#active here (not to mention not drawing as often since that's relevant) is just due to my life getting busier with a new school year but i

[peridots-pixiwolf]

[Start ID. A redraw of the official icons of the ten named slugcats from Rain World, arranged in two rows: Survivor, Monk, Hunter, Nightcat, and Gourmand in the first, Artificer, Rivulet, Spearmaster, Saint and Enot/Inv in the second. Each is drawn in roughly the same pose as in the original art and fitted with speculative interpretations of their biology, and the second image is a “dead” version of this. For example, all ten have slug-like rhinophores in place of ears, cuttlefish-like colorful eyes with strangely-shaped pupils, cephalopod-like beak "teeth", expressive barbels or oral tentacles at the corners of mouths, spiny radulas, and the frilly mantle fringes of sea slugs, though otherwise their faces are squishy, simple and mammalian-shaped.

Cream-colored Survivor and yellow Monk both share triangular, bicolored spots matching their eyes (which are tan and brown, and two shades of blue, respectively), small, bumpy fringes, and relatively neutral looks on their faces. Defensive-looking Hunter is mostly a dull orange-pink, though their blobby fringe is a more violent red and their back is purple and marred with lumps. Nightcat is navy blue and flecked with dots of yellow and teal, their rolled rhinophores are a lighter blue, and their shading fractures into stars in some places. Gourmand is almost uniformly tan, their wide, very ruffly white mantle fringe bordered by a spray of white spots, and their beak sticks out from either corner of their smile. Primarily red Artificer, snarling, has yellow markings of multiple sorts, a prominent yellow dewlap and their characteristic dark scar taking out a chunk of its face. Rivulet is a darker blue than usual, with long barbels, red gills and rings, countershading, and a cheerful expression, sticking out their radula. Spearmaster is purple with orange accents, eyes and spots, a large fringe and spines down their back. Saint’s green caryophyllidia are marked by small, yellow diamonds, and their long, thin radula extends far below them. Enot is decorated with mottled red stripes, blue patches, yellow stars, and an uneven and almost cartoonish imitation of blush, though generally the same deep blue as Nightcat, a passive or almost slightly smug look on their face and their rolled rhinophores out to either side.

In the second image, nine of the slugcats’ eyes are crossed out, indicating that these are death icons. They look fairly the same, with mostly expression differences. Survivor is caught in the beginning of a threat display, a karma flower sprouts from Monk’s side, Hunter is burdened with overgrowing, purple and blue rot, Nightcat’s rhinophores are pinned back, and Gourmand looks mildly disheartened. For the final row, Artificer bites its radula between small plumes of smoke, Rivulet drops their expression, Spearmaster looks very startled, Saint looks almost entirely the same besides half-open eyes and their markings greater in number, and Enot grins confusedly. End ID]

If you'll excuse the unusually lengthy ID: the arena meme introduced by @pansear-doodles at long last after a nearly year-long wip status (or, rather, finished a month ago today to honor my own first time playing it!)

Design notes and shout-outs under cut! :]

The following people are some of those who’ve inspired my designs most since I started this eight months ago (or just inspired me to get a little weirder with slugcat biology), among many others for sure, and I thank them for it–but this is simply to bring attention to artists I find cool, and in no way an obligation to interact or anything :]

> @saturncoyote , @carpsoup , @charseraph , @gallusgalluss , @bitsbug , @dopscratch , and @0hmanit (and a special mention to dddeerbo and hunterlonglegs, who’ve since deactivated)!

Survivor: Surprisingly the hardest to pin down the colors for, since nothing with its sibling's palette seemed to match up right (I did have to add in a little blue somewhere for Monk, the beginning of making it clear how much I’m simply going based off of vibes for the colors of scug innards). I consider them, Monk and Gourmand to be part of the same gene pool of slugcats, and even possibly the same colony even if the latter isn't really related, so took a bit of Gourmand's coloring and fit them in with their inspiration: Goniobranchus verrieri. They serve as a bit of an introduction to my ideas of scug traits (i find it really fun how many people have thought to add so many silly sluglike fixtures of biology completely independent of me, buuut here I’m mostly talking about species variation), and like in-game they’re pretty average! They, Monk and Hunter have a couple scars sourced from a piece of Joar's concept art that I'm failing to find, those across the bridge of the nose, under the eyes, and across the rhinophores, respectively, and my Survivor interpretation features many on the back of the neck, as a result of survived lizard bites.

Monk: Their coloring is primarily based off the fact that I associate them with blue fruits, honestly, a bit because I was compelled to establish a familiarity with Rivulet, and lastly inspired by the spots of Goniobranchus kuniei (and geminus, less important to me as one of my characters is a kuniei instead, but more fitting). Between the yellow + blue and the circular marking in the center of their face, they’re meant to bear a little resemblance to an iterator that shares similarities with the characterization I’ve given them, and similar coding of her sibling can be seen on Survivor’s markings around the eyes. As both a “default” slugcat and one whose campaign I haven’t played, though, I can’t say I have much more to point out about em.

Hunter: The whole rot thing made for a really fun time drawing them, and while the color change on their back is a result of this, it’s also an excuse to relate them to Babakina festiva, arguably my favorite sea slug (mostly for sentimental purposes). And to Spearmaster, a fellow messenger slugcat, and it serves as a gradient between Hunter’s pink and the “traditional” color of Rot seen in the DLLs. Aside from their affliction, they’d actually be the plainest in terms of design, as they don’t have any patterns or quirks of body type, just the red + purple and strange lumps + possible malnutrition. I can’t remember if NSH had created them in particular or just...caught + released or something, but it probably wouldn’t be strange for a lab-grown slugcat to be simple like that.

Gourmand: Like the two above, they’re rather plain in terms of coloring and adaptation, and like the two above, I find that fun. I decided it would be nice to avert the “all slugcats being of the same body type, and Gourmand’s out of place as the exception” thing by just...adding more fat to all of them, really. I did want to emphasize their sheer bulk even so, both fat and muscular (not like I couldn’t have still gone further with it, of course, but slugcat anatomy can be a little obfuscating sometimes, and they were intended to look rather plush considering personal size headcanons and therefore the lack of proper gravity), and the thick and flounced mantle looked like a good addition, as per their sea slug Glossodoris hikuerensis. Unlike Survivor and Monk, I didn’t attempt to hold their resemblance to any particular other character (which means a little less to balance out the “default gene pool” thing), so those are all the design notes I have for em.

Artificer: The second slugcat I’ve ever played, or finished the campaign of, my favorite for at least a long time, and the first thing I did was give them yellow accents, the shape of which have troubled me slightly (not quite like the spots or stripes of the others). They’re both a little more appealing and more explosive-looking to me, and considering how early on I played Arti, actually present in some of my older art. It does give them a little resemblance to Saint (completely intentional, two slugcats with strange relations to karma), as well as the fact that its radula is green for familiarity with one of its children (at some point it was going to have all-green markings, even!). I’m generous with their scars, partly because it was fun to overemphasize the one on their face and partly because it does seem like a reckless slugcat, on top of the dangers of its explosive abilities–I’ll probably just keep adding more forever. Mostly-red sea slugs aren’t too common, but Hexabranchus sanguineus works for sure. The ridged, yellow dewlap can expand for combustion purposes, or something along those lines. Arti’s where I began experimenting with a lot of the mildly-offkilter features seen in my interpretation of slugcats, as they’ve once again been a favorite from the start.

Rivulet: I've obviously given other slugcats spots, deeply enjoy the bubbly-soda markings of other peoples' slugcats, and thought seal riv would be cute. Despite not too closely resembling it, they've been government-assigned Hypselodoris bennetti, for color reasons and for a couple sentimental ones. Originally, the colors of every scug were meant to match up with the custom colors I gave them at the beginning of their campaigns, (though Arti, Gourm and Spearmy are the only three who actually apply here, since I've only played through half the slugcats: I gave arti the yellow as mentioned above, gourm brown eyes and spearmy light pink spears, furthered by the outskirts pearl accompanying me and that palette all the way to moon. Tolerance training for eternity in hell cause I already knew about the maroon pearl quest). I initially gave them the colors of the bi flag for fun... but with the limited palette of this image, I was left without pink for a while and decided to see how they'd look in red. I then realized how they now wonderfully matched Moon, and besides, red's a sort of camouflage in deep water! As a side-note, the difference between their eyes and those of others always bothered me a little for anatomical purposes, and the cephalopod eyes were probably influenced by this!

Spearmaster: Inspired as much as possible by @notyourfunnyman ’s wonderful spearmy: designed in a way that helps it fit in with scavengers, at least between the long sensory tentacles, big ruff, back spines and slightly thin/distended anatomy, a form of defensive mimicry. I always had annulate rhinophores in mind, for a little diversity sure, but mostly because the shape reminds me of radio antennae and communication towers (seems fitting for the comms array and being a messenger slugcat)! I started searching for a real-life slug to give them just by looking up their rhinophore shape...and was met immediately and coincidentally with annulate-topped nudibranchs that fit them more perfectly than I could've imagined: Flabellina and surrounding clades, I think Paraflabellina ischitana works very nicely. The orange was completely unplanned, but there wasn’t a place for light pink among the other slugcats’ palettes, and importantly it likens them to both Hunter and Seven Red Suns a little more.

Saint: I am very much a non-furred slugcat enjoyer, with respect to those who aren’t, so figuring out the only visibly furred slugcat was an interesting challenge. I’ve decided that they likely have other, milder adaptations for help in the cold, mainly just more efficient fat storage, and what looks vaguely like fur is instead a bunch of tubercles (called caryophillia, for the second reminder out of three). Their inspiration doesn’t have these, however, Miamira sinuata’s numerous yellow and blue spots (not to mention...whatever’s going on with that shape) and general effect of being the only really green nudibranch I could find were probably perfect for a strange green echo. Not pictured, but their beak-teeth are tiny and flat to make a surface for grinding soft food against with the lack of a functioning radula, which is tipped with a specialized spiny “grapple-hook” for better traction/grip (not to mention the numerous little teeth running down the whole thing).

(Best part of hiding this under a readmore means edits will be seen by all reblogs, I'm mostly sure, because I completely forgot to mention! The spots on their forehead are simple eyes. Their camera eyes appear closed in-game, I like to believe their complex eyesight is rather poor anyways or otherwise reason that they aren't seeing out of those, and while this was far from her REASON for attunement with the world, it does help compensate for mainly viewing it through a canvas of simple light and dark. This, and the fact that their swapped-out "fur" is not only to commit to a lack of hairs but contributes to sensory input!)

Nightcat/Enot: I guess you could say I found the “these two are technically the same person” compelling. (E.g. similar colors, both very strange and enigmatic, and Enot/Inv/Sofanthiel’s remark during the dating sim about getting removed from Arena Mode.) I doubt they’re the only two slugcats in their body, considering humans with DID tend to have more than a few (and I find it very funny that a slugcat bearing resemblance to Nightcat appears in Gourmand’s ending. They’re allowed in the colony and Enot isn’t </3), and I have to credit @faelingdraws ’s art for being what convinced me on it! Their design inspirations come down to trying to balance a few different ideas: making the patterns and palettes of both look oddly similar (special mention to the stars, since those are fun to draw), basing them off of Felimare sechurana and juliae respectively, using blocks of color with the same placement as in Enot’s official art, and specifically making Enot look...biologically reasonable and imperfect, whilst also clearly trying to imitate human displays of emotion (what with...the eyes and blush on that one piece of official art).

Lastly, here’s just a lineup with notes on body shape and size. Most of the nicknames (existing to give a little more space, that’s all) are obvious, and while I can’t remember why I shortened Nightcat to Nox, it is in honor of my friend by the same nickname :]

[shadowsong26fic]

Coming Attractions!

A day late, but ah well...

As usual, we’ll go ahead and do an Open Question Night. Which basically means that, while my ask box is always open, tonight I’ll be keeping an eye on it and answering things as they come in. Any fandom or work I’ve talked about here (or posted on AO3) is fair game, as are general questions about writing, etc. I do accept prompts, but I am. Not very good at filling them in a timely manner unless they Immediately spark something, lol.

So, yeah, what’s on your mind?

Also, since I don’t think I have for a couple months, plug for my Discord server! It’s pretty quiet, mostly intended to be a slightly more interactive extension of this space, but you’re welcome to check it out!

Anyway, the usual Coming Attractions details are behind the cut!

PodTogether 2021:

I participated in this challenge for the first time this year, and it was a whole lot of fun! Of Other Suns is a SW/AtLA crossover, and I think it turned out pretty well! My reader/podficcer and I worked pretty closely together during the initial brainstorming process, working out what we wanted to do, and also bounced off one another during the whole editing/finalizing process. There’s a lot that I didn’t end up putting into the fic (because time and length; I am a. Uh. Very wordy writer; the aim was for 6-12k words, we ended up with nearly 15k as it is...), so I might poke more at this specific AU, or crossovers linking up at a different time (either a different point in the SW canon, or in the AtLA canon, or both). I...definitely have extensive headcanons for SW characters as benders of various elements (or nonbenders), and there are at least two Force-sensitive AtLA characters who were outside the scope of the crossover.

Anyway, if you want to check it out...click this link XD (and definitely listen to the podfic too!!! It’s really great)

Precipice:

So, between the final push on PodTogether and some origfic stuff I got done, I...did not get anything finished and posted for this, alas. But! I am saying it here in the hopes that doing so publicly will for once get me to actually stick to a deadline, which is that I will get either the first Protectors chapter or the next Preludes one-shot (or both!) up by this Sunday, September 12. The Protectors chapter will be mostly scene-setting, establishing where various characters are when we open, six years after we last saw our heroes. The Preludes segment will involved Hondo contacting Obi-Wan (and Anakin, who’s with him when he gets the call) about something Relevant To Their Interests.

I will for sure get that Prelude out this month, and hopefully at least two Protectors chapters, but we’ll see how things go at work and how much brain that takes, which is always a factor...anyway, with any luck, I’ll start establishing a Rhythm. I don’t think I’ll be doing weekly updates, the way I did for the first few arcs of Precipice (in part because there are some other longform projects I intend to start putting out and if I am going to do Weekly Fic Posts, I’ll probably alternate), but we’ll see how things go.

AtLA Fic:

Again, I didn’t finish what I wanted to (other than the aforementioned crossover for PodTogether), but I have been working on stuff in the background and, while I’m not going to commit to a Specific Deadline like I am for Precipice, I do plan to post at least the opening chapter of the still-untitled Avatar Zuko AU I’ve been working on this month, so watch this space!

Other Fic Projects:

I’m poking around at what to do for next years SWBB (if only because my wordcounts have been Steadily Increasing and I’d like to get a head start in anticipation of that happening again this year, lol). Still considering exactly what to do, whether I pour all my focus into OFLAM, like I consider every year, or see if I can work up Bail Unfucks the Timeline or another half-plotted AU I have in the back of my head, or go with a different prompt/storyline that occurs to me at some point between now and then, but I’m starting to Actively Ponder things.

I do have that BSG1 crossover outline in the works, I swear XD I’ve got...uh...maybe half to two thirds of the first third of the overall storyline written up? XD It’s a. Uh. Long one. I might go ahead and release it in three parts, just for length/convenience, and because it does more or less have three distinct sections (the initial contact/New Caprica fallout and establishment of the Haven settlement which makes sense in context; the second contact/algae planet; and then an adventure on a resurrection ship to retrieve a Specific Boxed Five and possibly walk away with Ellen because that would just ruin Cavil’s day and I do so love to ruin Cavil’s day, lol). ...I’m going to go ahead and post a preview snippet at the bottom of this post, as Motivation XD

I think that’s all the fanfic stuff I have specific updates for. There’s generally always stuff noodling around in my brain (lately, for Star Wars, AtLA, BSG, or some combination of the three), it’s just how much of it materializes, lol.

At some point, I plan to revisit some BSG epics I had going on (Serenissima; rewriting For Sorrow Sung or doing a slightly different storlyine with the same concept; The Other Battlestar; a few others), but no concrete plans as of yet.

I also kind of want to explore a far-past AtLA setting I designed for a challenge community way back? But I’m not sure if that would work better as an original work with the serial numbers filed off, if I could figure out how I wanted to do that (I have done it before, as I’ll talk about below, but this concept, while not directly involving any characters from Avatar canon as it’s set 2000 years prior to Sozin’s reign, does to an extent lean on the Avatar specifically as a concept, in a way that the other fic I did this with did not).

Original Fic:

Due to a challenge on rainbowfic, I actually got. Quite a bit written? Most of it was not super plot-relevant, but I dropped some Hints about a character in Lux and I got to play in some heads I don’t very often. I might go back to the Regency AU at some point, and there’s a specific reveal I want to write up for a secondary character in The Farglass Cycle, but I haven’t quite figured out how to structure that one, so we’ll see how it goes.

Had an interesting discussion the other day about the way original fiction sometimes starts as fanfic with the serial  numbers filed off and...well, a lot of my original stuff starts that way? Or has some roots there, anyway.

Lux doesn’t quite as much, but I definitely ported in at least two characters who started as fanfic characters (leaving aside that this is, y’know, The Apocalypse IN SPACE so, like. Various fandoms that deal with that probably influenced things, plus several key players are Public Domain Characters sooooo), plus some of the way the world is constructed draws on the Native Tongue trilogy and I flat-out stole a concept from Queen of the Damned, though the way it works in this world is different (also, to be fair, I think I’ve seen it in other places, too; but I personally got the idea from there).

The Farglass Cycle and Untitled Intrigues Story, however, straight-up started as fanfic concepts. And I don’t think it’s obvious unless I point out what the source materials were? Farglass, in particular (it’s the AtLA fic I mentioned earlier), because it started as an alternate future and then the map and magic system got reworked, plus the Avatar themself wasn’t even super involved in the original fic context, and while certain characters are very loosely based on AtLA characters, by now they’ve been so altered by the setting that it’s...I used the same archetypes, if that makes sense?

And then Untitled Intrigues Story started as a fusion between two wildly different fandoms, and while one character is a pretty clear expy if you know where he comes from, and another character kept the same actress in my head, I don’t think it’s very clear other than that.

...anyway, not sure where I’m going with that, other than it’s been in my head lately, lol.

...I think that about covers it! What about you guys? What are you all working on? Slash any questions, etc.?

Teaser for BSG1 AU outline, as promised:

So, anyway, SG-1 is prepared for rain and mud and a survivable-but-kinda-unpleasant environment. They’re also prepared for the usual shenanigans--Goa’uld, cranky local politics, weird alien tech that Daniel really should know better than to touch but sends him into another dimension anyway...

Just. Y’know. A normal mission.

They’re...not quite prepared for what they actually find when they step through.

Which is a very tense and now slightly Confused crowd of people, and a firing squad made up of very large killer robots, with a teenage girl as their target.

(One of the large killer robots is. Uh. Well. Half a large killer robot now; that particular Centurion was in the wrong place at the wrong time and got kawooshed in the face. As one does.)

(Said Centurion absolutely wins the ‘Weirdest Death’ pool for the week in Download City, because that is clearly a thing that exists because it entertains me)

There’s a beat where everyone just stares at everyone else, trying to figure out what the hell is going on.

The wormhole disengages.

Daniel takes half a step forward, opens his mouth to start the ‘we are peaceful explorers from Earth and y’all seem to be having a Moment here, sorry for interrupting, but, uh...’

And then the moment end and absolute chaos erupts.

[rainafoxfire]

Sannion has suggested that many people are in need of some direction as to starting or maintaining a devotional practice. I am perhaps not the best guide in that my own practice is rather personalized and idiosyncratic. However, I thought I would give some examples of what I do nonetheless, in case it helps anyone. (Though please, please don’t just copy my examples unless they are truly directly relevant to your own practice and spiritual relationships – rather, use this as a way to spark ideas for the types of things you might do yourself. Devotional practice should be personal, and arise from your own understanding of and history with your deities.) Some folks recently have described a single day in their practice, but each day is too different for me to do it that way. I don’t have many daily practices other than following certain taboos, a few simple things I always wear or do as I go about my day, that sort of thing. More and more, I have been led to a free-flowing sort of approach that tunes in and responds to the forces around me, rather than executing a pre-planned set of actions. This is actually trickier to do well, a balancing act. Ideally, it should lead to more devotional practice and magic, not less. I think I am only ready for this now because I spent so many years building a foundation. One thing that helps me keep the balance is my schedule of holy days. Each month, certain days (calculated by the lunar calendar) are set aside to focus on certain gods or spirits. Right now, I have eight of these, but I’m always in the process of refining it. This ensures that I never go too long without giving Someone their due. It also keeps a sort of rhythm to my spiritual life, going through the cycle over and over. Added to this are festival days (which involve more elaborate and specific rituals and activities), which are more unevenly scattered across the year. Of course, even on a day with no special focus, I might end up doing major ritual or trancework. But here are some of the smaller things I do more often to maintain and deepen my devotional relationships. Prayer Beads – I have a set of prayer beads I made about 5-6 years ago, where each god or spirit or group of spirits in my “personal pantheon” is represented by a different, symbolic bead (amber for Apollon, lava rock for chthonic Trophonios, etc.). I usually take these out on my walk to work in the mornings. I do not have set prayers. Often I simply pause at each bead and hail the entity, and perhaps talk to Them extemporaneously for a bit. Sometimes I ask for help with something, give thanks, etc. Sometimes I go through and with each one mention a certain type of thing sacred to Them, or recall the last devotional act I did for Them, or the next I plan to do, or something of that sort – almost a game, meant to keep my mind on these things. I find this practice nicely centers me in my web of divine relationships. Clothing, Jewelry & Hair – On holy days, I always pay attention to what I wear, choosing the colors associated with that deity, and anything else that seems appropriate. No matter what day, there are certain colors and fabrics that are off-limits to me, and everything I wear must align with the aesthetics of my spirits (which have slowly become my own for the most part, but definitely didn’t start out that way). Every day, I braid my hair in some way – this began several years ago as a temporary devotional practice for one of my spirits, just something to be noticeable and remind me of him each day, but then I felt strongly that I should keep doing it, and I think of the braids as intertwining myself with my gods and spirits. It is also significant to choose to make that more important than any personal preferences as to how I wear my hair. I also choose my jewelry carefully – every single piece I own has meaning, usually directly connected to a specific entity, and which pieces I wear each day are my statement of intent. No matter what else, if I go outside the house I am wearing a ring for my Husband and one for Dionysos, and when I am in my home “alone” I wear a second ring for my Husband. I wear a small piece of jewelry when I go to bed each night to connect with my dream-spirit. I also have stretched ears, which I did on request from my spirits to symbolically open my hearing to Their voices, and only wear a few simple sets of plugs, having given up pretty earrings as a sacrifice. (I also have nearly 30 devotional tattoos which state my allegiances in a permanent manner on my skin, but while I have them every day, obtaining one is obviously a more special occasion.) Images and Playlists – I keep a large folder of images that I find beautiful or powerful on my computer. I have them sorted into various folders, including ones for most of my gods and spirits. My usual screensaver is a random slideshow of all these images (since my computer is on for hours each day usually, it’s a nice way to be reminded of Them, and also useful occasionally for divination), but on holy days I set it to just the folder of that specific entity. Likewise, I keep playlists of music for each of Them and play them on Their holy days or when doing any sort of ritual for Them. I revise both of these periodically, as my relationships and understandings of Them change over time. Shrines – I have shrines for all of my gods and spirits in my house, but some get a lot more use than others. Most are just placeholders of sorts, making a space in my home for Them and an appropriate place to leave offerings if necessary, but not a focus of worship, as a lot of my worship is done outdoors. The shrines for my Husband and Dionysos however have cushions in front of them and I often sit in front of the “activated” shrine (when the candles and incense are lit) and pray and commune with Them. All my shrines developed organically over many years – the items on them tend to have deep significance and I periodically review them to make sure they still represent my current view of Them. I try to personalize anything mass manufactured (for example, by painting common statuary), and mostly focus on unique items that have a history with us, even though those are usually much less spectacular (for instance, the small lump of white marble I found on the shores of Naxos on Dionysos’ shrine, or the bowl of unusual coins I have slowly accumulated for Hermes, or the special ritual pipe for my Husband made from a bone of His sacred animal). On holy days, I light up the appropriate shrine while I am home. But I also often do this whenever I’m feeling Their presence, or want to invite Their presence. Especially at night in a darkened house, the glow of the shrine draws all focus there. Physical Offerings – I make both traditional and personal offerings to the gods regularly. At the very least, I do this on Their holy days, but with my core group I do it more often. These might include things like: alcohol (paying attention to both the type and even the picture on the label), flowers, incense, coins, stones, food, drink, etc. Each one has a wide variety of sacred symbolism to draw on. So I might pour out Stone IPA beer for Hermes, or leave figs on Dionysos’ shrine, or lay out a piece of honeycomb for the nymphs in some numinous spot outdoors. Aside from the shrines, repositories for my offerings might include bits of wild nature throughout the city, special trees or stones, the creek, or I might leave something on the street or at a crossroads, especially if it is for Hermes or might double as a glamourbomb for someone. Activities – On holy days, and sometimes on other days that feel imbued with the presence of a certain god or spirit, I try to tailor every activity to Them – what book I read, what movie I watch, even what errands I do. I might save a shopping trip for Hermes’ day, or go out dancing on Dionysos’ day. I’ll start reading a book about sleep on the day for my dream-spirit, or start an art project on the day for my collective spirits who are closely tied to my artwork. I clean the house on the last couple days of the lunar month, in accordance with the practice of taking out the sweepings on Hekate’s deipnon. Miscellaneous – I say a special prayer to Dionysos each time I consume any kind of intoxicant. On the full moon, I smudge all the animal spirits who live in my house in the form of pelts, taxidermy and bones. I only smoke cigarettes for ritualistic purposes in very precise circumstances, as per the taboo laid down by my spirits (or else I get rather ill). On certain holy days, I do not eat meat, due to Their wishes. On Apollon’s day, I have a special set of taboos and actions due to the oracular work. Almost all of my non-fiction reading is religious in nature, either overtly or somehow related to one of Their interests. ��I am constantly open to receiving any omens or communications They might send me as I go about my day; I pay attention to things I see when I’m thinking of Them especially. I do divination when I need to know what They want or am not sure I’m receiving a message properly (and I find choosing the method of divination to be important in itself – runes for Odin of course, a fairytale Tarot deck for my spirits, a Greek mythology deck for my primary deities, etc.). Hopefully that’s enough to paint a general picture of my approach to devotional practice. I would very much like to see more people writing about what they do.

Dver, author of https://forestdoor.wordpress.com/

[melien]

Update

Hey guys! Guess I'll break the silence and talk about... things. It will be a long post because I just never can make them shorter, but there will be some updates on my life and simblr that I really want to share with everyone.

The beginning of this month for me was truly something. I went on a three-day training with the other summer camp counsellors and then, two days later, there was another four-day sightseeing trip. Bonus: I had a really bad flu and was suffering the entire time. Needless to say, I was exhausted and on Sunday, when I came home, I slept from 5 pm to 9 am next day, and I'd sleep even longer if my mom didn't wake me up (I had a drawing class at 10 so I was really lucky).

But the most important thing is, I feel like I'm finally living an actual life that I could only dream of when I was younger, very insecure, socially awkward and constantly surrounded by wrong people. Now I know that I'm on my way to becoming a person I always wanted to be. All it took is telling all the fears to buzz off and making changes (e.g. joining the local youth center as a volunteer), and here I am now. It didn't happen immediately, but I kept pushing. Compared to myself only one year ago who believed everything is always going to end the same way so why even bother, it's such a massive progress and I'm so proud. In these past few days and by extension months I've had some great times with great people, I felt so comfortable with them. We talked about everything, had inside jokes, exchanged nice words and hugs, took a lot of photos, danced together, sang songs on top of our lungs, played mafia and other games, had walks in the unknown cities, got lost there, had to run like crazy not to miss the bus, sat in the restaurants and laughed a lot. There were plenty of moments when I felt alive and an important part of my community. When you have majorly struggled in the past, you start appreciating these things even more. I hope it doesn't sound like bragging, but I'm just so emotional about all of this because I never had anything quite like it and these experiences are new for me. I've still surely got a way to go when it comes to my personal development, but it's a start and I don’t want to go back to the times when I felt alone and unnecessary. I think the key was just changing my mindset altogether and getting rid of negativity, which is why I started attracting more positive people who think alike, and my little dreams and goals started coming true without me even realising it. For example, deep inside I always wanted to be a camp counsellor, and now I am – it’s the first step towards my big dream to be an English teacher.

Throughout these days, I only looked on simblr very briefly for the reasons mentioned above, but I want to gradually start catching up with the stories and legacies I enjoy, at least a little bit. The trips were awesome, but so physically exhausting. And I still have a lot of stuff to do this week, mainly do work and possibly a few more volunteering projects, so I probably won't be around as often as I want to, but just know that you're all great and I love you. 

I'm especially thankful for the comments and love on the recent events in the Twinkle legacy! I'm sooo excited for Cloudberry to be my next heiress because she's pretty damn awesome and I already have a huge crush on her thanks to some photos that I've taken of her as an adult, so it's going to be fun. I also ran a poll on Twitter asking if people wanted to see the Maples or Lilygreens. I have a backlog of both, but due to the poll results I'm going to post the Maples first and I'm dying for the start of my second generation to go live! Now if only I could find motivation to draft.

One more thing that I wanted to mention is that I have a ts2 side blog, @strange-mel. I really missed playing with premades and writing dialogues for them, and currently ts2 is my jam so I'm going to be active on that blog for a long time because I have a massive queue of my Strangetown gameplay going. I'm quite proud of how it's turning out because the gameplay was so enjoyable and there's a lot of hilarious moments. Also, I'm planning on writing a story in ts2 which features some of my favourite Strangetown characters, and I love the concept but it depends on my time and energy. Feel free to follow on there if you want to!

That's all for now, I guess. Oh and also, random but I go away for a few days and see Zayn releasing "A Whole New World" cover (for those who don't know, I'm hopelessly obsessed with this song and Aladdin, and I can't wait to go to the movie theater to see live action). All the best stuff happens when I'm gone, so I won't be surprised if some amazing sims posts have happened in this time period. 😅

Tl;dr: The entire beginning of May for me was travelling and I had a lot of fun with great people, which I have a lot of feelings about since I haven’t experienced anything like this in the past, and I’m really happy with my life at the moment. I may not be on simblr as often these days, but I’ll try my best and the queue will be active. The Twinkles are going on a break and the Maples are next. I also have a ts2 blog where I’m planning to be active and post my gameplay and possibly a story with Strangetown premades. To conclude, I’m looking forward to the live action Aladdin (relevant, I know)

[commentaryvorg]

Danganronpa V3 Commentary: Part 4.7

Be aware that this is not a blind playthrough! This will contain spoilers for the entire game, regardless of the part of the game I’m commenting on. A major focus of this commentary is to talk about all of the hints and foreshadowing of events that are going to happen and facts that are going to be revealed in the future of the story. It is emphatically not intended for someone experiencing the game for their first time.

Last time, as chapter 4 started being less character arc and more plot, everyone entered the Virtual World upon Miu and Kokichi’s totally-not-suspicious suggestion, Kaito was a dog and we rounded out his list of Manly Things with curiosity and playfulness, and he was also on extremely high alert over Kokichi doing anything suspicious but let Gonta slip under his radar because there’s obviously no way Gonta would do anything bad.

Now we’re in the chapel, discussing how everyone is going to split up to search the Virtual World.

Kokichi:  “Oh, yeah… Before we split up, I wanna ask you something, Miu.”

[Kokichi and Miu whisper to each other]

Here’s another way in which Kokichi is deliberately sabotaging the mercy kill plan before it’s even happened. He’s not stupid enough to have forgotten their planned meeting place, but he’s pretending he has and confirming it here in the hopes that someone will overhear (which indeed Keebo does), giving Shuichi yet another clue which will make figuring out Miu’s plan (and therefore Gonta’s guilt) far easier in the trial.

Maki:  “So, who’s going to decide how we split up?”

Kaito:  “Just leave it all to me! I’ll figure out how everyone should split up in a flash!”

Look, guys, Kaito’s still being useful and a leader! And also he probably wants an excuse to put himself in the same team as both his sidekicks, as well as probably Kokichi so he can keep an eye on him. (And… what if he would have put Gonta in a different team than Kokichi to stop anything potentially bad happening. I bet he would have done.)

Miu:  “No, no! Hold up! I’ll decide that! I know this world better than any of you, so I’ll decide!”

She doesn’t really know this world any better than anyone else now that everyone’s explored the whole place (aside from a couple of rooms in the mansion that don’t have anything relevant in them anyway). That’s just an excuse to let her organise her murder plan. She’s kind of bad at this.

She puts Kaito on the roof, of course, so that when she logs him out in order to frame him it’ll get him out of the way of her meeting with Kokichi. Also potentially so that if they do figure out Kokichi was killed on the Virtual World rooftop, Kaito will still look the most suspicious.

Kaito:  “Huh!? Why do I gotta go up to the rooftop!? It’s freakin’ cold out there!”

Kokichi:  “Yeah! There’s no way the faint-hearted Kaito can search in the cold!”

Kaito:  “Alright! Bring it on! All I gotta do is search the rooftop, right?”

Aaaand Kokichi, knowing full well Miu is doing this for her plan, deliberately helps it along for her.

Miu then puts Kokichi in the salon, because he’s supposed to end up dead, which means that nobody will be able to vouch for the fact that Kaito didn’t go to the salon to log himself out.

Then she doesn’t give a fuck other than putting herself on the chapel team. Which makes it kind of obvious that she’s got a hidden agenda here. Literally all you needed to do was randomly pick additional people to assign to other rooms, Miu, it wouldn’t have been hard. You’re terrible at this.

(And if she’d randomly happened to put Gonta on the chapel team, then that would have saved her life.)

Kokichi:  “Then Gonta should come with me. We can search the mansion’s surroundings, since no one else wants to deal with the cold.”

Gonta:  “Okay… Gonta come with you.”

Gonta is just being heartbreakingly subdued and obedient. Usually he’d be more cheerful about being given something he can be helpful with, but not now.

Kokichi:  “Mm-hm, a true gentleman must always volunteer to do the dirty work.”

FUCK YOU AND YOUR DOUBLE MEANINGS, KOKICHI

Tsumugi:  “So… you’re just going to use Gonta again. I’ve decided! I’m going that way too! I have to make sure you’re not abusing poor Gonta!”

I’ll give Tsumugi this: she seems pretty committed to her act of pretending to care about Gonta’s wellbeing. I don’t know if she knows what Kokichi is planning for him – probably not, and even if she was it’s not like she’d stop it because it’s an excellent story – but in terms of the character she’s pretending to be, this bit about her being on Gonta’s side is one of the most consistent things she does. I haven’t been pointing it out every time, but it’s been there.

Kaito:  “We still need one more for mansion duty. Shuichi, come with us.”

Shuichi:  “Ah, okay…”

Maki:  “…”

Shuichi:  (Is Maki upset…? Because she’s all by herself now?)

There’s this whole bit here, during the ensuing optional dialogue as well, with Maki quietly glaring (at either Kaito or Shuichi, it’s not clear which), presumably because… she’s mad that Kaito picked Shuichi to go with him and not her? But it just doesn’t feel right to me. Yes, I’m sure she would have preferred to go with Kaito than be stuck with neither of her close friends, but she’s not the kind of person who would get actively mad about it, especially not when they have more important things to be doing. The writing is probably trying to pretend that this is about her romantic feelings for Kaito and that she’s all jealous that Kaito would rather hang out with Shuichi than with her, but no, fuck off, that’s such a goddamn stereotypical way for someone to be acting upon romantic feelings (not to mention hugely dickish to your other friend). Maki isn’t like that at all; please remember the time two days ago where she could barely even comprehend that she had such feelings.

As an optional bit of dialogue, Miu suggests making this entire place their new reality and literally everyone (except Maki, who is still being inflicted with bad-writing-induced anger, and Gonta, who is very quiet) disagrees with her, then…

Miu:  “Ugh… grghggh! I-I’ll make you regret this!”

Shuichi:  (Regret this? What does she mean? She says such ominous things…)

You’re not being super subtle about the fact that you’re planning to kill us all, Miu.

Also, if you examine the organ in the chapel…

Shuichi:  “…Kaede probably could have played the organ well too. …”

Aww. (It’s great how the game has occasional mentions of her such as this to make it clear that she’s still important to and having an influence on Shuichi even now. That’s something the first game utterly failed to do with Sayaka.)

On the way back to the mansion…

Miu:  “Whoops, my hand slipped.”

[Miu “accidentally” drops the signboard in the river]

Nobody ever genuinely says that when their hand really did just slip. Again: she is so bad at this and Shuichi would have seen right through her if she’d actually succeeded in killing Kokichi.

Gonta is also still very quiet during this whole exchange about the missing bridge, even though you’d expect him to be worrying about the people on the other side or trying to find a way to help somehow. (This kind of quiet behaviour is something it makes sense that Kaito still wouldn’t pick up on, since he’s not paying any specific attention to Gonta, and without doing that it’s hard to notice a lack of something.)

Once they’re in the mansion, Kokichi doles out the other roles on the team and tells Shuichi and Tsumugi to go check the dining hall and kitchen – note how he leaves the entrance hall out of it, since he needs that to be empty. Kaito is still here during this conversation, which is briefly relevant later in a way the writing doesn’t draw explicit attention to, so keep this in mind.

Gonta:  “…Gonta go now.”

Oh, Gonta, you poor thing. He’s just so quiet and defeated and sad, or at least that’s the implication given by his very few lines once you know what’s up. He is, however, suppressing it and not showing a visibly sad expression here, meaning that again, even Kaito probably can’t pick up on this due to the less nuanced expressions on the avatars.

Tsumugi:  “It’s surprisingly cold out there, so be careful. You should come back here to warm up.”

Gonta:  “Thank you… but Gonta okay. Gonta not smart enough to get sick.”

Gonta then also smiles upon Tsumugi’s concern for him. So things probably seem pretty fine and not worrying from the perspective of anyone with him, regardless of how perceptive they are.

Kaito:  “Someone who isn’t smart wouldn’t want to save everyone… They’d only think of themselves.”

Gonta:  “Oh… thank you.”

Aaaaaagh. These words from Kaito are the last thing anyone says to Gonta before he becomes a murderer in a desperate attempt to save everyone. Maybe that helped him feel just a tiny bit less awful about it. He may be about to become a murderer, but he is so, so far from being stupid.

And it’s absolutely lovely that Kaito thinks this: that meaningful intelligence isn’t about book smarts or whatever but is about how much you care about others and how often you’re thinking about how to help everyone around you. In fact, that would explain why Kaito always gets so mad when people call him an idiot! It’s not because he cares that they think he’s book-dumb – he knows he’s not, but he doesn’t ever bring up that fact to correct people because it’s not the point. It’s because he takes it as them assuming he doesn’t care about anyone but himself, and of course he’d hate others getting that impression of him! That also fits perfectly with the fact that Maki has never stopped calling him an idiot but Kaito stopped complaining about it once they were friends – in other words, once it became clear that she knew he cared about helping her and therefore didn’t mean “idiot” in the sense that bothers him.

It’s also amusing to realise, considering how much I like to call Kaito “idiotically selfless” or words to that effect, that he would see that as a complete oxymoron.

Tsumugi:  “I want to go back to my real body.”

Kaito:  “Well… These avatars aren’t that bad, y’know?”

Shuichi:  “Huh? These avatars?”

Kaito:  “Just kidding! It’s just a joke! I’m just joking!”

You’re still kind of bad at this, Kaito. Lucky for you Shuichi’s being selectively oblivious here.

So they all split up to search for what is presumably quite a long time, until Shuichi and Tsumugi happen to be together as they hear the crashing sound.

Tsumugi:  “Maybe that sound was something falling off the roof?”

Shuichi:  (But… the person on the roof is…)

Welcome to yet another instance of first-time-me being utterly terrified Kaito was dead. By all rights, Shuichi should be too, but… he isn’t? Moments after, they hear Keebo’s voice, and then even if you attempt to get Shuichi to go check the rooftop, he’ll just insist he needs to go outside to check if that was Keebo. Like, geez, you heard Keebo’s voice so at the very least he’s alive, but what if Kaito isn’t???

This is admittedly the first time Kaito’s been possibly dead in which it even makes sense for Shuichi to potentially think that and be worried about it. So, since there’s actually no precedent for how Shuichi would react to this, maybe I’m just overestimating his ability to even think Kaito is dead. More on that in a bit.

This is also the first time Kaito’s been explicitly possibly dead in which the primary out-universe point of this event isn’t actually to make you think he’s dead. That’s just an unintended side effect of the real reason for it, which most directly is that Miu was trying to frame him, but in a more out-universe writing sense (since Miu really could have tried to frame anyone and it didn’t have to be Kaito) her framing him has a deliberate purpose for Kaito’s character arc during this case.

Look at where Gonta is standing when they run into him outside. He has not just come from checking the mansion’s surroundings, has he. The only place he could have come from is that dead end to the side of the mansion where we’re going to find the toilet paper later. This right here is the conclusive proof that Gonta is the murderer.

Tsumugi:  “You heard that loud noise, right?”

Gonta:  “O-Oh… Gonta hear noise, but Gonta not see anything.”

Gah, look at Gonta having no choice but to lie to them in order to be able to save everyone. He looks sad as he says this, not because he’s disappointed he couldn’t be more helpful, but because he hates lying to them.

Shuichi:  (And what about Kaito? He should have heard that from the roof… He would have run over here right away… What’s going on?)

YES AND YOU SHOULD BE MORE WORRIED ABOUT HIM BECAUSE OF THAT

Shuichi:  (…Alright. My talent… is solving mysteries. So that’s what I’m going to do.)

Aww, look at Shuichi psyching himself up to solve this even though he’s clearly kind of confused and freaked out right now. He really is good in a crisis.

Gonta:  “What happen? Did something happen to Keebo?”

This isn’t Gonta having to lie or hide anything, since he’s probably genuinely confused as to why Keebo was heard nearby – he knows he sent Miu sliding through the wall, but he presumably doesn’t realise that the chapel is on the other side of it.

Gonta:  “Leave it to Gonta! Gonta just need to carry signboard!?”

Oh Gonta you precious thing. He is now a murderer and he’s intending to get everyone else mercy-killed soon but he’s still trying to help out in even the smallest ways!

Gonta:  “But board is so thin. Will it be okay? What if board breaks this ti—”

At this point Gonta has already used toilet paper that didn’t break, so really he should have grasped this rule, but apparently he hasn’t? I guess Kokichi didn’t bother trying to explain the rule to him properly and just told him it was special toilet paper.

Keebo:  “We’re not sure, but her avatar isn’t moving. Maybe something happened in the real world that’s preventing her from moving it.”

This is kind of a misleading description. From this alone, it gives the impression she’s standing there, frozen, which presumably would be what would happen if someone was killed in the real world and lost connection with their avatar. But not only is her avatar not moving, it’s lying face down on the ground. You know, as if she was murdered in here or something.

Maki:  “…Hey, where’s Kaito?”

Shuichi:  “Ah, Kaito! I-I don’t know, I ran here as fast as I could, I didn’t check the roof…”

Maki:  “…You didn’t even bother going to the roof to get him. You’re colder than I thought.”

I guess we can assume that Shuichi was so wrapped up in the panic of it all that he didn’t even think to check the roof (and that mine and any other sensible players’ attempts to get him to do so weren’t canon). And from the way Maki says “get him”, not “check on him”, it seems she’s running under the assumption that Kaito isn’t dead and Shuichi was just kind of a dick for forgetting to include him in the running around in a panic that we’re all doing. Which makes sense, since Maki saw Miu’s virtual corpse and so she started off with the impression that if someone’s dead, it’s probably Miu, and therefore Kaito’s probably safe. Shuichi still has less excuse.

Only a little later, once Maki confirms that Kaito isn’t on the roof…

Maki:  “But don’t worry… He’s stupid enough to get himself killed, but I know he won’t really die.”

Shuichi:  “…” (I suppose that’s true. I don’t have to worry about him…)

But this is presumably why Shuichi wasn’t nearly as worried as he should have been. Even though he says he supposes that’s true like he’s only just realising this here, the fact is that Shuichi has always been low-key under the impression that Kaito is basically invincible, such that it apparently doesn’t even occur to him (or to Maki for that matter) that there’s still a possibility he could get killed at some point. Well done, Kaito, all your insisting that you couldn’t possibly be worried or hurting about anything somehow succeeded in getting your sidekicks to really see you that way.

Gonta:  “Um… So Gonta just say name in phone, and someone come get him?”

And there goes Alter Ego Gonta logging out and temporarily ceasing to exist. We won’t see him again until the end of the trial.

Kokichi:  “Now that we’re alone, I wanna tell you something.”

Shuichi:  “…What is it?”

Kokichi:  “You’re really useful.”

Really, Kokichi? Because if you really think that about Shuichi, then why the fuck does your future plan in chapter 5 not use him as your accomplice and instead just completely glosses over the fact that his “usefulness” if used against you is going to make the plan fail? Good job being thoroughly aware of another of the reasons your plan is terrible and then doing it anyway.

Kokichi:  “So, how about you stop hanging out with dumb ol’ Kaito, and be *my* friend instead?”

It’s really annoyingly entitled of Kokichi to act like this when he’s done absolutely fuck all to earn Shuichi’s friendship, while Kaito has done everything and more to deserve it.

Kokichi:  “I think I can be useful to you too… y’know? I can help you save everyone. And you wanna save everyone, riiiiight?”

And now Kokichi is trying to manipulate Shuichi through his desire to save everyone, even though there was a perfectly good way to save everyone this chapter without getting Miu and Gonta killed that Kokichi didn’t feel like sharing.

Shuichi quite rightly nopes out of this conversation without saying a word. Presumably he’s figured that Kokichi is just trying to manipulate him and doesn’t actually care about saving everyone at all.

Kokichi:  “Nee-heehee… aw, I got rejected. But I won’t give up that easily. When I find someone I like, I’d do anything to get them to notice me… even strangle them.”

I gather this is one of the lines that people use to argue that Kokichi has a crush on Shuichi. And… okay, sure, even my aromantic brain can accept that that’s probably what’s being implied here (especially given he’s alone and therefore has no reason to be lying). But… so what? Even if Kokichi has a crush on Shuichi, that has absolutely no relevance to Kokichi’s meaningful role in the story – not any of the parts of his character that are interesting, nor the things he does in the plot. So it’s bizarre and frustrating to me that the writers broke Shuichi’s POV for what simply isn’t a relevant enough part of the story to justify that.

Aaand Miu’s dead. Hooray. Now she can be more of an interesting character! I’m literally not even kidding – I’m going to be talking about her nearly every time she’s mentioned from this point on and I’m going to actually have fun doing so.

*ding dong, dong ding!*

Monokuma:  “A body has been discovered! Everyone, please report to the computer room… Wait, you’re already here. Wow, I get to bring you the body discovery announcement live!”

Not everyone’s here; Kaito isn’t. So I have to assume that, despite Monokuma claiming he’s only doing this live, he still did broadcast at least the first part of it in order for Kaito to hear it.

Consider how the body discovery announcements don’t tell you whose body it is. And remember the conversation Kaito and his sidekicks had near the beginning of this chapter discussing how Shuichi is the most likely target for a future murder, in which Kaito fiercely promised he’d protect both of his sidekicks despite having no way to guarantee that. How terrified must Kaito be right now that the victim could be Shuichi or Maki.

(This isn’t even the first time Kaito’s heard a body discovery announcement while alone and nowhere near the crime scene – in fact, it’s the third – but this would definitely be the most frightening one of all for him given the context.)

Gonta:  “Gonta… not understand, either… Miu like this when Gonta wake up… Hey! What going on!? Why this happen!?”

Oh, Gonta. He understands this even less than everybody else does right now.

Gonta:  “M-Murder…? Wh-What you mean!? Did something happen while Gonta sleep!?”

This isn’t even that subtle about it! You’d think that if Gonta remembered the Virtual World, he would still feel like something happened while he was “asleep” and wouldn’t be phrasing his confusion in quite this way.

Keebo:  “We weren’t asleep and that wasn’t a dream. We were in the Virtual World.”

…But then Keebo’s subsequent line does do a good job of making you instead jump to the assumption that the “sleep” Gonta’s talking about was just this.

Kaito gets here and says that he was taking a nap when the body discovery announcement woke him up.

Gonta:  “You were sleeping? Gonta was sleeping, too! Had strange dream! Gonta not understand anything!”

The way that he associates it with Kaito’s nap also rather implies that he really does just see it as normal sleep. The “strange dream” is obviously meant to make you assume he’s talking about the Virtual World, but presumably what it really was was just a regular dream caused by his subconscious brain doing weird brain things while his consciousness was in the simulation.

Kaito:  “I didn’t know if it was okay to log back in, so I went back to my room and slept.”

That… doesn’t quite sound like something Kaito would normally do. I feel like he wouldn’t usually be so quick to just give up on their search for the secret of the outside world (and on keeping an eye on Kokichi’s potential scheme), and wouldn’t let himself be stopped by the possible risks of logging back in unplanned. So… his real reason for going back to his room proooobably has more to do with his illness than anything else. Maybe he really had coughed up blood while logged in and had to go change his clothes.

Also, if Kaito had logged back in straight away like he probably would have done if he wasn’t sick, then headed back to the rooftop where he was supposed to be… the murder might not have happened. Kaito is bound to realise this himself once it becomes apparent that the murder happened on the virtual rooftop. Yet again, he in particular could have prevented a murder but failed to do so, not just because he didn’t do a good enough job of getting through to Kokichi or keep a close enough eye on him despite how hard he was trying, but also in an even more direct way. If only he hadn’t been dying.

Shuichi:  “We need to discover who killed Miu.”

Kokichi:  “Nee-heehee… you seem ready. Well, of course you are. One of your dear friends was killed, so it’s finally time for you to shiiiine!”

This seems like Kokichi being a dick to Shuichi, who hates the way he can only be useful once someone is already dead. But it’s also Kokichi being a dick to Kaito, because the fact that Shuichi is so much better at saving people than him has been eating away at Kaito more and more lately.

Shuichi:  “I’ll find the culprit so that we can all survive.”

Kokichi:  “…Even if the culprit is Kaito?”

What exactly the fuck are you trying to prove here, Kokichi, you know the culprit isn’t Kaito.

Monokuma:  “I’m certain you guys’ll make this turn of events very entertaining!”

Yes, someone sure has done his best to make this case very entertaining. Again, good job, Kokichi, you gave Monokuma exactly what he wants.

Kokichi:  “Well, what’re you sad about? You guys hated her! Not as much as you hate me, but still!”

Tsumugi:  “Th-That’s not the issue… Of course I thought she was loud and annoying, but…”

Kaito:  “I never wanted her to die. I wanted us all to escape together.”

Kokichi is trying even harder than usual to suppress his basic human decency now that he’s killed someone himself. Basic human decency is the only reason anyone else (except Keebo, who had some semblance of a connection with her) is upset about Miu’s death right now, but that’s still more than enough reason to be horrified that a person they knew is dead. But Kokichi’s trying to tell himself that it’s totally okay that he killed her since everyone hated her anyway, right? No, too bad, it doesn’t work like that. You’re still a murderer, Kokichi.

Gonta:  “Urgh… Gonta no can forgive this. Gonta… never forgive this. Never forgive culprit, either… But Gonta never forgive self!”

SGHJSDGHJADGHJFSHJFD. I don’t think I need to say any more here.

Shuichi:  (I’m… so tired of this awful feeling. I have to do something. I can’t let this—)

Kaito:  “Shuichi, don’t carry the burden all by yourself.”

Kaito is still incidentally being a huge hypocrite and probably still overcompensating for his own sense of inferiority here… but his heart’s 100% in the right place regardless. Even though Shuichi didn’t say anything out loud, Kaito can pick up on the fact that he’s putting a lot of undue pressure on himself just because he’s the detective, so of course Kaito should still try and encourage him not to do that.

Kaito:  “You’re my sidekick! Don’t forget. We’re gonna do it together! If we work together, we can solve this—”

This is a little more off the main point, though. Shuichi almost certainly can solve the case on his own, after all (and Kaito knows it). The point of Kaito’s support isn’t that Shuichi wouldn’t be able to solve the case without him, but that doing so would be a lot less painful and stressful for Shuichi if he has his friend by his side throughout it. But here Kaito is trying to imply that Shuichi absolutely needs him and not just that he’s an optional extra help to make things a little easier to bear.

Kokichi:  “Shuichi is the most reliable person in a class trial, y’know? Why would we let such an important person work together with a suspect like you?”

Even if we disregard everything about how much Shuichi believes in Kaito and assume that he really is the most obvious suspect right now (which he’s not, because he’s so obvious a suspect that it’s clearly not him), this is still a completely backwards argument. Shuichi investigating together with the prime suspect would be a good thing, because then he’d be able to keep a close eye on them, make sure they don’t try to destroy evidence, and notice any suspicious reactions they have that might otherwise have slipped under the radar.

Kaito was also technically one of the main suspects back in case 2 by virtue of being one of only a few people without an alibi. But the very fact that he willingly chose to investigate with Shuichi that time immediately made him less suspicious, because the real culprit wouldn’t have wanted to increase the risk of Shuichi picking up subtle signs that they did it. And, of course, Shuichi noticing subtle suspiciousness from his investigation partner probably contributed to him ending up so sure that Kaede did it in case 1.

Kaito:  “You’re saying that if I was the culprit, Shuichi would hide the truth to protect me?”

I mean, if Shuichi was going to do that, he’d do that regardless of whether Kaito investigated with him or not, so again, Kokichi’s argument is terrible. But…

Kaito:  “Bullshit! Don’t underestimate Shuichi! Even if I was the culprit, he’s the type of guy that’d see things through!”

Kaito is so fucking good. It’s completely inconceivable to him right now that he would ever kill someone or try to deceive Shuichi, and he knows just how much faith Shuichi has in him. But Kaito believes so strongly in Shuichi’s convictions as a detective that he has complete faith that even if the inconceivable did come to pass, Shuichi would still be able to do what he knows he needs to to save everyone.

And of course, that’s exactly what ends up happening. The foreshadowing is delightful.

(And apparently Kokichi can’t grasp this concept, because if he did, then he would know full well that making Kaito the accomplice in his plan was never going to work.)

Plus, not only is this delicious foreshadowing for case 5, it’s also quite relevant to this case as well. Shuichi has more faith in Kaito than he does in anyone else, so it follows that if Kaito believes Shuichi would be able to pursue the truth of him being the culprit, he also believes Shuichi would be able to pursue the truth of anyone else being the culprit – even someone else Shuichi has a lot of faith in, such as Gonta. So what’s going to happen in the trial when Kaito starts to get angry at Shuichi really isn’t as much about belief and doubt as it might seem. Kaito has clearly stated right here that he knows Shuichi would – and should – pursue the culprit even if it turns out to be a person that he wants to believe in.

Kokichi:  “But, remember Kaede’s class trial—”

Kaito:  “He saw us through that, didn’t he!? I believe in Shuichi!”

Exactly. We already have concrete proof that Shuichi is capable of proving his closest friend to be a murderer if that’s what it seems like he has to do. Your future plan is never going to work, Kokichi, you absolute moron.

Kokichi:  “Nee-heehee… You love to believe, don’t you, Kaito? But that belief can turn against you, especially in this killing game, y’know?”

So, of course, this is also foreshadowing for how this trial is going to turn out for Kaito, and Kokichi’s very much doing this on purpose.

Kokichi’s been constantly trying this whole game to shove his philosophy that believing in people is a terrible idea down everyone’s throats, particularly Kaito’s. It sure is convenient for that attempted message of his that his master plan just happened to incidentally involve him turning the most inherently trustworthy person in here into a murderer, now, isn’t it. While Kokichi is telling himself that this whole murder here is just for the purpose of backing up his future lie that he’s the mastermind, I don’t think that’s really the only reason it happened.

But also, this brings to mind the thing I talked about a couple of chapters ago regarding the two different kinds of “believing in” someone, first just trusting that they’re a good person and secondly believing in their potential to be awesome. Kaito was talking about the latter kind of belief with regards to Shuichi here – and honestly, the former kind, about whether or not Shuichi would kill someone, hasn’t ever been in question by anyone since the first trial ended. But Kokichi turned around and suddenly made this about the former kind of belief instead – because that’s the only kind of belief that’s relevant to Kokichi, since his entire worldview revolves around the conviction that everyone who feels it is wrong. Kokichi can’t believe in anyone’s potential to do amazing things, because that would require believing in them as a person first. Maybe that’s part of why he idiotically thinks Shuichi won’t figure out his plan in chapter 5.

Kaito:  “Heh… I’ve got no idea what you’re talking about… I don’t get it at all…”

It seems that while Kaito has unshakeable faith in Shuichi’s ability to find the truth even if it involves someone he believes in being a murderer, Kaito isn’t quite so sure about his own ability to accept such a painful truth, should it come to that. (Remember that Kaito had a harder time accepting that Kaede did it than Shuichi did, in the end.) So he’s trying to brush it off and tell himself that Kokichi’s just talking nonsense and he doesn’t have to worry about it.

Kaito:  “Fine, if you’re gonna get all worked up over it, then me and Shuichi won’t team up.”

It’s actually a little surprising to me that Kaito concedes on this. I guess he just figures that if he doesn’t, Kokichi will continue to pester them about this the whole investigation and it won’t be worth it.

Kaito:  “That said, try to get through this on your own! Clear me of suspicion with your own power!”

That and he knows that Shuichi’s strong enough by now that he can get through it on his own and doesn’t really need anything more than Kaito cheering him on from the sidelines.

…And it was Kokichi’s insistent dickishness that pushed Kaito into acknowledging that. Hm. I wonder if that was deliberate.

Shuichi:  (Of course, this is Kaito we’re talking about, nothing I say could change his mind.)

I mean, he clearly still wants to investigate with you, Shuichi – if you were stubborn enough and insisted to Kokichi that no, fuck you, I can investigate with whoever I damn well choose and I choose Kaito, then that would at least potentially get him to shut up. Buuuut Shuichi is still really passive even when he’s in Ultimate Detective mode, so instead we get stuck with Kokichi for half an investigation.

Shuichi:  (I can’t be afraid… I can’t get lost now. In order to protect everyone, I have to do something. I have to do something…)

Shuichi still is putting a little too much of the burden all on himself, though. Don’t forget that Kaito believes in you even if he’s not investigating with you, Shuichi!

---

[Next post]

[prixmiumcontent]

Doctor Who Introduction Post

Hello #Doctor Who! My “name” is Prix, and I am about to embark on a re-watch of Doctor Who during which I will be writing reviews and other such commentary on this new meta blog. Please see the links and pages around the blog for more information if you are interested. Before I get started, I wanted to take a few moments to articulate why I am writing about Doctor Who, how I feel about it, and why I decided to start with it here even though I plan to write about it and many other fandoms.

The Present

At the time of writing this, I am 27 years old. I am a school teacher, but I am currently without a full-time position. Given that I have a little bit of time on my hands, I really wanted to work on my sustained writing-for-pleasure skills, and this blog seemed like a good way to do it. I have a personal blog, which I will follow from if I follow you back, but this is a fresh start for a more disciplined approach to running an actual-blog rather than a big mess of blogging, reblogging, and flailing. Doctor Who continues to be one of those things that always draws me back in. However, over the past couple of years, I have not been quite as on top of it as I once was. Letting go of Clara Oswald has proved to be very difficult for me, so while I like Bill - and the other companions I have seen - I have not seen all of S10. As a result, I haven’t even started on S11. However, I hope to very soon! While I am embarking on a full re-watch of Doctor Who (2005), I won’t necessarily prevent myself from catching up on everything I’m missing before I finish this up.

The Past

I was an avid internet user from the time I was about twelve years old. I was home-schooled for a time, and so much of my interaction with the outside world came through meeting people to talk to through AIM (may she rest in peace.) One of those people that I befriended (and have since unbefriended) was a young man five years my senior with a lot of chronic health problems. Given our mutual circumstances, for the good years of our relationship, we were able to find time to talk to each other despite a five-hour time difference. He lived in England, and I was so young that the concept of world geography was something well beyond my grasp as an American. Nevertheless, I had an adolescence very colored by a sort of cultural exchange with this friend of mine whom I much respected and wanted to please. I dimly remember his first mentions of Doctor Who being revived and his confusing explanations of what it was registering as a simple footnote in our conversations. It was something he watched on Saturdays. For a while, that was that.

Fast forward to the end of 2006. Due to various circumstances including my grandmother’s having a stroke and my parents’ mutual concern that as math and science courses became more difficult that a home-schooling curriculum wouldn’t cut it from them, I returned to public school. I was fifteen, and I was tagging along behind my peers who had been new students to high school the previous year. This new-to-everything, fish-out-of-water experience left me vulnerable to a certain individual whom I wish I had never met but who has shaped much of who I am today. I was in a relationship with him for a couple of months, during which I was emotionally abused and coerced in ways that I won’t go into detail about. The only part that is relevant is that this relationship really shook my ability to trust in people to the core. I was a different person from August to December and one who felt hollowed-out at that.

It was a relief to finally be on Winter Break, if only to get away from the presence of my then-ex who continued to follow and harass me while I was at school. However, the experiences of the past couple of months had taken the joy out of most of what I had been doing. I had been loosely into online fandom since about 2003, but I had never really learned the tools of the trade, and it was just a matter of happening upon people with similar interests through word-of-mouth and a few fanfiction.net-made contacts. I was still talking to my English friend online when I could.

Then, one day, I was feeling very depressed and lethargic. I took a break from vacuuming the house, and I turned on the television. I dully watched the scrolling TV Guide Channel, and I noticed that the SciFi Channel (it wasn’t SyFy at this point) was running a marathon of Doctor Who. Curiously, I changed the channel.

I watched “The Idiot’s Lantern,” an episode from Series 2, with no context whatsoever. I was confused and mildly intrigued. More than anything, I wanted to tell my English friend that I had finally seen an episode. He did his best to explain the show to me a bit better, and later that day I found myself tempted to tune back in.

In the days that intervened between that day and Christmas Day, the channel played at least several hours of Doctor Who episodes per day. They were marathoning Series 2, and on Christmas Day itself, they were going to play “The Christmas Invasion” - the Christmas Special spanning the gap between Series 1 and Series 2. I was supposed to go to my grandmother’s, but I made  a point to note what times they were showing it. I was invested already, and soon I had seen “Doomsday” and knew that my heart was going to break no matter what but that I wanted to know more and more about this show.

I remember going to my room after returning from my grandmother’s that day. I know that I had been showing signs of my depression and lethargy, and while my parents didn’t know the full extent of the damage my brief foray into trying to be “in a relationship” as a high school student had gone, they were most certainly concerned about me.

My mom and dad were in the living room visiting with someone - it was Christmas - and I remember feeling a sudden rush of energy and resolve come over me that I had not felt in a long time. My relationship with fandom may not be the healthiest that has ever been, but I don’t think that it is a bad thing either. I have always been one to fixate, to have maladaptive daydreams about those things I love, and to feel a rush of endorphins when I find something new to add to my collection of beloved stories. I fall in love with my fandoms, and they’re my friends.

That hadn’t been true for months at that point, though, and Doctor Who breathed new life into my teenage bones when I was - justified or not - dangling by a thread. The particular scene that burned itself into my consciousness was Ten’s speech to the Sycorax - “It is defended.” I’m not even sure why, but it kind of gave me a little bit of a kick in the butt to get back up, to try, and to feel something again.

I often tell people that Doctor Who saved my life, and that’s how. It gave me a friend when I felt like I had none. It gave me energy, purpose, and a reminder that even when things are difficult and it feels like there is no reward for the things one tries to do because they feel like the right thing, there still is a point to it. I consumed Series 2 in order as quickly as I could; I was a poor teenager and wanted to make sure that I got the series i had fallen in love with before deciding on more. Then, I manage to get Series 1 and watched them back to back. At the time, it was nowhere near as popular in the US as it became later, so I paid $60-70 per season at the time. I never did get past Series 2 on DVD as a result. Maybe one day I’ll buy a huge boxed set, but for now I make do with streaming on Amazon Prime for the most part.

I hope that this personal glimpse into my past will give you some kind of connection to me as a writer and that you will understand how much Doctor Who means to me as a show.

The Future

I plan to watch an episode or two most days for the foreseeable future and to write a post and create at least one edit per episode that I watch. I hope to queue them after the first couple so I can have a consistently active blog. Please feel free to interact with me! I follow back from my personal blog (currently polyroci), but I am very interested in interacting with people about this and other fandoms that are dear to my heart.

[debadipb]

AMERICAN CORPORATION: PROFIT INCOME IN FOREIGN BANK FOR TAX SHELTERS

Profit & Solutions Management Research Publication Series 

Researched & Written by Deb (Debadip) Bandyopadhyay

A tax haven is generally an offshore country that offers foreign individuals and businesses little or no tax liability in a politically and economically static environment. KEY TAKEAWAYS Tax havens provide the advantage of little or no tax liability. Offshore countries with little or no tax liabilities for foreign individuals and businesses are generally some of the most popular tax havens. Investors and businesses may be able to lower their taxes by taking advantage of tax-advantaged opportunities offered by tax havens, however, entities should ensure they are compliant with all relevant tax laws.

Understanding Tax Haven

Tax havens also share limited or no financial information with foreign tax authorities. Tax havens do not typically require residency or business presence for individuals and businesses to benefit from their tax policies.

In some cases, intranational locations may also be identified as tax havens if they have special tax laws. For example, in the United States, Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming require no state income tax.

Offshore tax havens benefit from the capital their countries draw into the economy. Funds can flow in from individuals and businesses with accounts setup at banks, financial institutions, and other investment vehicles. Individuals and corporations can potentially benefit from low or no taxes charged on income in foreign countries where loopholes, credits, or other special tax considerations may be allowed.

A list of some of the most popular tax haven countries includes Andorra, the Bahamas, Belize, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, the Channel Islands, the Cook Islands, The Island of Jersey, Hong Kong, The Isle of Man, Mauritius, Lichtenstein, Monaco, Panama, St. Kitts, and Nevis.

Characteristics of tax haven countries generally include no or low-income taxes, minimal reporting of information, lack of transparency obligations, lack of local presence requirements, and marketing of tax haven vehicles.

In general, this and other provisions, particularly for reinvestments, provide allowances for businesses to benefit from low or no tax rates offered in foreign countries but businesses should closely monitor and accurately report foreign income as it pertains to U.S. tax law, generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), and the guidelines under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

Some companies that have historically been known for offshore, tax haven holdings include Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Cisco, and Oracle. Overall, tax havens may also offer advantages in the area of credit, since it may be less expensive for U.S.-based companies to borrow funds internationally. This type of lending, which can potentially fund acquisitions and other corporate activities, is also subject to reporting within the guidelines of U.S. tax law, GAAP, and guidelines under IFRS.

The U.S. has special rules in place for the reporting of foreign income by U.S. citizens and non-U.S. citizens. These rules are generally governed under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA).

FATCA requires the filing of a Schedule B and/or Form 8938, which provides disclosure of foreign account holdings when investments exceed $50,000. Separately, foreign account holders may also be required to file Form 114, Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts.

US based companies are keeping their profits in bank accounts in other countries. Around $183 billion of stocks are piled in those countries. There was an increase of 14.4% from the previous year in the accumulation of the funds. Bloomberg studied that total of 83 companies in the USA has kept their profit earning in different low taxed countries across the globe. A total of $1.7 trillion has been outside the USA for the purpose of tax exception. Top companies like GE, Microsoft, Johnson & Johnson, and IBM are the top companies who are keeping the money outside the country so that the USA tax revenue department could not get hold of these incomes. Some of the companies are owned by foreign companies which helped them to park their profit margin companies’ bank account. The rise of the cash flow from the low taxed countries is due to the increased number of the customer from these areas. Google has kept $31 billion in annual filling in taxes but of which 65.3% are in the liquid holding outside the USA. This is hampering the USA taxes and resulting in rise of different problems due to this. US based companies receive tax credits in their income from the outside country, but still they are deferring the taxes by not bring those money back to USA. Regulatory filling asked the USA Corporation to report the foreign profit but they can defer taxes on those income. The income is not kept in the form of cash in other countries. They are using that fund to invest in the physical infrastructure and bond of that low taxed country. Intangible assets are among one of the areas where companies are selling their patents and getting cash out of it. The low tax jurisdiction allows them to pay low taxes. Among these, Microsoft has sold many patents to offshore countries and reported $60.8 billion in offshore holdings, whereas they paid only 3.1% in the foreign tax for this. The USA government tax system is outdated and is not compatible with other countries’ tax system has been claimed by many senior executives of USA based companies. They mentioned that for competing in the foreign land they have to keep the money in those countries for the future need. Citi Group has reported that foreign tax is as low as 8% which is far below that USA tax system rates. The USA tax is 35% which is the high compare to any other country corporate tax rates. This not only creates the obstacle for USA government to get a hold of the income of the companies in foreign lands. Moreover, they are lagging behind among other countries in tax system due to the low tax rate of those countries. 

Many U.S. corporations use offshore tax havens and other accounting gimmicks to avoid paying as much as $90 billion a year in federal income taxes. A large loophole at the heart of U.S. tax law enables corporations to avoid paying taxes on foreign profits until they are brought home. Known as “deferral,” it provides a huge incentive to keep profits offshore as long as possible. Many corporations choose never to bring the profits home and never pay U.S. taxes on them. Deferral gives corporations enormous incentives to use accounting tricks to make it appear that profits earned here were generated in a tax haven. Profits are funneled through subsidiaries, often shell companies with few em­ployees and little real business activity. Effectively, firms launder U.S. profits to avoid paying U.S. taxes.

Loopholes used to shift U.S. profits to tax havens U.S. firms can set up a subsidiary offshore, channel billions of dollars of profit through it and make the subsidiary “disappear” for U.S. tax purposes simply by “checking a box” on an IRS form. Corporations can sell the right to patents and licenses at a low price to an offshore subsidiary, which then “licenses” back to the U.S. parent at a steep price the right to sell its products in America. The goal of this “transfer pricing” is to make it appear that the company earns profits in tax havens but not in the U.S. Wall Street banks, credit card companies and other corporations with large financial units can easily move U.S. profits offshore using a loophole known as the “active financing exception.” A U.S. corporation can do an “inversion” by buying a foreign firm and then claiming that the new, merged company is foreign. This lets it reincorporate in a country, often a tax haven, with a much lower tax rate. The process takes place on paper — the company doesn’t move its headquarters offshore and its ownership is mostly unchanged — but it continues to enjoy the privileges of operating here while paying low tax rates in the foreign country.

The simplest solution is to end “deferral,” as proposed by Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Jan Schakowsky. Corporations would pay taxes on offshore income the year it is earned, rather than indefinitely avoid paying U.S. income taxes. This would also remove incentives to shift U.S. profits to tax havens, and it would raise $600 billion over 10 years. Short of ending deferral, Congress should close the most egregious loopholes, such as “check the box,” “transfer pricing,” the “active financing exception” and corporate “inversions.” It should also end the loophole that lets firms deduct the cost of expenses from moving jobs and operations offshore if the profits earned from those activities remain offshore and untaxed by the U.S. — saving $60 billion over 10 years. Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) has introduced legislation, the Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act (S. 1533), that will close some of these loopholes. It will raise $220 billion over 10 years.

References

Brunori, D. (2013, September 9). Want a tax shelter? just do it. The Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/taxanalysts/2013/09/16/want-a-tax-shelter-just-do-it/

Kocieniewski, D. (2011, March 24). G.E.’s strategies let It avoid taxes altogether.The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/25/business/economy/25tax.html

Pozen, R. C. (2011, September 19). How to bring our companies’ foreign profits back home. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/19/opinion/bring-american-companies-foreign-profits-back-home.htm

Rubin, R. (2013, March 8). Offshore cash hoard expands by $183 billion at companies. The Bloomberg. Retrieved from http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-08/offshore-cash

For More Research Article & Blogs Visit: 

Website: http://profitsolutions.tk/

Second Website: 

#research #data #management #analysis #marketing #marketresearch #analytics #datascience #bigdata #seo #digitalmarketing #dataanalytics #innovation #coffee #transformation #research #management #digitaltransformation #sustainability #retail #ai #strategy #supplychain #data #debadipb #profitsolutions

[chronoscasuals]

Game review - Sentinels of the Multiverse (pre-OblivAeon)

Welcome all to Chronos Casuals. My name is ChronosMysty and today starts what could very well be a potentially long series of posts about Sentinels of the Multiverse, created by Greater than Games. Sentinels of the Multiverse is a fully cooperative game in which 3-5 superheroes (eaach with their own unique deck and character card, complete with HP and Power) fight generally 1 powerful supervillain (each with their own unique deck and character card of rules text. More on why only “generally”, later) in an environment that changes the landscape (heh, landscape) of the battle as it goes on (again, each with their own unique deck). Rather than using an existing superhero universe, Badell created his own. You may recognize some common archetypes, such as heroes that include Legacy, the super strong, super resilient, all-American; Tachyon, the scientific speedster; Wraith, the CEO with no superpowers other than her mind and her money; and Bunker, a soldier outfitted with a metal suit loaded with tons of firepower; and villains such as Baron Blade, a no-powered scientist who uses his over-the-top super science to pose a threat to even Legacy; and Omnitron, a sentient AI that decided that the easiest way to end humanity’s problems is simply to end humanity. But enough about flavor, let’s do a very glossed overview of gameplay. The goal of the game (generally) is to reduce the villain (or villains, more on that later) to 0 HP before the heroes all become incapacitated or some other game-ending condition is fulfilled. The villains and environment are fully automated, leaving all the decisions to the heroes. Gameplay goes in order of villain turn, each hero turn in order, then environment turn, then repeat this cycle. The villains and environments use a “Start of turn, play top card, End of turn” turn structure, where start and end of turn are only relevant for timings mentioned on cards. Each hero turn similarly has the Start and End of turn, but the Middle Phase is where things are different: You can do up to each of these in this order: Play a card from your hand (You start off the game by drawing 4 from your 40 card deck. These cards may just have a one-shot effect or may stick around and build up your hero for a time or until destroyed), Use a Power (which can be on your hero’s character card or a card you have in play), and Draw a card. If your hero takes too much damage, they’ll drop to 0 HP, all your cards will be removed from the game, and you’ll cease being active and instead be incapacitated. You’re not out of the fight, though; while incapacitated, you have incapacitated abilities and Middle Phase of “Play, Power, Draw” becomes “Use an incapacitated ability”. To help scale the game to the number of heroes, the designers implemented H, a value equal to the number of heroes in the game (active or incapacitated). Generally used on villains (and generally used to scale damage or destruction), H helps to ensure that villains don’t become too difficult with only 3 heroes or too trivial with only 5 heroes (though, generally, 5-hero games are still much easier).

Is fighting one villain not good enough for you? Well, the Vengeance and Villain of the Multiverse expansions got you covered. You don’t face one solo villain; you instead face H team villains, each of which is about as powerful as (probably slightly more powerful than) the average hero, with an added upside of setup cards but the added downside of not being able to choose which card they want to play or who to aim for. Additionally, the villain turns aren’t all at the front but instead alternate with hero turns (with the first villain turn still being first and a single environment turn per round still being last). Anyway, time from the review part. While I really do enjoy this game, I’ll try to keep this as objective as possible: Pros: • This game has a LOT of variety, especially with all the expansions. Even with just the core game, with only ten heroes (of which you can play 3 to 5), four villains, and four environments, you have... wait a minute...

Seriously, you have 9312 combinations of teams, villains, and environments. (well, technically, you have 576,000 permutations since the order of the heroes does matter, but let’s not get into that). But strict numbers wouldn’t mean anything if they all felt the same. Let me assure you, this is not a problem; even with heroes that share a role or design shtick have different flavor, personality, cards, and deck mechanics. Each solo villain character card has two cards. Sometimes this splits the villain into two phases, sometimes the villain shifts between two phases, sometimes the back side is just used as a way to proc an effect and then flip back. But with a shuffled 25 card villain deck (or 20 cards for vengeance villains, but either way, they’re generally built with higher variance than hero decks), villains tend to create wildly different games while still maintaining their own distinct feel. Environments can also do a lot to change up the game, and once again, an environment deck’s 15 cards tend to be quite varied. • Lore. This game has lots of it. Despite most of the flavor texts being quoted from specific issues of comics, very few Sentinels Comics actually exist (although the writers do say that they keep track of the story as though they did exist to make sure they don’t screw up the timeline and place a quote where it shouldn’t be) and you’ll have to look for the Letters pages or just check the wiki at https://sentinelswiki.com/index.php?title=Main_Page Just watch out. Sentinels is big on alternate timelines, so you might get a little confused if you’re not already versed with figuring out comic universe timelines. • This game can be played alone, so long as you’re willing to pilot 3-5 heroes by yourself.

• I know I said I would keep this objective, but I feel like I have to mention that the game feel is superb. The comic-cover like design of the hero cards, the flavor text being quotes from comics, the art style, all speak to the comic design. The mechanics and requirement of multiple heroes needing to stop the villain further reinforce this. The game isn’t perfectly “balanced” in all cases and in general favors the heroes, but that’s part of the point: mostly the heroes win, and sometimes the heroes lose. Even so, quite often, the battle’s outcome feels well-earned, just like how a hero team-up comic should be.

Cons:

• This game has a lot of bookkeeping. Between the Ongoing and Equipment cards that can either provide passive buffs or trigger upon certain events and well as some one-shots’ lingering buffs that can last anywhere from a round to until a certain event occurs, it can be very difficult to manage. The game provides tokens, but they don’t cover all possible events and you may have to buy the token expansion pack for this purpose. Thankfully, having more actual players helps spread the bookkeeping responsibility out.

• As with all fully cooperative games that you can openly share all your info, this can sometimes lead to one player backseat-playing for everyone else. This isn’t so much the game’s fault as it is a player fault, but if you have people in your playgroup who will do this, this might not be the game for that playgroup.

• This is more of a per-villain basis, but some villains (and in general the Vengeance team style) tend to get weaker as the game goes on while the heroes tend to get stronger, causing some fights to peter out near the end rather than have a climactic finish. On the other hand, some villains are too easy from the get-go and some are soul-crushingly difficult. I mentioned being “imperfectly balanced” as a feature and even a pro for capturing game feel, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t sometimes leave a bad taste in your mouth (especially with people generally having a negativity bias in which they remember the bad times more than the good times).

• Buying this game and its expansions costs quite a bit of money. This is more of a con for OblivAeon (which will sort-of require all of the previous expansions [or at least the heroes and the complete hero promo collection if you want the intended experience]), but I feel like I should mention it here. I would highly recommend all of the expansions except maybe Villains of the Multiverse, since it only provides 10 villains for vengeance style and 5 environments that, while cool, aren’t completely necessary. (Not so coincidentally. Villains of the Multiverse is the only multi-deck expansion that doesn’t contain any heroes).

• This game’s lifespan isn’t infinite, and even with its large variety and my enjoyment of it, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t sometimes get tired of it and nearly lose interest between expansions. And with the game having no more official expansions coming out past Oblivaeon (unless you count Sentinels of Earth-Prime and any expansions it might have), who knows how much longer the game will last.

• Some rules and rulings are a bit confusing (especially if your cards’ printings aren’t completely up to date) and the rulebook isn’t 100% comprehensive. (Then again, this also leaves rulings up to interpretation, which may help with the fun factor if you aren’t a stickler for exactly following the rules.)

Thankfully, some of these cons can be alleviated in different ways (although sadly they can’t all be used at the same time)

• If the monetary cost and/or bookkeeping is too much, you can buy the Steam version. It’s a near-perfect replica of the physical game (with some minor changes due to engine limitations) but a hell of a lot cheaper and has computers doing the bookkeeping for you. You want to know if a target is being affected by something, just zoom in on it and it will tell you in the upper right-hand corner. Very helpful. The downside is that there is no modding support.

• If you want more Sentinels, Matthew Bishop creates The Cauldron, an unofficial expansion of Sentinels of the Multiverse. http://meromorph.com/tangent/cauldron/ https://boardgamegeek.com/article/20532002 • If the regular game is a bit too imbalanced, Adelphophage has got you covered, with both villain promo cards to change up the villains as well as (more controversially) some card inserts to change hero and environment cards as well. He even created some new villains as well.

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1678967/adelphophages-archives https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1790312/adelphophages-card-inserts I will be doing reviews on those too, likely after my OblivAeon review if it arrives soon enough (I’m expecting it today, actually). I’ll link to them in those reviews too. The downside with this solution is that the Steam game does not yet have mod support to import these, so you have to choose which problem you want to solve.

Overall, I highly recommend this game to the casual gamer. Try it out on Steam, and if you like it, consider getting a physical set for your playgroup and maybe looking into some unofficial expansions. And that’s all I got for you right now. I’ll see you all next time, and remember, keep it casual!

[shaledirectory]

What Denver7 Didn’t Tell You Last Night

Yesterday’s Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) hearing had the usual ban-fracking suspects present at public comment period – but there was a newcomer who just happened to catch the attention of a Denver7 news reporter, who just happened to be on hand for this run-of-the-mill monthly COGCC meeting.

Elizabeth Ewaskowitz, of Erie, Colo., gave public comment at COGCC’s hearing – and shortly after – retreated to the hall where she gave a well-prepared interview with Denver7 about blood tests she had performed on her 6-year-old son that showed elevated levels of certain substances. Ewaskowitz told the Denver7 reporter that the only explanation for the levels found in the blood test was the presence of wells in the area.

Public health issues have been a key point of emphasis for our EID team and we pay these concerns much credence. In fact, earlier this year, EID released a comprehensive report that took a deep dive into the data and findings by Colorado’s own Department of Health and Environment and detailed key health indicators in the state over a time of oil and gas development expansion. According to Colorado’s own top health experts and regulators, their analysis has found “no substantial or moderate evidence for any health effects,” related to oil and gas activity.

So, when a Colorado resident comes forward with data that appears to contradict these findings, we take them seriously. After attending the COGCC hearing and getting a taste of the Denver7 interview, we got to work taking a look at some of the relevant information being put forward. What we gathered might raise at least some suspicion about what Denver7 reported last night.

What Our EID Report Found

As mentioned above, EID released a health report earlier this year that reviewed a sizable amount of data and information to determine what impacts, if any, oil and gas development had on the State of Colorado.

First, the report took a look at health indicators and “death rates” from chronic illnesses in Weld County—home to 90 percent of Colorado’s oil production. From 2002-2015—a time period where oil and natural gas production increased by 12 times and three times respectively, and well counts more than doubled—the county saw decreases in death rates of Cancer (-1.9 percent), respiratory illness (-9.1 percent), and heart disease (-21.4 percent).

The report also detailed findings of Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s own assessment of existing research. CDPHE scientists reviewed 12 relevant epidemiological studies covering 27 different health effects in communities near oil and gas operations and found “no substantial or moderate evidence for any health effects.” In addition, CDPHE ranked the majority of recent studies purporting to find a link between oil and natural gas activity and adverse health effects as “low quality, primarily due to limitations of the study designs that make it difficult to establish clear links between exposures to substances emitted directly from oil and gas and the outcomes evaluated.”

CDPHE also analyzed more than 10,000 air samples in the state with “substantial” oil and natural gas operations and found that air emission levels were “safe,” even for sensitive populations.

State Regulators Are Already Actively Engaged

Ewaskowitz told Denver7 she filed formal complaints with COGCC and the Colorado Department of Health and Environment (CDPHE). She said of her experience in reaching out to the state regulatory bodies:

“I think I was surprised at how quickly they followed up, so I have been in communication with several of them.”

We at EID aren’t surprised of the quick response from state regulators given that CDPHE Oil and Gas Health Information and Response (OGHIR) Program was setup to field these types of complaints and investigate – often sending CDPHE staff into the field to conduct further testing. As EID’s recent health report notes of this program most recent compilation of findings from FY2016-17:

“the report tracked health concerns reported by Colorado residents, with 50 percent of the self-reported concerns in the state originating in Weld County. Responding to stakeholders, air sampling was conducted and reports provided for 6 Tier III responses.

‘Six Tier III community investigations, which included community air sampling, accounted for 65% of reported concerns,’ according to OGHIR.

Five of the six reports included Weld County sampling data.

‘OGHIR deployed the Colorado Air Monitoring Mobile Laboratory (CAMML) to three of the investigations, resulting in approximately 500 sampling hours. Each hourly sample includes about 1000 individual data points,’ the authors explained.

‘In general, the data collected from air sampling investigations have shown low risk for short- and long-term health effects to people in communities reporting concerns,’ the authors found.”

About the “Doctor”

As Denver7 reported, Ewaskowitz paid a Lafayette doctor “to conduct what’s known as a VOC or volatile organic compounds blood level test on her son.”

The doctor was not a physician but a Registered Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine based in the Boulder County area. According to Colorado State Law, “A naturopathic doctor shall not use: (a) the term “physician”; (b) the abbreviations “NMD” of “N.M.D.”; (c) the term “naturopathic medical doctor”. They are not permitted to treat children less than two years of age or “engage in or perform the practice of medicine, surgery, or any other form of healing except as authorized by this article:”

Instead of conventional medicinal practice most of us are accustomed to, naturopathic medicine focuses on encouraging self-healing. Even though Ewaskowitz referred to this practitioner as a “doctor” and “physician” in an extended interview with Denver7, he is not an M.D.

Activists Use COGCC Hearings – Another Activist Here?

EID has attended our fair share of COGCC hearings in the past. It’s now commonplace for activists to use these meetings to advance their agenda, conduct various stunts, and abuse the public commenting period.

Since we’ve witnessed these stunts firsthand, it was worth investigating if this particular resident is affiliated with any activist groups. A quick Google/social media search shows numerous posts railing against fossil fuels, including one that protested against the Keystone XL Pipeline and another expressing support for an Erie Protectors anti-fracking initiative.

Conclusion:

Of course, any health concerns should be met with careful attention and vigilance. But it’s important to heed the facts before letting media headlines draw conclusions in the place of hard facts and data. Let’s remember, according to the state’s top medical doctor, Dr. Larry Wolk, “There’s no reason to believe that there is a causal relationship between oil and gas operations and chronic diseases or cancers.”

CDPHE has shown a willingness and ability to be active in response to community concerns and to continually review health factors surrounding oil and gas development. Safety has, and always will be, top consideration. But let’s make sure sound science and hard data is what ultimately informs Colorado’s energy policy.

 https://www.shaledirectories.com/blog/what-denver7-didnt-tell-you-last-night/

[gdiwes]

I fucking did it I made my own Idol group

Fucking end me LOL 

A lot of info abound haha Honestly you don’t have to read it lol I still have a ton more research to do (esp on the city/Prefecture they’re from) but if you do read and notice any discrepancies please tell me. I want to make sure all the information I give/am basing them on is correct haha 

Marvel!Us is a new five-girl idol group attending a private high school in Kamakura city in Kanagawa Prefecture. Why is this relevant? Because I feel like they needed a location and I guess I love to kill myself researching shit haha The school’s idol club has existed for two years, this group of students being the club’s second year cast, however it is faced with shutdown early on due to not enough members. Luckily these five members were gathered, permitting the club to go on for another year. 

Characters by subunit: 

GUeSS!: Energetic, bright, and fun style

- Wakana Ito (Red): A third year and the leader/center of Marvel!Us, she joined the group when she was in her second year. She is passionate and loves Marvel!Us more than anything, and wants to see them succeed and win Love Live. Her main attribute is smile, and because she’s quite the jack-of-all-trades she assists the girls in all of their other activities haha Her favorite thing to do is design outfits with Hiroko. 

- Sayuri “Yuyu” Hashimoto (Purple): A second year student who transferred from a different school, where she was previously on their idol group. Yuyu can come off as a little mysterious or haughty, but she cares deeply about her friends and is just trying to help them do their best. She doesn’t believe in finding answers for people, so she’s always trying to get them to find the answers themselves. Her main attribute is cool, and she choreographs for the group. 

- Hiroko Sasaki (Grey): An energetic first year and Haruka’s younger sister, she is close friends with Wakana and has known her since middle school. Before Marvel!Us was formed, she aspired to go to UTX and wanted to be part of the idol group there; she honestly loves idols more than anything and aspires to be a professional idol after high school. Her main attribute is smile, and she designs and sews the outfits. 

Nadeshiko Pristine (NadePrisu): Mature, sweet, and traditional vibes 

- Haruka Sasaki (Pink): A tomboy who loves sports and doesn’t find herself very idol-like, as a third year she has to balance basketball, exams, and Marvel!Us. Even though she is close to Wakana and supports her younger sister, she finds herself very distant from the others girls. In truth, she was dragged into Marvel!Us by Wakana and stayed for Hiroko. Though she is often awkward around the others, she has her own shine that they acknowledge. Her main attribute is cool, and she organizes the training schedules. Because she knows how to play the guitar she also composes. 

- Mei Nakashima (Green): A first year student and an aspiring actress, Mei moved from Miura city with her family. Coming from a fishing port to the big city has been tough on her, and leaving her friends behind has made her feel more shy and isolated, but the girls of Marvel!Us are looking out for her. She has terrible stage fright, and though she has a strong voice she often sings and acts softly because of it. She hopes that being on stage with Marvel!Us will help her overcome it. Her main attribute is pure and she is in charge of writing the lyrics for the songs.

Extra pointless info: 

I REALIZE I SPELLED PRISTINE WRONG, I’M FKN EMO AFKLjfaskjSKJFsa;J But I already combined the layers before I could fix it and didn’t realize till too late OTL

I have a lot more for these girls (heights, likes, dislikes for ex.) and I really want to draw more for them- I really wanted to post a halloween set but I was super busy in October so I guess this will have to do for a debut haha I think I’ll do a christmas set for them though ^w^! Or try to haha 

For this I drew them in their winter uniforms, which is a fat ribbon and long sleeves. In summer they wear a short sleeved shirt and a thinner ribbon, however the pocket squares stay the same: 1st years wear green, 2nd years wear blue (technically teal but bear with me lol), and 3rd years wear orange. 

The Student Body Pres and VP also have a specific school-issued blazer (vest in summer) that they are required to wear over their uniform/any sweaters they wear, and I did draw the SBP- There were five former members of Marvel!Us, the SBP being one of them, however she quit to focus on her studies (the others were three third years who graduated and a first year who also quit.) I should have mentioned it, but Wakana and Haruka were the only two left, which is why the club was facing termination haha

At some point I’ll draw them in both uniforms and their workout gear haha Hopefully. I have it all doodled I just need to sit down and actually draw them in poses lol

Also the unit that Yuyu was previously on is one of my friend’s idol groups, who are Marvel!Us’ rivals haha There’s a girl on his group named Sumire who goes by Mimi, who is super close to Yuyu and influenced her super hard haha They’re good friends (coughmegagaycough) and I can’t wait to draw them together haha We’re planning a couple joint sets in the future, so I’m excited for those >w<!!! We’re still working on figuring out a lot tho haha, he’s got first names and designs down so he’s just gotta get a group name n last names for them. faskfjs I love his girls so much <333

Anyway if you read all the way to here thanks so much LOL I hope you enjoyed these girls as much as I enjoy working on them, and I hope you’re ready to see more of them in the future haha Next time with Pristine spelled right LOL 

[weryanmacdonaldus-blog]

Microsoft Word - 3P18 Blog #1.docx

Blog #1 The NFL is one of if not the most watched sports leagues in North America.

With thousands of viewers at the game as well as watching football on their television, one person’s movements and messages are able to spread quickly throughout the mainstream media. These movements have an overall impact on the player’s reputation and status, as well as the coaches and teams status as well. Their voices speak for much more than their own views. Because of mainstream media these movements are spoken by millions of people who stand for the same cause. To begin a movement on a stage such as this takes a lot of courage and pride. Although it doesn’t happen often, when it does it always creates a buzz in the world of social media. This buzz has a lot to do with the impact that pressed upon these players, teams and coaches.

Colin Kaepernick is a great example of how you can see mainstream media affecting more than just his own status and reputation. He was the first player in the NFL to kneel down during the playing of the national anthem in order to support the black lives matter movement. Many people, for “disrespecting the flag”, ridiculed him. Very few players joined the star quarter back that year in kneeling during the anthem; those who did also faced scrutiny. Organizations began to shy away from players who were participating in this movement due to the negative feedback they would get from the media. Kaepernick did not get re-signed after his contract expired at the end of the season; the question is raised as to whether or not this was because of this display of activism. If the media didn’t surround this issue would he have been offered a contract? Here’s what the media has to say about it in the past NFL season. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNEby1Nv1Kc

Colin Kapernick’s efforts to reduce racial inequality had bounced back in this present NFL season. Despite his absence on the field, Kaepernick’s presence had remained in many NFL stadiums. In this 2017 season it is seen that many players are now taking a knee in showing their support for black lives matter. This has started wide spread controversy throughout the league. This is seen through media outlets on a global scale and the topic doesn’t seem like it is losing headway. There are many people opposed to this act because of the supposed “disrespect to the flag, but players don’t seem to be changing their stance. In turn the teams and organizations representing the teams are receiving backlash from the media as well. Supporters, fans and media outlets want answers that they are opposed to giving because they can’t control what the players do on the field, in fact some of these players aren’t even entering the field for the anthem all together. Players are paid to play, otherwise they don’t have to be on the field. These media sources have different approaches in displaying these stories, each having their own focus and viewpoint, usually tailored towards their audience. It is clear that the tone of this story is much different than that of Kaepernick’s, it’s important question what other factors have an effect on this change in focus. Here’s a video that demonstrates that change in focus. 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us- politics/taking-a-knee-national-anthem-nfl-trump-why-meaning-origins-racism-us- colin-kaepernick-a7966961.html

There is more than just one factor that made this change in focus occur. The solidarity of the NFL players themselves as well as Donald Trump’s misinterpretation of the players protests. Ever since last season when Kaepernick had introduced kneeling during the national anthem, other player had continued to support him. This NFL season more than ever. Starting just from one NFL player protesting, many other players had begun to support him. In present day, entire NFL teams such as the Baltimore Ravens as well as the Pittsburgh Steelers (except 1 player) are protesting the same way as Colin Kaepernick had last year. This directly addresses a key aspect of the Agenda setting theory. The Agenda setting theory discusses how the media has the ability to display ‘more popular’ rather than ‘more serious’ matters. This effect also addresses that the more coverage on a certain topic, the more serious or popular the content will become. In this case a different key topic has taken place. The amount of NFL players as well as fans that have supported Kaepernick’s movement for racial equality represents the “bandwagon effect” (Sullivan, 2013). The Bandwagon effect occurs when individuals change their side to the majority when first they were the minority. In present day other players for kneeling during the anthem are recognizing what Kaepernick had started. In the media, when one person began kneeling there had been an outrage. But because of the coverage that the media has been providing on players kneeling this NFL season, it has become bigger than ever. Although there is another aspect in which fuels this protest. Another great example of this is Donald Trump. Unfortunately in most cases, the bigger the public figure the bigger the media boom. Donald Trump is on of the most powerful men in the world in one of the most media congested nations in the world. Because of this, what Trump says usually has the biggest impact on people’s opinions and also draws in more of the general public to weigh in because of his relevance and the power of his voice. Usually the media can either agree or disagree with what Trump has to say about this movement. The stir in the media actually draws the attention away from the main purpose of this movement which is for black lives matter. The media blends the idea of players disrespecting the flag, and the players support for black lives matter into a war of content in terms of distribution between competing media sources with different views. In turn this battle of content overall determines what is displayed on the media due to viewer interest. Media begins to only shine light on the stories and sides to stories that are most desirable to the viewers. Again resulting in the Agenda setting effect. Donald Trump’s comments on the protest not only encourage players to protest even more, but also create a divisive nation between protestors and non- protestors. The President of the United States will always have people who support him because of his position of power. This is what further divides societies in which the NFL players themselves as well as fans live in when these types of comments are mentioned. Along with this, the dependency theory plays a role in this specific situation as well. Because this protest has become a divided debate between the President and these famous NFL teams, media outlets are more likely to show this situation because of the coverage it’ll get. Also, the consumer of this media and news have no other way of accessing the information being provided other than by being there first-hand, forcing us to consume their information whether it be true or not. This induces an overall impact on the media industry. Viewers who agree with the

information they hear that may not be true may steer from watching NFL programming, thus directing their attention to the buzzing media story. People actually seem to be more interested in the heated debates rather than the sport. Its difficult for these black lives matter movement supports to complain though, the idea of their movement was to spark public discussion and use the media to spread awareness through the power they obtain as well. They are definitely getting the media attention they wanted, just not in the exact light they expected. It is important to understand why people get so much more interested in these debates. In terms of sports, it is fair to say it is because of the national identity carried with football. Prior to events like this media sources such as the NFL begin to carry a national identity and depicts what it means to be American. When the thought of questioning hegemonic ideologies occurs national identity is questioned as well and this is not a topic appreciated by many Americans. Those opposed to this movement feel as though these athletes are only in the position they are because of the great opportunities America has to offer them. However the focus of the activism is not to oppose America but to spread awareness about unfair treatment to African- Americans. At this point it’s difficult to say whether or not this form of protest has been beneficial in gaining support from the public. It does however, speak numbers for those who do support the movement in seeing that the players are willing to risk their million dollar careers for the cause.

The allocation of money in terms of the NFL is not the only place where Trump is concerned. Unfortunately in any public affair economic always plays a factor. Coincidently being Trumps main concern, are his comments only because of

the economics behind sport media in the US. Recently Trump made it clear that he was only interested in the economic concerns of political affairs when addressing Puerto Rico after being hit by a devastating hurricane. As seen here Trump states “Much of the Island was destroyed, with billions of dollars owed to Wall Street and the banks which, sadly, must be dealt with.” (Trump, 2017) completely dismissing the extent the disaster impacted the country. The US as a world has to be concerned about economics at all times, however Trump does so to another extent. Power is also embedded in the national identity of Americans and as we all know money is power. This could be why Trump is able to reach so many people in taking his views. He uses national pride to cater to Americans. In terms of the NFL, those opposed are concerned with two risks to national identity, first the sport itself being tainted, and second the loss in revenue and power which are both nationally admired. Along with that, the media broadcasters are encouraged to display national and cultural programs. Since this is so nationally relevant, these broadcasters jobs are made easy in just being able to throw the same information at you while adding small details, over an extend period of time to keep you tied into the story. This is always fresh on the mind of viewers because what it means to be American can be defined as simply as being up to date on national news, and how America is doing globally. Many of these Americans don’t take into consideration how Donald Trump is more likely to make a decision based on the monetary loss or gain versus the moral decision when looking at the NFL protests. Trump wants these players to stop protesting because of the money being lost through these players and the fan-base that follows or contradicts the protest as well. That being said, just like this article, every news source takes a side or has a focus in their stories. It’s important for viewers to note the author and the credibility of the article. Major news stories develop overtime it is also important that all the information on a topic I retained before taking a stance. Often times going through multiple news sources are beneficial in getting a whole picture of the story. However this affects us personally because the media paints a picture that society wants to see, often limiting the critical thinkers accessibility to resources. With media being as wide spread as it is today, viewers should not struggle to find all the information to inform a full opinion on political issues. Unfortunately due to more powerful influences such as Trump and dominant discourse in American society, viewers are neglected. It is required by public Broadcasting Corporation to air cultural, social, economic and politically enriching programs that encourage the development of their culture. By advertising stories such as this, these new stations are being counterproductive in conforming to this mandate. All of these aspects such as power in society and media, Bandwagon effects and other media theories affect the way an audience interprets stories being told through these media outlets.

This concludes my first blog.

https://weryanmacdonaldus.tumblr.com/

Resources next blog

[confusingfuturehistorians]

A House Divided: A Pre-Election Plea

Recently I was re-watching Lincoln and a particular quote from Thaddeus Stevens (played by Tommy Lee Jones) jumped out at me due to its relevance to our current political climate. (1) The scene takes place outside the chamber of the House of Representatives after a debate on the proposed Thirteenth Amendment (which outlawed slavery in the US) when Stevens went back on his position that he believed all men were created equal; instead insisting he believed that all men should be equal before the law. This astounded his faction of radical Republicans and prompted claims of dishonesty from most Democrats. Stevens backtracked on his position however, in order to try to get Democrats who may have been potentially sympathetic to the 13th Amendment to vote for it, as without some Democrat support, it would not have gained the two-thirds majority necessary for it to pass. Stevens therefore said what he said to ease their concerns that abolishing slavery would be too radical a move which would destroy the fabric of American society as they knew it.

 After the debate he is confronted by Asa Vintner Litton (a fellow radical Republican Congressman) who says to him: “Have you lost your very soul, Mr. Stevens? Is there nothing you won't say?”

To which Stevens replies: “I want the amendment to pass, so that the constitution's first and only mention of slavery is its absolute prohibition. For this amendment, for which I have worked all my life and for which countless colored men and women have fought and died and now hundreds of thousands of soldiers... No, sir, no, it seems there's very nearly nothing I won't say.”

 Of course, as the pedant I am, I have to point out that I have no idea whether this conversation ever happened (I doubt it did, or at least, I doubt there is a verifiable record of it happening); but it is certainly true that Stevens was willing to compromise his values in order to get the amendment through. This film depicts this as more shocking than it actually was (despite his undoubtedly radical positions, it was neither the first nor the last time Stevens proved himself willing to compromise in order to get results), but what I took away from it is that in the context of contemporary British politics, I think something like that would be a lot more shocking than it was in Lincoln.

 Compromise is a very difficult thing, and given that I’m just as stubborn as I am pedantic, I would certainly have to admit that I am not an especially good compromiser. However, politics needs compromise because things simply don’t get done without it. And given the myriad of different opinions people can hold, even within a single political party, this is unsurprising. But one of my biggest worries about the way that the political climate has been changing recently has been the lack of willingness to compromise, particularly in progressive circles. (2) This is why in the UK, despite the fact that the Conservative lead has been massively reduced following a horrendous campaign, it looks unlikely that anyone except the Tories will win tomorrow’s General Election for the simple reason that those of us opposed to them have not done a good enough job of working together to prevent it. We already saw this happen to certain extent with Brexit, and we definitely saw it happen across the pond where a number of Democrat voters potentially cost Clinton the election by either not showing up or voting for another candidate. We would far rather argue amongst ourselves about how those guys aren’t “real progressives” because of that one thing one of their candidates said 17 years ago and so there’s “literally no difference” between voting for them and voting for Tories. It’s pathetic! And it’s not just pathetic, it’s downright dangerous.

 I appreciate that most people have a clear favourite party that they support. And I appreciate the need for an active political discourse, which includes criticism of things that you find objectionable. But it’s getting to such a ridiculous extent now that people’s objections to some policies will enable situations that are far worse. From what I’ve seen, this has been most noticeable with the die-hard Corbynites for whom compromise appears to mean “everyone should compromise their values and agree with Corbyn on every issue”, but they’re not the only ones. Whether they are drawing their inspiration from Corbyn, or whether Corbyn has been drawing inspiration from them is difficult to tell. But either way, the gains made by Labour during the last month will mean absolutely nothing if Corbyn is not prepared to work with others who don’t share every single one of his policies; and this situation will not change if his most vocal supporters refuse to criticise him for this. The most obvious example is his unmoving (and seemingly un-negotiated) stance on Brexit, which completely goes against what the majority of the people likely to support him want. Most people (myself included, although I never thought I’d be saying this a year ago) would tolerate a soft Brexit if it meant it could be negotiated by a party that isn’t the Tories (or UKIP, but I’m not mentioning them after this because this Tory party is essentially the same thing). But that’s not good enough for Jezza or his comrades. It’s up to us to change our views to suit them, remember.

 Now, I do appreciate the irony of me strongly criticising a particular faction of the progressive movement while also arguing that doing so is a problem. The problem does not only exist within the Corbynite movement by any stretch of the imagination, but my experience is that this is where it has been most obvious. Moreover, it is where the problem is most significant because any alliance formed in opposition to the Conservatives would have to be led by Corbyn and so his unwillingness to compromise means that unless he wins an outright majority (which no poll, however optimistic towards his chances) has predicted, his gains mean absolutely nothing. Reducing the Tory majority will not matter if he can’t convince some Tories to work with him to vote against the Government, and even a hung Parliament won’t help the cause if he refuses to form a government with other parties. (3) Perhaps I’m doing Corbyn a disservice and Stevens in fact had it far easier, as he was looking to change his country rather than simply stopping his opponents from getting in; but ultimately I think it still comes down to the same thing. How on earth can you achieve anything in politics if you won’t compromise? And that isn’t a rhetorical question, by the way. Look through your history books and I guarantee you will not find a political movement that achieved its aims without it.

 So part of this mini-essay is an attempt to plead with the like-minded people who I am aware make up the majority of my social media contacts to go out and vote for the party most likely to stop the Tories, EVEN IF it means voting for someone you would generally rather not vote for. This is the only way that we can stop what will possibly turn out to be the most destructive British government in recent years (yes, including the Thatcher years). But there is another plea that I feel I need to make. This is to centrists and the centre-right who are also refusing to compromise in a different way, in the sense that they are refusing to compromise their party identity (or in some cases their “patriotism”) in order to do the right thing. Let me be crystal clear here, I am not saying that you should change your beliefs or values to mine because mine are right and yours are wrong. So you can save your “holier-than-thou-Lefties” speech for another day. I’m happy to accept the fact that you as a moderate Tory have different values from me as someone who is a member of the Green Party. What I am saying is that this current Tory Government under Theresa May does not represent your values and that the right thing to do is admit this and vote accordingly.

 Of course, we progressives don’t spend our entire time arguing amongst ourselves. We do occasionally argue with those on the Right and in the centre too, and having engaged in many of these friendly discussions myself, I’ve noticed a number of themes that often emerge in these situations. While the far-right trolls are busy hurling the sorts of insults one might expect them to, the centre-right is busy claiming that in fact, it is us who are the unreasonable ones. Those right-wing trolls are just a few bad apples, whereas the vitriol in circles which claim to be progressive is systemic. (4) These people claim that it is unfair to insist that the Conservatives are “The Nasty Party”, it’s unfair to claim that they all hate poor people and it’s unfair to claim the moral high-ground when the Left is always shutting down honest debate through no-platforming and political correctness. Meanwhile they insist that they could not possibly vote for a party that is so politically weak, so economically inefficient and so dangerous to the security of the nation (not to mention in sympathy with the SNP and the IRA). (5)

Again, I am absolutely not asking people in this case to change those views. I do disagree with them, and before now I would have been happy to have had that debate (and indeed have done so on a number of occasions). But unless something drastic happens on June 8th I refuse to debate it anymore, because I cannot believe that you are being genuine with any of those concerns. If you knowingly vote for a party that wants to bring back fox-hunting and has willingly scapegoated immigrants ever since Theresa May became Home Secretary, then yes, I do believe that it’s fair to say that you are supporting the Nasty Party. If you’re going to vote for a party which has led to deaths of 30,000 people in 2015 alone through its harsh and unnecessary austerity policies, then yes, I do think it’s fair to say that you must have something against poor people. (6) I also think it’s hypocritical in the extreme to vote for a party whose leader has refused debates and public scrutiny at every possible opportunity if you value open discourse so much. As for values of free speech, I cannot even begin to comprehend how you could truly hold those values and still vote for a leader who has openly admitted that she wants to regulate the internet. If they don’t wish to vote for a politically weak party, how can they justify voting for a leader who U-turns on everything that the Daily Mail criticises her for? If they don’t wish to vote for an economically weak party, how can they justify voting for a party who have presided over the worst decline in real wages of any developed country other than Greece? And if they really value security so much, how can they vote for a leader who is obsessed with tearing up our human rights and who has supressed a report on how Saudi Arabia finances terrorists in Britain, because it would embarrass her party? (7)

Despite Theresa May’s extraordinary attempts to avoid as much engagement as possible in an election she called after repeatedly ruling it out, her intentions for the direction she wants to take the party (and therefore the country, if they get elected) have been made clear. These are not simply the rantings of a tin-foil-hat-wearing-conspiracy-theory-loving-Left-wing-lunatic. This is public information, which you should (and in my personal experience of centre-right voters, do) know. In 2015, the severity of the impact austerity cuts were having was nowhere near as widely known and the Conservatives did not make a big thing about their plans to spy on the entire country and crash headlong out of the EU (which, incidentally, most of the centre-leaning Tories I know voted to stay part of) even with the very real-looking possibility of deal whatsoever to go along with it. Now we know. There are no more excuses. The only thing holding you back from voting against the Conservatives is not your values, but you unwillingness to compromise on who you’re voting along with. I don’t profess to know the centre-right mind-set, but there is simply no way I can grasp how anyone in that group can profess to hold the progressive values that so many of them claim to hold and still vote Conservative this time around with a clean conscience. If you really want to show us Lefties how much more tolerant you are of other people’s beliefs, now is your chance. Vote for what you believe in, even if it means allying with people like me, and I’ll believe you. Refuse to take this opportunity and condemn this country to the most draconian government Britain has had is recent history, and I will not.

 I have always prided myself to a certain extent on my stubbornness and my principled nature. And for a long time, I believed that those two things were one and the same, but they are not. Principles are things which you would be willing to do anything to avoid or achieve, whereas stubbornness is being unwilling to change what it is that you are doing. In many cases they are the same, but at some point there comes a point of no return where principles can no longer be safeguarded by stubbornness. I’m sure most people can think of a situation where they put up with something that should have been unacceptable to them simply because they were unwilling to change. And I’m also sure that everyone in that situation would act differently were they given a second chance. What we need to continually be asking ourselves is “Where is our line in the sand”? I think that if they really thought about it, more people would have actually gone past that line with regard to current politics than they are willing to admit. For me, I live in the Salford and Eccles constituency, which is an incredibly safe Labour seat, so I am someone who would gain nothing through voting tactically. As a result I intend to vote for my party, the Greens. However, if I still lived where I did during the last General Election (in Oxford West and Abingdon), then I would vote for the Lib Dems, despite there being two parties I agree with more. This is because, quite simply, with the stakes being as high as they are, my principles would not allow me to be stubborn. And whichever way people plan to vote, I strongly urge each and every person who reads this to think very carefully about why they are planning to vote the way they are. And in many cases, they may well need to channel their inner Thaddeus Stevens.

 1. Unfortunately I couldn’t find the scene anywhere online, so I’ll just leave this with you instead. Ad hominem attacks aren’t ever productive in reality (and indeed the real-life Stevens rarely resorted to them, at least in Congress), but it nevertheless makes for a satisfying scene.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7Brh9iWajc

2. I’m using “progressive”, purely in want of a better term, to describe any party or set of beliefs which does not align with the far-right of Britain. This includes centrists and even the centre-right, which is why I’m avoiding “Left” as a term here. I’m not overly sure “progressive” is much better, but it’s worth arguing the semantics, as long as everyone knows what I mean.

3. I’m not making this up – he genuinely said this at a time when his popularity was at his highest. It’s times like this that make me genuinely convinced he and his supporters want to lose the election and watch the Tories dismantle the country just so they can say “See, we were right!”

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jun/01/corbyn-vows-no-deals-no-pacts-if-there-is-a-hung-parliament

4. It’s worth pointing out here, of course, that many people who would describe themselves as card-carrying Lefties and progressives would also make the same arguments here. Rightly or wrongly, it is another example of how progressives seem far more willing to argue amongst ourselves than actually achieve our aims. The Judean People’s Front / People’s Front of Judea bit from Life of Brain springs very vividly to mind.

5. Ignoring the completely false claims of the Left being IRA apologists, it is certainly true that there is a lot of support Scottish Independence among progressives. For me though, it’s ironic for Conservatives to take such a strong stand on this when their policy of unnecessarily pursuing a hard-Brexit is the thing that is most likely to bring about the collapse of the union. Thaddeus Stevens would certainly have disapproved.

6. This case is particularly poignant at a time when the country is mourning the loss of over 30 people in terrorist attacks, yet the government seemingly gets a free pass for killing a thousand times that many in a single year.

http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2017-02-20-30000-excess-deaths-2015-linked-cuts-health-and-social-care

7. All of the above points come with a delicious side of evidence. Enjoy!

https://www.ft.com/content/e021c208-3ede-11e7-9d56-25f963e998b2

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/uk-workers-have-had-the-worst-wage-growth-in-the-oecd-except-greece-a7773246.html?cmpid=facebook-post

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/theresa-may-terrorism-human-rights_uk_5936ec0be4b0099e7fafd14d?1zz

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/may/31/sensitive-uk-terror-funding-inquiry-findings-may-never-be-published-saudi-arabia