#They’re trying some fairly complex harmonies and it. it is not working

[eddis-not-eeddis]

I hate it when my siblings go off to church sponsored functions because my mom feels obligated to tune into the live streams and I love holiness Christians, but they sure do think they can sing, and most of them really, really can’t.

[tjlikesprettythings]

Random Brightwell Scene I wrote while listening to “Sleeping Alone” by Lykke Li under quarantine

For some reason the text didn’t save the first time, so another attempt! Also sorry for not putting read more break, apparently that doesn’t exist on the mobile app, and you can’t edit app post on desktop. 🤦🏽‍♀️

I recommend listening to the song during the dancing bit, it’s linked below. k, thanks! :D

 The Brooklyn rooftop bar where the summer get-together was being held was all industrial-chic, large metal lamps hanging from chains and exposed pipes, spruced up by rooftop trees or potted plants, decked out with lights and greenery, wood accents and wicker lounge settes and chairs scattered prettily with cozy neutral cushions. The lower New York skyline surrounded by the East River and the Brooklyn Bridge was the view as the sun sat lower in the horizon, true hipster haven. Not what he pictured when he was invited by Gil. Apparently, an annual thing major crimes did together. He scanned the area and found familiar faces.

Edrisa looked happy chatting away with some techs from her team. His eyes drifted to JT and Tally whispering to each other making each other smile, then there she was rolling her eyes with a smile at their affections. 

She wore a delicate cap-sleeved red summer dress peppered with small white daisy detail that ended around her knees, it fit her form perfectly, the arches of her breasts encased subtly. A pair of sandy-colored boots that ended at her ankles. Her curls seemed even fuller tonight, those dainty gold necklaces and rings completed the look as her sunkissed skin seem to glow. She looked different from her usual office attire, she looked relaxed, almost carefree.  

She was enchanting. He felt that similar thump to his chest, his mouth felt dry, and suddenly he didn’t know if coming tonight was a good idea. It was the warm hand on his shoulder that jolted him from his thoughts and he tore his eyes away from her to turn to see Gil standing next to him with two beers in his hand and a smile on his face. 

He knew how everyone around him led fairly normal lives, but seeing everyone here just being calm and normal enjoying each other’s company, the warm summer air, the music, and harmonious chatter made him feel almost out of place. It all felt unattainable and surreal. 

“Here Kid, you look like you need a drink,” Gil said patting his shoulder. Malcolm realized that while he was a gifted profiler, Gil had experience and age on him. He chuckled softly and took the offered beer bottle and took a swig.

“Thanks,” he scanned the crowd again, “this a good turn out, everyone seems to be having a good time.”

Gil nodded looking around proud of the setup. “It’s not often that we get to take a break and have a moment to just enjoy life and be grateful that we have it. These moments, they’re what keeps us from losing it when you see continuous horror.”

“I get that,” he said taking another sip of his beer, he did get it, but it was so different from what he was used to. Was there ever going to be enough moments where the horrors that he lived with daily dissipate? 

“You just have to allow yourself to let some light and good in,” Gil said as if reading his thoughts. “For a start, I’m glad you came, whatever the reason maybe.” With that, he walked away and engage a group of officers, Malcolm smiled quietly to himself, of course, Gil would pick on it. He wasn’t exactly hiding the fact that he drifted to her in any given situation.

He walked over to where Dani, JT, and Tally stood, one hand tucked into his casual linen trousers, the other holding the beer, letting the coolness ground him to reality. He decided to leave his Bond villain white stripe ensemble at home this time, opting for the white trousers and a light blue chambray shirt. He could hear Tally sharing something about marrying strangers.

“It’s crazy, these girls are just marrying dudes that they spoke to through walls? Asked JT.

“Well yeah, the whole point is that love is blind. It’s not what you see but feel.” Tally said. “Malcolm, what do you think?” Tally reminded him of Jackie sometimes, wholesome and inclusive. 

“Uh…”

Before he could start JT intervened with a “that seems dumb, reality tv is such a scam,”

Tally playfully smacked JT’s arm, “I asked Malcolm!”

Dani snickered softly at the couples exchange, her eyes drifting to Malcolm often. He looked so casual, summery even. She supposed this is what he wore to go to the Hamptons to lounge around his family’s summer house. It was both easy and hard to forget that Malcolm came from money. She didn’t expect him to come, but couldn’t help but be happy he did. 

“Ow, woman!” JT laughed. “Alright Bright! Enlighten us!”

“Malcolm!” Edrisa bounced over and smiled her full-on Colgate smile at him. 

“Edrisa, Malcolm is about to tell us what’s important physical attraction or personality” Tally filled her in. 

“Well, we like to think of romantic feelings as spontaneous and indescribable things that come from the heart. But it's actually your brain running a complex series of calculations within a matter of seconds that's responsible for determining attraction,” he started and right away the group responded. JT groaned, Edrisa bounced in agreement, Tally nodded her head in fascination and Dani rolled her eyes.  

He continued “in fact, all five senses play a role, each able to vote for or veto, a budding attraction,” 

“That why when someone smells amazing, you feel that jolt?” asked Tally excitedly,

“Exactly, all of these things determine whether a person will be a suitable fertile partner, we’re quite primitive. So I suppose that if you were to take away the biological needs and put them in a situation where it was a matter of intellectual and emotional compatibility a person could grow fonder, but I think the physical attraction is also important.”

“Says every guy ever,” mumbled Dani.

“What do you think Dani? Would you date a guy for looks or personality?” Tally asked grinning.

Dani curved her lips to the side and rolled her eyes, “I think personality is important, I mean he can look like Idris Elba but that won’t save him if we can’t have a decent conversation.”

“But would you be able to be with him if he were disfigured?” Malcolm challenged.

“I like to think I’m not superficial, if I connected with him emotionally, don’t know that it would bother me.” she threw back. “Besides, good looking guys can be damaged too, doesn’t mean they are throwaways or keepers.”

The tension fizzled in the air as Dani defiantly stared Malcolm down. It was the clearing of throats that broke them from their wordless conversation. 

“Think I’ll go grab us more drinks,” Edrisa grinned avoiding the tension on the raise, she liked Malcolm but Dani was scary. 

Dani’s lopsided grin and Malcolm’s full-on smile told the group they were gearing up to have another productive banter session, something that seemed to be happening a lot lately as JT told Tally in passing while talking about his day, to which she pressed her lips together and nodded knowingly and commented that it was probably sexual tension. JT watched his colleagues with squinted eyes, maybe Tally was right?

“Ok, before this gets out of control, let me take this beautiful woman dancing,” JT took his wife’s hands and dragged her to the dancefloor in the center of the bar. It was getting to be that time of the night when everyone was slowly getting intoxicated, the twilight was setting in the bustling lights from the city was becoming more prominent making for an even more spectacular ambiance. While the summer breeze brought liveliness.

“It’s a good thing, Diaz’s brother is the manager here, couldn’t have gotten a better venue,” Dani stated suddenly, stirring her drink, bobbing her head to the music.

“Yea, it’s nice,” he said in agreement, trying not to let her scent distract him. What was it jasmine and yalang yalang?

“I’m sure you’ve seen better parties” she smiled, “debutante balls, galas, and whatnot.”

He chuckled, “oh yea, that’s the norm, everyone was clamoring to invite the serial killer family to parties.”

She looked at him then, every so often she was reminded of the full implications of what Martin Whitley’s actions did to his family. That even with the prominence, there were social isolations that were stricter for his class of people. She hated the pain behind his self deprecating humor. 

“You should give Edrisa a dance, you’ll make her night and it is a party.”

He smiled softly, “Yea, I guess so.” rubbing the back of his neck, she knew how to level off. Knew how to defuse him.

Dani laughed softly and honestly, he wished he could hear it more. “Live a little Bright, if you’re gonna lose sleep, might as well have a bit of fun doing it.”

“How can I get used to How can I forget you Will I get used to Sleeping alone”

Live a little, why not? He should, he should let himself have moments. Moments that will shield him from the loneliness, from the dark. Moments where he can have a fighting chance. As his brain worked through this for a few seconds, his eyes caught Jackson walking towards them with a purpose, a smile on his face for Dani. Officer Adam Jackson who shamelessly flirted with Dani, who smiled at her constantly and lingered around her desk or at the break room. The occasions when she paid Jackson a bit of attention, brought an unpleasant taste to his mouth. Malcolm didn’t know what happened next but it became a blur of movements. He saw Jackson stop and stare in their direction.

“Tomorrow is a long time Forgetting so long I loved you a lifetime I loved you long”

He took her hand slowly pulling her closer, eyes on her, the music wafted through them, around them. His name almost spilled from her lips in protest but caught at the back of her throat, instead, her hands fell around his shoulders. She let him lead her, her mind drifted to that night when he was so high he ran towards her and swept her up in his arms. Lips curving to a smile, that was the night they decided to be friends, the night she decided to try to trust him. She swayed with him, the words of the song pulling at something within her. 

“Someday, somehow Somewhere down the line If you save your heart for mine We'll meet again, we'll meet again-”

She wasn’t emotional, she felt things deeply but kept it close to her heart, she felt like she needed to do that to keep herself together. Then one day Malcolm Bright came charging in erratically just bouncing against those walls until they started to fracture until the cracks started to show and she couldn’t hide from him. Even when she wished he wouldn’t see her, or find her, there he was. “You had some more coke explode in your face that I don’t know about?” she asked with a smile.

He breathed in her scent, felt her solid and warm against him. He could feel his own heart racing. She did things to him, honestly, he could be high at this moment but just from her. He smiled, “I think we both know that wouldn’t end well, but I figured friends can dance with each other right?”

Friends, the word floated between them for a moment. Lately, the line seemed to be blurring, gray setting in as to what they each wanted from the other.  

“At least you didn’t threaten to kick me in the business, I’d say that’s progress.” He joked almost nervously.

She pursed her lips then smiled, “shut up Bright,” Stepping just a bit closer and wrapping her arms just a bit tighter around him. Feeling his fingers grip her waist more firmly. She closed her eyes for a moment and everything disappeared except for his woodsy scent and the warmth of his body. Maybe, just maybe for a second, they could just be two people dancing.

“Love was my shoreline I stare myself blind Now was not our time No, I let you down”

The world just kind of stopped all he heard was the sound of her breathing against his ears and felt the light brush of her breast against his chest. The warmth of it all driving him a bit mad. Thoughts of kissing her entered his head, as it had been doing more and more lately.  The haunting song left him with such want, he wanted her, need her. He didn’t notice that Gil smiled at them from the bar or that Tally mouthed ‘I told you’ to JT to which he shook his head. 

“Some last, some die Some love wait till its time If you save your heart for mine We'll meet again, we'll meet again, We'll meet again, we'll meet again“

“Bright?”

“Hmm,” he hummed softly against her ear, his breath warm, making her skin tingle. 

“You seem different tonight,” she pulled away from him a bit to look at him. “You good?”

“Well, I definitely have been in worse situations that’s for sure.” He joked, his eyes searching her face as it turned into a signature ‘had it with your shit’ smile. 

“Oh yea, I bet dancing with me falls under the top 10 worst experiences of your adult life.” She said rolling her eyes and chuckling. 

“I’d say somewhere between getting kidnapped and holding a live bomb,” 

She laughed at that and stepped out of his embrace “thanks jerk!”

He missed her instantly, maybe that’s why he grabbed her elbows as he joined her laughter and said “dancing with you Dani Powell makes the top 10 best experiences of my life.”

“Oh, yeah? Before or after all the sex you’ve had?” she couldn’t stop herself, even as her mind yelled ‘what are you doing?! This is flirting, this is not friend stuff.’ but the words tumbled out of her mouth. 

He looked at her, watched as her face turn almost the exact shade of red as her dress, he opened his mouth then chuckled out, “it could easily take number one.” He saw her intake of breath, the way her eyes locked on him and her cheeks burned, he saw the flash of what he thought he felt. Could she possibly feel the same?

They were definitely moving away from the friend zone, and thank fuck for that she thought because it was getting exhausting to pretend that she didn’t want to grab his stupid face and kiss him every time he said something that made her heart go thump like now or when he looked like he would break from the pressure within. But then she realized where they were and reality kicked in and she got scared, so she backed off with a small smile saying “It’s a good thing you’re a smooth talker, we’re too high up for anything to break your fall.” 

Just like that, the moment changed and they were friends again...

[girlobsessed21]

The 100 season 6 - theories and predictions.

No episode this week, I know, it sucks. So, I’ve decided to do jot down some thoughts and conspiracies I have. Feel free to argue with me. I love hearing I’m wrong and why.

Episode 6 is called Memento Mori, Latin for "remember that you will die", is the medieval Latin Christian theory and practice of reflection on mortality, especially as a means of considering the vanity of earthly life and the transient nature of all earthly goods and pursuits.

Episode 7: Nevermind -  used to tell someone not to worry about something because it is not important.

Episode 8: The old man and the anomaly aka Gabriel and time travel.

Episode 9: What you take with you - when you die?

Episode 10: Matryoshka: also known as Russian nesting dolls, stacking dolls, or Russian dolls, are the set of wooden dolls of decreasing size placed one inside another.

Episode 11: Ashes to ashes -  derives from the English Burial Service. The text of that service is adapted from the Biblical text, Genesis 3:19 (King James Version): In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

Episode 12: Adjustment protocol

Episode 13: The blood of Sanctum

All of the above refers to mortality and death. The entire season will thus focus on both the continuance and destruction of the primes. 

Murphine in cahoots

Luckily Murphy loves Emori, because that hookup would have made me nauseous. I HOPE IT DOESN’T HAPPEN. Okay, he will do whatever it takes to avoid hell and get eternal life. Call me a big old Murphy marshmallow, but I refuse to believe he’ll put his family in harm's way. 

Josephine will have to promise their safety in order to gain his co-operation. The rest he doesn’t care about. Including Clarke. I know he saved her during the eclipse but he needed her help to rescue Bellamy. He seems pretty mad at her, I’m sure he doesn’t want her dead, but she’s not on his list of top priorities.

Josephine needs to learn how to create nightbloods and only Abby knows how to do that. And Abby will swim across the Atlantic to save Kane. Ding Dong, create another nightblood to save Kane, but who will that be? One of McCreary’s crew, a fellow Wonkru warrior or will Abby sacrifice herself? Not sure if a man can utilize a woman’s body.

She is so determined to save the love of her life, that she ignores the gravity of her own daughter writing with the wrong hand. Further, she has already expressed her opinion on how Kane deserves to live while they don’t. She bears a lot of guilt for the things she has done. But Abby wasn’t comfortable with their experiments in Becca’s lab. It will take a lot of persuasion; can she be convinced to take another life?

Maybe Murphy and Josephine will tell Bellamy that there’s a way to bring Clarke back to get him on board. They’ll have to temporarily kill her parents to continue with their scheme. Russel is firmly against Josephine’s breeding plans and creating new nightbloods means murdering red-blooded people. 

Head over heart Bellamy would not be okay with this, but I think he might lose his head over the loss of Clarke. More on this later. Jordan will do whatever it takes to save Delilah, so he might board this “saving” ship too. Raven will torture herself when she finds out about this and probably go above and beyond to help bring her back. Echo and Emori might be indifferent.

Josephine vs Clarke

A lot of you have argued against my Mount Weather theory last week. I’m still not convinced it’s not time travel via the anomaly but I’m not psychic. So, my other option is that Josephine will experience Clarke’s past as dreams. Bellamy explains, in trig, that it’s how his victims haunt him. Perhaps a little foreshadowing.

Russel was in a hurry and distraught to clear the host (kill Clarke) and bring his daughter back. In my 6x05 review, I did a bit of research on the meaning of Gabriel’s biology terms and came to the conclusion that Clarke is not dead, only in a deep vegetative state. Gabriel stressed the fact that they had to wait for the serum to reach the claustrum. Perhaps it didn’t take full effect.

Josephine did not sleep her first night back, but when she does it might be restless and filled with Clarke’s demons. Clarke Griffin is a fighter, trust her not to back down. Not to give up. She’s gonna taunt you until you wanna crash the Ferrari. We know both Jake and Maya comes back, so this is probably where we’ll see them. Unfortunately, in the process, she’ll have to relive it herself.

The crazy smoothie that cleanses the body of all evils

Ingredients:

1 x Red Queen

1 x Terrorist

1 x Rebel named Xavier

1 x Old man

1 x Temporal Anomaly

Mix all the ingredients together and you have the perfect solution for a prime pest problem. Octavia and Diyoza are desperate to find Gabriel and if it means time traveling through the temporal anomaly, then so be it.

Octavia’s hand aged when it came into contact with the temporal flare. So, I’m fairly certain they’re either going back or forward in time. IMDB shows Hope as a little girl in 6x08, which means Diyoza visits the future and Octavia might go back to the bunker to slaughter Bloodreina.

Once they make it through, they finally encounter the old man himself, who has all the answers with regards to the primes, Sanctum and ridding Clarke of the devil that possesses her.

I have a strong idea that this will be how the Blakes bury the hatchet. Octavia will help Bellamy and the others to revive Clarke. Meaning Bellamy will see the good that still exists inside her. Even when he couldn’t see it, I never gave up hope of Octavia returning. A lot of you did not agree with his decision to abandon her, but I think it’s the best thing he could have done for her.

Madi vs Sheidheda

I’m still not sure what’s going on here. I’ve seen some theories about using her bone marrow in an attempt to create other nightbloods. It could be, but they have a lot of nightbloods to put to use. And Abby won’t use Madi, that’s for sure.

Also, Madi has machinery strapped to her head in the trailer, which made me think that Josephine doesn’t know how to reverse engineer “memory chip” technology like Gabriel did and will need to explore the flame to create one for Murphy.

Or perhaps Josephine fails in convincing Abby, finds out that Madi has Becca’s memories in her head and tries to download them from the flame? 

Either way, Madi’s nightmares are enhanced during the experiments and she will obviously battle the dark commander for power. Without Clarke and Gaia’s guidance, she might lose, become him and in turn the villain of season 7. I just hope it doesn’t cause her death. Can you imagine Clarke returning to find Madi’s gone? She’s had to live through numerous deaths: Jake, Finn, Lexa, Marper, Jasper, please don’t do this to her.

The romance section

I don’t think we’ll see Delilah again. Jordan will do everything in his power to bring her back, just like Clarke, but I have a feeling she’s gone. For good. So, RIP Jolilah.

Emori is also on my deathdar for some reason. It’s no secret that I ship Murven, but I really don’t mind Memori. They’ve had their problems in season 5 and Murphy’s fear of dying might push them apart again.  Look, some people die each season and so far it seems like there’s no further story for Emori.

Raven and Murphy have always been better when they’re in the presence of the other, but I like them as friends as well. Murphy somehow calms Raven and she inspires him to do better. 

I know it’s harsh and I want Raven to be happy, but unless Raven and Ryker are endgame, I hope they don’t set them up romantically. The writers probably had a bit of a muddle with Shaw leaving for another show while wanting to give Raven a happy arc this season. Somehow, I do think all the primes will be killed (the blood of Sanctum) with the exception of Ryker since he seems a bit hesitant towards their living style. If that’s where it’s heading then I’m fine with it because they did have instant chemistry and a lot of it. More than she had with Shaw. Don't @ me. But please show it to us over time.

Please don’t hate me but I don’t think Niyalah and Octavia will become romantic either. As far as I know, Jessica Harmon is working on Izombie and I think her death is soon. Besides Octavia has to mend in herself before she can focus on relationships with other people. Including her brother.

I spy with my little eye a Becho breakup

I’ve feared that Bellamy and Echo might be a long term pairing many times before, and I’ve even sort of accepted it because I refused to let it ruin the show for me. Now, more than ever, I believe they’re on their way out. In the 6x06 promo, Echo is in the woods, searching for Octavia? She may even team up with them.

Echo does not understand Bellamy’s complexity in a way that Clarke does. On the ring, they lived in harmony, whereas now they have countless tribulations to overcome and they’re not the same people. 

Also, there’s been continuous scenes where she’s shown as inferior and submissive to both him and Clarke. They bark the orders and she follows, Emori even called her out on it in 6x02. A relationship can only last between two equals.

If that’s not enough, there’s no way in hell, no mountain too high, no river too deep for Bellamy Blake to bring Clarke back. He’ll fight who has to be fought, kill who has to be killed, leave no stone unturned. One of those obstacles might even be Echo trying to convince him she’s gone. Bellamy will refuse to lose her again. When Echo sees this, she’ll realize what Clarke means to him and either confront him or cut him loose.

There is no more beautiful romance than Bellarke

Think of all the most romantic books you’ve read or movies you’ve watched. What was the trope? I bet you’ll find it in Bellarke.

Titanic - “You jump, I jump right?” - “If I’m on that list, you’re on that list.”

Beauty and the beast - Enemies to friends to lovers

Tangled - Deep, longing looks during firelight 

Love in the time of cholera - A love triangle due to logicality and comfort vs love

Romeo and Juliet - A girl from a wealthy family falls for a boy from poverty. Both willing to die for the other.

The Notebook - “I wrote you one letter every day for a year.” - “When you were on the ring, she called you every day for six years.”

The Time Traveler’s wife - Two lovers constantly separated by time and space but love always prevails.

I can sit here all night. The fact of the matter is that they love each other. Of course Bellamy notices that Clarke is not herself first. Even after six years apart, he is attuned to her and knows her on such a deep and intense level that he can’t be fooled. 

When she leaves to head to the school, he follows. He allows himself to be vulnerable with her when she apologizes. Clarke’s biggest regret is leaving him to die. She trusts him to bring her child home safely. He trusts her to bargain for their safety. Bellamy stares while she dances with someone else and asks about it later. Then his reaction to her overshare of the details is a mixture of confusion and jealousy. 

But the best part of all is the horror and heartbreak when he finds out he’s lost her. Again. That part of his heart, only reserved for Clarke, will now come to the surface and there will be no more denial.

To wrap up, I can only speculate based on what I’ve seen and heard. So, I can’t include all the characters that have been MIA. Indra most of all. I miss her. Please let me know if you think I’m crazy. I’d love to hear it.

[hollowedrpg]

CONGRATULATIONS, RILEY! — You’ve been accepted for the role of Emmeline Vance. Choosing who would play Emmeline was by no means easy, but your application really struck the perfect balance of every side of their character. No matter how far they try to outrun their past and the implications of the mark on their arm, there will always be a part of them that is everything their father and that curse shaped them to be. Throughout your whole app I really got a clear sense of the way you’d write and portray the character. 

Thank you so much for applying. Please create your account and send in the link, track the right tags, and follow everyone on the follow list. Welcome to Hollowed Souls!

ooc.

name: riley / ri

age: 21+

preferred pronouns: she/her

timezone: pst

activity: my activity should be fairly good for the most part. i find the time to get online at least once a day and therefore should be steady with replies and plotting, etc. out of ten i would probably rate it a six just to be safe because sometimes work is unpredictable but if anything arises i will be sure to send in notice of such.

are you applying for more than one character?: i said i would write multiple applications but however, it was only emmeline’s that came to be full force. so they will be the only muse i am applying for.

how do you feel about your character dying?: i would say fairly comfortable. i love in depth and painstakingly terrible plots and therefore i love putting my muses through such a thing. if the time does arise where it is fitting to the plot that emmeline has to die, i would absolutely be here for it.

anything else?: thank you for reading my application, hope you enjoy !

ic details.

full name:

EMMELINE / it is yours and yours alone, your only identifier. given to you by your parents, plucked from their brains as if some sort of hymn when they spoke it. your name meant more to them, the idea of regality and superiority. yet, when they spoke it, you couldn’t help but feel the strings within your heart tugged ever so slightly. they brought you into this world, made certain that your upbringing was filled with an array of darkness if only to make you face the reality that was to come. your name is all that remains now. you’ve shed your skin so many times it seems as though your childhood is but a mere memory, distant and out of reach entirely.

emmeline, they whisper. the viper. the master cursebreaker, the renowned dueller. the air that surrounds your name, the glory and shame that comes with it, is something in which you cannot truly stomach. your humble in your approach and yet you know there is pride to be had within your skills. you can only hope that when your name is etched upon the history books that it tells the story of a triumph, of a person reborn and redeemed in the eyes of those who seek to destroy, who seek to avenge.

ANITA / the same middle name as your murdered mother. the only thing that binds you to the family you once had. there was once a time in which you’re sure you were happy, when your eyes were closed to the sins in which your father took part in. it’s this that you believe is your most treasured memory, your greatest lie. an air of cruelty surrounds him as much as it leaks into your childhood. you look just like her, they’d whisper. as if it were a sin to resemble the woman whose death had allowed a volatile man to escalate his cruel intentions further. as if you were to blame.

as the years go on, you distance yourself from this identity. this regret. anita simply becomes a name, nothing more and nothing less. the mirror shows you nothing if not a ghost of your mother, a mirrored image of a woman damned by her connections to a man who’d watch with a wicked grin as the world burned around him. you were nothing more than a ghost. “a child weaned on poison considers harm to be a comfort.”

VANCE / you wear it with disdain, it wears on you as well as the dark mark upon your forearm. a constant reminder of where you came from, where you’ve never ceased to stop running from. your father was venomous and so you assume you are too. yet, your words slice into the necks of those who’d deemed themselves gods among men. those who found themselves neatly propped upon self made pedestals in which you’d had no time to cater to.

the vance name is renowned in the wizarding world and you yourself feel every bit as responsible as the father who’d wielded his wand like a sword as he’d sliced into your skin the dark mark. branded you like a beast and named you ruination. you attempt to scrub the vance family name from your history as much as you attempt to scrub away the tar black ink settled gently against your forearm. every time you fail.

date of birth: october 15th ( libra ) striving for nothing more, nothing less than justice and equality. libra’s have been known to do what is best for everyone. believing in such things as peace and harmony, libra is a sign that most would pair with leadership.

former hogwarts house: slytherin. a very crucial part of emmeline’s identity and her character arc overall.

sexuality: bisexual and biromantic.

gender/pronouns: non-binary with a preference for they/them pronouns.

face claim change: absolutely not, jessica henwick is perfect.

more.

how do you interpret this character’s personality? how will you play them? include two weaknesses & two strengths.

emmeline’s personality to me is a multitude of things. they are, as others like to call them, a viper of sorts. they shed their skin like that of a snake and relish in their victories. they are a chameleon soul, someone who can twist words and slink from skins in order to obtain whatever it is that helps them get ahead. much like the stereotypes for slytherin house, emmeline is filled with a ferocious determination to succeed in their ventures. the one with the most importance is, and always will be, to rid the world of the men and women who did this to them, who forced them to take a mark and

i plan on playing them, if given the chance, with the ferocity that they deserve. emmeline has lived a life filled with terror, shaped by events that weren’t entirely within their choosing. their father damned them to a life of self loathing no thanks to the permanent mark that rests upon their skin. it’s almost reminiscent of lady macbeth’s spot upon her hand, the way emmeline tries and tries again to rid themselves of a mark they did not ask for, one that haunts them. they are a part of the order, and a controversial one at that. some know the story of emmeline’s father, how his cruelty was sought out by powerful men, how he’d turned trinkets into treasures, cursing them with the harshest of spells for the shiniest of galleons. the vance family was never known for their generosity nor their acceptance and so emmeline is somewhat of an outcast in the sense of belonging when it comes to the order. i feel as though they really took a long time to find themselves comfortable enough to be in the presence of most within godric’s hollow, a place in which they once adamantly refused to live within. however, times have changed and emmeline has come around slightly. making an effort to settle, if only for a few months. someone used to running, someone used to never calling a house a home, now forced to remain within the confides of once boarded up, blood stained homes.

there’s a certain blood on emmeline’s hands that does not wash away with time. they’re tied to the very organization that they’re trying to destroy in such an intimate way. the dark mark upon emmeline’s forearm is kept a well hidden secret amongst the order, their greatest shame and burden. it causes something to erupt with emmeline that is almost inexplainable, a grief and a rage that can be seen every time they’re faced with the deaths of those they fight alongside with.

emmeline to me is redemption, a story of revenge and retribution. they are a revolutionary soul thrust into a war in which they wish to end. in which they feel slightly responsible for. mind you, emmeline’s father created the dark mark curse, and as such fed the fire and the hatred that stemmed for muggleborns and “blood traitors” alike. they lived without the love of a mother, that maternal affection torn from their grasp and in doing so, leaving a small whole in their heart where their mothers memory would lie. emmeline as a whole is a complex and closed off character. someone who is so filled with rage and anger towards the right people that it oft seems as though they might explode. surrounded by those with whom have lost more than they could ever imagine, emmeline feels a guilt that eats her alive, a stirring within her stomach that keeps her awake in the middle of the night.

STRENGTH : INSTINCTIVE. to trust ones gut, to be able to identify trouble before one finds it, it’s a gift that emmeline holds near and dear. for years they’ve been alone, always fighting and always searching. in that time, they learned motives and tells and how to identify traps from truths. it was something that buried itself deeply within their gut, their instinct. some would call it a gift, emmeline simply calls it sheer dumb luck.  it’s automatic, the way they reach for their wand before their opponent. it’s almost prophetic how they manage to predict every move and every ill fated nature. their instinct has gotten them this far. their instinct has kept them alive, told them to trust the likes of alastor and kingsley with their greatest shame. it’s their instinct, their blind faith in it, that is perhaps their greatest triumph and so naturally, may be their biggest downfall.

WEAKNESS : VINDICTIVE. there is no greater feeling than that of revenge. to plunge a knife deep within the throat of a man who’d wronged you, to watch as he suffered beneath your hand as he begged you for mercy. mercy in which they’d never shown you. a kindness would be to allow the man a quick death for his sins, yet emmeline revels in the merciless act of murder. in the slow, torturous death that comes at their hand. for, there is a desire that boils through their blood, courses through their veins and drives every action in which they do. the desire to get revenge, the desire to see those who’d harmed emmeline, in harms way themselves. the world was no longer safe, the gods no longer kind. there was no salvation and the wicked and saints alike were targets for hells gates. emmeline has accepted this fact. that they’re doomed for damnation. yet, they carry on. they fight for a cause that can help them tear down the very walls in which men like emmeline’s father had built.

STRENGTH : ADAPTABLE. to shed skin like a snake is to adapt. to thrive in cold weathers as much as one thrives beneath the blazing sun. there is no situation in which emmeline cannot conquer, it’s a thing in which they pride themselves on. to find a situation, once known as impossible, and come out the other side unscathed. there is something about the way they move, something about the way they carry themselves that gives an air of mystery. to some, they’re an enigma. as invisible as a black cat within the midnight hour. others, a small few, know the cause and the result. to live as a feral cat amongst the snakes pit, to be bitten with poison that runs so deeply within their bloodstream and become immune, was something to be proud of. however, emmeline, as humble as they were, had never wanted the glory that went along with becoming a different someone, a certain anyone, beneath pressure and circumstance. this, they told themselves, was the only way they could survive. the only way they could watch slowly as the blood drained from the men who’d bruised their wrists and branded their forearm against all cries, against every scream that echoed into the night. to adapt was to survive, and emmeline had made it this far.

WEAKNESS : IMPULSIVE. it’s impulse that might be your undoing. it’s impulse in which you act on. they tell emmeline time and time again. yet, there’s always been something so thrilling about the chase, about the hunt. they did, after all, force them into it did they not? a child of quiet nature ripped root from stem and made into a monster as much as they, only to become the hunter in search of the prey. emmeline’s impulsive nature has gotten them into trouble a time too many, but it has also allowed them an excuse to run, an excuse to hide, to fight. while they may seem calculating and calm, emotions are something in which they cannot fully control and more oft than not, they act upon them before fully thinking.

EXTRAS : TENACIOUS, RECKLESS, PASSIONATE, EMPATHETIC

how has the war affected this character, emotionally and otherwise?

the war began for emmeline at such a young age it was as if they’d never known a life before it. they’re endured a life within four walls with a man who sought to destroy and a legacy in which emmeline would once hope to shed. to follow a man so wicked, to be forced down a path so unrighteous and wrong it turned their stomach and caused knots to erupt from within. all emmeline ever wanted was to be free, to condemn the men who’d branded her and to rid the earth of them entirely. war, it had seemed, was imbedded in their very bones. it was the cause of every move they made, of every whisper they relayed in a hushed voice.

emotionally, emmeline has always been slightly closed off to others. that much is certain due to their lack of commitment in anything but their livelihoods. ie. their job, their purpose of bringing down the death eaters. war breeds nothing but grief and death, but emmeline had seen both of these things, had known both of them since their childhood. to some, the war is something new. but to emmeline, it is their everyday, their reoccurring nightmare.

they hear the whispers and the sins of those who bare the mark upon their arm, they’ve seen it first hand how wicked they can be towards those they deem unworthy. it’s this that takes a toll upon emmeline the most. they were, after all, one of the first. one of the many to be branded by a man who sought glory. who would rip apart villages and families in the name of genocide. it weighs down upon them like guilt, washes over them and swallows them whole.

war wears down their heart, it rips soul away root from stem. it has spared no one, not even the seemingly cold and closed off emmeline vance. war has ruined them all, and it will continue to do so until it is over. when will it be over, they ask. never, emmeline replies.

where does this character currently stand? with those who wish to hide in godric’s hollow until the war ends, with those who wish to rebuild the order and continue fighting the war, or on neither side? why?

emmeline is firmly planted upon the same side as alastor moody and amelia bones. they will stop at nothing to right the wrongs in which they’d endured, in which others endure as well. so long as there are death eaters still out there, emmeline believes there is a war to fight. to be part of the greater good, to bring peace to a world that has only ever shown emmeline pain, hatred and discourse. with war there is hope, in their mind. with war comes the death of men who’d wrong them, who’d murdered innocents out of their own vanity. the order has become the closest thing emmeline has to a home, to a solid rock to lean against and they’ll be damned if they have to lose it at the hands of the death eaters. there is a war in their very soul, an ache that yearns for the blood of blood supremacists to spill.

dark times lie ahead and emmeline has fully prepared themself for it. they would greet death like an old friend if it came after the order had been named victor and the vengeance upon the death eaters was handed over to them with an iron fist. it’s always been about the war for emmeline, always been about how they will go down fighting the men who their father had allowed into their home. it seems as though a cruel twist of fate has struck emme, their life is pledged to a bitter sense of revenge. without it, do they serve a purpose? should they truly be the ones to rebuild if all they ever do is seek to destroy the enemy entirely? the why is simple. there is no greater desire than that of death by emmeline’s hand. there is no greater drive, no greater push than that of the promise that men will die by their hand. they branded emme, humiliated them, pained them for years to come and they simply continued to run. to never know a home again, to never lay ones head down to rest gently and know that by morning they will be alive. every day is a fight and every day a war goes on not only on the outside, but the inside as well. the world does not forgive those who’ve blood on their hands, and so emmeline has chosen to abide by their desires. they want to continue the fight, for they know as much as the next person that the war is never truly over. it lives on.

Has Emmeline showed the dark mark to anyone other than Kingsley and Alastor? How has being a part of the Order been for them when they’re marked by the enemy?

surprisingly, no. emmeline’s sleeves cover their dark mark and so i would like to say the only people who have seen the tattoo upon their forearm are alastor and kingsley and i would assume arabella knows of it but has yet to see it. it’s something that haunts emmeline, something that reminds them of why it is that they’re fighting, who it is that they’re fighting. the shame that comes with the vance name, with their family name, is enough to stir demons within emmeline’s stomach. it’s something they carry, a weight upon their shoulders.

becoming a member in the order was something expected of emmeline, from themself of course. to help in the downfall of men and women who are unjust and cruel, not only for personal vengeance but also for the safety of others around them. there is no going back, no repentance for the sins of their father. this, it had seemed, was their only option. to find a temporary “home” in the order, to find people who they could “trust” for the most part in order to further an agenda. however selfish it may have begun, emmeline would do anything it takes to bring an end to voldemort’s reign, and that proved truthful in the war itself.

on some days, emmeline feels as though they don’t belong, as if they’re lying to everyone around them. if they found out about the mark that is soaked into emmeline’s skin, if they knew just how deep the vance familiy’s loyalty to voldemort went. would they accept emme? would they fight side by side with the child of a cruel sadist? would they allow emme to fight for their justice, all the while wearing the mark of the enemy? it haunts emme. every morning, every night. always there, as if a secret just beneath their noses.

extra.

i’ve got a tag dedicated to emmeline located here on my blog , there you will find original and reblogged inspiration.

PATRONUS : polar bear. ( Those with a polar bear as their patronus are very adaptable individuals, but stubborn. They put up strong emotional barriers and are very oriented on one aspect of their lives, such as a career or volunteer work. This can make them seem cold to others, and they can be blunt in their ways of communication. Despite this, they are very connected to everything, however small that connection may be. x  )

BOGGART : as simple as emmeline standing in a black cloak, side by side with death eaters and their father.

[doomedandstoned]

Elektric Mistress Reveal “Chapter 99″ and Things Get Rowdy

~Doomed & Stoned Debuts~

By Billy Goate

New music from out of Halifax, Nova Scotia this morning, where the stoner vibe is not only alive and well, but hot and getting hotter. ELEKTRIC MISTRESS will see to that. We met them almost three years ago when the band issued their rousing first EP.

Our reintroduction to the band comes by way of the curiously titled, "Chapter 99." The guitar establishes both riff and rhythm with a tarantella trot that smells of whiskey, cigarettes, and revelry (the music video is set appropriately to scenes from the film Haxan). Organ, drums, and the rest of the six-member troupe join in the frolic, including vocalist Steve Poole whose bluesy pitch reminds me a bit of Mike Patton.

If you dig what Elektric Mistress worked up in their 2019 effort, stay tuned -- more is forthcoming with a new one on the way June 17th. In the meanwhile, the title track "Chapter 99" is out this Friday (pre-order), and you get to hear it first right here, right now on Doomed & Stoned! Stick it on a playlist with Clutch, Wo-Fat, Brimstone Coven, and King Witch.

Give ear...

WATCH: Elektric Mistress - "Chapter 99" (music video)

SOME BUZZ

Halifax, Nova Scotia’s Elektric Mistress has a new EP “Chapter 99” coming out, which promises to be a sonic blast of psychedelic groove tinged with occult overtones and sludgy riffs. This will be their second EP, following their self-titled in 2019. Since then, they have added a new guitarist and a potent new layer of sounds for fans to discover. The first single they are releasing is the title track, a stomper that will get you moving and vibing to the lyrical themes of communing with the dead. The band explains further:

"Chapter 99 was honestly not the first choice for this single; we had some trouble deciding just what to present, because we think they’re all pretty ok, heh. We decided to get an objective set of ears to sort out our predicament, and this one stood out above the rest. It's about trying to connect with the other side. It has a definite occult overtone, in the oldest heavy music tradition."

EP by Elektric Mistress

Having a second guitarist has added to the complexity of the band, although their evolution has remained fairly steady over the past couple of years. They have started to incorporate guitar harmonies to complement their stoner rock style but still leave room to be unique and creative and resonate with listeners. Lyrics are inspired by events, people, memories, feelings, or certain energy. There are plenty of psychedelics, sci-fi, witchcraft, and apes!

The EP “Chapter 99” was entirely recorded and self-produced by the band, and all the stringed instruments and keys are digital. It was mixed and mastered by Alex Burris at Fang Recordings, and the EP artwork was done by Ricardo Arreola.

Elektric Mistress is not out to reinvent the wheel, they deliver straightforward rock n' roll vibes for good times and bad. They are recommended listening for fans of Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, and Pink Floyd. The record releases June 17, 2022.

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[ikesenhell]

JAMES ALLEY BLUES

This is the ST. JAMES INFIRMARY BLUES series; Part Three. For all other parts and additional IkeSen works by me, see here.

Azuchi wasn’t set to close for another hour, but they cleared everyone out anyway. Patrons staggered out happily, the jazz band packed up, and presently, all but the Oda men were gone. 

Well, except for the woman. 

Hideyoshi wrapped her in one of his robes--his favorite, the green one--but she still shivered. Shock, Mitsunari figured. Masamune settled her in one of the bar chairs and poured her a water, but she was just sitting there, tapping her fingers restlessly against the glass and bouncing her knee, eyes wide. Her friend Sasuke perched nearby, just out of her hand’s reach. He wasn’t one of theirs, but he was well known enough to them to make him an asset.

“So.” Nobunaga settled into a chair on the dais for the band, presenting himself as regally as any Lord of their domain. “So McDiehl is dead.”

Silence. A few of the men clasped their hands over their chest, a moment of unspoken prayer and reflection echoing in the eerie quiet. 

“This is fucked,” Ieyasu muttered. “Whoever did it knew.”

There wasn’t much to say to that. Ieyasu was right. The only time local law enforcement could get involved in speakeasies was if a non-alcohol related crime occurred there, and a murder was about as high up there as possible. If police got involved, Azuchi got shut down--and more than that, all the Oda men faced prison. 

“Probably.” But Nobunaga was as calm as ever. “Mitsunari, what did you see?”

“Not much.” He donned his glasses on habit, realized he had nothing to read from, and slipped them off his nose again. “I heard screaming from the office and ran out to see her standing over the body of McDiehl. A man was in front of her.”

“His face?”

“Too dark. I couldn’t get a clear look. He was holding a Colt M1889, standard issue. I immediately determined he meant to kill her and took cover. In that time, the man fled the scene. Masamune and I secured it with the dumpster to block the entry and spread some tarps, just in case it rains.”

“But McDiehl died from a blade wound,” Mitsuhide added thinly. “Which is inconsistent.”

“Indeed.” Nobunaga cupped his face in his hand. “We will investigate the scene on daylight, correct?”

“Yes, sir.” 

“And we’ll get Lt. Pierson to come and take a report. I can buy him off for some time.”

Ieyasu’s brow furrowed. “If we involve police at all, we run the risk of having Azuchi shut down.”

“And if we do a cover up, we run the risk of being pinned as the murderers.” Nobunaga shut the idea down with all the precision of an executioner. “No. Lt. Pierson will take a report, and we will have to figure out who targeted us--and McDiehl. Woman.”

The woman blinked and looked up at him. “Yes?”

“Princess,” Sasuke murmured, “You don’t have to add if you’re still jittery.”

“N-no, I think I can do it.”

“What did you see?”

“Um.” She shook her head. “Not much more than Mr. Ishida, if I’m honest. Just... Just that man. He had a really large coat on.”

“Mm.” Mitsuhide leaned back against the bar, folding his arms over his chest. “Easier to hide any bladed weapons that way. It must be someone that is aware that the Oda, Uesugi, and Takeda groups all carry them.”

“Agreed.” Nobunaga tapped his lip. “And so this is either an inside job, or we are being framed.”

The men all stirred. Neither option was amenable; they both pointed a little too close to home. Their leader leaned back in his chair and drummed his fingers along the armrest. “Princess, you will be staying with us.”

“What?” Her eyes went wide. “Wh--”

“You are a prime witness to a murder. In fact, you are the only witness. The murderer made clear he intended to kill you at the scene. What prevents him from trying again?”

She shut her mouth. 

“You will stay here, where we can guard you. There are plenty of places to sleep in the complex.”

“She can have my room,” Mitsunari offered immediately. The poor woman deserved at least a space of her own after being thrust so rudely into this mess. “I don’t mind sleeping on the couch.”

“Then there you have it. Sasuke Sarutobi, I assume you’d requisition some of her effects from her residence?”

“I can.” 

“It is settled. Mitsunari.”

“Yes, sir?” He snapped to attention, a habit long ingrained in him. 

“I’m putting you in charge of this. You’re the only person who we can effectively rule out from the crime scene. It lends you credibility that the rest of us won’t have to investigators. Do you understand?”

As much as Nobunaga was making sense, Mitsunari also knew the unspoken second reasoning. You were military intelligence. If anyone else can do it, you can. “Understood. How long do I have.”

“I’d assume a week, or less.”

That wasn’t long at all. Still, he could hardly press for more. He nodded. “Yes, sir.”

She was quiet as he guided her up the stairs, her arm laced through his. 

“Well, at least I get to give you the grand tour,” Mitsunari offered cheerily. Heavens knew someone had to be a little uplifting tonight. “It’s far more spacious up here than it looks from outside.”

“Oh?” Her voice was soft and dreamy, which he liked. It was awfully pleasant to listen to. 

“Oh, yes.” Fishing the dog tags from his shirt, he rifled along the chain and liberated a key, sliding it into the small lock of the door at the top. With a click, it opened to the living room. It was broad and well furnished, paintings and screens from Japan arranged in perfect harmony along the rich, dark green walls. A few windows looking out over the San Francisco streets allowed moonlight over the couches and cushions surrounding a central table. Playing cards still littered the surface. In the back corner, a piano sat untouched. “This is the common area. Feel free to use it however you like. I don’t suppose you play piano?”

“I do, actually.” 

“Do you?” And he smiled at her, broad and meaningful. “Well, then that makes two of us. I’m the only one using it right now, and I’m a bit rusty, so please, feel free to use it. We could use someone of any talent on it.”

She granted him a tiny smile. Victory. He returned it and escorted her down the long hallway. “Masamune is the first door, here. It’s dark blue, like his eyes, so it’s a bit easy to remember.” He pointed at the door. “I don’t know if you can read Japanese, but our names are on them as well.”

“Alright.” 

“Here’s the library and office,” he motioned to the right, rapping on the door with his knuckles. “Usually it’s only myself or Mitsuhide in there. Please, feel free to use it if you like. More rooms... a bit down the hall is the armory.” 

She stiffened. He quickly added, “We’re just used to having one. It’s a bit of a habit from the war.”

“Oh.” But she didn’t relax. Damn! 

“And this,” he stopped at a dark violet door, pushing it open. “This is my room.”

It wasn’t a very large space, all things considered. He had a dresser and a bedside table, a large futon and sink for washing up. The rest of the space in the room was for bookshelves, his own collection crammed tight inside. A skylight overhead released a pool of soft moonlight over the immaculately-made sheets. All at once he realized she had no bedclothes. “Oh--and, hold on, let me get you some things...” 

Releasing her arm, he padded to the drawers and slid one open, revealing rows of meticulously folded and rolled socks. Selecting a pair--soft and dark blue--he set it on the bedsheets, then picked out a rolled set of clean pajamas. They were mens’, but it was better than nothing. 

“You roll your socks?” She sounded both delighted and confused. 

“Oh, yes.” He stared at them, suddenly very conscious. “It... it, mathematically, saves the most space, and I have a lot of socks... People give me them for Christmas fairly often.”

The woman--Princess, was she?--bit her lip to restrain the smile. He had no such reservations. Releasing a tiny laugh at his own expense, he shrugged. “I suppose it is quite funny. Do you need anything else?”

She ran her fingers down the thread of pearls she wore and shook her head. The moonlight caught the contours of her face, and for perhaps the first time, Mitsunari realized she was very lovely. “Well, please let me know. I’ll be in the common room, and I don’t sleep heavily, so don’t hesitate to disturb me. Major--Mr. Nobunaga’s room is at the very end, and Hideyoshi’s is the green door near his, and they’re both available to you as well. The kitchen is downstairs in Azuchi. No doubt Mr. Sarutobi will be back with some of your things in the morning.”

“Alright.” She nodded. “Thank you very much, Mr. Ishida.”

“Please.” He slipped by her to the door, catching her hand in hers and planting a kiss on it. “Call me Mitsunari.”

Daybreak, and the crime scene was sparse at best. 

Mitsunari, Mitsuhide, and Lt. Pierson combed the alleyway as best they could, but there was precious little to uncover. McDiehl’s throat was slit, and that was the obvious cause of death. Clutched tight under his coat was a half-full bottle of  1897 Pure Rye Monongahela Whiskey. 

“What’s that all about?” The officer turned it around and around by the cap, frowning.

“Well,” Mitsuhide drawled, as if the answer were obvious, “Harland Samuel McDiehl was quite a drunk after the war.”

“Yes, but that makes little sense in context of the moment.” Mitsunari frowned, lifting McDiehl’s coat ever so slightly. “I think the killer took his gun.”

“Do you?” The other two men squinted where Mitsunari pointed; an empty holster rested against the inside of his coat. 

“Yes. The killer was using a standard issue Army pistol, which myself and all others in the Oda, Takeda, and Uesugi groups have. McDiehl is missing his. Even drunk, his training would dictate he keep his gun on his possession. Since Princess stated he quite literally fell on her foot when she exited, it makes no sense that it was looted afterward, meaning that at some point, the killer obtained his gun--but McDiehl thought the bottle of whiskey was more important.”

“Huh. Is this a brand you all carry?”

Mitsuhide took the bottle and turned it, eyes narrowed, and shook his head. “No. I’ve never requested this brand. He would have gotten it elsewhere.”

“Shucks.” Lt. Pierson set it down. “Isn’t much else to go on, is there?”

“Not really.” Mitsunari brushed his hands over his shirt and stood, adjusting his suspenders. “The bullet would have come from McDiehl’s own gun, the neck wound is obvious--which means we’re likely looking for a discarded wakizashi--”

“A what, now?”

“It’s a short sword.” Mitsuhide lifted open his own jacket, revealing one tucked into the band of his pants. “Like this.”

Lt. Pierson eyed him warily. “And you just happen to have one?”

“We all do,” Mitsunari added swiftly. “It’s a common-use implement for all of us here, as well as the others. This is part of why we suspect it’s an attempt to frame us.”

“Anyone got a reason to want McDiehl here dead?”

Mitsuhide snorted. “A few.”

“There was word on the street that McDiehl might be a ProHi informant,” Mitsunari explained. “It generated an altercation between him and a few of us and our associates. Hideyoshi Toyotomi and he got into it, Kenshin Uesugi threatened to kill him and would have, had Nobunaga Oda not intervened. I suppose Shingen Takeda might have a bone to pick with McDiehl as well--”

“If only because he loathes Major Oda,” Mitsuhide added. 

“Hn.” The officer snapped his book closed. “Well, the blood spatters stop at about the mouth of the alleyway, there aren’t really any fingerprints, nothing much in the way of the murder weapon, and the whole of your gang is coming off as probable suspects. This isn’t looking good for you all, I gotta say.”

“But you’re still going to wait to file the report, correct?” Mitsuhide added. 

“’Course. But I’m just letting you know, we gotta have something before the week is out, or I can’t protect you all.”

“Understood.” Mitsunari looked down at the body bag that held McDiehl, thinking a prayer to himself before zipping it shut.

The Princess was sitting at the bar, an eggs benedict plate half-eaten in front of her and Masamune showing off his pancake flipping skills. 

“Annnddd--” He tossed the pancake in the air, flipped the pan in his hand, and caught both with precision. She laughed out loud, applauding the show. 

“Brava!” 

He winked--or was it blinking, when you only had one eye?--and dumped it onto a plate, drizzling fresh berries on top. “See, living here comes with free chef service. Mitsunari, breakfast?”

“Is that for me?” He smiled broadly. “I thought you were making my favorite. Thank you!”

“Yours is the easiest.” He slathered a sweep of butter and some syrup over top before passing it off. “What’s the story?”

“Well.” Mitsunari settled in beside the Princess, taking a thoughtful bite. “It isn’t much, but I’ve got at least one lead. Princess, what are you doing today?”

“Me?” She looked surprised. Apparently Sasuke had come through with her things, because he realized suddenly that she was wearing a pale blue dress that she certainly hadn’t worn yesterday. It looked absolutely fetching on her. “Oh, nothing.”

“Would you like to come and see the Uesugi-Kenshin operation?” He offered. “I’ve got a bottle to track down, and I think they might know where it came from. It’s the only thing we have to go on at present.”

“What bottle?” Masamune asked, setting down glasses of milk for both of them. 

“It’s a 1897 whiskey, Monongahela Pure Rye. We don’t carry it.”

“That we sure don’t.”

“Well,” she said at last, “I haven’t another thing to do, and I’d certainly like to help.”

“And I’d love your company.” He smiled at her. At the very least, it would keep her distracted from the shock of seeing a dead body, now, wouldn’t it? “We’ll set off after breakfast.”

[chipsandsolstice]

Animation Process Part 1: Thumbnailing, Keys, and Extremes

A week or so ago I finally finished this little dance animation that I’ve been chipping away at in my spare time! In the end it took me about 45 hours over the course of 8 months.

I documented each stage of the process in gifs and wanted to share in order to give anyone just starting out an insight into my workflow and how I break a complex motion into digestible, accomplish-able chunks so that I don’t get overwhelmed by the amount of work that’s ahead.

In this first part I’m going explain a little bit of my approach to thumbnailing. The great thing about this part of the hand drawn animation process is that I would approach it the same way in ANY piece of software. This stage is just about drawing and timing. Even the lowest tier programs can do that. It’s not until the cleanup stage that any of the bells and whistles matter.

The Research Stuff

Before starting any drawings I like to search around youtube for inspiration; especially if it’s an action I’m not entirely familiar with. I had just watched the webseries The Earliest Show in which Lauren Lapkus and Ben Schwartz do a lot of really great dancing, so I studied a couple of those frame by frame. I also looked at some swing dancing competition videos to get a feel for the basic steps.

https://youtu.be/plOMomN9F5g?t=25m25s

For stuff like dancing or even playing an instrument I’m not familiar with I like to sometimes look up a couple beginners’ tutorials just to get some ideas for how to approach the movement.

This isn’t days of research. It’s just half an hour to an hour to get a feel for what you want to accomplish. Anything more than that and it can easily turn into procrastination.

The Drawing Stuff

Once I’m satisfied with my research I begin the thumbnailing process. As you can see, my drawings at this point are only slightly more detailed than a stick figure. I’m not worried at all about mass, I’m just trying to nail down some simple, clear poses.

The Animation Stuff

In order to not be overwhelmed by everything I like to approach scenes in a very systematic way. I’d say 90% of the animation I do is Pose to Pose meaning that I break actions up into 4 different types of drawings

Keys: The main storytelling poses. If the story of the shot is “Man hears news and is disappointed” then you only have two keys to do - the man hearing the news, and the man being disappointed. I’m not thinking about how he’s going to get from pose to pose at this point, I’m just thinking “What’s the best drawing to show that this man is really disappointed”.

Extremes: These are all the poses that have to be there in order for the action to work. If someone is walking across the room it’s every drawing where their feet make contact with the ground. If someone’s jumping in the air it’s the anticipation down and the highest point of their arc. The way I think of them is that they’re the furthest up, down, left, and right the character is going to go as well as any drawing where they make contact.

Breakdowns: These are the poses that establish or reinforce the physics behind the motion. If an arm is swinging forward and the hand drags behind this is the drawing that shows that. When a character does a high kick and puts the entire weight of their body into it this is the drawing that shows the hips shoving forward as the foot just starts to lift from the ground.

Inbetweens: The drawings that smooth out and polish the movement. Here I’m focused solely on the spacing of the drawings. Is it slowing out or slowing in? How far do I want to favor one way or the other? What’s the shape of the path of action? Are the drawings following a nice arc?

This is one of many ways to categorize the drawings. I’ve seen a lot of people who combine extremes into their keys phase, and others who combine extremes into their breakdown phase, and others still who do breakdowns while they’re inbetweening. This is just what works for me.

(For a more thorough explanation of Keys, Extremes, Breakdowns, and Inbetweens see pages 64-68 of Richard Williams’ The Animator’s Survival Kit)

For the thumbnails I’m only focusing on the Keys and the Extremes.

First I do the keys which for the first dance involve these four drawings:

As you can see there’s no thought about the weight of the movement. That’s fine. I’m just establishing how he’s going to hit each accent.

From there we go to the Extremes

Here I start to add a little bit of weight to it. The main things the extremes (in green) are establishing is the foot pattern. How is he passing his weight from one leg to the other?

With the torso I wanted to loosen it up a little bit. If you look at the keys they all have a really similar line of action. I reversed the line of action for the extremes which adds more change of shape and helps it feel more lively - even at this early stage

The arms are just establishing the passing positions of the arm swing. They’re fairly straightforward.

If you notice, these extremes have a lot of qualities of breakdowns in them. If I had to label them more precisely I’d say that what I’m calling the extremes are the contact drawings of the legs combined with the passing positions (breakdowns) of the upper body. I call them extremes instead of breakdowns because the legs are the most important part of these drawings and I wouldn’t consider those legs broken down at all; they’re just contact drawings. These hybrid drawings are the reason that so many animators categorize drawings differently. At the end of the day it doesn’t matter what you call any of this stuff as long as it makes sense to you and the end result looks good.

The Technical Stuff

At this point the entire animation is just a rough drawing on one layer. I would do this exactly the same in Harmony, Flash, Photoshop, or TV Paint. As long as you have drawing tools and a timeline you can thumbnail out animation like this

Extra Pro tip: It’s really helpful at this stage to establish some kind of basic ground plane or perspective - even if it’s just a character dancing in a void. This really helped keep the 3 Dimensional space in mind while planning his footwork. It also reminded me to have the character lean a little forward and backward in Z space as he’s moving. It’s easy to forget that kind of stuff when a character’s facing camera. Without it the animation will always feel a little flat.

That’s it for my thumbnailing process! If you found it helpful check out the next posts in the series! Part 2: Rough Keys/Extremes and the Shift and Trace Technique

[tyrantisterror]

Bonus: More Buffy Characters I’d Ruin

I had to cut myself off while writing my How I’d Ruin It: Buffy the Vampire Slayer article because it was almost 10pm and I still hadn’t finished, but goddam if there aren’t more Buffy characters I wanted to talk about, so here’s the “deleted scenes” for the article.

Anya: Introduced as a monster of the week (specifically a demon), Anya was demoted by her bosses to a mere mortal human after she was defeated, and went on to be a recurring cast member.  Anya had a delightfully warped outlook, since she really wasn’t accustomed to human society and as such didn’t understand many social taboos. While she could be blunt and callous, she meant well, and was a good ally.  Unfortunately, she was also written to be Xander’s love interest, and most of her plots were built around him.  Worse, the rest of the characters kind of treated her like shit, regarding her with annoyance at best and outright hostility at worst.

Since my reboot is a bit kinder to monsters in general, we’d go a different way here.  Instead of being annoyed by Anya, the group would all actively try to rehabilitate her – their end goal is coexistence with the supernatural, after all, and Anya could be instrumental in that.  Though it takes a while and is often frustrating, they make progress, and Anya eventually learns the value of humanity and in turn becomes an essential ally.  Especially once her powers start coming back…

Tara: Introduced as Willow’s first female love interest, Tara was a young witch whose family told her (and all her female family members) that women in her family would become demons on their twenty first birthday, and thus had to be hidden away to keep from incurring the wrath of the outside world.  This was resolved in one episode, and afterwards Tara had little to do except be Willow’s girlfriend.  The writers later killed her off for drama because they had nothing else for her to do.

But, I mean, c’mon!  A young woman raised by an abusive and misogynistic family goes to college, discovers witchcraft AND her own homosexuality, and then rebels against her family despite being told that doing so will reveal her true inhuman nature?  Surely that has potential for more than just one episode of focus!   Let Willow and Tara have solo adventures!  Get her involved in helping the rest of the cast!  Shit, you know what, given our reboot’s stance on monsters, let’s make the family’s threat true – maybe she IS part demon.  Demons rebel against authority, and some authority needs to be rebelled against.  Tara has the potential for interesting and awesome plots – plots about how being different from what is normal doesn’t have to be a cause of shame, but can instead be literally empowering.  Let’s make it happen.

Jenny Calendar: Jenny Calendar was introduced as the high school computer teacher, and also a “technopagan,” i.e. a witch who incorporates modern technology into magic, rather than remaining in the past.  That is such a badass concept that it’s a damn shame they never did anything with it.  Instead, Jenny became Giles’ love interest, and then was revealed to be part of the Roma family that cursed Angel to have a soul, which is treated as a betrayal for some reason.  Then Angelus kills her so Giles can feel sad.

Again, there’s so much lost potential here!  Given that this reboot is playing up both the magic AND technology expertise with Willow, Jenny could easily find stuff to do as Willow’s mentor, and making a mix of magic and technology more of a thing could also allow for a lot of weird and fun monster plotlines that they would be key in solving.  Having a strong, adult female role model would also be good for, like, all of the main characters – Buffy’s mom can’t fill the role entirely since she needs to be out of the loop for plot reasons.

Kendra: The first time Buffy died and came back to life resulted in another Slayer getting called into being, violating the “there can only be one Slayer” rule after a grand total of one season.  Kendra is one of the few black characters in Buffy who gets more than one line, AND she’s a Slayer, AND she’s from Africa!  There’s a lot of potential there!  Sadly, she was kind of, well, boring, and her case wasn’t helped by the fact that the writers clearly didn’t do a whole lot of research into any of the various countries and cultures in Africa, resulting in a character that’s pretty stereotypical.

But that potential though! Let’s have the reboot violate the “only one slayer exists at a time” rule right from the get go – instead, there are many slayers, albeit still very few (definitely under 100).  Each would be the hero of their own story, and there could be fun stories where we get glimpses of the different types of supernatural threats on other parts of the globe.  We could explore how different Watchers work with their respective Slayers, comparing Giles and Buffy to others while also examining the problems with the Watchers Council (and perhaps showing that more Slayers than just Buffy realize they’re getting a raw deal here).  The potential is so great!

Faith: As mentioned in the article proper, Faith is Buffy’s evil opposite, the rogue Slayer who became a villain.  Faith loves fuckin’ and killin’, and the show makes it very clear that both of those interests are the reason she’s evil – everyone seems to go out of their way to slut shame Faith, to the point where “evil” and “skanky” are both treated as her defining attributes, each equally vilified. While Buffy has a fairly normal middle class life (despite being in a single parent household and, y’know, a vampire slayer), Faith grew up poor in an abusive environment, and has overall had a hard life.  She is very clearly a troubled person before she turns full villain, and her character arc is primarily focused on her envy of Buffy’s life.  She rants repeatedly about how often she is unfavorably compared to Buffy, and one of her evil schemes involves swapping bodies with Buffy to escape punishment for her actions.

The fact that Faith is positioned as Buffy’s evil opposite because her life situation sucks is, well, problematic, and the slut shaming piled on top of that definitely doesn’t help. However, since we inverted Buffy for this reboot, why not invert Faith as well?

Reboot Faith comes from a ridiculously rich family, is valedictorian at her school, and treats vampire slaying as an unfortunate responsibility rather than an adventure. She’s a brutally efficient yet utterly merciless Slayer.  In her mind, she’s an exterminator, not a hero who saves civilians and certainly not someone who wants to find a peaceful solution to the humans vs. monsters conflict. As far as she’s concerned, supernatural creatures threaten humanity just by existing, and the conflict can only end with one side’s total destruction.  She is essentially every negative implication of a typical “Human slays monsters” story condensed into one character – a proper opposite for Reboot Buffy’s open minded rough housing party girl monster fighter.

Forrest Gates: “Who the fuck is Forrest?” you may be asking. Working for the same government monster task force as Riley Finn, Forrest was essentially Riley’s sidekick and foil.  He was both Riley’s second in command and best friend, and he stuck with the government when Riley rebelled to be with Buffy.  Being a foil, his personality deliberately contrasts with Riley’s: while Riley is straight laced, soft spoken, and “nice” in a bland “I’m not vocally racist but I still voted for Trump” sort of way, Forrest is hot blooded, individualistic, outspoken, sarcastic, and sometimes deeply cynical. If you were to guess which of the two would rebel when they learned their government employers were up to shady shit, you’d guess Forrest – which I suppose makes it an interesting twist that he stays while rule-abidin’ Riley goes rogue.

Forrest doesn’t develop more than that, and when I first saw the series I wrote him off as just what he was written to be: Riley’s foil.  Upon rewatching the series this year, though, I noticed something: Forrest is, well, interesting.  He’s far more analytical and aware than Riley.  He’s got better lines, he’s got a good sense of humor, and he brings a wild sort of energy to every scene he’s in.  He’s got more vocal interest in and chemistry with Buffy than Riley did before they hooked up (not a hard feat, to be fair – Riley has all the romantic energy of two week old mashed potatoes).  And, yeah, he seems much more believable as the army guy who would spot the flaws in his organization and go rogue.  Let’s make Forrest the Initiative Agent who switches sides and goes with our heroes.  It verges into crackfic territory, sure, but that’s what How I’d Ruin It is all about.

Harmony: Starting as “Cordellia except without the depth,” Harmony was just a Mean Girl stereotype until she became a vampire. Then she evolved into something slightly more complex: Harmony was a woefully ineffective villain, a ditz who was not cut out for causing evil that everyone, good and evil alike, made fun of. She also became an abuse victim, which might have been poignant if the show didn’t spend all the rest of her screen time making fun of her for being dumb, shallow, and promiscuous.

I have a noted soft spot for affable and ineffectual villain characters, and I think Harmony could play a valuable role in my heretical reboot’s approach to monsters.  Harmony would be the rare person who actually improved upon becoming a vampire, as her death and rebirth as a monster helps her realize how bullshit all her high school clique nonsense was.  At the same time, she’s grossed out by the whole “eating people” thing, and her general cluelessness actually gives her a unique perspective that other vampires and monsters lack – Harmony, in her own simple way, could note the pragmatism of not eating people, since no one’s gonna stake you for buying blood from a butcher.  When grander villains rope her into their schemes, they quickly find she’s more of a hindrance than a help.  She’d be the loveable rogue of the story – not quite a hero, but never a true villain either.

And maybe we could explore toxic relationships with someone who isn’t quite so cartoonish.

“Angel”: While the core of Angel’s character – being the only vampire with a soul and the guilt that comes with – doesn’t work in the reboot’s setting, that doesn’t mean we can’t have him altogether.  Reboot Angel would take a page from his spinoff and make him a vampire Private Detective, and one of the first vampires Buffy meets that is inarguable a decent person.  He helps the helpless, gets his blood from non-human animals in a human way, and is generally a good person despite being a vampire.  In this take, Angel wouldn’t be a love interest – ‘cause even when he’s not evil, there’s a creep factor to the whole “vampire with a body that’s in its mid 20’s dating a 16 year old” thing, and also because it would be kind of funny to me for a vampire to rebuke the interests of a young vulnerable woman, since, y’know, that’s the opposite of what vampires usually do. Buffy’s crush would, painfully for her, be unrequited.

“Angelus”: In the original show, Angel lost his soul and became the evil Angelus when he and Buffy bumped uglies in the figurative way instead of the literal way they usually do.  It’s one of the more clever results of the show’s “All monsters are metaphors” approach – a guy seems nice until he sleeps with you, then he turns evil. That’s a really good way to use a monster story as a metaphor for a real problem young women face.

But.

There is a crucial difference between the figurative meaning of this plot and the LITERAL events of it, and that difference rests in the guy’s autonomy.  Angel has NO CHOICE in the matter – he has no control of his actions, no agency in the horror that follows.  His soul is magically removed by the coitus, and the evil done by Angelus is the responsibility of the vampire spirit that now runs his body. The only one who has agency here is Buffy – the person who, in the real life problem this situation is an allegory for, should be the VICTIM of the resulting abuse.  Women get blamed for making men abusive a LOT – “she was asking for it” and all that bullshit.  And here we have a monster plot that literally makes the victimized woman the only person in the relationship who has agency in causing the abuse that follows – she literally removed his soul by sleeping with him.  It’s not an unintended thing, either – some of the characters call Buffy “rash” and “careless” for sleeping with Angel, and  taken within the show’s general opinion that girls who sleep with men before marriage are bad, it’s not something we can ignore.

Still, there’s a good idea beneath the awful execution.  We just need to tweak it.

So our “Angelus” would begin as a decent guy who dates one of our young female characters – maybe Buffy, maybe Willow, maybe Cordelia, we’ve got options here.  He seems nice at first – he’s got sort of a bad boy thing going on and he’s a bit older than is normal, but whatever doubts he inspires are quickly dissuaded by the help he offers the group and his general kindness. He might be broody and angsty from time to time, but any red flags he sends are easy to write off.  Until he sleeps with the girl in question.

Then, quite literally, he turns into a monster.  Up till this point the audience would be lead to believe he’s human, but no, he reveals his true colors as something inhuman and heartless – perhaps something much worse than a vampire.  The personality change is as drastic as the physical, and our heroes quickly learn that all his “kindness” before was a ruse.  He is nothing more than cruel and sadistic predator, and one that needs to be put down.

Vampires as a whole: Buffy’s take on vampires is one of my least favorite in fiction, since they’re basically just strong guys with sharp teeth, weird eyes, Klingon bumps, and often an inexplicable knowledge of martial arts.  Like most post-Anne Rice vampires, they’re very simple so as to avoid being “goofy” – no transformation, hypnosis, etc.  My preference is for the “goofy” stuff though – turning into mist, or a giant bat, traveling on moonlight, commanding legions of rats, all that good Bram Stoker shit.  I also love some of the weird folkloric takes on vampires, like the ones with multiple hearts and other weird shit.

Borrowing a page from my own fictional universe, the vampires in my Buffy reboot would be weird and varied.  There would be multiple breeds, and even within those there’s a lot of individual variation.  While some vampires are stronger than others, ALL would be significant threats.  We’d be going for quality over quantity – while Buffy has less vampires to fight in this reboot, the ones she does slay take a lot of work to kill.  So, in short – vampires by way of Stoker rather than Rice.

[un-enfant-immature]

Invisible AI uses computer vision to help (but hopefully not nag) assembly line workers

“Assembly” may sound like one of the simpler tests in the manufacturing process, but as anyone who’s ever put together a piece of flat-pack furniture knows, it can be surprisingly (and frustratingly) complex. Invisible AI is a startup that aims to monitor people doing assembly tasks using computer vision, helping maintain safety and efficiency — without succumbing to the obvious all-seeing-eye pitfalls. A $3.6 million seed round ought to help get them going.

The company makes self-contained camera-computer units that run highly optimized computer vision algorithms to track the movements of the people they see. By comparing those movements with a set of canonical ones (someone performing the task correctly), the system can watch for mistakes or identify other problems in the workflow — missing parts, injuries and so on.

Obviously, right at the outset, this sounds like the kind of thing that results in a pitiless computer overseer that punishes workers every time they fall below an artificial and constantly rising standard — and Amazon has probably already patented that. But co-founder and CEO Eric Danziger was eager to explain that this isn’t the idea at all.

“The most important parts of this product are for the operators themselves. This is skilled labor, and they have a lot of pride in their work,” he said. “They’re the ones in the trenches doing the work, and catching and correcting mistakes is a big part of it.”

“These assembly jobs are pretty athletic and fast-paced. You have to remember the 15 steps you have to do, then move on to the next one, and that might be a totally different variation. The challenge is keeping all that in your head,” he continued. “The goal is to be a part of that loop in real time. When they’re about to move on to the next piece we can provide a double check and say, ‘Hey, we think you missed step 8.’ That can save a huge amount of pain. It might be as simple as plugging in a cable, but catching it there is huge — if it’s after the vehicle has been assembled, you’d have to tear it down again.”

This kind of body tracking exists in various forms and for various reasons; Veo Robotics, for instance, uses depth sensors to track an operator and robot’s exact positions to dynamically prevent collisions.

Veo Robotics raises $12 million for its vision of a harmonious human-robot workplace

But the challenge at the industrial scale is less “how do we track a person’s movements in the first place” than “how can we easily deploy and apply the results of tracking a person’s movements.” After all, it does no good if the system takes a month to install and days to reprogram. So Invisible AI focused on simplicity of installation and administration, with no code needed and entirely edge-based computer vision.

“The goal was to make it as easy to deploy as possible. You buy a camera from us, with compute and everything built in. You install it in your facility, you show it a few examples of the assembly process, then you annotate them. And that’s less complicated than it sounds,” Danziger explained. “Within something like an hour they can be up and running.”

Once the camera and machine learning system is set up, it’s really not such a difficult problem for it to be working on. Tracking human movements is a fairly straightforward task for a smart camera these days, and comparing those movements to an example set is comparatively easy, as well. There’s no “creativity” involved, like trying to guess what a person is doing or match it to some huge library of gestures, as you might find in an AI dedicated to captioning video or interpreting sign language (both still very much works in progress elsewhere in the research community).

As for privacy and the possibility of being unnerved by being on camera constantly, that’s something that has to be addressed by the companies using this technology. There’s a distinct possibility for good, but also for evil, like pretty much any new tech.

One of Invisible’s early partners is Toyota, which has been both an early adopter and skeptic when it comes to AI and automation. Their philosophy, one that has been arrived at after some experimentation, is one of empowering expert workers. A tool like this is an opportunity to provide systematic improvement that’s based on what those workers already do.

It’s easy to imagine a version of this system where, like in Amazon’s warehouses, workers are pushed to meet nearly inhuman quotas through ruthless optimization. But Danziger said that a more likely outcome, based on anecdotes from companies he’s worked with already, is more about sourcing improvements from the workers themselves.

Having built a product day in and day out year after year, these are employees with deep and highly specific knowledge on how to do it right, and that knowledge can be difficult to pass on formally. “Hold the piece like this when you bolt it or your elbow will get in the way” is easy to say in training but not so easy to make standard practice. Invisible AI’s posture and position detection could help with that.

“We see less of a focus on cycle time for an individual, and more like, streamlining steps, avoiding repetitive stress, etc.,” Danziger said.

Importantly, this kind of capability can be offered with a code-free, compact device that requires no connection except to an intranet of some kind to send its results to. There’s no need to stream the video to the cloud for analysis; footage and metadata are both kept totally on-premise if desired.

Like any compelling new tech, the possibilities for abuse are there, but they are not — unlike an endeavor like Clearview AI — built for abuse.

“It’s a fine line. It definitely reflects the companies it’s deployed in,” Danziger said. “The companies we interact with really value their employees and want them to be respected and engaged in the process as possible. This helps them with that.”

The $3.6 million seed round was led by 8VC, with participating investors including iRobot Corporation, K9 Ventures, Sierra Ventures and Slow Ventures.

Scaled Robotics keeps an autonomous eye on busy construction sites

[iamkellyadams]

Get Strong and Sculpted Inner Thighs in Just 10 Minutes a Day

Expert Contributor for this article: Brian Klepacki (MS, CSCS, FMS), also the creator of bestselling thigh toning program ‘The Inner Thigh Solution‘

Welcome to the MOST comprehensive and educational video on YouTube (play the video above) about your Inner Thigh muscles aka adductors . The adductors are a fairly large muscle group on the inside of your thigh/groin area. This area has TWO primary functions and there are TWO methods to train it properly. Strength Coach Brian Klepacki, MS, CSCS, also the creator of Inner Thigh Solution shares some serious knowledge about this very important part of your legs and the many exercises you should be doing in your training to develop and UNLOCK those adductors. Get ready to take some notes as Brian takes a look at your Inner Thighs from A to Z. (Watch video above)

It is true without a toned inner thigh you would never manage to pull of that sexy swim suit you had been dreaming to wear for so long. Inner thigh fat grows the same way you accumulate fat in other parts of your body, but thighs require a bit more effort to get toned.

Sometimes, your upper portion of the body might not be fatty or bulky, but it is found that women tend to grow a heavy lower body. It is quite natural, that women have the tendency to grow bigger butts and heavy thighs, you are not alone there.

Follow Up Resource →  How to avoid the #1 training mistake EVERY woman makes who wants strong, sculpted thighs.

What are Adductors and Why train them?

‘adductor muscles (commonly referred to as the inner thigh muscles)’

Believe it or not, your inner thighs actually have a purpose. One of the biggest impact your inner thighs have on your body is how it interacts with your glutes, especially the upper butt muscle -‘the gluteus medius‘. When the adductors are healthy, it’s easier for your glutes to do what they’re designed to do. When there’s an imbalance or when something is lacking, signals are sent to the brain to lock the adductors, preventing the muscles from firing. This forces them to go into protection mode restricting the gluteal complex from functioning properly. The result? Limited performance, movement issues and diminished energy. When you strengthen your inner thighs, not only will you experience incredible results within the adductors but your glutes will also be able to fully develop to look and feel their best.

Related Resource →  How to Strengthen Your Inner Thighs to Fully Develop Your Butt

Completely Transform Your Inner Thighs To Look Their Best With Just 5 Adductor-Specific Exercises

Healthier, Slimmer, And Sexier Inner Thighs In Just 10 Minutes Per Workout.

The power of this method lies not only in what movements are performed and how well, but in doing these in the proper sequence.

I developed a flow of “Successive Sets” designed to get you the sculpted, strong thighs you’ve always wanted… much faster.

Done effectively, these Successive Sets work WITH your body, not against it, to activate the natural process of adding strength and improving muscular shape, tone, and function.

I composed this program with carefully selected bodyweight movements, that include Dynamic Stretching for increased flexibility, Muscle Activation for a better mind-muscle connection, Multi-Dimensional Stabilizing and Mobility Drills to improve function and performance, and Strengthening and Sculpting Exercises to create strong and toned inner thigh muscles.

The “Secret” To Strong, Attractive Inner Thighs Is Your Adductors… But NO-ONE Knows How To Train Them Correctly. Click here → 10-Minute Adductor Routine Keeping Your Hips Healthy & Happy

Strengthen And Firm Your Inner Thighs… And Unlock A Healthier, More Balanced Physique

Top medical professionals and movement specialists suggests that the adductor muscles (commonly referred to as the inner thigh muscles) work together harmoniously with your hip flexors to provide side-to-side stabilization of the pelvis. In a perfect world, the pelvis will remain balanced as we age but that’s generally not the case because of excessive sitting, injuries, environmental conditions, poor posture, and so on. So what ends up happening is that the body begins to shift and fall out of alignment to the point where internal systems and daily patterns become imbalanced and restricted.

Having weak and tight adductors on one side will make it difficult to hold the pelvis level which means the opposite hip will drop down as you walk. This can then result in imbalances in the hips and glutes which can lead to hip pain and excessive hip tightness.

Not only that but imbalances all over the body will eventually appear as the body tries to compensate for the tight and weak muscles. It is important to both strengthen and stretch the adductor muscles so that they are strong enough to balance the weight of the body and support the pelvis keeping your hips healthy and happy.

The Inner Thigh Solution Is The First (And Fastest) Program Designed To Hit Each Of The 5 Adductor Muscles From EVERY Plane Of Motion → Learn More Here

Easy 10 Minute Inner Thigh Workout

You do not need any equipment to do this 10 minute inner thigh workout, this is a low intensity simple 10 minute workout perfect to tone up your legs. The amazing Sanne Vloet, shows how to do all these workouts you can simply follow them and practically do it anytime and anywhere.

5 Simple Yet Effective Inner Thigh Exercises

1. Wide Pile Squat

Split your legs for slightly more than your shoulders keeping your toes facing outwards

During your Squat you should keep your back slightly leaned forward

Your butt should stick out like you are sitting on a chair

Now hold your dumbbell or kettlebell in front of you and squat

Give a small pause when you are down before you get up

Do the reps slowly keeping your posture perfect

2. Table Top Sidekicks

This is a simple yet very effective workout for your thighs

Get to the position like an animal, with knees on your floor and hands in front of them

Pick up your right leg and kick on your right, try to bring your legs high enough till your hips

Bring them back to folded position repeat as many as you can for 20 secs and that’s a rep

Change the leg and repeat again

3. Medicine Ball Thigh Press

This workout not only helps you burn fat from your thigh but it works your core and back too.

Lie down your back, fold your legs and hold the medicine ball between your legs

Lift your hips, keep your core tight and back straight

Squeeze your knees together for 30 secs then rest for 10 secs. Repeat 3 times

4. Standing Side Leg Extension

Use an exercise band, put it around your legs just above your ankles, stand hip-width apart

Now raise your left leg keeping your right firmly straight on floor

Pick up your leg till you feel the band stretching

Bring it back, but do not rest it on the ground stop few inches above the ground – this is one rep

Repeat as many times as you can for 20 secs and rest for 10 secs again repeat

5. Stability Ball Twists

Lie down on your back, legs straight

Hold the dumbbell straight up

Ask someone to help place the exercise ball between your legs

Squeeze the ball hard and lift it off the ground

Turn the ball to the left with your legs so that your right foot is above your left

Do not rotate your upper body. Only twist your leg

Rotate the ball through the middle and to your right, so now your left foot is above your right

Turn the ball to the left and right as many times as you can in 60 seconds

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[kino97-me]

TRANSCRIPT

A lot of times when I’m working on tracks, I associate colours with sounds. Sometimes, I’ll listen to a song and I’ll just see a lot of like shades of orange, or shades of blue maybe. When I listen to Euphoria, I just see like shades of the rainbow.

[MUSIC]

Euphoria is a solo song with Jungkook, who’s one of the seven members of BTS. I sent it to them and I mean, he’s such an incredible singer and I heard this amazing vocal back and they added some really cool vocal harmonies in the hook which I thought just added so much more to the drop. To me, creatively, they’re pushing the boundaries so far. There’s a lot of fearlessness in the art that they make and how they create it.

When I started Euphoria, initially, it was an idea from a writer who I was working with, Candace Sosa. She plays guitar and I was inspired by the sound that was in this initial little demo, and I said, “Alright, let me take that and work with it.” It sort of all just came together really fluidly and naturally.

[GUITAR]

You know, musically, when the song starts with that guitar, it’s like, “Oh man. This just feels so good.” It just like kind of warms the air. And then it’s layered with a second guitar. One is panned to the left. One is panned a little to the right. By itself, it’s a very simple part. Together, you just get some nice harmonics off the two and it feels great.

So once I have that, the piano comes in. The piano is really driving the song melodically from the chords and just where the song is moving.

[PIANO]

There’s an Alicia Keys piano and then a Greg Wells piano plugin that adds a little delay, a little bit of a chorus. Brightens the piano up a little bit. Those two guitar sounds and the piano basically start off the song. That’s the intro of the song. And then also the first four bars of the first verse. The chords are just so pretty and they lend themselves to really nice vocal melodies on top of it. So that was a really good foundation for where the rest of the song went.

So from there, the next thing that I add is a drum loop which just helps add a little bit of rhythm so that the vocals have a place to sit. It’s a melodic tom loop and I use four different sounds for it.

[DRUM]

As you can tell, they move with the chords. I just added a simple kick drum. After that, we added a splash snare that just sort of creates a lot of space.

[DRUMS ENRICHED]

So after the drums were added, we have the guitar and the piano. Just in that second half of the verse, I added two pad sounds.

[PAD SOUNDS]

It just allows the song to grow a little bit and it sort of anticipates what’s gonna happen next. And so once those pads were added, that was basically the entire section.

[MUSIC]

So after the verse, the B section comes in and this is really where the song is growing to at this point. The song is called Euphoria, I wanted a B section that would be really just open and bright. And so we’ve done a ton of stuff in here to sort of achieve that. The main instrument there are these synth string sounds.

[SYNTH STRINGS]

I just took the initial piano chords from the intro but it’s played with more rhythm. I was messing around with Serum. I found this cool sound in there that I modified a little bit.

So after I added the strings, the next thing I wanted to add was a synth pad. I found this really cool preset in Sylenth which I then modified a bit called Pong. Then the way that I processed it is I added a filter that would open up as the section moved along making our way towards the chorus.

[SYNTH PAD WITH FILTER EFFECT]

So once I had those basic chord layers down and the energy going the way that I wanted, Candace added a guitar in this section which sort of acts as the lead melody.

[GUITAR]

I think it just adds a nice countermelody to the initial chords that are in there. Anchoring this entire section, there’s a sub bass. It’s just a sine wave bass. It’s about as simple as sound as you can get.

In all the tracks that I produce, I try to make sure that every fifteen seconds, there’s something new that happens, something that just keeps your brain thinking and on its toes. These little vocal chops are really just meant to complement the lead vocal.

[VOCAL]

So after a few other smaller sounds were added, this is what that entire B section sounds like.

[MUSIC]

So then coming out of that B section leading into the chorus, there’s just a couple ear candy sounds that were added - just to be a nice little moment before the chorus dropped.

[EAR CANDY SOUNDS]

Sometimes, music is like a collage and you just take these cool sounds and you try to see how they can play off one another and how they fit in. And a lot of it is just experimenting and messing around with it.

So now once we get to the chorus, this is sort of the release for the whole song. Everything opens up so it gets nice and bright. The energy changes. This whole section was built around a main stab chord sound.

[SYNTH]

I just found this really interesting synth and it’s got a slow attack on it. I’ve layered it with a filtered version just to get a little more low end out of the EQ.

So once I had that main chord sound, I layered it with two other sounds just to add a little bit more attack to it and just raise the energy just a bit.

[SYNTH ENRICHED]

I’m playing the exact same thing. It’s just some sonic layers.

And then finally, the last thing that was layered was the same strings from the B section.

So once I had all those main chords, the next thing I added was a bass pluck sound and I’ve actually filtered out a lot of the low-end frequencies from it.

[BASS]

I think it just added some interesting rhythms in between what was happening with the chords. There’s already a lot going on in the hook synth-wise. But there is a bass there that sort of just follows the same chords that all those synths are doing. It’s just there to anchor all of those sounds.

So then finally in the chorus, we get to the drums. As you can see, there is a lot of drums but if I play them all together, I don’t think it really sounds like it’s a lot. A lot of these little percussion things just happen one time or they hit at little moments just to get a nice bounce happening. I’ll start adding them one by one so you can see what happened there.

[DRUMS]

A lot of that is just auditioning sounds and looking for cool, interesting new sounds that I maybe haven’t heard before or haven’t used before. And eventually, as you spend enough time on it, all these sorts of sounds start to fit in like a puzzle, and they start to fit in together and find their home. Once you add the main kick and snare, the hook drums sound like this.

[MUSIC]

The last final sound which is really the driving melodic layer of the chorus is this vocal chop. Really, it started as layers of our initial demo vocal. I chopped it up in a way where melodically, I just liked what it did melodically. I didn’t care if the words made sense or anything, because then I processed it quite heavily so that none of the words are discernible anymore.

[VOCAL]

So that’s just actually Candace’s vocal and at the end, a bit of Jungkook’s vocal. Once the vocal was processed in a way where it was nice and compressed and EQ’d the way I wanted, I added a little AlterBoy. This sort of pitches the vocal up. I added a bunch of reverb and I added a side chain to it. There were some other little frequencies that were jumping out that I didn’t like so there’s a DS-er on it. And finally, some delay.

[VOCAL ALTERED]

When I first sent BTS and their label my original demo of the song, it already had this vocal chop in it. And then once I got vocals back from Jungkook, I implemented some of his vocal layers into it just so it would blend with the vocals that were happening in the chorus and it would just end up being a double layer of what he was already doing in the chorus. And so here’s how the whole chorus sounds.

[MUSIC]

So that’s basically all of the main elements of the record and there are some other layers in there. As you can tell, it’s a fairly complex production. There’s a lot of different pieces of ear candy and layers that come and go, but I tried to cover the most important parts. And that’s Euphoria.

Working with BTS, it’s really been incredible. I just sort of built a relationship with the team over there and started sending them some records. This is one of the first ones that they picked. It’s just been amazing to see what they’ve been able to achieve - two number one albums in the same year from a foreign language act in America - that’s like a huge achievement. Nobody’s ever done that before. It’s just exciting. I’m glad I’m apart of it and I’m hoping their success will continue.

[MUSIC]

[jeromebrooke1991]

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[cutshawsnidowoa]

How to Stop a Cat Fight and Why They Happen

The post How to Stop a Cat Fight and Why They Happen by Catster HQ appeared first on Catster. Copying over entire articles infringes on copyright laws. You may not be aware of it, but all of these articles were assigned, contracted and paid for, so they aren't considered public domain. However, we appreciate that you like the article and would love it if you continued sharing just the first paragraph of an article, then linking out to the rest of the piece on Catster.com.

A cat fight is actually a natural behavior, and the key to get a cat fight to stop is to understand why the cats are fighting in the first place. Cat behavior is complex, so be patient. You may need to try several solutions to stop a cat fight before finding one that works.

Why Do Cats Fight?

Why do cats fight? Photography by 101cats/istock.

Have you just introduced a new cat into the home? Do you have a young cat who is reaching sexual maturity? Have you moved, leaving your cats to establish new territories? The root cause will determine how you resolve your cats’ conflicts. The most common causes for a cat fight are listed below:

1. Cats Fight Because of Hormones

Male cats are often involved in inter-cat aggression, which most often occurs when a cat reaches social maturity between two and four years of age. Although this type of aggression is usually seen in males competing for mates, it can occur between cats of any sex when territorial conflicts occur.

The first step toward eliminating this form of a cat fight is to spay and neuter your cats. If you’ve already done so, pheromone products like Feliway can help reduce aggression. Keep in mind, you need coverage in every room of your house for it to be effective. Feliway now makes pheromone collars as well.

2. That “New Cat Smell” Might Cause a Cat Fight

When you bring a new cat into the home, he will have a new cat smell that screams “alien invader” to your resident cats. Some cats are more troubled by this than others. Integrating their smells can expedite a resolution of their conflict.

Rub a towel over one, then rub the same towel over the second cat to mingle their scents. Do this several times a day for several weeks.

3. Jealousy Makes Cats Fight

A new cat will almost always get more attention from you than your existing brood does. Set aside extra one-on-one time with your other cats to alleviate their fears that the new cat is stealing all your love — and a common reason for a cat fight. Jealousy is more likely to be an issue with breeds like the Siamese that bond closely with their people, and they will need lots of reassurance that their place in your heart is secure.

4. A Cat Fight Might Be Territorial

Cats are by nature territorial, even if the territory extends no further than the end of your couch. When you introduce a new cat into your household, the new cat will need to establish territory, and your existing cats will need to defend theirs. This often results in a cat fight.

Each of your cats probably has a “spot” they call their own. Discourage the new cat from adopting one of these spots by providing her with her own special spot. Sprinkle it with catnip and put a towel with her scent on it.

Consider providing the new cat with her own cat tree. She won’t be poaching the territory of your existing cats, and she can mark it as her own with her scent.

Or, establish new separate “cat spaces” in your home. Set up a decorative panel screen in the corner of a room, or reposition your furniture to break up a large space, carving out more smaller “territories” for your cats.

How to Stop a Cat Fight Before It Happens

If a cat fight won’t stop even after trying everything above, it’s time for incarceration. It’s not as bad as it sounds. You want to force proximity upon the two cats without endangering either of them.

Get a large dog crate — do not use a cat carrier. Place it in a spare room, and put one cat (with a litter box and bed) in the crate, and the other cat outside the crate. Leave them alone in the room together. Do this every day for at least a week, alternating which cat gets crated.

When things appear to be less volatile between them, let them out together in the room (but don’t leave them alone together). Play with them, give them treats, and praise good behavior. If one initiates a cat fight, put him in the crate. Continue until they can be together in the room without fighting.

At that point, you can reintroduce them to the rest of the house. When one starts a cat fight, he goes back in the crate. Again, praise good behavior and reward with treats. Within a month, the two cats should be able to coexist fairly peacefully.

How to Break Up a Cat Fight

Through all of this, you’ll (unfortunately) probably need to break up a cat fight or several. Never reach in and try to separate fighting cats yourself. Instead, squirt the cats with a squirt gun or toss water on them from a distance (so that they’re not aware that you’re the source of the water). It’s good to keep loaded squirt guns throughout the house for this purpose. Alternatively, loud noises (an air gun, a can full of pennies or banging a pan) can be effective.

NEVER hit them or chase a cat. It will only make them more aggressive, and it can permanently destroy their trust in you.

With patience and a clear understanding of cat behavior, you should be able to achieve household harmony and any sort of a cat fight within a month or two.

Thumbnail: Photography by Tom Wang / Shutterstock.

Tell us: Do your cats fight? How do you prevent a cat fight?

This article was originally published in 2009. 

Read more about cat behavior on Catster.com:

What’s Up With Cat Humping, Anyway?

How to Train a Cat Using Clicker Training

5 Tips for Making the Cat Carrier a Happy Place for Kitty

The post How to Stop a Cat Fight and Why They Happen by Catster HQ appeared first on Catster. Copying over entire articles infringes on copyright laws. You may not be aware of it, but all of these articles were assigned, contracted and paid for, so they aren't considered public domain. However, we appreciate that you like the article and would love it if you continued sharing just the first paragraph of an article, then linking out to the rest of the piece on Catster.com.

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[is-god-real-blog]

Can Science prove God exists?

Response to this

“Science is about trying to get rigorous answers to questions about how nature works.  And it’s a very important process that’s actually quite reliable if carried out correctly with generation of hypotheses and testing of those by accumulation of data and then drawing conclusions that are continually revisited to be sure they are right.  So if you want to answer questions about how nature works, how biology works, for instance, science is the way to get there.  Scientists believe in that they are very troubled by a suggestion that other kinds of approaches can be taken to derive truth about nature.  And some I think have seen faith as therefore a threat to the scientific method and therefore it to be resisted.”

But faith in its perspective is really asking a different set of questions.  And that’s why I don’t think there needs to be a conflict here.  The kinds of questions that faith can help one address are more in the philosophical realm.  Why are we all here?  Why is there something instead of nothing?  Is there a God?  Isn’t it clear that those aren't scientific questions and that science doesn’t have much to say about them?  But you either have to say, well those are inappropriate questions and we can’t discuss them or you have to say, we need something besides science to pursue some of the things that humans are curious about.  For me, that makes perfect sense.  But I think for many scientists, particularly for those who have seen the shrill pronouncements from extreme views that threaten what they’re doing scientifically and feel therefore they can’t really include those thoughts into their own worldview, faith can be seen as an enemy.  

And similarly, on the other side, some of my scientific colleagues who are of an atheist persuasion are sometimes using science as a club over the head of believers basically suggesting that anything that can’t be reduced to a scientific question isn’t important and just represents superstition that should be gotten rid of.   Part of the problem is, I think the extremists have occupied the stage.  Those voices are the ones we hear.  I think most people are actually kind of comfortable with the idea that science is a reliable way to learn about nature, but it’s not the whole story and there’s a place also for religion, for faith, for theology, for philosophy.  But that harmony perspective does not get as much attention, nobody’s as interested in harmony as they are in conflict, I’m afraid.   

Question: How has your study of genetics influenced your faith?

Francis Collins: My study of genetics certainly tells me, incontrovertibly that Darwin was right about the nature of how living things have arrived on the scene, by descent from a common ancestor under the influence of natural selection over very long periods of time.  Darwin was amazingly insightful given how limited the molecular information he had was; essentially it didn’t exist.  And now with the digital code of the DNA, we have the best possible proof of Darwin’s theory that he could have imagined.  

So that certainly tells me something about the nature of living things.  But it actually adds to my sense that this is an answer to a "how?" question and it leaves the "why?" question still hanging in the air.  

I would personally be content with “how it works?” and blissfully drive past the “how it came about?” Perhaps I need to adopt a less monochromatic naive perspective on life?

Other aspects of our universe I think also for me as for Einstein raised questions about the possibility of intelligence behind all of this.  Why is it that, for instance, that the constance that determines the behavior of matter and energy, like the gravitational constant, for instance, have precisely the value that they have to in order for there to be any complexity at all in the Universe.  That is fairly breathtaking in its lack of probability of ever having happened.  And it does make you think that a mind might have been involved in setting the stage.  At the same time that does not imply necessarily that that mind is controlling the specific manipulations of things that are going on in the natural world.  In fact, I would very much resist that idea.  I think the laws of nature potentially could be the product of a mind.  I think that’s a defensible perspective.  But once those laws are in place, then I think nature goes on and science has the chance to be able to perceive how that works and what its consequences are.

Recorded September 13, 2010

Interviewed by David Hirschman

I like this Francis Collin. His calm temperament suggest more rational thought, as opposed to a vehemently biased agenda, has been given to the topic. His insight is clearly and calmly expressed and encompasses fact and reason well. Its a friendly read and allows the reader to draw their own conclusions. It ends with a humble opinion and an enticing edge. Unappealing articles are those presented with passion on the verge of delirium or motive shaped by unforgiving arrogance. 

Anyways, thank you David Hirschman and Francis Collin. 

[ortheaux]

i rly wish i could express myself about important things like a normal person, as opposed to either completely undershooting or overshooting bc i’ve held things in for too long and still don’t understand what to do with them at all. it feels like a constant struggle especially with being disabled on top, where i’m stuck between not wanting to make a fuss, being afraid to make waves or make people upset or exasperated with me and wanting to be expressive and forthcoming, and open to be able to connect properly.

i hate having to speak up about the tough stuff at my core, but if i don’t manage to and something tough is really getting to me, it’s not like i’m harmonious and easy to be around, i just end up feeling pent up and stuck and unheard inwardly and it makes me quiet and grumpy outwardly which makes waves and the whole process makes me feel v guilty anyway bc i know i should try to say something is bothering me but i don’t always know how. i don’t ever yell or say mean things really, it’s just when i don’t speak up i can become quiet and irritable and the people around me know i have something to say but i can’t figure out how to express myself properly and my fears keep me quiet. it makes me very disappointed in myself when i slip up and hold things in bc it feels like it hurts me and everyone around me. i’m getting better at figuring things out slowly, but i get really frustrated with myself when i don’t get it right and end up in a situation where i feel like i’m making anybody uncomfortable. i feel like i always struggle to find the balance between making others comfortable to excess or making myself less uncomfortable. i know that i’m always disproportionately uncomfortable and having ptsd it’s obviously not always rational discomfort (e.g. hyper-vigilance and fears, weird complexes and a generally overactive mind in normal settings sometimes) aside from physical stuff and i accept that, so i try to make others more comfortable to compensate so that they don’t have to feel like they’re bending to suit me but i can’t even really get it right because i can’t find the rational line of where that ends. am i even making sense? i guess i’m just really wistful about coming out of the other side a bit sooner and i’m frustrated with myself.

in terms of me being poorly, i have a bunch of trouble saying like, ‘hey i can’t really do that’. i’m so caught up in trying to fight to be healthy and better, that i intentionally project an image of being more functional than my body can sometimes be between flare-ups and i never talk about all the normal stuff that hurts my body or the stuff i do behind the scenes to try and maintain looking and feeling fairly functional at work, or going to visit friends or have people come to see me and the preparation it takes. i feel like i’m often starring in the functional™ play when i’m in public, and i never talk about the fact that i leave seemingly excessive (for most people) time before and after a shift to accommodate my illness, i never talk about the days after a shift where i’m in crippling pain, in floods of tears and enduring shitty side effects trying to recover from stuff that’s normal for everyone else when i’m at work, what they see is the disabled girl helping patients and getting stuff done and that’s what i want them to see. i never talk about dosing up the night before seeing my loved ones and the morning of, or incontinence pads or sexual sacrifices, choosing my outfits based on my pain score and what activities we’re doing as well as where they’ll be rubbing/squeezing against my body or what joints need to be free for said activities to avoid pain, i never talk about fitting my shower schedules around everyone in my life because showers still burn and itch my whole body because of my nerve/myelin issues, what they see is me with my walking aids, ready to be Normal(ish) Girl™ and i know that my friends love me either way, but it’s as much about me as about them. it’s not their fault, it’s mine. i don’t get to be upset when they ask more of me physically or are spontaneous, because that’s what i carefully construct and put out there that i’m able to manage but it’s really hard to find that balance and admit vulnerability with ptsd in the mix too. can i mention it without worrying loved ones? when am i just being annoying? how many times is it okay to voice discomfort? what tone of voice will construe that i’m still okay, just frustrated? my disabled friends are my very closest, which is just as well because they’re really intuitive about this stuff, and it’s easier for me to speak up because they know the right way to approach me and can coax me into comfort with expression with their own issues and complaints so we rarely have these issues, but i struggle a lot with this issue with the able bodied people in my life and friends outside of my inner circle - not that i don’t love them dearly, i absolutely do!! it’s just an extra layer of confusion for me, and i get really upset with myself for handling it poorly. 

this issue’s at the front of my mind just now, because i’m entering a period of increased work load and it’s setting off more flare-ups, and where i’m still in the process of adapting to a place where i’m comfortable healthwise and have counter-measures in place for more activity, i’m struggling a bit with expressing that i’m having a harder time physically than before i was doing so much stuff, and it’s making me feel a bit frustrated. i feel like having a disability in itself is enough of a constant emotional pivot without having ptsd, and honestly sometimes it gets rough trying to figure out where the rational and the irrational end, where the fear, apprehension and guilt end and i start, as well as which thing takes priority for me to address but i do think that somewhere in here is the realisation that i could do with both forgiving myself a little bit, and pushing myself to try harder at the same time. i’ve made some reasonable leaps in my progress and my recovery, and i have to try to acknowledge that. this is not nearly as much of a problem as it used to be, but sometimes i just want allllll the progress right now!! at times, my fear of putting any added stress on my important bonds can make me sabotage them and i work every day to minimise this and avoid shying away from vulnerability and expression, but i’m working on trying not to beat myself up every time i mess up. i can’t expect my loved ones to be psychic at the end of the day though, if i don’t open up about something, i can hardly hold it against them for maybe putting it to the back of their minds sometimes or it not being a priority when evaluating me/approaching me and therefore not instinctively taking care to be mindful straight away. at the end of the day, i just wanna live, love and figure out how to be an actual person after all this and all i can do is surround myself with positivity, and fight to be better. one day i will get all this down, but i just wish i could do a bit better now. i don’t want people that love me to be confused by me as a person when i love them too. i have trouble interacting with the world, but my love is honestly unwavering.

[patriciacothren]

3 Reasons Why You Should Not Own a Cat and Dog Together

Odie and Garfield. Tom and Spike. CatDog. Snowball and Santa’s Little Helper. The cats and dogs in the entire Cats & Dogs movie franchise. These are just some examples of the “cat vs dog” dichotomy we often see on our TV and movie screens. In fact, this rivalry happens to be one of the oldest and most popular animal tropes in media.  Comparing cats to dogs (or vice versa) would be like comparing apples to oranges; it serves no purpose other than to illustrate just how vastly different they are. Yet cats and dogs are constantly pitted against one another in media. Dogs are usually associated with kind-hearted heroes while cats are seated on the laps of villains. Another common example used for the cat/dog dichotomy is to portray dogs as dumb creatures while cats are seen as cunning and hostile.

As with most tropes in popular culture, there is some truth to the cliche. While cats and dogs make great pets on their own, having both animals living together is another matter altogether. Cats and dogs are so different, personality-wise, that it is easy to understand why they would have a difficult time getting along. If you are someone who is planning to have a cat-and-dog household, you may want to think again.

If you have not already done so, now would be a good time to reflect on the kind of pet owner you are and ask yourself this simple question: “Am I really ready to own a cat and a dog?” In the moment, it might seem like the easiest question in the world, but take a moment to let the question sink in and then look at it critically.

Getting a pet is a lot of work in and of itself, but getting another literally doubles the responsibility, not to mention the cost. Think about it: will you be able to meet their needs separately and fairly? Do you have security and precautions in place like insurance just in case your pet gets ill or lost? In the event of a sudden illness or an accident, would you be able to afford their treatments? Can you truly give them the proper love and care that they deserve?

Here are other important points to consider before owning a cat and a dog at the same time:

Cats and dogs suit different lifestyles.

There’s a reason why it is not uncommon to hear the question, “Are you a cat person or a dog person?” Cats and dogs tend to be emblematic of their owners. Are you the outdoorsy type? If yes, then dogs are a perfect fit for you, cats less so. Do you want your relationship with your pet to be that of equals, with your pet free to roam around the house and seek your affection on their own terms? If yes, you will love cats; a properly trained dog understands that you are the “alpha”.

Cats are generally more laidback and self-sufficient creatures who prefer to socialize only when they feel like it. They need a “safe room” in the house to retreat to and rest and do not mind being left alone for days so long as you leave them with enough provisions. Cats are resourceful creatures and will find a way to thrive no matter the conditions. After all, these are animals that basically domesticated themselves when they realized it would make their (nine) lives easier if they gave a show of deference and meowed.

Dogs, on the other hand, are a little more high-maintenance: they require exercise regularly and are entirely dependent on their human for food, water and bathroom breaks so they will need daily supervision. On the upside, they are generous with their affection and would die protecting you without a doubt. Dogs, when properly socialized, are very open and friendly, but do not let that fool you: they are also good judges of character and can go from wagging their tails to a crouching attack stance at the first hint of danger.

These are merely generalized traits of cats and dogs. In reality, it varies from breed to breed and only serves to give you an idea of the kind of pet owners that would best suit these animals. Another way to put it would be to say that there is a significant difference in the care each pet requires of its human. In other words, getting both a cat and a dog would mean twice as much responsibility, but you knew that already. Or did you…?

Cats and dogs are natural enemies.

It is widely recognized by all that cats and dogs have a long, drawn-out history of being natural enemies. When cats and dogs encounter one another, their natural instinct is to revert into an aggressive fight mode. It’s just biological and something you cannot totally eliminate. Facilitating a cat and dog’s first encounter is tricky, especially on the cat’s part. You will need to have an escape route prepared for your cat in case they feel uncomfortable, and you may want to keep your dog on a leash for their first encounter.

Cats and dogs have different styles of play.

It may seem like a minor detail, but this is actually a large factor to consider as these different styles of play may result in frequent altercations between your cat and your dog. Cats and dogs have distinguished preferences for games that are wholly different: cats prefer to stalk and pounce while dogs like to chase and run after things. Why does this matter so much, you ask? Well, for one, this means there are bound to be misunderstandings between the two. A dog chasing after a cat may think he and his new friend are just playing, but the cat might be absolutely terrified. On the other hand, a dog might be confused and hurt as to why the cat keeps on swiping him whenever he approaches, but what he doesn’t realize is that he’s getting too close into the cat’s personal space and the cat is trying to tell him to back off. These misinterpretations could go on forever and the only way to fix them would be set some ground rules in the household and train both pets.

These are just some reasons why you should not get a cat and a dog. There’s too much risk involved not just for both animals, but also to the peace and harmony in your household. Should you decide to go ahead and get a dog and a cat anyway, just be aware that you have got your work cut out for you.

Image Source:

https://pixabay.com/en/dog-cat-pets-animals-friends-2606759/

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Animal Communication Can Fix the Problems You’re Having With Your Pets

ABOUT ANIMAL COMMUNICATION: Learning animal communication is an exciting journey into the Self, the nature and reality of our world, a behind-the-scenes look at the many complex interconnections between us all, and the real truth about relationships. It’s also about discovering how to connect at deeper levels with other beings. My hope is that this course proves very useful to you in many ways. Learning to master animal communication takes a lifetime of study, practice and education. But don’t be scared! Any animal lover can learn how to talk with animals, if they’re willing to put the time and effort into learning how. You can too! Click here to view my beginning course on animal communication.

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