and Jewish Europeans. And why, still today, Jewish people aren't considered white "enough" or white at all by some eugenicists, racists, or white people.

Skin-color-linked-to-location racism didn't really come in until people needed a more physical marker of inherent difference, and even then Jewish people were marked Other through religion.

While the Martells usually have darker features by being one of the "salty" Dornish that Daeron I categorized, there are Dornish people who are as pale as a Valyrian, have light-colored eyes like other Westerosi, etc. These are the "stony" Dornish of northern Dorne. The Martells are of the darker "salty" Dornish, and all Dornish have the Seven as their religion (unless we're talking about the Green blood), the same customs, and language (again not the Green blood), all under the Martells' authority. These are all exonyms Daeron I created when he attempted to conquer Dorne, which was at first successful but later was defeated and Dorne retained its independence.

There is no solid racial hierarchy in a consolidated, central state (yet?) and not any that mirrors the modern, real Western one.

Yes, there is xenophobia towards the Dornish from non-Dornish lords, esp in the marches. However, there is no apartheid, no legal nor economic segregation against Dornish or giving some Dornish subtler legal benefits to one people over the other people based on skin or else bc Dorne is still self-sustaining with its own armies. Specifically for there to be anti-Dornish feelings from every single noble, esp a Targ other than Aerys, at court. Unless we talk about Dornish migrants into Westeros, where of course we're going to see a lot more blatant discrimination ind and socially.

Some fraction of stormlanders, Reachmen, and Dornish all lived/live in the Dornish marches as they fought with each other for resources and in revenge trips. The Marches are a section of land:

of southern Westeros in the border region north of Dorne. The marches are predominantly in the southwestern stormlands and extend east to the Sea of Dorne, although much of the western marches are within the Reach People from the region are known as marchers, and they are ruled by marcher lords.

AND it is:

grassland, moors, and plains, with a portion of the Red Mountains to the east. The highlands of the marches have a cold climate

The "stony" Dornish AND the Dornish marchers of the Dornish marches tend to be lighter of skin and eyes like the Stormlanders, Reachmen, and Stomlander/Reachman marchers and they have the most in common with other Dornishmen -> and yet:

Marchers and Dornishmen each consider the other to be liars to be liars, and marchers consider the Dornish accent of the Common Tongue to be incomprehensible.

It's not accurate to say that the Martells or the Dornishmen are PoCs in the exact same way that African or Arabic people are PoCs in today's sociopolitical global community in light of all that. That would be like saying the Italians, Spanish, Welsh, Irish, Scots, are all PoCs just because they fought against Anglo-Saxons for independence and because the Anglo-Saxons Othered them for it. However, the Martells at least do seem to be able to be adapted as PoC bc of the skin color, which doesn't matter as much as the refusal to bar women from power?...confusion.

The Martells have been loyal (or really non-combative and have officially become a part of the 7 kingdoms) to Rhaegar's house ever since Daeron I's marriage and to this day seek revenge not against Daenerys or any Targ but Robert and especially Tywin for their betrayal and Elia/her kids' murders. Yes, Doran, Oberyn, and Lewyn Martell all look side at Rhaegar for leaving Elia at all for Lyanna, but the Martells have always been considered to be worthy persons to ally themselves with and to marry, with no feelings about skin or such from any Targ.

Well, maybe not Aerys II, who said that his granddaughter Rhaenys "smelled Dornish", but he was the one to seek out and approve of the marriage in the first place.

....All to say that Aerys' sentiment was not as endemic or indicative of actual systematic discrimination against Dornish peoples [discriminatory laws, economic exclusion, impoverishment of ethnic groups, none of this exists in Westeros specifically towards Dornish peoples]) NOR does Rhaegar ever express anti-Dornishness. That rather was a Baratheon or other stormlanders/marchers (and not much one else) in the time of Daeron II.

Rather, Elia x Rhaegar are foils of the would be Robert x Lyanna and the Robert x Cersei pairings.

I think that we have a case of people trying to push forward a principle of relationships onto a grander political platform when the relationship is really only one bar of a ladder that's been constructed for a long long time. But they want to attack the cheating by making it the material of which the ladder is made of.

Did Rhaegar know of discontent against Aerys, including Tywin? Most likely, he wasn't incapable of observation and reasoning, but even then, how would he know that Tywin was so discontented as to want to or be close to stage a coup or turn his soldiers against the Targs in their moment of need? In the text, several times, it is expressed how much of a surprise it was, everyone expected the Lannister to back the Targs all the way through. We the readers may know, they don't. Pseudo-Dramatic irony.

And while Rhaegar knew there were probably enemies and who they were, he has no way of actually knowing that the Starks would think it wise to confront Aerys alone and head on, that Aerys would kill them in such humiliating and traumatic ways, that Tywin specifically as pretty much instantaneously ready to take them all on.

And his presence at KL would have helped at least marginally, but what if he had traveled at Aerys' own behest or gone on to other duties that took him far away from KL?

Wouldn't Tywin have also taken advantage then? Maybe it wouldn't have been the exact same way as what happened after Rhaegar and Lyanna dipped, but if the element Tywin wanted was Rhaegar's absence, there are ways other than Rhaegar's own decision to get him out of KL for a specific or inordinate amount of time and separate him from an army. It is said that Rhaegar's departure with Lyanna is the trigger and/or actual cause of the war, but again Tywin was likely always plotting against the Targs and biding his time, seeing what he could gain at every turn of the fighting. Rhaegar did make it easier by not being present, but is there true evidence that he would have won if he stayed at Dragonstone and followed Elia to KL? How would he have known there would have been a war triggered by the Aersy and the Starks in the exact way that it actually happened when it was very preventable on Brandon and Rickard Stark's end?

And concerning Aerys being a danger to Elia and her kids, was Aerys only ever dangerous to them once Tywin and Robert threatened him?! And even then, he left them alone, not abuse them. And how could he stop his king father from keeping Elia and their kids with him when it's obvious Aerys was determined to keep them close? What would readers have done, with a volatile, paranoid, but-in-the-highest-position-of-power directs that your family stays close to them during a war, what would readers have done? I wonder. As long as you don't rile or make Aerys/someone like him suspicious too much, your kids are safe.

Also, Aerys refused to take Elia and her kids to Dragonstone with Rhaella and his own son, Viserys, because he wanted to use her and those kids as hostages believing that the Dornish had betrayed him after the Battle of the Trident where the Targ army with the Dornish army lost. Aerys wasn't afraid of getting on Rhaella's "bad side" nor was wary of her because she literally had no power against him, no other persons who could help her, and was under his full authority. Earlier male Targ practice of denying/taking political authority or power away from their female relatives and long-storied Andal systematic patriarchal custom. Aerys didn't develop a solid hatred or suspicion of the Dornish Martells or Elia for him to actually try to hurt her to display his own authority. He wasn't in the mind of even getting the ire of the Martells, seeing as they were still allies, by mistreating Elia. and Lyanna as well, as she was betrothed already to Robert.

Bringing Back an Accidentally Deleted Segment about the Custom of crowning the queen of Love and Beauty* (1/13/23)

Yes, if a knight is married/betrothed, he may crown his wife/betrothed. However, he's not required to do so. There are no official rules that he needs to; social, yes, official to the tourney or game, or by actual LAW by the monarch, absolutely not.

Knights have given the crown to those:

they just wanted to acknowledge as the leading lady of that tourney/gathering/the realm or to whom the tourney is honoring and thus gain favor with her...he could even amke requests through such means

the above but as a way of "agreeing" with tourney organizer and their house

through her, gains the favor of another prominent figure (this person could also be the one who organized and lead said tourney and could be her relative)

A hefty part of the reason for naming one's betrothed or wife or target of attraction Queen of LB is because marriages are political and about alliances and doing such is supposed to also publicly show that two families could/will join in some sort of alliance. It is to show the public the alliance between the two families/heads of houses. Marriage is a common way. So the prioritized reason that a scandal would happen if a knight were to name a woman (old enough not marry) TQoLaB would be he's transgressing such alliances or seemingly willingly putting his own families in danger, as his cheating would be seen as dishonoring not just his wife, but that BECAUSE the marriage is a political tool PLUS the treatment you give to the daughter of a house reflects on that house.

Examples of known queens of love & beauty before Lyanna in Westeros:

55 A.C: Daenerys, named by Simon Dondarrion -- Queen Alysanne & King Jaehaerys I's firstborn child, who died at 7-8 of the shivers

58 A.C.: Queen Alysanne, named by Ryam Redwyne of the Kingsguard (who couldn't marry bc of vows)

104 A.C.: Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen, 7 years old at the time, named by Ser Criston Cole (I don't think this was ever romantic mutually, nor that even if it was one-sided, Rhaenyr knew of Cole's feelings or at least their depth and how far he'd be willing to take them. But it's ope to interpretation.)

[unknown date] Queen Naerys, named by her brother Aemon the Dragonknight (could have been romantic depending on whether we can argue they were already or going to be romantic atp)

209 A.C.: Lord Ashford's daughter, 13 yrs old and would later have FIVE champions fight for her honor in the Ashford Meadow tourney to determine f she would keep that title

[unknown date] Princess Rhaella Targaryen (before she married Aerys), named by Bonifer Hasty -- this was romantic, and mutually so

281 A.C.: Lady Whent, who had been consistently the queen of Love and Beauty before the Harrenhal Tourney

The Chivalric Code, Courtly Love, and Medieval Noble Women

Numerous times, we learn that the knight of Westeros isn't too dissimilar form knights of real-world EU, nor is their code of conduct that dissimilar. Chivalry and courtly love, atp, also became deeply connecting and mutually affirming, the same for Westeros.

According to "The Knights’ Code of Chivalry", first recorded & described in the Song of Roland (1098-1100):

To fear God and maintain His Church

To serve the liege lord in valour and faith

To protect the weak and defenceless

To give succour to widows and orphans

To refrain from the wanton giving of offence

To live by honour and for glory.

To despise pecuniary reward

To fight for the welfare of all

To obey those placed in authority.

To guard the honour of fellow knights.

And courtly love:

The knight would be a humble servant to his lady, demonstrating loyalty, compliance, and selflessness. He would often perform acts of service and chivalry in her honor.

The knight would direct his love and devotion towards a noblewoman, whom he viewed as the embodiment of perfection and beauty. The lady was often portrayed as unattainable, inspiring, and motivating the knight.

Courtly love emphasized the knight’s ardent admiration and devotion towards the beloved. The knight pledged to serve and honor the special, often engaging in chivalrous deeds to prove his loyalty.

Courtly love exalted the beloved to perfection, often portraying them as an object of admiration and reverence. The special was seen as the epitome of beauty, virtue, and grace. This idealization of the beloved is an accurate representation of courtly love.

Courtly love, yes, was ideal for adults, but young girls were socialized to "matter" as "young ladies", and the attention towards their claimed/perceived "perfection" of femininity and grace can/did nominate them for being acknowledged as things like the TQoLaB:

Courtly love literature often idealized European women, presenting them as paragons of virtue, beauty, and wisdom. The concept of courtly love emphasized the beloved’s superiority regarding social rank and personal qualities. This portrayal challenged the negative stereotypes of women in medieval society, which often depicted them as subordinate or inferior. The elevation of women as objects of adoration and inspiration within courtly love narratives helped counteract these stereotypes and presented a more positive image of femininity. Courtly love created opportunities for women to exercise influence and agency within the confines of their societal roles. Women gained power over their suitors as objects of admiration and desire, shaping the relationship dynamics. The courtly love tradition often celebrated the beloved’s ability to inspire acts of bravery, poetry, and chivalry from their admirers. By occupying this influential role, women could exercise indirect authority and impact the behavior and values of the knights and troubadours who pursued them.

Now, why this was "elevating" for women, instead of being seen as bad at the time and moment? Before courtly love really took off and as people lived mostly in their castles, the dissemination of praise for the lady of the household/castle and wife of the lord was not expansive. Women were not as put in the public view nor understood of making subtle alliances, etc. Though chivalry & courtly romance do romanticize the noble lady she becomes a means to edify and reaffirm chivalric masculinity and patriarchal feudalism by making her the center/hub/patron of information...it also made her the principal and comparatively more central means for that, thus granted woman more authority and agency within the then framework. And girls are a part of that, being "trained" or just observing, but definitely still moving into those circles as they grow.

Elia

This isn't to say that Elia would have been a-okay with Rhaegar skipping past her--if they hadn't discussed it before, which no one can disprove, but since we can't prove it either...--but it is to say that Rhaegar did have a freer choice in who to name as TQoLaB. And this is where one theory comes into play, that Rhaegar POSSIBLY wished to make an alliance with the Starks and did it this way, acknowledging Lyanna's and unaware of how personally Robert would take that (yes, Robert had a choice and ability to not look at this as an "insult", that's machismo talking). We also have to remember that AWoIaF is written by Yandel, who obviously is trying to avoid crown censure or appeal to Robert and his later ruling sons--really the Lannisters giving power to him in the back scenes--and the Targs are a usurped dynasty....it would serve to keep to this particular narrative of RhaegarxLyanna being the MAIN reason why Robert went to war or how relations amongst several lords lead to a war-ready state before said war....when it certainly was not.

It's certainly better than making Elia out to be this victim of her husband's negligence OR abuse--a tired pattern in ASoIaf, if there. And again, I don't know if she became weak-willed seeing her humor and attitude before her marriage about some lord she was thinking of marrying before he either farted or burped.

It's possible that rather than being weak she was held back by the lethargy from being sick AND narrowly surviving 2 childbirths, so it would be "weak will" so much, again, as her prioritizing and/or her being okay with the affairs because of Dornishnesses. Until we get proof of otherwise, I prefer this reading to the totally helpless-to-cheating-victim story that also doesn't make sense anyway bc: 1) Rhaegar did what he could to protect her 2) cheating doesn't cause murders, murderers cause murders.

Rhaegar seems to give Lyanna the crown of Love and Beauty not because he was in love with her right then & there (they literally had just met) or just because he was attracted to her.

Aerys sent him to capture the mysterious Knight of the Laughing Tree bc Aerys thought the knight was his enemy or a dangerous entity due to this disguise and the tree itself was laughing specifically at him. This is most likely how Rhaegar met Lyanna unofficially, him discovering her identity.

Some theorize that Rhaegar was not actually trying to hit on Lyanna through the crown so much as to offer her safety from Aerys. And this reasoning (according to the person) can go as far as why he took her to the Tower of Joy. I go with this theory.

As mentioned, Some say he wanted a stronger Baratheon-Stark alliance as his father has been growing suspicions of him and, again, he was plotting to make Aerys abdicate and he seems to have thought that giving the crown of LB would have complimented Robert and the Starks even with him being married to Elia and Lyanna betrothed because while it's expected that a knight gives that to his wife if he has one, he also can theoretically give it to any woman he wishes the favor of and dedicate his victory to (which could be political or personal, lines can be blurred). He already had the Martells as allies. However, the Stark father and brother and Robert were all outraged and that was easy to predict on Rhaegar's end, so it couldn't be this.

Some say that he admired her participation as the Knight of the Laughing Tree, had a vision or remembered one about winter roses being connected to her, that weirwood tree on the sigil, or her Starkness (old gods and weirwood association, the Starks are the Wards of the North and closest to that magic), and gave her the crown to tie themselves together in the future (or hint of one) he saw for whatever outcome he concluded. This could include the 1st theory about him wanting to protect her from Aerys but in my eyes, even that would be subordinate to my own estimation of why he did it.

I do not think Elia would be "okay" or indifferent towards his affair with Lyanna or that they had a kid together because that would present problems for how the Martells, Starks, and Lannisters all interact if Ned and Lyanna decided to make it known that this kid was Rhaegar's.

In any case, Rhaegar never annulled his marriage to Elia, so Jon/Aegon (if Lyanna's kid, which atp he def is) is definitely a bastard.

IF ELIA WAS CONCERNED OR ANGRY OR THREATENED BY RHAEGAR'S EXTERNAL ROMANCE(S): No, this kid would never have as much claim to the throne as Elia's kids, she wouldn't be upset with that specifically or how that could a legitimate kid with another noblewoman could endanger her kid. But Lyanna having her name and image smeared (her father and brothers and Robert are all very proud and virginity is a must for these knuckleheads' alliance) would present higher-risk complications for the Starks-to-Baratheons, and yes what happens with the war/rebellion.

[w/o considering Elia] Robert would never be able to look at Jon/Aegon and not think of Rhaegar, thus always exacerbating that relationship...if Robert had even allowed himself to not react immediately. It also would hurt the relationship between Ned and Robert bc Ned, no matter what would protect Lyanna, and had she lived, would most likely have sent her away and kept her location secret.

Over here thinking about how to some people the idea of "a man cheating on his good, devoted wife" is worst than anything that could ever happen.

I've seen way more people complain about Rheagar "cheating" on Elia than people complaining about Tywin or Gregor Clegane for literally murdering her. It baffles me.

#lyanna stark #rhaegar targaryen #elia martell #agot comment #agot characterization #rhaegar's characterization #lyanna stark's characterization #elia martell's characterization #the martells #the targaryens #the Lannisters #the baratheons #robert's rebellion #Robert baratheon's characterization #asoiaf knighthood #asoiaf courtliness #agot #asoiaf

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