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nekoannie-chan · 2 months ago

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STRIKE Special TV Show part I

Title: STRIKE Special TV Show part I.

Fandom: Marvel, Captain America.

Ship: Steve Rogers X Reader.

Word count: 1656 words.

Square: 10 “We are experiencing technical difficulties.”

Rating: Teen.

Summary: Something happened during a TV show in 1977.

Major Tags: Possession, mention of devil, crossover with “Late night with the devil”.

A/N: This is my entry to @multifandom-flash, Here There Be Monsters Bingo.

Links: Wattpad, Ao3, Spanish version.

@saiyanprincessswanie

My native language is Spanish so I wanna improve my writing skills in English if you notice any mistakes, please let me know and I will correct them.

I don’t give any permission for my fics to be posted on other platforms or languages (I translate my work myself) or the use of my graphics (my dividers are included in this), I did them exclusively for my fics, please respect my work and don't steal it. There are some people here who make dividers that anyone can use, mine is not this type, please look for the other people. The only exception is the ones I gifted 'cuz now belong to someone else. Please let me know if you find any of my works on a different platform and are not one of my accounts. Reblogs and comments are always welcome.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Marvel's characters (unfortunately), except for the original characters and the story.

Add yourself to my taglist here.

My other media where I publish: Ao3, Wattpad, ffnet, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter.

If you like it, please vote, comment, and give me feedback to improve my skills and reblog.

Tags: @sinceimetyou @unnuevosoltransformalarealidad @navybrat817 @angrythingstarlight @shield-agent78 @charmed-asylum @pandaxnienke @real-fbi @Smokeandnailz @white-wolf1940 @tenaciousperfectionunknown @xoxonotme @bluemusickid @leyannrae @Harrysthiccthighss @Marvelatthisone @caplanbuckybarnes @sapphire-rogers @lizzieolseniskinda @notyourtypicalrose @hallecarey1 @nana1000night @talia-rumlow @writingshae @alexxavicry @azulatodoryuga @daemonslittlebitch @chaoticcollectivenightmare @endlesstwanted @chemtrails-club @marigoldreamer @whiskeytangofoxtrot555 @Here4thefanfics @theestorm @patzammit @kmc1989 @somegirlfromasgard @rogersbarber

You're sitting in the conference room. Everyone looked uncomfortable, including the Strike team members. Clint was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, staring sideways at the screen playing an old TV show recording from the 1970s.

You were sitting next to Steve, staring at the screen. Even Brock had joked that Rollins' namesake was more famous than Rollins himself. The TV show in question, called Night Owls with Jack Delroy, that broadcast had never been aired in its entirety, but the clips that remained of the episode were chilling.

The video began innocently and like any other of the era, with Jack greeting the audience; however, as the night progressed, something dark began to take over the atmosphere.

“We're here for a special night, folks,” said Jack, ”because tonight... we're going to get in touch with the unknown.”

The show had been touted as some sort of live paranormal experiment. They would have a medium on set who would attempt to contact the “other side.” Something that in the 1970s was seen as entertainment, but that night, everything that could go wrong...did.

The Strike team watched in silence. No one said a word.

“What does this have to do with us?” Clint muttered, breaking the silence. “Why is S.H.I.E.L.D. interested in an old TV show?

Steve, frowning, watched the recording intently. He didn't have all the answers either.

“Something happened on that broadcast,” you said quietly. “Something S.H.I.E.L.D. hasn't been able to explain... yet.

The program continued until the cameras picked up a dark figure in the background, barely visible in the shadows.

The tension increased as the image became static. The words “WE ARE EXPERIENCING TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES” flashed briefly on the screen, but the transmission never stopped. When the image returned, Jack Delroy was no longer the same.

“Did you see it?” you asked as you rewound the video. “That cut... it's not normal.

Steve nodded. “It looks... manipulated.

“That's what's been said for years,” Clint interjected, ”that the video was edited, that what happened that night was never aired for security reasons... but rumor has it otherwise.

The video continued, showing the studio audience. Everyone was silent, almost mesmerized. Suddenly, Jack stood up abruptly from his seat. His face was no longer that of the charismatic man who had greeted the audience. There was something in his eyes, something empty and frightening.

“Are you here with us?“ Jack asked, but his voice had changed as if something else was speaking through him.

The medium began to convulse, her eyes rolling, as a shadow loomed behind her. The lights flickered once more, and when they returned, the medium was standing, but she no longer looked human. Her body twisted impossibly, and a ghoulish laugh echoed through the studio.

“That's not a performance,” Steve muttered, his eyes glued to the screen.

Chaos gripped the set. Members of the technical crew tried to stop the transmission, but it seemed that something or someone had taken control. The picture was cut out again. “WE ARE EXPERIENCING TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES” appeared again, this time longer.

You felt a shiver run down your spine. Something about that program wasn't right. It was supposed to be just a TV show... but what if it wasn't? What if they had really awakened something that night?

“S.H.I.E.L.D. sent us here because someone or something has been mimicking these events,” Steve explained, his jaw tense. “Several nightly live broadcasts have had similar glitches over the past few months. The same thing always happens: the signal cuts out, shadows appear on the recordings, and... people disappear.

“What are you saying?” asked Clint, uncrossing his arms.

“I'm saying it's not just a coincidence. Every one of those broadcasts occurs around Halloween, just like this show. And in each of them, the people who were on the set... have not been seen again. We're needed on site,” said Steve, standing up. “S.H.I.E.L.D. has traced the broadcasts to an abandoned television station outside New York. They think that's where it all started.

Clint straightened up, adjusting his quiver of arrows. “So, what are we waiting for? Let's stop this.

You felt a knot in your stomach as you stood up with the team. Steve gave you a look like he always did when danger was near.

“Don't worry. We're in this together.

The television station was a desolate place. The windows were covered with dust and dirt, and the building looked like it had been abandoned for decades. As you entered, an inexplicable chill ran through your body. The lights from the crew's flashlights illuminated the musty walls and rusted recording equipment.

“This is where it all started,” Steve said quietly as he walked through the rubble.

The team moved silently, scanning the control room. Clint was going through the old monitors, trying to find some clues.

“What the hell is this?” muttered Clint, finding an old videotape labeled simply ‘Delroy, 1977’.

“Another recording of the show,” you asked.

Steve nodded and plugged the tape into an old machine that still worked. The black-and-white image of Jack Delroy appeared on the screen once again, but this time, his face was distorted, as if something was trying to come through the screen.

“WE ARE EXPERIENCING TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES,” Jack repeated with a grotesque grin as the image decayed.

The station lights flickered, and suddenly, the air became thicker. Something moved in the shadows.

“Did you hear it?” You whispered as you approached Steve.

Clint raised his bow, ready to fire. The Strike team braced for whatever was lurking in the darkness. Then, the static on the monitor intensified, and a low, whispery voice filled the room.

“You should never have come back...“

A huge shadow appeared behind the screen. The old cameras in the room began to rotate on their own, focusing on the equipment.

“Watch out!” shouted Steve, as something invisible pushed one of the agents against the wall.

Whatever had happened in 1977 had not only been caught on the tapes... it was there, alive, and it had awakened. Steve moved closer to you, protecting you with his shield, while the shadows moved quickly around you.

“This isn't possible,” Clint muttered. It's like the damn program has come to life.

“Whatever they woke up in 1977 is still here,” said Steve, holding you close. “And it looks like it wants to finish what it started.

Suddenly, the lights flickered once more, and a dark figure appeared at the end of the hallway, barely visible in the gloom.

“What is that?” You asked in a whisper, unable to look away.

“I don't know.

Clint fired an arrow at the figure, but instead of hitting it, the arrow passed straight through it, like smoke.

“Get back!” shouted Steve. We have to regroup!

As you moved next to Steve, you felt something cold and sticky brush against your arm. You turned quickly and saw one of the shadows reaching out toward you as if trying to touch you. A scream escaped your lips, and Steve reacted immediately, pushing you out of the dark figure's reach.

“Don't come any closer!” he shouted, hurling his shield at the shadow. The impact didn't stop it entirely, but it did disorient it enough for them to gain ground.

“We have to find the source,” said Clint, breathing heavily. “These things are being controlled by something... or someone.

“You, keep checking the recording equipment,” Steve ordered, turning to look at you. “There may be something here that we can use to trace what's causing this.

With trembling hands, you approached the old control equipment; the static on the monitors was increasing, as if something was interfering with the signals, and the words “DEVIL” flashed on the screen again.

As you fiddled with the old tapes, you noticed something strange. One of the security cameras was still operational, but it was showing something disturbing. In the image, you could see what appeared to be the original set of Night Owls with Jack Delroy, as if it had never been dismantled. Instead of being in ruins like the rest of the station, the set was intact, illuminated by a soft, unnatural light.

“Steve... I think I found something.

Steve and Clint quickly approached. Seeing what the camera showed, Steve frowned.

“That can't be real,” Clint muttered. “This place has been abandoned for decades.

“Whatever it is, it's there,” Steve replied.

Without wasting any more time, the team headed towards the place the camera had shown.

Finally, you came to a door that looked much newer than the rest of the building. When you opened it, you found the program set, perfectly preserved. Everything was in its place: Jack Delroy's desk, the orange sofas, the brown curtains... and in the center, an empty chair, as if waiting for someone.

“This is a trap,” said Clint, looking around cautiously.

Steve nodded.

Suddenly, the lights on the set came on by themselves, and a figure appeared in the chair. It was Jack Delroy... or at least something that looked like him. His face was pale, and his eyes were vacant as if his soul had been ripped from his body. He smiled unnaturally, his teeth stained and his expression inhuman.

“Welcome back,” Jack said in a distorted voice. “You've been a long time coming back.“

“We're not like the ones who were here before,” said Steve coldly.

“We're here to end this.

Jack's figure laughed, a laugh that chilled your blood. “End it? You people don't understand anything. What started in 1977 never ended. It was just feeding, waiting for the right time. And now, you have brought more energy, more fear—just what we needed.“

Suddenly, the shadows in the room began to swirl around Jack, merging with him and making him grow and deform into something much more monstrous. The human form disappeared, giving way to a creature made of pure darkness with glowing eyes and sharp teeth.

#here there be monsters bingo #multifandom flash bingo #steve rogers x reader

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giants-club · 2 years ago

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In which Arilin says pointed things about open source, open data, and social media

N.B.: As I was writing this, an entirely different kerfluffle started about Meta, Facebook's parent company, working on their own ActivityPub-compatible microblogging service. While that may be a field of land mines topic worth writing about, it's a topic for a different day.

Cohost's recent financial update revealing they are running on fumes can't help but bring to my mind what I wrote back in December:

[Cohost is] still a centralized platform, and that represents a single point of failure. If Cohost takes off, it's going to require a lot more money to run than they have right now, and it's hard to know if "Cohost Plus" will be enough to offset those costs.

I have a few friends who are Cohost partisans. While its "cram posts into 40% of the browser window width" aesthetic is claws on a chalkboard to me, it's easy to see why people like the service. They have the nice things from Twitter and Tumblr, but without the ads and the NSFW policies and the right-wing trolls and the Elons. They don't have the annoying things from Mastodon---the nerdy fiddliness around "instances" endemic to any such service, and the prickly, change-resistant and mansplainy culture endemic to Mastodon in particular. They even have a manifesto! (Who doesn't like a good manifesto?) Unfortunately, what they don't have is a business model---and unlike the vast majority of Mastodon instances, they need one.

To the degree I've become a social media partisan, it's for Mastodon, despite its cultural and technical difficulties. I'm not going to beat the federation drum again, though---not directly. Instead, I'd like to discuss "silos": services whose purpose is to share user-generated content, from tweets to photos to furry porn, but that largely lock that data in.

Let's pick two extremes that aren't social media: the blogging engine WordPress, and the furry story/image archive site Fur Affinity.

WordPress itself is open source. You can put up your own WordPress site or use any number of existing commercial hosts if you like.

WordPress has export and import tools: when you change WordPress hosts, you can bring everything with you.

WordPress has open APIs: you can use a variety of other tools to make and manage your posts, not just WordPress's website.

Fur Affinity is not open source. If FA goes away, there won't be another FA, unless they transfer the assets to someone else.

You can't move from another archive site to FA or move from FA to another archive site without doing everything manually. You can't even export lists of your social graph to try to rebuild it on another site.

FA has no API, so there's no easy way for anyone else to build third-party tools to work with it.*

Cohost is, unfortunately, on the FA side of the equation. It has no official, complete API, no data export function, no nothing. If it implodes, it's taking your data down with it.

Mastodon, for all of its faults, is open-source software built on an open protocol. Anyone with sufficient know-how and resources can spin up a Mastodon (or Mastodon-compatible) server, and if you as a user need to move to a different instance for any reason, you can. And I know there are a lot of my readers who don't dig Mastodon ready to point out all the asterisks there, the sharp edges, the failures in practice. But if you as a user need to move to a different Cohost instance for any reason, there is only one asterisk there and the asterisk is "sorry, you're fucked".

I've often said that I'm more interested in open data than open source, and that's largely true: since I write nearly everything in plain text with Markdown, my writing won't be trapped in a proprietary format if the people who make my closed-source editors go under or otherwise stop supporting them. But, I'm not convinced that a server for a user-generated content site doesn't ultimately need both data and source to be open. A generation ago, folks abandoning LiveJournal who wanted to keep using an LJ-like system could migrate to Dreamwidth nearly effortlessly. Dreamwidth was a fork of LJ's open-source server, and LJ had a well-documented API for posting, reading, importing, and exporting.

To be clear, I hope Cohost pulls out of their current jam. They seem to have genuinely good motivations. But even the best of intentions can't guarantee…well, anything. Small community-driven sites have moderation faceplants all the damn time. And sites that get big enough that they can no longer be run as a hobby will need revenue. If they don't have a plan to get that revenue, they're going to be in trouble; if they do have a plan, they face the danger of enshittification. Declaring your for-profit company to be proudly anti-capitalist is not, in the final analysis, a solution to this dilemma.

And yet. I can't help but read that aspirational "against all things Silicon Valley" manifesto, look at the closed source, closed data, super-siloed service they actually built in practice, and wonder just how those two things can be reconciled. At the end of the day, there's little more authentically Silicon Valley than lock-in.

------

*I know you're thinking "what about PostyBirb"; as far as I know, PostyBirb is basically brute-forcing it by "web scraping". This works, but it's highly fragile; a relatively small change on FA's front end, even a purely aesthetic one, might break things until PostyBirb can figure out how to brute-force the new design.

#furry #mastodon #cohost

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nickmaghighlights · 2 years ago

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Nick Mag Highlights - #1 Summer 1993

Hello! Welcome to the very first edition of Nick Mag Highlights! What better place to start than with the very beginning, Issue #1 from Summer of 1993?

(Well, not counting the two editions of Nickelodeon Magazine exclusive to Pizza Hut that came out before this first issue, although I’m sure we’ll get to those at some point.)

But before we begin, I should probably quickly explain what Nick Mag Highlights is and answer some questions first.

A Nick Mag Highlights post will mainly be composed of screenshots of pages from a specific Nickelodeon Magazine issue alongside my thoughts, whether they be commentary or little factoids. In a way these posts are a way to transcribe my thoughts on each issue as I’m reading it.

All images are not mine unless stated otherwise, scans of these issues come from the fantastic folks at archive.org. Special shout-out to The Nick Mag Project on Twitter and their awesome Google Spreadsheet outlining what issues have and have not been archived yet.

I’ll always include a link to a specific issue’s archive.org page when I cover it on a Nick Mag Highlights post. Read along if you’d like!

I don’t plan on covering Nick Magazine chronologically. Hopefully this will allow for more variety, plus I can cash in on all that budding 2000’s nostalgia way quicker!

I’m just a fan of these magazines who wants to share them with whoever is interested.

No, not every post will have such a long-winded intro. I hope you enjoy this retrospective!

And without further ado, let’s dive in to issue #1! You can find this issue on archive.org here.

Surprise surprise, the issue’s cover opens right up to a lovely smattering of Nickelodeon merchandise AVAILABLE NOW*!

Side note, I hope you like Ren & Stimpy, ‘cause they’re all over this book. Not a big surprise since it was one of the biggest cable television shows of the early ‘90’s, but seriously, not a single Rugrat in the whole first issue?

*whenever 1993 was considered “NOW!”

Y’know I never read the table of contents in these things when I was younger. I think it was because I didn’t want to spoil what was inside.

Also, newcomers should take a good note on that wiggly R symbol in the bottom right, which the appearance of such denotes any article’s inarguable truthfulness. That's an element of these books that made its way into every single issue, and it must have made stomping-out misinformation on the elementary school playground at least a little easier. My writing isn't so beginner friendly, I don’t include R’s. So you’ll just have to believe me all the time.

Anyway, speaking of stuff that made its way into every issue…

Zelda. Van. Gutters. Good lord.

I truthfully believe if there’s any iconography that will incite memories of Nick Magazine for anyone who’s in-the-know, it’s the image of a small Lakeland Terrier spouting a snarky non sequitur (that, or an image of Spongebob, I guess). She's certainly not as chatty in this as she will be in later issues, but feel free to say "Hi" if you see her.

For those unfamiliar, here’s a good example of your average Nickelodeon Magazine page: a couple of gags or a puzzle usually centered around an issue’s main theme. Since this issue doesn’t have a theme, expect a lot of flack thrown at unsuspecting teachers. Nerds need not apply.

I'm not sure lunch ladies will be able to come back from this one!

They must have been serious about this gag, usually they save pull-out cards solely for mail-order forms for Nick Mag subscriptions.

And the very first feature in Nickelodeon Magazine’s very first issue is all about… State fairs? I love a fair as much as the next guy, but surely there were better options, like interviewing someone who drives a big truck or something. Big trucks are pretty cool.

Never give a breakfast fan the aux they’ll just put on the honeycomb rap.

Alright time for things to get serious. Even as the type of kid who usually liked the mag's interviews and other features, it's hard to deny that The Comic Book was the real star player of Nick Magazine. This section made it into every issue, and pretty quickly built up a roster of regularly updating series. Not to mention comics based Nickelodeon shows featuring stories you couldn’t find on television. Their popularity even got to the point that Nickelodeon started selling versions of the magazine that were just compilations of the comics! So yeah, these were popular.

Of course with The Comic Book, there comes even more ads.

Also, if anyone reading wants to get into the Niche Youtube Video Essay market, may I recommend tackling the rise and fall of temporary tattoos? I hardly see these anymore. A shame, too, cause these ones seem pretty cool, and they even have the Bubby seal of approval.

This was a section The Comic Book had which seemed to fade out pretty quickly into the magazine’s run: The Cartoon Calendar. A shame too, cause I actually find these pretty funny.

Here’s my favorite section from the two calendars in this issue.

Alright, so no actual Ren & Stimpy comic, instead we get a small journal writeup from Stimpy about him and Ren becoming models. Interestingly I can't help but feel this section of The Comic Book could've used a couple more pictures. Hm, wonder why…

But alas, it's all just set dressing anyway for a cutout activity, DARING you to sacrifice the eventual resale value of your rare first issue magazine in exchange for limitless dress-up fun in the short term. A worthy trade? You decide...

And here’s another section of The Comic Book Nickelodeon stopped doing fairly quickly (to my knowledge, anyway): the reprinting of old comics from the 40’s and 50’s. This issue has two reprints. There’s two reasons I could think of why they did this. One would be that the staff behind the magazine read these comics when they were kids and wanted to share them with a new audience, which is a cause I can obviously sympathize with. The more cynical reason is that Nickelodeon had the rights to some old comics and they used them to fluff up their page count. Regardless, once they stopped doing this it made more room for original content. Content like…

Bill Beak! Yeah I’m figuring this guy did not last long. He definitely wasn’t around when I started reading Nick Magazine. I’m not surprised! He sucks! Deeply unpleasant.

But you know what doesn’t suck and was still around when I started reading Nick Magazine?

Scene But Not Heard (which interestingly doesn’t seem to have its name yet) was definitely an iconic part of Nickelodeon Magazine. If it wasn’t in every single issue, then it certainly must have been in most of them. These were done by cartoonist Sam Henderson, who went on to work on Season 3 of Spongebob Squarepants, and that ended up landing him an Emmy nomination. Pretty cool stuff, and these comics were always worth a smile.

Embarrassing display from Nickelodeon Magazine’s local toy store… Really glad Nick saved a page in their magazine to expose those guys.

And to promote the release of the 1993 movie Super Mario Bros., Nick got Luigi’s actor John Leguizamo to say a few words straight from the Nickelodeon “Movie Couch”.

He sure does seem thrilled to be here.

Here’s his stats in case you ever must battle him.

After that there’s some insane article about chewing gum that has nothing to do with anything. And then there’s this article about a fictional professor studying the history of troll dolls. Hey, I think this magazine might be a little wacky!

OOZE News… Y’know, come to think of it, this magazine has been pretty lacking in slime, slop, and ooze. Especially for something created by Nickelodeon in the 90’s. Even here this just seems to be giving the low-down on new episodes and happenings related to Nickelodeon shows. Hardly anything I’d call slimy!

Oh, nevermind.

I’m shocked by the amount of apparently recurring features this magazine had phased out by the time I started reading in the 2000's. Had to make more room for IPHONEs and JAVASCRIPTs, I guess, so kids never got to see a lady eating not-nice things. Thanks Web 2.0!

Lots of fond memories here! I’m pretty sure most of the rides in this list aren't around anymore, which is a shame. And even if the E.T. ride was responsible for inspiring my crippling fear of that little beef-jerky-looking alien bastard, that didn’t change how awesome the park was.

Okay first off: TV Table, obviously. Second off: QZ is a little creep and I don’t like that he was given the opportunity to give children advice. He’s 500 years old and “observes Earth and knows everything about the personal lives of its inhabitants, including its letter writers”? This guy is bad news. THIRD off: How did he already get a letter addressed to him if this is his first ever appearance, hm? All very suspicious.

Rounding off our journey is one last recurring segment: Say What?. Kids from across America were urged to muster up the funniest set-up and payoff they could make with a given photo, usually either of politicians or a stock photo of some kids. I don’t mean to spoil, but as far as I can remember, most of the answers had to do with farts. You probably could have guessed that yourself, but hey, I could be wrong!

And that’s Issue #1 of Nickelodeon Magazine! Well, most of it anyway. What a humble start to a publication so near and dear to so many people.

Anyone actually reading along may have noticed I skipped over some stuff, including a Clarissa Explains It All-themed section with a quiz on driving etiquette. I know that show was popular with a lot of people but I personally know nothing about it, and I’m not gonna bring something up if I have nothing to say on it. I did get a B on the quiz though, if you’re curious.

Thanks for joining me on this trip down memory lane. If you liked it, feel free to stick around for more!

Until next time, keep reading!

#nmh post #90s #1993 #nickelodeon #magazine #ren and stimpy

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somedaynotsoon · 4 months ago

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Super-Small Stardust Saga, Prologue

Hey there! You're reading an archived, imperfect version of a post originally from my Cohost!! Rest in peace to the best website. This version of the story will be missing some essential formatting aspects. Otherwise, I'll do my best to archive everything textwise and image-wise. Anyway, the text originally read:

~~~

I'm hosting chapters on this second page so as to avoid clogging up my main page with chapters AND allow folks to follow specifically the CYOA if they're so inclined!

This will be a unique Interactive fiction project in my micro-oriented sci-fi kink setting, the Punyverse! I'm going to be hosting it here on Cohost, and taking advantage of css and Cohost's unique page layout in order to try and create something that I couldn't really fit on other sites like Twitter or Tumblr or what have you.

Most importantly, while I'm certainly planning to be writing most of it myself, I'm going to leave "unwritten" paths and branches down the Choose-Your-Own-Adventure path as "open" slots, so that collaborators can contribute in a way similar to Writing.com Interactives (though obviously with a stronger grip on quality control than WDC!) I encourage folks to reach out and DM me in the future if you're interested. You can reach me on Twitter, Discord, and Tumblr.

Before we start, be aware that while this prologue is tame, future chapters can and will contain kink/fetish content, including but not limited to macro/micro, nano/giga, furry, anthro, non-anthro (quadrupedal, serpentine, etc), genitals/sexual content, situations of ambiguous consent, feet/paws, butt, vore, dom/sub, humiliation, boobs, peril/destruction, and more.

As with all stories of mine involving non-human characters, all parties pass the Harkness test, being of human-level intelligence, 18+ or equivalent sexual & mental maturity for their species, and involving themselves of their own free will.

This first part is simple scene-setting. As always, if you notice a formatting error, typo, or other problem, please let me know!

Hope you enjoy, and thanks for reading!

Year 2212. Also known as Collective Calendar 3-42-15-8999.

With the Earth giving out in terms of resources, humanity decided to leave its nest into the wider universe. That’s the simple version of that bit of history. The fleet, carrying just over 9 billion people, made quick tracks out of the solar system. Once past the Kuiper Belt, the ESS Bifrost activated the wormhole gate, and humanity entered, to be taken faster than light to the next place they would call home.

In retrospect, they could probably have remained on Earth a few more decades to test wormholes with some extra rigor.

Humanity emerged on the opposite side of their galactic neighborhood with no viable route back, no idea where they were, and, of course, lest any of us forget: pulled through a pocket of spatial compression that effectively reduced the size of their entire fleet and everyone in it to 1/12000th scale. Humans that were once 5 foot 11 inches were now 5 thou and 11 subthou tall, .15mm tall. Paltry. Microscopic. Blissfully Ignorant of just how small and in need they all now were. The fleet would rapidly have depleted all of its power and resources in no time at all, had it not immediately been intercepted by the Interstellar Collective.

Integration was tough those first few years.1 But eventually, humanity was able to carve out some small – very small – niche within the pangalactic community. And despite all the new difficulties of this new frontier, at this new size, humanity climbs ever further.

That’s where You come in. You’ve spent the last several years achieving the credentials necessary to become a ship captain. It wasn’t easy – especially making boot camp at the size of a fleck. Even getting approval to pursue a spot aboard Academy Station took a few favors. But today, at last, is the day you graduate and become one of only four or six-ish human captains of a multi-member vessel to exist!

Your itinerary for today is quite simple. First, you need to meet with Academy Station’s Director, to complete the final steps of ceremony and receive your badge (very important!). Second, a Lieutenant-Captain whose name eludes you (temporarily!) wanted to meet to requisition your leadership aboard a cruiser. Third, you would then have to go down to the Large Vessels Lot and introduce yourself to the crew and vessel, and then presumably tomorrow morning you would leave on that vessel for a grand adventure through the galaxy.

You look over your graduation documentation once more to verify that everything is in order. At the top is your basic personal information. It reads…

Option 1: Fem Captain At the top, in neat print, the document reads:

Name: Justine Sieva Skylor Species: Human (Sellan) Dimorphism: Female DOB: 3-38-04-9001. (1/29/2217) Mass: 0.2 micrograms* (See Addendum) Height: .144mm* (See Addendum)

Followed by copies of that same information in a few other formats. Near the bottom of the page are a few addendums and notes explaining the conditions of humanity's size issues.

Since this information is accurate, you decide to head off to go visit the Director and get yourself recognized! Yup, this is me! {To Prologue Part 2.}

At the top, in neat print, the document reads:

Name: Septem Vel Septendecim Lis (Preferred Name: Sep) Species: Viable Hybrid (Human / Soldrakanoid) Dimorphism: Male DOB: 3-38-04-9001. (1/29/2217) Mass: 0.24 micrograms* (See Addendum) Height: .150mm* (See Addendum)

Followed by copies of that same information in a few other formats. Near the bottom of the page are a few addendums and notes explaining the conditions of humanity's size issues.

...Yup, looks correct, you think. You decide to head off to go visit the Director and get yourself your badge.

{Note: This chapter wasn't written/complete yet at time of Cohost's shutdown}

Footnotes

Joining the Collective was easy enough – their extraterrestrial neighbors were more than happy to offer humans shelter and assistance. A lot more than happy, to put it gently. Aliens meeting each other in groups tend to experience a wave of social and emotional euphoria – that is to say, aliens naturally develop crushes on other species at first sight. And humanity, as the smallest species in space and the newest member of the Collective, was quite a hot topic for months. Many, many species met humanity during that initial acclimation to the cosmic lifestyle – and almost as many saw humanity as playmates, toys, objects of affection, pets... and so on. To this day, the wormhole research project that is the primary lead on possibly fixing humanity’s size drags at a snail’s pace due to just how much the other species assisting the project ‘love’ their human coworkers. To say nothing of the Collective’s nickname for humanity – the Sellans – or the numerous “research projects” with massive embarrassment for mankind as primary consequence. Many new prospective city-type colonies have been relocated to humiliating circumstances in the care of relative giants.

#micro #macro/micro #micro/macro #macro

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smallgodseries · 3 years ago

Photo

[image description: It’s twilight in the desert Southwest. A nine-banded Armadillo - lit by the light of an oncoming vehicle - sits up in the roadway and turns toward its doom. Text reads, “189, AYO TOCHTLI, the small god of ROADKILL”]

• • • • •

Hey, kid. Hey, it’s okay. Wake up, won’t you? There ya go. No, no—don’t look behind you. There’s nothing there that you want to see. Just keep looking forward. Just keep looking at me. That’s a good kid. And jeez, you were a kid, weren’t you? Barely out of the den. Were you following your Ma?

Ah. She stopped coming home to feed you, so you went looking. Well, kid, if she stopped coming home and you didn’t know a good reason, there’s a good chance you’ve found her now. Sorry it had to be under these circumstances. Sorry it had to be in my company.

Come on, kid. Walk with me a little while, and I’ll tell you what you need to know.

First, you’re not hungry anymore. Didn’t notice that before, did you? You’re never going to be hungry again. That’s the good thing about what just happened. There’s not much I can honestly say is good about this sort of thing, but for a small thing like you, not being hungry is just this side of paradise. You can still sleep, if you want to. Most of mine sleep once they get past the shock and dismay and the waiting for everyone else they’ve ever known. Too many of the folks you knew are gonna wind up here. Brothers, sisters, parents…the roads are everywhere, and the humans aren’t careful, and I think they just don’t care.

I’m not the only small god of what they call vermin, not by a long shot. Eda P. Tate takes care of the urban wildlife, and Domesti Kate watches over the feral creatures. I’m not even the only god of the death of the small and the defenseless. But I’m the one you got. And I’m so sorry. In a kind world, I’d fade away, and you’d still be alive, not walking with a little armadillo into the land of the squished and squashed and thrown aside. Oh, don’t look at me like that. You know what happened. You may not remember yet, but you know, and you will.

Found a nice coyote bitch by the side of the road a few days ago, and she should be—

Whoa, kid! Don’t growl at me! Yeah, that’s your mama, but no, I didn’t steal her from you. A car did that, like they always do, and then I came for what the car couldn’t catch or kill, and brought her here to wait. You can go to her, if you want.

I have to go pick up a possum. Be well, kid.

And I’m sorry.

• • • • •

Join Lee Moyer (Icon) and Seanan McGuire (Story) Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for a guide to the many small deities who manage our modern world:

Tumblr: https://smallgodseries.tumblr.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/smallgodseries

Instagram: https://instagram.com/smallgodseries/

Homepage: http://smallgodseries.com

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halfusek · 3 years ago

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Hey, can you please explain to me what exactly NFTS's are? I've been trying to find information about it but all I can find are articles screaming about how horrible you are if you support them, without actually giving me any information about what they are and what the actual harm is. If you could explain or provide me with links about what they are, I'd greatly appreciate it :D

i'm not gonna explain it in professional terms because i'm not gonna pretend i have any sort of expertise in the crypto language area but also i think keeping it symple is better

NFTs are links to digital assets, those digital assets most often are digital artworks hence why you often see those ugly monkey images because the person doing them sells them as NFTs (so they don't really sell the image but the link to that image); but they can also be photos, videos, audio files, screenshots, etc etc

those links aren't like image links you can get from right clicking on a picture, they are unique and encrypted, and their encryption is a very complex process that uses a lot of resources, hence making NFTs results in high emissions

and that's the problem people mostly point out about them, that they ruin the environment, but i feel this argument can be too weak if you don't go deeper into the subject so let's go a little deeper

because this argument has its counterpart that using social medias such as twitter, tumblr, or even real world money also has its emissions

but the thing is *anything* digital uses energy and leaves its carbon footprint because everything uses energy

so we kind of need to consider what things do we want to use and perhaps what we even need to use

think about what social medias are used for, a lot of them are used for connecting people you wouldn't otherwise be able to easily contact, they can be used for spreading social awareness, for organising events, not to mention communication in companies but also other sources of income like artists advertising their commissions and other users being there being potential customers, like it's only a few examples of how it's worth it to have those running that have their own share in emissions

real world money, hate it or love it, we literally could not just pull the plug for it any day without any preparation for it because so much depends on it

now let's take NFTs and what their general use is and honestly crypto in general

until recently it was used as an easy way to get very rich (most times by already rich people) because you didn't have to pay taxes for it, but now everything will need to be reported to the IRS or you will face the consequences and you'd think well that's normal well it was not normal to the cryptobros to which this is a huge L

which is also linked to using crypto for money laundering and shady businesses. not good stuff

another thing is how the process of getting rich with these works... it's not stable in the slightest, and after you buy one you need to find someone to sell it to, but if the price goes down before you do, then you lose money (often a lot of it); which is hard to call anything else than scamming

i've heard that NFTs can be used to support artists which uh. you can just. commission them? or subscribe to their patreon or use any other service like kofi, like this kinda stuff has already been there so i'd kindly wanna ask people who use this argument to fuck off because most artists don't want anything to do with that shit (and if they do they're greedy cock suckers sorry not sorry)

that's not really for NFTs, more for shit like bitcoin but crypto mines are bumping up the prices of graphics cards which Sucks because that's one of the most vitals parts of any computer

and more on crypto in general again, it's like money 2.0, but more useless, less stable, empowering shady rich people, and yeah sure some random "normal" folks get rich thanks to them but you are literally better off investing in some company

then at least you are contributing to something, idk find a nice startup company that you wanna see grow, with those you have more guarantee to get your money back and you don't contribute to a useless nasty fucking scheme that consumes way more energy than it's worth

#ill repeat i am NOT an expert on economy or crypto but this is what ive gathered from my own research #if you know better for some things but like Actually Know and dont wanna lick a crypto boot then feel free to correct me #but if youre a crypto bro then just fuck off i dont wanna have anything to do with you #that meme of bitches be like I Hate Capitalism and then squidward hugging nfts like me and the besties #also all of those s are general expressions not directed at You The Asker fdngfjkfg just wanted to make it clear :>#halfask #nfts #i also can rec commander stephanie sterling vid on them but its not that informative imho but its still a good vid #halfpost

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autumnslance · 3 years ago

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About Plagiarism

I left a long, planned essay on Twitter tonight. I will copy the meat of it here for y’all, as recently a friend was copied (a rarer ship in the fandom, so very noticeable by the writer and their regular beta reader) and it seems we need a Talk, kids. Links and screenshots and my rambling underway.

------

Apparently we need to discuss what is and isn’t plagiarism. Especially in FanFic where we're interacting with the same characters, settings, ideas. Let’s start with the dictionary and continue the thread from there (I like the word origin/history personally):

Definition of plagiarize

transitive verb : to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own : use (another's production) without crediting the source

intransitive verb : to commit literary theft : present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source

The Kidnapping Roots of Plagiarize

If schools wish to impress upon their students how serious an offense plagiarism is, they might start with an explanation of the word’s history. Plagiarize (and plagiarism) comes from the Latin plagiarius “kidnapper.” This word, derived from the Latin plaga (“a net used by hunters to catch game”), extended its meaning in Latin to include a person who stole the words, rather than the children, of another. When plagiarius first entered English in the form plagiary, it kept its original reference to kidnapping, a sense that is now quite obsolete.

“Ideas” is fuzzy in the Merriam-Webster definition. There are story archetypes that exist in many forms. Joseph Campbell’s Monomyth/Hero's Journey outlines many famous stories. And it's popular to say that “Avatar” is “Dances with Wolves” is “Pocahontas” is “The Last Samurai” etc.

But note how while those films have similar plotlines--”Military Guy falls for Native woman, learns to appreciate her Culture, stands up to Evil Bosses”--none of them execute those ideas in the same way. Sully’s story is different from Dunbar’s not just cuz one’s a Science Fiction epic and the other a Western. Disney's “Pocahontas” Very Loosely takes history and uses the same story beats. The Last Samurai uses the Meiji era Westernization. Same ideas, different executions, even beyond settings.

None of these are plagiarizing each other though the ideas are similar. They’re told in their own ways, own language; both in the genres they belong to (Western, Pseudo-History, SciFi, Animated) and how characters interact with each other and settings. Original dialogues (variable quality).

We also see this in books as similar novel plots get published in waves so we end up with bunches of post-apocalypse teen revolutionaries or various vampires or lots of young wizard stories all at once. Sometimes ideas just happen like this; multiple discovery, simultaneous invention, concurrent inspiration, cognitive emergence are all phrases I’ve seen for it. So it happens in original content as well, and legality gets fuzzy (Also why you don't send authors your fanfic ideas).

In existing properties, this gets trickier but even “Elementary”’s Holmes and Watson are nothing like the BBC’s “Sherlock” characters. Who are nothing like other versions of the Detective and his Doctor pal over the decades in various media properties.

FanFic's in a similar position where like Sherlock Holmes we play with the same characters, setting, and storyarcs but give our own spin to them. People can and will have similar ideas about plots. Trick is to use your own words. Take the characters and make the story your own.

I have a good example courtesy of @raelly-writing. We both ship Wolcred. We both wrote soft post-Paglth’an scenes with Thancred and our WoLs. Both features the couples helping each other undress, examining injuries, bathing, bantering. My fic was written soon after 5.5 part 1 came out. Dara’s is much more recent. Yet at no point reading hers did I feel she was copying my words. The PoVs differ. Our characters focus on different things. Mine has a mini-arc concerning the Nutkin.

The links for comparison’s sake (and maybe leave kudos/comments if so inclined please and thanks). Note while the scenes are very similar no phrases are written in the same way. Mine: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25417882/chapters/76059467 Dara’s: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26067565/chapters/81832915

Dara and I both hang out in certain Discords and I know conversations about Thancred and WoL caring for each other post-battle has come up in those channels and we've both participated. It’s a stock FanFic scene to boot. Cuz it's soft and feels warm and snuggly.

I HAVE been copied before, back in WoW. My case is pretty clear cut so here are the images of my old RP Haven profile (1st, old RP website) and the plagiarist’s RSP (2nd, an in game mod to share descriptions and basic info).

This was a decade ago on Shadow Council and I think the character deleted so any Availa’s in WoW now aren’t the same person. I left the names to point out what changed. Just the names and a word or 2 to make sense for the class changes as well. Otherwise lifted directly from my RP profile.

The funny part is how the person got caught. Literally walked into our weekly RP Guild meeting that I was running and asked to join. Folks noticed right away the similar backstory; after all there may have been more Outland-born Azerothians. My initial excitement at a character I could weave into our story turned to gut-twisting rage and grief as I recognized my own exact words though. Words I’d carefully crafted and constantly iterated on to improve over time (before and after this incident, until the site died).

When caught they tried to claim their significant other had leveled the character for them and made up the backstory based on Skyrim. If you know WoW’s Outland story and Skyrim’s plot you know how ridiculous that is. Also tried to lie about other drama I knew about thanks to roommate's characters but hey. I had to be blunt that I’d shared the info with Haven mods and other guild officers Alliance and Horde. That we would not “laugh about this” one day though lucky this was “just” RP not original or academic work. Cuz if it'd been monetized or academic I would've raked them through the coals.

I felt violated. Hurt. Had anxiety attacks. They took MY WORDS and tried to claim them as theirs. Have another character born in Outland trained by Draenei; Awesome! Our characters have an instant connect in similarities and differences of that experience. Don’t steal my characters wholesale!

Then the audacity of trying to come into my guild as if no one would notice. ShC wasn’t a large server by then, still active but not nearly Wyrmrest Accord or Moon Guard big. My character was well known due to my writing and RP. Speaking of how easy it is to get caught in specific spaces...A case of a self-published novelist getting noticed for plagiarizing fanfic was discovered recently (explicit erotica examples through the thread).

One way they got noticed was how much content they put out in only a year, lifted from fandom. The examples in Kokom’s threads show how the material was altered but still recognizable. In some cases, just the names are changed as in my experience. In other passages more has changed but you can still see the bones of the original fic poking through in the descriptions and character interactions, even with adjustments made.

Similar ideas happen. Similar plots exist. Same 'ships with friends are fun! In FanFic we’re working with the same material. It’s possible to write a similar scene differently. To make that scene and characters your own. All we’re asking is not to copy others' words. Others' characters. Others' specific phrases and descriptions used to bring those words, those characters, to life. Use your own. In the end you’ll be happier.

I get wanting to have what the perceived “popular people” have. I get seeing concepts others succeed with and wanting some of that too. We all get a bit jealous now and then for various reasons. Sometimes we don't even realize it, consciously. But do it in your own way. Maybe check to see if you’re getting a bit too close to the “inspiration” you admired, maybe reread often. Don’t hurt your fellow creatives. If you do and get caught don’t try to double down. Have the grace to be abashed at least and work to do better. Eventually you WILL get caught. All it takes is once to throw all else you've done into question. Ao3 doesn’t take kindly to plagiarists. Nor do a lot of fan communities focused on writing and RP. Getting back that trust is hard. The internet doesn’t forget easily, for good or ill.

#writing #blogging #about me #social media #plagiarism #fanfiction #Ao3

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superlinguo · 3 years ago

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Linguistics Jobs: Interview with a Communications and Engagement Assistant

Your social media prowess is actually a job skill, you might just not know yet that those jobs are out there. Maggie is a Communications and Engagement Assistant at a disability peak body. Their work includes traditional and social media communications channels, and a need to think about who your audience is. You can follow them on Twitter (@vonbees) or Tumblr (@ritavonbees).

What did you study at university?

BA in Communications (Writing & Cultural Studies). I actually studied at a weird "technology" university and had to go through a totally different uni to do my linguistics electives. By the time I dealt with the forms and unit conversion and everything, I only had time for 101&102, which made me sad as I loved them! If I had been able to start in first year I might have changed my major.

What is your job?

Communications Assistant covers a really broad range of work! Like it says on the tin, you have to assist your organisation in whatever sort of communications it needs to do. Mine is a disability rights representative and advocacy nonprofit, so my job includes advertising, political campaigns and direct member communication. I am one of the people who tweets from our official account (including sometimes live-tweeting something like a public inquiry into systemic neglect or discrimination), updates our website, edits blog posts and media releases, creates flyers, surveys and infographics... I do a lot of "translating English to English" - explaining legalese, bureaucratic jargon and policy terminology in plain language. We need to be as accessible as possible, so aside from code-switching between Plain English and bureaucratese I do a lot of image descriptions and liaise with specialists to get really important content captioned or translated into Auslan, Easy English, etc. One of my colleagues is currently in charge of our fortnightly newsletter, but when I used to do it I would also record an audio version, sort of like a mini podcast, for members who didn't have screenreader access (usually older folks who had trouble with technology).

How does your linguistics training help you in your job?

Semantics, pragmatics and a descriptivist approach to grammar are all relevant when trying to write about things like UN resolutions and discrimination legislation in plain English! (Sometimes I imagine turning a particularly stuffy government document into a series of tree diagrams, which is at least good for a laugh). Descriptivism also dovetails neatly with an anti-ableist approach to how other people speak and write, so it's helpful to have linguistic references when pushing back against harmful ideas in that department.

Do you have any advice you wish someone had given to you about linguistics/careers/university?

Yes, I wish someone had convinced me not to half-ass it! See, I got into a really great creative writing course and then couldn't attend the university that taught it for logistical reasons (would have been an interstate move). I tried to do the most similar degree I could find at a local uni, but it wasn't a good compromise - it only had two writing classes each year and I was much less interested in the other parts of the course. I should have done a full pivot to something I liked in its own right, like linguistics, instead of stubbornly clinging to a shitty version of my number one choice. I guess the most useful advice without the benefit of hindsight would have been that a degree is a big commitment and it's okay to take a gap year and give yourself more time to think about how you want to go about it. Oh, also if someone had told me I have ADHD that probably would have been helpful.

Any other thoughts or comments?

I've often thought about going back for some linguistics post-grad, but it would probably be for the love of learning - none of my plausible future career moves really need one. So I'm really glad people like you make linguistics knowledge more accessible to lingthusiasts outside academia! Clinically proven to reduce symptoms of FOMO xD

Related interviews:

Interview with a Communications Specialist

Interview with two Communications Professionals

Interview with an Editor and Copywriter

Recent interview:

Interview with a Technical Writer

Interview with a Stay-at-home Mom and Twitch Streamer

Interview with a Peer Review Program Manager

Interview with an Associate at the Children’s Center for Communication, Beverly School for the Deaf

Interview with a Metadata Specialist and Genealogist

Check out the full Linguist Jobs Interview List and the Linguist Jobs tag for even more interviews

#linguistics jobs #linguist jobs #communications #linguistics #linguists #adhd #work #careers #writing

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n0k-n0k · 3 years ago

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“Mine, mine! None shall take it away!”

========

COMMISSIONS OPEN (0 SLOTS AVAILABLE)

Hello folks!

After a long hiatus and finding more free time for myself, I decided to come back full swing! I have a lot of doodles to share with you over the past year or so, so I hope you all enjoy!

More importantly- I am available for paid commissions! I’m only doing small groups right now and it’s first come first serve! The kind of work I’ll be doing would be the simple black and white aesthetic I mostly have on this page. Nothing large scale or extremely detailed at the moment.

The pricings are as follows - payment requested via Stripe ONLY and upfront. Time for completion guaranteed within 1 month AFTER payment.

Simple Black and White with 1 Character: $30

Simple Black and White with Additional Characters: +$5 (max of 3 additions)

Simple Black and White 1 Panel Comical Scene: $40

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Important Information:

- I’ll start the commission once I get the details from you and after I receive payment. Do wait until I respond back to you BEFORE paying.

- Stripe is my only available method of receiving payment. I apologize in advance if Stripe is unavailable in your area.

- References for what you want is greatly appreciated no matter its quality!

- The listed prices do not include the Stripe fees, so keep that in mind when at payment!

- I have the right to decline your commission. Your commission will be automatically declined if it is NSFW work. I, obviously, am not interested in that.

- If I am unable to complete the commission, all payment will be refunded. I also have the right to refund your commission at any moment for any reason.

- Of course, I intend to complete your commission as fast as possible, but matters within my own personal life come first - hence why it will be complete within 1 month at most.

- If the request is for BUSINESS OR PROFITABLE USE, the above prices will no longer apply and will require further discussion on the matter for a fair settlement.

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Please include the following information when you message me about your commission:

- Type of commission

- Number of characters

- Information about the characters (include any links/provide any references)

- Any additional information about the image (facial expressions, poses, etc.)

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Contact Information

You can reach out to me through 3 ways:

- Email me at [email protected] (fastest)

- Message me on Tumblr

- Message me on Twitter (new)

----------------

On another note, I’ll also be adding more content on my twitter. It’s bare now, but I hope I can fill it up soon! https://twitter.com/n0k_n0k

Do stay safe out there!

Nok-Nok

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mimiplaysgames · 4 years ago

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Terra Week Day 1 (Heart/Vacation)

Summary: Aqua needs to find her Keyblade, and Terra realizes he’s the only locked door left. He’s going to have to do something crazy to reunite them. After all, what’s the point of becoming a Master when all these loose ends need their closure? | Word Count: 1,909

Read on AO3

A/N: For Terra Week 2021! You can find that account on Twitter!

~*~*~*~*~

The Tenets of a Master, Ch. 1

For the Bearer to wield the Key, his mind shall not ache His will shall not yield, his Heart shall not break

Terra doesn’t understand why he’s re-reading this book. He knows why (a Yen-Sid-tasked-him-with-it type of why), but he’s already done his time. He’s already written essays and debated about it in classes long ago. He already spent a night in the Master’s office asking for something more useful. Aqua does not recommend it. Ven hates it.

And of course, Yen Sid is the one who assigned it for Terra’s second Mark of Mastery. A most vital book, he had said to Terra. How full of it.

Affairs of the Heart by the Master of Masters in its peeling leather glory, the dumbest book Terra has ever read (though Eraqus would have found offense to that). It’s muddled with archaic language, vague descriptions, and random limericks. It answers questions with questions, and couples answers with contradictions.The tiny nuggets of gold Terra could mine from it are hidden in four-hundred pages of grime.

A complete waste of time, but if Yen Sid tasked Terra with it, then he has reservations about the strength of Terra’s heart. And Terra isn’t sure if he disagrees.

Terra can’t help but think about The Adventures of Robin Hood when he’s supposed to be studying. The story of a fox and his bear sidekick out to humiliate a maneless lion. Their goal: return stolen money, bring light into homes that have been dark, and destroy the shackles that unjustly imprisoned the common folk. Robin Hood is always smart enough to avoid getting caught.

That, right there, is a hero. But when Terra suggested it as a book to study for Keyblade Master many years ago, the Master refused.

Perhaps Yen Sid will be more open-minded.

If he recalls correctly, Robin Hood sits on the same shelf, on the top floor. He enters the library on the third level, the foyer opening up to a U-shaped, five-story gala with forest green carpeting and windows that stretch to the ceiling. Aqua wanders through the bottom floor, carrying a conversation with herself.

She has her hand to her face—oh, she’s using her Gummiphone. Terra always forgets. He keeps his off, only carrying it in his pocket because she nags him to. That anyone can reach him in the blink of a thought sounds invasive.

Scuffling downstairs, he overhears her saying, “I appreciate it. Thank you,” before hanging up.

“Who was that?”

“Ienzo.” She double checks her phone to make sure she’s back at the menu and has, in fact, hung up. Gummiphones are not the easiest to use and Aqua has kept someone on the other line before only because she didn’t understand the use of the red button. Terra shrugs. She continues, “One of the scientists at Radiant Garden.”

Terra still can’t put a face to the name but the mention of scientist and Radiant Garden turns his stomach. It all means the same: people who’ve studied, worked under, and followed Xehanort. It’s not their fault, just like Aqua keeps telling him that it’s not his fault either, but how is Terra supposed to look at anyone who’s known his face for years without ever hearing his voice?

“What’s going on?”

Aqua is the kind of person who doesn’t mind looking anyone in the eye. When she is warm, it comes naturally. When she’s threatened, she wills it. She glances at the carpet for a moment. This is going to be another string of conversations he and Aqua will dance around. “I’m trying to find my Keyblade.”

“Oh.” Terra stares at his shoes. Affairs of the Heart sits under his arm, useless. “Are they any help?”

“They’ll try.” She smirks through her frustration. “No one knows where it is, if they remember it at all.” Hugging herself, Aqua shakes her head, her attempt at keeping her eyes dry. “I just want to lay the Master to rest. I want Rainfell back.”

“I know,” he says softly. Every time they spar, it becomes a spectacle when she summons the Defender, a Keyblade twice as long as Rainfell. She’s honestly more intimidating with it, but it’s like looking at a doctored image. The Master’s Keyblade, still alive. They’ve spoken about what to do with it: take it up the mountain so he can watch over them, or leave it outside the castle so he’s always near, or display it in the entrance hall above the thrones so he can be proud. Terra would like it on the terrace. There’s always a beautiful sunset there, even when it storms.

But without the Defender, Aqua is left weaponless. Terra’s been requested not to ask about it, and he wants to honor that. He wants to, but he doesn’t want to dance anymore. “Where did you last see it?”

She sighs. “If I don’t answer that, would you feel I was punishing you?”

“Most definitely.” Smile.

It unnerves her. Aqua says a lot more with facial expressions alone. This one tells him, I wish you weren’t so difficult. “I last saw it with you.” Realizing what she said, she jerks. “Well, not you.”

“Is that how we’re going to call it?” Terra pulls his lips to his ears. “You, but not you.”

“You don’t have to put on a brave face for me, Terra.”

“I’m not. Laughing about it just feels better.”

She grimaces. “I don’t think it’s funny.”

“I don’t either, but what else am I going to do?” Terra drops the book on a nearby table. “What’s the plan?”

“Well...” She wraps herself tighter. “I don’t know what I can do other than trace Xehanort’s steps. Ienzo mentioned several journals that he left behind.”

Terra swallows a lump in his throat, his fist balling into itself like a feral in defense.

“Aqua—”

“Don’t worry, it won’t be so bad.”

“Stars,” he curses.

“It will be fine.” Her arms are still crossed, and she lilts ‘fine’ to be an endnote, closing the conversation. Stepping by his side, she eyes the book and frowns. “I’ll talk to Yen Sid. I hardly think it’s necessary for you to reread that.”

While Terra appreciates her vote of confidence, she’s dodging. “Isn’t there anything else we can do?”

“I already think you’ve proven yourself—”

“Not that. With Rainfell.” And no, he hasn’t proven anything. Yen Sid clearly doesn’t think so, either. “I can help.”

“I’ll have to be brave, that’s all.” She offers a weak smile. “And if it gets bad… I like to think that the Master is with me. It’s nice.”

Sure, it’s nice, relative to other things. Relative to being imprisoned in Darkness and fighting not to fade away, it is nice. While your body is doing things without you, it is nice. When you’re trapped in hell all alone, it is nice. But it’s still a foreign Keyblade—not exactly comparable to a hug they’ll never feel again, nor does it speak for their own hearts. A part of Aqua is missing, out there, alone. She’d feel that, too.

“Anyway,” Aqua says (another endnote), hands cupping her elbows, “I think there are better ways to host your Mark of Mastery. Let me talk to Yen Sid. You deserve better.”

There’s something sick and twisted about Aqua following Xehanort’s history, a guttural laugh at your most humiliating memory. Worse if she’s going to read all the horrifying details of how he conducted his experiments. She’s the one who deserves better. She (always) deserves better.

Aqua is being Aqua when she prefers to look at a future when she has her Keyblade and he passes his Mark. Simply. A much-needed distraction for her but as Terra looks down at the cover of Affairs of the Heart, the title worn down so that the leather imprint bleeds out the letters, Terra realizes he simply doesn’t care right now.

May your heart be your guiding key is a phrase they all grew up with, but the heart is fickle. A growing part of his knows one thing: he has to do something about this.

His heart wouldn’t rest if he doesn’t try—it already barely takes a breath, what with remembering everything that’s happened twelve years ago. Aqua never pins it on him. Never, even when he asks if she blames him. What’s the point of accepting the title of Master if the honor of having it is empty?

Terra enters the kitchen to no one else but Ven, who has his feet propped up on the dining table next to a half-eaten piece of strawberry cake with a Gummiphone in his hands.

“Have you gotten Kairi’s message?” Ven asks.

“What message?”

Ven sighs exasperatedly. “What is it with you and Aqua never reading texts? You guys act like old people.” He waves his phone. “Kairi. She invited us to hang out at Destiny Islands with everyone else. It’d be cool to have fun. Like a vacation. Ever heard of that?”

“Everyone else?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s nice of her.”

Ven slaps his forehead and drags it down his face. “What’s gotten into you?”

“I’m thinking,” Terra says while he pulls a pitcher of water out of the fridge, “of helping Aqua find her Keyblade.”

It’s an obvious statement—Ven of course would want to help, too—but there’s something Ven hears that Terra isn’t saying. He’s smarter than people give him credit for. “What are you talking about?”

“Rainfell was last with me.” Terra chuckles something hoarse. “Well, not me.”

“And?”

“I think I can find it.”

“Are you nuts?” Ven leans forward on his chair with both hands on the armrests and whispers (as though Aqua is next door and not on the other side of the castle). “She’ll kill you.”

Terra sits at the marble countertop that separates the kitchen from the dining room. The Master used to say an open layout like this made it a more wholesome environment. “I have to. I’m the missing link in finding it, and she won’t recognize that.”

Ven meets Terra on the counter. “But what would happen to you?”

“Nothing. It’d be like reading memories.”

“Do you hear yourself? What if you see something disgusting?”

Disgusting as in what Xehanort has done to other people. Experiments. Torture. People Terra’s face has lied to and comforted and ridiculed, maybe secrets that no one knows. Would Terra relive them or would he watch them from afar like he’s spying? Will it hurt? Will he have control or is he going to be forced to watch whatever comes to mind and deal with the collateral damage later? Someone has to pay for these crimes. Xehanort never did and Robin Hood doesn’t exist.

Somewhere, deep in the gutters of his heart lives a thought he’d never voice to anyone: maybe a walk down someone else’s memory lane would let him relive memories of Master Eraqus. That sounds like a good exchange for everything else.

His heart can’t lead him astray, anyway. It can’t take him down a path to Darkness if he cares this much, if he’s this ready to throw himself into the fire and deal with the burns, so long as he keeps good company.

“I don’t think it’s fair that Aqua has to do anything regarding Xehanort. She deserves peace.”

Ven groans. There’s an unspoken pact of keeping this a secret between them. “You owe me a second vacation just for stressing me out.”

“Done deal.” Terra takes a swish. “Apparently the stars are really pretty at the beach.”

#terra #kh terra #terra week #kingdom hearts fanfic #kh fanfic #aqua #ventus #ahhhhhh i've been working on this for the last three weeks i swear #my fic

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letterboxd · 3 years ago

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The Eyes of TIFF.

Programmers for the 46th Toronto International Film Festival chat about the degrees of intensity they look for in a festival film, and help us zoom in on the gems from TIFF’s 2021 program, by genre and region.

“Intensity can be achieved in so many different ways. I know it when I feel it. You feel it in your gut.” —Cameron Bailey

It’s almost business as usual for TIFF this year. In-person events and red carpets return, but a healthy virtual program is also available for Canadian-based folk unable to travel, as the Covid-19 pandemic continues its onslaught.

TIFF co-head and artistic director Cameron Bailey has been with the festival for just over half its life, and says while some of the technology has changed in that time—“you’re no longer sitting in front of a TV monitor with VHS tapes… or waiting for 35mm prints to be spooled up and projected for you”—the “basic process of falling in love with movies” has not.

It’s a challenge, Bailey says, to winnow down the films he falls in love with for the final TIFF lineup. And even then, it is an annual challenge for film lovers tight on time to narrow down their own selections. So, ahead of the fest, Bailey joined fellow TIFF programmers for a Twitter Spaces conversation with our editor in chief Gemma Gracewood, in order to help Letterboxd members make some watchlist decisions.

Joining Bailey were Thom Powers (TIFF Docs), Peter Kuplowsky (Midnight Madness), Robyn Citizen (senior programming manager), Diana Sanchez (Special Presentations, Spain, Latin America, Portugal and the Caribbean), Diana Cadavid (International Cinema) and Nataleah Hunter-Young (Africa, “the Middle East” and the Black Diaspora).

Edited highlights of the conversation follow, so have your watchlists close at hand.

‘The Eyes of Tammy Faye’, written by Abe Sylvia and directed by Michael Showalter.

Thank you all for joining me today. You watch a lot of films as you’re going through the selection process. How does one make itself stand out to you? Cameron Bailey: For every programmer it’s going to be something different. For me, it comes down to an intangible quality of intensity. That can be emotional intensity, it can be the intensity of formal elements, the cinematography, the performances, the writing. Some sense of concentrated emotion and momentum, where you get the sense that a filmmaker is trying to find a way to distill the essence of what they’re trying to do and communicate it to an audience through all of the tools that cinema provides. That doesn’t mean the movie has to be fast-paced or have a lot of dramatic jolts, as intensity can be achieved in so many different ways. I know it when I feel it. You feel it in your gut.

What would you say are some of the performances that have struck you the most this year? CB: Jessica Chastain is the lead in a film we’re premiering called The Eyes of Tammy Faye, directed by Michael Showalter. If you were watching TV in the ’80s and ’90s, you will remember Tammy Faye Bakker, and her husband, Jim Bakker, who were TV televangelists. You couldn’t miss Tammy, as she had these giant eyes and makeup with giant eyelashes, and this is essentially her story. It’s hard to know at first that it’s Jessica Chastain underneath all of that makeup, but she gives a performance that’s not just about the exterior. It’s about a woman who is shaped by a difficult upbringing, shaped by this incredibly deep need she has for affirmation, to be on TV, to be in front of the camera, and that guides her decisions into extremes. She’s fantastic in it.

Benedict Cumberbatch is back with two films. He is the lead in Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog. It’s an understated, slow-burn performance in some ways, which he can do so well. He’s also in a film that’s on the opposite end of the dramatic spectrum, The Electrical Life of Louis Wain. It’s based on a real person, and when you watch the film you will be amazed that this person actually existed. Wain, in the early part of the twentieth century, was a prodigious painter who turned his talent towards painting thousands of cats. Cute cats, big eyed cats, fuzzy, adorable cats. He’s largely responsible for cats becoming as big as they are as domesticated pets. It’s a wild story.

I’m still recovering from watching The Power of the Dog’s trailer earlier today, and had to promise myself that I wouldn’t take up this entire time talking about Jane Campion’s obsession with hands. The Spencer trailer dropped as well, which has a lot of buzz around it. CB: Yes, Spencer is a remarkable portrait. Some of us remember Princess Diana, some of us have watched The Crown, and so have a very recent image, but this is a completely different performance that Kristen Stewart gives. She’s remarkable in it. I think everybody’s going to want to see this film.

‘Charlotte’, written by David Bezmozgis and Erik Rutherford, directed by Tahir Rana and Éric Warin.

Are there any other titles you’d like to get the buzz started for, Cameron? CB: On the animation side, I would say people should look out for a film called Charlotte, by Tahir Rana and Éric Warin. It’s a Canadian film telling a story based in World War II Europe about a woman in a Jewish family [exiled] in France during the occupation of France by the Nazis. She can feel what is coming. She decides to paint everything about her life, and her family’s life, trying to document what she feels is going to be very fragile, and what she might lose altogether.

As it turns out, before the end of the war she was taken away to a death camp by the Nazi regime, and she didn’t survive, but her paintings have survived and they were turned into a book, along with the story of her family. The animation is just gorgeous. I think that’s one that awards bodies are going to be paying attention to. It’s one of the best animated films I’ve seen in quite a while.

Thom, what are some of the documentary titles that you and the team think those awards bodies will have their eyes on? Thom Powers: A big one to pay attention to is The Rescue, by Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, who won the Oscar for their last film, Free Solo. Their new film is looking at the Thai cave rescue [in 2018], when a group of young soccer players and their coach got trapped by monsoon floods in a cave. When we were watching the news, we were seeing the journalists reporting from outside the cave. What this film does is bring you inside that rescue using footage that’s never been seen before. Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin are masters at the documentary adventure genre, and also [at] bringing a real human side to the people involved, which they do again here.

I’ll also mention Becoming Cousteau, by Liz Garbus, and Julia, a film about Julia Child, directed by Julie Cohen and Betsy West, who made the Oscar-nominated documentary RBG a few years ago. So many of us during the pandemic had to rediscover ourselves in the kitchen, and Julia Child’s life was about making people feel more comfortable in the kitchen, which makes it a terrific film to watch at this time.

‘Saloum’, directed by Jean Luc Herbulot.

Peter, what’s a movie from this year’s Midnight Madness lineup you’d love to recommend? Peter Kuplowsky: We’ve got a lot of firsts at Midnight this year. We have Saloum, the first time a West African film has ever been in Midnight. We’ve also got Zalava, which is the first Iranian film to play in Midnight. Our opening film for Midnight Madness is Julia Ducournau’s Titane, which is playing at the Princess of Wales theater, and will be a spectacle to behold. When I’m looking for Midnight Madness, I like hearing the audience make certain noises in the room, whether that’s a gasp or screams or laughter. I feel that every note on the scale is going to be played during Titane by the audience.

Brilliant. Now, we’re going to bring in some audience questions. First up is Vincent, who says that one of their favorite films is Georges Franju’s Eyes Without a Face, and asks if there are any films in this year’s TIFF lineup you could recommend for a fan of that film? PK: I’ve really been encouraging people to check out the films I just mentioned, Zalava and Saloum, and I think Zalava especially would fit here, as it’s more of a horror-drama. It begins as something that is steeped in the supernatural, but as it escalates it becomes something of a pitch-black comedy while still maintaining a gravitas to it. I think it’s one of the most fascinating discoveries in the genre space this year.

CB: I’d also add Good Madam, by Jenna Bass, from South Africa. It is a chilling movie, with a bit of an Eyes Without a Face vibe. If you like that sort of approach to cinema, I think you’ll like that.

PK: Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash just won the Golden Leopard at Locarno. With a title like that, this is a film that feels like it’s going to be sort of a strictly pulp crime film, but it’s so much more. It’s deeply romantic, incredibly eclectic, and beautifully shot on 16mm film. It feels like a film that was hidden away, shot in the late ’70s or early ’80s. It’s a throwback to 1980s Hong Kong action films, while also, I can’t stress this enough, being one of the most romantic films in the festival. You’ll fall in love with this relationship while it’s also working in fight sequences and magical realism.

Nataleah, what’s something you would recommend from your TIFF selections from Africa, “the Middle East” and the Black Diaspora? Nataleah Hunter-Young: One I’d highly recommend is Costa Brava, directed by Mounia Akl, from Lebanon. Even amidst what’s going on in Lebanon right now, the film offers a beautiful and engrossing portrait of a family that includes a grandmother who’s a non-actor, but has impeccable comedic timing (that travels through the subtitles if you don’t speak Arabic).

‘Snakehead’, written and directed by Evan Leong.

Robyn, what’s a movie that surprised you most during your selections this year? Robyn Citizen: I always recommend that people check out our Discovery section because that’s where we find new talent and nurture new voices. The film that really surprised me this year was Snakehead, by Evan Jackson Leong. Some people will know him from a documentary called Linsanity, and he did another documentary about evangelism in Korea. Snakehead has been a ten-year labor of love for him. He had to do a Kickstarter for the film, which is loosely based on the life of a woman named Sister Ping, who had a human trafficking ring that was the biggest trafficking ring for about 20 years.

The film tackles what’s going on now with vulnerable populations being trafficked into America, in particular Chinatown in the US, and the main character, played by Shuya Chang, has to fight to find her daughter. It’s an exciting film, and very moving. It’s extremely tightly edited, and it looks fantastic.

We’ve got our next question here from a member who says their favorite genre is science-fiction. While Dune is at the top of their watchlist, are there any other sci-fi selections you could recommend? PK: I would recommend After Blue (Dirty Paradise), which is a perverse science-fiction by Bertrand Mandico. It reminds me a lot of the French animated film Fantastic Planet. This one is about a planet which is inhospitable to men because of the way hair grows. The plot follows a young teenage girl who accidentally unleashes a notorious criminal that she and her hairdresser mother have to stalk through the alien landscape that is full of bizarre creatures and liquids and gases. I feel it’s kind of like the inverse of Dune, and an opportunity to explore a bizarre ecosystem.

NHY: I would totally insist that this member see Neptune Frost, from Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman. It’s a difficult film to put into words, but I’ve been summing it up by calling it an Afro-sonic sci-fi musical.

Whoa, that sounds like a whole new subgenre. NHY: That’s just the beginning. There’s a lot to experience in this film. It’s a cosmic romance that follows an intersex hacker and a coltan miner who make their way to this kind of dream space where they connect with others as they travel through these lush mountainous regions of Rwanda and Burundi. It’s a beautiful anti-narrative that is impeccably colored and totally consuming. It’s a must-see for anybody who loves cinema.

Diana, what would you say is the best debut feature that you’ve seen among this year’s international selections? Diana Cadavid: There are so many wonderful new talents, but I think I’ll go with an Argentinian filmmaker named Agustina San Martín. Her film, To Kill the Beast, is a co-production between Argentina, Brazil and Chile, and she worked for nine years to put this all together. She started working on it when she was 21, and we were actually having a conversation yesterday about her process, and how it’s a film that deals with the growth of a woman, and female desire. There’s this idea of the beast, something that’s either from inside or from outside forces, trying to control the human mind and body. It’s a very interesting film, gorgeously shot and very atmospheric.

‘Yuni’, written by Prima Rusdi and Kamila Andini, directed by Andini.

We’ve got another question here from David, who says their favorite films are humanistic dramas, citing Hirokazu Kore-eda as one of their favorite directors. Would anybody have any recommendations for David? CB: I can recommend at least one film, called Yuni, an Indonesian film from Kamila Andini. This is a naturalist drama about a high-school girl who is one of the top students in her class, and has a great group of friends. We slowly begin to see that her life is being constrained by one man after another, and then something happens at school, which begins to narrow her possibilities for her future. She’s trying to figure out things like sexuality and romance and what she wants to do with her future, and all of these obstacles keep getting placed in her path. It’s told in a very gentle way, but very incisive as well. Each scene really matters, taking you deeper inside this girl’s life.

RC: Our senior programmer Giovanna Fulvi programmed a film called Aloners, a South Korean film by Hong Sung-eun. This is her first feature, and it’s very much a film of our time. It is about a woman who works in the gig economy at a credit-card customer-service call center. It’s a very transient existence. She doesn’t talk to anybody, she eats by herself, she doesn’t really want to associate with the people in her apartment building. One day, one of her neighbors who has tried to talk to her many times passes away, and she has to re-interrogate the way that she’s been living her life, and figure out if it’s worth starting to form some human connections.

Next up is a question from Matt Neglia, from the Next Best Picture podcast. Matt says that he’s a massive fan of epics, whether they’re three hours long or just telling an expansive story with lots of world-building. Apart from Dune, are there any other films in the lineup that you would describe as epic? CB: While Joachim Trier’s The Worst Person in the World might not strike you on reading its synopsis as an epic, I think it actually is an emotional epic. It’s the story of a young woman who’s trying to figure out her life. Her romance with one boyfriend doesn’t quite fit the bill for her, and she begins this looking and exploring. Trier and his writer and lead actor do remarkable work, blowing open the idea of a person trying to define who they are at this turning point in their life. They make these stakes massive and they have all kinds of interesting, innovative, formal elements in [the film] as well. It’s incredibly cinematic. If you’ve seen Joachim Trier’s other films, this is kind of the conclusion of a trilogy that he’s made.

‘Listening to Kenny G’, directed by Penny Lane.

Next up, we have Sarah, who is looking for movies about music, and also some body horror. CB: We’ve got a number of great music docs this year. I have to mention Dionne Warwick, the queen of Twitter, who is the subject of Dionne Warwick: Don’t Make Me Over. It tells the story of this incredibly talented, determined and glamorous musician who broke so many barriers. She toured in the south during the Jim Crow era, making gains as a Black woman in the music industry and in the pop-music industry, not the so-called race-record or Black-music industry, which simply wasn’t done at the time. This documentary tells that story, and also shows her later work in the ’80s contributing to the fight against stigma and hysteria during the AIDS crisis.

PK: I’ll follow up Cameron by mentioning the Alanis Morissette film Jagged. We’ve also got a film about the great jazz pianist, Oscar Peterson, called Oscar Peterson: Black + White. Lastly, there’s a film about Kenny G, called Listening to Kenny G.

Diana Sanchez: For the body horror, I’d like to mention the debut film by Ruth Paxton, titled A Banquet. It’s about a young woman who insists her body is no longer her own, and is a service to a higher power. Her mother has no idea what to think. She stops eating, and her mother doesn’t know [whether] to believe her or not. I love Ruth Paxton’s work, the way she shoots the film, the way she shoots the food. It’s almost, as she refers to it, pornographic. It looks delicious and gross all at the same time.

I’d also like to flip to comedy quickly to mention Official Competition. The film stars Penélope Cruz, Antonio Banderas and Oscar Martínez. Cruz plays a filmmaker who puts together a well-known theater actor and a well-known box-office glamor guy, played by Banderas. The film speaks to the tension between high art and more popular art, testing those boundaries. It’s incredibly funny.

We’d love to squeeze a few more films out of everyone for our watchlists. Could you each recommend one film and try to sell it in ten words or less? CB: Let me try. Sundown, by Michel Franco. Tim Roth falls apart beautifully in Mexico.

TP: I’m going to go with the Mexican documentary, Comala. Filmmaker Gian Cassini explores the legacy of his father, who was a Tijuana hitman.

PK: I’ll go with Saloum, which is basically From Dusk Till Dawn in West Africa.

RC: I’m going to say The Wheel, a movie by Steve Pink. If you like Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, this is like that with a younger couple in a much more humane, intimate key.

DS: I’ll say I’m Your Man, a sci-fi where Maren Eggert dates a robotic Dan Stevens.

PK: I know Diana has been recommending a film called OUT OF SYNC, about an artist who begins to experience the sound of the world going out of sync. She starts hearing sounds from the past because people and things are out of sync with their surroundings.

NHY: I’ll go with The Gravedigger’s Wife, directed by Khadar Ahmed. It showcases the horn of Africa unlike you’ve ever seen it on screen.

Finally, for Cameron: with fall coming, what is the best TIFF 2021 movie to watch under a blanket, either because it’s cozy or because you’re terrified, or both? CB: Great question, which gives me a chance to talk about Earwig, the new film by Lucile Hadžihalilović. If you’ve seen Innocence or Evolution, her two most recent films, you’re prepared in terms of tone, but you’ve not even seen Lucille make a film quite like this. It’s eerie, disturbing, hypnotic, mesmerizing. You can’t stop watching, but you’re always afraid that something awful and horrifying is about to happen… and maybe it might.

‘Night Raiders’, written and directed by Danis Goulet.

To bring it all back home, what would you say is the Canadian film of 2021? CB: It’s always hard to say, but I think in a year where we have Danis Goulet’s feature Night Raiders, that’s got to be the one. Danis has made some exceptional short films over the last few years that people might know. Her feature takes on the horrific, devastating story of residential schools and children torn from Indigenous families and put in institutions where the goal was to erase their Indigenous identity. She takes that terrible, real history that we’re grappling with right now in Canada, and turns it into a piece of speculative fiction, a kind of propulsive thriller.

By turning it into fiction rather than reality she can use all of the tools of cinema to tell a terrific story that’s exciting and has high stakes, but also has this deep resonance of a truth that we are, I hope, coming to terms with in this country.

The Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 9 to 18. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. Follow TIFF on Letterboxd, and follow our Festiville HQ for regular festival updates.

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crusherthedoctor · 5 years ago

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The Lutrudis Hadeer Design Concept Masterpost

Every now and then, I get the occasional question about my very own Lutrudis, which I'm always gladly willing to answer. Yet for all the times I've answered such questions, it seems some folks are still a bit left in the dark as to how Trudy came to be. So I figured I could make one big post all about the creation process. Maybe not every single detail per say, but at least everything that I think is worth mentioning in a post of this sort.

I'm aware that fellow pal @benignmilitancy covered this subject herself recently, but I might as well do my part to back up what she said.

1. When did Lutrudis become an idea?

The basic idea for Lutrudis - and indeed, the setting of Viridonia and Beyond the Stars itself as a story - was thought up as early as 2014. When I say basic idea however, I really do mean it, as aside from the general concept of her being the latest Friend of the Week helping Sonic and Co fight evil on her home island, very little else about Trudy was set up, including her name and species. While some aspects of her personality were already set in stone by that point, I focused on the design first when I decided to go ahead and make her and Beyond the Stars a real thing. The idea being to use what personality traits I had in mind to create a mental image, then use that mental image to help figure out the rest of her traits, as a design can often help out with working out a personality.

So basically, I scratched my back, so that I could scratch it again. Made sense to me.

2. Why a horse? Is it because friendship is magic?

Maybe...

Actually, I wanted a species that hadn't been used before, at least in the games, its continuity being the one Beyond the Stars takes place in. But at the same time, I also wanted to go with a fairly mundane species rather than anything rare, extinct, or extravagant, as I felt that the latter would undermine the story arc that I had in mind for this particular character. Compared to the likes of Sonic, Shadow, or Blaze, Lutrudis is more akin to Amy in the sense that she's ordinary by comparison, despite her living conditions and the magical brand of ammo she eventually decides to use. To have the arc of a “normal” lady becoming a hero in her own right be represented by a T-rex or a dragon wouldn't really land the same impact in the context of this universe.

Already, I was quickly warming up to making her a horse because of this. But then I realised that many of Trudy's personality traits - her loyalty, her passion, her elegance - were ALSO commonly attributed to horses in real life. And if you're not aware, I'm a big fan of letting Sonic and Co have character tics representative of their species, and a horse in particular had plenty of potential to have some funny and cute moments by letting their horsiness show itself. This additional thought helped make my decision on the matter final.

...Well, that and I wanted Trudy to have longer hair than the average Sonic female due to how, IMO, short hair wouldn't work as well for her. Obviously horses have manes, so that made it easier to get away with than it would have if she were a hedgehog, though it also helps that Trudy's hair is never any more detailed than the rest of her, meaning her hair actually looks like her own rather than her wearing an overly detailed wig to appease a certain disgraced comic writer, one of whom I will probably have the entirety of Beyond the Stars uploaded by the time he actually does something with his echidna libido-fueled comic at this rate... Looking forward to it in 2030.

As for what kind of horse she is, I decided to go with an English Thoroughbred, if only to further justify Trudy's English accent, which is nonetheless fairly mild compared to everyone else in Viridonia, who sound as though they jumped out of a 90's Rareware title.

3. “THIS IS WHO I AM... But who am I?”

Believe it or not, but even by 2016, I still hadn't decided on what to call my little pony. I had already figured that whatever I was going to call her, it would abide by the same naming convention as Amy Rose, Miles Prower, and Ivo Robotnik, to help further add to the aforementioned notion that she's an ordinary lady who wasn't born with any superpowers. That, and because “___ the Horse” doesn't have the same ring to it as “___ the Hedgehog” or “___ the Echidna”.

So what did I do?

I looked up a list of female names for baby girls. Duh.

Well, it worked out, because I stumbled across “Lutrudis”, which was German for “strength of the village”. The more I repeated it in my head, the more it appealed to me. Sometimes, you can have various names that mean the same thing, yet one in particular will just have that perfect sound to it. That was me with this name. This horse being named Lutrudis felt right to me, even if I perfectly understood that it was perhaps a bit more exotic than your usual Sonic anthro name.

Not that it mattered too much, since I was quick to think of “Trudy” as a nickname for her, since in addition to being less of a mouthful, that name - also German in origin - had a similar meaning, “universal strength”. Fit her character and arc just as well.

So that was the first name sorted, but what about the surname? Well, when looking at a selection of appropriate words, I stumbled on “Hadeer”, and while the Arabic meaning of the name is slightly unclear - some sources say “adventurous”, others say “sound of the water falls” - I felt that the meanings associated with it were all equally appropriate regardless. Then I combined it with the first name, said the full name over and over again in my head, and thought “Yeah... this sounds correct.”

I realise the irony of a part-German, part-Arabic name being associated with an English character, but considering this is the same universe where a man who is presumably not Polish is given a Polish term for a name (Robotnik), I think we can let it slide.

4. “You guys know what EDS is, right?”

It's no secret that another friend of mine, @greenyvertekins, has Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, which has a lot of unfortunate complications to it, but in laymen's terms basically means your body is more fragile than that of the average person's. This condition is rather rare, so much so that a majority of people have never heard of it. Sure enough, I was one of those people, until I became friends with Verte.

After hearing Verte talk about her EDS and what she's had to go through, along with doing my own research on the condition, not only was I considerably more informed on it, but I also felt very sympathetic to not only my friend, but everyone else who has had to experience it, particularly with how ignorant other people continue to react to it due to lack of public awareness. It made me want to do something in dedication, and in the process, a certain pony eventually crossed my mind.

This wasn't done for the sake of appeasing blue checkmarks on Twitter. I genuinely wanted to help raise awareness of EDS however I could, and I considered that perhaps its inclusion in my story would help do that, so long as it didn't sacrifice everything else about the story or forget that it was still a Sonic the Hedgehog story. Yes, it's a fanfic, and thus not as well known as a Hollywood blockbuster or a bestselling novel, but if even a few people were to end up learning about EDS through Lutrudis, I would be happy.

However, I was well aware that the idea of a Sonic character having EDS might be seen as a bit jarring, and if done badly, could potentially be accidentally insulting. So I made sure to consult Verte about it, saying that I would only go through with it if she was comfortable with me doing so, and made it very clear that I would try to make its representation as tasteful and as faithful as I can, despite the inherent nature of the Sonic universe that Trudy is part of.

By the way, horses in real life can fall victim to very similar disorders, so that was yet another reason why I went with that choice.

5. “Hey Benign, I'm shite at art, please help.”

I can't remember the exact conversation that led to it, but after I talked to @benignmilitancy about Lutrudis, she offered to bring the character's design to life through her mad art skillz. Initially I was hesitant to take up the offer, since I felt guilty about having to rely on someone else to show people what my own character looks like, but I was giddily honored by the offer and decided to agree as long as she was willing. Luckily for her, she wasn't working with a blank canvas so to speak, as I had a relatively complete image in my mind regarding what Trudy would look like, having already reasoned to myself why this or that would apply.

When putting my vision into words to Benign, I mentioned that...

- Since Trudy is the same age as Rouge, logically that should mean she's given a similar mature build as the latter, as opposed to the pipe limbs you see with the other female characters. Since Trudy spends a lot of time with Amy and Cream and has a lot of motherly interactions with the latter in particular, it helps signify that she's older than them.

- Being a horse, she would have two slits for nostrils rather than the usual dot nose that most characters have. Similarly, though you don't see them most of the time anyway, her feet are grey hooves, but they abide by the usual Sonic-style feet rather than being more realistic ala Clove's hooves, if only because the latter didn't look right for this character IMO.

- To add to her gentle warmth, her eyes would be a honey shade of brown. Just like how Cream has brown eyes. Again, it's like poetry, they sort of, they rhyme. Every stanza kinda rhymes with the last one. *shrug* Hopefully it'll work.

- Since EDS tends to apply several subtle physical traits to those who have it, at least some of them should logically apply to Trudy as well. Those with EDS often have a bluish-grey tint to their sclera, and they also tend to have paler skin than most, so Trudy would have those qualities too.

- To emphasize her love for Mother Nature and all its amazing sights, and also to contrast with Amy and Cream's colour schemes, Trudy herself would be green, albeit a more gentler green rather than the brighter tones of Vector and Jet, while her clothes would be blue, with slightly different shades depending on the clothing to prevent her from looking like a drab curtain. After a few initial sketches, Benign eventually suggested that some of her clothing could be changed to brown to balance out her overall colour scheme, as well as to further add to the subtle nature motif by having brown (trees) go along with blue (water) and green (grass). Needless to say, I wholeheartedly approved of this idea, and decided that the best placement for the brown sections would be for her leggings and glove cuffs.

- Speaking of, as a nod to her equine status, she would wear leggings that could pass off as Equestrian jodhpurs. (Not that she has an aversion to wearing skirts or dresses, since she's girly and tomboyish in pretty much equal measures, compared to how Sonic females usually lean towards one or the other.)

- People with EDS are unable to wear heels since they can hurt their feet, so heels were out of the equation for this little horsie. But I also figured that regular shoes or sandals wouldn't mesh well with the rest of Trudy's clothing, so I went with boots that were flat at the heels. They can allude to her adventurous streak AND allude to how there's a lady willing to kick ass behind that quiet, mellow, introverted demeanour. Plus, much like how being stomped by a real horse's hoof would be very painful to put it mildly, so too would being stomped by this horse's boot.

- Seeing how Trudy's arms have permanent scars on them - permanent scars being another common effect of EDS - she would wear elbow-length gloves over them, since she wouldn't be comfortable with showing them publicly. Note however that she would still wear long gloves even if she didn't have those scars, since they genuinely happen to appeal to her fashion tastes as well. Covering the scars up is just a bonus. And since long gloves are often associated with royalty and high class, they're also suiting for a lady who lives in a fancy castle (despite not being royalty).

- Her hair is kept in a big bouncy ponytail, not unlike Coco Bandicoot or Shantae, since it's both cute and tomboyish... that and because the visual pun of a horse with a ponytail was too good to resist, let alone it humorously mirroring the general shape of her actual tail.

- To contrast with Sonic's spiky quills, a lot of Trudy's design is emphasized to have a round quality, such as her tail, her ponytail, and her sloped ears. To add to this design philosophy, she would wear a headscarf similar to Wave's. Me and Benign contemplated on whether Trudy's muzzle should be more blocky like that of a real horse, before we agreed that the softer muzzle fit both the round aesthetic and her general character better.

- Trudy has trouble breathing in colder temperatures, and she also has a sensitive nose that reacts strongly to heavy scents. As such, she would have a bandanna that she could cover over her mouth and nose to help out with either of those things whenever the situation called for it, or any other scenario where she deems it appropriate. It helps that a bandanna suits a horse anthro anyway.

Truth be told, I was worried that I was coming off as too demanding. But Benign assured me that giving all these details helped rather than hindered. In any case, I was more than pleased with the final result, as it was precisely spot on to what I had in my head, although even her initial sketches during the work in progress were great stuff.

6. If Amy uses a hammer, then Lutrudis uses...

Trudy has surprising arm and leg strength despite her appearance, which is mainly due to her horsie genes. But since she's still got EDS, it's still wise for her to equip herself with a weapon or two to even the odds. I contemplated a few ideas in this case, including a quarterstaff, but ultimately I decided that the following would be a little more interesting, while still remaining appropriate for the character in question.

I thought to myself “What's stopping her from having two weapons, one for short-range, the other for long-range?” I decided on the long-range weapon first: bow and arrows, the latter of which would eventually include the Ethereal Zone-powered crystals inside the cavern below her castle. Goes without saying that a bow suits her elegance and how it can be used from a stealthy distance, and the use of the crystals and their different abilities also helps to keep the reader guessing on what exactly is the nature of the elusive Ethereal Zone itself. I also reasoned that Trudy using a bow was a nice contrast to Amy's hammer, although I'm aware that Amy herself used a bow in the Fleetway comics. But no one uses a bow in the games (yet), so it's fine, right?

As for her short-range weapon, I thought it'd be funny if she had a whip that resembled a riding crop. Not only would it be used to give Eggman's robots the Simon Belmont treatment, it could also extend up to a certain distance to help grapple onto things and allow her to overcome areas that would otherwise cause complications for her body. Is it a bit ludicrous? Maybe, but so is a blue hedgehog fighting a Roosevelt lookalike. You just kind of have to live with it.

So there you have it! Everything you need to know about how Lutrudis Hadeer's name, species, design, and EDS came to be finalised. Now when you turn her into a monkey without my knowledge or permission for the sake of dunking on her because you don't approve of me making fun of Kingdom Hearts rejects, at least you'll have a better idea on what you're actually talking about. :^)

#Lutrudis Hadeer #Sonic Character Design

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bryonysimcox · 5 years ago

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You've Got to Look for the Good Stuff: Week 14, Spain

Like light is to darkness, this week has been an antidote to the last. My mood has lifted and the days have flown by, as lockdown continues and we do too.

Sunshine is a simple remedy. Each day this week has been warm and dry, if not bright and sunny too. It’s allowed us to live more inside-outside, which not only makes life easier but lifts my mood. It’s been a stark contrast to the constant rain and cold which dominated last week’s blog post.

I’ve also loved seeing pictures of children out in the streets and parks again, as Spain slowly lifts its coronavirus measures. It’s almost incomprehensible to imagine what it must be like for all these youngsters, many of whom have been cooped up in city-centre apartments with their siblings and parents for weeks and weeks. Even with the generous garden we have here and our weekly walks to the supermarket I’ve been going borderline insane, so I shudder to think how isolation has affected kids and their mental health.

Gaba Podcast live streams continue to punctuate my week. Adam Martin, whose podcast I mentioned in Week 10’s post, shares breathwork and meditative practices that have really helped me ease my busy mind. One of the things Adam talked about this week was what we consider to be ‘exercise’, in light of zealous Brits moaning that people sitting in the park, standing still in public and seemingly staring into space are breaking government-imposed controls around exercise. Adam argues that we consider sport and movement in open space an essential part to looking after our physical health, whilst ignoring the ‘exercise’ or psychological nurturing that our mental health deserves.

While this pandemic takes lives, we need to keep in mind the impact that social distancing is having on our psyches.

I titled this week’s digital diary entry ‘You’ve Got To Look Out For The Good Stuff’ because I’ve realised that there’s plenty of good stuff around, but quite simply, you’ve got to look for it. That might sound pretty obvious, but in comparing this week to the last, I can see that the main thing that’s changed isn’t my situation, but more so my mindset. Admittedly, the sunshine has made a huge difference, but apart from that, we’re still stuck in lockdown in Spain in the same physical, geographical and financial situation that we were in last week.

What’s caused this shift in mindset? Honestly, I don’t know. I think life in lockdown is making us act in all kinds of strange ways, cycling through an emotional spectrum so extreme we’ve rarely experienced it before and yet now feels like the norm. Tears, laughter, smiles and frowns easily paint my face in a matter of hours. So maybe my mood this week has just been luck. But as my shifted mindset has worked its magic, somehow I’ve seen and experienced little nuggets of ‘good stuff’. I hope that some of you have seen and enjoyed those nuggets too, wherever you are.

After rain left the road to the supermarket blocked, we finally made it to the shops this week, when the water subsided.

Perhaps fearful of another rainfall, this time we piled the trolley high in the local Aldi and returned home to stock up the cupboards. A plentiful fridge has resulted in some more cooking adventures - this week including George’s new specialty, Spanish omelette, and a new fave of mine too, veggie paella.

We picked and podded the final batch of broad beans this week, and helped to dig up the patch where they were growing to make way for the vegetables of the coming season: tomatoes, courgettes, cucumbers and peppers. One of the inadvertent blessings of being ‘marooned’ here in Catalunya has been to see and enjoy the changing of the seasons, and my interest in food growing and land management increases with them. George and I have always said we’d like to live in Spain in a self-built tiny house with a bit of land, and somehow we’ve landed in a situation right now that’s not far off! In addition to the vegetables we can get from the garden, I’ve been buying fresh eggs from the neighbour (often still warm from the coop!) which is a real treat.

(images, left to right) ‘Why simple changes [like growing food] are really profound’ a lovely illustration I discovered from Brenna Quinlan, George prepping the soil for tomatoes, and my new favourite thing to cook, veggie paella.

Food isn’t the only ‘good stuff’ to be grateful for. Since I mentioned Simon Mair’s article in my post from Week 11, I’ve been researching ‘Ecological Economics’ and its potential to lead us towards more just and sustainable ways of living. That research finally came to a head this week, when I had the pleasure of interviewing not only Simon himself but also friend and futures thinker from Mumbai, Mansi Parikh.

Making a video about alternative economic futures which address some of the challenges posed by Covid-19 is turning out to be a bit of a challenge in itself!

The interviews with Simon and Mansi were utterly fascinating, and I was so grateful to be able to talk to two super knowledgeable folk, who like me, are passionate about the future and how we can make it better. They shared their time and their insights, and now I’m left with over 150 minutes of recorded zoom calls to make sense of!

I want to use these interviews to make a video which engages people who perhaps wouldn’t usually be interested in economics, without ‘watering down’ the message or intent of the film. It’s such a hard balance to strike, to create something which is at once accessible and engaging but also rich with ideas. As the week progresses, I’ll start editing the footage and hopefully the narrative of the video will reveal itself.

One of the best things about making a new video is the chance to do loads of research! There have been so many articles which have got my brain buzzing, from ‘no-growth’ economics to deliberative democracies, and I’ve also just started reading ‘Fully Automated Luxury Communism’ which is a manifesto for a post-Capitalist future. Even if this research doesn’t directly inform the video I’m working on, it serves to inspire me. I’ve actually found myself a few times this week almost overwhelmed by how much interesting media there is out there to consume, and often just resort to adding thing to my ‘read later’ list, or quoting my favourite gems on Twitter.

(images, left to right) Recording interviews with Mansi and Simon, and my latest reading project...

The realisation of a project we began in January, ‘Place Portraits: Episode 1’ was finally released this week.

George had the idea a while ago to create a video series exploring cities and places through analogue photography. Whilst it was a super simple idea, we thought these short, laid-back videos would contrast with some of the longer-format stuff or more informative films we’re hoping to upload on the Broaden YouTube channel.

Back at the start of our trip we shot on a roll of Kodak Portra 400 and Fujifilm C200, using the trusty Pentax that was once George’s dad’s camera. We’d had the photos back from the processing lab for a while, but have only just completed the edit and got the film online, which is such a nice feeling. We’ve had some lovely responses to the resulting four-minute video, and I’ve especially valued constructive feedback so we can start to think critically about what Episode 2 might look like.

youtube

(video) Place Portraits: Episode 1 - Paris

Since ‘The Hundred Miler’ hit 90K views this week (which in and of itself is pretty nuts), I knew I had to temper my expectations about how many views we’d get with Place Portraits. Even though it’s not far past 200 views, each and every one of those views counts and I’m chuffed to see it finally online. Watching Broaden’s audience slowly grow has also served as great motivation to submit The Hundred Miler into film festivals, a process which we started this week.

There’s probably plenty more good stuff which deserves to be celebrated, but the one which can’t go unmentioned is of course the company of others.

Embracing what has become a routine activity for many of us these days, I’ve spent some cheerful hours on phonecalls and videochats to others across the globe.

This week included a three-way call between Ireland, Australia and Spain with dear friends that George and I used to live with catching up on career plans, cats and newfound hobbies. I also enjoyed a game of movie charades (which involved some impressive commitment from some people!) and even attended an evening of ‘drag queen bingo’. These digital hangouts leave me asking ‘Would I be connecting with friends and family this much if the world wasn’t in a global pandemic?’ and I think the answer would be no.

(images) Just some of the beautiful humans that feed my soul.

I’m grateful that these human connections are now much more of a priority. In being restricted to a simpler and more isolated way of living, we’re certainly reassigning value to the things that matter. That’s something which I’ve found from making the economics video and learning about the idea of value, but also something I’ve felt in a visceral way when a phone call with my parents or a friend leaves me beaming.

There’s so much good stuff out there, you’ve just got to be open to it.

#hiacevan #digitalnomads #COVID19 #coronavirus #lifeinlockdown #quarantinegratitude #goodstuff #BryonyandGeorge #Broaden #PlacePortraits

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aimmyarrowshigh · 5 years ago

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aheavenlyrush replied to your post “I’ve been on tumblr since 2012 and I was even a John Green fan for a...”

i checked and it happened in 2015

aheavenlyrush replied to your post “I’ve been on tumblr since 2012 and I was even a John Green fan for a...”

i saw that jg post on my feed and i had no energy to comment on it but truly when i saw that you had i felt such relief!! i remember making that one post about stiefvater defending him and telling teenage girls to be quiet and the response to it still fucking haunts me i swear

Oy, was it really that recently? The last three years have taken 900 years. And yeah... Maggie Stiefvater’s post about it was a Really Bad Look, and iirc that was the environment that spawned the beginning of the batshit “Keep YA Kind”* concern-trolling thing (yep, also 2015) that was mainly used to silence girls and women and people of color whenever the four white cishet men in YA fucked up between 2015 and 2018, when it finally publicly came out that most of them were, yk, fucking up because they’re legitimately horrible people and maybe the people calling them out should have been taken seriously.

* The other notable “why the fuck is this happening???? why is HE the one getting the sympathy here?????” events from “Keep YA Kind,” which, listen, I would bet you anything that it was very very nearly called “Keep Kidlit Kind” until the only person involved with 1/4 of a braincell managed to realize the acronym on their Twitter handle looked REALL BAD:

Andrew Smith, a straight white adult man, says out loud with his human adult man mouth, that he knows he can’t write female characters well and relies on fetishization and stereotypes because he never really met a girl until his daughter (??? SO WHAT IS YOUR WIFE, ANDREW? CHOPPED LIVER?) and, being as that is Bullshit and also his books were also being lauded as though they were Infinite fucking Jest Jr. even though the interview in question was for a book in which mutant grasshoppers take over the earth and a teenage boy gets trapped in a bunker with a teenage girl who eventually has to git to birthin’ babies she doesn’t want and isn’t medically prepared to have safely For The Good Of Humanity, he’s called out.

He’s called out mostly on a technical, writing level at first, even! Like, “Here’s how to write a female character: you write a fully considered, well-rounded character. They’re a girl.” And Andrew Smith FLIPS HIS SHIT, does some op-ed about how his mother used to beat him so he can’t see girls as people, and makes his twitter private. The “Keep YA Kind” sycophants support him HARD.

And then this happens to pop up on a mysterious Twitter that just HAPPENS to start while HIS twitter’s offline...

NOTE: Jay Asher, author of 13 Reasons Why, was literally dropped from his publisher and SCWBI for being a sexual predator. So like, I don’t think he was bullied, I think his predation was being remarked upon. Like, idk, maybe that he was being called creepy or sth idk idk idk

And then when A.S. decided to unsockpuppet to promote his next book, The Alex Crow, which is about mutant crows and a bunker or whatever:

The “asshole” in specific that Andrew Smith was calling an asshole was delightful human being and fellow author Kate Messner, who, coincidentally, was one of the victims to come out against Lemony Snicket’s sexual harrassment, so she’s had a BULLSHIT time just trying to do her JOB of being an author while female.

Which leads to Tommy Wallach! All-around fucknut! Whose major interest seems to be being That Guy In Philosophy 101 Who Always Has To Be Devil’s Advocate, Even Though No One Asked, and has a deeply vested interest in making sure that teenage girl readers -- who are his target audience, because he chose to write YA, as an adult man who made a choice in what he wrote and chose to make it YA, and not, like, any of the hundreds of genres that AREN’T largely written about and for teenage girls, yk -- know that teenage girls are Dumb. Victoria Schwab actually wrote an essay for YA Books Central about the incessant problem that IS/WAS Tommy Wallach called “We Need To Talk About Tommy” back in -- you guessed it! -- 2016, but it’s offline now and I’m not going to go Wayback it rn.

I’m just going to copypasta YAinterrobang’s Wallach timeline because he’s exhausting, he reminds me of undergrad.

Wallach’s continual pattern of behavior is worth discussing, especially in the context of sexism in YA and the continual marginalization of “diverse” voices in the community despite the efforts of the We Need Diverse Books movement.

Wallach’s problematic behavior runs back over a year, starting with a defense of Andrew Smith where he ignores the opinions of author and advocate Tessa Gratton in favor of a dictionary definition of sexism. (Andrew Smith’s behavior and the fallout around his statements have, of course, already been documented on YA Interrobang in “The Curious Case of Andrew Smith, Twitter & sexism.”) Wallach postures that women are inherently “other” from men, accuses Gratton of “gin[ning]up the controversy” and explains that he is a feminist because he was “raised by a single working mother and she’s still my best friend in the world.”

[View Wallach’s defense of Smith and attack on Gratton as a .pdf.]

Fast forward to later that year. Author Justina Ireland takes to Twitter to discuss a book where she feels the black character is self-hating. Ireland, being black herself, is asked about the book in question; she says that it’s Wallach’s debut novel We All Looked Up. Though Wallach is not tagged, he swoops into the conversation and demands Ireland provide proof that his character Anita is self-hating before claiming that author Dhonielle Clayton, who is also black, is friends with him and “engaged” with him on the issues in the book.

Clayton later stated publicly that she had not done any sensitivity reading on We All Looked Up.

What brought Wallach’s behavior to the attention of the YA world as a whole came this past November in the wake of the horrifying terrorist attacks in Paris. When the hashtag #prayforparis went viral, Wallach responded with multiple social media posts and a blog post about how atheism was the only belief that could make the world a better place. (Though Wallach argues that it is not, in fact, a belief: “The fact that we have a word for it makes it seem like it’s equivalent to other belief systems, but it’s not. The absence of something is not equivalent to the thing itself.”)

[View Wallach’s comments on atheism as a .pdf.]

After Wallach Tweeted that he was a “a rabid atheist, and the world would be a better place if more folk were” – a Tweet he subsequently deleted before deleting his account in its entirety – he doubled down in a block post that outlined all the way religions failed and all the reasons atheism was awesome.

Those who tried to explain to him why this behavior was – to say the least – problematic found themselves quickly blocked or shut down; at once point, Wallach tried to explain anti-Semitism to Jewish author Hannah Moskowitz before claiming that “if [her]parents are atheists and [his]dad is Jewish, [he’s] as much Jewish as [her].”

(For those wondering, Wallach blocked me during this incident despite being friendly with me and having taken my advice previously; while he did believe me in regards to his behavior towards Justina Ireland, which you can see in Tweets above, my snarky comment to him about “the only good people are the people who are exactly like me” was, apparently, too much for him to take. As Wallach’s account has since been deleted and I purged my social media account in January, that interaction is no longer publicly available.)

Take this behavior in comparison to author LJ Silverman, who recently received a sea of anti-Semitic hate mail – including crude manipulated images of her in an oven – for Tweeting that she was worried about the upcoming election in the context of history. Wallach painted himself to be the victim, somebody “attacked” for insulting all of the religious folks in the YA community, while Silverman, who simply shared a worry plaguing her, became a victim of virulent trolls.

While Wallach deleted his social media accounts after this, there were no public consequences to his actions despite ill-will from the YA community at large. If another member of the YA community had spoken out – one of our Catholic or Islamic or Jewish or Mormon authors, for instance – the backlash would have been substantially worse, possibly career-ruining.

Wallach’s career, however, was not ruined; he recently landed a six-figure deal for a book trilogy centered around a “holy war.”

And thus, we return to Wallach’s dismissive comments on suicide – which, it turned out, were neither new or original. In a blog post deleted after it came to light during this discussion, Wallach rated “the top ten literary suicides (organized by emo-ness)” which included all of the characters of HBO’s Girls – “It’s really just a fantasy of mine.” – and, ranking at number one, Sylvia Plath – who is not a character but a real person who suffered from depression before taking her own life at a young age.

[View Wallach’s post on suicide as a .pdf.]

“I’m only going to talk about the fact that a successful YA author found it appropriate to glorify, romanticize, and mock what for many of his readers is among the highest causes of death,” wrote Schwab in her “We Need To Talk About Tommy” post. “That this author could be so very careless and flippant and insensitive about such a very serious issue is abhorrent. That two years after penning this post he still sees suicide as something to be made light of, to be used as a marketing tool.”

Simon & Schuster made no public comment about any of Wallach’s comments. His career, save for making enemies of some fellow authors, seems relatively unscathed by his callous actions.

Anyway, the moral of the story is, like, if you wanna read books by straight white dudes, go for it, but check them out from the library. Spend your book-buying money on books by women, nonbinary/other folks, and dudes who aren’t straight and/or white. Straight white men, PARTICULARLY in categories of literature that are largely targeted towards girls and women, and largely written by girls and women -- but published, edited, and marketed by other straight white men -- are lauded FAR above what they’re actually worth, as like, storytellers or human people go.

The Glass Escalator is a one-way trip to wonderland, but YA is a skyscraper that was built by women and I PROMISE you, whatever book by one of these dudes you’re considering reading, there’s a better version by a woman and/or person of color on the shelves nearby that just didn’t get 1/10th of the marketing money.

And of course there should be an effort to be kind on social media, but “keep YA kind”... to whom? To the people who were being silenced when they were pointing out legitimate problems with the behaviors of men in social power? (And one of whom, in the case of Jay Asher, was LITERALLY DANGEROUS BC HE IS A SEXUAL PREDATOR.) Like, really? There had to be a hashtag campaign to silence dozens of people with legitimate, not-bullying-just-pointing-out-problems-that-are-problems-with-stuff-you-did-dude problems, to make social media feel more comfortable for four middle-aged straight white men?

As though the outside world isn’t comfortable enough for middle-aged straight white men????

#asks #aheavenlyrush

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