#American Sign Language Academy

[moongirlwidow]

File: Volkov, Vespera Anetka

Alias: Winter Widow

Status: classified

File Last updated: July 4, 2023 AD

———

Age: 15

Class: 16ABX

Graduation Year: 2023

Origin: Romania

Birthday: August 11, 2008

Ethnicity: Caucasian

Handlers: Krista Udova(62431), Milunka Dulovna(90218), Melina Vostokov(Iron Maiden)

Trainers: Winter Soldier(Barnes, James B.), Taskmaster(Dreykov, Antonia)

Track: Field Agent(undercover; weapons specialist)

Appearance

Eye color: gray

Hair color: black

Skin: white; pale

Build: tall, lean, bony

Height: 5’9.79”

Weight: 101.235lbs

Notable markings:

birthmark;right thigh back, oblong Burn scar; left ankle, inside, 4”x 3”x 9”

Specialty Training

- Figure Skating

Began: 2 years

Training time: 6hrs every other day, 17hrs every Thursday and Monday

On track to the Winter Olympic Games. Reliably lands quads, possible pairing with Hydra 20180 for pair skating.

- Deadlift

Began: 6 years

Training time: 1hr daily

Will reach national record by 2028

Current capacity: 480lbs

- Combat Mimicry

Began: 7 years

Can mimic opponent’s fighting style closely. Taught by Taskmaster

- Biochemistry

- Codebreaking

- linguistics

Languages

Spoken: Russian, English, Norwegian, Welsh, Polish, Romanian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Qubecois, Italian, Latin, Ancient Greek, Greek, Old English, Cantonese, Japanese, German, Hebrew, Sanskrit, Korean, Swedish, Hindi, Punjabi, Pennsylvania Dutch and Scots Gaelic

Written: braille, Russian, English, Norwegian, Welsh, Polish, Romanian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Qubecois, Italian, Latin, Ancient Greek, Greek, Old English, Cantonese, Japanese, German, Hebrew, Sanskrit, Korean, Swedish, Hindi, Punjabi, Pennsylvania Dutch and Scots Gaelic

Read: braille, Russian, English, Norwegian, Welsh, Polish, Romanian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Qubecois, Italian, Latin, Ancient Greek, Greek, Old English, Cantonese, Japanese, German, Hebrew, Sanskrit, Korean, Swedish, Hindi, Punjabi, Pennsylvania Dutch and Scots Gaelic

Other: American Sign Language, Russian Sign Language, International Sign, Morse code

Status

[section redacted]

Role

- replace the Iron Maiden following graduation

- should Taskmaster Program default, replace Winter Soldier and Taskmaster

- restore Red Academy-HYDRA control over XXXXXXXXX

Miscellaneous

— favored by Lt.Borisov

- Untouchable Status — RE; Grad Mission

- Enforced Separations — not allowed with peers without supervision, initiated 2015

- extremely exemplary when undercover in Queer Rebellion Groups, Lesbian Covers reccomended

Graduation Mission Assign.

Seduce XXXX XXXXXXX as debutant Gabrielle La Aubrey(CF61789), knock out with C19JL1990 formula(oral component), identify and procure XXXXXX XXXXX through whirlwind romance focusing on subject’s romantic beliefs. XXXXXXX has taste for young virgin women, will have just inherited full title/shares; foolish party persona crafted. Deep Cover in France; 6 weeks, fake family emergency and return with items. (Summary)

Part II

[max1461]

"Most children do not learn to read until 1st or 2nd grade. They are not taught to read by their parents, but taught to read in school"

Do you.....have a source on that? If true, that's absolutely wild. I was expected to read (simple picture books )before I started kindergarten. In second grade we where reading simple chapter books. Am I in a bubble?

And are there studies about acquiring written language like spoken language? IIRC there are studies showing that sign languages can be acquired naturally. That's always how I assumed I learned to read.

I don't know what specific data this is based on, but the American Academy of Pediatrics give out various milestones for childhood development, and they say that kids can be expected to learn to read around 6-7 years old, which correspond to roughly 1st-2nd grade, depending on when you start school.

Anecdotally, no one I knew went in to 1st grade already knowing how to read. We learned the alphabet in 1st grade and started reading simple picture books. I suspect you are in a bubble.

Signed and spoken languages are similar to each other and dissimilar to written language. Both sign language and spoken language can be acquired automatically via exposure during childhood, and they have both probably existed since the beginning of human anatomical modernity or earlier (on the order of 100,000 years ago). The capacity for speaking and the capacity for signing are of like type, in that they are both in essence parts of human biology. A hearing person raised by deaf parents who use a sign language would grow up to be a native speaker of that sign language, in precisely the same way that a baby whose parents use a spoken language would grow up to be a native speaker of that spoken language. Writing is not like this; writing is a technology used to represent language in visual form. It did not evolve naturally, but was invented on the order of 5,000 years ago, and like any other technical skill is not the innate province of anyone.

[gojossotoru]

Introducing the second Bullworth transfer student alongside Jimmy Hopkins...

Full name: Francesca Juliet Marino

Nicknames: Frankie (general, only the people who knows her calls her this), the new girl (general at school), the Princess of the Nerds (she's called this at Bullworth Academy due to her having 'princess' type face, but not everyone calls her this)

Preferred name: Frankie or Francesca, she doesn't mind

Age: 17

Birthdate: January 5th

Sexuality: straight

Height: 5'5"

Race: white

Ethnicity: Italian, English

Appearance: pale skin, dark brown doe eyes, dark brown curly long hair

Clique: Nerds

Likes: studying, having a chat with Beatrice Trudeau, helping others, cats, autumn, music, books/novels, Jane Austen's novels, romance movies, being herself, standing up for others, equality, sleeping, late night driving, moon, sunsets, baking with her mother, pastries, carbonara, pepperoni pizzas, chocolate milks, cleanliness

Dislikes: bullying, discrimination, horrible people, loud thunderstorms, dogs, cigarettes, smoking, Gary Smith, Mandy Wiles, Mr. Burton, Lola Lombardi, metal music, very loud noises, rivalries, sudden interruption, overthinking about everything, people being rude towards her mother, dirtiness, Ted Thompson

Hobbies: studying, reading books/novels, listening to music, baking

Nerds reputation + status: 100%

Preps reputation + status: 20%

Greasers reputation + status: 60%

Jocks reputation + status: 15%

Bullies reputation + status: 10%

Non-cliques reputation + status: 40%

Townies reputation + status: 53%

Best friends: Beatrice Trudeau, Angie Ng, Dan Wilson

Friends/Acquaintances: Earnest Jones, Algernon Papadopoulos, Thad Carlson, Cornelius Thompson, Melvin O'Connor, Jimmy Hopkins, Pete Kowalski, Christy Martin

Enemies: Lola Lombardi, Mandy Wilkes, Ted Thompson, Gary Smith

Love interest: Johnny Vincent

Tropes: strangers to lovers, opposites attract, she fell first but he fell harder, different cliques, nerd x greaser

______________________________

Background:

she was born in Little Italy, New York to an Italian-American couple, Marco and Daniella Marino. Her life was, as you can say 'perfect', her parents are very loving and her other family members are also loving towards her... Until her father's death when Frankie was 17 (two weeks before moving to New England). Her father died of lung cancer which isn't surprising to Frankie because she saw him smoking all of the time. After the death of her father, Marco's side of his family started to hate on Frankie's mother and blaming her for the cause of his death. You see, Marco's family hated Daniella because... She's mute, they'll whisper bad things about her behind her back and even as bold as glaring at her directly sometimes. Frankie and her mother can't stand them anymore and both of them moved to Bullworth, New England. The reason why they moved there is because Daniella and Marco used to attend Bullworth before moving to Little Italy after their marriage at the age of 23 and Daniella missed her hometown. Daniella opens up a bakery shop and the shop is quite successful, 16+ customers will come and buy the pastries and sometimes more. Frankie sometimes helps her mother due to a lot of customers. Although Daniella is mute, a lot of customers aren't ableist (well... SOME of them are) unlike Marco's family. Daniella would write words on her notebook just to interact with them, which makes the customers feel easier to interact with her because most of them don't know sign languages (except for a few). She's a new student at Bullworth Academy alongside Jimmy Hopkins

______________________________

Personality:

she's the nicest person in Bullworth, always helping people out. If a person asks her to do something, she'll do it right away and she would do almost anything if a person asks her. The reason why she doesn't reject almost every one of their requests is because she thinks rejecting will make them hate her and she feels... kinda guilty when doing so. But if people ask her to harm or hurt someone. She's not gonna do it and reject it kindly (and she doesn't feel guilty when doing so because she knows that it's wrong). She believes that almost every bad person has at least some good deep inside them, and it's just that they're covering up with their bad attitude/personality but there are few people she knows who she thinks that they don't have any good in them are Gary Smith and Lola Lombardi (and probably others...). She actually loves when a person rants to her (talking about their own issues or something else), whether they ask if they can rant or not, she still loves it because she can know them more than meets the eye and believes them more than the people who are only portraying him as who they are on the outside without knowing the inside of them, the people who are only judging about what they do without knowing any reason why. She's like a therapist/sisterly figure to those who are ranting to her, her giving them advice after listening to them and when she comforts a person who are few younger than her, she's like a motherly figure to them. Besides that, she's sometimes not really honest about anything (including when she got a crush on Johnny) and it's because she doesn't want to make them mad or feel annoyed or telling people about it because it makes her feel really embarrassed. She overthinks pretty much everything, including her life decision if she did something or something embarrassed that she'll not forget for the rest of her life. It became a bad habit for her and she tries to stop it by saying "it's going to be fine" to herself and calming herself down. She's awkward, she doesn't have the best social skills and always makes references to nerd things (such as science, math, Albert Einstein, etc.) and sometimes makes references to Jane Austen's novels. She's also very sensitive and not embarrassed if she cries in front of others. And she does have a short temper and will snap if the person (or a group of people) annoyed her to no end, she would say swear words at them with no hesitation. She gets frightened easily by someone who looks or acts aggressive to her, she'll be all stuttering and stumbling her words, and sometimes she would cover her face with her hands if they begin to be a little bit more aggressive to her eyes. Frankie is a hopeless romantic, watching romance movies all of them time and daydreaming that she got the boyfriend of her dreams (this is before she's with Johnny) and even reading Jane Austen novels because she's the best romance author ever (in her opinion). She even looked at some couples in school after recently transferring to Bullworth Academy and smiled at herself while thinking 'oh, how I wish I was them...'

Overall, Frankie is literally the nicest girl in Bullworth Academy that anyone can possibly know and few people are jealous of her but she's considered to be a 'weirdo' due to her awkward social skills to some people's eyes :/

______________________________

Infos about Frankie:

--- Frankie knows sign language and she communicates with her mother with that

--- she helps her mother at the bakery on Saturdays and Sundays

--- her mother put up a poster in front of the door of the bakery about wanting to hire people because she's getting tired to do it all by herself

--- she has a thick New Yorker accent

--- she wears glasses!!! (Just like in the photo)

--- some people make fun of her hair at Bullworth but she doesn't mind them because it's not the first time that she got made fun of because of her hair. Speaking of her hair, she does not want to straighten it because she loves her hair so much and she'll be damned if someone asks her to straighten it

--- she's a mix of Rory Gilmore from Gilmore Girls and Mia Thermopolis from The Princess Diaries

--- she's allergic to dogs and peanuts

--- she doesn't understand the rivalries between each cliques

--- she LOVES to sing. Before moving to Bullworth, she used to participate in a singing competition back in her old school at the age of 16 and she won third place (she performed Kiss Me by Sixpence None the R)

--- her favorite season is autumn

--- her favorite movie is Grease

--- her two favorite Jane Austen's novels are Pride and Prejudice, and Emma

--- her other favorite novel is The Outsiders by S.E Hinton

--- although she listens to recent songs (and songs from the 90s), she also listens to old songs. Her favorites and the most repeating ones are Hopelessly Devoted To You by Olivia John-Newton, It's My Party by Lesley Gore, Stupid Cupid by Connie Francis, Be My Baby by The Ronettes and Hey Lover by The Daughters of Eve

--- she helped Tom Gurney with his black eye problem (two days after transferring to Bullworth) because it disturbed her a lot and she thinks it's outrageous that nobody seems to care or concern about it

--- Pedro De La Hoya looks up to her as a motherly figure

--- Pinky Gauthier is slightly jealous of her because Frankie is called 'the Princess of the Nerds' and Pinky thinks that Frankie is NOT a princess, only her (aka Pinky herself)

______________________________

(notes from the maker of the oc):

HAIII!!! >.<

I just want it to share my oc since I saw a lot of people doing it and also I'm using faceclaim for my oc instead of a drawing because I'm BAD at drawing!!! 😭 The faceclaim is young!Anne Hathaway in The Princess Diaries pre-makeover Mia Thermopolis

Lastly, I have another oc. I'll post her later :3

Anyways, you can do interactions between your oc's and her (please make sure to tag me hehe) and you can also draw her as well <333 (again, tag me so that I can see it)

Lastly, the filter of the moodboard is from lovelogs on Polarr and Pinterest (I think that's the name... I don't remember, sorry!!! 😭😭😭)

Bye!!! 💖

[tearsinthemist]

Want to learn something new

Want to learn something new in 2022??

Absolute beginner adult ballet series (fabulous beginning teacher)

40 piano lessons for beginners (some of the best explanations for piano I’ve ever seen)

Excellent basic crochet video series

Basic knitting (probably the best how to knit video out there)

Pre-Free Figure Skate Levels A-D guides and practice activities (each video builds up with exercises to the actual moves!)

How to draw character faces video (very funny, surprisingly instructive?)

Another drawing character faces video

Literally my favorite art pose hack

Tutorial of how to make a whole ass Stardew Valley esque farming game in Gamemaker Studios 2??

Introduction to flying small aircrafts

French/Dutch/Fishtail braiding

Playing the guitar for beginners (well paced and excellent instructor)

Playing the violin for beginners (really good practical tips mixed in)

Color theory in digital art (not of the children’s hospital variety)

Retake classes you hated but now there’s zero stakes:

Calculus 1 (full semester class)

Learn basic statistics (free textbook)

Introduction to college physics (free textbook)

Introduction to accounting (free textbook)

Learn a language:

Ancient Greek

Latin

Spanish

German

Japanese (grammar guide) (for dummies)

French

Russian (pretty good cyrillic guide!)

Jan 2, 2023

Want to learn something new in 2023??

Cooking with flavor bootcamp (used what I learned in this a LOT this year)

Beekeeping 101

Learn Interior Design from the British Academy of Interior Design (free to audit course - just choose the free option when you register)

Video on learning to read music that actually helped me??

How to use and sew with a sewing machine

How to ride a bike (listen. some of us never learned, and that's okay.)

How to cornrow-braid hair (I have it on good authority that this video is a godsend for doing your baby niece's black hair)

Making mead at home (I actually did this last summer and it was SO good)

How to garden

Basics of snowboarding (proceed with caution)

How to draw for people who (think they) suck at art (I know this website looks like a 2003 monstrosity, but the tutorials are excellent)

Pixel art for beginners so you can make the next great indie game

Go (back) to school

Introduction to Astronomy (high school course - free textbook w/ practice problems)

Principals of Economics (high school course - free textbook w/ practice problems)

Introduction to philosophy (free college course)

Computer science basics (full-semester Harvard course free online)

Learn a language

Japanese for Dummies (link fix from 2022)

Ukrainian

Portuguese (Brazil)

American Sign Language (as somebody who works with Deaf people professionally, I also strongly advise you to read up on Deaf/HoH culture and history!)

Chinese (Mandarin, Simplified)

Quenya (LOTR fantasy elf language)

Dec 26, 2023

Want to learn something new in 2024??

Beginner-oriented video on how to sail

This guy has so many videos on baking different types of bread. SO very many.

Coding in Python - one of the most flexible and adaptable high-level programming languages out there - explained through projects making video games

Learn to swim! (for adult learners. I don’t care if you live in Kansas or Mali or wherever. LEARN TO SWIM.)

Learn how quantum mechanics works. Then read some more about it

[Learn about quantum mechanics again, but in a more advanced engineering/mathematics class. Then read more about the math and physics of it]

Poetry Handbook, by Mary Oliver

Something I learned this year: how to sew a quilt (Here’s a very easy beginning pattern that looks amazing and can be done with pre-cut fabric!)

How to hit the ball in softball

Tutorial video on what is under the hood of most (gas) cars + weird engine sounds and what they mean

Full beginner mechanics technical training, if you want to go more in depth

Playlist on how car engine physics work if you want to go ultra in depth

Lecture series on architecture design through study of buildings

How (American income) taxes & tax law work (choose “audit course” at checkout for free class)

Pickleball for beginners (so you can finally join your neighbor/friend/distant cousin who is always insisting you join their team)

+ Para-Pickleball for beginners (for mobility aid users!)

School is so much more fun when there’s no tests:

American Law - Contracts

Shakespeare’s Life and Plays

Fairy Tales: Meanings, Messages, and Morals

Modern Poetry

World History [Part 1, Part 2]

Learn a language:

Arabic + Resource Guide compiled from Reddit (includes info on different dialects)

Chinese (Cantonese) (audio)

Urdu (frequently recommended course on Reddit) + Resource Guide

Yucatec Maya

[lemurzsquad]

Music to Owl Ears

After suddenly moving from America to Japan with only passable knowledge of the local language, you begin to attend Fukurodani Academy for their music program. And within the first five minutes of being there, you're accidentally knocked right into the shenanigans of the volleyball team, especially their famous owl ace.

Prologue

Pairing: Bokuto x musician fem!reader

Summary: The reader is an American who has suddenly moved to Japan, attending Fukurodani Academy for its music program. (Full summary and cw in masterlist)

A/N: This is absolutely a shameless self-insert. I wanted a cute Bokuto x reader fic with a musician, specifically one that plays my main instruments, so this also serves as a love letter to all my fellow musicians out there. I will try to update this when I can, and I can add a taglist if anyone is interested TvT this is my first Haikyuu fic, so hopefully it's alright.

I hope you enjoy!!

Word count: 725

cw: slight emotional rollercoaster for reader

"Bold for English"

"Normal for Japanese"

- Masterlist -

- Prologue | Ch 1: Jogging Laps >

You stood at the entrance, the sign reading “Fukurodani Academy”; although, you’re certain you would not have been able to make out what it said given you didn't already know the name.

It was about to be your first day in a new school year, in a new school, in a new country. Did being a third year with barely passable Japanese and no friends terrify you? Absolutely. But, unfortunately, the only thing to do now was take that step onto campus and start, you supposed.

And so you did. The first step wasn't so bad, it seemed. The next seemed easier, perhaps. The nervous shaking you felt in your hands was becoming ever more apparent as you clutched your bag that in and of itself felt weird, considering you were so used to a heavy backpack.

All that was left was to make it to class and all would be right with the world. You could begin the school year on a positive note with no incidents right off the bat and a fresh start. It was simple, really.

But oh, you knew better than to jinx it, even in your own head.

You took a deep breath and tried your best to put on a smile just for yourself. You thought, I can do this. It'll be fine. What could possibly happen on my way there? And there it was.

You quietly let out the breath you held for a moment as you attempted to push down the nagging anxieties that tried to resurface. In a stroke of bad luck—or good luck, depending on how you looked at it, maybe years from then—you failed to hear the sounds of shoes hitting pavement behind you. In an instant, it all came crashing down; you were slammed in the shoulder, throwing you off balance. You barely managed to stop yourself from falling face first into the concrete, instead landing on your back, braced by your elbows.

As you stared ahead, completely and utterly stunned and staggered, you sat up. It was then that everything hit you like a ton of bricks.

You were completely blindsided when all the emotions you had narrowly kept behind a dam inevitably flooded through you. You didn't know whether to laugh or cry at how ridiculous it was that simply falling over finally broke you and your patchy attempt to bottle everything in, so you did both.

There you sat at the edge of the entrance to Fukurodani Academy, laughing as anguished tears dripped down your cheeks. The fear and emotional distress of moving to Japan was hitting you for, truly, the first time, and there was nothing you could do to stop it. You hiccuped in spurts, disbelief and bewilderment at your own reaction running through your mind while a pained grin sat plastered on your tear-stained, reddened face.

You didn't notice the figure, now standing in front of you, shouting, “BOKUTO!” off to the side and further down the sidewalk. You didn't notice when they exchanged worried glances that you might be hurt and unsure how to react to your state of hysteria.

Eventually you calmed down enough to return the confused looks that peered down at you. You made eye contact with worried blue and guilty gold before stuttering out with an embarrassed chuckle, “Sorry, I must have not been paying attention and– oh, wait—” When you see their eyes widen slightly, you realized you had instinctively started apologizing in English as a default and quickly corrected yourself to a simple, “Sorry…” in Japanese with your still heavy American accent.

You gave them a lopsided smile as you wiped your tears. You could never have imagined at the time, as you were grabbed by the shoulders and hoisted to your feet with such strength you could only let it happen in your dazed state, that it would be the defining pivot in what could have been a prison of loneliness and isolation in a new year, in a new school, in a new country. But, while you were overwhelmed with a torrent of apologies and “sorry”’s and “please, please, please forgive me”’s, the key to your unlocked cell seemed to be snatched and thrown where no one could have possibly found it again.

And, just maybe, you considered tempting fate more often in the future.

Thank you for reading!! <333

- Masterlist -

- Prologue | Ch 1: Jogging Laps >

Do not copy and/or repost!! Any likes or reblogs are appreciated, though! (c) 2024 LemurzSquad

[micahfox]

I got that gauge 38 and that four-five glock, deep in the bushes, see I'm scopin' with that red dot.

legal birth name: micah taylor fox. call sign: tornado. gender identity: cismale ♂ | he/him pronouns. romantic / sexual orientation: demiromantic homosexual. birthplace: baton rouge, louisiana. marital status: widowed. (husband died in a car accident two years ago) notable languages: english (first), american sign language, spanish, arabic, german, swahili, italian, french, morse code. mental: post traumatic stress disorder (undiagnosed). obsessive compulsive disorder (undiagnosed). vehicle(s): jeep wrangler. dodge ram. tattoos: coming soon.

micah was raised in a strict military household, his father was a high ranking officer in the national guard. he is the youngest of three children (two older sisters), his father died when micah was a young age (9 years old).

his mother remarried four years later, which caused the fox children all to act out in their own ways. micah slowly became the problem child, especially with his step-father who he rebelled against heavily. drugs, skipping school, sneaking out of the house, stealing, basically delinquent behavior.

his step-father got tired of it so when he was 17, he was shipped off to preston academy. he quickly grew up, meeting someone who served with his father and as it so happened to end up being his mentor.

upon graduating from preston, very near top of his class. with that prestige and a glowing letter of recommendation from his mentor, he was able to join the army as an officer. upon entering the army, he applied for the special forces program.

he passed obviously with flying colors, a little sad that he had already surpassed where his father stood when he died.

he served for a long time, multiple deployments and missions. stationed all over the world. it wasn't until his contract came up after those bordering on three decades of service. he decided after meeting his late husband, boyfriend near fiance at the time that it was time for him to forfeit over to civilian life. however, he stayed in classified under the army reserves, should the need every arise.

civilian life was kind to him for a little bit, until they were hit by a drunk driver. his late husband died on impact, but micah survived. at a loss at where to really steer his life from there. he applied for the mentorship program at presteon academy, where he wanted to give back what preston gave to him. to give opportunity to those attending this school whether they know they need it or need it and don't know it.

tidbits.

he chews gum rather obsessively and religiously. while he's only had a handful of cigarettes upon enlisting in the army, he never made it a habit. he tends to lean towards gum to keep himself stimulated, more than he probably should.

he is a switch in terms of dom/sub, bottom-leaning, don't let his dominating personality fool you. he can and will bend like putty with the right person.

he misses active duty a lot.

he always finds a way to fit in a morning run even if it's before wake-up conditioning.

he doesn't talk about his late husband, in fact most people don't know he was ever married. it's a sore subject. he sometimes wears a gold chain with both wedding bands on it.

he still wears his dog-tags under his clothes. occasionally, he wears a cross necklace given to him by his father.

he owns personal guns.

[aaroncward]

STATISTICS

BIRTH NAME :  Aaron C. Ward ALIAS : Ron AGE : 40 DATE  OF  BIRTH : July 15th, 1984 RELATIONSHIP STATUS: Engaged HOMETOWN : Wilmington, North Carolina TIME IN WILMINGTON: Since Birth RESIDENCE : Wrightsville Beach OCCUPATION: Fire Captain FACECLAIM : Brett Dalton

trigger warning: death, illness

EDUCATION : Business degree at Duke, Fire Academy. OCCUPATION : Fire Captain GENDER : Cis-Male PRONOUNS : He/Him SEXUALITY : Straight

HAIR COLOR : Brown EYE  COLOR : Brown HEIGHT : 6'2'' BUILD : Athletic ACCENT : American LANGUAGES : English, Sign Language TATTOOS : None

ZODIAC : Cancer LOVE LANGUAGE : Words of affirmation, Physical touch CURRENT HAIR STYLE + BEARD: ( x ) CONDITIONS : Sickle Cell Anemia ALLERGIES : None EATING HABITS : Lives on protein and fibers EXERCISE HABITS : Weights and the occasional treadmill when he's alone. SLEEPING HABITS : Light sleeper, prefers sleeping on his side.

ADDICTIONS : None DRUG  USE : None ALCOHOL USE : Socially

POSITIVE  TRAITS :  loyal, hard-working, strong, ambitious, persevering NEGATIVE TRAITS: private, secretive, reckless PHOBIAS : None FEARS : Losing his career, wasting his chances. HOBBIES : playing the guitar, reading, cooking foreign cuisine. HABITS : Whistles along to tunes, folds his arms when tense or uncomfortable, moves frequently when cold. USUAL TEMPERAMENT : Inviting, calm.

FATHER : Christopher H. Ward MOTHER : Marian M. Ward-Paisley SIBLINGS : Wesley Ward †, UTP Ward. PARTNER: Celene UTP (2021-present) CHILDREN :  None PETS : A Bernese Mountain dog called Sammy.

BIOGRAPHY

tw: death, illness.

Aaron was born as the oldest son into the Ward empire, well respected within the Wilmington borders and out. With his father having inherited the ownership of the grand Four Season Hotel, their family was soon to rise in wealth and reputation. The Ward family has been well off for generations on end, but even more so with his father's new position. It made sure that the Ward brothers had everything they would have wanted. Aaron however, had the wits and restraint of his father, rather than that of his mother. Marian Ward was known for her lavish expenses, something she passed through to her younger sons.

Rather than flaunting wealth to fit in with the popular kids, Aaron had always been the type of student to stand his own, eat lunch with the bullied kids and fighting back to those that would make fun of him or his friends. Not just for his name, but for his reputation that he was not to be messed with made others steer clear from him.

Aaron was diagnosed from a very young age with sickle cell anemia, an illness he had to learn to manage for the rest of his life. Yet it was agreed between his parents that they would keep his condition within the family, as to make sure that if Aaron was to ever take over the ownership of the hotel, his 'fragile state' would not be used as leverage for him to at one point step down. This was a lie that Aaron kept up for himself, not wanting others to judge him on his labels but rather on his actions and his deeds.

Upon having finished his bachelors degree in business, it had been every intend for him to start working for other businesses in the city to expand his horizons and experience before he would join the family business. Fate intervened when Aaron was at the right place at the right time, spotting a home fire while on a drive home. With the emergency services nowhere in sight, he had gone in when it was clear someone still had their infant inside. It had been his introduction to the world of firefighting, and though his action had been reckless, the fire captain on scene had told him that the fire academy could be a future for him if that was what he wanted. With his condition he knew it would be challenging, but Aaron never lived avoiding obstacles, and he went for it.

Miraculously, Aaron passed his firefighting training without his condition coming to light, which he knew was risky. His father disapproved, but after a conversation of how this was what Aaron really wanted, he gave in. It also gave way for his brother, Wesley, to step up and take the reigns, which caused a little friction between the brothers, as Wesley had been all too eager to rub it in Aaron's face that he wasn't the family disappointment.

Wesley truly did seem to have it all. Being the first pick for the family business, having a stunning girlfriend by his side, the wealth to flaunt -- which Ward Sr really despised, but learned to ignore -- yet Aaron kept being confronted with how his little brother didn't seem to truly appreciate what he had. He treated his possessions carelessly, would arrive at work late and neglect his relationship. Over the course of his relationship, Aaron found himself getting closer to Wesley's girlfriend, Safia. There were moments of offered support, encouragements of deserving better and even moments of kisses in heated moments and dark corners of the house that were soon forgotten, until one evening she came to him, obviously upset that she could no longer keep up with the relationship. With the sudden realisation that she had actual feelings for him, like he had developed for her, the two were going to take the plunge. She was going to call him and end things then and there so they could dating. A chance for Aaron to show her that she was deserving. And then, tragedy struck.

After his brother's funeral, things felt hard to piece back together. His mother was distraught, his youngest brother had gone to California to chase after a creative profession and his father seemed to bury himself in work, spending more time at the hotel. Aaron gave Safia space, knowing that they both felt overwhelming guilt, but it became clear that she had distanced herself from not just him, but his entire family. He tried reaching out to her after the pain had settled, just to see if they wanted to try. When his attempts had been answered by silence, Aaron eventually had to move on, whether he liked to or not.

He threw himself into his work, earning him one promotion after the other until eventually he got to call himself Captain of the firestation. It made hiding his condition easier, as he was no longer actively running into burning buildings on the daily but rather organising and directing from the outside. It was during one of his official functions where he met Celene, who had been working at the event. The two got to talking, which even got her into some trouble with her employer. The two parted with each others phone numbers, igniting something new, something exciting. It was a love that seemed to flourish, futures being discussed, being trusted with each other's secrets and conditions and keeping it safe. Their engagement was announced in the spring of 2024, to be held at the Four Seasons in the winter of 2025.

Aaron always deemed himself to be a man of honour, yet what he didn't expect was for his past feelings to resurface upon encountering Safia again, causing conflict and inner turmoil about what was right and what was wrong.

[mybeingthere]

Adam Norgaard (b. 1991) is an American artist working in Japan for the past 9 years. His works reflect the process of adapting to a culture different from his own. Working with oils as his main medium, he remains playful while also maintaining a finished quality. Adam attempts to bring the viewers into a foreign environment of their own by the atmosphere depicted in his paintings.

Having been attracted to Japanese culture and intrigued by the complexity of the language from an early age, Adam Norgaard decided to study Japanese at college, then settled in Kawasaki from his third year. When he returned to the United States, where he trained at the Academy of Art University – School of Fine Art in San Francisco, then in Portland, he decided to settle in Japan definitively, keen to maintain his mastery of Japanese.

As he explains, ‘Japan is extremely homogeneous and people are divided into two groups, the uchi (insiders) and soto (outsiders). When painting a figure I often depict them as being othered, largely based on my experience at attempting to assimilate to life here as an outsider’.

[webbedphantom]

[Closed Starter for @sylviareviar]

Shujin Academy Courtyard Monday - May 23rd, 2017 Lunchtime

He was in good spirits today. They were making good progress through the Palace, Yusuke was fitting in rather well despite the awkward start, and he aced his exams last week!

Now if only his peers would stop whispering about him behind his back, he could actually enjoy himself a bit more.

Usually, he did his best to ignore them. Wasn't always easy, but he'd had a lot of practice in the last month.

Today, however, he couldn't. Because today... they weren't just whispering about him.

"Did you hear about the new transfer student?"

"Of course, I have! He's like... a murderer or something!"

"No, not him! The American girl with pink hair!"

That caught his attention. Considering how much trouble Ann got in for her heritage and hair style, he didn't imagine the new girl would have things any easier.

'Maybe we should find her.' He thought to himself... and his other self.

Agreed. I'd be willing to be our new arrival could use a friendly face about now.

He looked around for a bit, though it didn't take him long to spot her. Even without enhanced vision, that pink hair stood out like a neon sign.

She was sitting alone, and she looked... really tired. But that was to be expected. He'd never been on a plane before (didn't really trust them after what happened to his parents), but he recalled both them and his uncle (back when he was still on good terms with the man) telling him over and over just how bad jet lag could be, especially on international flights.

"(Hey there!)" He called out in English, hoping that doing so would get her attention a bit easier. Despite his appearance, his voice barely had an accent to it. In fact, what accent he did have was more British than Japanese.

He walked over to the girl, a friendly smile on his face as he carried his bento over to her table.

"(Mind if I sit here?)"

He wasn't sure how good her Japanese was, so he figured speaking in her first language would be a good way to start things off.

[lazyassryan]

Okayyyyy, it’s Yugioh GX AU rant time. Time to get my game on and hang out in the school yard, I guess…

Some trigger warning before we start the ranting; fire, burning houses, Yubel in general (they play heavy in here), mentions of curses, and some other things I may not pick up on. I have mental illness I’m sorry.

Okay, so welcome to my Feral!Judai AU… umm so shall we start from the beginning?

Jaden Yuki, an average kid that no one seems to understand. His life is like him, normal. He plays with his “imaginary” friend, who he lovingly calls “Yubel” and his parents work all the time, but that’s beside the point. One night as Jaden and his family were sleeping, a loud boom went off. Someone was having a gender reveal party and it set the house on fire, Yubel, being worried for Jaden’s safety, took him and the Yu-Gi-Oh™️ cards to the nearby forest, and there they lived for many years. Yubel teaching Jaden the basics of American Sign Language (ASL), how to communicate and how to duel, which proved useful as he got older.

Speaking of getting older… Jay got older, Yubel got further. I think I put it best like this, “…The only person to guide him was slowly fading from his memory with age. Imaginary friends don’t last forever, even wild children grow up.”, which I wrote about two months ago in a Google doc. But anyways his hair now grown out and frizzed, mind so unkept yet tamed to the wild, it was almost as if an animal would be attending the duel academy. And everybody knew. He skipped prep, going straight for the big leagues of this academy, it’s because he didn’t know he needed to go to prep or really any school. He had someone’s teachings, a mother? A parent perhaps? He had forgotten by now… but they haven’t.

Yubel has cursed Jaden and one other person for some evil scheme, but they must wait to see their lovely Jaden. Time heals all wounds but not in this case, time only makes them worse…

Yubel’s curse; it makes anyone who touches you feel the need to protect you in some way, even if they hate you. The person will still hate you just feel conflicted. It was the last thing Yubel gave Jaden, to protect him and his innocents from the outside world, from people.

(Unoriginal and kinda Marry Sue-ish, he grows more mature when all the shit goes down and Yubel takes Jessie, I promise. I just don’t feel like detailing his whole life rn. Pure edited and reviewed for grammar and spelling mistakes by; @steelgritandironwill HAI BUBBBYYY!!!!)

Some pics of my son!!!❤️❤️💖💖

[coffee-n-bagels-comic-universe]

[Ghostbusters] Brainwaves: Mini Bios (1984) Nova's Family (Part 1/2)

Tagging @ariel-seagull-wings @spook-central and @soulman133 Let me know if you want to be tagged/untagged from Brainwaves posts. These are just bullet point bios for the main groups of characters, as in the female professors, Ghostbusters and Ghostbuster staff, the C.U.P.S students, Nova’s family and then the others™ (e.g. Dickless, Dana)

Following Characters:

Mars Teufel

Anselm Teufel

Milo Teufel

Amalia Teufel

Gilbert Teufel

Medusa Teufel

Long post so it's under the cut.

General Family:

The Teufel Family are supposedly (Read: Definitely) psychic

Most (if not all) are former Jews who converted to being Wiccan at one point or another

The surname 'Teufel' literally translates to 'Devil'

'Mad' Mars Teufel:

Face Claim / Actor: John Candy

Full Name: Mars Neon Teufel. AKA: Mad Mars

Nova's older brother, protective, sometimes overprotective

34 in 1984. Born March 3rd 1950 in Brooklyn, Lives in NY, NY

German, Male, Straight, Wiccan, Pisces, Smoker

Speaks English, German, some Spanish and some French

6'2" and 275 lbs, Brown eyes and Blond hair, no tattoos or piercings, clean-shaven / stubble, hairy

Undiagnosed but likely Autistic

Grew up with Anselm and Milo, Now lives with Nova

Journalist for a German news channel

Bachelor's degree in Journalism & English

Anselm 'Selm' Teufel:

Face Claim / Actor: John Goodman

Full Name: Anselm Saturn Teufel. AKA: Selm

Milo's older brother, cousin to Mars and Nova

30 in 1984. Born June 20th 1954 in Brooklyn. Lives in Brooklyn

German, Male, Straight, Wiccan, Gemini, Smoker

Speaks English, German, some French, and some Spanish

6'2" and 300 lbs, Blue eyes and Brown hair, no tattoos or piercings, clean shaven / stubble, hairy

Grew up with Milo and Mars, still lives with Milo

Works at the Sedgewick Hotel as a Custodian / Handyman

A mean drunk who protects his brother no matter what

Bachelor's degree in Engineering & Metallurgy

'Magnificent' Milo Teufel:

Face Claim / Actor: Bobcat Goldthwait

Full Name: Milo Pluto Teufel. AKA: Magnificent Milo

25 in 1984. Born May 26th 1959 in Brooklyn. Lives in Brooklyn

German, Male, Biromantic, Asexual, Wiccan, Gemini

Speaks English, German, some French and some Spanish

5'6" and 150 lbs, Blue eyes and Brown hair, dyes his hair black

Clean shaven / stubble, hairy, 5 tattoos, scars from misadventure

Misdiagnosed and given Anti-psychotics, possibly Autistic / ADHD / ADD

In the Police Academy

Bachelor's in Architecture

Doctor Amalia 'Ama' Teufel, PhD:

Face Claim / Actress: Geena Davis

Full Name: Amalia Pandora Teufel

Doctor / Miss. AKA: Ama, Lia, Dora

28 in 1984. Born January 21st 1956 in Brooklyn. Lives in The Bronx

German, Female, Straight, Wiccan, Aquarius

Speaks 9 Languages including English, German & Dutch

6'0" and 145 lbs, Brown eyes and hair, no tattoos, ears pierced

Member of C.U.P.S, studying Eschatology, Student Athlete

PhD in Psychology and Biochemistry, member of MENSA

(Using this gif again because this is exactly the vibe of Gil & Ira)

Doctor/Professor Gilbert 'Gil' Teufel, PhD:

Face Claim / Actor: Danny DeVito

Full Name: Gilbert Vulcan Teufel

Professor / Doctor / Mr. AKA: Gil, Bert, Bertie, Doctor Volcano

40 in 1984. Born November 17th 1944 in Brooklyn. Lives in The Bronx

German, Male, Straight, Wiccan, Scorpio, Divorced, Smoker

Speaks 12 languages, can do American Sign Language

4'10" and 143 lbs, Brown eyes and Black hair, clean shaven / stubble, hairy

Teaches Angiology, Bioecology, Criminal Psychology, Dipterology, Foetology & Herbology

Romulus' / Roman's father, Ex-Husband of Tamar Mann

Medusa 'Lin' Teufel:

Face Claim / Actress: Marilu Henner

Full Name: Medusa Linda Teufel. AKA: Lin

32 in 1984. Born April 6th 1952 in Brooklyn. Lives in Manhattan

German, Female, Straight, Wiccan, Aries, Smoker

Speaks English, German, Polish, Spanish & Chinese

5'7" and 130 lbs, Blue eyes, Brown hair dyed Ginger, 7 tattoos, ears pierced

Agriology Student, in C.U.P.S, works as a taxi driver

Older sister of Electra, Younger sister of Norman

Even with her family's connection to death, she won't believe unless she sees proof

[dweemeister]

Best Live Action Short Film Nominees for the 96th Academy Awards (2024, listed in order of appearance in the shorts package)

This blog, since 2013, has been the site of my write-ups to the Oscar-nominated short film packages – a personal tradition for myself and for this blog. This omnibus write-up goes with my thanks to the Regency South Coast Village in Santa Ana, California for providing all three Oscar-nominated short film packages.

If you are an American or Canadian resident interested in supporting the short film filmmakers in theaters (and you should, as very few of those who work in short films are as affluent as your big-name directors and actors), check your local participating theaters here.

Without further ado, here are the nominees for the Best Live Action Short Film at this year’s Oscars. The write-up for this year's Documentary Short nominees is complete; expect the write-ups for Animated Short soon. Films predominantly in a language other than English are listed with their nation(s) of origin.

The After (2023)

From Netflix, Misan Harriman’s The After is perfectly adequate during its opening minutes as business father Dayo (David Oyelowo) plays along with his daughter, Laura (Amelie Dokubo), as they travel to meet her mother, Amanda (Jessica Plummer). Everything following those first few minutes is, charitably, a filmmaking disaster. Once a black-clad attacker stabs Emily and tosses her off a bridge. Though Dayo and a few other bystanders have successfully restrained the murderer, Amanda, in dismay, throws herself off and commits suicide. Fast-forward a year later and we see that Dayo has left his previous jobs and now works as a rideshare or taxi driver in London. In between ferrying passengers to and from their destinations, he listens to the final voicemail from Amanda, gazes longingly at a family photo, and reminisces about the past.

The After lost almost all of my goodwill after the horrifically staged murder scene (from which the film never recovers). Grief – how one processes it, the stages it takes, how it affects our relationships with others, and any residual trauma – is en vogue in modern short filmmaking. Way too many films touching upon this subject have little to add – cinematically, thematically – for the audience; the most worthwhile films in this subset will filter grief through a specific cultural lens. The After accomplishes neither, despite Harriman’s claims that his screenplay, co-written with John Julius Schwabach, took the Black Lives Matter movement and the isolation of COVID-19’s height as inspiration (the murderer is not a police officer nor is there an implied racial animus; there are no signs of the pandemic here). The final scene, involving a family that Dayo is transporting to their posh home, is unbelievable tripe – contributing nothing to this dreadful exploration of grief. The placement of Birdy and Rhodes’ “Let It All Go” is sheer musical tastelessness. All that remains is David Oyelowo’s performance and, no matter how much he splays out his body in sadness, this film needs more than that to save itself. It might not even have a prayer.

My rating: 4/10

Red, White and Blue (2023)

Going into Nazrin Choudhury’s Red, White and Blue, I suspected, with a title like that, that there was some political bent to the film. I may have detected its messaging later than I would like to admit, but that is not where my significant reservations towards this film lie. Somewhere in present-day Arkansas, single mother Rachel (Brittany Snow) works at a diner afternoons and evenings. She often has her two children, older sister Maddy (Juliet Donenfeld) and younger brother Jake (Redding Munsell), over after school so she can watch over them while she works. After a generous tip from a customer, Rachel (whose fridge magnets hold layers of unpaid bills) forms a plan to take Maddy on a short road trip northwards, leaving her brother temporarily in the care of a family friend. It seems strange that she is only taking one of her children on this trip, but – in a shocking plot twist – we learn that Maddy (who, if this short takes place in its release year, is ten years old) needs an abortion.

In 2022, the Supreme Court of the United States, in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, found that having an abortion is not a constitutional right, overturning years of precedent in Roe v. Wade (1973) and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992). Effectively, this turned abortion regulation over to the states. Arkansas was among those states that made abortion illegal. The outrage stemming from Dobbs v. Jackson was Choudhury’s impetus to write and direct Red, White and Blue. Politics and cinema have intertwined ever since Vitagraph Studios filmed a series of propaganda shorts in support of the Spanish-American War in 1898. But Red, White and Blue commits the age-old mistake by prioritizing its messaging over cinematic craft. Dull lighting and camerawork, merely satisfactory performances, and a lengthy driving-musical montage that does little for characterization or narrative make for an awkward, stilted viewing experience. Its reveal is an extreme situation that could have been just as powerful if Choudhury instead used a more pedestrian example.

My rating: 6/10

Knight of Fortune (2022, Denmark)

Also known in its native Danish as Ridder Lykke, Lasse Lyskjær Noer’s film is rich with Scandinavian humor. In other words, absurd situations amid dark or tragic moments – your enjoyment may vary. The film, available via The New Yorker for American, Canadian, and Mexican audiences, features the elderly Karl (Swedish actor Leif Andrée), who has has just arrived at the morgue to see the body of his late wife. He purposefully delays opening the casket to view his wife’s body by attempting to fix a flickering light nearby and using the restroom. In the restroom, he encounters his next-stall neighbor, Torben (Jens Jørn Spottag), also there for his respective decedent wife. Karl continues to avoid seeing his wife’s body by accompanying Torben into the room where his respective wife’s body lies. If the shenanigans regarding the broken light and the bathroom stalls were not already an indication, this is no conventional narrative about grief (yet another nominee about grief!) as Knight of Fortune further plunges into the absurd. Andrée and Spottag – neither of whom have had significant credits in films distributed beyond Central Europe – are both fantastic here, imbuing the relationship between Karl and Torben with pathos despite the peculiar situation.

Noer, who also wrote the screenplay during a time of personal loss, reminds audiences that grief takes numerous forms, and refuses to pass judgment on any of the grieving characters. The humor is never at the characters’ expense either. What makes Knight of Fortune valuable is its depiction of a grieving man who will do much to postpone his final goodbyes and permitting the audience to laugh (as laughter, strange as it may sound, has a place in grieving). Andrée’s performance and Noer’s direction and tonally controlled writing allow the audience to empathize easily with the protagonist’s plight, amid the unfamiliar and cold glare of the morgue’s flat lighting and its eerie quiet.

My rating: 8/10

Invincible (2022, Canada)

Vincent René-Lortie’s Invincible qualified for the Academy Awards by winning Best Live Action Short at the 2022 Chicago International Children’s Film Festival. Despite CICFF’s moniker, this is not a short appropriate for younger children. Here, we follow fourteen-year-old Marc-Antoine Bernier (also known as just “Marc”; Léokim Beaumier-Lépine in a terrific lead performance), as he has just spent a weekend with his family on an idyllic leave from a juvenile detention and rehabilitation center. Now, back within the center’s gates, Marc has made a critical decision. Before that fateful moment, René-Lortie allows us glimpses of Marc's life at the juvenile detention center: Marc’s attempt to cause havoc to his cell’s fire-extinguishing sprinkler system, a class in which the students share the poems they have composed, and the joys of swimming in the outdoor pool. Soon after, Marc-Antoine escapes. While on the run, he steals a car and commits suicide.

At the top of the end credits, René-Lortie reveals that this film is a tribute to his late friend, Marc-Antoine Bernier, and Invincible is a retelling of his friend’s last hours. According to interviews, René-Lortie and the Bernier family are unsure whether or not Marc’s death was an accident or a suicide. Whatever the case, Marc was clearly troubled.

René-Lortie uses a 4:3 aspect ratio to “entrap” our protagonist in the frame, but, disappointingly, he does little else with the Academy ratio. In yet another missed opportunity in an otherwise fine film, René-Lortie fails to submerge the viewer into Marc’s psychology (René-Lortie is absolutely not framing his friend as unknowable), which makes some of Marc’s actions less understandable in the moment. Nevertheless, René-Lortie deserves plaudits for this sensitive tribute to his absent friend.

My rating: 7/10

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (2023)

Since it has been some time since I last reviewed a Wes Anderson movie, I must admit a bias: I am an Anderson skeptic. Not a popular position to take, but the aesthetic rigidity of Anderson’s movies has only served to take me out of his movies emotionally. One of Anderson’s principal aesthetic influences, director Yasujirô Ozu, also made films that were just as aesthetically rigid. But Ozu’s style, with an unmoving camera and naturalistic acting, never interferes or undermines the emotions he tries to evoke.

Not so with Anderson, as evidenced in The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, a 39-minute Netflix production based on Roald Dahl’s short story of the same name. With partial narration from Ralph Fiennes playing Roald Dahl, Henry Sugar (Benedict Cumberbatch) happens upon a book recounting a Dr. Chatterjee’s (Dev Patel) observations of Imdad Khan (Ben Kingsley), who can see things without using his eyes. Inspired by this account, Henry, a serial gambler, decides to learn from Imdad’s meditations and, after almost four years, learns how to read playing cards just by examining their backsides. Eventually, Henry, realizing he has not much time to live, donates his considerable blackjack winnings to children’s hospitals and orphanages.

What I appreciate most about Henry Sugar is its dedication to presenting itself as set-bound. Anderson’s 4:3 screen aspect ratio and off-Technicolor palette combines with stagehands immaculately wheeling parts of the set on- and off-camera for when the story requires it. This takes immaculate blocking and a keen eye for movement – something Anderson clearly has in spades. However, where some are claiming Henry Sugar to be the cinema’s response to audiobooks, I must digress. Henry Sugar adapts the entire Roald Dahl text, and it often seems as if Anderson is intentionally having his actors rush through the material in order to keep the film under the forty-minute limit that defines a short film. There is little to no room for thespian interpretation and inflection as they enunciate the text. For me, this is only slightly better than reading Dahl’s text in a monotone voice. If the production design was not so impressive, this would be an otherwise insufferable experience.

My rating: 7.5/10

^ Based on my personal imdb rating. My interpretation of that ratings system can be found in the “Ratings system” page on my blog. Half-points are always rounded down.

From previous years: 85th Academy Awards (2013) 87th (2015) 88th (2016) 89th (2017) 90th (2018) 91st (2019) 92nd (2020) 93rd (2021) 94th (2022) 95th (2023)

For more of my reviews tagged “My Movie Odyssey”, check out the tag of the same name on my blog.

[mizkit]

new blog post: Reading Roundup: The Starbridge series

new blog post on https://mizkit.com/reading-roundup-the-starbridge-series/

Reading Roundup: The Starbridge series

I decided in my re-read of AC Crispin’s Starbridge novels that aside from the first one, I wouldn’t do individual reviews, but rather cover all of them in one longer post. I may or may not regret this decision. :)

I’ve read all of the Starbridge novels at least once, most of them twice, and a few of them three+ times. Once upon a time I hoped to write one with Ann, and even now, re-reading them, I would dearly love to write in her world. It really holds a special place in my heart.

STARBRIDGE: SILENT DANCES, AC Crispin & Kathleen O’Malley – This, after STARBRIDGE itself, is my favorite of the series, and depending on the day, it might take the lead.

SILENT DANCES is the story of Tesa, a young, Deaf Native American woman whose Starbridge work brings her to a planet of crane-like people whose thunderous voices can destroy human hearing. She’s not at risk, although everyone around her wants her to return to Earth to have her hearing ‘fixed,’ a path she’s not at all sure she should take. Like all Starbridge novels, it’s a story of first contact, and the trials and tribulations therein.

I *love* her story. I love the Grus, the enormous, crane-like people who mostly speak through sign language themselves, and I love the world they inhabit. I love the truths that Tesa discovers in her time on Trinity, and the beauty of her path of self-determination. It’s by far my favorite Starbridge world.

SILENT DANCES, like STARBRIDGE, suffers the problem of an age-gap romance that didn’t bother me at all when I read it the first few times at an age much closer to the protagonist’s than I currently am, and upon re-reading in adulthood suffers even more from the fact that the romance is *completely* unnecessary and so quickly developed it’s actually unbelievable, whereas STARBRIDGE’s at least develops well. That’s a huge frustration to me as an adult reader, because I can now see how easy it would have been to just…not do that.

But the flaw is not fatal. I love the story, the world, and the characters too much to let that one aspect of the book–which is somewhere around tertiary or arguably even quad…quaternary (i had to look that up)–in plot importance wreck it for me. It’s such a good story. ♥

STARBRIDGE: SHADOW WORLD, AC Crispin & Jannean Elliot – I’ve read this one twice, but remember liking it less than the first two. In re-reading it, I understand why; it deals with death a lot, and has some really heartbreaking moments that are just beautifully written and really tremendously powerful. There was one point in the book where I gasped out loud and my husband was like “IS EVERYTHING OK–oh, you’re reading, okay.” :)

SHADOW WORLD follows our first male protagonist in the Starbridge series, Mark…who does not have a creepy age gap romance. Go figure. In the wake of his mother’s death, he’s about to give up on Starbridge Academy, but is drawn into a devastating First Contact in which a faction of the new alien race *violently* disagrees with becoming part of the, uh, Federation. (It’s actually the Collective League of Starfaring Worlds or something like that, but, you know: the Federation.) The aliens in SHADOW WORLD live only around fifteen years, and the internal struggle over whether they should allow the CLS to help them extend their lives is the central conflict of the book.

Coming at this from adulthood, it’s…god, it’s a beautifully written book in almost every aspect. It deals delicately with grief, anger, despair and healing, and I have a *much* greater appreciation for it as an adult than I did as a teen. They did a really good job here, and I’m really glad I re-read it.

[n8-shaw]

{ JACOB ELORDI, 22, CISGENDER MALE, HE/HIM } Is that NATHANIEL SHAW? A JUNIOR originally from SAG HARBOR, NY, they decided to come to Ogden College to study UNDECIDED on an ATHLETIC SCHOLARSHIP. They’re THE BRUISER WITH A SOFT CENTER on campus, but even they could get blamed for Greer’s disappearance.

THE ESSENTIALS

Nathaniel Shaw hates rich people. Raised in a poor family, by an on-and-off single mother thanks to his absentee father, he had to work for every single cent he’s ever had. He dealt with this with bitterness and resentment, choosing to take it out by punching whoever pissed him off, getting into fights and trouble more often than not as he was growing up. With his athletic talents, it was enough to get him a scholarship to Ogden, but not enough that he’d ever get the chip off his shoulder about being the poor kid around the unbelievably wealthy. He’s over-sensitive, withdrawn, and tactless, but if you get on his good side, he may just allow you to share his weed and show that underneath that, he does have a pisces stellium, and does in fact have feelings beyond just letting them get hurt so he can start hitting people.

pinterest - muse tag

CHARACTER INSPIRATIONS

ryan atwood  (the oc) - billy dunne (daisy jones and the six) - nate macauley (one of us is lying) - marcus baker (ginny and georgia)-  jj maybank (obx) - william magnusson (skam) - tim riggins (fnl) - jess (gilmore girls) - johnny castle (dirty dancing) - the ninth doctor (doctor who) - roy kent (ted lasso) - patrick verona (10 things i hate about you) - diego hargreeves (the umbrella academy) - john bender (the breakfast club) - alex karev (grey’s anatomy) - conrad fisher (tsitp)

TV TROPES

BRUISER WITH A SOFT CENTER - dark and troubled past - the stoner - byronic hero - abusive parents - disappeared dad - fish out of water - scholarship student - the casanova - jerk jock - delinquents - book dumb - tall dark and snarky - sour outside sad inside - hidden depths 

OGDEN COLLEGE 2022-2023

Major:

Undecided - some classes he has been taking, beyond gen-eds are: ceramics/wheel-throwing, photography, literature classes, and avoiding anything to do with music thus far xoxo

Extracurriculars:

Swimming, Crew, Boxing Club

BASIC INFORMATION

FULL NAME: Nathaniel Shaw

NICKNAME(S): Nate, Natey (only from his younger sister, if anyone else calls him that, they’re consenting to be punched in the face)

DATE OF BIRTH: march 23rd, 2001

AGE: twenty-one

ZODIAC SIGN: aries sun, pisces moon, aries rising, pisces mercury, pisces venus (in retrograde), aries mars. have fun!

OCCUPATION: ????????????? part time pool boy, illegal street fighter. idk was this man does beyond that

HOMETOWN: sag harbor, ny/melbourne, australia

NATIONALITY: american and australian dual citizen

ETHNICITY: a white man?! no!.gif

LANGUAGE(S): english (barely)

GENDER & PRONOUNS: he/him

SEXUAL ORIENTATION: straight, to make him worse. but also it's sorta "straight"

RELIGION: definitely an atheist

POLITICAL AFFILIATION: i don’t think he has political opinions other than eat the rich

PHYSICAL INFORMATION

FACE CLAIM: Jacob Elordi

HEIGHT: 6′5″ 

EYE COLOUR: brown

HAIR COLOUR + STYLE: dark brown, worn like this (yes, the mullet, sorry).

ACCENT + INTENSITY: Australian - it comes and goes with how strong it is. He lived in Melbourne from age 3-15, so it’s definitely there, but it also is faded at this point, especially on certain words. it can come out stronger as well, and he definitely do be emphasizing it sometimes

TATTOO(S): a thin line around his left forearm, with a wave above it on the inside of his arm (going almost up into his elbow), coordinates of sag harbor and melbourne on the back of his left arm above his elbow, rowing oar along the outer bone of his right forearm, initial tattoo on the inside of his right forearm (gotten with all four siblings when his younger sister turned 18)

SCAR(S): probably a lot

PIERCING(S): one in each ear lobe - usually wears either a plain gold hoop in them

GLASSES: yes, but he doesn’t wear them 99% of the time. is this man just wandering around blind? very possibly

CLOTHING STYLE: honestly i imagine a lot like Jacob Elordi’s more lowkey style - something like this, this or this. Josh Heuston's style is very fitting too, like this, this, this or this. He also wears all the jewlery/rings/necklaces and often has his nails painted. and this pic is the ultimate nate style for me.

PERSONALITY

MBTI TYPE: INFJ

POSITIVE TRAITS: passionate, loyal, independent, honest, brave

NEGATIVE TRAITS: all of them. over-sensitive, short-tempered, aggressive, pessimistic, cynical, crass, withdrawn, resentful, impatient, reckless, (overly) competitive, attention seeking, tactless, brash, intense, aloof

GOALS/DESIRES: (suicide tw) literally nate barely even wants to be alive, so no, he doesn’t have any goals

FEARS: turning into his father

HOBBIES: ….smoking weed, contemplating the misery of his existence, punching people in the face, fucking bitches and getting money (except the money part because he’s poor), playing the guitar/lowkey fucking around with music production

HABITS: his habits include smoking a joint daily, punching whoever pisses him off, scowling when people speak to him……there’s probs more but that’s what i got tbh

SMOKES? weed, constantly.

DRINKS? most definitely

DRUGS? has dabbled....and will get worse if the plots i want work out

HOW THEY EMBODY THEIR TROPE:

Nate is the BRUISER WITH A SOFT CENTER because, at the end of the day, he is far more sensitive than he will ever let on. Everything hurts this Pisces moon, even as he glowers and glares, and yes, punches his way through them. He’s quick to react with anger - which often translates into violence - all while hiding how things are constantly hurting him. It’s easier to ignore it, because there’s nothing he can do. It’s just the hand he was dealt. And if he’s good at anything (which he still thinks may be debatable), it’s throwing a punch.

EXPANDED PERSONALITY:

Most of Nate’s personality is negative. Even what could be a positive trait (such as competitiveness, honesty, sensitivity, intensity….) he tends to turn it up to 1000 until it’s damaging. But honestly, most of it just negative to start with. He’s very withdrawn and broody, spends most of his time and interactions just glowering at people, and yet has an extremely short fuse, so will go from no reaction to swinging in the blink of an eye. he basically throws tantrums like a toddler, albeit a very large, 6′5″ toddler who actually knows how to fight.

However, he is extremely loyal if he decides someone is worth it - spoiler alert, most people aren’t - he will be there for them in the best way Nate knows how. Still tactless, but like, he tries his best. Basically his way of showing emotional support is being like so, uh, you wanna smoke a joint? Because at the end of the day, Nate is not very smart. Emotionally, or in a book smart sense. He can come off a bit of a himbo, just with his attempts to be charming and flirt with women (when he wants to). Plus he’s hot. And he knows it. And isn’t afraid to use it.

Speaking of women (ladies, please run), Nate likes to be pursued. He hates having to make the first move - probably due to of feeling like he isn’t worth it, more on that below - and he will flirt, charm, seduce, but when it actually comes down to it, he wants the other person to make that final leap. Some sort of validation or something. He likes when girls pay attention to him, and tries to coax it out of them. However, he also has a lot of resentment towards his mother for chasing after his father and bending over backwards to try to make things work, so he also loses interest as soon as a girl is too interested. And when he loses interest, he won’t say anything, he’ll just ghost or cheat. The only kind of confrontation Natey boi is good at is one that involves his fists.

His default way of connecting with people is…well, sex. Nate has no examples of a healthy emotional relationship, and he isn’t good at making friends, so typically, when a girl wants to get close to him, he fakes intimacy with his head between their legs, making them feel like they have him because he’s sleeping with them. Like he’s open and connected to them just because they boned. In reality, it’s just his way of avoiding the emotional intimacy he’s petrified of, because he knows it’ll come back to hurt him. The only downside to all that is the rare times he does want to emotionally connect with someone, he has no idea how to. All he knows how to offer is his body, really. 

Nate’s very dry, prone to swearing (he did grow up in Australia), and his sense of humor is very deadpan. If you actually talk to him, you realize there’s a lot of sarcasm in his cynicism, put the issue is that he’s extremely withdrawn from most people, and honestly doesn’t even see the point in having conversations with them. He also uses this to hide a lot of his fundamental insecurities - he genuinely feels like he’s not going to amount to much, mostly because he’s been made to feel that way. He acts brash and confident, but he really does struggle with feeling like he’s worth anything. It’s part of why he gets so over-competitive, because he wants to prove he’s good at something.

CONNECTION IDEAS

some wanted dynamics -

a childhood friend from australia (one day i will submit this wc to the main)

i still really would like nate to get into music, so someone to help encourage him along that path would be....amazing. he really loves music, but his father was a deadbeat musician, and since nate HATES him sm...he's gotta come to terms with that side of himself

in general, someone(s) who encourages his artsy soft boi side to come out

hamptons enemies - people who summared in the hamptons, dynamic would be dependant on muse. maybe people whose families he worked for (outside of the Morrison's?)?? Bonus points if they had a hot mom he could've banged !!

fight club - nate street fights for money, so ppl who participate or aware of that would be funsies

hook-ups/fwbs/ons's to help him get over the girls in his past since they are all no longer options rip

flirtationships - bc nate rarely makes the first move

the other man - nate has no morals, so if u need someone for ur muse to cheat on their significant other with...here he is

and as always - down to brainstorm and put nate into anything that would fit !!

RELATIONSHIP WITH GREER:

When the Shaw family moved back to Sag Harbor from Australia, where Nate’s mother grew up, they instantly realized they were not on the same class playing feel as everyone else. They had never been wealthy. Four children and barely steady incomes from their parents - when they were even together - guaranteed that. The kids all realized pretty quickly they were going to have to get jobs, especially now that their father was completely out of the picture. Nate ended up working for a few families who ‘summered’ (god, he hated that word) nearby, working as a pool boy. One of those families…yeah, you guessed it, was the Morrison’s. Greer took interest in the pretty Australian pool boy who was her age, inviting him along to join some of the parties she and her friends had, despite him being her family’s staff. No way was that going to end badly.

Also, they may have hooked up a time or two their senior year of high school. But that’s irrelevant.

FAMILY

FULL FAMILY PAGE

SOCIAL CLASS: lower class

FATHER: Luke Shaw

MOTHER: Ella Shaw, née Quentin

SIBLING(S)? 3 - older brother; Liam Shaw , older sister; Melanie Shaw, and a younger sister; Quentin "Quinnie" Shaw.

CHILDREN? do not let this man reproduce no matter what you do (also having children is also his worst nightmare, since the last thing he wants is to his father)

ABOUT NATE

FULL BIOGRAPHY

nate is the third out of four kids in five years to two highly incompatible people

his mom followed his dad back to australia when he was 3, only to call it all off 12 years later, and move back to sag harbor when nate was 15

nate took the move v hard in general, got into a lot of fights, briefly ended up in juvie after being charged with assault

couldn't pay for a lawyer, but the kid he was defending became his best friend (xoxo keys) and his father was a public defender and got the charges dropped, so he doesn't TECHNICALLY have it on his record

shortly after he got invited to an illicit fighting ring, which had money being given to winners and tossed around in bets by the rich kids who vacationed in the summer

that's how nate ended up hanging out with them and partying with them despite being poorTM

early in the fall his senior year, there was a back to school party where the house they were in ended up burning down - since nate was the only one who didn't have rich parents, who do you think took the fall? (hint: nate)

stanford stopped recruiting him & he broke up with his girlfriend at the time (actually, he just ghosted her, but that counts)

did he end up getting a scholarship at ogden in return for keeping his mouth shut? maybe (yes)

when he came to ogden as a freshman in college, he came in as an engineering major (why? no idea - think someone told him too and he was like, well, i have no hopes or dreams of my own, so y not), failed a bunch of classes, and then ended up switching to an undecided major for his junior year…so is he going to graduate on time? absolutely not. he is very much behind in his schooling.

SOME FUN FACTS

yes, nate has jacob's australian accent

he is basically ryan atwood and i regret nothing

he worked as a pool boy and mowed lawns and shit during the summer once he moved back to the Hamptons as a teen to make some extra cash, so rubbed shoulders with a lot of rich kids, which just made him more bitter about all of it

he did in fact sleep with several milf housewives while he was doing above jobs

plays the guitar and piano and likes to fuck around with music production in his free time - his father is a musician so his lack of acknowledging this/sharing this/actually allowing himself to enjoy it is due to his ~ daddy issues ~

deep down he is an artsy soft boi, and he just refuses to acknowledge that he loves music because of his father, and the fear that exploring that side of himself will just turn him into his dad. it's definitely something he needs to come to terms to still

he started taking more art classes this semester now that he is undecided and he signed up for a wheel-throwing class so he QUICKLY became one of those slutty shirtless wheel-throwing tik tok boys. his first successful pot he made he gave to rhia so she could plant things in it.

FALL SEMESTER TOUCHBASE

jesse threw nate under the bus, nate threw jesse under the bus, they kissed fought, the cops were looking at nate real sussy

so yeah from the very first sit down with the cops, nate was not making a good impression

he did get dragged outta the pool during a swim practice to be questioned

after their second interview, he is in their list of suspects :)

overall, nate is trying very hard to not be involved with greer or her disappearance at ALL because he does not want to be held responsible

he did overhear (with pippa) penny saying that she knew why greer left

oh also, he hooked monty and ollie up with a half built house to use as a drug base, thanks to his connects in the construction industry near ogden

he has those connects bc the summer between his freshman and sophomore years, he worked for nat's dad while they were dating. and nat's dad hates him. so nate said fuck u i'ma have my friends deal drugs outta ur house

[wcrpbubble]

DOSSIER CHEAT SHEET

LEGAL NAME: kathryn elizabeth janeway

NICKNAME[S]: kate, kathy, katie (use them at your own peril)

DATE OF BIRTH: may 20th, 2336

GENDER: female

PLACE OF BIRTH: bloomington, indiana, earth

CURRENTLY LIVING: varied, usually voyager

SPOKEN LANGUAGES: english, chromolinguistics, american sign language, gestural leyran idioms

EDUCATION: starfleet academy

HAIR COLOR: red

EYE COLOR: green

HEIGHT: 5'5

WEIGHT: 128 lbs.

FAMILY INFORMATION

SIBLING[S]: phoebe janeway

PARENT[S]: edward janeway and gretchen janeway

RELATIVE[S]: none

CHILDREN: none

PET[S]: mollie, tom paris

RELATIONSHIP INFORMATION

SEXUAL ORIENTATION: bisexual

RELATIONSHIP STATUS: chakotay. complicated.

SINCE WHEN: literally since they met

tagged by: @dimensionalspades tagging: anyone who wants!

[50books50movies]

CODA

The climactic scene in the auditorium where we see the parents' reaction to Ruby's duet is an incredible scene, but the one that won the Academy Award for Best Picture is the one where Emilia Jones's simultaneous singing in English and American Sign Language in her audition.

There is an interesting intersection between Ruby's experience as the ASL interpreter for her family and the child immigrant's experience in their third culture as the English interpreter for non-English speaking parents in the US.