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summonerscenarios · 4 years ago

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Hmmm,,, how about somethin fluffy,,,How about Shiro, Kengo, Ryota & Toji reaction hcs to Mc being causally physically affectionate w/friends. With the boys also being on the receiving end of this. Like hugs, head rubs, hand holding, general leaning/relaxing against em etc. I tend to think Mc is touch starved bc of their total lack of prior connections. So they just kinda see their friends and think "oh hell yeah my faves, time for love and appreciation"

IN THIS HOUSE LOVING THE BROS HOURS IS 24/7 365 DAYS A YEAR 👏👏👏 I too hc that the MC is touch starved so all friends are immediately on their affection list ON SIGHT. Kept this a lil short as I’m running on a bit of burnout but I do hope that you enjoy these fluffy love and appreciation hours 💖💖💖

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Shiro

Shiro’s used to Ryota usually being the openly affectionate one so he’s used to receiving hugs and general affectionate gestures from him, however getting that kind of affection from you is new and thus frankly leaves him quite flustered about it.

When you first swoop in for a friendly hug he lets out an embarrassingly loud yelp because you just about sweep him off of his feet as you pull him into your arms, squeezing him close just for good measure and laughing by the time you finally put him back down. His glasses are skewed and he’s trying to ignore his reaction as he clears his throat and warns you about being more careful next time you wanna hug him, but honestly it’s hard to take the sentiment seriously when his cheeks are turning red in embarrassment.

Once he gets used to the casual affectionate gestures he really doesn’t mind that you’re so eager to coddle and cuddle up to your friends - he’s also the first of the Summoners to reason that this probably stems as a result of lack of connections prior to coming to Tokyo. So when you sidle up to rest your head against his shoulder to see what he’s doing or wrap your arms around him, Shiro finds himself glad that you guys are so close that you’re comfortable displaying affection and finds himself appreciating these little moments even if he’s more hesitant than you are to initiate them.

Shiro likes when you lay against his side, finding any tension rolling off of his shoulders feeling you relaxed and at ease next to him, and this is especially true whenever he’s reading or working on sorting out the guild’s affairs. Sometimes you’ll coax him to lay his head in your lap while he reads something out to you, giving you the chance to idly run your hands through his hair as he does so - it’s comforting to him and a great way to calm him down if you ever notice that he’s particularly stressed; just be prepared for Ryota and Agyo to slide right in asking for the same treatment the second that Shiro’s head leaves your lap.

Sometimes Shiro’s just not in the mood for affection and needs a little bit of space so when he’s feeling a bit overwhelmed you can be sure that his little D-evils are more than happy to waddle up for you to fuss to your heart's content. A handful drop right down into your lap reaching up to you eagerly awaiting head pats, others clutch your arms with bright eyes vying for your attention, and you’ve even got one perched atop your shoulders at one point to play with your hair. For anyone who loves affection these lil kiddos are always in need of some cuddle and affection! Though they of course want Shiro to get some attention too so the both of you end up getting swarmed.

Kengo

Kengo sees how openly affectionate you are with the Summoners and your other friends and he’s immediately like “Oh it’s loving the bros hours? Aight bet” and then proceeds to just about knock you right back onto your ass with how aggressively he goes in for some good ol’ affection. He’s really rather chill about dishing out affection and takes it in stride way more than Shiro does - plus why wouldn’t he wanna show his appreciation for you and the other Summoners!

His hugs are just a liiiiittle bit too tight so whenever you pull him into one expect him to go all out, returning it with just as much vigor - they’re honestly the best but if you aren’t used to them they can easily knock the wind out of you. Sometimes you’ll have to give him a bit of a nudge to loosen his grip because wow are your poor ribs gonna feel sore by the time he lets you go. When on the receiving end of hugs the first time you pulled him into one he did admittedly freeze up a bit awkwardly, giving you a couple pats on the back until you’d filled your hug quota and let him go. Though Kengo’s a lot more prepared the next time you show his affection now that he knows that you’re cool with it.

His type of casual physical affection is slightly more rough and tumble than Ryota’s and Shiro’s, slinging often slinging an arm around you and ruffling your hair until it’s all kinds of mussed up under his fingers. He only laughs when you playfully try to swat him away but is quick to dive out of your hands’ line of fire when you attempt to pull the same thing on him. There’s plenty of small ways he expressed his affection to you too - high fives, resting his arm over your shoulder, giving you piggybacks (though he’ll outright refuse if you try to do that same to him and threatens to drop you whenever you tease him about it) are all part of the experience when it comes to affection from Kengo.

Most of his affection is saved for when it’s just you guys chilling - while he’s learned not to give a damn about what others think of his whole rough-n-tumble attitude he still gets a bit awkward when you go in for some affectionate gestures surrounded by people. He isn’t sure why but that’s just how it usually goes, but when he sees how happy you get when you’re able to keep physically close to your friends he’ll put his gripes aside and pull you close because of course he wants to see you happy about it.

Ryota

Ryota himself is also casually affectionate with all of his friends! He’s always giving others hugs, head pats and looping his arm with theirs and other equally sweet gestures because to him it’s just another way to show his friends how much he loves and appreciates them. The only reason that he was hesitant with you at first was because he worries just in case you aren’t comfortable with physical contact and the opportunity to ask you just never came up before. So once he knows that you’re okay with affection and that you’re just as open with expressing it he is absolutely HERE FOR IT.

You guys hold hands all of the time - going between classes or out shopping he loves the casual intimacy which is also a plus so that neither of you get separated in big crowds. He always greets you with some kind of affectionate gesture but his go to is hugs - sometimes the two of you just spot each other when you’re back at the safehouse or leaving the school grounds and it’s a race between the two of you for who can pull the other into a hug first. This on more than one occasion has led to you both nearly toppling over (and actually a couple of times) but you guys are too busy being in absolute stitches about it to even really care. There’s something about hugging your friends and it being reciprocated with just as much enthusiasm that honestly just melts his heart into a puddle of happy feelings - serotonin to the MAX.

TOUCHED STARVED BROS FOR LIFE.Like seriously I feel like sometimes Ryota get’s pretty starved for affection and he finds comfort in reaching out to others for said affection or just as a way to express his appreciation so when he can’t he can get pretty down about it. AND THAT’S WHERE YOU COME IN. Both of you vibe off of each others desire for affectionate gestures so when the other’s lacking in the affection department it doesn’t take long before you gravitate to each other and one of the other Summoners finds Ryota draped across your lap with his head buried in your shoulder as you chat and play games. 9 times out of 10 you end up dragging said Summoner into a cuddle pile too - you two are affectionate forces to be reckoned with.

Ryota always wants to hold people’s hands in some way and it’s a pretty decent way to tell how he’s feeling based on how he holds your hand and how tight his grip is. Sometimes the two of you are walking together and his hand will just gravitate to hook his pinky finger with yours and it’s honestly the cutest thing ever. When he’s feeling more anxious or clingy he’ll interlock fingers and pull your hands right next to him so that you guys can stick close. And you’re not the only one who gets this treatment too - physically feeling that his friends are there is something that Ryota might not even realize keeps him grounded but he enjoys the openness that he can share with you all.

Toji

Toji’s arguably the most awkward in regards to receiving and giving affection. He sees you expressing it so openly with your friends and though he’ll complain that you’re too bold and uncouth he can see the appeal of sharing such a closeness with your allies. (he’s also a lowkey little jealous that you seriously aren’t afraid about being so open with those forms of expression)

The first time you are casually affectionate with him catches him off guard. The two of you were studying together, sat side by side when you put your book down with an exaggerated sigh and then proceeded to lean against him, resting your head atop his shoulder to look down at his own textbook. Toji immediately tensed and jolted so sharply that your head fell off his shoulder and you dropped sideways right into his lap, which only created more of an outburst as you just about keeled over laughing at the absolute shock on his face.

With some time and a couple of warnings however Toji begins gradually warming up to your affectionate gestures though he never quite gets used to how casual you are about pulling him and the other Summoners in for hugs and head pats. It’s gotten to the point where he’s beginning to learn to accept it and anticipate when you come in for the next round of ‘love and appreciation hours’. You know that B99 with the run and leap? Yeah that’s basically your friendship now - the amount of times that you’ve come full pelt at him while he’s busy or holding something probably breaks a record somewhere but you’re confident that he’ll always catch you and he does! The lecture and costs of some of the things you’ve accidentally broke in these endeavors is well worth it.

Don’t expect much from Toji in regards to initiating affection at first, he’s awkward and stiff about it to all hell so just take it a little bit at a time to show him that the occasional head pat or cuddle isn’t going to kill him. Speaking of head pats that’s the most common ones he gives you, it started off as just a quick pat before he turns back to whatever he was doing before but eventually he gets comfortable enough that whenever you’re lying next to/against him his hand will immediately gravitate towards your head, running his fingers through your hair and rubbing your head soft yet just firm enough that you could probably fall asleep if he keeps at it for long enough.

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thewreckkelly · 4 years ago

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Watch "Could Only Happen In Ireland" on YouTube

GOOD GOLLY IT’S DOLLY (My Mother Myself)

I love my Mum – loved her when I was under her care, loved her throughout my independence, love her now she’s in someone else’s care. Of course I’m aware such maternal love is by no means exclusive and undoubtedly, while the expression of such love tends to soften with distance and age, it remains an emotional bond that is a true unbreakable.

Recently I’ve been helping a florist – who also happens to be a great friend - with an online marketing campaign for ‘Mothers Day’ and, (during the course of concocting and plagiarising four line sentiments and graphic displays of floral fawning) , got to thinking of my Mum and what we have shared throughout a lifetime of mutual love.

A strange highlight dominated my walk through that particular past!

-o-

The year was 1980 (I think) and I was slowly ridding myself of the adolescent petulance properly associated with teenage angst while also - willingly and without excuse or apology – continuing to embrace the evolutionary revolutionary mindset of ‘Punk’.

Don’t get me wrong I had never fallen into the ‘Mohawk’, ‘Piercings’, ‘Gobbing’, ‘Pogoing’ or ‘Safety Pin’ syndrome - not this good Catholic boy. It was more than enough for me that the freedom of expression associated with the genre felt ridiculously inspirational and challenging in its raw depth – ‘Never Mind the Bollox’ proving a universally perfect mantra of how to be young in that very beneficial yet restrictive first world of change and changelings.

My Mum was the polar opposite in her musical taste and, (with a small ‘c’), conservative view of people, society and trends. Perry Como was more her cup of tea than the subversive Sinatra or Elvis while country music provided the stories of life she could relate to. Her idea of rocking out was to blare the Ray Conniff’ big band singers through my Da’s good stereo speakers on Sunday mornings - after mass - while letting go of any dancing inhibitions as she prepared the traditional roast.

The funny thing is; I sort of liked her music – without ever admitting such a ‘terrible’ thing to my friends and so called musical peers of course. There is an argument I liked the stuff she liked in much the same way liking anything that defines a good person has a habit of doing, but I don’t believe that was the reason.

I was too young and self-obsessed to understand that all was not simple and simple was, most certainly, not all – yet somehow aware enough to know without really knowing. Later I would realise my Mum had a terrific universal ear for much of what was good and great but back then ...... well .......

My Mum’s life, at the time, was neat and tidy by design - honed from a lifetime of consideration for others and struggle against an incomplete education, social gender relegation and being without too often. Mine was naturally a mess - a snap semi considered series of decisions and influences borne out of immediacy and yearning coloured by arrogance and naivety – a rebel searching for a ‘because’ if you like.

I had spent the summer just gone in London immersing myself in a musical and literary culture that was maturing from the raucous irregular nature of punk and had taken in lots of pub and small venue gigs that ranged in influence from ‘The Jam’ to ‘Elvis Costello’ to ‘John Cooper Clarke’ to ‘Jimmy Pursey’ to ‘Billy Bragg’ to 'Kafka' to 'Tom Wolfe' to 'Philip Larkin' .

It was my coming of age moment when all of such seemed terribly exciting and dangerous to the person I was and surely massively influential in opening up my, (up till then), purposely covert disdain for authority and establishment

In the autumn of that year, weighed down by the morass of all such personal contradictions, I secured two front row seats for a Country & Western show at the RDS - with some degree of trepidation – to treat and play chaperone to my Mum, who was a big fan and unlikely - at that time - to actually enjoy or have the opportunity to avail of such an occasion.

And so it came to pass the two of us left the semi in the suburbs and drove to a monolith in the better part of town to see Dolly Parton do her thing.

-o-

The Royal Dublin Showgrounds in Ballsbridge, Dublin, was, and probably still is, a throwback statement in architecture and class driven membership designed to promote and embrace all of what was good from the Protestant protectorate time of Victoria - while actually succeeding in highlighting much of what was insidious about those whom believed in a realm upon which the sun would never be expected to set. A venue where aspiring middle-class Dubliners and those beyond the pale could, on occasion, sample and digest possibilities their betters expected them to aspire to but rarely achieve.

The entrance to the RDS is signature and a facade of understated power – inviting and intimidating in measure and construction. I hadn’t been in the exhibition hall before and was hugely underwhelmed by its ordinariness, the starkness of the concrete floors and rows of institutional collapsible chairs set out in slightly skewed rows. The room was cavernous, very bright with a stage that looked more suited to a communist political convention than a glitzy C&W extravaganza.

Mum was dressed to the nines, which had worried me slightly to begin with only for such fear to rapidly evaporate upon arrival - it was twenty year old me, dressed as conservatively as I could allow in Wrangler jeans, Polo shirt and black suit jacket, that looked out of place among the throngs of Sunday best middle aged men and women taking their seats in an excited, orderly and happy manner. I felt like the proverbial fish out of water and had to reach deep to marry myself to my Mother’s mounting excitement and sense of occasion.

The support act that night was a solo artist called Kevin Johnson. Here I was on relatively safe ground as his big song was; ‘Rock & Roll I Gave You All the Best Years of My Life’ to which I knew all the lyrics and felt some level of identification with. He was a good competent performer with the troubadour’s presence and I remember being impressed at his professionalism along with enjoying the Americana folksiness of the set. I relaxed a touch and, when he finished off with that song, felt at least I’d got my money’s worth and anything else would be a bonus.

A sense of fervent excitement in the hall grew as we waited for the headliner and, to a point, became infectious. I genuinely had no idea what to expect and the sense of expectation bordering on privilege emanating from this packed venue caused me to doubt any possibly disingenuous pre-conceptions I had inwardly held since I’d bought the tickets and surprised Mum.

The lights went down, the band silently took to the stage as shadows. A fanfare of guitars, fiddle, bass and drums in galloping beat broke the deafening silence of the seated audience and then .......

‘GOOD GOLLY IT’S DOLLY’ issued forth from a disembodied deep male voice - in the pronounced accent of a Southern American State - to rapturous applause.

A spotlight broke the darkness and concentrated its stardust on the wings from which a tiny giant bounded and danced her way to centre stage with more energy than Sellafield.

Clad in a very revealing figure hugging silver diamantes laden dress, sporting perfect make-up on cheeky cultured facial features pronounced with ruby red lipstick – all artistically framed by an abundance of perfectly coffered Dixie blonde tresses.

This would be first lady of country music lit the auditorium miles beyond the ability of mere electricity.... Oh yes Ms Dolly Parton made an entrance you couldn’t beat with a stick.

The show is a blur – I do remember her doing ‘Applejack’ on the banjo, with ridiculous big painted nails not being a bother at all – and the best I can actually recall for the most part is before you could wail ‘Jolene’ I found myself cheering, clapping, dancing and singing along with songs I didn’t know in the company of equally uninhibited people I didn’t know and wising the show would never end. This was new to me; this was a living example of the best at what they do, doing it for me along with everyone else and delivering on every level.

The famous composer of melodies, Thomas Moore, once wrote:

‘And the best works of nature can only improve – when we see them reflected in looks that we love’

When Dolly caused us all to settle down, mid set, and invited each and every one present to relive a childhood memory of Motherly love with her soft ballad; ‘Coat of Many Colours’, I glanced smilingly at my Mum and her returned look allowed an understanding of exactly what Tom Moore was getting at.

Thanks for giving me Dolly Mum, (I’ve held on to her ever since), and, of course, all the rest of the other stuff.

Happy Mother’s Day

#conde nast #new york times #washington post #boston globe #the guardian #the irish times #bbc radio 4 #chicago tribune #ny times #la times #bbc #irish times #dolly parton #grand ole opry #country music

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athenagc94 · 5 years ago

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Gust and Piper - Beginnings Pt. 1

I’m starving for more MTAP content, but now I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I have to create some of it too... I guess. Here is a little of snippet of something I’m working on for my builder, Piper, and Gust. It’s a lot of scenes right now and I’m working on bridging them together. Here’s one of them. Kind of the start of everything. I don’t know

I’m also posting the story here on AO3!

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As a younger man, Gust dreamed of making his mark on history. He planned on traveling across the Free Cities, designing important structures for important people. Several years ago, he’d fled to Atara to chase those dreams. He lived the fast paced life of a bustling city. He’d studied under his mentor Vera for years. When he graduated, he was ready to take on the world as the next Master Architect. If Gust could smack his younger self upside the head, he would. Because that kid was a naive fool.

When he and Albert discussed the possibility of forming their own business, he didn’t plan on setting up shop in his hometown of Portia. However, his sister’s health started to decline and, as it does, life happened. Now, here he was, four years later with nothing to show for it. He spent his days hunched over a drafting table, designing bland buildings for the bland people living in this bland town. It wasn’t the life he had hoped for, but it was his reality.

His grip tightened on his pencil as he dragged it across the page. The latest rendition of the South Bridge was beginning to take shape. It wasn’t his first crack at the design and he doubted it would be his last. His design process followed a similar pattern these days. He’d create an inspired concept, the client would see it, they would hate it, and he’d be back at square one. Wash, rinse, repeat.

His father always said Portia was a frontier town and that they would develop it into something great. Gust clucked his tongue irritably. The longer he worked in Portia, the less he believed it. How did one develop a town full of people that feared the very concept of change?

“Good morning!”

The front door jingled. Gust set his pencil aside and turned around. Portia’s newest builder, Piper, stood just inside the door, hands stuffed in the front pockets of her grease stained coveralls. She didn’t seem to notice him right away, in fact, she didn’t spare the loft above a single glance as she searched the lower level. “Albert?” She disappeared out of sight, “you here?”

Gust pursed his lips and stood up. Albert was usually on top of helping customers. He rarely did any filing in the back rooms during office hours. Albert would never miss out on helping one of Portia’s eligible bachelorettes. He peered over the railing curiously. His desk looked like it hadn’t been touched. The usual mess of work orders and commission forms were stacked neatly on either side of his desk and his chair tucked in place.

Now that he thought about it, he never heard Albert come in this morning. He racked his brain. They’d left the office together yesterday. They were discussing the latest commissions they needed for the bridge when they bumped into his father. Gust groaned. That’s right. Albert was meeting with his father and Mint this morning to go over the budget for the project. He would be gone until after lunch.

“Albert?”

“Albert is meeting with my father this morning.”

He heard a gasp and the builder reappeared under him. He watched as several emotions played on her face. It was like flipping through a book. Surprise quickly turned to realization, which immediately became disappointment. He sighed. Yeah, he tended to have that effect on people. “He won’t be back until this afternoon.”

Piper glanced down at her watch and made a face. “Can you help me then?”

Gust blinked, taken aback. Most people never asked him to help. If a customer came in while Albert was out, they’d quickly apologize and came back later. To them, Albert was the brains of the operation. Gust was just there to be pretty and make things pretty, which was a fair assumption now that he thought about it. Regardless, it wasn’t true. Gust was knowledgeable enough about the inner workings of A&G. But the people of Portia didn’t need to know that, if they did, he’d be expected to help them. So he never corrected their assumptions. Apparently, no one had bothered to inform Piper.

He rolled his eyes and turned away from the banister. He may as well help her. The sooner he did, the sooner he could get back to work. He smoothed the lapel of his coat as he meandered down the stairs and towards Albert’s desk. If he remembered correctly, Albert kept the blank work orders in the bottom left hand drawer. He rummaged through the drawer, pulled out a blank order and took a seat.

Piper hadn’t moved. She stared at him, dumbfounded, though he couldn’t imagine why. Was she surprised to see him willing to help? Should he be insulted right now? He pursed his lips. A moment passed, then another, and she still didn’t move. He tapped the nib of his pen impatiently on the desktop. After another moment of tense silence, he cleared his throat. “Well?”

Piper shook herself from her stupor. “Iー” she cleared her throat, “I’m looking to add an extension to my workshop.” She bounced on the balls of her feet. “I’m tired of sleeping where I work, ya know?”

Gust didn’t know the feeling, so he chose not to respond. He tried to ignore the awkward silence that had settled between them and made quick work of filling out the form. It was easy information. The initial consultation was always easy. His real work began when he started conceptualizing. It was his favorite part of the process, but recently, it had also become the most draining. He could see it now. He’d design the new addition. The builder would want something less aesthetic and more functional. He’d be disappointed and create the same thing he’s made for the last four years.

“Alright, I’m going to needー” The rest of the sentence died on his lips. Piper was gone. He peered around the room and found her examining the model he’d left on one of the displays. His stomach lurched. He’d spent weeks designing that model for a competition for the Vincent Design Institute. The results had come back earlier this week. They had been less than satisfactory. He swallowed thickly. He would have thrown it out already, but Ginger had insisted he keep it. She didn’t want his hard work going to waste.

Piper peered a little closer. Scrutinizing it. Picking apart every flaw, just like the judges had. His grip tightened on his pen. Just like he had since the results had come out. He pushed himself out of his seat and approached her.

“Are you done snooping around?”

Piper jumped away from the model. He met her sheepish gaze evenly as he crossed his arms. “Sorry,” she gestured to the model, “I was just admiring this. It’s really well made.”

Gust felt the heat flood into his cheeks. Pride swelled in his chest as he let his arms fall to his sides. At least someone seemed to notice its quality. “Well, thank you,” he said curtly, “I guess.”

Piper gaped. “Is this your design?”

He scoffed, “well, obviously.” He brushed past her and approached his model. He’d drawn inspiration from the logic cube Ginger sometimes played with. It was a boxy structure made up of three stories. Every level was skewed on a central axis to give it a unique shape. He’d used lots of windows and skylights to draw on natural light. “It was for a competition I entered last month,” He ran his finger along the edge of the top most story. Dust was already beginning to collect on its surface. “I didn’t win,” he continued bitterly, “they said it was too strange. They didn’t understand my vision. The crotchety old fools.”

Piper tilted her head to the side. “Well, those guys have no taste.” She knelt in front of the design and peered through one of its windows. “It’s so interesting. I’d love to see it full scale. It would be breathtaking.”

Gust narrowed his eyes and searched her face. She had to be messing with him. The people in Portia didn’t like his designs. She was tracing the angles of his design with his eyes. She wore a sincere, almost dreamy, smile as she examined his work. He stared a little longer before giving up. She genuinely liked it. The mere notion made his heart flutter in his chest.

“Have you studied architecture?”

Piper snorted. “Well, no,” she admitted as she stood back up, “but I’m a builder, so I make things for a living. Sometimes I like to admire the handiwork of others. Especially when they’re this talented.” She stuffed her hands back in her pockets and took a step back. “You think differently and I like that.”

“Unfortunately,” Gust regarded his model with a look of disdain, “you seem to be the only one who shares in that sentiment.”

She gave him a sympathetic smile. “It’s a shame they didn’t appreciate your design,” she was bouncing on the balls of her feet again, “If it makes you feel any better, I would have scored it well.”

Gust would be lying if he said it didn’t. It felt good to know that someone appreciated his work. His real work, not just the stuff he made to satisfy the town. He didn’t really have a lot of support in his creative endeavors. There was Albert of course, but he was more practical about these things. He did what had to be done to make money. Whatever made the client happy, he would do without question. His sister tried to show her support, but she lived a sheltered life and she didn’t quite understand his late night tirades about parapets and gables.

Piper was a builder. She understood construction and aesthetics to some degree. The materials he’d used to create this model had been given to him by his father. A halfhearted attempt to show his support, but the materials came from somewhere. Had she been the one to provide them?

Gust’s breath hitched. “Those materials my father got me,” he began slowly, “they came from you didn’t they?”

Piper shrugged. “Your father asked me to lend a hand. I was more than happy to help.”

“You sure like to be nosy, don’t you?” He tried to sound irritated as he brushed past her, but he couldn’t stop the smile that curved on his lips. The room had gotten significantly warmer. His heart was hammering so loud, he was afraid Piper would be able to hear it. He pressed a hand firmly to his chest and cleared his throat. “Now,” he slid back into his seat, “come over here and sign this. You’re wasting my time.”

“You’re not the only one with things to do.”

“Then do us both a favor and get over here.”

Piper didn’t argue and took the seat across from him. “Sign here, here, and here” He punctuated each word with the tip of his pen. “This is just the initial work order, so Albert will touch base with you later to go over the details.” He handed her the pen and shifted back in his chair.

As she read through the fine print, Gust gaze wandered back to the model across the room. He’d spent the last few days despairing over its imperfections. If only he’d made the angles a little cleaner, or if he’d spent a little more time conceptualizing, maybe then the judges would have liked it. He was nursing a big blow to his ego. He had even begun to doubt his abilities as an architect. Maybe he wasn’t as good as he thought he was.

It would be breathtaking. Her words resonated with him. He had thought the exact same thing when he drafted the first renditions. It would be nice to see it come to life.

“Is that all you need from me?”

Gust tore his gaze away from the model. Piper fidgeted in her seat. She really didn’t like sitting still, did she? “That’ll be all for now.” He picked up the order form and placed it in Albert’s pile off to the side. “I’ll begin drafting some concepts for you addition. When I’m done, Albert will bring them your way for review.”

“Ooo, a Gust original for my addition,” she beamed at him, “I can’t wait to see what you come up with.”

Gust gave her a thin smile and he hid his twitching fingers in his lap. He could feel the thrill of inspiration course through his veins. He was itching to get started. “Don’t get your hopes up.”

“I’ll try not to,” she winked and slipped out of her seat, “but I should really get going, so I’ll leave you to it. Thanks for your help.” She offered him a small wave. Gust watched her go, offering no farewell in return. She didn’t wait for one. Without another word, she slipped through the door and out into the plaza. The door jingled after her.

Gust was out of his seat in a flash and making a beeline for the model. He scooped it up in his arms and hurried up the stairs to his drafting table. Several ideas were already floating around in his head. He hadn’t been this excited about a project in awhile. He sat down at his table with renewed vigor and got straight to work.

#mtap #my time at portia #mtap gust #mtap builder

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madamhatter · 4 years ago

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Headcanon: The ‘Actress’ Motif and Sophie Hatter. Companion piece to Self-Perception, Self-Restraint, and Conflict in Sophie Hatter.

A theme that has been going throughout this blog’s writing (and in my interpretation of Sophie) has always been themes surrounding theater and performance. It ranges from addressing the young Hatter to work through ‘masks’ that best work per situation (this’ll date to pre-curse in canon and standard in others) to the stage that everyone works on to this thing we know as life.

She refers to herself as a cognizant actress to take on many shapes and forms, easily transitioning and adapting physically and emotionally (feelings, as opposed to long-term sentiments) whenever possible. Her adaptability isn’t as flexible when it comes to her own mentality, and emotions, which itself is jeopardized and rigid most of the time. However, what matters to her is how she is perceived and keeping all in order and in check as she is, after all, responsible for providing to others.

Emotional intimacy, in which she opens herself up to others, is among the hardest things for her to express. She has placed too many boundaries and walls around to find herself comfortable to do this in any normal circumstance. And this is a result of her own deliberate management and compartmentalization of her own person. Which is basically saying ‘her behaviors and thought process has harmed her normal processes and her own perception of herself. It is a removal from understanding herself entirely and placed it in the back of her mind. That is itself an entirely different topic, but it does relay back into this current headcanon. More details on that may be found here: Is your muse very emotionally intimate?

Performativity is an important asset to how Sophie functions. She has already withdrawn her own interests and future intentions at a relatively young age (book canon wise) in order to pursue raising and aiding her youngest sister to seek our her fortune. This also includes her other sister, the second-born, by keeping her in line and helping her navigate through her wants. Being perfectly honest, Sophie did raise both of her sisters and Fanny, her mother, gave her her rightfully deserved acknowledgement and credit for that after being missing for quite some time. Back on topic, this is the first instance to where Sophie begins her ‘performance’and reworking herself to better meet the needs of others. The first mask for her to where was the one meant for the most important people in her life: her sisters.

As for imagery, the most consistent would be masks, the stage, dancing (specific performance), marionettes (and being controlled by strings), the ‘audience’ being connected to overwhelming (and public) eyes always watching her and recitals. All of it revolves around how she sees herself in the real world interacting with everyone else, making her distinctively separated from the others around her. And boy, Sophie’s views on what she deserves and what others deserve is a topic.

The quote below is an excerpt that goes thoroughly into the mentioned imagery. It is specifically a dream sequence Sophie has that encapsulates her own experience and fears that ties all this together.

( White, red, and gray dance in the mind of the dancer; dissonance spinning her around by the wooden controller that fate held onto. Entangled by responsibilities, her feet drag, and the wires dig into her light skin along her neck, arms, legs, and across her exposed body. The same sequence, dance, and song – the marionette towed onto the stage takes her place – first position, heels touching, and feet outward with shoulders flat and body motionless.

A jerk to the left from the strings, one arm now up, and her feet are drawn to the fifth position. Assemblé, the left foot behind her right, gives a small kick forward, and once that rests, the right foot and arm continue the pattern. Within the same step, arabesque. Both arms out on her sides slightly angled forward to the house, left leg extending behind her body with her right leg firmly straightened. Before long, she turns to position.

Rond de jambe to create grace, tendu to keep simple, sissonne to change the pace, and passé to change her feet position a little. Each rigorous moment had a particular formation to follow, an order that must be obeyed. Performing for the faceless and unseeable, they still demand entertainment, and she must appease.

Echappé to the stars and emboité for impressions, each step now was exigent and the breath in her throat she held. Jumps, bends, snaps, it must be according to the motions of wires that compose and direct her required movements. Glistening her throat was sweat, trailing down a major muscle tensing, yet now she held the house in her palm.

One arm pulled back over her shoulder, back bent backward, her head craning back to greet the audience with her eyes, and her left up, pointing forward to the direction of the stage. A waltz dip for only one, a dance for two yet she must perform in solitude. Her greatest feat, making illusions of balance when impossible.

Rrrrriiiiippppp. All she could feel was cotton. Just like a well-loved and well-traveled toy, sometimes they tear after a while. White cotton plush tumbling out of the split down her abdomen, the chaotic tune in her ears now white noise, a stillness hangs over the theater. But why was it so hot? Why were her appendages twitching, and why now of all places? Could she not continue? She must–…

Her legs failed her – no, no, she failed them. The conductor to the show, the audience, the faces she knew and loved. Perfect form collapsing to the ground, her body descending to the wooden floor with her arms splayed and legs luxate stiffly.

How odd, this dream never ends like this. But, it’s a kinder dream then if it does. )

DRABBLE RESPONSE TO @/diverse-hearts’ ASK.

Now, onto another business revolving around this motif: the mental state of Sophie’s mind because the imagery, references, and comparisons whenever I write are connected to each character by third person narrative. Basically, any time I do write for a character, their unique particulars bleed through into the writing which makes it their own and provides the capacity available to experience what they’re thinking, going through, rationalizing/understanding something, etc.

Having this constant duality between the perceived world and the real world since young, Sophie’s mind oft bleeds into relying and using her active imagination, which was of the many things that were kept ‘in line’ as a child. It is something that is persistently with her as she has a tendency of vicariously living out different lives and imagining herself as a completely different person or face (thank you HMC musical for validating this HC). But, she would most often take on imagining what other people life and what kind of fun and excitement and fortune was in their lives. Case and point: the entirety of chapter 1 where Sophie spends her time coping from her isolation by talking to her hats.

Her mental stage is working around the loss of herself and the opportunities, time, and chances for herself. In some cases, thinking of life in a certain way can help minimize the suffering and pain that one endures if they don’t want to come to terms. However, there comes the fact that it is more damaging to the person the longer they continue with their ways. Sophie falls underneath this umbrella since her own coping is essentially one fitted to how she was originally responding to traumas as a child. She has become a reclusive, nervous wreck of a person (book canon) that refuses to leave home and works through executive dysfunction whenever she prompts herself to leave the house or do something outside of her schedule (house-work-sleep). This only happens once she is officially hired as an apprentice under Fanny and her sisters both leave for their apprenticeships. But, judging from what Martha tells her, Sophie’s tendency to wallow and hide didn’t suddenly appear. It’s been here and there that both sisters comment on it. Even when she tells herself that she should go, it’s up to her and she knows, it is then where she falls back to excuse certain things and continue only for the sake of someone needs to work.

And that itself is relatively childish. There are numerous gaps in her to understand herself and assess her own self that she tends to fall back into this box of where she’s been already used. To her, it’s easier to play upon the part assigned to her as opposed to seeking herself out and shedding off this role. It’s only until she is cursed beyond recognition that she, finally, goes out for her own and is remarkably accepting of the situation. (Which, really, speaks enough about Sophie’s mental health).

With all the emotional maturity and responsibility to help and guide others, however, there is freshness and uncomfortable feeling she carries when it comes to acknowledging her divided self. It is an untreated wound and unacknowledged creation made by her household. it is the ‘elephant in the room’ that even her sisters repeatedly tell her about (about her being exploited and being taken advantage of).

It could be simply said that Sophie, overall, confronts herself with over-simplifications of her own feelings and thoughts, despite showing intense and deep questioning and dislike. The actual her that wishes to speak cannot when the role she plays does not find need for it. With this in mind, this perpetuates frustrations and even more inclination to make skewed, if not worrisome, conclusions. If she could, she would rather split herself to play different roles just like what she does and ignore what is brewing inside her mind. Which is why, for verses including Sophie crossdressing (Simeon), or in disguise (ie: Myrtle in TW), this side of her is explored much more as for the fact she’s as willing and open to doing it

One of the best examples to elaborate on this Sophie’s confrontation of death and what she views it as. Taking into account from the previous HC post, there are two variations to how Sophie may view a particular topic (but end with the same results, which is her belief). The two accounts below carries the romanticize versus poison parts of herself.

To truly embrace of total removal of control, that was the final evidence needed to show that one was willing to submit their mortality in the hands of someone else.

A cold someone else, whose of the remains of all mankind, placid bones that caress against still-warm skin, cradling mortal’s falling form. Garments of black hug their rib cage, hollowed eyes gazing tenderly, they hold humanity and allow for the mortal to lay all weight and burdens into their hold. Bowing now from the dance of life, death takes the final lead in the danse macabre.

Sophie hopes at the time death greets her, when she submits herself unwillingly or willingly to the final number in their performance, that they were beautiful.

But, it was yet the step for that – as she never knew when it’d be and countless times, she could’ve. To when she would’ve been enveloped in unconditional acceptance, for the first time in her life, it was not yet time. For now, it was a long waltz with the grim reaper who waited for her.

Yet, the actress returns to form, facing the mirror once more as the curtains drew back on her neck.

ACT. ???? - SILVER STIGMATA.

Context: Sophie Hatter, after doing a night’s work as Simeon, is standing before her bathroom mirror, in a state of undress. Her mind right now is blurred between the current act of Simeon and the act of Sophie. She is looking over the parts of herself that she keeps hidden (her scars) and her own bareness has her examining herself. While lost in this space, she slowly succumbs to revisiting her true self, locked away in mind.

Part of her wants to laugh. How dare he have the audacity he had to think she’d be bothered by death? [...] Death was the only guarantee she had in her life besides her future as a failure.

DRABBLE RESPONSE TO @/diverse-hearts’ ASK.

Context: Sophie made a reckless decision during one of the Port Mafia’s events to take on an incoming threat that almost cost her life. Chuuya is reprimanding her while she’s laying out in a hospital, a place that is uncomfortable for her and reveals her usually hidden hostility and anger.

While elaborate in description and playing along with Sophie’s imagination (and thoughts), the ending results are still the same: death is the only other variable in her life promised to her. She may look at it lovingly and dream it or scoff and bitterly remark it as if ‘that’s how life is.’ Both still embrace it, which is reducing the actual gravity and weight of the situation of her almost dying and the thought of herself dying.

(For those curious: Sophie’s views on death for others is entirely different and she’s fearful of it for others. Relates back to both of her parents’ early death and her witnessing her father succumb to ailment while she spent most of her time caring for him.)

Anyways, that’s a lot for this one post ---!

#( in which we learn about the eldest ; headcanons )#death idealization tw #[ GOD DAMN FINALLY TUMBLR WORKS WITH ME ]#[ anyways. welcome 2 my shitshow of a post. ]

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stephenmccull · 4 years ago

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Fútbol, Flags and Fun: Getting Creative to Reach Unvaccinated Latinos in Colorado

Horns blared and drums pounded a constant beat as fans of the Mexican national soccer team gathered recently at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver for a high-profile international tournament.

But the sounds were muted inside a mobile medical RV parked near the stadium, and the tone was professional. During halftime of Mexico’s game against the U.S., soccer fan Oscar Felipe Sanchez rolled up his sleeve to receive the one-dose covid-19 vaccine.

Sanchez is a house painter in Colorado Springs. After getting sick with covid a few months ago, he thought he should get the vaccine. But because of the illness, he was advised to wait a few weeks before getting the shot. Asked if he’s glad he got it, Sanchez answered through a translator: “Yes! He’s more trusting to go out.”

Bringing the mobile vaccine program to an international soccer match was the latest effort by the state of Colorado and its local partners to meet unvaccinated residents wherever they are, rather than ask them to find the vaccine themselves.

Long gone are the days in early spring when vaccine appointments were snatched up the instant they became available, and health care workers worried about making sure patients were eligible under state and federal criteria for age and health status.

Colorado, and most of the nation, has now moved into a new phase involving targeted efforts and individual interactions and using trusted community influencers to persuade the hesitant to get jabbed.

With about half of Colorado’s 5.78 million people now fully immunized, the challenge cuts across all demographic groups. According to the state’s vaccination dashboard, men are slightly more hesitant than women and rural residents are more hesitant than urban dwellers. Younger Coloradans have been less likely than their elders to prioritize the shots.

But perhaps no group has been harder to get vaccinated than Coloradans who identify as Hispanic. Despite Hispanics making up more than 20% of the state population, only about 10% of the state’s doses have gone to Hispanic residents, according to the state’s vaccination dashboard.

The gap is not as wide nationally: Hispanics, or Latinos, make up 17.2% of the U.S. population, and 15.8% of people who have gotten at least one dose — and whose race/ethnicity is known — are Hispanic.

At first, the gap in Colorado seemed to be an issue of inadequate access to health care. Nearly 16% of Hispanic Coloradans are uninsured, according to a KFF report. That’s more than double the rate for white Coloradans. That disparity may play a role, even though the vaccine itself is free, with no insurance requirement.

Denver has hit the 70% threshold for resident vaccination, but some Latino neighborhoods are getting vaccinated at much lower rates, according to Dr. Lilia Cervantes, an associate professor in the department of medicine at Denver Health.

“There are some very high-risk neighborhoods where most of the community are first-generation or foreign-born individuals,” said Cervantes. “And that is where we’re seeing the highest disparities.”

According to data from Denver’s health agencies, about 40% of Latinos older than 12 are vaccinated in Denver County — that’s far below the roughly 75% rate for whites.

Latinos make up 29% of the Denver population but represent nearly half of cases and hospitalizations.

If the state hopes to reach broad levels of protection from the virus, Cervantes said, “I think that it is critical that we improve vaccine uptake in our most marginalized groups, including those who are undocumented and those who are Spanish-language dominant.” Cervantes added she’s concerned the state will keep seeing a higher covid positivity rate in those marginalized groups, who make up much of the essential workforce. “This past year, I think we have seen stark health inequities in the Latino community.”

All this portends a more uneven pandemic, said Dr. Fernando Holguin, a pulmonologist and critical care doctor at the Latino Research & Policy Center at the Colorado School of Public Health.

He worries cases, hospitalizations and deaths will keep flaring up in less vaccinated communities, especially predominantly Hispanic populations in parts of Colorado or other states where overall vaccination rates are poor. “They’re at risk, especially moving into the fall of seeing increasing waves of infections. I think it is really critical that people really become vaccinated,” Holguin said. Even as parts of Colorado and parts of the U.S. — like the Northeast — are getting vaccinated at high rates, for the mostly unvaccinated “covid infections in certain communities still will be devastating for them,” he said.

He’s especially concerned about migrant farmworkers, who often have poor access to the internet and may struggle to find good information about the vaccine and avoiding the virus. “So overcoming those access, cultural, language barriers is important,” he said.

When asked what the state has done to reach out to Latino Coloradans, a health department spokesperson pointed to over 1,500 “vaccine equity clinics” in 56 counties; the Workplace Vaccination Program, which partners with businesses and organizations to provide vaccine clinics at worksites; and a Spanish-language Facebook page and covid website. She said the state’s “Power the Comeback” campaign is available in English and Spanish and aims to reach disproportionately affected populations with awareness ads, testimonial videos and animated videos.

About a third of all adults in the U.S. are unvaccinated, a “shrinking pool” that skews younger and includes people more likely to identify as Republican or Republican-leaning, according to a KFF COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor report.

They also tend to be poorer, less educated and more likely to be uninsured. The KFF report found 19% of unvaccinated adults are Hispanic; of that group, 20% said they will “wait and see” about getting vaccinated, and 11% said they’d “definitely not” get it.

Both Cervantes and Holguin credit local, state and community groups with aggressively looking to boost vaccination rates among Latino Coloradans, while also encouraging them to keep recruiting trusted community voices from within, to help deliver the message.

“You know, it’s not going to be Dr. [Anthony] Fauci saying something, that someone translates in Spanish, that you need to get vaccinated,” Holguin said. “There’s going to be people in the community convincing others to get vaccinated.”

At Empower Field, soccer fan Diego Montemayor of Denver echoed that sentiment, saying some fans who got shots themselves urged friends who came to the stadium to visit the RV and get one, too. “When they hear people that they trust sharing their experiences, that goes a long way,” Montemayor said.

Community health advocate Karimme Quintana agreed. She had come to the game as well to spread the word about the safety and efficacy of the vaccine. She works as a promotora de salud pública, a public health outreach worker, focusing her efforts on Denver’s majority-Latino Westwood neighborhood. Quintana said that population may trust someone close to them more than even a doctor.

“They need to be more educated about the covid because they have a lot of questions,” said Quintana, whose button read “¿Tiene preguntas sobre covid? Pregúnteme.” (“Do you have questions about covid? Ask me.”)

“Latino people, they listen [to] the neighbor, they listen [to] my friend,” Quintana said.

University of Colorado Health nurse Danica Farrington said the vaccine effort at the soccer tournament was heavily promoted beforehand on billboards and big screens inside the stadium during the game.

“They just plastered it everywhere and said, go get your shot,” she said. “That’s pretty influential.”

The carnival atmosphere at the stadium helped him make the pitch, said Jesus Romero Serrano, a community ambassador with Denver’s mayor’s office: “It’s a Mexico game versus Honduras! So lots of Latinos are here. This is the perfect place to be, to reach the Latin community. Absolutely!”

To capitalize on the playful spirit of the day, Romero Serrano wore a Mexico soccer jersey and a red-and-green luchador wrestling mask. In his work with the city government, he’s what you could call a community influencer. He filtered through the tailgate crowd in the parking lot, handing out cards about where to get a vaccine.

As he circulated, he admitted it’s sometimes hard for some Latino Coloradans to overcome what they see as years of historical mistreatment or neglect from medical providers. “They don’t trust the health care system,” he said.

Still, Romero Serrano kept wading into the crowd, shaking hands and shouting over the constant din of the drum bands, asking people whether they had gotten a vaccine.

The most common answer he heard was “everybody has it” — but he was skeptical about that, thinking people were just being nice.

A few miles from the stadium is the Tepeyac Community Health Center, in the predominantly Hispanic Globeville neighborhood. That’s home base for Dr. Pamela Valenza, a family physician and the chief health officer at the clinic. She tries to address her patients’ fears and concerns about the new vaccines, but many have told her they still want to wait and see that people don’t have serious side effects.

Valenza’s clinic recently held more vaccine events, at more convenient times that didn’t interfere with work, like Friday evenings, and offered free grocery cards for the vaccinated. She said she likes the idea of pairing vaccines with fun.

“The Latino culture — food, culture and community — is such a central part of the Latino community,” Valenza said. “Making the events maybe a little bit more than just a vaccine might encourage some community members to come out.”

This story comes from NPR’s health reporting partnership with Colorado Public Radio and Kaiser Health News (KHN).

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

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gordonwilliamsweb · 4 years ago

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Fútbol, Flags and Fun: Getting Creative to Reach Unvaccinated Latinos in Colorado

Horns blared and drums pounded a constant beat as fans of the Mexican national soccer team gathered recently at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver for a high-profile international tournament.

Colorado, and most of the nation, has now moved into a new phase involving targeted efforts and individual interactions and using trusted community influencers to persuade the hesitant to get jabbed.

According to data from Denver’s health agencies, about 40% of Latinos older than 12 are vaccinated in Denver County — that’s far below the roughly 75% rate for whites.

Latinos make up 29% of the Denver population but represent nearly half of cases and hospitalizations.

All this portends a more uneven pandemic, said Dr. Fernando Holguin, a pulmonologist and critical care doctor at the Latino Research & Policy Center at the Colorado School of Public Health.

“Latino people, they listen [to] the neighbor, they listen [to] my friend,” Quintana said.

“They just plastered it everywhere and said, go get your shot,” she said. “That’s pretty influential.”

Still, Romero Serrano kept wading into the crowd, shaking hands and shouting over the constant din of the drum bands, asking people whether they had gotten a vaccine.

The most common answer he heard was “everybody has it” — but he was skeptical about that, thinking people were just being nice.

This story comes from NPR’s health reporting partnership with Colorado Public Radio and Kaiser Health News (KHN).

USE OUR CONTENT

This story can be republished for free (details).

Fútbol, Flags and Fun: Getting Creative to Reach Unvaccinated Latinos in Colorado published first on https://nootropicspowdersupplier.tumblr.com/

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yujachachacha · 7 years ago

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Nope.. nope.. nopee.. if fairness is the cause of You being sidelined, i can't accept that.. every midpoll that show You being no.1 in that poll, everyone seems like united to bring her down.. if that bcs of fairness, why they vote yoshiko again (like in sif poll) not the other member that never get elected and she's still get more screen time in the anime... fck that!

Whoa there.

I’m a You fan too, so I’d also love it if You got more screen time. It’s all right to be disgruntled about it, but I still think that You being sidelined is at least understandable. I also think there are perfectly valid explanations as to why Yoshiko gets so much attention.

In fact, if you take a closer look at the polls, Yoshiko doesn’t have as many major “wins” as You does.

Look at what I said before: Yoshiko shows up more because she’s a character that needs more growth and development. As you can see in S2E11, Yoshiko still struggles with the fact that she’s not exactly a popular gal (within the anime-verse, not in real life lol). We get that nice little scene with Riko and Maru at the fortune-telling tent because it shows that Yoshiko has friends at her side who support her when she’s down. The audience needs to be told that there’s nothing to worry about - even though Yoshiko’s still kind of a hot mess, she’s working on it with the help of her friends.

I think part of the reason why so many people flock to Yoshiko is that they feel a bit of pity for her. She’s always plagued by misfortune, whether it’s being caught in the rain at inopportune moments, or missing her middle school trip due to catching the flu (see Question #6 in her Q&A section). You, on the other hand, is a popular girl who is well-liked by everyone and quite successful at almost everything she does. If You is already popular in the 2D world and Yoshiko isn’t, why not make it “fair” and give Yoshiko some well-deserved recognition in the 3D world?

As for Yoshiko’s screen time, well…it does certainly help that Yoshiko is a popular character and great for comic relief. Again, like I said before, You is more of a stabilizing force in the group (apart from moments like the being-crushed-by-Maru running gag in the Hakodate episode). She’s there for moments like Chika’s late-night MIRACLE WAVE practice, and for keeping Chika grounded when the mikan-loving leader gets panicked about the school closing down.

I think the fact that You doesn’t show up too often gives these moments more value. When You tells Chika that she’s always wanted to do something with Chika and will always be there for her in S2E11, it’s a very crucial scene. This is something that she’s said before, in S1E1 (when she tells Chika that she’ll join the school idol club) and in S1E11 (in her conversations with Mari and Riko). We don’t see her say it again until S2E11 because You is, at her core, a very private person when it comes to her feelings.

In S1E1, when she briefly showed a sentimental side of herself to Chika, You was quick to wave aside the moment with a giggle and cheerfully hand over a club application; in S1E11, You doesn’t talk about what’s bothering her until Mari directly confronts her about it; in S2E11, You checks to make sure she’s alone before re-enacting the club recruitment calls. We don’t really need to see You declaring her support for Chika too often because we know that she’s the first member who joined Aqours and the most dependable person in the group. When You does say her feelings out loud, however, it’s at moments when You is so full of emotion that she can’t hold herself back. That’s how heartfelt these declarations are.

Is it frustrating that we don’t get more cute and funny filler scenes from You? Sure. But the scenes we do get are pivotal - You rushing to hug Chika after their all-nighter at the deadline for saving the school speaks volumes about how well she knows Chika, and how much she cares for her best friend’s well-being.

I’m getting a bit off-topic here though. Let’s go back to the subject you brought up: the polls. Here are the results of the polls that have been done so far, roughly in chronological order of when the results were revealed; I’ll only be listing the top three for each:

2nd center election (KoiAqua): Midpoll = You / Ruby / Riko; Final = You / Ruby / Riko

Numazu Gamers poster girl: Midpoll = You / Yoshiko / Hanamaru; Final = Yoshiko / You / Hanamaru

Dengeki G’s cover girl: Midpoll = Hanamaru / Yoshiko / You; Final = Hanamaru / You / Chika (Note: Voters had to pick both a girl and a date spot, so some girls showed up multiple times in the final rankings, e.g. You + Date Spot 1 followed by You + Date Spot 2)

7-11 image girl: Midpoll = You / Riko / Hanamaru; Final = Riko / You / Hanamaru

3rd center election (HPT): Midpoll = Yoshiko / Kanan / Hanamaru; Final = Kanan / Yoshiko / Hanamaru

SIF Winter Promo UR (Snowboarding You): Midpoll = Hanamaru / You / Kanan; Final = You / Hanamaru / Kanan

Uraraji hosts (GuuRinPa): Midpoll = Yoshiko / Dia / Kanan; Final = Yoshiko / Dia / Chika (Note: Chika was in 4th place in the midpoll results)

Sega image girl: Midpoll = You / Chika / Hanamaru; Final = Hanamaru / Chika / Yoshiko

LisAni cover girl: You / Kanan / Chika (Note: AFAIK midpoll results weren’t released)

SIF 5th anniversary campaign girl: Midpoll = You / Riko / Yoshiko; Final = Yoshiko / Mari / Riko

I might have missed one or two, but these are all the polls I can recall at the moment. Using these results, here’s how many times each girl has won an election:

3 times = You, Yoshiko

2 times = Hanamaru

1 time = Riko, Kanan, Dia, Chika

0 (*Chika voice* It’s so frustrating!) = Ruby, Mari

Just based on the final results, you can guess that You, Yoshiko, and Maru are the most popular girls, with Ruby and Mari being near the bottom. And yes, with these numbers, it does seem that Yoshiko is abnormally popular. However, when you take some additional factors into account, Yoshiko’s ranking actually drops below You’s.

Here’s what you need to consider: why did a certain girl win a poll? And how much weight should you give that poll?

While the elections and polls do indicate a character’s popularity level, they only do so to a certain extent. You topped out polls very often in the early days, with her crowning moment being the KoiAqua center election. Winning a center election, especially at such an early stage for Aqours, is a really big deal.

Recall that when KoiAqua was released, the anime hadn’t aired yet, so many of the characters lacked substantial depth. In fact, the KoiAqua audio dramas provided the most character development at that point, as it established things such as: (1) You knowing when to hold Chika back to prevent poor Riko from going insane, (2) Kanan and Mari being chill while Dia stresses out in the background, and (3) Hanamaru getting along surprisingly well with Yoshiko’s fallen angel antics while also doting on Ruby. Our favorite yousoro kid provided the most interesting character profile at the time (Anchan once mentioned how “yousoro~” was already popular with crowds back in 2015 when they were promoting the KimiKoko album), and established herself as a popular character from very early on in the history of LLS.

To make it fair for others to get their chance in the spotlight, most people opted to vote for other characters in later polls. Even as a You fan myself, I didn’t vote for You in the 3rd single center election (for HAPPY PARTY TRAIN), and wasn’t really rooting for her in subsequent elections either. Poll results tend to be skewed because people want the distribution of wins to be “fair”. Chika and Riko don’t score too well in center elections because they had “Kimi no Kokoro wa Kagayaiteru kai?”, and You slipped down to around 5th place for the 3rd center election. This doesn’t mean they got less popular - it just means that the votes are going to other characters that deserve a shot at winning.

A center election is kind of like the ultimate prize - the character gets to have the main solo of a song, and be the star of an animated PV. Center elections have been a key part of the LL history ever since the inception of µ’s. These songs are “the story we realize together” as fans can influence what they want to see in the next single. Everyone knows that You is the center of KoiAqua, as it’s a major part of LLS history and is guaranteed multiple performances in live concerts. How many LL fans can you say will remember who the 7-11 image girl is in a year or two? Like, if I had to assign each poll a score of how important it is from 1 to 5, I’d probably give something like the LisAni cover girl a 1, the Sega cover girl a 2, and the center election a 10. Yes, you read that correctly. With how crucial music is to Love Live, you can’t really say that winning the rights to a limited-time figurine or one-time illustration tops a center election win.

Because You won a major election, that does incentivize people to not vote for her in these polls. However, I think it speaks to You’s popularity that she gets 1st place in nearly every midpoll result despite this. Her ultimately failing to get 1st place at the end of the poll is less of an effort by others to “bring her down”, and more of a push to “raise others up”. Before the midpoll results come out, most people tend to vote haphazardly. After the results come out, people usually choose someone within the top three (as those girls have a better chance at winning) to support and then vote in a more organized manner. That’s how Suwawa and Aikyan ended up in an aggressive Twitter campaign for their girls during the HPT center election - Yoshiko was shown as 1st place while Kanan was 2nd in the midpoll results. The fact that You is nearly always in 1st place before this targeted voting begins is a sure sign that she’s generally popular overall.

It’s not like You never won a poll after the KoiAqua election, either - she won the SIF promo UR election last year, plus she became the LisAni cover girl earlier this year. Granted, the LisAni girl appeals were done while Season 1 was airing, and were made by the seiyuu to boot (so this might be a case of Shukashuu’s popularity helping out), but the fact still remains that it’s You who graced the cover of LisAni Vol. 29 back in May.

Now, what about Yoshiko winning the SIF Anniversary election? Since she already had two wins under her belt, wouldn’t it seem fair to give it to someone like Mari or Ruby?

First off, I did say that these polls aren’t necessarily a popularity contest, but that doesn’t mean that popularity has no effect on the results. The SIF 5th Anniversary Election was a unique poll because unlike other recent polls, it was literally a popularity contest (with a touch of nostalgia, as evidenced by Nico getting first place for µ’s). That meant that people would cast aside whose “turn” it was to win something, as they’d simply be voting for the campaign girl of their choice.

You also have to remember that this poll was a lot more well-known to the global community than other (non-center election) LLS polls due to it being SIF-based and involving all three LL generations. Like, I was actually surprised that Mari scored 2nd place for Aqours in the final tally because she’s not that popular in Japan. However, Mari does enjoy a lot of popularity in the English-speaking community, so I suspect that might have played a role in her final rank. The fact that Mari has yet to win anything might have boosted support for her as well.

As for Ruby - well, I predict that because of the Hakodate arc, we’re going to see a lot more love for Ruby in future polls. I’ve already heard stories of people going to shops and finding that prices for Ruby merchandise have started going up. But because those episodes started airing right as the poll was ending (S2E8 first aired on November 25, and the poll closed on November 26), Ruby was still suffering from relative unpopularity at the time. So, although it would have been nice for either Mari or Ruby to win, they simply didn’t have the numbers to support them.

I think that Yoshiko won the SIF election, and deserved to win, for two reasons: (1) Yoshiko is legitimately a popular character, and (2) Yoshiko hadn’t really won a major popularity contest before this.

Let me explain the second point. Recall that earlier in this post, I asked, “why did a certain girl win a poll? And how much weight should you give that poll?” I answered the second question, but didn’t fully address the first. What the first question amounts to is that if you look at Yoshiko’s two other wins, they were given to her for a specific reason rather than out of popularity.

We can illustrate this with another poll result. Hanamaru was 3rd place in the Sega image girl midpoll results, but ended up first place. If we consider the fact that people have a tendency to avoid voting for You because of KoiAqua, then why not vote for poor Chika instead, who’s never done well in polls? Well, in Hanamaru’s focus episode, she became strongly associated with Rin due to their shared self-consciousness about their femininity. Guess who the Sega image girl for µ’s was?

If it wasn’t obvious, then yes, Rin was the former Sega image girl.

So was this poll really an indication of popularity/fairness, or more like people voting for whoever they thought was the “rightful” winner of a certain prize?

A more famous example is the 3rd center election. This is a story that many people probably know by now, but I’ll tell it just in case: Kanan ranked last place in the 2nd center election, and had been in the bottom ranks for other polls before. The 3rd center election happened to start after S1 aired, and everyone was feeling particularly sensitive about how much Kanan had suffered (both in the anime sense during the Mijuku DREAMER episode, and in the meta sense for not getting a lot of lines initially in S1). People were insanely emotional about Kanan being able to go from the neglected character to the adored, beautiful star of the next major Aqours album, and celebrated triumphantly when it turned out that she actually won the election.

What’s important to remember with these “rightful” wins is that they have no bearing on whether it was that character’s “turn” to win - because if that win should have been given to the character in the first place, why should it count? (Song center elections are an exception to these wins not counting as a “turn”, which should hopefully be obvious by now after my explanation of their importance in LL.)

With that in mind, let’s look at Yoshiko’s first win - the Numazu Gamers election. Yoshiko was perceived as the “rightful” winner of that one because she was the Aqours member who had Numazu featured prominently in her character profile. You does also live in the area, but IIRC this fact was never established until the anime started airing. In addition, Yoshiko is described as an avid fan of gaming - and who better to represent a Gamers store than a gamer herself? Yoshiko did really deserve to win this one.

Now, how about the Uraraji poll? I’m gonna be honest here - I consider this more of a seiyuu poll than a character poll. Because Uraraji is hosted by the seiyuu, the voting for the hosts was really done with the seiyuu in mind. Kanan probably performed well in the midpoll results at first because Suwawa has such a calming radio voice, but ultimately most folks decided that someone else should have a chance to be a radio host. Ainya and Suwawa already have radio shows, and Kinchan has a regular gaming stream, so they were probably set aside for that reason. As entertaining as Shukashuu, Furirin, and Rikyako are, they’re kind of erratic on air and prone to wild behavior (LOL sorry guys).

Anchan was the first host of Uraraji, and has proven herself to be a capable leader of Aqours. She’s also hosted her own radio show before, so it’s likely that she was voted as a safe choice. Arisha, despite her busy schedule, was probably voted in as a combination of (1) being able to keep everyone in line during the show and (2) people wanting Dia to get some love in the polls.

So, what about Yoshiko/Aikyan?

All right, now here’s something I personally remember from Twitter at the time - the Uraraji election was done after Kanan was crowned the winner of the 3rd single election. When Aikyan found out that Yoshiko had slipped from 1st place to 2nd place, she posted an absolutely heartbreaking message about it. I’m too lazy to look for the original tweet, sorry…but roughly, she said something along the lines of it being frustrating to have been so close to winning, despite all the work she put into campaigning for Yoshiko (seriously, Aikyan and Suwawa were spamming tweets every day towards the end of the 3rd center election, going as far as snapping cute selfies to entice people to vote for their character). She vowed that the 4th center election would be her time to be victorious (as 4 is a number associated with death in Asia; quite fitting for a little demon).

(In fact, while it seems like Hanamaru is on most people’s minds for the 4th election - or at least that’s what I’ve seen on social media - I’ve already decided to vote for Yoshiko on behalf of Aikyan. )

I don’t remember where the idea spawned, but I did see a lot of talk afterwards about giving Yoshiko the #1 spot in the Uraraji poll to sort of “make up” for the 3rd center election loss (and also safeguard against Aikyan possibly getting crushed again if Yoshiko happened to not stay within the top 3). Granted, Yoshiko had already been doing pretty well in the poll, but the number of people pledging support for her grew exponentially during this time. Thus, even if you ignore the fact that the Uraraji election was more of a win for Aikyan than Yoshiko, it also happened to be a consolation prize. :\

So with that, we have You with two popularity contest wins under her belt (SIF promo UR poll and LisAni girl) plus a center election win (which alone probably counts as winning, like, 5 polls lol). Yoshiko has one (the SIF Anniversary poll), plus two wins that were sort of given to her. I think it’s safe to say that it seems pretty “fair” for poor Yoshiko to get some love.

In the end, you are allowed to be mad about You not getting more screen time. Does it seem unfair that she’s not winning more polls or getting more screen time? A little, yeah. But the fact remains that she’s a bit too popular for her own good, and she already won a major election (KoiAqua). It’d actually be unfair if You got to have a center song under her belt plus a lot of screen time plus more poll victories. When you take certain factors into consideration, the SIF Anniversary poll is really Yoshiko’s only legitimate popularity vote win. Please don’t abuse the poor fallen angel - she already goes through enough;;

And as a final note: honestly, I don’t really think the polls have too much impact on the anime. It’s already established that the anime-verse is separate from other branches of the series (e.g. Dia not being a school idol fan in the SIF stories, Kanan being the first one to join Aqours in the manga, Maru’s childhood friend being Ruby rather than Yoshiko in the SIDs). Necessities of plot and character growth are what mostly make up screen time. Why would the fact that one of the girls got to be a Sega image girl or a SIF campaign girl have anything to do with this…?

#love live! sunshine!!#love live sunshine #tsushima yoshiko #watanabe you #analysis #my ramblings #yujachask #anonymous #offering a glimpse of some youchan analysis while i work on my ep11 ask lol #also pls anon calm yourself #i understand that you're upset about this injustice #but don't pour your salt onto other characters #there's nothing that genuinely pisses me off more than hating on a LL character

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yasuda-yoshiya · 8 years ago

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Umineko reread - EP1 review

EP1's position in the series is a little unusual. I generally haven't really tended to give much thought to this episode compared to some of the others, probably because it mostly serves more of a role of setting up the basic premise and trappings of the series - the setting, the cast, and the concept of the murder mystery itself - whereas the real core of the story, the BeaBato relationship and the in-depth exploration of Yasu's magic, doesn't really come to the forefront until later. That said, I think I've gained quite a bit more appreciation for it this time around; for all that a lot of the first half is notoriously slow and awkward, it really does manage to pack a lot of important information into a relatively tight space.

The adults' sequences are actually really strong for the most part, and do a good job of conveying a complex and multifaceted picture of the long-running tensions between the siblings and the various dynamics between the family members; the cousins' scenes are significantly weaker, and could probably benefit from cutting down a lot of the fat, but by the end of the first half, you've got a pretty strong picture of the family's history and Kinzo's background, the weird superstition around the legend of the witch and the epitaph, and a lot of the nuances around each of the cousins' individual relationships with their parents as well, all presented in such a way that it mostly comes fairly naturally. There are a few awkward infodumps in there, and the first few scenes at the airport and the boat are a real chore especially - but on the whole, it's a much more effective and substantial introduction than Higurashi's endless club games, and it sets the foundation for the rest of the series nicely. On my first read, I definitely felt by the end of this episode that I had a solid understanding of the situation on the island from all sides.

As far as its overall role in the series goes, the most interesting thing that really sets EP1 apart from the others for me is its unique portrayal of Beatrice. From EP2 onwards, you have Beatrice acting much more as an actual "character", so it's interesting to see her presented here more as this sort of abstract, incomprehensible force beyond human understanding; it's impressive to me how the story manages to give the idea of "Beatrice" such a presence in the story without actually making her physically appear at all, and it definitely gives this episode a distinctively memorable atmosphere. EP1 is very centered around the mystery of Beatrice, and there's a lot of discussion about the weird nature of the murders and what the culprit could be thinking and trying to gain through setting them up in this way; this pretty much establishes the central questions that the rest of Umineko becomes all about exploring.

We see a lot of different sides to the idea of "Beatrice" here - the figure Maria claims to have met, the superstition among the servants, the story of Kinzo's long-dead mistress - but it's hard to put these pieces together into a coherent picture at this point. I tend to think that the way the concept of Beatrice has evolved over time and how it has meant so many different things to different people, with her story becoming a mixture of truth and fiction, is one of Umineko's most interesting aspects, and figuring out how all those factors come together to produce the culprit of 1986 who takes the name of Beatrice and commits the murders turns out to be a central focus of Umineko's "mystery" in the end.

In terms of that central riddle of finding the "person behind Beatrice", the biggest insights in this episode actually come from Maria. She's the only person on the island (Kinzo aside) who actually claims to have a personal relationship with Beatrice, and she's the one who plays the role of communicating Beatrice's intentions throughout the episode - from delivering her letter to explaining the meaning of the magic circles and the purpose of the sacrifices, her role as Beatrice's "messenger" is very consistent. Because of that, the picture of Beatrice we get here is very coloured by Maria's perception of her; you could say that EP1's version of Beatrice is specifically "Maria's Beatrice", the benevolent, all-powerful, unstoppable witch devoted to regaining her powers through carrying out her ceremony and bringing everyone to the Golden Land. The idea of trying to oppose or defy her is consistently framed as foolish and short-sighted, and outside of Kanon's brief, futile resistance in the boiler room, her commitment to carrying out the ceremony goes unchallenged. That's the image of Beatrice that Yasu wants Maria to be able to believe in to the end.

At the same time, from a mystery perspective, the fact that Maria claims to have had actual contact with the culprit makes her information invaluable; it's easy to assume that, if you want to deny the witch, then all of Maria's talk is just noise to be ignored and rejected, but paying close attention to the claims she makes about Beatrice through a human lens actually provides some of the clearest insight we get into Yasu's mindset this early in the series. Maria consistently describes Beatrice as talking about things like "ending everything", "sleeping peacefully forever", and going to a world after death where all suffering disappears. This is unmistakeably the language of a suicidal person. The meanings of the magic circles are translated as "breaking free from physical bonds, ties of obligation or inescapable fate" and "opening a new door when you're blocked by unopenable doors in all directions", which both constitute huge clues toward Yasu's motivations as well. Another interesting point is the way Maria repeatedly stresses that Beatrice is someone who most people are unable to "see" (the new translation makes a point of always putting this in quote marks, which is very appropriate), and how the ceremony is a means for her to become openly visible to everyone. The survivors themselves do correctly pick up on the fact that Maria's talk of Beatrice seems to imply direct contact with the culprit, but they're only able to respond to this with the repeated frustrated demand for Maria to tell them who the person she's calling "Beatrice" actually is; her refusal to provide the culprit's human identity frustrates and confounds everyone, and stops them from being able to seriously take on board all the other genuinely valuable information she's conveying about the culprit's nature and goals.

It's still sort of amazing to me how the way Maria talks about Beatrice - and basically everything Maria ever says in general - flips completely from feeling creepy and disturbing on first read to just being heartbreaking on reread; I love Yasu and Maria's friendship to death, and Maria's fierce defenses of Beatrice's existence here just kind of fill me with joy when viewed in that context. A lot of the motivation behind Maria's "creepy" behaviour here is actually very much correctly figured out by the cousins in this episode alone - she's loving being in a position of power over the others and knowing more than they do, when she's always been in the opposite position, and she's overjoyed at the magic and the witch she's always wanted to believe in being proven "real" and being able to rub that in the faces of all the people who didn't believe, as well as insisting and stubbornly clinging on to and reinforcing the existence of Beato's Golden Land as an escape from the emptiness of her own life - but what also comes across on reread is how much of her feelings are rooted in her genuine human connection with Beatrice as a person.

Even though Maria’s perception of Beatrice is framed through a fantasy story, it's still clear that she genuinely empathises with and understands Yasu's loneliness through that fantasy framing, and that part of her sticking up for Beatrice's existence is because she feels for her as someone whose own magic and efforts to empower herself have so often gone unacknowledged or actively rejected by everyone around her. It's easy for me to imagine her hearing Beato talk about how Kinzo has trapped her on the island and sealed away her powers so that she's mostly invisible to everyone, and to immediately think, "Oh, gosh, that must be so lonely! I have to be there for this poor person!" And I just love that side of their relationship, and how much of that sentiment comes through in those moments where Maria gets genuinely angry and upset on Beatrice's behalf when her existence is denied or belittled. I love how evident it is that even though most of Maria's understanding of Yasu's position is technically a "lie", her fantasy metaphors for her situation are still *emotionally* accurate enough for Maria to relate and connect with Beatrice's real feelings of loneliness and frustration through that understanding - in a way that she probably wouldn't be able to if she was just faced with the actual facts of Yasu's story, which are way beyond her capacity to understand. It's one of Umineko's most powerful examples of truth being conveyed through fiction, and how stories that aren't "real" can still facilitate real understanding between people.

But the other side of this is, of course, that things inevitably do get "lost in translation" through that process as well, and the picture we get of Beatrice through her in this episode is skewed and missing crucial pieces as a result - the biggest and most important being the fact that Beatrice herself doesn't actually really believe in the "Golden Land" she's creating, that she's essentially deceiving Maria to preserve the illusion as "real" in her heart; and, following from that, that she hates herself for going through with it and wishes that someone would stop her, that what she really wished for both herself and Maria was happiness in the real world as a human, and that the ceremony is really born from bitter anger and despair and hopelessness at the fact that that has been denied to them. It's not until EP2 that we get to see that other side of Beatrice. Meanwhile, Shannon and Kanon don't really get that much of a look-in as characters here - there are a lot of striking moments with them on reread, but their connection with Beatrice and their importance to her isn't made particularly apparent until EP2. Yasu in this episode is very much present primarily through Beatrice, and through Maria's perception of Beatrice specifically. On a mechanical level, there are a lot of hints toward Kanon acting as the physical vessel for the illusion of Beatrice - he's consistently everywhere that "Beatrice" needs to be, in a way that seems almost obvious in hindsight - but you'd be hard-pressed to really connect the two in terms of characterisation at this stage, and the unreliable narration is also likely to get in the way for a first-time reader's perception.

A lot of Battler's insights and attempts at speculation in this episode are actually not bad at all; he catches on to a lot of interesting nuances and contradictions in the culprit's behaviour, but struggles with following through on figuring out what those observations mean. While it's understandable that we tend to mostly poke fun at Battler's incompetence, it struck me a bit more this time how consistently concerned he is with trying to reason things out from the culprit's point of view and understand what they're trying to achieve - his "chessboard thinking" - even though he isn't really able to make much progress on that in the end. From start to finish, he's constantly wrestling with himself over what he should believe about Beatrice, more than anyone else; George and Jessica aren't particularly proactive about speculating, and Natsuhi is more concerned with protecting the survivors than engaging with the culprit's game. Even at this early stage, we can see the seeds of why Battler specifically was the one that Yasu wanted to pin her hopes on to try and understand her.

A recurring theme of Battler's character throughout this episode is that he fundamentally wants to empathise and relate with the people around him and believe in their common humanity, to the point that he tends to whitewash their bad points; the pictures he paints of his family members in the introduction are all pretty naive and superficial, essentially coming from a child's point of view (Eva's such a fun person! Hideyoshi's an awesome uncle who would give us spending money for sweets! Rosa's so happy about Maria getting along with us, she's such a good mother! Etc, etc.). Because he habitually seeks to find comfort in humanising and relating to the people around him in that way, that creates a continual tension for him in trying to process the culprit's blatantly horrific and "inhuman" actions, which he continues to wrestle with for the whole episode; from his frantic futile attempts to rationalise the first murders ("well, okay, Dad was a bastard, I guess, but no, he didn't deserve this, right? And hey, even if that was it, Kyrie wasn't a bastard, so you didn't have to kill her too, did you?") to his desperate, uncomprehending pleas of "Hey, you do realise that when people die, they don't come back to life, right?! Don't you have any human sympathy in you at all?!" after Kanon's death. While George and Jessica's responses are more what you'd usually expect, hating the culprit and wanting revenge on them, Battler's pain seems more rooted in a kind of innocent, disbelieving "No one can be this horrible, right?!" reaction - about having his initial impulse to try and understand and relate to and justify the culprit's actions denied, and anger and frustration at the culprit for not giving him room to do that.

Battler's tendency to react in that way sort of acts as a double-edged sword in this situation. On the one hand, it hampers his attempts at reasoning by causing him to flinch away from speculating too hard on the possibility that any of the 18 could possibly be the culprit - because he's very invested in his belief in the "humanity" of the people around him, and he can't reconcile that with the possibility that one of them could be the killer, even though he intellectually acknowledges that it basically has to be the case. (Hence how he ends up stepping back from the argument with Eva and falls back on the reflexive "No, you're my kind and fun aunt, so I don't want to suspect you! We shouldn't be fighting!" talk even after witnessing how vicious she was to Natsuhi, and how he goes back and forth on the idea of believing in Beatrice so that he doesn't have to doubt people any more - a conflict that continues into the later episodes.) But on the other hand, it's also what makes the culprit's incomprehensible actions really *bother* him, to the point that he *wants* to try and get to the bottom of them, that it keeps nagging at him even after the point that most people would have given up on understanding.

This doesn't apply only to his attitude to Beatrice, but to instances like Maria's "creepy" behaviour as well; Battler is genuinely bothered by the inconsistency between her disturbing attitude and the image of Maria he had in his head beforehand, so he actively works to try and reconcile that discrepancy and "humanise" that behaviour, talking it over with George and Jessica on multiple occasions and also engaging with Maria herself much more than anyone else does, trying to understand where she's coming from and seriously reflecting on her responses in a way that the others struggle to do. By doing that, he's ultimately able to form a surprisingly accurate understanding of where her attitude is coming from over time, and to reach a point by the end of the episode where he can look at Maria gleefully laughing about the completion of the ceremony and calmly think, "I see, in Maria's eyes, we'll all be going to the Golden Land, so it's as though all of today's tragedies didn't happen. It's as though all the time she spent deprived of love never happened."

It's things like this that demonstrate that Battler is a fundamentally empathetic person at heart, and it's easy for me to see that twelve-year-old kid who would talk to Yasu about how the heart was the most interesting part of a mystery in him - but his empathy is sort of fundamentally tempered by his immaturity and his privilege, and that's what ultimately stops him from being able to reach Beatrice in time. Battler is someone who easily picks up on the "humanity" of the people around him and tries to cling on to that as much as he can, but he's led a sheltered enough life that he struggles with understanding that people's potential for ugly and destructive behaviour is also a part of their "humanity" as well; that recognising someone as "human" doesn't necessarily preclude them from being capable of terrible things. A large part of Battler's struggle in his relationship with Beatrice as the series goes on is rooted in this conflict caused by his growing human connection with Beatrice and his struggle to reconcile that with her "inhuman" actions, and this theme of reconciling two seemingly contradictory sides of a person into a single coherent picture is one that runs deeply through Umineko as a whole.

Meanwhile, the second most prominent PoV character in this episode is actually Natsuhi, who provides a very different perspective from Battler! I always loved how Natsuhi gets to be so unapologetically framed as the "heroine" of this episode; she's a pretty unconventional choice for such a central role here, given how far removed she is both from Battler as the "protagonist" and from the mystery of Beatrice presented through Maria, but her perspective definitely adds a lot to the narrative; I feel like Umineko's consistent willingness to put these kinds of more challenging and "difficult" PoVs in the spotlight, where they could so easily be relegated to side roles, is one of its biggest strengths that really sets it apart from Higurashi. The portrayal of her complex position within the family and her ways of trying to cope with that and stay strong in a hostile and difficult environment is very effective, and her interactions with Krauss and Jessica manage to convey a lot of emotional nuance in a very short period of time; Ryukishi really has a talent for bringing these kinds of relationships to life in such a way that they feel immediately endearing and compelling without needing a lot of build-up.

The real strength and resolve Natssuhi manages to take from her delusions of Kinzo comes through very strongly here; despite being the only surviving adult with no foreknowledge of the crime, she stays composed and determined and manages the situation very well, and the scene in the study at the end where the cousins all acknowledge how strong she's been and how grateful they are for her presence always makes me want to cry. At the same time, the episode is also very good at portraying the cracks in her composure and showing how much effort it takes for her to stay strong in the face of everything that she's faced with, and allows her to make morally questionable decisions in her desperation to protect Jessica, going so far as casting Maria out of the study when she becomes too suspicious despite having proclaimed that she would act as a mother to all of the children before - but even in those moments, still showing her fundamental strength in the way she firmly accepts full responsibility for the consequences of her decisions. EP1 is a showcase of the real strength and dignity that Natsuhi is able to draw from her sense of obligation and responsibilty, while EP5 goes on to really hammer home the fundamental fragility of the foundation that strength is built on - and both of those sides of her character are equally true, complementing each other to form a really nuanced picture of an incredibly resilient person doing all they can to stay strong in an environment where flawed and unhealthy means of coping and rationalising their situation are all they have to cling on to. I really love how Umineko manages to take this central theme of people finding genuine power in things that might not be objectively true or real and manages to spin that in so many different individual ways through its various characters, and Natsuhi is definitely one of the strongest examples of that to me.

On the whole, I like EP1 a lot! Despite the shaky beginning, it really is very atmospherically strong and has a lot of fascinating things going on beneath the surface, while still doing a really good job during the second half of managing to be genuinely engaging and intriguing and atmospherically strong even to a first-time reader oblivious of everything going on underneath. I think it probably manages to pull off that balance a little better than EP2, which is an absolutely devastating episode when you have the tools to fully understand it, but tends to come across as somewhat weird and messy and confusing more than anything on a first read. The main characters of the episode are portrayed really strongly, and on the whole, I think I just have to admire how solid and well put together it is as an introduction, and how well it manages to firmly establish and flesh out a complex setting that has a lot of different things going on at once without feeling too intimidating or unapproachable - and I think I've gained a better appreciation this time around for the particular place EP1's unique framing has in Yasu's larger narrative as well. Now to move on to EP2, which is...something else altogether...

#umineko reread

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havemyoldusername · 8 years ago

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AOS Character Analysis

Okay, i haven’t seen any character analysis really for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

This is kinda more to my own benefit, if anyone disagrees, go ahead and tell me, i’m interested.

and because I have the time, here is my concept of the characters (This is without seeing the last two episodes of season 4 before the mid-season finale, thanks to stupid Aussie TV networks not showing it)

1: Agent Coulson

Right off the bat, Coulson has a high moral compass, willing to do what is right for the people and for his team. He doesn’t trust easily and has his doubts with nearly everyone he comes in to contact with. He isn’t opposed to killing as long as it fulfils something. Killing people like Garret and Ward for several reasons.

While Coulson’s loyalty has been tested in the briefest of times, he’s really just the guy who’s mind says ‘Stick to the system, unless the system is wrong, then you make your own system’

2: Melinda May

It makes sense that the shows quietest character is the one of the most complex. From day 1, she’s been unwilling to carry or do anything lethal unless she absolutely has to. She was haunted by her time in Bahrain and doesn’t want to make the same mistakes. For the quietest character, emotion doesn’t come easily to her, but when she feels something, she really feels something and it takes over.

she’s lethal and efficient and really always judging anyone around her while also being severely underestimated.

3: Leo Fitz (Beware, his is long)

speaking of complex characters. No denying that Fitz has been portrayed really well as someone real by Iain, who is perhaps the best actor on the show. Like Coulson, Fitz has a strong moral compass and is also not opposed to killing, but like May, only when deemed necessary. Out of all the characters, Fitz has changed the most (even against Daisy, who is practically the same, but I’ll get to that). In season 1, we see Fitz as a shy, awkward nerd who really only has eyes for Simmons (Which didn’t change at all). He doesn’t want to get his hands dirty, doesn’t want to pick up a gun and shoot someone, hence the ICERS (Or at this point, Night-Night guns) being developed.

The first time we do see him kill is when he shoots the HYDRA agent, an action that saved May. There was practically no time for him to feel remorse, besides the reaction we got from him during the event, with all the HYDRA business. During season 2, after his brain damage, his demeanour changes and we see an angsty Fitz who really misses Simmons. We see him putting so much on the line in order to help Skye and stop people from judging her and being afraid of her. We also see his close friendship with Mack develop. What interested me though was Fitz’s statement in Episode 3 ‘I’m not a killer’ and how that comes into play later. That statement was said right after he nearly killed Ward, after torturing him (In a way). We see his reaction to Gordon teleporting onto Fitz’s pole, something he no doubt felt responsible for.

While Fitz core principals stayed the same through season 2, we see a lot change in season 3. After losing Simmons (”losing”), we see him throwing everything he has to try and get her back, because if he couldn’t, he had nothing left to lose. Simmons is his rock, someone that keeps him grounded and sane. He puts so much on the line to save Simmons, becoming reckless and in a way, more confident as the season progresses. What really came as a shock, and something that was slightly out of character, was Fitz’s killing of Giyera.

As I said before, his statement in season 2 comes into play here. We see Fitz debate constantly with himself and his moral compass get tested. Fitz is hardly not the first Marvel Character to have what is called ‘moral ambiguity’. Daredevil could even be in this category.

Season 4 for Fitz is slightly different. He's back to being similar to season 1, he’s in a committed relationship with Simmons and all is good. In season 4, Fitz is doing what he does best, Science, and is more involved in both sides of S.H.I.E.L.D. rather than being more involved in the field agent side as it seemed he was in season 3.

Throughout all the seasons, Fitz went from shy engineer with his heart on his sleeve, to semi-confident field engineer with a lot of bottled up emotions. Pardon the long section, Fitz’s character is so complex that he needed a season by season breakdown (Not to mention being my favourite character)

4: Jemma Simmons

Simmons is an obvious INTJ in MBTI types. As an INTJ female myself, i understand her character in a way few overlook. she is less emotionally driven then Fitz, going through everything rationally and applying logic to everything she does. Simmons moral compass is skewed in a way, she wants to do the right thing but is one of those people that has the code of ‘the needs of many outweigh the needs of the few’.

We see her consumed by her revenge against Ward, however brief. Bakshi died because she was careless in a way that seemed out of character for her, but really, it wasn’t. One of the traits of INTJs is that they do have emotion, incredibly strong emotion, but are able to compartmentalise them to a point where they seem cold. Simmons loves Fitz, in more ways than one. At the point of Bakshi’s death, he was her best friend. She hated what Ward did to Fitz that she felt the need to find closure in the only way she thought how, killing Ward.

5: Daisy ‘Skye’ Johnson

Daisy’s character is simple. She’s the character the show tends to revolve around and so we see a lot of her character. In season 1, Daisy was carefree and cocky. Her intelligence didn’t go unnoticed, she didn’t want it to. Season 2, we see the start of her struggles with herself. In light of learning that her parents were alive and of her inhumanity, she begins to retreat back into herself, forming a wall around her that only few could get through.

Her friendship with Fitz seemed to get stronger during season 2, as he was the only one that didn’t push her away. Her relationship with Coulson is like a father and daughter, with Coulson seeing her as someone he could ‘raise’ in a way, to teach what was right and wrong and to see become a great person.

In season 3, we see the start of Daisy’s hate for prejudice against Inhumans, as she had begun to accept herself properly. We see her and Lincoln become something strong and great as she’s learning to trust again after Ward and after her mother. We also see Daisy’s vulnerability, her emotions running everything.

In season 4, Daisy’s broken and her character is something new. She feels responsible for everyone’s pain and Lincoln’s death. She’s willing to die to stop herself from feeling the pain and seemed to find herself situations in which she might not come back from.

6: Lance Hunter

I miss Hunter. Just saying.

Hunter was a jack of all trades, a comedian in his own right. his character was arrogant, sarcastic and was overall, a loveable asshole. His moral compass is perhaps the most grey out of all the S.H.I.E.L.D. characters due to his professional career as a merc.

7: Bobbi Morse

A truely strong female character. Bobbi’s manipulative, great a poker faces and a fighter capable of similar feats to May. She’s good at using other’s weaknesses to her advantage and how to play her cards right.

8: Mack

Mack is truely done with everything by season 4, if his continuous use of the shotgun/axe or reference to it is any indication. We know he’s done with everyone’s shit when we hear a reference to his special weapon.

All joking aside, Mack’s great a helping people, like he did Fitz. He knows enough techno-babble to become great friends with Fitz and Simmons while also being a capable fighter and leader to bond with Coulson and Daisy. He’s an allrounder, being able to do a bit of everything and it’s shown time and time again that without May or Daisy there, Mack’s the one that Coulson trusts the most to get other through.

9: Trip

Poor Trip...

Trip was quite a character. He was confident, witty and clever. He drew both Simmons and Daisy’s attention in similar ways. He was smart and took pride in the fact that his grandfather worked with Cap.

10: Grant Ward

The biggest asshole on the show!

Ward was a complex villain. In season 1, he prided himself on being a really caring agent hiding behind a wall of emotions. While that was all part of his cover, there was some truth to it.

When he was captured by S.H.I.E.L.D. Ward tried to play to the teams weaknesses, trying to make himself seem genuine and willing to help. He seemed to believe his own lies and make me think that he had some sort of mental or personality disorder. One thing that interested me was the fact that he really did care for Kara.

In season 3, before he was killed, the only thing that seemed important to him was becoming the boss of a newly reformed HYDRA, with him as the head. It was interesting that he seemed to keep some habits from S.H.I.E.L.D., such as being called ‘director’ and the level system.

all and all, Ward was one cold bastard with a, albeit small, sentimental side.

Well now that’s done, if anyone has any thoughts on what I said, please do tell me, i’d really like to know what others have to say.

#agents of shield #character analysis #holy crap that was long #but i somewhat enjoyed analysing the characters #i might do one for the flash and arrow #and maybe even daredevil

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samanthasroberts · 7 years ago

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Redneck Revolt: the armed leftwing group that wants to stamp out fascism

There are several commonalities between the far left and the far right including a disdain for liberals but the biggest divide is on the topic of intolerance

The cookout offered free food, a face-painting booth and a protest sign-making station a pile of cut-up cardboard boxes, paint markers and rolls of packing tape. A group of neighborhood boys, each no older than 12, gathered around. They wanted signs to tape to their bicycles, so they could ride around and tell Trump what they thought of him.

One grabbed a piece of cardboard and wrote in big letters: TRUMPS A BITCH.

Max Neely quickly stepped in.

Im not sure you should use that word, he said, his voice taking on a fatherly tone. At 6ft2in, he towered over them. That word isnt very respectful to women, and there are a lot of women around here today that we should be respecting. Maybe you can think of another word to use.

The boys conferred. Eventually, they settled on a different, less offensive protest sign at least in Neelys eyes. FUCK TRUMP, it read, followed by four exclamation points.

A 31-year-old activist with long hair and a full bushy beard, Neely had a full day of political activism ahead of him: Donald Trump was in Harrisburg to mark his 100th day in office with a speech at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex. In other parts of the city, the liberal opposition were also readying themselves: organizations such as Keystone Progress, Dauphin County Democrats and the local Indivisible group planned to march in protest.

Neelys group were not among them. Instead, they had set up a picnic site in a small park, offering a barbecue and leftist pamphlets. Someone had planted a bright red hammer-and-sickle flag in the grass. On a nearby table hung a black banner that bore the words Redneck Revolt: anti-racist, pro-gun, pro-labor.

Activist Steve Hilditch, who runs a chapter of the Redneck Revolt group. Photograph: Cecilia Saixue Watt

If you havent noticed, we arent liberals, said Jeremy Beck, one of Neelys cookout friends. You know, if you keep going further left, eventually, you go left enough to get your guns back.

Wooly liberals, theyre not. Redneck Revolt is a nationwide organization of armed political activists from rural, working-class backgrounds who strive to reclaim the term redneck and promote active anti-racism. It is not an exclusively white group, though it does take a special interest in the particular travails of the white poor. The organizations principles are distinctly left-wing: against white supremacy, against capitalism and the nation-state, in support of the marginalized.

Pennsylvania is an open-carry state, where gun owners can legally carry firearms in public without concealment. Redneck Revolt members often see the practice of openly carrying a gun as a political statement: the presence of a visible weapon serves to intimidate opponents and affirm gun rights. Many of the cookout attendees owned guns, and had considered bringing them today but ultimately they had decided to come unarmed, in the interest of keeping the event family-friendly.

Redneck Revolt began in 2009 as an offshoot of the John Brown Gun Club, a firearms training project originally based in Kansas. Dave Strano, one of Redneck Revolts founding members, had seized upon what he saw as a contradiction in the Tea Party movement, then in its infancy. Many Tea Party activists were fellow working-class people who had endured significant hardships as a result of the 2008 economic crisis which, in his eyes, had been caused by the very wealthy. And yet, Tea Partiers were now flocking in great numbers to rallies funded by the 1%.

By supporting economically conservative politicians, Strano thought, they would only be further manipulated to benefit the already rich.

The history of the white working class has been a history of being an exploited people, he wrote. However, weve been an exploited people that further exploits other exploited people. While weve been living in tenements and slums for centuries, weve also been used by the rich to attack our neighbors, coworkers, and friends of different colors, religions and nationalities.

Now, eight years later, more than 20 Redneck Revolt branches have sprouted across the US; the groups range widely in size, some with only a handful of members. Max Neely is a member of the Mason-Dixon branch, which encompasses central Pennsylvania as well as his native western Maryland. Many members are white, but the organization seeks to build on a redneck identity beyond race.

I grew up playing in the woods, floating coolers of beer down a river, shooting off fireworks, just generally raising hell, all that kind of stuff, said Neely. Things most people would consider a part of redneck culture. Were trying to acknowledge the ways weve made mistakes and bought into white supremacy and capitalism, but also give ourselves an environment in which its OK to celebrate redneck culture.

The group draws a great deal of inspiration from the Young Patriots Organization, a 1960s-era activist group consisting primarily of white working-class Appalachians and southerners. Im very impressed with Redneck Revolt, said Hy Thurman, one of the early founders of the Young Patriots. I think theyre right on with what theyre trying to do.

The group opposed racism and worked closely with the Black Panthers, but they did make use of the Confederate flag in their recruiting. Thurman explained that it was used only strategically, to start conversations with poor white people who might identify with the symbol.

In the same way that the Young Patriots once used the Confederate flag, Redneck Revolt seeks to employ another emblem of rural America: guns.

Redneck Revolt groups work on providing an explicitly anti-racist presence in rural areas, and focus particularly on gun shows. Many members are from places where guns are relatively normalized, and Neely wants Redneck Revolt to serve as a viable alternative for people who might otherwise join the growing right-wing militia movement.

Since the 1992 Ruby Ridge siege, the US has witnessed an increase in anti-government paramilitary organizations. Oath Keepers, for example, is a militia group that strives to defend the US constitution, which the group believes is under threat by its own government. They claim to be nonpartisan, but its members politics tend to skew far right. During last years presidential election, they announced that members would be monitoring voting booths to prevent election tampering, stating he was most concerned about expected attempts at voter fraud by leftists.

But groups like Oath Keepers have much in common with far leftists: concerns about the infringement of human rights, objections to mass surveillance and the ever reauthorized Patriot Act, anger at the continued struggles of the working poor.

We use gun culture as a way to relate to people, said Neely, whose grandfather was an avid hunter. No liberal elitism. Our basic message is: guns are fine, but racism is not.

Officially, Oath Keepers bylaws prohibit anyone associated with a hate group from joining, though their background checks have proven to be inconsistent at best. But there are other rightwing groups around the explicitly racist kind.

Im worried about Pikeville, said Neely. Ive got friends out there.

KKK members salute next to a pickup truck at a private campground in Whitesburg, Kentucky. Photograph: Pat Jarrett for the Guardian

Pikeville is a small Kentucky town deep in the heart of Appalachia. It has no major airport or interstate, a population of less than 10,000 and an abundance of idyllic mountain scenery. Mining has long been the major industry here, though Pikeville also attracts tourism: mid-April draws over 100,000 visitors to the annual Hillbilly Days festival, a celebration of Appalachian culture and music.

In the week after the festival ended, however, Pikevilles atmosphere had taken a distinct turn. Neo-Nazis were coming to town the same day as Trumps appearance in Harrisburg.

The Nationalist Front an alliance of far-right white nationalist organizations was planning a rally in front of Pikevilles courthouse. Take a stand for white working families, read an invitation that circulated online.

This begins a process of building and expanding our roots within white working class communities to become the community advocates that our people need and deserve, wrote Matthew Heimbach on the Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi website.

Pike County chronically impoverished, overwhelmingly white is seen as a fertile setting for spreading their ideology. The city of Pikeville itself has actually experienced some growth in the past few years, but the greater area is struggling. Pike Countys unemployment rate is one of the highest in the nation: 10%, more than twice that of the US as a whole.

Trump successfully tapped into this desperation with his pro-labor, anti-immigrant rhetoric and successfully won more than 80% of votes cast. Citing this figure, Heimbach hoped to develop existing pro-Trump sentiments into full-blown national socialism.

Were doing this because we care about the people of Pike County, said Jeff Schoep, head of the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement, in a video promoting the rally. Weve seen factories shut down, weve seen people losing their jobs, weve seen families getting desperate and reaching out for drugs or other things that they shouldnt be doing. We want to give people hope again. Something worth fighting for.

That something happened to be a white ethno-state, and many Pikeville residents were not interested.

The city approved a permit for the Nationalist Front to gather downtown, citing the constitutional right of free speech and assembly, though Donovan Blackburn, the city manager, also issued a statement promoting peace, respect and diversity.

Students at the University of Pikeville planned a counter-protest, but the event was quickly canceled due to safety concerns: university officials feared that a conflict between the Nationalist Front and members of the antifascist movement or antifa could escalate into violence.

An anti-fascist counter-march to #MarchAgainstSharia in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Photograph: Sean Kitchen

Developed in Europe over the past few decades, antifascists represent the lefts own united front: a conflux of anarchists, communists, social democrats and others, dedicated to stamping out fascism by any means necessary, including violence which they see as a justified response to the inherent violence of fascism. They often employ black bloc tactics, where individuals wear masks and all-black clothing to avoid police identification.

Antifascist groups have never been as prominent in the US as they have been in countries such as Greece, where masked individuals recently smashed the windows of the Golden Dawns headquarters. But in the wake of Trumps election and the ensuing spate of hate crimes, they have swiftly mobilized. A masked man famously punched white nationalist Richard Spencer in Washington DC on Inauguration Day; two weeks later, antifascists lit fires on UC Berkeleys campus in protest of rightwing ideologue Milo Yiannopoulos.

We live in a historical moment where theres unprecedented wealth inequality, and the average person is struggling to get by, said Sidney (not his real name), an Appalachian antifascist who has been keeping a close watch on white nationalist activity in his area. When governments, as they characteristically do, fail to step in, people look to other institutions for an answer. Fascism is having a resurgence because were in that moment. Its not a problem thats going to be solved by leaving it alone. Thats like leaving an infection alone.

A 27-year-old native of West Virginia, Sidney comes from a coal mining family. He splits his time between installing drywall and organizing with Redneck Revolt.

Pikeville really caught my attention, said Sidney. The Traditionalist Worker partys been making real efforts to organize in Appalachia. Im not a Kentuckian, but Im a working-class Appalachian, and it really sticks in my craw.

Rednecks against racism: Anti-fascist protesters in downtown Pikeville. Photograph: Pat Jarrett

To dissuade antifascists, who often wear masks during demonstrations, the Pikeville city commission passed an emergency ordinance that prohibited the wearing of masks or hoods in downtown Pikeville. Anyone above the age of 16 wearing a mask or hood would be subject to 50 days in jail and a $250 fine.

Antifascist demonstrators would have to show their faces, which could be potentially dangerous: neo-Nazi groups have been known to use facial recognition software and other tactics to identify counter-protesters, acquire personal information and subject those identified to further harassment.

At Redneck Revolt, we tend not to cover our faces anyway, said Sidney. We want to make inroads with the community, and its easier if they knew who you are.

But Sidney had a greater concern: Kentucky is another open-carry state and Heimbach had encouraged members of the Nationalist Front to come armed, ahead of possible leftist attacks. At least, however, he would have his own firearm: his Smith and Wesson semi-automatic pistol, which he decided to carry concealed.

A couple locals had expressed to Sidney that they wished they would all go home both neo-Nazis and antifascists.

I cant blame them for feeling like that, said Sidney. Theyve got this huge ideological fight on their doorstep that they didnt ask for.

Regardless, some time after noon, a large group of antifascist protesters some armed, some wearing bulletproof vests headed to the courthouse, ready to face the Nationalist Front.

Instead, they saw only about 10 white nationalists, waiting in a little area that had been fenced off by police. They were members of the League of the South, a group that promotes a renewed attempt at secession from the US. The two major Nationalist Front delegations, the Traditionalist Workers party and the National Socialist Movement, were missing.

Rumor soon spread that they were lost.

Given that theyre not from this region, and they dont represent the people here, its not terribly surprising, said Sidney.

A Pikeville resident argues with Redneck Revolt protesters. Photograph: Pat Jarrett

Back in Harrisburg, a group of six young white nationalist men wearing a uniform of white polo shirts approached Neelys cookout site; they looked like missionaries, clean-shaven with neatly combed hair.

Max Neely approached them and asked, cautiously, whether they were interested in socialism.

No, they responded. They identified themselves as members of Identity Evropa, a white nationalist group that endorses racial segregation and only admits applicants of European, non-Semitic heritage. They had initially supported Trump as a presidential candidate, but were now in Harrisburg to protest him; they were disappointed that he had not yet created a white ethno-state.

Neely wanted to keep them away from the cookout. On another day, in a different setting, some of his associates might have come ready for a fight. But today was meant to be family-friendly, and many of the picnic attendees were young black activists from a local high school. They could handle themselves, Neely knew, but the task of arguing for the legitimacy of your existence against those who deny your humanity is an arduous one.

So while his Redneck Revolt friends kept a careful watch from across the street, Neely let the Identity Evropa members talk more about their ideology about how the US was a nation meant for white people, how white culture was under attack. Neely debated them as politely as he could, hoping his quiet listening could diffuse the situation. They thanked him for being so calm and civil.

Its easy to be calm when youre a white man, said Neely. Its easy when its not your life or your familys lives at stake.

They could not see the back of his shirt, which depicted a hooded figure dangling from a tree, and the words HANG YOUR LOCAL KLANSMAN.

The encounter ended rather decisively: three local teenage girls had chased off the white nationalists.

Resist: a eight-foot-tall sign made by the Redneck Revolt group in Harrisburg. Photograph: Cecilia Saixue Watt

By mid-afternoon, the cookout was in full swing. Nearby residents filled plates with barbecued chicken and strawberries. A neighborhood man looked at the pamphlets that Neely had laid out. Piece Now, Peace Later: An Anarchist Introduction to Firearms, read one title.

Yall trying to overthrow the government? he asked.

Its more about community defense, answered Travis, one of the Redneck Revolt members.

I just wanted to warn you, the man continued. West Philadelphia, 1985. Look what happened to them.

He was talking about the lefts own Ruby Ridge moment: in May 1985, a Philadelphia police helicopter dropped a bomb on to the row house that had served as a headquarters for Move, an armed black liberation group. There were 11 casualties, including the groups founder, John Africa, as well as five children. The resulting fire destroyed 65 houses. A special commission later appointed by the mayor to investigate the incident concluded that the bombing had been unconscionable.

When Neely and other white members of Redneck Revolt claim allyship with movements like Black Lives Matter, they are compelled to acknowledge their whiteness in particular, their ability to carry weapons with impunity.

When Oath Keepers began to patrol rooftops during the 2014 protests in Ferguson, Missouri, their intention was to protect protesters from the police but many activists were alarmed and intimidated by the appearance of heavily armed white men. When Redneck Revolt members show up at black-led protest events, they are generally invited.

They are our security, said Katherine Lugaro, an organizer with This Stops Today, Harrisburgs local iteration of Black Lives Matter. Theyre a wall between us and anyone hateful. They put themselves on the line.

A neo-Nazi demonstrator in Pikeville. Photograph: Pat Jarrett

Back in Pikeville, a full hour after the rally was scheduled to begin, a caravan rolled into the parking lot down the street. Matthew Heimbach and the rest of the neo-Nazis had arrived. Close to 100 people, dressed in head-to-toe black and carrying Nazi insignia, marched up to the courthouse building. Many in the front were visibly armed; others carried wooden shields decorated with swastikas and Norse runes. Someone had brought a shield featuring Pepe the Frog and the words Pepe ber Alles. They sieg-heiled to Heimbach.

They were outnumbered by protesters two-to-one.

Then came a few hours of scheduled neo-Nazi speeches. This turned into a few hours of shouting, as the antifascists attempted to drown out the sound system with drums and jeers. From the midwest to the south, they chanted, punch a Nazi in the mouth.

A handful of Pikeville residents lingered on the other side of the police barricade, listening to the Nationalist Front speeches. But most locals present had trickled in along with the protesters, eventually making up a third of the crowd, and had joined in with the jeering.

They were absolutely the most strident antifascist voices there, said Sidney. Im assuming most of these folks were apolitical, or maybe conservative, but they were drawing a line in the sand.

No injuries, no shots fired; the Nationalist Front finished their speeches and returned to their caravan. A heavy police presence had kept the two groups separated and prevented any opportunity for confrontation. It was over.

Cathi Lyninger of Louisville protests the neo Nazis in Pikeville. Photograph: Pat Jarrett

In Harrisburg, night fell. Max Neely and his band of companions eventually regrouped at a

Source: http://allofbeer.com/2017/09/23/redneck-revolt-the-armed-leftwing-group-that-wants-to-stamp-out-fascism/

from All of Beer https://allofbeer.wordpress.com/2017/09/23/redneck-revolt-the-armed-leftwing-group-that-wants-to-stamp-out-fascism/

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