#Alexei has no knowledge of the time that’s passing. he’s the same as he was when Nicholas chose to. preserve him.

[spookyboywhump]

could he have given alexei away to another deity? sent him to some place of worship for "training?" made some kinda deal where alexei gets to leave but he has to come back for a week/month or something each year or nicholas will kill him with god powers?

I like those ideas but I have a feeling Nicholas would’ve wanted to keep Alexei. To himself. Even after he grew bored of him :)

[zahramorales]

with — @cordiiceps​ where — nikolai’s room, residence inn hotel when — afternoon of july 15

Zahra makes it exactly two days before she goes to find Nik. Her mind races a thousand miles a minute even on her way over, conflicting thoughts battling to see which side will win. Would it be breaking Mara’s trust (and Teddy and Felix’s, though she’s only recently met them) to tell somebody else about their plans without their knowledge? But she and Nik have essentially been doing the very thing the Sinclairs have proposed, albeit on a much smaller and less organized scale. Besides, Nik’s infinitely more connected than even the best enforcer could be due to his last name alone. And he’d definitely find out eventually— he always did. Surely telling him would only be a good thing, right? 

She makes it to the top floor of the hotel, nodding at the other enforcers she passes on the way. It seems like the newbies and their families have gotten settled in their rooms, making the hallways feel more crowded than before. Zahra knocks on Nik’s door, trying to appear casual and official at the same time. A few people spare her a curious glance before returning to whatever they were doing, clearly more concerned with work than two enforcers talking to each other.

“Can I talk to you about something?” she asks when the door opens. Zahra quickly steps inside and shuts the door behind her. It feels more dangerous now, more real, especially with Alexei’s room only a few feet away. But she’s here and she has to say something. “Have you talked to Gilbert, recently?” Maybe Nik’s already been told - Nik and Gilbert are friends, aren’t they? “There’s something happening that you should probably know about.”

[mariacallous]

Observers have long compared Vladimir Putin’s regime in Russia to Alexander Lukashenko’s rule in Belarus. When protests swept the latter country in 2020 (only to be forced back into submission as winter set in), many speculated that Russia might be headed down the same path. In 2022, Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and the domestic repressions against anyone who dared speak out against Putin’s policies did indeed reach an unprecedented level, but it appears to be only the beginning of the Kremlin’s crackdown. At Meduza’s request, Artyom Shraibman, a Belarusian political scientist and a nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, explains what Russians can expect if their country continues moving in the same direction as Belarus.

The news that politician Vladimir Kara-Murza was sentenced to 25 years in prison, and the fact that Alexey Navalny, by all appearances, will get a similar sentence, has left a lot of Russians bewildered and afraid. But for Belarusians, this is just one more confirmation that Belarusian comedian Slava Komissarenko was right when he told his now-classic dark joke:

It’s like our two countries are watching the same TV show, but you’re only on the third season, while we’re on the fifth. And sometimes we glance over at you guys and say: “Get ready — it’s about to get very interesting!”

It’s not just a joke. When you consider the scale and the cruelty of the repressions, Belarus has been ahead of the Putin regime at almost every stage of Lukashenko’s rule. The only exception was the brief span between 2015 and 2019 when Minsk was trying to behave better in hopes of thawing its relations with the West. But then the “equilibrium” was restored. The failed revolution in 2020 sparked repressions so harsh that it’s hard to find a parallel in the post-Stalin histories of either Russia or Belarus.

Though there’s one exception to that, too: the premeditated murders of journalists and politicians. For Belarus, that was and remains an extremely unusual measure that Minsk has taken only once: in 1999–2000, when the authorities abducted and most likely killed two Belarusian politicians, Viktor Gonchar and Yury Zakharenko, as well as journalist Dmitry Zavadsky and businessman Anatoly Krasovsky. At that time, even the official investigation found that security agents linked to Lukashenko, Viktor Sheiman and Dmitry Pavlichenko, were involved in the operation.

In Putin’s Russia, meanwhile, the murder (and attempted murder) of journalists and intelligence defectors has been a constant.

But when it comes to other repressive practices, the Belarusian security forces really are more brutal and less selective — and they seem to be a step ahead of their Russian colleagues. It’s not that there’s a specific channel through which the Belarusian authorities pass their knowledge to the Putin regime. To move on to new forms of violence and human-rights restrictions, the Russian authorities don’t need to “peek” at what the Belarusians are doing; it’s not a matter of patents or “know-how.” Every regime goes down this path at its own pace. But because Belarus started the process first, it does make sense for Russians who want to know how Putin’s regime will degrade further to look to its Western neighbor.

Torture is routine

During the country’s 2020 protests, detainees were beaten as an additional preventative measure, in case 15 days in prison proved too light a punishment to deter them from protesting again. These days, beatings and torture and more often used when people refuse to unblock their phones, or when security agents want revenge for what they see as a personal affront — for example, when a suspect is believed to have leaked officers’ personal data.

In addition to physical violence, the authorities have begun using the tactic of humiliating people on video. In June 2022, security agents forced an arrestee to use a needle and ink to remove a tattoo that included a swastika. Other activists have been forced to draw things or stick protest symbols on their faces before recording “apology” videos.

Another practice that falls under the umbrella of physical violence is the administrative detention of political prisoners. People often spend weeks at a time in extremely overcrowded cells without mattresses, showers, opportunities to walk around, or the ability to receive packages from outside (in some cases, family members are allowed to send medicine), correspond in writing, or see a lawyer. They’re awakened twice per night and the lights are left on 24 hours a day. Many have reported being subjected to cold torture (when prisoners are left in cells with no heat and their blankets are confiscated). Prisoners serving sentences on felony charges experience numerous restrictions as well, but at the moment, the authorities’ treatment of administrative prisoners appears to be significantly worse.

Everybody’s an ‘extremist’

In early May 2023, Belarusian human rights advocates have counted almost 1,500 political prisoners in the country (which has a total population of a little more than 9 million). But even this number, they’ve said, is an undercount, as many people are reluctant to report the arrests of their relatives for fear of making their situations worse.

The majority of the country’s political prisoners have been convicted for one of two reasons: either they took part in the 2020 protests, or they allegedly engaged in “defamation” and were charged with “improper expression of one’s opinion.” This includes the Belarusian Criminal Code’s articles on “insulting the president” or other officials, “fomenting hatred” against societal groups (such as security agents), and “discrediting the Republic of Belarus”.

The concept of “fomenting hatred” is interpreted extremely widely; it can apply to as little as a rude word written on social media or in a community chat group against riot police in general. Hundreds of people have been jailed for expressing happiness about the death of a KGB officer during the raid of Minsk IT worker Andrey Zeltser’s apartment in the fall of 2021 or for conveying sympathy for Zeltser, who was shot in the same incident.

Participating in a protest becomes a felony offense in Belarus if a person enters a roadway during the demonstration. The pertinent article in the Criminal Code, which prohibits “organizing, preparing, or actively participating in actions that blatantly violate the public order,” has earned the nickname “the people’s article” for the number of citizens it’s been used to sentence. Walking around Minsk or any other city during one of the country’s Sunday protest marches in 2020 was enough to land a person in jail for up to four years. To this day, the authorities have continued arresting people for allegedly participating in those marches, using photos to identify people who don’t even remember being there.

The Belarusian authorities also apply laws against “extremism” more liberally than their Russian counterparts. Almost all non-state media outlets (including Zerkalo.io, Nasha Niva, RFE/RL's Belarusian service, and Belsat), as well as many popular Telegram channels (Nexta, Belarus Golovnogo Mozga), blogs (such as those of opposition politicians Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and Valery Tsepkalo), and even chat groups, including some neighborhood ones in which participants discussed protest activity, have been declared “extremist.”

Subscribing to an “extremist” channel on Telegram is a misdemeanor offense. In many cases, to uncover these violations, officers order suspects to unlock their phone before searching through their messages and attempting to restore deleted files. In 2021, one married couple spent more than 200 days in custody for news articles they sent to one another in a private chat.

Even worse is the treatment of people caught working or interacting with organizations that have been declared “extremist formations.” This category includes anybody who has provided information or even comments to independent news outlets. Leading military expert Yegor Lebedok is currently serving a five-year prison sentence for two interviews he gave to the “extremist” outlet ​​European Radio for Belarus. The wife of well-known blogger Igor Losik (who’s currently serving a 15-year sentence) was sentenced to two years in prison for telling a story about her husband to the Poland-based independent TV channel Belsat. The couple’s four-year-old daughter now lives with her grandparents.

The BySOL and ByHelp foundations, which were founded in 2020 to raise money to support victims of repressions, were declared “extremist” in 2021, which retroactively made every donation to the organizations a felony offense. But because the donations numbered in the tens of thousands and many of them came from IT workers who managed to flee the country, the authorities decided not to pursue charges against every offender and to exact payments from them instead. Many people whose bank cards appeared on donation records received visits from KGB officers who suggested they make “donations” to state-run charities several times larger than the payments they made to help repression victims. The agents promised not to open criminal cases against those who signed confessions, but the documents give the authorities yet another means of pressuring these people in the future.

But anti-extremism laws aren’t the Lukashenko regime’s only means of purging the country’s third-sector organizations; they’ve also had no qualms about simply dissolving them. The authorities didn’t arrive at this approach through trial and error, nor did they waste time with hybrid forms of repression such as declaring groups “foreign agents.” Instead, beginning in June 2021, after the latest round of European sanctions, security agents began liquidating hundreds of NGOs, including ones that weren’t involved in opposition politics even tangentially. The targets included environmental associations, historical societies, cultural organizations, charity foundations, organizations for disabled people, groups for Lithuanians and Poles living in Belarus, and urbanist, birdwatching, and cycling clubs. Acting on behalf of a non-registered organization is also a felony offense.

Repression, the Belarusian way

All of the repressive practices outlined above are familiar to Russians, albeit on a smaller scale, but there are a number of other methods that are frequently employed by the Lukashenko regime that aren’t yet common in Russia.

In the last few years, the Belarusian authorities have held many of its high-profile legal proceedings behind closed doors, refusing to allow even the suspects’ relatives to attend. As a result, the details of many cases, including sometimes the defendants’ names, remain publicly unknown. And in open trials, police officers serving as witnesses, who often give boilerplate testimonies about how a suspect “was walking down the street, started cursing, and resisted arrest,” are allowed to use pseudonyms and wear masks so that they can’t be identified later.

Often, the authorities try to force well-known political prisoners and opposition leaders to observe this “regime of silence,” including by disbarring and arresting their lawyers. Alexey Navalny’s regular Twitter threads, for example, wouldn’t be possible in Belarus, because his lawyers could lose their licenses or wind up in prison simply for trying to transport his political statements out of prison.

Another difference between the Belarusian and Russian systems is that the former allows the death penalty, while Russia has imposed a moratorium on the practice. In the spring of 2022, the Belarusian authorities decided to expand the set of offenses eligible for capital punishment, making it applicable to “attempted terrorist attacks.” In March 2023, “state treason” became punishable by execution as well (though the authorities have yet to use this approach).

In early 2023, Minsk decided to revive the Soviet-era practice of depriving political emigrants of citizenship obtained through birth; the law will come into effect in July. By all appearances, the government plans to apply the new law to exiled opposition leaders, who have already been sentenced in absentia to long prison terms.

In some of its less brutal forms, the Lukasheko regime’s repressions stand out for their thoroughness. For example, the Belarusian authorities now keep a registry of hundreds of thousands of citizens who either appeared on their radar for political disloyalty — by participating in protests, for example — or who simply voted for other presidential candidates in the 2020 election. Since 2021, depending on the severity of their “crimes,” these people have been systematically fired from government agencies, banks, state companies, and public organizations, including medical, educational, and cultural institutions, and banned from reapplying for public-sector jobs.

The Belarusian government has also been known to pay extra attention to members of specific ethnic groups. Immigrants from Ukraine who work in public organizations, as well as Ukrainian citizens who have lived in Belarus for years, have reported being called in by the KGB for interrogations, sometimes with polygraph tests, as the authorities seek information about Ukrainian intelligence agencies. And government employees with Polish roots who receive “Polish Cards” — documents that entitle them to certain benefits if they move to Poland — have reported being forced to relinquish the cards in order to keep their jobs.

No end in sight

It’s impossible to predict whether Russia will follow exactly the same path that Belarus has in recent years. The sudden surge of repressions in Belarus had an obvious trigger: the attempted revolution in 2020. Russia’s crackdown over the last 15 months was sparked by the invasion of Ukraine. But there’s a real risk that Russians will face a significantly more far-reaching domestic clampdown when the Kremlin realizes it’s exhausted its potential on the battlefield, and it needs somewhere to channel its frustration. It might embark, for example, on a larger-scale purge of “traitors” and “domestic enemies” who it claims are preventing the country from uniting and keeping the army from winning.

But the most important thing Belarus can teach Russia is that it can always get worse. Yesterday’s “red lines” stop working; isolated excesses become the norm. Society adapts to the regime’s cruelty, and people who immerse themselves in the news start catching themselves feeling an alarming sense of relief when somebody’s sentenced to two years in prison instead of ten.

The government itself may not understand at every specific moment whether its clampdown has internal limits, but it gradually pushes the limits of what’s permissible. Repressions are like a gas. They always expand to fill the space available — until the ruling elites or society begin to resist.

This isn’t always because a specific villain decided to turn the terror up to ten. Repression is a self-replicating machine. They create a class of beneficiaries — career security agents for whom the fight against “enemies” becomes a career elevator, a Stakhanovite competition. As soon as these incentives start to work, they no longer need a command from above to start searching for new forms of cruelty.

The human psyche clings to the familiar, even if that means informal norms of coexisting with the state. But the Belarusian experience shows us that these norms are extremely unstable when the government is plunging into the abyss of reactionism, and society is too atomized and frightened to resist. The inability to realize in time that yesterday’s taboos no longer apply has cost many Belarusians their freedom. They failed to escape the threat because they didn’t believe the threat was possible.

[yelenasdiary]

The Third Widow || Wanda Maximoff

Pairing: Wanda Maximoff X Fem! Belova! Reader.

Summary: Y/n Belova is the younger biological sister of Yelena Belova and the adoptive sister of Natasha Romanoff. Saved from Red Room by Melina & Alexei she now must adjust to a new normal. Going to school, recovering, and finding love in the eyes of another troubled teen, Wanda Maximoff. All while General Dreykov has his eyes set on claiming back what he calls his most powerful ‘widow’.

Angst| Mentions of murder | Language warning| 4.6K

Notes: Flashbacks are bold, italic and start with ‘~’ | Written in second person. | Technically Wanda and Yelena are the same age via MCU but for this, Yelena is older by a year. 

Translations: сестра (sister), убей ее (kill her), Мэри (Mary), 

AC: just a tiny time jump. 

The Third Widow Masterlist

Wanda watched for a month across the hall as you took Asya’s torment, knocking your books out your hand, slamming your locker door on you as you tried to put things away, pouring soda down your socks as she walked past, putting her foot out to trip you, whispering horrible things when in passing. Wanda didn’t understand why you took Asya’s crap. But you didn’t mention anything about it to anybody, especially Yelena. You wanted little attention as possible and if this was all Asya could throw at you, you could handle it. 

“Had enough yet?” Asya smirked before slamming your locker door on your hand. You bit your bottom lip harshly at the burning and tingling pain. “What’s wrong? Did you hurt your hand?” she chuckled before continuing to walk by you. Looking at your hand you were sure it would bruise, the purple and blue marks faintly appearing through the redness. “Why do you take her shit?” Wanda’s thick Sokovian accent spoke as she lent on the lockers next to yours. 

Since meeting Wanda you’ve grown slightly to reasoning with her, understanding there is more to her than the hard ass she shows to the world around her. She intrigued you in a way you’ve never experienced. You wished to know more about her, why she was in the states, how long did she live in Sokovia, why she broke the rules and did as she pleased, why did she feel the need to smoke and ignore the warnings on the box, why she would stare at you longer than you’ve known anybody to stare. 

“I don’t” you mumbled before grabbing the textbooks for your next class. Wanda chuckled in a huff, “I’ve watched for weeks and not once have you mentioned it to Yelena or Kate. What’s Asya got against you?” Wanda asked with confidence. Your brows frowned, zipping up your backpack, “Nothing” you muttered before closing your locker, “it’s fine” you added. 

“Fine? If it’s so fine, why haven’t you told Yelena?” She started to follow you. “Wanda…please, just leave it. It’s fine, I’m fine. It’s nothing, just forget it… please” you turned to face her. Your eyes begging for her to drop the conversation. Wanda, without your knowledge, read your thoughts and nodded softly. “Whatever you say” she shrugs. Not sure what to say you just smiled lightly before making your way to class. 

Wanda made note to keep an eye on the two of you, given your thoughts told her a different story then what your lips did she felt if you wouldn’t tell Yelena about the issue than she’d keep an eye out for you, to make sure you were okay. 

Then by Thursday, Wanda had seen more than enough, and she wasn’t going to stand for it anymore. You excused yourself at lunch from the group of Kate, Yelena, and Wanda to use the toilet, Wanda watched you walk away before her eyes caught Asya following closely behind you, she wanted to tell Yelena that something was going on, but she didn’t want to ruin the little trust you had in her. From the day she met you, there was something about you that caught her attention, she felt oddly close to you in a way she’s never felt about anybody. Did that scare her? Maybe so but she was good a hiding it and treated you the same as she treats Kate and Yelena. 

Your head was pounding with a headache from the extra noise from those around you, all the small talk, loud laughter and the jocks being extra loud just to have people pay them attend was driving you insane. The bathroom was oddly the only place at school where you were able to have a moment to yourself, refresh your face with cold water and escape from the noise. Even if it was of for a few short minutes, you’d take it for what it was worth. 

Splashing the cold water on your face was bliss for the shortly lived seconds it lasted before you grabbed some paper towel to pat dry your face, sighing to yourself as you looked deeply into your own eyes in the mirror. The flashbacks of Grace have haunted you more times than you wanted to admit and seeing Asya 5 days a week wasn’t helping at all. “How does it feel to look into the eyes of a murder?” Asya’s voice spoke, your eyes shifted to her figure standing behind your with her arms across her chest. 

“Asya…please” you sighed, dropping your head from the mirror. “You know I di- “

“What? That you didn’t have a choice? That you were made to do it?” she stepped closer causing you to turn around, leaning your lower back against the sink watching her footsteps getting closer. “You had a choice” she muttered, “you didn’t have to do it. But you did and you didn’t even think twice about it” she adds. “You did it!” you snapped, “if you didn’t try to leave that night then Grace would probably still be here!”

Asya grabbed your jaw in a tight grip with her right hand, her top lip twitching with anger. “I asked you for help and you turned me in” her grip tightening, you didn’t break the eye contact that was burning through you, “Let her go!” another voice spoke, a familiar voice. “Mind your own business Red” Asya spoke, her eyes never leaving yours and her grip only tightening even more. “I said, let her go!” Wanda spoke more sternly. “Or what huh?” Asya replied. 

Wanda’s eyes turned red, and balls of red glow came from her fingers, you’d never seen this before, the red outline glowing strong from behind Asya. You desperately wanted to shift your eyes from Asya’s, but you were trained to never take your eyes off a threat. Her grip was sure to leave a bruise now, tiny droplets of sweat formed on her forehead as she ignored Wanda’s requests. “Go away Maximoff, this doesn’t involve you” Asya spoke clearly. 

“I asked nicely, now you’re just pissing me off” Wanda spoke before Asya was throw to the floor half away across the girl’s bathroom. You watched as Asya gathered herself back to her feet, “what the fuck?!” she spat, looking at Wanda. “I said to let her go” Wanda tilted her head. 

“And I said this doesn’t involve you” Asya glared. “Oh, cry me a damn river, come near her again and we’ll have bigger problems”. Asya huffed shaking her head before she stormed out of the bathroom. “Are you okay?” Wanda asked when the door was closed. “I didn’t need you to do that” you turned your back to her, “I can handle her” you added. 

“A simple thank you would’ve been fine” 

“Well, I’m not thanking you!” you turned back to face her, “I told you everything was fine! I don’t need you to fight my battles for me, now you’ve just made things worse!” you grabbed your backpack and pushed by her ignoring her call of your name as you left the bathroom. 

After school Wanda pulled you back into the girl’s bathroom as you were trying to make your way through the hall to meet Yelena out the front. 

“Please, let me explain” she said before you could speak. “About today and what you saw…from me” she added in a concerned tone. “Y…you don’t have too” you replied. “No, I do… can we hang out for a bit? Now?” she asked. You were unsure what to say, you were mad with her and forgot about what you’d truthly seen but when she mentioned it, it came back to you. 

“I… I have to meet Yelena”

“I know” she let go of her grip on your arm, “it would only be for an hour, and I’ll make sure to have you home” she added. The look in her eyes were begging you, you saw she was worried about what you saw, and she wondered if you had questions, but truth be told, you didn’t. “Just leave me and Asya, alone…that’s all there is to say” you replied, letting her down. “Y/n please” she begged; her tone different from any other time you’ve spoken to her but still you shook your head and wanted nothing more than to go home. 

“Ready?” Yelena looked at you as you walked out of the building, Wanda following behind with a defeated look. “What’s wrong with you?” Yelena asked Wanda who shook her head, “just homework shit” she muttered, “I’ll see you guys tomorrow” she added before walking off to meet her twin, Pietro. “Can we go now, please?” you asked Yelena who nodded. 

The drive home with Natasha and Yelena was once again silent from your end like it had been since Asya came into the picture. Your mind would process the day with a million thoughts as your eyes followed the passing trees and houses out the window. 

Saturday you found yourself sat up on your bed with your back resting on the head rest as you continued to read the book you started after school on Friday. Last night wasn’t much fun, another sleepless night to add to the books and more flashbacks of Red Room to drain your energy. Melina came into the room to put your clean laundry on your dresser without disturbing you, a light smile formed on her lips when she saw you head in yet another book. You could read for hours and not notice how much time would slip by it was peaceful and it was the perfect distraction from the things going on in your mind. 

“Don’t read them too quickly now” Melina chuckled making you lose your place on the page. “I’ll try not too” you replied with a light smile before she left your room. It didn’t take you long to get back to where you were up too and once again, you were lost in the fictional world of your book. 

“So, this is your room, it’s cute” a familiar voice tore you away from your book, only a few more chapters in this time. “W-Wanda, what are you doing here?” you closed your book and watched as she entered your room. She started by your bookcase and ran her index finger along the spines before slowly walking over to your desk where your homework and thick textbooks sat waiting to be completed. “Yelena invited Kate and I over, is that okay?” she spun on her keels to face you, smiling lightly. You didn’t say anything but kept your eyes on her as she peeked around the rest of your room, “So, what do you do for fun?” she asked to break the silence. 

“I like to read” you answered softly, looking down at your book as Wanda made herself comfortable on the edge of your bed, “anything else?” she asked. You shrugged without saying another word. Wanda’s eyes burned into you making you slightly uncomfortable as you shifted away from her a bit hoping she wouldn’t notice. “You have questions, don’t you” she spoke again, this time causing you to frown in confusion. “I don’t” you mumbled, “it’s okay, I also have questions” she replied, “look, Y/n, about Thursday in the girl’s bathroom – “

“Please, keep your voice down” you quickly shuffled off the bed to close your door, “I don’t want them to know” you replied after the click of the door closing. “But why? Asya is an entitled little bitch!” Wanda huffed. “Because it will just worry them and I” you paused, eyes dropping to your feet, “I’ve done enough of that” 

Wanda watched as you slowly stepped towards your desk, avoiding to look at her. “Well, if you’re not going to tell them, you have to tell me”.

“N-no I don’t” you looked up at her with another frown. “Then I’ll have to tell Yelena” Wanda replied with a slight head tilt. “Why do you care? You barely care about anything, you skip school when you’re not allowed, you smoke when the box clearly states it could kill you and you don’t do your homework because you think it’s ridiculous and not to mention you barely speak to me and now suddenly you can’t leave me alone” you snapped without control. Wanda smirked, “feel better?” she asked with a huff like chuckle. “What? No! you’re…you…you’re frustrating me!” you stuttered as you tried to find the word of feeling. 

“Good, I like that” 

Her words only made you more mad and confused, “You haven’t really expressed your feelings before, have you?” she asked and suddenly you felt small, tiny like an ant to her. “Will you let me explain now?” she added feeling your thoughts. You looked at her with another frown and nodded slowly. “Good, now how about we do this fairly. I’ll say something about myself and then you can do that same, deal?” 

You nodded once more. Wanda smiled softly, “ask me the question” she said. “W-what question?” you asked before sit on the chair at your desk, swinging it to face her. “The one you’re thinking about right now” she added.  Her eye contact with you was strong, like she was truly reading your mind, “H…h-how did you do that…on Thursday…to Asya?” you stuttered with a shaky voice. 

“My brother, Pietro and I were experiments of HYDRA when we were younger. They took us from our beds late one night without making a sound. We spent years with them, it was all we knew. They did things to us, tests, isolated us, muted us almost” she starts to explain, “then we were free, it was not easy, but we managed. Pietro, my twin, he has superhuman speed, stamina, reaction, and reflexes which is why he is so good at sport. And me, well, I have telekinesis, I can mentally and emotionally manipulate people, I have telepathy powers and some other things, but they are the main ones” she continues.

“You can read minds?” 

“Yes, I can also experience the memories and thoughts of others” she explains, “now it’s your turn” she adds. 

“Why don’t you just read my mind?” 

“Oh, you have jokes now?” she chuckled, “come on, a deal is a deal. What’s the story with Asya?” she asked. Your eyes dropped to your feet once again. 

~ “убей ее” he said coldly before taking a step back. His words ringing in your ear, “NO Y/N PLEASE DON’T!” Asya screamed, “PLEASE Y/N STOP!!” she screamed once more to hide the cracking sound of bones breaking. ~

“I- “you took another moment, swallowing the lump in your throat, “I m-murdered her sister” you admitted, your eyes slowly tracing back to Wanda’s. She didn’t have a reaction on her face, probably because she already knew what happened but just wanted to hear you say it. “Asya tried to escape R-Red Room but Dre-…he found out and as punishment he made me murder her sister in front of the rest of us Widows” you explained, tears filling your eyes once more at the flashback. Wanda stood from your bed and gently placed a hand on your shoulder, “it’s okay” she said giving your shoulder a gently squeeze. 

“No” you shook your head, “it’s not okay. I should be punished, I should be put away or killed for what I have done, for all the things I have done” the tears falling from your eyes. Wanda gently brushed the lose lock of hair behind your ear, “you shouldn’t be punished for things that were out of your control. Yelena told me some things about Red Room and I’m sorry you had to go through that, you didn’t deserve that” she says in a comforting tone, “we didn’t deserve that” she adds. Slowly you looked up at Wanda, cheeks wet from your tears, “but that’s not what is right. I should be punished like everybody else for what I have done” you spoke, your brows frowning. 

Wanda couldn’t help but feel for you, “you’ll learn soon that it wasn’t your fault, none of it. Whatever you did, it wasn’t a fault of your own” she says leaving the two of you in a moment of silence. Wiping your tears, you looked at her once more, “why do you smoke? It’s really not good for you, have you read the box?” you asked simply to change the conversation.

“Oh, Мэри, you’re too cute” she smirked. “That’s not my name” you said in a confused tone, “I know” 

“Wanda let’s go!” Yelena called from downstairs. “You should come with us” Wanda suggested, you shook your head, “I have homework I need to get done” you replied. Wanda chuckled, “Alright, Мэри, I’ll see you Monday I guess” she turned and left your room just as quietly as she arrived.  

After listening to her story with little detail your book didn’t seem to interest you at the moment, the name ‘Hydra’ ran through your mind, a name you’d heard before. 

~ “This way gentlemen” Dreykov led the men in suits to the room you were held in. “I assure you, the experiments are working” he adds. “Very well, General” one man spoke sternly. You were trained not to look too long so you kept your eyes forward as the men examined you and looked over your charts. 

“She seems completely at your control, General” another man’s voice spoke. “Oh yes, she’s my best Widow since that disappointment, Black Widow. I raised Y/n since she was barely a year old. She’s a daughter to me, my most successful Widow” Dreykov explain with a proudness in his voice. His words were comforting for you, who only knew him. He is your father. The only person who’s protected you and kept you safe.

“I see. Our latest projects, the Maximoff twins are being experimented as we speak. We have high hopes for what will come of that” the man replies. ~

Monday morning was a drag to get out of bed, since talking to Wanda your mind has been non-stop racing with flashbacks and Dreykov’s voice running around like it lived in your mind. Sleeping only brought back the nightmares and trauma from Red Room. 

“She won’t get up” Yelena said to Melina before sitting down for breakfast. You laid on the bed staring at the ceiling unaware of Melina’s presences until you felt the dip on the bed where she sat. “What’s going on?” she asked, snapping you out thought. “Nothing” you mumbled like any normal teenager would say. 

“Did you sleep last night?” 

You shook your head, the dark circles under your eyes to confirm the lack of sleep recently. “When did you last sleep?” she asked another question, “I had little sleep Friday night” you admitted. “You haven’t slept properly since Friday?” Melina’s brows frown as you nodded to confirm your answer. “Y/n, you have to tell me when you can’t sleep or eat, it’s important”. 

“I don’t want to worry you and Alexei anymore…I’m sorry” you looked at her with sorry eyes. “We are going to worry about you whether you like it or not. I’m going to call Dr Banner and we’ll try and get something to help you sleep, no buts” she spoke. You didn’t give her any buts about it, too tired and drained to truly care. “Do you think you could get up and dressed? If you don’t feel like going to school today, I’ll call them and explain you’ll have the day off” she added. 

You wanted to see Wanda, you weren’t too sure why that was, but you nodded and managed to get yourself up, showered and dressed for school just as Yelena and Natasha were about to walk out the door. 

“I’ll call Dr Banner when his office opens and if he can see you today, I’ll come and get you from school, okay?” Melina said. “Okay. Thanks” you smiled softly before following the two out the door. 

Walking to your Art class you passed Asya who shot you the dirties look you’d seen so far from her, no doubt she was pissed about Thursday. Her stare didn’t intimidate you by any means, by now you were used to her always looking at you or you’d catch her already watching you from across the hall while you were at your locker. “You’re dead Belova” she muttered under her breath before giving you a hard shove into the cold lockers, chuckling as she walked away. 

You had Mr Rogers for Art and History, he excused your lateness and continued on with the class as you found your seat at the back of the room, hard to say if you remember anything that he was talking about as your attention was distracted by the outside world by the window. The dark storm cloud rolling in, only a matter of hours until it breaks you thought to yourself. 

“Y/n” Mr Rogers voice snapped you back to reality. “Huh? Sorry Mr Rogers” you felt embarrassed and as if all eyes were on you, “Do you have your project ready to hand in?” he asked. Shit! The plans of getting through the homework over the weekend completely slipped your mind after Saturday’s conversation with Wanda. “N-no, I’m sorry. I left it at home” you mumbled, “Mhm” he sighed, “Not a good enough excuse but I’ll let you off easy this time. I’m still taking a few points off your grade though” he replied with a stern look, you nodded just to get him to return to the class. 

When the bell went for the next class, you waited behind to allow the rest of the rushing class mates out the door, you were greeted by Wanda as she leant against the lockers with a smirk like smile. “How was class?” she asked. “Fine, I need to talk to you” you said, slightly looking around you. “What about?” she wondered. “Not here” you replied when your eyes locked onto Asya walking towards you. 

“Okay” Wanda picked up on your worry, “come with me” she added, pushing herself off the lockers. “What? No not now, I have class” you turned to her. Wanda chuckled, “Oh, Мэри, it’s okay” she smiled with a slight head gesture to follow her. You did so with a sigh and drag of your feet, worried about what Melina and Alexei might think of you skipping class. You followed Wanda out to the bike shed where students locked their bike cycles up while in class, away from any of sight of teachers. “What’s up” she smiled and leant against the shed. 

Frowning, you looked around for any signs of life. “Don’t worry Мэри, nobody can see us, I come here all the time” Wanda pulled the packet of cigarettes from her jacket pocket. “Really?” you shook your head, “yes” she chuckled putting the cigarette to her lips and lighting it, making sure to blow the smoke away from your direction. “So, what did you want to talk about?” she asked once more. For a moment you watched her huff and puff on the very thing that could kill her if she kept doing so, she licked her lips after each puff before sticking it back onto her lips. “He met with them” you started. 

“Who?” she frowned confused. “Dre…he met with the Hyda people you told me about. They gave him things t-to use… on me. Tests, experiments…I need to know if you remember what they used on you and Pietro” you stuttered but manged to explain, talking about Dreykov became harder as the time away from him went. Wanda pushed herself off the shed and paced around for a moment. “It was some stone, I don’t remember the name” she finally spoke, “What did they do to you?” she asked, “What powers do you have?” 

“No powers. Just harsh training in karate, judo, kung fu, wrestling, gymnastics, acrobatics, and weapon training” you replied. 

Wanda tilted her head slightly, “what else?” she asked. “I have enhanced hearing and vision” you replied with a sigh. “Neither Pietro nor I have that…it must’ve been something else” Wanda said, “tell me more about it” she adds. 

“Well…I guess for you, you read minds but for me I can hear conversations and noise from a good distant away and my vision, that’s more of a night issue. I can see heatwaves and longer distances than most” you explained your eyes falling to your feet. “I just want to understand why we are like this” you spoke softly. 

“Because we were in the hands of people who didn’t care about us or what would happen to us. You were taken, right? like Yelena and Natasha. Do you think Dreykov cared about that? Taking you from your parents, your sister? To train you the way he did? Do you think Hydra gave a crap about Pietro and me? We were built to be weapons for their own fucking use” Wanda snapped in frustration towards the end of her words, startling you just enough for you to take a step back from her. Her chest rising and falling quicker than before as she threw her half-smoked cigarette on the ground and squishing it with her foot. 

“We have to live with the effects of that. It’s not fair, and I ever saw any of those men again I’d tear them apart with my own hands. The things they did to Pietro and I, treating us like animals, doing whatever the fuck they wanted to us like we meant nothing if it failed. I saw people come and go; people being pushed by my cell in a fucking body bag!” Wanda went on, it was clear she’d kept her anger built up, her eyes flashing red every few words. You weren’t sure what to do or what to say but a new feeling was unlocked, and you found yourself stepping towards her, stopping her from pacing by gently placing your hand on her shoulder and behind you knew it you had your arms wrapped around her in a tight hug. Something you’d never done before but it felt right, like Wanda was screaming for the warmth of a hug. She melted in your arms and gripped you tightly, letting her tears soak your shirt.

It was then that you discovered you’d found somebody you could talk too, somebody who understood how you felt and the fear it gave you deep down. That’s not to say that Wanda and Natasha didn’t understand you, they did but they also weren’t treated the way you were, but Wanda was, she understood, the words she spoke about feeling like an animal, a weapon, being used for their own will was exactly how you felt. 

“Don’t you tell anybody about this” Wanda pulled away slightly after letting her tears out, “I can trust you not to say anything, right, Мэри?” she added as she looked into your eyes. “Only if you stop calling me that, my name is not Mary” you replied earning a chuckle from her, “I know” she spoke softly, wiping her wet cheeks on her sleeves, “I know, Мэри” she added causing you to roll your eyes. 

“Maximoff and Belova, you should be in class!” a voice startled you both, turning around and seeing the Principle, Mr Strange standing sternly with his arms across his chest. “It’s my fault Mr, I dragged Y/n out here” Wanda spoke. “I don’t want to hear it Wanda, you’re already on thin ice as it is. Now get to class!” he frowned, “And you Y/n, Melina is waiting for you in the general office. Best you get your things and make your way there” he added. You nodded and followed Wanda back to school building. 

“I can hear your heart racing Мэри” Wanda chuckled just to annoy you once more. “Please, my name is Y/n!” you muttered, “and like I said, I know” she smiled to you before you both parted ways. 

Taglist: @justabrokensunshine | @sayah13 | @nattyolw | @exclusivitymajor | @bibliophilicbi | @when-wolves-howl | @that-one-gay-mosquito | @get-the-fuck-outta-here | @foggymoonbanana | @atmnothere | @justyourwritter69 | @wiertarkanah | @marvelfan98 | @jasminebelding | @bluesimps-world | @wandasobsession | @marvel-fan-2021 | @lattayhottay16 | @jowshuaayee |

[kadeuxhyeonju]

KADEU: INDIVIDUAL TASK

; FOR THE RESISTANCE, FOR LOVE, OR FOR MYSELF? An Interview with Vega Gem Owner, Lee Hyeonju

Tell us about Hyeonju’s involvement with the resistance! Did leaving for six months affect his standing?

Hyeonju taps clawed hands against the wooden meeting table that is situated in the secret meeting room of the Vega Gem. His eyes are narrowed in thought as he reminisces his return from overseas three years prior.

“Hmm. A bit, I suppose. I left a notice of my departure with some of my trusted informants. Told the leaders I’d send word of my return when I found what I was looking for. I was hardly missed, though. There are plenty of informants and financial backers for the resistance. I was one of many and I’m not wounded by that knowledge. Six months is a long time to be away, to not be out of the loop. It’s only natural that my standing had fallen a bit by the time I returned. But it didn’t take me long either to reach that original standing.” He smiles wickedly. “I might have been gone for a time, but I assure you I was still very much in contact with many of my connections. And connections are everything if you want to be a good informant.”

How does he feel about Mallick leaving as a leader?

At that, the smile slips from Hyeonju’s lips. He stares down at his hands and is silent for far longer than is comfortable. The ice in his whiskey clinks against the glass as it melts. Finally, the hybrid answers:

“I’m happy for him. Truly. He’s a dear friend, him and his brother, Devjay. He’s responsible and cares for the Clubs in a way no other Clubs Ace has. I’m sure he’s needed as an Ace far more than as a resistance leader. Is this not the change the resistance has been seeking and fighting for for so long?

“Nuisances the both of them for leaving like they did, though. There’s a whole in our leadership…but I can hardly blame that sad, little kitten for that. What happened in Clubs was…unexpected. Mallick isn’t perfect. With that said, I suppose I’m a bit disappointed that we can no longer run in the same circles. Not with that Ace of Heart watching for any connections to the resistance. It’s a shame that everyone knows Mallick was a leader for our group. Now I can’t tease him alongside Devjay.”

Does the Vega Gem sell enough for him to maintain his status as a financial backer?

Hyeonju scoffs and rolls his eyes.

“I suppose you’ve heard those silly rumors about His Aceness no longer visiting my shop? Contrary to widely held belief, Joui’s patronage does not make or break my business. I earned my title as best jeweller in Kadeu long before His Aceness came around. And I’ve kept it, I’ll have you know. When I returned from my trip, Alexei bustled in with six months worth of inquiries as to when I would be back and when I would be taking on commission again.

“Sure, I used my savings I stalked away for the resistance to go on my impropmtu trip, but the last three years of non-stop work have more than made up for the sudden loss of funds for those six months.”

Is he more or less involved than he was before he left?

This time Hyeonju leans back in his chair, head tilted back as he answers, as if bored by the question.

“I wouldn’t be much of an informant or backer if I sat on my ass, now would I? I still gather information through my network. There’s ways to pass on those kinds of things without being caught, you know. And the money? I’m a Heart. No one thinks twice about someone like me ’squirreling’ away money. It’s easy to to pass on funds when the entire continent thinks your faction is full of nothing but theives and greedy bastards. Though…” He pushes forward and leans against the table, arms crossed, a furrow between his brows.

“I haven’t been able to communicate much lately with the leaders. Not after what happened in Club three years ago. Not after Mallick came out as a former resistance leader. In fact, unless it’s one of my regualr informants who doesn’t raise any red flags, I don’t see much of anyone from the resistance. It’s almost like I’m communicating with ghosts…”

Did he apprise Idris of his involvement with the resistance?

Worried, contemplative expression twists into one of suspicion and…protectiveness, perhaps? Hyeonju answers, but his flash of fangs is almost threatening. His eyes glint with something dangerous.

“How do you know about Idris? I suppose it doesn’t matter if you won’t be able to speak of it later.

“Yes, I told him. I told him of everything I’ve been up to these nearly 50 years since I last saw him. I told him things I never would have told him when we first met. I told him of my life. What is spoken to Idris will never leave that Fae’s lips. I trust him. So I told him.”

Hyeonju leaves it at that, refusing to answer any more questions about the Fae.

How does he see his position changing or evolving in the future?

The hybrid, wound up tight from the previous question, relaxes just a bit. His eyes take on a curious look.

“Changing? Evolving? What could I offer that I haven’t already? I certainly won’t offer my life. I joined this cause so I could keep it, thank you. The only way I could see any type of ‘change’ or ‘evolution’,” he mocks, “is if they decided to appoint me as a leader. And I assure you I have no interest in having so many lives under my care. It takes all my effort to look out for myself. I leave that work to those like Mallick and Fallon.”

Do any of his personal goals relate to the resistance itself or the movement?

Ah, this is a tried and true question Hyeonju has no problem answering. He speaks without hesitation.

“The movement. The resistance is simply a tool to get what I want. Isn’t that what it is for everyone else? If I put my goals into an entity of such impermanence, I would lose sight of my goals the moment the resistance fell apart. It’s a fool’s belief to think your goals are what make up the resistance. It’s the unspoken agreement between us all to work together to achieve our individual goals.

“What are my goals? The same as always. Freedom. Not the kind that requires you to run away to attain it. The kind that lets me rip out the throats of those who would dare strip it from me in the first place.”

With that, the interview concludes. Hyeonju holds out a hand so suddenly it startles the interviewer.

“A horribly invasive chat that was. Let’s never do it again shall we?”

The interviewer nods quickly, not liking the look in the hybrid’s eye. They make a beeline for the exit. A manabeast appears before the interviewer suddenly, sending them sprawling across the floor. The scramble back, trying to get away from the large, vicious beast. Behind them, claws sink into their neck, drawing blood. They can feel it running down their back, soaking their shirt. Hyeonju’s voice murmurs pleasantly in their ear even as the manabeast growls only a few feet away.

“Did I not say earlier that I wouldn’t allow you to speak of any of this? Letting you live is too much of a gamble. I apologize, but I’ll make it quick.”

Chills go up and down the interviewer’s spine, their heart beating in double time. A deep chuckle rumbles in their ear.

“What a shame, sending a human into a fox’s den.”

[takenbythestyx]

Timelapse

so @sure-is-exciting was talking about his story and an idea hit me: the classism Mikhail would eventually have to go through so i wrote it

word count: 1003

------

December 1927

  Mikhail wanted to shout but he knew he couldn’t, he was a royal now, and royals had standards. Also this crown was a lot heavier than he expected. He was tired, and he could tell Alexei was too, the journey to Moscow had been long, but Alexei was firm that traditions couldn’t be broken. Besides, the party wasn’t over just yet. Before they could go home, they still had duties as the newly crowned Emperors of Russia. 

  As the nobles and their wives lined to wish the newlyweds well, Mikhail couldn’t help but overhear some of the whispers from the crowd.

  “Can you believe it? The heir to the throne marrying a peasant?”

  “I’m very glad the Emperor has returned, but he chooses a commoner?”

  “He could have his pick of any noble family yet he chooses a... what was his name? Ernet?”

  “Doesn’t matter, he’s a Romanov now. Lucky bastard.”

  Mikhail tightened his grip on Alexei’s hand but otherwise tried to show he didn’t hear them. He could see Alexei’s jaw clench, so he must have heard them too. 

  The line slowly got shorter and shorter, until it was finally gone. Mikhail wanted to punch every noble that dared to wish them happiness, but also insult Mikhail when they thought he couldn’t hear. He knew Alexei well enough to know he was thinking the same. Maybe not physically hit them, but Alexei knew how to find the thing that you don’t like about you. 

  Mikhail could feel his throat closing up. He needed out, now. He cleared his throat and excused himself, walking over to where the party was flowing out into the plaza. He snuck to a quiet corner and just sat there, catching his breath. But while his body was still, his mind was moving a mile a minute. Could he really do this?

  Minutes passed and his breathing finally slowed, enough that he went back to join his husband. Even if he wasn’t cut out for this life, he had Alexei, and that's what mattered.

August 1933

  Alexei was away on affairs with Germany, trying to negate a treaty. While he was gone, it was common knowledge that Mikhail ran the place. Even so, some nobles still didn’t quite get the memo.

  “I say that we rebuild. It will show the public that while we are still new on our feet, we still have great power and can-”

  “Your Imperial Majesty, with all due respect, don’t you think that you should leave talk of power to those with more experience?” One nobleman spoke up, one that was particularly infamous for his old beliefs that royalty shouldn’t marry below nobility.

  Mikhail pinched the bridge of his nose. “Count Turgenev, with all due respect, I believe I know what I am talking about. I have been Emperor for five years and will continue to be. Also,” he rose to his feet, now looming over the Count, “don’t you know not to interrupt your Emperor?”

  Mikhail sat back down. “Guards,” he called, “please escort Count Turgenev out of the palace. And make sure he does not return.” He turned towards the Count one last time and spoke, “I’ll be sure that my husband hears about this.” With that, the doors swung shut and silence filled the room.

  “Well gentlemen, where were we?”

December 1937

  It was the tenth anniversary of both the New Imperial Russia and the marriage of Alexei and Mikhail. By now, all the nobles had accepted Mikhail as their Emperor, and if any comments were still made, they were made behind closed doors. 

  Mikhail himself was loved by the common public, them seeing him as a representation of their voices. After all, he used to be one of them. One brave young noble thought he still was.

  Like they had so many years before, Alexei and Mikhail stood before a line of nobles, though they were much friendlier than ten years ago. 

  At the end of the line, a newly appointed member of the court, Baron Petrov, appeared to be very intoxicated and with a young lady who clearly did not want to be there. Poor thing, Mikhail thought.

  As the couple soon discovered, the Baron was quite bold when he was drunk. Bold enough to say the one thing to guarantee the wrath of both Emperors.

  “Hey,” He pointed at Mikhail, “aren’t you that commoner?”

  Mikhail slowly pushed the finger away from his face, and held Alexei back with his other arm. “Yes,” he said slowly, “I used to be a commoner, but I am your Emperor, as I have been for ten years, and you will address me as such.”

  Baron Petrov had the nerve to laugh. “Yeah right I will. Sure, sure, sure… make a Baron bow to a peasant, I’ll be happy to do that.” He muttered something else, but his words were slurring together and he was so quiet it was inaudible.

  “That’s enough!” Alexei’s voice rang out. Mikhail hadn’t noticed, but Alexei’s jaw had been getting tighter and tighter until he couldn’t handle it. “Listen here, Petrov,” the venom was clear in his voice, “I don’t know who you think you are, insulting your Emperor, but I do know you shall never set foot in this Cathedral or any palace of mine. Understood?”

  Clearly, the sudden intrusion of Alexei seemed to sober up the young Baron, as he nodded and fled, abandoning his date, finally relieved to be rid of him.

  Mikhail sighed and turned towards her. “I’m sorry for the trouble, my dear. Is there anything we can do to make it up to you?”

  The girl simply smiled and shook her head, “No, Your Imperial Majesties, being without him is payment enough.” With another smile and a curtsy, she left.

  Finally done with greetings, Alexei leaned against Mikhail. They had a moment to rest, then Mikhail spoke up: “Remember ten years ago when you hated everything about me?”

  Alexei laughed, a much more common sound these days. “I do.”

[theimpossiblescheme]

My Macavity Headcanons:

He’s the eldest son of Old Deuteronomy and Grizabella who was once groomed to become the next leader and protector of the Jellicles.  The problem was, even from a young age, he had a problem with throwing his weight around and being a bit of a bully.  Every time someone annoyed him, he would remind them that he was Old Deuteronomy’s son and deserved better, and sometimes his natural exuberance could come across as overly pushy and abrasive.  For this reason, Deuteronomy decided not to make him his successor, as he feared Macavity might let that power go to his head and abuse it.

He was always highly intelligent and charismatic, as well as being one of the best fighters in the Tribe. Even before he had his powers of hypnotism, he was charming enough that he could beat the tar out of someone and still have them wanting to be his best friend and go hunting together afterward. Very often he used that charm to his advantage whenever he’d done something less than honorable.

His magical abilities came from a very unlikely source—a millenia-old immortal mystical tom named Foxfire.  Foxfire claimed that his powers came from the human gods, which made them much more potent than any gift the Everlasting Cat could give… and he could give Macavity some of that power.  Fascinated, Macavity accepted, and Foxfire began mentoring the young tom in secret.  Little did he suspect, however, that Foxfire had his own reasons for taking him under his wing…

When he was passed over for the roles that were his “birthright”, he became increasingly bitter and jealous toward Munkustrap, and Grizabella’s encouragement and favoritism toward him didn’t help.  One day, he decided to finally reveal to the Tribe what kind of power he wielded… by attempting to kill Munkustrap in cold blood.  When that failed, he lashed out with his powers at any onlookers, injuring several cats in the crossfire.  This led to his exile from the Jellicles, and Macavity took a “better to reign in hell than serve in heaven” attitude toward the matter.

He always thought of his relationship with Bombalurina as purely physical (what she thought of it was a completely different story), but he had truly been in love with Demeter once upon a time.  He was an exciting mate who went out of his way to impress her and make every day they spent together an adventure.  But as his obsession with honing his powers and regaining his “birthright” made him more distant toward her over time.  He didn’t even realize how much they’d drifted apart until he saw her with Munkustrap… and he was furious.  In Macavity’s eyes, Munkustrap had already taken away his place in the Tribe—he wasn’t going to take away his mate, too!  So when he was exiled, he took Demeter and Bombalurina with him… if he couldn’t have them, then no one could.

He’s the father of at least ten kits—Jemima with Demeter, Electra with Bombalurina, Hestia, Hades, Thetis, Iris, and Apollo with a queen named Serafina (@uppastthejelliclemoon​); Alexei with an unknown Russian queen (@star-freckled-kitten​), and Sekhmet and Ares with a queen named Athena. (@dcjelliclequeen33​)

His first henchcat was a tom named Traven, whom he hypnotized into helping him bringing new henchcats into the fold and letting him use the Tower of London as his fortress. (@bullseyegames​)  He recruited Bombalurina, Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer shortly after, as well as Griddlebone’s granddaughter Chatalune, an French queen named Calypso, and a quartet of upscale queens who moonlighted as show cats—Fantazia, Sparetta, Jokaste, and Zampalesta.  Together, all of them except for Traven subtly catnipped the other Jellicles into amnesia while Macavity kidnapped the contestants for the Jellicle Choice and brought them to be killed by Pushdragon, the last surviving member of Growltiger’s Raffish Crew.

His next recruits included Tumblebrutus’s exiled older brothers, Dionysus and Fleuryfling.  He could tell they were disillusioned and angry, and he nurtured those feelings to make them more loyal to him and willing to do his dirty work.  The two of them would later help Macavity in kidnapping Old Deuteronomy and holding him hostage until Mistoffelees magicked the Jellicle Leader back home.

He and Calypso cultivated a small “family” of their own, along with a French tom named Fabian–Macavity and Calypso had two kittens named Latinus and Moria, and Calypso and Fabian had Ajax and Lillith.  They also took in a pair of sisters named Castalia and Kalliste.  When they grew up, however, he started treating them less like kittens and more like henchcats.  And after Kalliste disobeyed one of his orders, he had her killed, prompting the other five to run away to hide among the Jellicle Tribe. (@thederpyllamaoflove​, @uppastthejelliclemoon​)

His last acquisitions as henchcats were a trio of scrappy street cats—Rock, Glacier, and Smoke.  Rock and Glacier remind him very much of Munkustrap and Tugger, though he’d never admit it, and he’s way more in love with Smoke than he’d ever want to let on. (@themysterycatt​)

The cats outside of the Jellicle Tribe know him as basically the feline Don Corleone—gracious and reasonable most of the time and very knowledgeable about human culture, but certainly not someone to be crossed.  He’s also singlehandedly kept the different crime rackets in the feline underworld running smoothly and quietly thanks to his involvement, even moving his head of operations to a warehouse across from a nightclub called the Mouser’s Palace so he could be closer to his associates.

In order to keep inspiring loyalty and camaraderie among his followers, he throws a “henchcats’ ball” every year around the same time as the Jellicle Ball.  Sometimes other cats will infiltrate the festivities, but Macavity doesn’t mind too much and even welcomed Mistoffelees when he decided to make an appearance… maybe he’ll get to win them over to his side. (@themysterycatt​)

He used to have a luxurious mane much like his little brother Tugger’s, but years of living on the street and neglecting his appearance have made it limp, tangled, and shaggy.

He’s always had a rather high metabolism, which makes it so that he can not only eat whatever he likes without gaining much weight, but also that he can use a great deal of magic at a time without tiring out or burning his paws.

He’s both a hypnotist and a pyrokinetic who also has some mild control over electricity.

[fromthedeskofelizabeththird]

thērepōdos (II)

I heard ya’ll like Dimileths~

FE3H | Dimileth | Gen

~~

“You’re doing it wrong, come here...look.”

Dimitri frowns, watching as Sylvain lifts Alexei into his arms.

“The head goes here, look, like this!”

The protocol for a royal baby is clear, even if Alexei himself doesn’t know it yet. Now that a week has passed since his birth and both he and his mother are in good health, the time has arrived for him to be properly introduced to not only the nobles of the realm, but the people of Fhirdiad.

Some traditions are meant to be broken, though.

While the newly established heads of houses Gautier and Fraldarius were first through the gates, they were not the only ones to receive an invitation. So too did an innkeeper, four professors from the monastery, an opera starlet recently turned noble, two mercenaries and a mysterious hooded figure bearing the emblem of the knights of Seiros.

The ceremony to welcome Prince Alexei is two days from now, leaving every corner of Fhirdiad rife with anticipation. The last time they welcomed a prince was after Dimitri took control of the capital en route to Enbarr, an infamously bittersweet moment for all involved. For years the idea of welcoming a healthy heir to the throne in a time of relative peace remained little more than a wish whispered into the night. The people of Faerghus have become skeptical, hearts hardened by war and disaster. No one is quite so aware of this as the King.

Dimitri remembers his throne being stolen with far more clarity than he does reclaiming it. He was well read long before his arrival at Garreg Mach, devouring any text he could find that discussed the qualities of an ideal ruler. He spent nights poring over philosophy and proverbs- prepared for the crown of his country to weigh on his head and heart.

The crown was deceptively light in the end, though. He turned his head too quickly the first time he wore it and fell into shocked silence as it clattered on the ground at his feet. His instinct was to laugh and crack a joke; he has never been the gentle type, after all. He’s broken more lances than anyone could reasonably count, snapped Mercedes’ sewing needle in half; dented both his armour and crown. Somehow he even managed to headbutt Byleth during their first kiss.

Tradition calls for him to stand on the balcony of their grand palace with his child in his arms, telling Faerghus the name of their future ruler. He has both dreamed of and dreaded this moment, for reasons all too clear to those who know him best.

It’s been a week now and he has yet to hold the baby, convinced beyond all rational doubt that something awful will happen. Perhaps he will bend the baby in two; perhaps he will lift him with far too much force. Byleth has told him more than once that it’s unlikely, but the idea of landing any scratches or scrapes on his legacy is too much to bear. He only ever watches the baby from a safe distance; only dares to touch him by stroking his hair.

He knows Byleth wishes he would hold him and today he has little choice in the matter. It is the King’s job to introduce the world to his legacy and in doing so reassure the people of stability. Even so, his hands shake at the very idea and he can scarcely look his friends in the eye.

Of the Blue Lions, Sylvain was the first to have children-a red haired girl named Isolde, who’s spent the past half an hour peering into the cot with a grave expression. She’s too young to understand the more complicated issues at hand and Dimitri almost envies her ignorance.

Sylvain, who spent so much time with Isolde in his arms that she now gets incredibly upset at being parted from him, was horrified by the prospect of Dimitri being so distanced from his own child. His own scars are different in size and shape. He doesn’t fear holding his child too tightly, but giving them any inkling of rejection. Isolde bears no crest, yet he still calls her ‘princess’.

As per tradition, Sylvain arrived with gifts from House Gautier, among them a gaudy vase that no one in the room has pretended to like. Perhaps most importantly, it is almost exactly the same size and weight as a human child.

“Like this,” says Sylvain, shuffling the vase in his arms. “Look, you need to support the head.”

“This is, without a doubt, the most ridiculous thing either of you have ever done,” yawns Felix from his spot by the window.

Dimitri glances from the vase wrapped in furs in Sylvain’s arms to the sleeping baby and clenches his hands into fists.

“You can do it,” adds Dedue with a nod.

Dimitri rubs his hands together, taking a deep breath and reaching for the vase. His hands are trembling, his stomach churning. He knows it’s a vase and not the real thing, but it’s difficult to think of anything but either of them shattering on the floor.

He takes the vase into his arms, back straight and shoulders rigid. He can feel it slipping even though it sits stock still. Sylvain takes a couple of steps back, grinning triumphantly at his own success.

“There it is, perfect,” he says, “though...maybe you could relax...a bit?”

“You look like you’re taking a shit,” adds Felix.

Dimitri sighs and passes the vase back to Sylvain. Why was he cursed with such clumsy hands? Why couldn’t he be as skilled with delicate work as he is on the battlefield?

“Don’t worry so much about it,” laughs Ashe, no doubt sensing his tension. “Babies were built to survive new parents!”

“That’s right, that’s right,” says Sylvain, taking the vase from him with little to no effort. “Soon you’ll be bouncing them around and-“

SMASH

Everyone reacts at exactly the same instant.

Sylvain, who tossed the vase up into the air for emphasis, falls into shocked silence. Felix, who took a second to roll his eyes, squeezes them shut altogether. Dimitri takes two steps back, having tried and failed to catch the vase. Ashe flinches. Both Alexei and Isolde cry.

“This...this doesn’t mean anything!” Sylvain drops to his knees to gather the parts of the vase left intact. “Look...see-ow!”

“This is how it’s going to be, isn’t it?” Dimitri murmurs as Sylvain examines his bloodied fingers. “For the rest of my life…”

“No, no,” Sylvain exclaims, “this is just an accident...don’t think too much about it! It was fine until I took it, honestly!”

Dimitri sucks in a deep breath and storms out of the room, away from the chaos. Sylvain flops down onto the floor with a sigh, dropping the shard of ceramic that sliced open his fingers.

“Do you think we should go after him?”

“And say what?”

Felix’s words are sharp, though betrayed by his tone.

“I dunno,” says Sylvain, “that feeling scared is normal when you first have a kid.”

“Did you hesitate to hold Isolde?”

At that, Sylvain’s eyes drop to the floor. Everyone knows that he didn’t.

“Speaking of Isolde,” pipes up Ashe, “where is she?”

~~~~~~

It’s been a while since all of the Blue Lions have gathered at once. Byleth sees Mercedes and Annette at the monastery fairly frequently, while Dimitri, Sylvain and Felix remain in touch via council meetings and the day to day running of the kingdom, but the only time they all seem to be in one place at the same time is at a wedding or a baptism.

Byleth has missed the idle chatter of her students and it’s plain to see that they have missed one another’s company. She acquired a fragrant tea and lemon cakes for the reunion, only for them to lay forgotten in the excitement of updates on one another’s lives. Hours have passed and conversation has barely halted, leaving only Byleth to sit in relative silence. She’s always been something of an introvert and at present there’s a lot on her mind.

Today her son will be tested for a crest and then presented to the people of Fhirdiad. She knows that it shouldn’t have come as a surprise considering how often crests and their holders have changed the course of history, yet somehow the reality of it is only just hitting her.

Since Dimitri’s ascension to the throne, the topic of crests has been hotly debated. Where before it was a cornerstone of life as a noble, now it is considered outdated at best. It’s certainly true that noble families have continued to have their children’s blood tested, though the results are rarely-if ever-made public knowledge. The practise itself might not have survived were it not for the consequences of using a relic without its proper crest, leaving it as a safety measure and little more. Even so, Byleth feels anything but safe.

She does not want anyone to break the skin on her son’s finger, no matter how gently it is done. She brought in Hannemann for the task in the hopes that she would feel better about it, but her stomach still churns with anxiety. She did not know she had a crest herself until adulthood and that knowledge gnaws at her heart. Would it really matter if none of them knew if Alexei had one either?

She only half listens as Dorothea and Manuela frantically exchange notes on the newer compositions they heard in taverns on the journey to Fhirdiad. Enough time has passed that the war of the three houses has fallen mostly into legend, with travelling bards the world over composing tales of the noble chivalry and grand deeds of the Blue Lions and their allies. One particular ongoing theme (and consequently, ongoing joke) is the valour and strength of Ingrid of house Galatea and her incredible modesty on the matter. Ingrid has never truly known how to respond to the stories comparing her strength and beauty to that of the goddess. Naturally, her blushes only inspire Manuela and Dorothea to repeat them with gusto and their current tale involves a certain knight falling from the sky.

“...and next, next the beautiful stranger opened her eyes….”

“Oooh!”

Annette leans in closer, as if she’s listening to a secret. Ingrid blushes furiously, though tries to hide it from view.

“...she asked the innkeeper to listen closely and he crouched at her side to hear her whispers…”

Byleth has heard this story before. During a raid on a number of bandits, Ingrid fell from her horse, crashing through the roof of the inn. Somewhat miraculously, she escaped relatively unscathed from the impact, far more dazed than bruised. She stayed in the inn for a couple of days at Mercedes’ insistence and, while the true sequence of events was rather dull, the retellings grow increasingly dramatic with each passing year.

Everyone in the room knows this story, yet still wait with bated breath. As such, when Dorothea opens her mouth to whisper the request of the grand lady knight, only to be drowned out by the chaos of the door crashing open, everyone is startled.

The shock is only temporary, though, and quickly transforms into curiosity when it’s Isolde who rushes into the room. It’s certainly true that some present know Isolde better than others, but everyone in the room is acutely aware of two things.

One, that Isolde is nothing if not intelligent. She knows exactly how to manipulate her father into giving her extra dessert or a later bedtime, much to the ire of her mother.

Secondly, that while her loyalties certainly fall with Sylvain, who is easily the softer of the two, she will run to her mother whenever she is truly frightened.

“Momma,” she calls out, cheeks as rosy red as her hair, “Momma! Papa dropped the baby! It broke on the floor!”

~~~~~

By now, Alexei has fallen silent, sleeping soundly in the crook of Dedue’s arm. Sylvain disappeared in search of Isolde, leaving Felix and Ashe to sweep up the broken vase.

“Stupid idiot,” mutters Felix, “leaving us to clean up his mess…”

Ashe can’t contain his laughter. Felix, after all, was the first to grab a broom.

“Don’t you find it nostalgic?”

“Nostalgic?”

“Mhmm,” says Ashe. “It might sound silly, but it sort of reminds me of when we started to restore the monastery.”

Felix presses his lips together and continues to sweep, albeit in completely the wrong direction. It is nostalgic even if he doesn’t want to admit it.

Back then, Byleth added restoring the monastery to their list of after school chores. It was difficult to retain morale with enormous gaps in the ceiling. Many of the Blue Lions and their allies continued to clear the rubble long into the night. Felix complained the loudest, but more often than not stayed until dawn.

Ashe can’t keep the smile from his face, even as the door flies open and the Professor rushes in, the remaining Blue Lions and Isolde in tow. Byleth has never been easy to read, but it’s all too clear what’s running through her mind as she crosses the room and stands up on her tiptoes to peer into Alexei’s sleeping face.

“Is that...a vase ?”  Annette crouches on the floor and picks up one of the shards, holding it up to the light. “Why is it in a blanket?”

“Baby,” says Isolde, pointing at the mess.

Byleth peers around the room, taking note of every guilty face with two significant exceptions.

“Where’s Dimitri?” she asks.

~~~~~

There are very few paintings of King Lambert in Fhirdiad, though not through any sort of misfortune. In truth, he was far more interested in practising his sword arm than sitting down for a portrait, and as a consequence his likeness was captured only once.

The portrait of King Lambert sits pride of place on the wall of the heroes gallery, one singular floor of the palace dedicated to preserving the legacy of notable citizens of Faerghus. There are statues of Loog in every corner, portraits of long dead and largely forgotten kings, dusty tomes detailing the history of the land. To be placed in the gallery is one of the greatest honours in the country and Lambert’s portrait is the brightest of all. The artist captured him perfectly, from the sharpness of his jawline to his gleaming armour. He appears dignified, noble…

...and not at all as Dimitri remembers.

Dimitri remembers only his final moments, an image that so often drowns out the rest. When he tries to remember his father’s booming laughter, he recalls the sound of his final gurgles. When he thinks of his proud form, his mind immediately drifts to the moment it fell still.

He made peace years ago with the knowledge that Lambert was never coming back, but he wishes more than anything that he could remember more of him than the moment of his death.

Dimitri very often visits the painting of his father and it’s there that Byleth eventually finds him. His arms are folded, his back straight as an arrow, staring into the eyes of the painting so deeply that he doesn’t notice Byleth approach until she’s standing beside him.

“I don’t know what to do,” he says.

“With what?”

“The silence.”

She stays quiet, as is so often her way, eyes drifting from him to the portrait. She, of all people, should understand. They’ve both been numb for as long as they remember and this past year has brought wave after wave of emotions to the surface.

Today they are duty bound to present their son to the kingdom and promise the very thing neither of them remember. Who are they now that there’s no battles to fight?

In the end, Byleth says nothing at all and instead links her fingers through his.

She doesn’t let go, not even as Hanneman pricks their boy’s finger and casts his blood into the flames, revealing the Blaiddyd crest.

She doesn’t let go as they stand on the balcony, waving to their subjects and declaring the arrival of an heir to the throne. As far as the people of Faerghus are concerned, the baby’s mere existence is a victory.

They don’t need to know how badly their king’s hands are shaking; they don’t need to know about the tears in their queen’s eyes as Hanneman’s needle broke his skin.

From this distance they can’t see the dents in his crown, nor can they tell that the bundle nestled in the crook of Dimitri’s arm contains nothing more than one of Isolde’s dolls.

The real heir to the throne is fast asleep in his nursery, as blissfully ignorant of the celebrations in his name as he is the battles that won him his birthright.

That, in itself, is the true victory.

[multi-fandomfanfics]

The Visit

Dimileth but angst.... Much Angst

Prev Story     1

words: 1400+

Summary:  His lost was hard for everyone, but at least it gave a better future to Fodlan Claude knows that.

Fhirdiad.

It has been two months already, the notice got all of Fodlan fastly, and the other countries got the notice too. King Dimitri had died from an illness. And letters came sending their condolences, some other asking when will Jeralt take the throne? Will he get out of Garreg Mach? She just send the twins three months ago to Garreg Mach, and Jeralt was in his final year... Of course they knew of him passing, they came a week before it and they were to go back three days after he died, but they stayed longer, a week and a half, Jeralt was overwhelmed they were asking too much in so little time, he hasn't yet assimilate his father's death, and they were asking him his plans for taking the crown, Byleth decided that he will not take it yet, until he was prepared and was of age (twenty one,he was seventeen for goddess sake...) In the meantime she will do all the work.

But it hit hard to everyone, family and friends, they lost someone very cherished, Dimitri wasn't suffering anymore so she was happy for it, but at same time, she wished there was a cure so he nor everyone had to suffer anymore. The notice got to Almyra too. She knew because Hilda send a letter, but not Claude, no news about him, which was strange, the moment he knew he would have traveled and got here as soon as he could, stopping whatever he was doing. She was sure of it. But then he didn't even send a letter, did something happen? Did he and Dimitri got on a fight without her knowledge? Every time Dimitri and Claude send each other letters dimitri write something among the lines of 'your son will not marry Amelie' or something like that... But of course that was a joke.... Well it wasn't a joke but it was something between the two of them. If Amelie wanted to marry Viktor she may have already told her, but she hasn't say a thing, so no she will not marry Viktor. Unless of course she wanted, who was Byleth to say no? She was a commoner and yet she married the King. She was worried, what Happened to Claude? Her answer came the next day. A knock was heard on the office. The office Dimitri was in all day long. "Come in please" "Your majesty" a maid entered. "The Duke Von-" "Hello teach!" Claude came inside before the maid could continue. "Claude! What a surprise" she got up from the chair "I'm sorry for taking too long but I had some affairs to take care of in Almyra" "It's alright, I know how much pressure there is" "Of course you do, working all day long and not getting out! To much pressure!" "Ah yes well..." She prefers to work, it make her forget about the pain... "Teach!" He took her wrist "Huh?" "Please take me to him, it will go fine for the both of us, and besides he won't forgive me if I didn't visit at least one time!" "W-well" "C'mon c'mon" she didn't had a choice, he took her away. That's how they got out of the office and start walking to the garden, Dedue following along a few steps behind. "Now he follows you?" Claude knew how much Dedue respected Dimitri and how deep their friendship was. "Dimitri asked him to take care of me on his stead" "Ah I see" He tried to speak lowly but Dedue was close he could heard everything, he just decided to keep his mind to himself. "I know it's been rough teach, for you, for everyone..., But your kids? What do they think? What about Jeralt?" She sighed. "The nobles want him on the throne already, but I told them no, he will be of age first, he's... He's just a child who lost his father, Dimitri was twenty three when he became king, and they want a child of seventeen to be King already?! That's the age Dimitri had when we meet! He already has a lot of pressure I won't put him through more" "I see, that's good for him, and the others? Amelie, Lambert?" "Amelie hasn't said a word, word, letter she hasn't talked at all" "She really liked Dimitri didn't she?" "It was a hard blow for her..., Lambert on the other hand, he seems the same but... I know it hurt him too, he and Dimitri were going to fish next summer" "Ah yes, he told me about it" "Leo cried all day when he discovered and stayed on his room until the ceremony, right now he must be there, he doesn't get out" "Uh... How does he-" "There's a bathroom" "Oh" "And the maids made sure he eats, I tried talking with him but he's having none of it" "It's difficult to control them all, and the little one?" "... Alexei wanted to know when will Dimitri wake up" "Oh..." "Even in the ceremony he asked why was him going down? How will he get up if there's dirt over him...., I give him a explanation but... He's a child, he doesn't know what dying is, and now he sleeps all nights with me, he got angry at him, but then cried too" Claude looked at the flowers, he didn't notice when they got to the tomb. He saw the craved words. He just like everyone else lost a friend that day, it hurt him too, Dimitri tried his best to make Fodlan a better place and just a moments of joy and laugh got him here. "I'm sorry for asking" "It's alright Claude, everyone has been avoiding that kind of talk like bees, it's good having someone to hear it" "I suppose..." Claude looked at the tomb and then at her. "Professor?" "Mh?" She looked back. "I have something for you, well various things" He gets a letter out and give it to her. She looks at it, it had the mark of Blaiddyd broken, she took it between her hands. "He told me to not give it to you but... I don't think you deserve that Teach" She got the content out Claude It's been a month since Viktor's Birthday so I hope this doesn't come as something to look like I accept what you said about him and Amelie, anyway. I got a bit sick, but the doctors haven't found anything with what to to cure me, and I believe I got it on Almyra. Now don't come thinking I'm blaming you or something like that. But if it's true then maybe there's some sickness is going around Almyra and nobody knows, this could be very important, if you have the cure then I have to ask you for it, if not, the people in Almyra could be in danger I'll send a sample of my blood. I do wish for you to find the cure Not only for me but for the people in Almyra, maybe even the world if it's a new sickness. I wait for your response. Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd P.D. Don't try to blackmail me into letting Amelie marry him because if so I will go to Almyra personally and break your neck. She closed the letter with a sad smile. "He never told me about this" she looked at the tomb. "I'm sure he didn't want to worry you professor..." "Mh..." "And the other thing" she look at him and saw him get something from his belt, he offered to her, a little vial with a transparent liquid inside, she took it and examine it. "And this?" "That is the cure" she looked surprised. "The reason I didn't come earlier was because it wasn't ready yet... Didn't want to come empty-handed" She looked at the vial again and hold it tightly to her chest. "That vial is a promise Professor, a promise that I will not let anyone else die because of that illness, Dimitri helped create that so his death will not be on vain" she smiled at him. "Thank you Claude, I'm sure he's glad you find it" "I just wish we had found it earlier and he endured it more..." "But I know he's not suffering anymore..." "Right... Of course" he gave a sad smile. "Professor" "Mh?" "I'm sorry" "It's alright..." She looked at the tomb again. "He was happy on his last day that's what matters the more to me..." "I'm sure he was" Claude follow her sight to the same place and give a soft laugh. "What's funny?" "Oh nothing, just some thoughts I had" "Care to share?" "Well.... Technically now Viktor coul-" "Don't end that phrase or I will end you Claude" she smiled softly. And Claude then and there knew, if he was scared of Dimitri he was ten times more scared of the Professor.

[alexanderessexmediaroles]

Day 9 - Individual Artist Roles for both Stop-Motion and 3D/CG

For today’s research, I thought I specilise it to looking into the four roles I’ve chosen to pursue with for my project by looking what is required for those roles as well as potential artists that share those very same roles so that I can research them for the media roles project. 

Before I did any major research on my own, I went back to the sources of information that Carla had given us for the one project we had to do as they’res still a lot of useful resources that i can use to research the roles specifically and for finding my potential artists and animation companies to look into as well. I first started off by going back to ‘ScreenShare’ and looking at the Animator, Model Maker and Rigging Roles to see what the website I had to offer. Whilst I would research into how these roles work by themselves and how to get into them, I plan to do just a brief version today as I’ll do a more detailed look into how to apply and get into those job roles in the industry when I talk about them a lot more in depth later on as I want to research into artists from those roles for inspiration.

Animator for Stop-Motion and 3D

Starting off with the role of an ‘Animator’, the basic role of an animator is to follow a visual brief off the storyboard which the director helps to give a verbal brief to that same animator in order to make the scene just right in the film or production. In order to be successful and knowledgeable as an animator, you have to make sure you have a good understanding of the principles as well as being familarised with weight and timing to make the character and scenery as realistic as possible to the point where it seems seamless as your watching the performance. This however depends on how many frames you’re animating on as the more frames a second allows for much smoother animation with lesser frames making it slower but more stylistic. You also need to be organised and be able to communicate in this role effectively with not only exploring your ideas to others, but also effectively meeting deadlines to when a scene needs to be animated on time. This goes the same for both 3D and Stop-Motion based Animators although I would say deadlines for animating are probably more important in the stop-motion industry as they have a much tighter schedule when it comes to animating since it takes them longer to make a frame compared to 3D/CG.

Rigger

With the role of a ‘Rigger’, they’re the digital puppet-makers of the 3D animation department as they control how much a puppet is articulated and moved for a certain action like how a character should walk from A to B in a scene or how their body will morph and change as their feelings are expressed. Essentially, they help to create all that is needed for the animator to fully play around with the character. Whistl it’s their job to make the skeleton of puppets, they have direct involvement with the animators on set too as they pass back onto the rigger what would need changing about the puppet order to achieve a certain pose or look for that character. This could vary from slightly loosing up a characters joints to make the job of animating a lot easier in stop-motion or adding more points in a digital skeleton to get some freer movement. Whilst riggers specilise with character, they are essentially responsible to anything that is seen that is movable as objects also provide a skeleton to perform certain actions like thrusters moving off a car. In addition to working with the animators, they have to also work with modelers too to see how they will pan to put the skeleton into the model and understanding if some areas are possible or not for movement.

Model Maker

Model-makers can be approached either as 3D modelers or stop-motion puppet makers but I’ll be focusing on more the stop-motion aspect of the role. Having said that at some point in my research, I would still like to look into 3D modelling as there’s a particular artist I like that motivates me going along as a 3D modeler as well. With stop-motion model making, there’s a lot of the same knowledge as an animator and rigging that goes into puppet making as all three of these roles have to communicate with each other in order to create a successful and poseable puppet for the scene as well as having the same kind of skills and intuition that goes into the other roles. Because of this, Model-makers have to make several different puppets that are the same and for their clothing and accessories too which I learnt from LAIKA Studios. In addtion to making the puppets in stop-motion as a model-maker, it’s also consists of creating models for the background of scenes as well like making the tiny little prop’s that all add to the realism of the set in addition to the main set pieces to the scene.

Something off the ‘Skill shares’ website that I found interesting was that in smaller studios in the industry, model-makers are more of a general role that are taken as they need people working in the studio to have multiple skills rather than just one. This is definitely reassuring for me as I‘m very unsure to what I should specilise in for the future as I like doing many roles at once.

3D Animator and Rigging Artists I would like to Look at:

Alexey Zakharov

Audri Phillips

Dreamworks

Blue Zoo

JellyFish

This was a bit tricky to research and find for as there aren’t too many famous 3D animators out in the wild that i could find and research on compared to something like Stop-Motion. Having said that, there are still a ton of companies that I find interesting to me that I might choose to really research into how specifically what it’s like to be a 3D animator which goes the same for rigging too. 

However for the ones I did find, I found both to be really interesting to me for different reasons as even though they both aren’t to do with character animation and rigging, they still show how these people work as well as well as having different ways of showcasing their skills as animators. The first artist I looked like was a 3D artist by the name of Alexey Zakharov who creates very photo-realistic set pieces and test shots such as his take on the show ‘Futurama’ if it was to be in 3D. Obviously something really eye-catching with his work is by how visually stunning it all is to watch as everything has been made from the ground-up through Alexey’s work in four different software's that being:  3dsmax, Nuke, Photoshop, After Effects. These all help to light, model and animate the scene which we see below. Because of this, I might plan to look at the different types of software used for both 3D animation and rigging as this would help me with my industry knowledge.

Futurama 3d (test shot)

Through his making of video where it shows the steps to how each element was made for the test shot, there was one aspect that I found interesting to me that looked at the rigging side of the project which was the ‘Planet Express’ ship and seeing all the different modelled parts used to construct the model as that’s the main ship that’s animated in the test shot. This is why there are multiple tiny bits of the ship that you both see and don’t see on the ship as they all contribute to the little tiny bits of the ship that move as it flies in the test shot which was done through rigging. In a way, it was cool to understand that rigging isn’t just limited to character.

MAKING OF “Futurama 3d (test shot)”

The different parts of the ‘Planet Express’ put together 

One of the other artists that I looked at other than Alexsy was ‘Audri Phillips’ who isn’t your conventional artist so to speak as she animates in a very expressionistic style rather something at face value with a simple character animation that meets a brief. Instead her work is all to do with dance and how animation can help to visulaise the thoughts she gets from listening to the music as well as watching the performance too as her work is often played side by side with a performer on stage. This kind of animation is something I really haven’t seen before but it’s something I could really get behind as I love doing dynamic animation so to see something like this being used is really inspiring to me. Whilst the models you see in her pieces are done through CG, all the other supernatural events that occur in the performance are all created using 3D elements to help make enhance the journey through animating really large faces as well as objects floating in the air. Whilst I may stick with more character-based animation, I really enjoy how she express meaning through movement which something to think about when it comes to animating my characters and rigging them.

Heart Dance

https://vimeo.com/394248256

Stop-Motion Animator Artists 

Nick Park

Adam Pesapane - PES

Len Lye

Michael Mort

Having already looked at two different stop-motion companies before hand, I’ve covered a lot of info on the that part of the industry to have a nice enough grasp on it all. Because of this, I really wanted to research some stop-motion artists that either share multiple different roles like animating and directing as well as looking at the more independent stop-motion artists. From the documentary I watched from Carla’s research, Len Lye was a really early British animator which his work doesn't seem like stop-motion at first as it consists of etching paint and prints into 35mm tape. But the way it all comes together and how he’s creating a painstakingly frame by frame animation is hard to say it’s not as if you were to watch his films, so much time would have been invested in making sure each frame matched up to the last one on such a small scale at the time. But the main reason why Len’s work interested me is through his persistence with the art form as at the time, he was struggling to have something unique through his previous attempt at animating a monkey puppet. This determination is something I wanted to take from Len’s work as something that should be highly valued in the industry no matter what role I end up specilising in due to their drive to keep going on makes will definitively help you to stand out.

1935-1937 Len Lye - "Kaleidoscope" + "A Colour Box" + "Colour Flight" (highlights mix)

Model Making studios I like to look into:

Kerry Dyer - Model Maker

Hetty - Model Maker

Roos Mattaar - Model Maker 

Astrid Goldsmith - Model Maker

For researching on stop-motion model-makers specifically, I was really surprised to see that there was a lot of info on how they work and what they’re career journey has been like much more so compared to the other roles I looked at today. One that I felt that really stood out to me was Ross Mattaar due to really going into depth to how she creates her puppets and armatures by the different materials she uses and how she isn’t just limited as a puppet maker as she also specilises in armature making and as an animator as well. These included various different processes to how she makes her puppets like mold making, casting (silicon, resin and plaster), needle felting and brass tubing.

http://www.roosmattaar.com/about-me/

Overall, I’m really happy with the research I’ve done today as whilst it was a small explanation of each role that I’m highly interested into as well as a small bit of research towards some artists I discovered, I plan to go into more depth into at a later point in both areas later on in my research as i want to also look into some additional roles that I hadn’t considered yet until doing this project.

Sources:

Top 30 Animators That Really Know Their Stuff

https://sageanimation.com/top-30-animators/

Alexey Zakharov - Art Station

https://www.artstation.com/seccovan

FIND A JOB IN ANIMATION OR VFX https://www.animationuk.org/subpages/find-a-job-in-animation-or-vfx/?section=skills

[mixandmatchmuses]

Massive headcanon list for @xmusiisms 

It got really long

Harry Potter

Barty/Rabastan

1. Rabastan knew the moment Barty had been switched with his mother. Well he didn’t who it was at first but he put it together quickly

2. They were 9 times out of 10 paired together for missions because they were such an effective team

3. The night they attacked the Longbottoms, Rabastan tried to get him out when they heard others apparating in. To save him from having to face his father

4. While they were under disguise during the Goblet of Fire, it was hard to say who hated that he had to play Crouch Sr. more.

Euphemia-Fleamont/Thackery

1. The first summer that he spent with the Potters, he would try and make them breakfast every morning. He managed a few times before it was caught on. Euphemia had talk a with him about how he didn’t have too

2. A trip to muggle London was a new experience for all of them. But he used his knowledge of muggle New York to help guide through it

3. Fleamont showed him the library, and they had a very hard time getting him out of it afterwards.

4. He also taught him the undetectable extension charm so he could take books with him to school (much to James’s displeasure about how boring that was)

James/Thackery

1. One summer while all the friends were at Potter Manor, James and Sirius thought it would be a good idea to pour water on the others to wake them up. It was the first time they saw how horrible John had been to their friend and how far it ran.

2. James would try to drag Thackery out of the library repeatedly with very little success

3. James taught him how to ride a broom. He didn’t like it very much but was grateful for the lessons

4. When he moved in with him and Lly, Thackery asked James to hide his wand so he wouldn’t be tempted to use magic.

James/Teddy

1. You’ll never get him to call him anything other than Uncle James

2. Constantly wanting to fly with him and Harry despite how little he is compared to them

3. Teddy’s features were a solid imitation of them for a week, James howled when he told Remus to stop studying so much and have some fun with them

4. Whenever the full moon comes, Teddy stays with them. No matter how old he is

Dora/Teddy

1. He inherited her clumsiness along with the metamorpgi genes

2. On her birthday, his hair is always a solid bubblegum pink verses his favored blue

3. He had even Ted fooled when he showed up disguised as his mother. Because he spent so much time watching her

4. He can always tell when she had a bad day at work. He’ll make up some problem that he needs help with and insists that only mum can do it. It always works.

Orion-Walburga/Silvia

1. Like her brothers, Silvia prefers her dad’s company to her mothers. But she normally ends up with her mother to learn how to be a proper pureblood lady

2.  She got very high grades in her magical primary school before going to Hogwarts and always showed off to her parents. she lived off the praise

3. After Orion died, despite being only 4 years old. Silvia kept herself in her room so her mother wouldn’t catch her crying and because she didn’t want to be yelled at.

4. She does have one picture of the 4 of them and Kreacher from when she was a little older than 2. It’s her most prized possession.

Marvel

Call/Joey

1. Mad respect okay, Call loves that he was able to follow his own path despite what their families do

2. It’s easier for him to spend time with Joey than it is with Scarlett or Nick because he looks like Clint verses Natasha

3. There are days where they spend locked in a room just listening to music. It helps them both chill out

4. Joey has to remind him to speak English a lot because he’ll go off in weird languages that he picked up

Jade/Joey

1. Joey is her best friend. No ifs, ands or buts.

2. Please dear god do not mess with him and make the baby hawk uncomfortable while she’s around. You will end up with a broken limb

3. No matter how old they are, when Jade comes home from a mission he’s the one she goes to see first.

4. If she has any sons with Chris, one of them will be named middle name after him.

Jade/Steve

1. She would beg her dad to use the shield as a frisbee with her on it when she was little (he refused of course)

2. The first time she actually manages to take him down in a sparring match, there’s a laugh of stunned disbelief and then the biggest smile on her face

3. Steve was called to the highschool because she broke a kid’s wrist over “Your dad is Captain America?” “No, he’s Steve Rogers.” “What’s the difference? *laugh*”

4. He caught her once staring at their uniforms after they had been hung up, just thinking. Ice cream was quickly brought and they had a long talk about the future

James/Joey

1. So. Many. Videogame marathons

2.  At least once a week, Joey gets a message that James has locked himself in the gym and is destroying the punching bag again

3. Borrowing a page from his homeworld, James dropped a bucket of water on Joey to wake him up. It tested his dodging speed

4. Joey is his son Anthony’s godfather.

James/Ava

1. You’re never going to get him to stop calling you Aunt Ava.

2. The chess games and world domination plans are a huge part of their teasing

3. Jello filled balloons while Ava was running through moves in the gym. He ended up covered in oatmeal in retaliation.

4. Sparring while they try to use moves they learned from Natasha (sorta) against each other

James/Alexei

1. Despite Alexei’s best intentions, James cannot pick up fencing. And it really frustrates him

2. He thinks of Alexei more of an older brother than an uncle.

3. Their first meeting ended with broken fingers on Alexei’s end and a nasty cut from his broken foil on James’s end. This was because James dropped down off the fire escape (on accident) and scared the shit out of him

4. Alexei’s name went just under his team’s in his jacket once he was able to get enough string and decent needles.

James/Steve

1. The person he was most afraid of coming out too was his dad. But the worry was unfounded for the most part

2. James has never felt worthy of carrying the mantle of Captain America. Even when he does, he tells himself that it was just until someone better suited came along

3. He wears Steve’s helmet on some missions

4. Steve never got the “you shouldn’t jump out of planes without a parachute” until he saw James do it because he was following the example

DC

Dick/Zatanna

1. She’ll always call him little brother, despite there being less than a year between them

2. Every year once she learns about his parents, she buys him a present. To make the bad into a little something good

3. He taught her the escrima sticks and she schooled him on the mats a little later

4. He was the only one she TOLD about her father but she has no misgivings that Bruce knows. He took them both in after all and he was old friends with Zatara

Shadowhunters

Max/Ty

1. Sometimes he forgets and invades the other’s personal space. He always feels horrible because of it

2. Ty tried to wake Max up once because of a nightmare, it ended with him on the floor and having a seraph blade pressed to his throat in 3 seconds

3. Max considers Ty his best friend although he knows that the others is Julian or Livia

4. Whenever he tries to get Ty to do something with him he uses the reasoning of “We’re family, come on. It’ll be fun.”

Thunderbirds

Gordon/Alan

1. Alan is Gordon’s best friend. He’s close with his other brothers but not as close

2. Whenever Alan trades off with John to be on five, there’s a running gag between Jeff, Scott, John and Virgil of who will crack and contact him first: Gordon or Tintin. It’s usually Gordon

3. Scuba-diving partner is always Alan. Just like he would be his partner in a two-man car race if there ever was one.

4. Despite the stern lectures from Jeff, while he was teaching Gordon to drive. Gordon was passing on everything he said to Alan so they could learn together

Gordon/Scott

1. Scott was the one who taught Gordon how to swim before he could walk

2. He’s forever going to be grateful that Scott pushed him to get back in the water after his accident even though he was being a brat about it

3. He was also a huge motivator in his recovery during those months in the hospital

4. When they were younger, it was always Scott who put his baby brothers to bed instead of Jeff. As a result, whenever people talked about fathers, it was Scott he pictured for a few solid years

Virgil/Alan

1. Whether he knows it or not, it was Alan who put Virgil on the path to try being a doctor. With all the scrape the youngest got into

2. Alan is his favorite subject to paint because he’s the one with the most patience. He’s also the subject of the first song that he wrote on his own

3. Virgil taught Alan the piano and he’s fairly good

4. He has a folder of drawings that toddler Alan did when he wanted to be a artist like big brother. He keeps them in a safe in his room

Scott/Virgil

1. Like Alan and Gordon, Scott is Virgil’s best friend.

2. While they were in a regular highschool, Scott John and Virgil were all sent to the principal’s office for fighting. Scott was probably at the most 15 at the time. They were expelled because they refused to say what happened.

3. Virgil was accelerated in school because he wanted to be in the same grade as one of his big brothers. So he pushed himself hard

4. None of the ribbons he won in art shows ever means as much as the one that Scott made for him when he got his first painting into a gallery at age nine. He has it put away safely as well.

Bonus

Iggy/Bianca

1. She wants to ask Iggy to take her flying to see how it is but the fear outweighs the curiosity

2. Bi does have one of the feathers from his wings, she keeps it safely pinned on her jacket so the Hermes cabin won’t take it.  

3. It’s a personal goal to sneak up on him without getting caught to see if she actually can do it

4. When they spend time together, she only sees her friend who probably needs someone to talk to once in awhile. And he offers the easy listening on her end too.

[vipcryptosignalscom-blog]

Telegram Reportedly Trying Out Service to Retailer Data for Identity Verification

New Post has been published on https://vipcryptosignals.com/bitcoin-news/telegram-reportedly-trying-out-service-to-retailer-data-for-identity-verification/

Telegram Reportedly Trying Out Service to Retailer Data for Identity Verification

Telegram has been trying out a brand new provider with a purpose to store customers’ information and files for verification purposes, according to Russian media reports. Telegram Passport will be used to keep personal details and copies of IDs, banking statements, and utility expenses to identify users on Telegram’s blockchain platform TON. 

Additionally learn: After Telegram, Viber May Be Blocked, Russian Minister Says

Telegram Passport To Forestall Nameless Crypto Payments

Developers at Telegram are accomplishing closed checks of a new service designed to retailer non-public knowledge, in keeping with resources quoted through Russian media. Telegram Passport will be used to verify identities of users on the messenger’s Telegram Open Community. They will be capable of buy items and pay for services at the TON blockchain platform with Telegram’s crypto token referred to as Gram.

Customers will provide their non-public main points and files, comparable to copies of IDs, passports, drivers’ licenses, software bills, bank statements, and probably photographs. As Soon As uploaded, the information may also be doubtlessly shared with Telegram’s companions inside the platform, but additionally on their programs, Vedomosti reported, quoting two resources as regards to the corporate.

Telegram Passport, which may be launched via the summer time, is anticipated to successfully save you anonymity related to crypto payments, that is a worrisome facet for regulators around the international, explained Alexander Filatov, spouse at SP Capital. His consulting corporate has invested in TON and facilitated investments of other interested events.

a number of partner businesses will be capable of make the most of the provider. The Russian bills services supplier Qiwi has already been granted get entry to to the device, in step with the file. the company is said to be cooperating with the messenger on the release of Telegram Passport.

To Start With, handiest the users, now not even Telegram, will have access to their details and files. They will likely be in a position to secure the information with a password and two issue authentication. the corporate will use the information handiest with the account holder‘s consent, in line with information shared at the closed pages of telegram.org cited through the Russian outlet. Once Telegram’s partners receive the knowledge, they may be able to test it consistent with their own standards.

Others are engaged on Identical Concepts

Telegram’s primary competitors in that box are mature methods that use authorization products and services equipped by way of third-birthday celebration platforms by means of Google, Facebook, or Windows Reside, mentioned Dmitry Ufaev, head of the Russian operations of Bitfury, a number one producer of tool and hardware blockchain answers. In his words, Telegram Passport will permit the messenger to avoid those based services and products, providing greater privateness and information safety to its customers. This will be a reputational benefit, Ufaev referred to.

Different prime companies are working within the same path in addition, and Telegram is likely to face hefty pageant. The Chinese Language messenger Wechat has already applied cash transfers for users and service providers on its platform. the corporate is currently testing a digital identity verification system with face detection capability which need to be more environment friendly than verification based on copies of documents. The tech large Apple could also be engaged on its Face IDENTIFICATION gadget.

in keeping with Alexei Prokofiev, spouse at two undertaking capital budget, states will sooner or later switch to identification verification in accordance with biometrics. “It’s a matter of digital sovereignty,” he believes. In his opinion, if Telegram doesn’t identify relations with govt government, it’s going to fail to obtain licenses for providing services and products in jurisdictions the place biometric verification is needed via regulation.

News that Telegram is working on its blockchain platform TON got here out in January. the corporate based via entrepreneur Pavel Durov used to be able to attract investments value a total of $1.7 billion bucks to finance the mission. Goods, services and products and other content on TON will likely be paid with Gram, Telegram’s own crypto. Recently, the messenger called off a deliberate public preliminary coin providing.

Durov’s corporate has been concerned with a sour conflict with authorities in Moscow following its refusal handy over its encryptions keys to FSB, the Federal Safety Service. Despite some interruptions, attempts via Russian regulators to block the provider within the country have been unsuccessful to this point. Russia’s telecom regulator Roskomnadzor has been seeking to limit access to the messenger on the grounds that April SIXTEEN after a decision via a district court in Moscow from April THIRTEEN.

What do you’re thinking that of Telegram’s plan to introduce identity verification for users of services presented on its blockchain platform? let us know within the feedback segment beneath.  

Pictures courtesy of Shutterstock, Yarcube, Wikipedia.

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[newstfionline]

License to Speak

By Garrett Epps, The Atlantic, May 5, 2017

Nearly 20 years ago, a man in Oregon found himself threatened with 98 years in prison for testifying against a proposed gravel mine.

It took a team of pro bono lawyers--including me--to convince a state board that this frontal attack on free speech violated the U.S. and Oregon constitutions.

Bureaucracies are slow to internalize bad news, however. Today, an Oregon man named Mats Jarlstrom is fighting the same free speech battle in the same state--represented by lawyers and the libertarian Institute for Justice. His fight implicates free speech in all 50 states--wherever state and local governments regulate and license professional services. In both cases, state bodies attempted to use their licensing authority to silence critics with the professional backgrounds to substantiate their objections.

Jarlstrom is in trouble with a state board called the Oregon State Board of Examiners for Engineering and Land Surveying. His “offense” was to use mathematical calculations to suggest to his local government that there might be a better way to time yellow lights at intersections. He was fined for “the unlicensed practice of engineering.”

It’s eerily familiar. In 2000, our client, Mark Reed, was a professor of geology at the University of Oregon. A local sand and gravel company asked county authorities for permission to excavate for a mine on a site within a mile of his home.

Reed examined public documents and testified at a public hearing of the County Commission. He stated, and wrote, that in his opinion there were errors in the engineering studies accompanying the application, and asked that the commission turn down the company’s application.

The company complained to the Oregon Board of Geologist Examiners, which dutifully wrote to Reed that it had received an allegation of 49 counts of “the unlicensed public practice of geology”; each count carried a maximum sentence of two years in prison and a $1,000 fine. The Board generously agreed to waive the fines if Reed would sign an agreement to keep his mouth shut from now on.

Let’s count the number of reasons this was a world-class government overreach. Reed’s “unlicensed practice” consisted of (1) reading documents available to the public and (2) giving his negative opinion of the project to his local government while (3) noting truthfully that he was using his highly relevant geology training to understand them.

There was no allegation that he was not a geologist by training, that he had charged anyone a dollar for his services, or that he had said anything false. His “offense” was talking about geology without getting a license from the board.

No one disputes that a state can guard against fraud and professional malpractice by requiring education and training, licensing exams, and registration from those who wish to practice specialized professions for pay. But truthful, non-misleading speech on a matter of public interest by a citizen to his or her elected representatives is at the absolute core of what is called “core political speech.” Government “licensing” of speakers in these circumstances is a grotesque violation of the First Amendment.

The Supreme Court addressed this very question in a 1945 case called Thomas v. Collins. A Texas statute requiring “labor union organizers” to register with the state before “soliciting members.” A local sheriff jailed the International President of the United Automobile Workers Union for speaking to a union rally in Houston. His conviction violated both the Speech and Assembly Clauses, the Court said:

As a matter of principle a requirement of registration in order to make a public speech would seem generally incompatible with an exercise of the rights of free speech and free assembly. Lawful public assemblies, involving no element of grave and immediate danger to an interest the state is entitled to protect, are not instruments of harm which require previous identification of the speakers.

We went to court, and the board agreed to drop the complaint against Reed, change the regulations under which it had proceeded against him, and ask the legislature to change the geology licensing statute.

Flash forward to 2013, when a woman named Laurie Jarlstrom got a ticket for allegedly running a red light in Beaverton, Oregon. The ticket was issued after an automatic camera captured a picture of her car in the intersection after the yellow light had turned red. Her husband, Mats Jarlstrom, began to wonder whether the traffic lights in his home town were allowing motorists enough time to clear the intersection before yellow turned red.

Piqued by the ticket, he worked out the physics of cars passing through an intersection and concluded that the current system for timing stoplights--devised more than 50 years ago--was in error; combined with traffic cameras, the result was tickets to drivers who hadn’t really committed an offense.

Math and physics are familiar to Jarlstrom. A native of Sweden, completed a four-year engineering course at a technical secondary school and one year of advanced training there. Since coming to the US, he has worked as a technical consultant who helps design audio systems. As a matter of free speech, it really doesn’t matter whether these calculations are the best thing since Einstein’s theory of general relativity or a bald-faced claim that pi equals 3.

As it happens, Jarlstrom’s calculations seem to have been pretty good. Alexei A. Maradudin, research professor of physics at the University of California at Irvine, was one of the original authors of the intersection-crossing paradigm. In a phone interview he said, “I’m pretty well convinced he’s right.”

Jarlstrom shared his engineering background, and his calculations, with a less sympathetic audience, however--his local city government. “They were laughing at me at city council meetings,” he recalled. He also submitted his calculations to the engineering board. The board instructed him to stop performing engineering work.

The Oregon state statute forbids anyone not registered with the Board from either “impl[ying] that the person is an engineer or a registered professional”; or “[a]ppl[ying] special knowledge of the mathematical, physical and engineering sciences to such professional services or creative work [or] testimony.” Because Jarlstrom was not licensed under Oregon law, he could apparently not 1) mention his own engineering training in public; 2) perform--perhaps even in his head--mathematical work like the traffic-stop calculations or 3) discuss his results with his local government--or anyone else.

Jarlstrom had written about his work to his local sheriff, to Dr. Maradudin, and to 60 Minutes about his calculations. The board considered each of these a violation. It assessed a $500 fine.

In the words of President Trump, WRONG! Any citizen has a right to describe his or her own educational background, as long as he or she doesn’t perform or offer professional services without a license. (I’m a lawyer by training and I have the right to say so; I can’t claim bar membership if I don’t have it.) The First Amendment doesn’t have a Calculate Clause, but Jarlstrom’s math was fully protected as well. Finally, any citizen also has a right to criticize government operations, either to government itself or to the public and news media.

In fact, the Supreme Court recently held that even false public speech about a person’s background or experience can’t be punished unless it’s actually fraudulent. In 2012, the court voided the conviction of a blowhard who falsely told a public meeting that he was a veteran and a Medal of Honor winner. “Where false claims are made to effect a fraud or secure moneys or other valuable considerations,” the court said, “it is well established that the Government may restrict speech without affronting the First Amendment.” But falsity by itself cannot be punished “absent any evidence that the speech was used to gain a material advantage.” For good measure, Kennedy added, “Our constitutional tradition stands against the idea that we need Oceania’s Ministry of Truth.”

The action against Jarlstrom was not a fluke. As detailed on the Institute for Justice website, the engineering board has fined a local activist who objected at a meeting to the noise level of a proposed power plant; fined a retired licensed engineer because in public testimony he failed to say he was retired; threatened a Portland woman because a local magazine called her an engineer, though she was not quoted as making that claim; and even formally investigated two political candidates for truthfully listing their educational qualifications in election materials. (False claims by political candidates are doubly protected.)

I predict not only that Jarlstrom will win his lawsuit, but that the state’s position will be laughed out of court. I hope the court will take notice that Oregon has been on notice of the free-speech problem with its regulatory boards for more than a decade.

The Institute, a Koch-funded libertarian advocacy group, wants a First Amendment precedent it can use in other states. Institute lawyer Sam Gedge said in an email that:

Oregon’s engineering board is an extreme example of a state agency targeting speech. But it’s hardly unique. Kentucky’s psychology-licensing board took aim at a nationally syndicated advice columnist for writing about behavioral issues without a Kentucky license. North Carolina’s dietetics board took a red pen to a citizen’s diet blog. And Texas’s psychologist-licensing board threatened to punish a political candidate who referred to herself--truthfully--as a “psychologist” in her campaign materials.

I am sympathetic with states that want to regulate their professions; often they must rely on volunteers from the regulated specialties, who have little understanding of law. But Oregon state agencies have been crossing the free-speech line for more 15 years. Looking at the pattern, I have to conclude that this is not a mistake or a miscalculation; it is calculated lawlessness.