#also how every single other disabled person in the book is given none of the courtesy violet is. justice for sawyer he's missing a whole LEG

[snarkesthour]

Happy St George's Day!

· In the midst of a pandemic when schools are all closed, the government votes to not allow free school meals to schoolchildren during school holidays, despite this being the only meal many of them have each day

· Marcus Rashford, a footballer, led the drive to feed the nation’s children, 49% of which live in poverty, and forced the government to provide food for them during the school holidays

· Instead of previous years when vouchers were given to parents that can only be spent on nutritious food, members of government give contracts to friends to provide a week’s work of food costing £5 to schoolchildren for a price of £30. Food is unhealthy and would not last a week

· Parcels also expect parents to cook two tablespoons of rice at a time in the oven and bake their own bread every day, ignoring poverty-stricken families possible lack of access to such equipment

· Wife of conservative MP attacks poor families for eating unhealthy food when healthy food is cheaper, ignoring the fact that not all families have access to equipment needed to store and cook it

· Nigel Farage, head of the Brexit party came out strongly against the government for their stance on starving schoolchildren. Not a good look.

· Another MP came out and said that poor families should not receive government assistance because the money would be going direct to brothels and crackhouses and the parents would spend it on drink and drugs instead of feeding their kids, a dangerous and persistent stereotype of working class people

· For the first time in its history, UNICEF is feeding kids in the UK – the 5th richest country in the world – and the head of the House of Commons accused them of “playing politics” and said they should “be ashamed of themselves”

· J.K. Rowling came out hard as a TERF (Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist), writing a book about a serial killer that dresses up as a Muslim woman, which isn’t subtle when you look at her history of transphobia and other “-isms”

She also publicly supported an author who wrote a book about the destruction of Europe by waves of Muslim immigration

· Speaking of J.K. Rowling, the government’s response to the Gender Recognition Act.

· It is now impossible for under 16s to receive reversible puberty blockers

· Wait times at NHS Gender Clinics, of which there are only 7 in the country, have doubled, with wait times now up to 60+ months (5+ years)

· Keir Starmer, head of the Labour (left wing) party says he doesn’t want to get involved in trans issues

· With the loss of Labour, no major party supports trans rights

· Self ID is no longer allowed, meaning every step of transition is medicalised and involves the trans person having to prove that they are “trans enough” at every stage to panels of cis people

· Government wants to invalidate non-enrolled deed polls, essentially making available a public list of every trans person in the UK

· Hate crimes have quadrupled

· Anti-trans campaigners are now setting their sights on trans adults’ access to hormones

· A petition was formed to counter this and was reviewed by the government, who determined that nothing was wrong with the GRA except that it might have been a bit lax.

· The Guardian newspaper ran child labour and child starvation supporting stories

· Internal border now along the border of Kent and lorry drivers must produce travel papers (Brexit Passport) to cross it, placing the county of Kent in a state of “no man’s land”

· Government fails to lockdown on time, every time

· Government refuses to ban conversion therapy in the UK

· Scotland adopts Human Rights of Children, which requires the government to better support children and families, especially those who are poor, disabled, minorities or young carers. England does not

· The government declared that sleeping rough is now grounds for deportation

· Schools reopened several times despite being warned not safe to do so

· The government banned NHS workers from speaking out about COVID

· Do Not Resuscitate orders proposed for those in care homes, with learning disabilities and who are autistic

· The government cut pensions as the COVID death toll rose

· The government learnt about new South-East COVID strain in September and didn’t come forwards until December

· New COVID strain targets kids, teens, and young adults, and yet none of those groups are allowed vaccination unless a serious pre-existing condition is had, even if they are key workers

· Downing Street says UK should be model of racial equality because government report says no institutional racism in the UK

· Report also says young people are young and foolish for thinking it exists and that minorities are superstitious and irrational and are sabotaging themselves out of success

· It came out that the government was given the independent report and rewrote it to the version that was released to the public – the version that says racism doesn’t exist in the UK

· The rewritten report also refers to the slave trade as the “Caribbean experience”, like those enslaved were on holiday

· Woman in London abducted, murdered and dismembered by off-duty cop and when socially distanced vigil goes ahead, police wait until dark before trapping women, arresting them, using excessive force on them, and also destroying memorial

· Bill passed in government that allows undercover officers to commit serious crimes such as murder, torture and rape

· Plainclothes police to now patrol nightclubs and bars due to aforementioned murder by police officer

· Bill passed that bans any protest at all, no matter how quiet, unobstructive or small it is, including single-person protests. Bill also includes a 10 year sentence for damaging a statue, which is a longer sentence than for rape

· TV programmes critical of the government have been cancelled

· Universities have been told what to platform and schools have been told what to teach, including banning material speaking about BLM and calling for “overthrow” of capitalism

· Voting has been supressed, mainly those who are working class or POC

· During protests in Bristol, press was assaulted and pepper sprayed by police and two legal observers were arrested

· Being Roma/Traveller and living the traditional Roma/Traveller lifestyle is now illegal under that same bill that bans protests. They also have to register as such and receive a licence or risk losing their vehicles

· Hours before Eid, lockdown across the UK with no warning whatsoever, meaning people woke up the next morning after visiting relatives to find themselves “criminals”. The country was opened up specifically for Christmas though

· Conservative (right wing) party blamed BAME (Black And Minority Ethnic) communities for dying of COVID more than white people

· Landlords have been protected extensively and renters blamed for living in close quarters or having to take public transport to work

· Conservatives have launched investigation into possible corruption in Liverpool Council. Liverpool is a Labour stronghold and if corruption is found then the Conservatives can seize control of the council. No evidence of corruption is present as of yet

· Military threatened to stage a coup if Corbyn (then head of the labour party) became Prime Minister

· Government orders all government buildings in England, Wales and Scotland to fly the Union Flag every day to boost patriotism

· MPs call for the curriculum to require teaching the history of the Union Flag rather than Britain’s many atrocities

· The first fortnight of April saw a mini heatwave with temperatures up to 20°C immediately followed by snow, and this is ignored in favour of debating “vaccine passports” in order to visit the pub

· UK allows for international summer holidays despite being warned it will cause a third wave, such as the situation in Germany

· Government placed asylum seekers arriving in the UK in army barracks where they were to sleep 24 to a room with no open windows or air circulation, and when COVID inevitably ran rampant, the Home Secretary accused the asylum seekers of not following COVID protocol, such as social distancing

· Several accounts of self-harm and suicide attempts were reported from the asylum barracks and were dismissed

· UK to deport unaccompanied minor asylum seekers

· UK refuses entry into the UK for radicalised teen failed by system who joined ISIS. Case is difficult and controversial because teen wishes to return to the UK temporarily to fight for her citizenship after the UK broke international law by stripping it from her, despite her not having dual citizenship. Argument given was that her parents were from Bangladesh and so she could apply for citizenship there. Bangladesh refused. Teen is now stateless and living in a refugee camp after losing several children, unable to fight for her citizenship to be reinstated.

· Rioting in Northern Ireland, which included the first use of water cannons in 6 years, a bus being hijacked and burnt, a press photographer attacked, and people throwing bricks, fireworks and petrol bombs at police, not to mention some of the clashes happening over a peace wall in west Belfast, completely ignored in British media and then later drowned out by non-stop news of Prince Phillip’s death, obscuring any important news from being heard. Riots were over Northern Ireland’s being a part of the UK

· MPs take vote on whether China’s treatment of Uighurs constitutes genocide. They decide it does, but that it isn’t their job to do anything further

· Home Office released their spending for the 2020 fiscal year. It’s a mess, including over £77,000 at an eyebrow salon in March alone, and £6,000+ in Pollyanna Restaurant which doesn't appear to exist.

· When people started questioning the spending, the Home Office sent a tweet fact checking themselves

· Country reopened over the summer for Eat Out To Help Out, a scheme to boost the economy. COVID cases rose sharply and the government then blamed people, but mostly working class people, for not following restrictions such as only leaving the house when absolutely necessary, after telling them it was safe

· Foreign NHS workers denied COVID vaccinations

· GCSEs and A-Levels were cancelled due to COVID-19 and expected exam grades were to be used instead. Private school students received grades much higher than they were expecting, and state school students received grades much lower, some grades falling as far as an A to an E. This was because the government couldn’t imagine state school students being smart enough to receive the high grades they were predicted to get; after much uproar the grades were scrapped, and a new method was introduced

· BBC offered staff grief counselling following Prince Philip’s death, but not after having to report on the ever-rising COVID death toll

· The COVID-19 Infection Survey closed in mourning for Prince Philip, with workers to contact participants to reschedule visits for “as soon as possible” when they return to work

· Census workers told to pack up and go home and were placed on immediate unpaid leave due to the death of Prince Philip, but told they must make up the hours later

· Conservative MPs lobbied for a new royal yacht after voting to keep schoolchildren hungry (see first points)

· The BBC’s complaint page crashed over the amount of complaints they got of their coverage of Prince Philip’s death. It was covered non-stop for over 24 hours and the page came in at over 100,000 complaints before going down

· BBC also fast becoming politically biased despite their requirement to be apolitical, after cutting out the audience laughing at Boris Johnson on Question Time, displaying Corbyn as a communist figure in front of a prominent piece of Russian architecture, and providing a platform for a Conservative MP to tell a stage 4 bowl cancer patient that her life wasn’t valuable on live television

· On the COVID-19 pandemic, the BMJ, (British Medical Journal) said about the government that “science was being suppressed for political and financial gain” by “some of history’s worst autocrats and dictators”

· Not only did Boris Johnson launch Eat Out To Help Out when he was warned it was dangerous, lifted lockdowns too early when he was warned it was too dangerous, reopened schools when he was warned it was too dangerous, but when scientists said the second COVID jab should be delivered within 3 weeks he decided that was too tall an order and it should be within 12 weeks – after a period of radio silence, suddenly the science fit his plan. No scientists came forwards to defend it

· The Home Secretary, Priti Patel, blamed protestors for protests that became violent from police attacking protestors, bullied staff members under her, bought members of staff in her department, said it was “disgraceful” to topple the statue of Edward Colson, a slave trader, in Brighton because it undermined anti-racism protests, held treasonous meetings with Israel with the plan to divert aid money, and threatened to starve Ireland in order to get them to agree to Brexit

· She also wants to set up Australian-style asylum processing centres on British islands, but the islands she wants are in the Atlantic ocean and over 4000 miles away from the UK. This is because she wants to help asylum seekers enter the UK legally, completed ignoring or oblivious to all the reasons that asylum seekers might not be able to do that, and for the fact that to seek asylum you must essentially walk up the border and ask for it

· The bungling of the Track and Trace system – the government spent £10bn on a system to track and trace the spread of COVID-19. All data was stored on an Excel spreadsheet which developed a technical glitch and many results were lost before the system was scrapped

· As Autism Acceptance month began, the BBC ran a story saying the autism causes fascism, and that an autistic person who had chosen to embrace the ideology was incapable of seeing that a neo-Nazi group he joined was morally bad because he was autistic

[tshepiso-reads-books]

Prepare For a Rant | Lair of Dreams by Libba Bray

Started: February 10th, 2020

Finished: February 14th, 2020

I have a lot of thoughts about Lair of Dreams [Goodreads] and most of them are negative. It took me what felt like several lightyears to finish this book and the reading experience sapped the joy of reading out of me for a while. This is going to be a long one folks, so buckle in. Before we jump into things I’d like to warn that this is going to be a spoilerific review so heed my warning before you jump in.

Lair of Dreams takes place shortly after the events of the first book in this series The Diviners. The city is on the cusp of an all-out outbreak as more and more cases of Sleeping Sickness, a mysterious illness that causes the afflicted to fall asleep and never wake up again, are cropping up in Chinatown. While the gang goes on wildly different adventures in this book they all ultimately come together to solve the mystery of the sleeping sickness.

On Character

My biggest problem with this book is the characters. They’re selfish, self-centered, naïve and don’t understand that actions hurt others. This is most evident in Evie, but every character in the book has moments of this scattered throughout the novel. However,  I feel uncomfortable throwing this fact as a criticism of the book because all of these characteristics are fundamental character traits of teenagers and I find it obtuse to criticize a young adult novel for accurately writing teenaged protagonists. But I can’t divorce this understanding from how absolutely infuriating I found so many moments in this book.

I will say just because our protagonists, and especially Evie, were annoying doesn’t mean they didn’t have depth. Libba Bray is a good writer and fully fleshed out every character in this book mellowing some of my frustrations with them. The perfect example of this is Sam Lloyd. The bad boy character archetype has been done to death in YA, but Sam stands apart from the crowd of tousled haired edge-lords by having a tragic backstory with legitimate weight to it. His search for his mother never felt like an afterthought or quirk. I genuinely felt his deep desire to find the truth and it made him well rounded. The same could be said about all the other characters in the story.

Evie was the only character I truly hated while reading this book. I understand the reason why Evie is the way she is and how her past influenced her bad behavior. But understanding that her PTSD and trauma are the cause of her actions was never enough to get me to sympathize with her. Every single character in this book has been through just as much if not more than she has and they never went as far as to abandon and betray their friends as consistently as Evie did. I could never get behind Evie, her selfishness went above and beyond teenaged immaturity and her inability to own up to her mistakes and change angered me.

Now on to Jericho Jones, my second least favorite character in this book. I genuinely liked Jericho in The Diviners, but his behavior in this book was appalling. I will admit he had the misfortune of falling into one of my least favorite tropes out there: “The Monster Inside Me“ [TV Tropes]. However, his particular brand of self-loathing went further than that. At the end of The Diviners Jericho was rejected by Evie causing a cycle of self-pity that verged on incel behavior. His constant monologuing about how “girls just don’t like guys him” was eye-roll inducing and his hurry to lash out at others because a girl he liked rejected him was gross. His actions depict a man who sees Evie as a prize rather than a human being.

Another problem I had with this book is how central protagonists from The Diviners were sidelined in the novel. It’s almost impossible in a reasonably sized book to follow eight different characters and give them all their due. The characters I feel most negatively effected by Bray’s shift in focus to new POVs were Memphis, Theta and Mabel. It would take over 500 more words to deep dive into my specific thoughts on each of their character arcs so in summation: these three were barely given anything to do and their character arcs didn’t move forward in any significant way. Mabel was given the harshest treatment of all because she had literally nothing to do in this book but pine after a guy who didn’t like her. No other character conflict she had from the previous book in this series was even mentioned or explored.

On Romance

Possibly my least favorite element in this book was its romantic subplot. So much page time was dedicated to it that it could reasonably be dubbed the main plot So here’s the rundown:

Mabel likes Jericho, but Jericho likes Evie.

Evie thinks she likes Jericho but doesn’t want to date him because of girl code.

Evie fake dates Sam and they both start catching feelings.

Jericho goes out with Mabel even though he knows that Mabel likes him and he still has feelings for Evie.

This is the kind of conflict I hate in books. This love triangle was so convoluted and contrived. It did nothing but make me hate Evie and Jericho, and I found none of the romantic tension exciting because the dynamics explored were built on a foundation of miscommunication and lies of omission.

On Representation

While I was pleasantly surprised by the anti-racism in The Diviners I was uncomfortable by the way some of the themes of diversity were explored in this book. In Lair of Dreams, we are introduced to Ling Chang a half Chinese girl with a recent case of infantile paralysis causing her to wear leg braces. She has a lot of self-hatred in regard to her disability. This trope while cliche wasn’t my problem, my problem was how this internal conflict is resolved. Another one of our protagonists, Henry, finds out about her disability and all her self loathing is resolved by him telling her she should love herself. This interaction is that it places Ling’s self-worth in the hands of an able-bodied person rather than focusing this her arc on self-acceptance. As an able-bodied person, I don’t want to cry ableism without shouting out actual disabled people’s voices on the matter so I would highly encourage you to seek out these voices. I’ve yet to encounter an ownvoices reviewer’s thought on Ling’s arc (believe me I looked) and this observation should in no way take away anything from disabled people who appreciated Bray’s writing.

There is so much that Bray does right when it comes to diversity and representation. I find her honest depictions of America’s ugly history timely and relevant and I admire her willingness to starkly show anti-semitism, homophobia, xenophobia, police brutality of the time. She clearly parallels America’s history with America’s present reminding you not so subtly that these toxic ideas still exist. I will warn readers that Bray graphically depicts racist imagery and I found the descriptive scenes of lynch mobs and the like very upsetting so be prepared for that.

One aspect of Bray’s depiction of American society I really liked was her pointed observation of the link between Evangelical Christianity and racism and xenophobia. I also liked how she depicted the ways people use American Exceptionalism (the idea that Americans are inherently superior to all others and that their position as a dominant world power is a God-given right rather than luck and historic subjugation) as a justification for bigotry and all detractors of this ideology is consistently labeled as anti-American by the people who benefit from bigotry.

On Everything Else

I will say Lair of Dreams was fairly well-plotted. Though the mystery element of this book very much felt like a subplot with the character conflicts taking center stage. While I didn’t find the sleeping sickness as outright terrifying as Naughty John in the first book Bray is good at building tension and suspense and the final climactic scene did get my heart racing. Bray’s ability to capture a creepy gothic atmosphere shines in this book and I loved her interlude chapters that showed brief snippets of our characters and the city itself.

Stars 🌟🌟🌟

I don’t know where I stand with this series. I found so much of the reading experience frustrating, but I am still invested in so many of the characters in the series and I would like to see how the final mystery unfolds. We’ll see if I continue on with the series because right now I don’t know.

[poetressj]

I've Gotten So Accustomed

to being single that I feel I do not want to entertain anyone. I feel that I don't have the energy to tell someone the story of me & them show no interest other than wanting a sexual relationship with me. There was a point in my life where I was too open & that drained me & I lost the ability to allow anyone else into my surroundings (to an extent). I am an open book, but I have to be careful with how open I am. Letting someone into my space is a very scary situation for me, because I am so used to & comfortable with being on my own; that anyone outside of my family & the few people that I do know of is uncomfortable & builds up this anxiety. Even when I was in my situation, I was still very much single, but it was all unsettling at the same time. But it made me feel better, because what came with them was something I was missing. But other than that; I was okay with my job, laptop, phone, & my tv. I don't need anything else. & when I did try to talk to other people & open up. It was always as if I was talking to a wall. I'm not pressed to be in a relationship, get married, have children, none of that. Societal pressures sometimes makes you feel like you have to do these things because that's the norm. I am a mother, I am a dog mom, but I'm not fit to be a child's mom. I'm not fit to be married, because I'm not capable of dealing with the ups & downs of a person because like I said it would drain me too much. Furthermore, a relationship is not for me because I've given WAY more, while some people have taken even more. & that has a lot to do with the people that I chose to deal with, so I'm at fault for ignoring the RED FLAGS of those people & seeing it as potential. Being single is not a BAD THING, & there are some people that will try to make you feel as though it is because of certain aspects. As far as the roles go in a relationship; one person must do this, while the other must do that. As a person that has dated both men & women, I always got the short end of the stick & after a while I just got tired of feeling like I was not appreciated enough. & just opted to being single. Not only because of how I was treated by men & women, but also because I felt like my disability (CEREBAL PALSY) played a part. For some (& I say some because not all people would react like this), I always felt as though many of the people that I dated, dated me out of pity or convenience (hence why I don't have a lot of bodies, which is a good thing). People with visible disabilities don't get much play like that because of how some people view them physically. But if I'm sitting still from the waist up, every looks good. & the only verbs I ever heard to describe me is funny, cool, & cute. I got tired of that. So I just became content with being the homegirl that you chill with.

Nobody's checking & I'm not looking!

💛💜,

PJ

[blueyesandleatherjacket]

The girl in the pub

► The girl in the pub - Ninth Doctor/Rose Tyler. ► Here’s my submission to the @dwsecretsanta for natural--blues. I hope you’ll enjoy it! ► AU Verse, All ages. ► 5,979 words.

"Perhaps it's a place about which everyone knows only one fact." - Bill Nighy in The Girl in the Cafe.

USERNAME BAD WOLF PASSWORD ***************** LOGIN WELCOME BACK ON BIGGER IN THE INSIDE, ROSE. IT’S ALWAYS A PLEASURE TO SEE YOU HERE. WHAT’S ON YOUR MIND TODAY?

Rose Tyler smiled at the blinking cursor on the empty white page of her website. So many things had happened to her in the last weeks and it was hard to decide of where to start this story for this new post. She had created this website years ago, during her studies as a web developer, and had forgotten it the minute she got her diplomas. She had come back to it months later when she had found out that she couldn’t get a proper job because of a particularity of hers. Interview after interview, they were refusing her for the simple reason that she was different. Discrimination in hiring. This had infuriated her so much that she had needed a place to vent and share this experience, a place where we would be able to communicate freely without any barrier. She had found out she wasn’t the only one to have gone through this injustice. Bigger on the inside wasn’t a name she had chosen randomly. Rose was a naturally kind and caring person and she had discovered that people were more than just a surface to scratch. If you looked deeper, you could have great surprises. This was a motto concerning all the people in the world but that also applied to her. Many persons had barely scratched her surface and chosen to leave her behind soon after. All because of her particularity. She didn’t have many friends. To be honest, she only had a couple of acquaintances she had met through her website. Acquaintances that shared her particularity. Creating Bigger on the inside had opened new doors on the world to her. It had given her the courage she needed to build her own business. It was easy to find work as a web developer when you were your own boss. All her customers were talking to her through private messages and she was working from her on ace. She had gone against all the prejudices people had about her. Rose Tyler was deaf. She had never known how it was to hear the smallest of sounds. She was born on a sunny day toward the end of April. Her mother had stayed around long enough to give her a name and a couple months of happiness. Then, her father died and Jacqueline Tyler had been unable to cope with the loss of her husband and their daughter’s disability. Rose was placed in the system and raised by different people, different foster families that never understood or try to understand why she was so different from the other kids. She found her shelter, her salvation, in books. She was pending her time in the local bookshop. She had read everything little thing she could read and taught herself everything she knew today including the sign language, the coding, the marketing. She had used that knowledge to build herself the better life that she had so far. And it was a success. She had founded the Bad Wolf Corporation and developed an association for the young and not so young persons who had been in her situation: left behind and discriminated. It was a small association where deaf persons could find a shelter and dedicated volunteers to teach them the basic things and help them to fit in the harsh society. More recently, she had bought an old bookshop, gave it a new name – The Blue Box in reference to the old police box gathering dust not far down the road. It had become her headquarters. There was the bookshop part and her computing space of work next to the storehouse. There wasn’t much activity yet but some people were coming in and buying books or settling down in the reading space for a moment. There was a sign on her counter informing her customers she couldn’t answer to spoken demands. Everyone was playing the game so far.

NEW POST GIVE A TITLE TO YOUR NEW POST “Don't mind me. I'm just toasting the happy couple. On the house!”

After a long day of work, it is not unusual for me to reward myself with a pint at the local pub. I place my order and sip my beer quietly. Drop money on the counter and leave for home. Sometimes I would bring the Times or a book and enjoying my time off before going back home. A little ritual of mine. That evening was no different from usual. I was at the pub reading the new issue of the Times when this guy showed up. Large ears, big nose, dark brown hair. The atmosphere was festive when I’ve come in. A couple was celebrating their new engagement. It all turned to craziness when he came in. I moved to a quieter corner of the pub and occasionally glanced at the party. My beer done, I folded my newspaper. I was getting ready to leave. At my very own pace. That’s when I’ve noticed that he had moved to come and sit across of me. He had been sat here for a while and I haven’t noticed him at all. His lips moved. I walked away. Not the first time some ‘cool’ guy tries to flirt with me and this one clearly was one of them. The Doctor was in a good mood that evening. He was in a mood for a drink, but not a drink alone in his place. A drink in a public place where he would be able to share his happiness and maybe find a one night woman to satisfy him. He never had much success with women before. The blame was on his unusual and rough appearance. No woman would fancy a man with ears that were too large, a distorted big nose, a large forehead? No one had ever wanted him before and then, he released a single, became number one in the United Kingdom and with the success came the women who started fancying the successful man he had become. He shouldn’t have fallen into the arms of this disgusting spiral all famous artists were slipping in but the temptation of giving in to these love letters and promises of forever had been too strong. Tonight, he was celebrating the release of his third album. The Turn of the Earth he had titled it in reference to the first single extracted from this album: “I can feel it / The turn of the Earth / the ground beneath our feet / Is spinning at 1,000 miles an hour / And the entire planet is hurtling / Around the Sun at 67,000 miles an hour. / And I can feel it. / We’re falling through space / you and me, clinging to the skin / Of this tiny little world / And if we let go / If you let go / I will drift endlessly / In this never-ending universe.” He was writing cheesy love songs he didn’t think a word of for he never met his soulmate. All bullshit. The women he was meeting, having affairs with, had no real interest in him. They all wanted the fame, the money. He was just a way to get it. That was why he was having one night affair after one night affair. He should have gone to the party his staff was having tonight for the new album but these people were no fun. You would have thought that in the world of music, and more specifically in the world of rock music, people would be funnier, a bunch of party-goers addicted to sex and drugs and alcohol. His team was nowhere near that and it was quite boring to party with them. So he had pretended to be needed elsewhere for personal reasons and had looked for a place where he would have fun, alcohol and sex. He was reasonable enough not to fall in the trap of drugs like many other artists but he could never say no to alcohol. Getting wasted made him forget about the loneliness an superficiality of such a life. Everyone was looking for fame but fame wasn’t bringing real happiness. Only a fake euphory. He found a pub with a good atmosphere. Someone was partying in there, celebrating a happiness that never was given to him in over thirty years of life. He pushed the door open, a large grin on his face and entered the pub. This joyful atmosphere was all he needed tonight. It became crazy once he was in. He walked to the counter and ordered a bottle of the best champagne. That’s at that very moment he noticed her. He was sitting there, sipping a pint of beer and reading the newspaper. She didn’t seem disturbed by the noise around her. Such an ability to ignore your surroundings was impressive. It wasn’t what caught his eye though. He had seen a lot of women falling to his feet but none of them were equalling her beauty. For a moment, he could nothing but admiring this reading beauty. Even tucking a strand of hair behind her ear made her the most beautiful woman he had even seen. “The news isn’t that good lately, heh?” She didn’t reply to him, didn’t even glance at him. With the noise around, she probably hadn’t heard him. The party-animals were singing loudly and screaming congratulations. Her calm was admirable. It was as if she was stuck in her own bubble and was disregarding her surroundings. The barman was gone in the wine cellar to find the bottle he had asked for. It was taking some time so he jumped over the counter, poured himself a pint and sat down beside the blonde girl and babbled happily. He didn’t remark immediately that she wasn’t giving attention to him and, to be honest, that was quite offending. No one was ignoring him. He was the Doctor. The international rock star. The best in cheesy love songs. Every teenager and grown woman were falling to his feet for a glance from him. Why was she ignoring him? “I’m the Doctor by the way, what’s your name?” No answer. She was deliberating ignoring him and that wasn’t nice of her. He never met anyone who could resist the famous Doctor. Who did she think she was to ignore him so conspicuously? He was gonna tell her his way of thinking when the barman came back with the bottle. The Doctor moved to the party, shook the champagne. “Don't mind me. I'm just toasting the happy couple. On the house!” The fiancée went crazy and her friends had to hold her back or she would have jumped on him. The cap popped and champagne rained over the guests. He took the time for pictures and partied with the happy couple until they were too drunk to see if he was there or not. He ordered another pint. The blonde girl wasn’t at the counter anymore. He had been afraid that she might have left but he found her sitting in a quiet corner. He sat across of her and took another chance. “You know, most of the girls of your age would sell their organs just to spend a minute with me. I am impressive.” The world was kinda revolving around him at the moment. All around the world, there were millions of fans waiting impatiently for his new album to drop so they could be the first to buy it. Could it be possible that she didn’t know him? That she didn’t care? No. The world did care. The world did love him. She could only be playing a game and it ended with her leaving and him being broken-hearted.

GIVE A TITLE TO YOUR NEW SECTION “Run for your life!”

The barman informed me, in my language, when I came back days later that this man had come back every day. He was ordering a beer and waiting for me to come through the door. Which I never did. I was working on a new project for a big company and didn’t have the time to go out and enjoy a night off at the pub. Busy man that he was, the day I finally passed through the door, he couldn’t be here. He had left a note for me. A sloppy, awkward, almost impossible to read handwriting. Something just to say that he would be back one day and would curry favours. Who was using such a language nowadays? I creased the paper, threw it in the first bin I found and forgot about this man. I wasn’t interested. He seemed to have a bit of an ego to him and it was everything I hated about men. He wanted something he couldn’t get and he was insisting. I didn’t know his name – he hadn’t signed the note – and I didn’t want to know it. Never heard of him either. No pun intended here. I had no desire to see him again and I avoided the pub, picked another just to be sure he wouldn’t find me. It was hard to wander in the pubs without meeting him. He was everywhere and I was doing my best for him to never notice me. This part was easy. He was always surrounded by hordes of hysterical people brandishing phones and Sharpies and busy grinning like an idiot while he was being hugged, touched, harassed until he was exhausted. Then, he would collapse on a stool and drink, meet with friends. By that time, I was already gone. The less I was being around him, the better it was. I didn’t want to be considered as a stalker. And I absolutely didn’t care about him. That was what I was telling myself. It was a lie of course. It had been true at first but fate had decided that our paths should meet again and again until he finally remarked my presence around him. I was a young man in her twenties, too clever for this world, too different for this society. I was just a face in the crowd moving around him. He was fascinating me, this man always surrounded by people who was bearing the weight of a loneliness no one could understand. Yet I never made a movement toward him and he never saw me. Until I found myself stuck in one of his hysterical crowds. With the release of a new album came the hard task of promoting it with interviews on radio and television shows. There, he would answer the same questions over and over again and the reporters would use all the possible approaches to have him opening up on his personal life. Which he never did. He never said a word about his private life, didn’t have any social media account and paparazzi never caught him. He was either excellent at avoiding them or they were respectful. The first option was most likely the good one. The question he was asked the most surely was: “who are you thinking about when you write these love songs?” Apparently, you had to have someone in mind when you were writing about love. It added a personal and authentical dimension. He always lied to that question, always pretended that it was one girl or another he had met in his life. The truth was, when he was singing The Turn of the Earth live in those shows, his mind was drifting toward that one girl he met in a pub one day. He hadn’t seen her again after that night and the barman had refused to tell him her name and if she was a regular customer of the place. Because he was a rock star didn’t mean he could have all he wanted when he wanted it. This time however, it wasn’t a celebrity whim like he could have had. He was pretty wise on that point. He had to find her by himself. Hard to do when you only had the image of her in you head, an image of this magnificent young woman sitting at the counter of a bar and reading the Times. This vision of her had shaken him to the core the night he walked into this pub and his heart was fluttering just at the thought of her. His team had already found him distraught these past few weeks and wondered where he was spending all of his nights when he didn’t have any obligation to be anywhere or to do anything. He never gave them an answer. This part of his life had nothing to do with his music and unless they were proving to be true friends. He was always on his guards with people. Especially since he was famous. With her, he had the feeling he wouldn’t have to protect himself against the gossips and betrayals. She was different. He could feel it. Plus, she was the only woman he knew that had been resisting him. She had totally ignored him last time. She was intriguing him. He wanted to know more about her and for that, he needed to find her. Which was the hardest part of the challenge his heart was imposing to him. His trail of thoughts was interrupted by the screams of the crowd waiting outside the building of the radio station he was interviewed in. The news that he was here had come rather quickly and the people without any obligation of work or family. Some were even sacrificing that just for him. They were sacrificing what he was seeking to get noticed and then, forgotten by him. He was famous. For them, it meant that he had all he wished for but his life was mostly travelling, answering questions, meeting fans. That last part and composing new music was what he preferred in this life. Touring was fantastic. All those cities, all those landscapes, all those different people. He had spent some amazing moments in the greatest cities of Europe, but they now all seemed dull because he had visited them alone. He grinned wildly at the crowd who screamed louder when he stepped out of the building. Immediately, phones and pens and goodies were insistently held out to him. A routine. Pictures, autographs. He satisfied as many fans as he could… Until his eyes caught a familiar blonde head whose confused and scared expression harmed him more any physical wound. She had been caught in the stampede and had no way out. He had come out and everyone had moved forward and made her a prisoner of their collective enthusiasm. He apologised to the fans around him evasively and moved through the crowd quickly. He didn’t hear them calling out for him. He was too focused on the lost young woman among them. No one seemed to see her distress except him. His hand finally grasped hers, she looked up at him, surprised to see him there, and he said the first thing that came to his mind: “Run!” He found me among all these persons. Usually I am unnoticed. An ordinary woman living in the Estates. I wasn’t even here for him. I was just passing by, coming back from a trip to the Royal Mail. A package to drop. I was walking back to the bookshop when this crowd suddenly surrounded me. They heckled me as if I was a simple rag doll. I couldn’t do anything. The sudden rush had petrified me. I am avoiding these kinds of situation. I hate being taken by surprise. But I refuse to believe that people could be so selfish, so mean not to remark my fear to be trampled on. I am an optimistic, compassionate person. I see the best in everyone and that day, the best of them was gone to the sewers. For them I was another fan trying to get my way to him when I only was a victim of their madness. There was no way out for me. They were pushing and pushing and pushing me toward the reason that had let them here: him. He came out of nowhere and grabbed my hand – the tips of his fingers were calloused but his palm was warm and soft. My eyes locked on the bluest eyes I have ever seen in this life. His lips moved and before I could figure out that he was saying, he was dragging me out of the crowd and running like crazy in the streets of London. He clearly had no idea where he was going but it was amusing him. He was running and grinning like an idiot, like a kid dragging a toy around. I detected the bookshop and pushed him inside. We hid behind one of the high shelves covered with books of all sizes and colours. Several minutes passed by before I realised how close I was standing to him. I quickly moved away and walked to the counter. The lights were off, the sign on the door indicated that the shop was momentarily closed. I didn’t say anything, just cleaned my counter, turned the lights on and turned the sign over. The shop was open again. When I dared looking up at him again, he hadn’t moved. Maybe was he waiting under the crowd was gone for good. I had seen some girls running past the bookshop. They most likely were looking for him. I gave him a nod to thank him and gestured to him that he could go. No one was waiting for him to come out of the shadows to jump on him. I didn’t see him leave the place but he did, only to come back around lunch time. The camera above the front door showed him coming in with what looked like his signature outfit – a jumper and a battered leather jacket, black pants and boots – and an acoustic guitar slung on his shoulder. I was in the back room fixing a website I created a while ago and found myself observing his image on the CCTV. The Doctor didn’t move for a moment. His heart had never beat so hard and so fast. This situation was unexpected. To be fair, he hadn’t had any idea of where he was taking her once they were out of the crowd. He was just running, happy to have found her again, happy to have her frail warm hand in his. Then, she took the lead and pushed him in this bookshop, pushed him behind a shelve stood there. He was stuck between her and the mountain of books behind him. His heart was hammering in his chest. He never felt so embarrassed to be this close to a woman but this one was fascinating. She moved away, moved around like she owned the place – which he found out later, she did – and he could only observe her and trying to get back his composure. Who was she? How could she make him feel so vulnerable? “Now we’re in trouble.” He chuckled but she was ignoring him again. She was reading the documents spread on the counter, tucked a strand of blonde hair behind her ear. She waved him away but he wasn’t gonna leave that easily now that he had found her again, now she had been thrown on his way again. There was a reason why she was coming back to him like this. “Escaping from a crowd of fans? Easy.” He snapped his fingers. No reaction from her. He frowned. “Right, then, I’ll be off. Unless…” Was she really ignoring him again after he saved her ass out there? Women were all the same. Ungrateful to him. Was it his physical appearance? He had always had issues with it on a personal level. Now, people loved him the way he was. Years of struggle and he was rewarded like this. Fame had the power to corrupt minds, to turn the freak in the most handsome rocker ever seen. And no one ever saw the real him hidden underneath, the man in constant pain. “Okay. See you around.” An idea sprouted in his mind and he retained the name and the hours of the bookshop and rushed to his own place. He came back to the shop. She was nowhere to be seen in this part of the shop but it didn’t matter. He started playing. “I have met a girl / In a pub one night / Sat there she ignored me / I am so impressive / She should have acknowledged me / But her stubborn ignorance / Pushed me to the edge / And my heart can’t help / But cry a name I didn’t know. / How could I catch her attention / If my name, if my presence / Isn’t enough to win her heart? / You think fame brings / All you want in your life / People and cars and buildings / But it won’t / One day you’ll met her / The girl of the pub / And she’ll make you / Feel like you’re the smallest / And meaningless person / Of this world. / See I’m the Doctor / An international rock star / The last of a family / A survivor traveling alone / Hoping to meet / The girl in the pub again.” This was a stupid song with no rhymes, something he had written and composed in a couple minutes to court her, to win her heart. Yet, it proved to be useless since she didn’t show up once he was done with his song. When she finally appeared, she didn’t notice him – how could she not see the tall man standing in the middle of her shop? She was carrying a pile of books, books that she painstakingly added on the shelves according to their genre. She came back to the counter, put one of them down and pushed it toward him without a word. It was a book about the lack of confidence and how to deal with it. How could she have guessed? Intrigued he paid for the book and left the place, with his tail between his legs.

GIVE A TITLE TO YOUR NEW SECTION “Do you want to go home?”

I don’t know if he had figured out my situation at that moment, but I pretty much had grasped his personality according to his reaction when I gave him a copy of Daring Greatly by Brené Brown. Behind his airs, behind the rock star, there is a broken human too used to get what he wants from a snap of his fingers. His interest in me was strange both to him and to me and if it had to go farther, this famous side of him wasn’t what I wanted to see. If he wanted anything from me, he would have to show himself as he really was instead of hiding behind his fame. The character he was playing was of no interest. So was his job, his songs, his money and everything related to the Doctor. It was quite a challenge, but he seemed to be a man who liked to be challenged. Things too easy were boring, and maybe was I a challenge for him too. Now he knew where I was working, probably had found my name too. Yet, he didn’t come to harass me every day. I was almost disappointed not to see him insisting by coming in every day, but he was a busy man. I thought he had tossed the book in the corner of the huge property I supposed he had bought when he became famous and moved on to something else. It was a prejudice I had about him though I remembered clearly the intelligence burning in his eyes along with the feeling of solitude and suffering. The Doctor was just a shell to protect the real man from the blows of society. It was almost a schizophrenic behaviour. Something we all do in society. He was the famous Doctor, the rock star always grinning, always happy, when he was out… But I wanted to see the man he was when he was coming home and taking the costume off. I did get to see this man. I was lucky enough, trustworthy enough for him to unveil his real personality to me. I have considered it as an extreme mark of his affection for me. Beside the trust, he had this undeniable attraction toward me. But I was unaware of it until we met again in my usual pub. He was in before me. There were two pints before him and he casually pushed one toward me, as if he had always known that I would come that night. He was reading a book he hadn’t bought in my bookshop. Probably something he had been given or had found on Amazon. It was placed in such a way that I couldn’t see what it was. It wasn’t a problem. I had brought my own book. The latest release of an author writing exceptional thrillers full of mystery, adventures and adrenaline. All the contrary of my quiet little life. He had had no idea that she was gonna come. It wasn’t the first night he was sitting here with two beers waiting for her to come through the door. The barman and the customers were used to see him around now and no one was going overexcited to see him here. Not anymore. He could be himself and enjoy the book he was reading and the beers he had ordered in peace. All it had taken for him to find this peace was to notice a young woman sat alone at the counter of a pub one night. The penny dropped. He had found what he was looking for but he couldn’t have it as easily as he had had all the other things. He had had to remember how ordinary people were living. He had had to find his way back on Earth after drifting in the higher circles of society and thinking he was better than anyone. He wasn’t. And all it took was a girl in a pub. He knew it was her before she sat on the stool beside him. He had seen her reflection in the mirror above the perfect line of alcohol bottles in the back of the barman. He was wearing earplugs. Nothing would totally plug the noises totally but it was working well enough. He pushed the pint toward her, his eyes still on the book he was reading, his brain registering the words it was seeing. He sipped his beer, read silently. Her eyes were on him at first. He could feel her interrogative gaze on him before she looked away, took a sip of the beer he had offered her and focused on her own book. She was so absorbed by her reading that she almost startled when he put a gentle hand on her shoulder to get her attention. She marked her page and looked at him for the first time since he grabbed her hand and told her to run. “I’m the Doctor, hello,” he signed. Past the surprise of him signing to her instead of using spoken words like he previously had, there was the frustration of him not giving her a real name and introducing himself with his alias. She rolled her eyes and her annoyance was clear in the question she asked in return. “Doctor who?” The smile he gave her did nothing to clear up her annoyance. It actually made it worse. He glanced at his book and back at her. Deep sigh. He raised his hands, about to sign something. Glanced at his book again. He was unsure of what he was doing. “My name is J-A-M-E-S N-O-B-L-E.” “Mine is Rose. Rose Tyler.” “Nice to meet you, Rose.” He was awful at signing apparently. The look on her face and the teeth sunk in her bottom lip was telling him that she was holding back a laugh. He could only sign the basic things and he wasn’t even sure to have spell his own and real name right. “Don’t laugh,” he tried, offended. Which resulted in her giving him the most beautiful he had ever seen. Her tongue was poking out and the malicious spark in her eyes swept him off his feet. He was screwed. It had taken him months to have to proper talk with this woman and here she was finally looking at him and smiling at him. They used a paper and a pen to communicate the rest of the night. He wasn’t good enough at signing to hold a full conversation. He was revealing things about him he never had before but telling all of these to her was easy. He would have said she had a compassionate ear if it wasn’t uncalled for. But he had never felt this well with anyone else before. He was sure of it; she was the one for him. “The pub is gonna close, up for a walk?” The fact that she was offering to prolong this evening meant the world for him and he gladly accepted the offer. He was getting a bit hungry too. They had been ‘talking’ and drinking for a while now. It was night outside. They wouldn’t find much to eat. “I want chips,” she added. “Me too.” “You can pay.” “Why me?” “What sort of date are you?” She was joking. His heart was racing. Did she mean those words? Was he really a date to her? He wished. From the bottom of his heart, he wished she would say yes if he was asking her the question. He felt like a teenager discovering the power of love for the first time and not daring to ask her out. “Chips are on me,” she wrote. “But the beers are on you.” The Doctor grinned wildly, dropped a couple notes on the counter and held a hand out to her. His book was in his jacket’s pocket, hers was in her purse with the pen and paper they had used all evening. She took his hand without a hesitation and they walked out of the pub hand in hand. They found a chippy and Rose insisted in paying the chips. They ended up on a bench, eating from the same container, enjoying the quiet winter night. He gave her his jacket because she was cold and when she grew tired, he allowed her to lean on him. It was nice to be himself for once. “Do you wanna go home?” He had taken me back home. He was a real gentleman, never tried to take advantage of me. He just held my hand and made sure his large and heavy jacket was well wrapped around me. He was reluctant to leave when we reached my building so we prolonged the talk for a little bit. Did he kiss me goodnight after that? Yes. A chaste kiss on the cheek from him. A soft kiss on his lips from me. The first of a series.

GIVE A TITLE TO YOUR NEW SECTION “Come here, I think you need a Doctor.”

Through his eyes, I discovered a world of novelty, I discovered countries I’ve only dreamt of. He had confided to me that all of the trips he had done before meant nothing before me. It wasn’t a bad life to be a rock star, but it was better with two. Better to share it with the person he loved. And that person happened to be me, the deaf girl in the pub.

The girl in the pub © | 2019 | Tous droits réservés.

×××

AO3 || teaspoon

[razieltwelve]

Communication (RWBY AU Snippet)

Note: This is set after Dragon-Rider.

X     X     X

The meeting between the representatives from Atlas had gone less than well. Ruby’s father and the other instructors had stood firm. Vale could not afford to lend one of its most important dragon-riders to another kingdom when it was under constant attack from Grimm. 

Weiss had countered by offering some of Atlas’s own dragon-blessed and dragon-riders to make up the shortfall, but Ruby’s father had again refused. Dragon-riders were immensely valuable and far less durable than dragon-blessed. Ruby had spent years training alongside Yang, and she was also familiar with the other dragon-blessed and dragon-riders of Vale. They knew how to protect her, and she knew how to protect them. Could Atlas say the same?

The meeting had eventually ended well into the evening with neither side willing to budge. Weiss seemed adamant that Ruby was Atlas’s best option for dealing with the incredibly swift flying Grimm that had already devastated several of their settlements and injured a number of their dragon-blessed and dragon-riders.

“If we cannot catch the enemy,” Weiss had growled. “Then we have no hope of killing it. In contrast, its superior mobility allows it to observe the deployment of our forces and then attack where we are weakest. By the time we are able to reposition, it is already gone. For centuries, we have relied on the superior mobility of our dragon-blessed to turn the tide. Without that advantage, we cannot protect our settlements. We are not asking for Ruby to be permanently assigned to Atlas, but we are asking that she be assigned to us long enough to deal with this new Grimm.”

Ruby’s father had given Weiss the look. It was something Ruby was very familiar with. After all, he’d given it to her plenty of times. It was the look he’d given her whenever he wanted her to sit down, shut up, and maybe learn something. 

“What Atlas wants,” her father had said. “And what Atlas gets are two very different things. Do you think we’ve forgotten the Battle of Unending Tears? For five days and five nights we fought in the pouring rain against the Grimm. I was there. I remember every moment of it. So many dragon-blessed and dragon-riders fell in that battle that the tears of the survivors became inseparable from the rain. Where was Atlas then? When my wife’s blood stained my scales, and my fire and light all but vanished amidst the hordes of Grimm, where was Atlas?” Ruby’s father had leaned forward, and the temperature in the room had risen, a stark reminder that he was, quite possibly, the most powerful solar dragon in the world. “I’ll tell you where Atlas was. You were hiding behind your walls, cowering amongst your icy mountains, and using our sacrifice to expand your territory.”

To her credit Weiss had not looked away. “Mistakes were made.”

“No. Choices were made, and choices have consequences. You expanded your territory at the cost of my brothers and sisters in arms, and now you find that new territory under siege. Vale and Atlas are allies by necessity, but they are not friends. We paid a price in blood for the new territory you now hold. Do not think we will pay once again to keep it safe.”

“I see.” Weiss had folded her hands together on the table. “Perhaps we should continue this discussion tomorrow?”

“You can ask again,” Ruby’s father had said. “But the answer will still be the same.”

X     X     X

Ruby found herself feeling restless that night, so she decided to go for a walk in the gardens of the academy. They were a place meant for quiet reflection and meditation, skills that were necessary for certain aspects of magic but not always easy to attain. Neither Yang nor Ruby were much good at sitting still, and their attempts to meditate often turned into naps.

She arrived at the gardens to find that she had company.

“Uh… hi.”

Weiss looked up from the book she was reading. A normal person might have struggled to read using moonlight alone, but dragon-blessed had incredibly keen eyesight. “Good evening, Ruby.” She closed her book and patted the bench beside her. “Do you think we could talk?”

“Is this about the meeting?” Ruby asked. “Because, yeah, that could have gone better.”

“It could have,” Weiss agreed. She sighed and gazed up at the broken moon. According to legend the dragons had broken the moon in the ancient days after a great evil had taken refuge there. What exactly that evil had been, none could say, but there were many who believed that the Grimm were the children of that great evil, their arrival a form of revenge on the descendants of those who had destroyed their creator. “But he wasn’t wrong.”

“Huh?” Ruby had expected Weiss to defend Atlas. “You really think so?”

“I love my country,” Weiss said. “And I take great pride in many of its achievements, but your father wasn’t wrong. The Battle of Unending Tears was one of the worst defeats in Vale’s military history, and it could easily have been averted if Atlas had sent aid when the battle began. Instead, while the gathered Grimm hordes assailed Vale, we used their reduced numbers in our territory to expand. It was a calculated risk in that Atlas’s strategists at the time were fairly certain that Vale would eventually prevail, even without our help.”

“That makes them jerks. You know that, right?” Ruby said bluntly. “My mom… she died in that battle.” Her eyes narrowed. “But you would’ve known that already. She was famous, and my dad is famous too.”

“Yes.” Weiss leaned back on the bench. “I knew he would refuse to lend you to us, but I had to ask anyway.” Her gaze shifted to Ruby. “After all, I love my country and it’s people. Even if we deserve the fate we’ve wrought, I must still fight to avert it. If you were in my place, would you do any different?”

“No.” Ruby felt a grin tug at her lips. “You’re not going to try to kidnap me, are you?”

“Good grief, no.” Weiss chuckled. “Assuming I managed to disable you long enough to kidnap you, I doubt I’d get far. You have several wind dragons amongst your ranks here, and while I might outpace them for a time, I would exhaust myself, leaving me easy prey for your father or your sister.” She shook her head. “I am powerful, Ruby, but in close combat against either of them, I wouldn’t last long.”

“No, you wouldn’t.” Ruby cupped her chin in one hand. “So what are you hoping for if you know my father will refuse?”

“Perhaps a few other dragon-riders and dragon-blessed. True, none of them can do what you can, but some of their abilities might prove useful all the same. If nothing else, I had hoped to see how deep the enmity from the Battle of Unending Tears still runs.”

“It’s pretty deep,” Ruby said.

“Yes, it is.” Weiss lifted one hand. “How much do you know about glyphs, Ruby?”

“Not much,” Ruby replied. “There isn’t anyone in Vale who can use them. In fact, your family are really the only ones who can, or so I’ve heard.”

“I’ve yet to encounter anyone who can use them that isn’t related to me,” Weiss said. “Oh, everyone in my family’s main line can use them, but there are a few offshoots that can use them too, albeit not as well.” She flicked her wrist, and a glyph formed in the air above her palm. “Glyphs are fascinating things, Ruby.” She smiled faintly. “How familiar are you with the major forms of magic?”

Ruby gave Weiss a look. “I’m a dragon-rider, Weiss. I know how magic works.”

“Do enlighten me,” Weiss replied. “I’m curious to see how the teaching from Vale align with those of Atlas.”

“There are three basic ways to use magic: with words, with gestures, and with thoughts. Words are the easiest to use, and they can go all the way from elaborate chants to single words. Gestures are the same, ranging from elaborate dances and displays to a mere flick of the wrist. Hardest of all is using magic with thought alone. It’s what sets dragon-blessed and dragon-riders apart. We can cast magic using only our thoughts, albeit only for the domains we specialise in.”

“Yes, that does correspond quite closely to Atlas’s teachings.” Weiss smiled. “In the end, Ruby, magic is all about communication. We want the world to do something for us, and we use words, gestures, or thoughts to communicate those desires. Whether or not the world responds depends on how well we are able to communicate ourselves. Dragon-blessed and dragon-riders have an innate advantage over normal people in that the world seems to have a far easier time understanding us.”

“And where does that leave glyphs?” Ruby asked.

“That’s an interesting question.” Weiss formed another glyph. “A glyph is composed of separate pieces, and each of those pieces is a thought given form.” The glyph above her hand began to rotate slowly. A small sphere of flame flickered to life before growing brighter and hotter. “At the core of this glyph is a thought of fire. Around it are thoughts regarding the shape and temperature of the flame. You see one of the limitations of the mind is that we only able to process so many thoughts at the same time. But imagine you could take some of those thoughts and give them physical form. Provided that form was durable enough, you could then add more thoughts to it. Glyphs are a way of circumventing the limitations of the mind. Neither of us can keep a hundred different thoughts in mind at once, but with a sufficiently complex glyph, I don’t have to. I take five thoughts and put them together, and then I repeat the process again and again until I have my hundred thoughts.”

The glyph in Weiss’s hand vanished, and it was replaced by motes of light that joined together, forming first lines and curves and then the beginnings of a glyph. Ruby watched in fascination as the glyph came together with almost painful slowness. 

“Why are you telling me about this?” Ruby murmured. “It seems kind of like you should be keeping this a secret.”

“Does it?” Weiss shrugged. “Unless you can make glyphs, it’s hardly going to help you. Indeed, the theory of holding multiple thoughts in mind to improve magic use has been around for centuries, but the mind, it seems, has limits as to how many thoughts it can process at once. Training might help, but it says a lot that no one has come close to emulating the effects of even a relatively simple glyph.” Weiss dismissed her glyph. “You know, I wasn’t telling the whole truth earlier. There is something I hope to offer your father in exchange for lending you to us.”

“Oh?”

“I assume you are aware of the Crown of Vale,” Weiss said.

“Yeah.” Ruby nodded. “It was lost when Old Vale fell to the Grimm more than a thousand years ago. The Kings of Vale used to where it. A lot of the old magic the dragons of Vale left behind is tied to it, which is kind of awkward since we don’t have it anymore.”

“We found it.” Weiss’s lips twitched. “And we’ve been studying it for almost a decade.”

“…” Ruby looked at Weiss. “You know… that’s just going to make him madder.”

“That was not a decision I was involved in,” Weiss said. “But the fact is, it has proven impervious to study.”

“So since you can’t do anything with it, you’re going to give it back to try to get him to lend me to you guys?” Ruby made a face. “That kind of makes you seem evil, you know that, right?”

“I am very much aware of how it makes us look.” Weiss took a deep breath. “But I cannot change the decisions of those who came before me. If I can right an old wrong and gain something for my country at the same time, I will.”

“He might actually take that deal,” Ruby said. “I mean… the Crown is supposed to be able to do lots of things in the right hands, and there are still descendants of the old kings still around. If we can get even a handful of the old magics up and running again…” Her eyes narrowed. “But what if he’d agreed to lend me to you guys earlier? Would you have given it back then?”

“Yes,” Weiss said quietly. “I would have.”

For some reason, Ruby believed her. 

Weiss got up. “I will present my offer to your father tomorrow. I hope he takes it.” She took two steps and then turned. “There is one last thing I thought you should know.” She reached into her coat and handed Ruby a letter. “This is from my mother.”

“Your mother?”

“Our mothers used to correspond quite frequently. I do not think it was a coincidence that my parents stopped talking to each other shortly after your mother’s death.” Weiss paused. “Since my father was the one who made the decision to withhold support during the Battle of Unending Tears.”

“Oh.”

Weiss inclined her head. “Good night, Ruby.”

“Uh… good night, Weiss.”

X     X     X

Author’s Notes

Yep. I still have no idea where this is going. Oh well. On the upside, I think I explained some stuff although I’m still making this up as I go along. I should probably introduce Blake at some point too.

You can find me on fanfiction.net, AO3, and Amazon.

[tsainami]

wip prep tag

tagged by: @hazeywrites and @omgbrekkerkaz​ ! tysm 💫

rules: answer the questions and then tag as many writers as there are questions answered (or as many as you can) to spread the positivity! even if these questions are not explicitly brought up in the novel, they are still good to keep in mind when writing.

i’ll be doing this for my wip CHEAT.

FIRST LOOK

1. describe your novel in 1-2 sentences (elevator pitch).

a random guy pops out of nowhere and starts a drug that gives people the ability to use magic. magic doesn’t exist in this world so this is very shady and a lot of people go and chase him.

2. How long do you plan for your novel to be? (Is it a novella, single book, book series, etc.)

at first i thought i’d write a standalone but realised the plot was too big. i think it’ll be a duology.

3. What is your novel’s aesthetic?

over the top gothic + renaissance + baroque architecture everywhere (the main setting is based off of prague), errr magic (duh, dasy), lots of shadowy corners. um half dead doves? necromancy.

4. What other stories inspire your novel?

well there’s two. one’s true and happened to me (it birthed this wip really). long story short i was out on a trip with my family and one summer night while we were walking, something happened that made my dad turn to me and say “you know, the people of this world have a tendency to cheat.” 

the second is from a video game called dishonored. it’s one of my favourite games and you can definitely see a lot of similar elements between cheat and dishonored’s world (like, say, the VOID to name a big one). 

5. Share 3+ images that give a feel for your novel.

i wish i could share an edit, but i haven’t made any for cheat as a whole but here’s its pinterest board.

MAIN CHARACTER

6. Who is your protagonist?

my main protagonist is a boy called jan (yahn). he’s the one running around dealing magic.

7. Who is their closest ally?

in the beginning, the con-artists he’d given magic to (long-standing customers of his lol). but none of them really trust him so i don’t think they really count. that changes later on though. there’s also another person--a middle aged, disabled lady--called britta who probably understands him the most but we see quite little of her.

8. Who is their enemy?

well, there’s this undead queen from another dimension who is hellbent on revenge and a whole other dimension also has sent hunters after him. [i guess a man-made god and semi-goddess?]

9. What do they want more than anything?

jan’s kinda... complicated. he has two personalities. one of them--the one that prevails the most at least during most of the story as a whole and can be called the OG jan--wants the system assigned to the universe (in this story, it just means the mentioned number of dimensions) to change. he wants to right the wrongs he’s made. and if he’s a little honest, he wants his life and real name before he became... what he currently is... back (but he knows this is impossible).

his second personality doesn’t want any of that. he disagrees with the system as well, but it doesn’t involve him and he thinks humans should do what they want to do even with the greater knowledge (made possible thanks to... spoilers) that it’ll just fuck them and world up. all he really wants is a very slow, lowkey manipulative revenge.

fyi: when i talk about jan, unless i specify his second personality i’m always talking about the OG jan.

10. Why can’t they have it?

sksks i made a longwinded reply to that previous question, so for here i’ll just say for jan #1 it’s because--apart from everyone being NOPE LOL--a sacrifice the size of jupiter will have to be made. for jan #2 it’s cause jan #1 exists and is thwarting all his plans.

11. What do they wrongly believe about themselves?

that he’s unforgivable. that his existence is meaningless. that as soon as he fulfils his purpose the world would be better without him.

12. Draw your protagonist! (Or share a description)

jan has black hair somewhere between straight and wavy. shorter at the back, longer in front with a length that goes past his ears. he dresses like some dude from the 20′s (sometimes he wears coats he looks like he’s drowning in though). he’s got light, yellow-toned olive skin and a mole on his neck and another one on his ear. he has two piercings in one hear and has an earring that dangles from one of them. he has hooded eyes and normal eyebrows (what are normal eyebrows), good bone structure and he's neither underweight nor overweight. he’s somewhere between 5′11 and 6 foot. he's poc. 

PLOT POINTS

13. What is the internal conflict?

spoiler memories from a spoiler time haunt him. basically he was victimised by a group of murdering naysayers. this goes hand in hand with his struggle over which personality dominates his being.

14. What is the external conflict?

magicking people out for blood and their magicking monster familiars.

15. What is the worst thing that could happen to your protagonist?  

that he gives over to his second personality and ‘dies’ (because of his circumstance death means to live through that though, watching it all). he’d rather be killed instead.

16. What secret will be revealed that changes the course of the story?

mad spoilers but it’s that you can do whatever you want with jan if you find his heart (he doesn’t have it atm and tbh nobody knows where it is). as for which side finds it first... hmmm i wonder.

17. Do you know how it ends?

yes and so far everyone who i’ve shared the ending with has hated me.

BITS AND BOBS

18. What is the theme?  

i think one of the biggest themes in cheat is in regards to time. we all have a limited amount of time on this world and it’s ultimately always up to us to decide on what we do with it. however, every thing we do always relates to something and even something so small as a thought could shape what kind of life we’ll live. no one is entirely good or bad and every one is imperfect. but jbc life can sound stressful and BIG and scary doesn’t mean we can’t face it. we all have our merits and we all have the ability to develop from the mistakes we’ve made.

19. What is a recurring symbol?  

the moon.

20. Where is the story set? (Share a description!)

a city called heidelheim. it’s made out of cobblestones and spires and huge gothic vampire buildings next to shabby small squashed houses. then there’s random marble domes with painted ceilings, bridges, an obelisk... there’s something called the outskirts too that has some hills and trees.

21. Do you have any images or scenes in your mind already?

i’ve got some.

22. What excited you about this story?  

the ending hahahahaha.

23. Tell us about your usual writing method!  

oof. my method (and the reason why this isn’t already a whole ass novel considering it’s been 2 years) is freak out! write a sentence. think about useless things (why would a pigeon be at the city square at night? that doesn't make sense? is it a normal pigeon? what is the purpose of its life?). try not to get distracted (i always do though) and write another sentence.

this story will probs be finished when i’m 89 years old. i’ve got some years to go.

TAGGING: @hajaara @stegladent @twocrownsoneshittywriter @marscults @furybloods @ikilledmyocs @cynotype @asablehart @aestreia @maskedlady @katabasiss @melrosiewrites and @nepeinthe

[rkjoohyvn]

NAME  bae joohyun NICKNAME  baechu REASON FOR NAME her last name, and a play on the word for napa cabbage BIRTHDAY  march 29, 1996 AGE  23 GENDER  female PLACE OF BIRTH  sydney, australia PLACES LIVED SINCE  from birth to 12: sydney, australia / present: seoul, south korea PARENTS’ NAMES, BACKGROUNDS, OCCUPATIONS

father: bae hyungki, 56, professor. was the lead singer and guitarist in a band in high school and college; eventually ended when all the members grew older and had families to take care of. owned a music shop in sydney, but had to close it down due to slow business. instead, became a professor in music at university of sydney. when his father had a stroke, he moved his family to seoul, where his father lived with his korean wife, so that he could help take care of the aging man.

mother: jin yuna, 49, flight attendant. a former beauty queen, she and yuuto met at a college party as the only two sober people in the entire frat house. they’d spent the entire night talking until the sun rose. after retiring from the pageant circuit, she became a flight attendant for qantas airlines, eventually transferring to korean air after the family moved to seoul. she is currently estranged to yuuto and his family due to having been cheating for years and having a second family.

NUMBER OF SIBLINGS ( 1 )

abigail bae ( jooeun ), 28, announcer. originally meant to be the “big name musician” of the family, she relinquished that burden after finding she could not sing, and hated the way the guitar calloused her fingers. instead, she became an announcer, and is currently employed by sbs as a morning newscaster. she is engaged to jeon baekho, a hospital director. they both live in hannam-dong, yongsan-gu, seoul.

OTHER IMPORTANT FIGURES

family pet: dubu, 11, pyrenean mountain dog. he was a gift to joohyun from her father on her eleventh birthday. she singlehandedly took on the responsibility of feeding and training him, and has loved him all the while. tofu is getting quite old now, and has become blind in one eye due to cataracts.

grandmother: jin okbin, deceased. a tough but loving woman, she helped raise joohyun and jooeun whenever her mother was away because of work. she helped instill confidence and morals into joohyun, and would support joohyun’s every whim, from vowing to become the prime minister of australia to wanting to reincarnate as a rock. jin okbin passed away in february of 2004 without ever discovering her daughter’s infidelities.

RELATIONSHIP WITH FAMILY  joohyun was very close with her family until she discovered that her mother had been cheating on her father for years and that she has a whole other family they never knew about; she is currently unsure of how she feels about her mother---she misses her, but doesn’t want to admit it. she moved back into her father’s home, partly because she could no longer afford rent on her own, but also to help take care of her father, who had fallen into quite the slump. although the experience had been a tragic one, she, her father, and her sister have become even closer than they were before.  HAPPIEST MEMORY ( 2005 ) her father brings dubu home for the first time / ( 2006 )  began taking hip-hop lessons / ( 2015 ) accepted into k-arts CHILDHOOD TRAUMA ( 2004 ) her grandmother passed away ( 2018 ) discovered her mother’s infidelity and lies

〈 PHYSICAL 〉 +

HEIGHT  162 cm / 5′2″ WEIGHT  50 kg / 110 lbs BUILD slim but toned, athletic NATIONALITY  australian ETHNICITY  korean DISABILITIES none COMPLEXION  clear & bright; a small tattoo on her upper left ribcage of australia ( x ) FACE SHAPE oval DISTINGUISHING FACIAL FEATURES large eyes, downward facing lips, facial symmetry HAIR COLOR  naturally black USUAL HAIR STYLE  down, no bangs, natural off-center split EYE COLOR  dark brown GLASSES? CONTACTS? none STYLE OF DRESS/TYPICAL OUTFIT(S)  very casual and laid back, t-shirts that are too big, distressed denim, boyfriend & bomber jackets TYPICAL STYLE OF SHOES sneakers, flats HEALTH  in good health, athletic GROOMING  typical five step korean skincare routine, showers before bed ACCENT? australian accent when speaking english, very slight accent while speaking korean UNIQUE MANNERISMS/PHYSICAL HABITS running fingers through hair, or playing with it in general; standing with hands on hips, nearly toppling over when laughing too hard ATHLETIC? yes; used jogs every weekday morning, do taekwondo every monday, tuesday, and friday nights; after getting signed she no longer jogs every morning, but works out at the gym and dances for hours; she continues to attend tkd lessons on saturday nights

〈 INTELLECT 〉 +

LEVEL OF EDUCATION  graduated high school in 2015, currently on leave at korea national university of arts LEVEL OF SELF ESTEEM previously 10/10; currently at about a 5/10 due to being surrounded by such talented people, but is slowly building it back up GIFTS/TALENTS singing, tap, hip-hop dance, guitar, taekwondo SHORTCOMINGS  a short attention span, too impatient for theory STYLE OF SPEECH  can be abrasive and blunt, very casual, curses a lot LANGUAGES fluent in korean, english, and japanese “LEFT BRAIN” OR “RIGHT BRAIN” THINKER?  right brain ARTISTIC? yes MATHEMATICAL? barely MAKES DECISIONS BASED MOSTLY ON EMOTIONS, OR ON LOGIC?  emotional NEUROSES  perfectionism LIFE PHILOSOPHY  "work hard, play harder.” RELIGIOUS STANCE  barely christian CAUTIOUS OR DARING?  daring MOST SENSITIVE ABOUT/VULNERABLE TO  lack of creativity; that she can’t write her own music; family is her biggest weakness OPTIMIST OR PESSIMIST?  optimist EXTROVERT OR INTROVERT?  extrovert LEVEL OF COMFORT WITH TECHNOLOGY  basic knowledge of technology; knows how to use her devices effectively but doesn’t know what to do with them if they were to stop working

〈 RELATIONSHIPS 〉 +

CURRENT RELATIONSHIP STATUS  single SEXUAL ORIENTATION  heterosexual PAST RELATIONSHIPS

( 5 ) nearly gave her father a heart attack when she came to him with stars in her eyes, yelling “dad, i’ve got a boyfriend!” the furthest they ever went was calling each other by boyfriend and girlfriend,, and held hands once. the infatuation ended when preschool did.

( 16-18 ) perhaps it wasn’t the greatest idea to date the lead singer and lead guitarist of the band, but she’d thought it was real. unfortunately, their relationship ended when the band did, and no one really knows whether or not it was because they broke up.

( 19 ) met at an inter-university meeting where there were instant sparks. for weeks, it was passionate and amazing and it was like fireworks every time, but after a few months, it all began to fade. they went separate ways after breaking up, and haven’t spoken since.

LEVEL OF SEXUAL EXPERIENCE  relatively inexperienced STORY OF FIRST KISS  she was at a friend’s birthday party and they decided to play a little game. the spin of a glass bottle decided the fate of her first kiss, and it was gross. he’d tried to stick his tongue in her mouth and that earned him a slap across the face. STORY OF LOSS OF VIRGINITY  instant sparks are a hard thing to ignore, and she’d given herself to him after meeting him for the first time that night. it had been awkward at first and painful, but it was passionate and exciting. he was the first and only person she’d ever been with in such an intimate setting. A SOCIAL PERSON? very MOST COMFORTABLE AROUND (PERSON)  jinyoung, mason, nana OLDEST FRIEND  mason HOW DOES HE/SHE THINK OTHERS PERCEIVE HIM/HER?  in admiration of her skills and talents, respect for her take-charge attitude HOW DO OTHERS ACTUALLY PERCEIVE HIM/HER?  probably as someone overbearing, can be bossy and mean-spirited

〈 VOCATION 〉 +

PROFESSION   dog daycare employee, student trainee PAST OCCUPATIONS  working at her father’s music store PASSIONS  singing, dancing, guitar ATTITUDE TOWARDS CURRENT JOB  proud of how she achieved trainee status, but still overwhelmed by everything ATTITUDE TOWARDS CURRENT COWORKERS, BOSSES, EMPLOYEES  she looks at all her sunbaes with stars in her eyes, especially the girls of eclipse; she follows all the rules and regulations given to her by coaches and trainers, so they probably have a positive impression of her; she doesn’t believe she’s on katie lee’s radar yet SALARY  below minimum wage and thankful for free food and rent from her father and sister

〈 SECRETS 〉 +

PHOBIAS  losing her family, dying as an unknown LIFE GOALS  to be able to provide for herself and take care of her father in his old age DREAMS  to become a household name GREATEST FEARS  failure MOST ASHAMED OF  her weaknesses MOST EMBARRASSING THING EVER TO HAPPEN TO HIM/HER  fighting with her ex-boyfriend on stage and breaking up and crying about it in front of a small crowd COMPULSIONS  playing with her hair and/or any jewelry she’s wearing, talking over others, giving advice even when it’s not asked for OBSESSIONS  music, old rock bands, records, MYNAME SECRET HOBBIES  nothing secret SECRET SKILLS nothing secret, though most don’t know she’s a skilled tap dancer/4th degree black belt PAST SEXUAL TRANSGRESSIONS none? CRIMES COMMITTED   trespassing WHAT HE/SHE MOST WANTS TO CHANGE ABOUT HIS/HER CURRENT LIFE  she wants to debut! WHAT HE/SHE MOST WANTS TO CHANGE ABOUT HIS/HER PHYSICAL APPEARANCE  nothing at all~

〈 DETAILS &. QUIRKS 〉 +

DAILY ROUTINE ( AS OF JAN 2019 )

kt’s trainee schedule can be found here

taekwondo lesson on saturday nights

family time on sundays

NIGHT OWL OR EARLY BIRD?  a little bit of both LIGHT OR HEAVY SLEEPER?  heavy sleeper FAVORITE FOOD dad’s bulgogi with hanwoo beef LEAST FAVORITE FOOD  bitter foods FAVORITE BOOK   the maze runner series LEAST FAVORITE BOOK  text books lol FAVORITE MOVIE  the marvel cinematic universe/disney movies LEAST FAVORITE MOVIE  none she can think of FAVORITE SONG  80′s rock bands/pop songs LEAST FAVORITE SONG  none she can think of COFFEE OR TEA?  tea CRUNCHY OR SMOOTH PEANUT BUTTER?  crunchy TYPE OF CAR MOTORCYCLE HE/SHE DRIVES 2004 honda cbr600rr LEFTY OR RIGHTY? right-handed FAVORITE COLOR  red CUSSER?  yes SMOKER? DRINKER? DRUG USER?  drinks, but usually not too heavily BIGGEST REGRET  wasting two years of her life in a band in high school PETS?  dubu, her 11-year-old pyrenean mountain dog VOTED most likely to become famous

[johnnybravoedu-blog]

Quick Records of Special Training

Moreover, I have been a mainstream everyday training teacher who taught ordinary training inclusion instructions trying to decide out a way to fine artwork with some new special education instructor in my class and his or her special schooling college students as well. And, in assessment, I have been a completely unique education inclusion teacher intruding at the territory of some ordinary education teachers with my precise education students and the modifications I concept the ones instructors must implement. I can let you realize first-hand that none of this provides and take among particular training and ordinary education has been smooth. Nor do I see this pushing and pulling becoming clean anytime fast.

So, what's precise schooling? And what makes it so specific and yet so complicated and arguably now and again? Properly, unique schooling, as its call suggests, is a specialized branch of schooling. It claims its lineage to such people as jean-marc-Gaspard itard (1775-1838), the medical doctor who "tamed" the "wild boy of Aveyron," and Anne Sullivan may (1866-1936), the instructor who "labored miracles" with Helen Keller.

Special educators educate students who've physical, cognitive, language, mastering, sensory, and/or emotional skills that deviate from those of the overall population. Particular educators provide training in particular tailor-made to satisfy individualized dreams. Those instructors essentially make schooling extra to be had and reachable to students who in any other case could have restricted access to education due to anything incapacity they're suffering with.

It's miles no longer genuinely the teachers even though who play a position in the history of specific training in this u. s. a. Physicians and clergy, which include itard- stated above, Eduard o. Seguin (1812-1880), Samuel Gridley Howe (1801-1876), and Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet (1787-1851) desired to ameliorate the neglectful, frequently abusive treatment of people with disabilities. Lamentably, training in this USA changed into, extra often than now not, very neglectful and abusive whilst handling college students which can be distinctive come what may.

There may be even rich literature in our use of that describes the treatment provided to human beings with disabilities inside the 1800s and early 1900s. Regrettably, in those stories, as well as inside the actual international, the segment of our the populace with disabilities turned into frequently limited in jails and almshouses without first-rate food, garb, private hygiene, and exercising. For an example of this distinctive remedy in our literature, one wishes to look no similarly than a tiny time in Charles Dickens' a Christmas carol (1843). Similarly, usually, people with disabilities have been often portrayed as villains, collectively within the e-book captain hook in j.m. Barrie's "peter pan" in 1911.

The triumphing view of the authors of this term will become that one has to post to misfortunes, both as a form of obedience to God's will and because of the fact, these seeming misfortunes are at the end intended for one's very own fantastic. Progress for our human beings with disabilities became difficult to come returned via currently with this manner of questioning permeating our society, literature, and questioning.

So, what changed into society to do approximately one's humans of misfortune? Properly, all through an exquisite deal of the 19th century, and early inside the 20th, specialists believed humans with disabilities were nicely treated in residential centers in rural environments. An out of sight out of thought type of problem, if you could...

But, via the end of the nineteenth century, the scale of these establishments had elevated so dramatically that the goal of rehabilitation for humans with disabilities sincerely wasn't operating. Establishments have become devices for eternal segregation.

I've some experience these segregation rules of education. A number of it is right and a number of it is not so accurate. You notice I have been a self-contained instructor on and off throughout the years in multiple surroundings in self-contained school rooms in public immoderate schools, center colleges, and basic colleges. I've additionally taught in multiple special schooling behavioral self-contained colleges that in reality separated those university students with disabilities in managing their conduct from their mainstream friends with the aid of using placing them in absolutely one-of-a-kind homes that were every so often even in exclusive cities from their houses, buddies, and friends.

Through the year's many unique education specialists have become critics of these establishments referred to above that separated and segregated our kids with disabilities from their friends. Irvine Howe became one of the first to endorse taking our children out of these huge establishments and to place out citizens into families. Regrettably, this workout became logistical and pragmatic trouble and it took a long time before it can come to be a viable opportunity to institutionalization for our students with disabilities.

Now on the effective side, you are probably inquisitive about understanding but that during 1817 the primary precise education college within the USA, the Yankee asylum for the schooling and guidance of the deaf and dumb (now known as the American college for the deaf), changed into setting up in Hartford, Connecticut, thru Gallaudet. That college remains there these days and is one of the top faculties inside the U.S.A. for college kids with auditory disabilities. A real fulfillment tale!

However, as you may already accept as true with, the lasting achievement of the American college for the deaf has become the exception and no longer the rule of thumb for the duration of this time period. And to feature to this, in the overdue nineteenth century, social Darwinism modified environmentalism because of the primary causal reason for those humans with disabilities who deviated from those of the overall population.

Unluckily, Darwinism opened the door to the eugenics movement of the early twentieth century. This then brought about even similarly segregation or maybe sterilization of people with disabilities which consist of highbrow retardation. It looks as if something Hitler has become doing in Germany additionally being completed proper right here in our very own the United States of America, to our very own humans, by the usage of our very own people. Kind of frightening and inhumane, could no longer you settle?

In recent times, this sort of remedy is manifestly unacceptable. And inside the early part of the 20 century, it turned into additionally unacceptable to some of the adults, particularly the parents of these disabled kids. Because of this, concerned and irritated parents long-established advocacy organizations to assist carry the academic desires of children with disabilities into most people eyes. the public needed to see firsthand how wrong this eugenics and sterilization motion changed into for our college students that have been one of a kind if it changed into ever going to be stopped.

Slowly, grassroots agencies made development that even led to three states developing felony guidelines to protect their citizens with disabilities. For example, in 1930, in Peoria, Illinois, the first white cane ordinance gave human beings with blindness the proper-of-way even as crossing the street. This will become a begin, and other states did, in the end, comply with healthily. In time, this community grassroots' movement and states' movement added about enough stress on our elected officials for something to be completed at the countrywide stage for our people with disabilities.

In 1961, President John f. Kennedy created the president's panel on intellectual retardation. And in 1965, Lyndon b. Johnson signed the fundamental and secondary education act, which provided funding for primary schooling, and is visible through advocacy agencies as increasing get admission to public training for youngsters with disabilities.

While one thinks about Kennedy and Johnson's file on civil rights, then it probably is not this type of wonder finding out that these presidents also spearheaded this national movement for our people with disabilities.

This federal motion brought approximately segment 504 of the 1973 rehabilitation act. This ensures civil rights for the disabled inside the context of federally funded institutions or any application or pastime receiving federal economic assist. A variety of those years later as an educator, I for my part cope with 504 cases every single day.

In 1975 Congress enacted public law 90 four-142, the training for all handicapped children act (eh), which establishes a proper to public training for all children regardless of disability. this modified into some different nicely components because of the reality prior to federal rules, parents had to in most instances educate their youngsters at home or pay for high priced personal schooling.

The motion stored developing. In 1982 the case of the board of training of the Hendricks Hudson essential faculty district v. Rowley, U.S. exquisite courtroom docket clarified the level of offerings to be afforded university students with special goals. The court docket ruled that unique schooling services need only offer some "educational benefit" to university college students. Public faculties were now not required to maximize the instructional development of college students with disabilities.

In recent times, this ruling won't look like a victory, and as a rely on reality, this equal query is all once more circulating through our courts today in 2017. However, given the time period, it will become made in, it has become a victory because it stated unique training university students could not skip through our faculty gadget without getting to know something. They wished to investigate something. if one is aware of and is acquainted with how the criminal tips paintings on this The U.S.A., then one is aware of the laws commonly progress via tiny little increments that upload as lots as an improvement over the years. This ruling became a victory for particular education college students as it introduced one more rung onto the campaign.

In the 1980s the regular training initiative (REI) came into being. This was a try to go back responsibility for the training of college students with disabilities to community faculties and regular schoolroom instructors. I'm very acquainted with the everyday schooling initiative due to the fact I spent 4 years as an REI trainer within the late Nineties and early 2000s. In the intervening time, I was certified as both a unique schooling instructor and a regular education teacher and became running in each potential in a dual function as an REI instructor; due to the fact, that's what turns into required of the location.

The Nineties saw big growth for our unique training university college students. 1990 birthed individuals with disabilities training act (concept). This becomes, and is, the cornerstone of the concept of a free and appropriate public schooling (face) for all of our students. To make a certain face, the regulation mandated that every student receiving unique training services also has to also accumulate an individualized education software (yep).

The individuals with disabilities act of 1990 reached past just most people colleges. And perceive three of ideas prohibited incapacity-based totally discrimination in any place of public lodging. Whole and equal enjoyment of the products, offerings, facilities, or accommodations in public places have been predicted. And of course, public inns moreover protected most places of schooling.

Additionally, in the 1990s, the full inclusion movement won some of the momenta. This is known for teaching all college students with disabilities in the everyday school room. I am moreover very acquainted with this component of education as well, as I've additionally been an inclusion trainer from time to time over my career as an educator on each aspect of the aisle as an everyday training teacher and a completely a unique training instructor.

Now directly to president bush and his instructional reform collectively along with his no toddler left within the back of law that changed President Johnson’s number one and secondary training act (sea). The NCLB act of 2001 said that unique training has to hold to attention on generating results and together with this came a sharp increase in duty for educators.

Now, this NCLB act becomes proper and horrible. Of course, every person wants to look at consequences for all of our college students, and its miles just common experience that accountability allows this kind of issue seems. in which this sort of went crazy end up that the NCLB demanded a number of latest matters, however, it did not provide the price range or useful resource to gain the one's new targets.

Furthermore, instructors began feeling squeezed and threatened more and more by means of the new motion of huge enterprise and agency education moving in and taking over schooling. Humans without an educational historical beyond now found themselves influencing training insurance and getting access to a whole lot of the educational finances.

This responsibility craze stemmed via way of excessive standardized trying out ran rapidly and of route ran downstream from a group of well-related elite Trump-like figures saying to their decrease echelon academic counterparts, "you are fired!" those surroundings of seeking to live off of the radar with the intention to keep one's assignment, and beating our kids over the pinnacle with sorting out strategies weren't pinnacled for our educators. It wasn't really for our students. And it truly wasn't suitable for our more prone unique schooling college students.

A few wells did come from this period although. As an example, the updated individuals with disabilities with the training act of 2004 (idea) befell. This, in addition, required schools to provide individualized or precise training for children with qualifying disabilities. Under the concept, states who get hold of the public price range for education should provide specific training to qualifying kids with disabilities. Like I said earlier, the regulation is an extended gradual device of tiny little steps along with as much as progress made through the years. Ultimately, in 2015 president Obama's every scholar succeeds act (a) changed president bush's NCLB, which had replaced President Johnson’s sea.

Underneath Obama's new essay faculties had been now allowed to backpedal on some of the testing’s. With a chunk of success, the standardized checking out craze has been established test. However, the best time will tell. The essay additionally again to more community control. You understand, the sort of manipulating our forefathers intended.

You notice the U.S. charter provides no authority over education to the federal authorities. Training isn't stated inside the constitution of America, and for a proper motive. The founders desired most elements of an existence managed through individuals who were closest to them, each via way of the country or nearby authorities or with the resource of families, groups, and other elements of civil society. Basically, they noticed no position for the federal authorities in schooling.

You spot, the founders feared the concentration of strength. They believed that the first-rate way to guard individual freedom and civil society turned into to restrict and divine electricity. However, this works every method, due to the fact the states frequently find themselves asking the feds for added academic money. and the feds will best provide the states extra money if the states do what the feds need... hmm... assessments and balances, similarly to compromise,  maybe a virtually complex aspect, huh?

Soon goes the warfare in training and all the to and fro pushing and pulling among the federal authorities and the states and nearby government, similarly to specific education and regular schooling. and to add to this warfare, currently choose moukawsher, a kingdom decide from Connecticut, in a lawsuit filed in opposition to the country by using the usage of the Connecticut coalition for justice in schooling funding rocked the educational boat a few more whiles in his ruling he protected a message to lawmakers to suppose again what degree of services students with sizable disabilities are entitled to.

His ruling and statements seem to mention that he thinks we are spending an excessive amount of money on our unique education students. And that for a number of them, it clearly isn't properly really worth it due to the truth their disabilities are too severe. You can agree with how debatable this modified into and what form of it angered some human beings.

2016 us presidential election brought about something that few humans noticed coming. Real belongings rich individual and reality large call Donald Trump received the presidency and then appointed anti-public educator Betsy Davos to head up this USA's department of training. Her fee, given to her through trump, is to substantially reduce the department of education and to push ahead private charter colleges over what they call a failing public educational machine.

How that is going to have an effect on our college students, and in particular are more inclined unique education college students, no person knows for sure in the meanwhile. However, I also can permit you to recognize that there aren't many human beings handy that enjoy cozy with it right now. The simplest time will inform wherein that is all going to head and the way it will have an impact on our unique schooling university college students... So, as I said earlier, in all likelihood the most important, most pervasive trouble in specific training is it's dating to sizeable schooling. Each my very own travels and our nation's journey through the large realm of training over all of those years has been an interesting one and a complicated one plagued with controversy, to mention the least.

I can despite the fact that it doesn't forget when I first have come to be a unique training teacher returned in the mid-1990s. A chum's father, who became a college main on the time, instructed me to get out of unique schooling as it wasn't going to remain. well, I've been internal and out of unique schooling for additional than a long time now, and every now and then, I do no longer realize if I am a regular schooling teacher or a unique education trainer, or each. And sometimes I think our United States of America's educational machine might be feeling the same internal warfare that I'm. But, regardless, these types of years later, unique schooling stays here.

In very last, in spite of the fact that itard did not normalize victor, the wild boy of Aveyron, he did produce dramatic modifications in victor's behavior thru education. In recent times, current specific training practices may be traced to itard. His artwork marks the start of considerable attempts to educate college students with disabilities. Rapid forwarding to 2017, for what takes vicinity subsequent in the future of schooling and special schooling in our united states... nicely, I wager that depends on anybody...

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

[janiedean]

It really sucks how judgmental you and some people in this fandom are of anyone who doesn't interpret the text the same way as you or who you deem as intellectually inferior to you. I agree with so many of your ideas about the characters, but I hate how high and mighty you are about those ideas. Someone isn't an idiot if they interpret Jon or Cersei differently than you.

......

lmao

okay anon, thing is: one thing is being high and mighty, one thing is telling you that you’re not reading the text.

like. I read yesterday someone being like ‘omg I read someone dared saying C. abused people and murdered someone before puberty HOW STUPID CAN PEOPLE BE’. it’s textual evidence that a) she molested tyrion sexually and that’s even without taking account my opinion re lann*ncest, b) that SHE KILLED MELARA WHEN THEY WERE TWELVE THROWING THE POOR GIRL DOWN A WELL, which means that whoever said it cannot fucking read the text because it’s black on white that she did both those things and refusing to accept it is Not Reading The Text. that’s not even text interpretation, that’s basic textual reading.

now: never mind cersei who gets a pass for about every fucking shit she pulls because she’s a woman, and don’t tell me she doesn’t because if she got as much shit about robert’s fifteen bastards that she ordered dead without even blinking as theon got for two kids that he’s felt guilty about since it happened then we could discuss it but she doesn’t and that’s not even the beginning of it. now: do you see me tagging my opinions? like, honestly, if I think something shitty about cersei, do you see me tagging it? I didn’t even tag the one time I ranted about the valonqar prophecy with her, I only tagged it with the prophecy/meta/the two characters I thought were the v. and the younger and more beautiful queen, because in the middle I said that imo cersei only cares for herself and I know ppl on her tag aren’t into reading that opinion. so: I didn’t tag it. now: how many people came in my inbox informing me my opinion of c. sucked, was biased and so on never mind lann*ncest never mind actually harassing me for it? well, enough that I had to shut down anon to avoid feeling like shit for two days about it. so like, I’m so high and mighty that I keep my opinions about people I don’t like untagged even if I think that the other side can’t read. but okay.

now, about jonc: listen, fact is, there’s exactly ten people in this fandom that I know of who give a shit about jonc period and three of them are fanartists who show up once in a while. like. exactly TEN. I made peace with the fact that no one gives a fuck about jonc, I 100% embraced that if I want content I have to do it myself, fine, whatever. but what I’m really getting sick of is that every goddamned fucking time I see the jonc tag updating (as in, five times each month if it’s a good month), it’s someone informing us of how selfish, pathetic, useless and dumb he is FOR THINGS THAT ALL OF THEIR FAVORITE CHARACTERS ACTUALLY DO ALL THE TIME and for which fandom at large praises them. or something about how him being in love with R is the most horribly pathetic thing that’s happened to adwd, or how he’s an idiot because he apparently hasn’t understood that aegon is fake because his eyes aren’t the same color as R’s when not even dany’s or viserys’s are, but no one says they aren’t targs for THAT now, do they? and sorry but reading that this dude would treat either rhaenys or jon snow like shit when this is canon:

Last night he'd dreamt of Stoney Sept again. Alone, with sword in hand, he ran from house to house, smashing down doors, racing up stairs, leaping from roof to roof, as his ears rang to the sound of distant bells. Deep bronze booms and silver chiming pounded through his skull, a maddening cacophony of noise that grew ever louder until it seemed as if his head would explode. Seventeen years had come and gone since the Battle of the Bells, yet the sound of bells ringing still tied a knot in his guts. 

Others might claim that the realm was lost when Prince Rhaegar fell to Robert's warhammer on the Trident, but the Battle of the Trident would never have been fought if the griffin had only slain the stag there in Stoney Sept. The bells tolled for all of us that day. For Aerys and his queen, for Elia of Dorne and her little daughter, for every true man and honest woman in the Seven Kingdoms. And for my silver prince.

now: it’s there black on white that he feels guilty for BOTH elia’s and rhaenys’s death, it’s not interpretation, it’s what is fucking written in there same as you can’t interpret that ned’s head got cut or cat’s last thought before she died was about ned loving her hair. so excuse me but I’m tired of going into a character who’s in my goddamned top ten and have to always, always run into people assuming he’s a pathetic selfish asshole (and the one time I tried to argue that there’s no way he’s *selfish*, maybe all the contrary to a pathological degree, the answer was basically ‘lol cannot hear you’ and not even a reblog but nvm that) rather than actual content because any of those people who have a obvious hateboner for jonc can’t just fucking tag it with *anti* jon connington. no, they have to use the character name and it’s never *content*, it’s just this drivel over and over again. and since I don’t do it with characters I don’t like, I’d appreciate if I could have the same courtesy spared for this asshole.

that said, the situation is that *one* single person (that I blocked but that’s apparently not enough for tumblr to spare me from seeing them on the tag) has asked that question to multiple blogs which all agree on jonc being shitty which means that it has popped up on the tag a whole lot in the last month and like....... if you don’t like that character why do you care so much, IDEK, but wow, I wrote one post, that I tagged with the character only, saying that ppl don’t bother to read his chapters (btw, one of the people who replied that he’d have been shitty to both jon and rhaenys was someone I ended up blocking because they were on the tag like ‘lololol grayscale I’m sure elia is laughing from the afterlife’ and when I told them it wasn’t funny and if they could avoid tagging that stuff I got told to fuck off but fine I guess, that was me being holier than thou I suppose...) which is true because they don’t, they only base their reading of jonc on that ONE line about elia which is a) obv. proof he’s jealous, b) way less bad than anything cersei and barristan think about her just to say two but lmao I don’t see them getting dragged for it, but everything else? what? two full chapters? do they exist? tyrion’s chapers? never knew them.

like.

anon, tbqh at this point if you wanna think I’m holier than thou just think that because while I like to think I’m not, if there is one thing I know I’m good at is text analysis (okay, last time I said I got two degrees based on text analysis I got told ‘ah okay so if she studies she’s obv. bragging so she knows nothing’ by someone whose main theory was robb stark is the unsung villain of these books but lol I mean having studied this counts for nothing, right???) and it irks me that in a fandom based on books/text analysis I have to read **meta** which is obviously made by people who haven’t read the text and then when given a counterargument ignore it. but even with that, do you see me engaging with it? nah. I can 100% assure you none of the people I would like to see out of the jonc tag actually go on the jonc tag nor follow me, so they will never know that I think their opinion is shit unless they go looking for it. and this because I might have engaged with at least two of them on the topic once - and nicely, not *judgmentally* - and no one gave a shit or reconsidered their stance, so like, excuse me if once per month I write a post on my own blog venting about how imo a character I like gets a shit treatment.

and for the love of god, anon, sorry, glad you like my opinions, but the fact that you’re coming at me assuming I am judgmental when I come from a fucking month and a half of people literally harassing me on anon over my fucking triple-tagged opinions on c/ersei and lann/incest and ignoring anything I said about how uncomfortable it was making me just because I happened to, in the most generous explanation, WRITE A META WHERE I C/P-ED CANON QUOTES WHERE C. WAS AWFUL TO J. WHEN IT CAME TO HIS DISABILITY which GRRM wrote, certainly not *me*, and it happened to get reblogged by asoiafuni, is really, really rich.

like, I tagged that shit to hell and back so people who aren’t interested in jb wouldn’t find it, I made sure to warn every time, I even tag anti-c/antijc posts so they don’t show up on mobile search in case ppl don’t have the anti tag blacklisted because I’m THAT invested into making sure other people can blacklist if they feel like it, but I can’t fucking say on my blog that I think some people in this fandom pull their meta out of their asses and haven’t even read the chapters of the character they’re supposed to discuss? like... really?

also, I’ll tell you a secret: I don’t remember 90% of what happened in dany’s adwd chapters and I don’t remember about 60% of what happened in her got-asos chapters. zero. now: do you see me meta-ing about dany and/or discuss her arc if not in extremely broad terms unless asked? no, because while I don’t particularly like her, I also don’t think it’d be fair for me to meta about her BECAUSE IF I DON’T REMEMBER HER CHAPTERS THEN I’D BE PULLING OPINIONS OUT OF MY ASS, and I don’t go judging anyone’s opinion re dany beyond the basics because mine is that her chapters are so boring I can’t even remember them. at most I’ll discuss the show version and I can swear to you that even if I’m not a fan or anything I’m still more lenient with her than about 90% of people who aren’t fans, and since I don’t pull meta out of my ass for people whose chapters I haven’t read, I would be extremely grateful of the rest of this fandom paid jon connington the same damn bloody effort, especially when he has TWO of them and hating on him that way is like... why would you, just ignore his fucking existence and let us ten ppl into him have a decent tag.

btw, the ONE time I dared say on a post that wasn’t tagged to hell and back to avoid people finding it ‘it’s kind of hypocritical that people fight themselves over bi!CHARACTER headcanons *because asoiaf doesn’t have lgbt POV CHARACTERS* when they ignore jonc exist and he actually is an lgbt pov character so maybe it’d be nice if they cared about the rep’, I got someone like WELL HE ISN’T LGBT REP ENOUGH, and on the other side I’ve had people actually giving me shit for liking him/writing him content because I’m straight so how do I dare writing a gay dude, and like, idk, since I can’t like him in peace in that sense, can the universe allow me to at least not see bullshit on the tag or is that too much to ask?

and to end this rant: anon, not to be that person, but fyi I’m hardly the person who dictates how the wind flies in this fandom unless we count maybe theon/robb fandom as a ship, my opinions aren’t nearly as popular as opinions belonging to ppl who imvho don’t read these books and that’s fine, I don’t particularly care beyond cultivating my garden as voltaire used to say and see if anyone else wants to come and see the flowers and in case they’re more than free to take some, but like...... the idea that me expressing an opinion about the fact that people in this fandom don’t use the same standards when judging characters and some haven’t read the book or forgot it and assume they know anyway is somehow being high and mighty when I also don’t tag that shit 99% of the time (with jonc I do it just because I know no one but me and ten other ppl goes on that tag) when there’s people in this fandom who outright deny what’s written black on white and actually literally harass you on anon for it when I can 100% swear to you that the only times I’ve gone on anon in my entire life were for a) memes that required being on anon, b) sending people headcanon requests, c) sending people I ALREADY KNEW and who KNEW IT WAS ME personal things that I didn’t want ppl to attach to me because I don’t owe 100% of my life history to tumblr dot com and I always put my face to my opinions.

like, glad you like my opinions, but honestly, if you think this is me being judgmental, fair enough but maybe I’m also tired of having to read stuff that’s based on not having fucking read the book.

thank you.

[lucaservine]

01/BASICS

Full Name: Lucas Anthony Ervine Nickname: Luke Birthday: February 23 Gender: ( Cis ) Male Sexual Orientation: Pansexual and he’s fucking proud of it Astrological Sign: Pisces Spoken Languages: English Birthplace: San Diego, CA Relationship status: Single

02/PHYSICAL TRAITS

Hair Color/Style: Short brown hair Eye Color: Brown Face Claim: Jordan Fisher Height: 5′11′’ Tattoos: None Piercings: He used to have a nose piercing when he went through a phase to get back at his mom Unique Attributes: He’s got a few scars on his body from the accident, but he’s also got his different prosthetics for different things and he likes to paint them cool designs.

03/PERSONALITY TRAITS/TYPES

Positive Traits: Loving, carefree, spirited, ambitious, goal-oriented, accepting Negative Traits: Self-conscious, sporadic, defensive, impatient Hobbies/Interests: SPORTS. Video games, harry potter, disney, building things and CRAFTING, animations, artsy-stuff, deep discussions, embarrassing himself Insecurities: his disability, what people think of him, his own confidence, what his future is going to end up being Quirks/Eccentricities: He tilts his head to the side a lot ( think like a puppy being curious ), he rambles A LOT, he’s sometimes hot and cold ( usually not on purpose ), he has a tendency to scratch his nose when he’s nervous MBTI Type: ENFJ - The Protagonist  Enneagram Type: Type Two Moral Alignment: Lawful Good Temperament: Sanguine

04/FAMILY & HOME

Immediate Family: Elizabeth LouBard ( mother ) and Connor Ervine ( father ) How do they feel about their family?: Lucas and his parents aren’t on the best of terms. He doesn’t understand how his father could have just abandoned him when he needed him most and then never bother to reach out ever again. His mother is a different story because she did stay but she hasn’t been there for him and constantly wallows in her own problems. She’s tried to help but gives up after any sort of frustration and Lucas just sees that as her not caring. His parents are sore subjects for him. How does their family feel about them?: His father does care about Lucas and wants to be in Lucas’ life but he wasn’t given the option thanks to Elizabeth. Admittedly, he didn’t push too hard. He does love Lucas but he blames himself for what happened to his son. Elizabeth on the other hand loves Lucas but not to the extent that she used to. She’s always frustrated and she’s busy blaming the whole world. Instead of taking care of Lucas, she’s pissed about how her life ended up which makes it seem like she’s blaming Lucas. Pets: He used to have a dog but his mom got rid of the dog when he got out of the hospital. Where do they live?: San Diego, CA when he’s not on campus. Description of their home: https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/4441-Logan-Ave-San-Diego-CA-92113/17092554_zpid/?fullpage=true Description of their bedroom: Lucas’ bedroom is a soft blue, his wall covered in various video game posters, design posters, and artwork. His furniture is white, all of it now a bit off-white from age. His bedsheets are gray and white, the lamp on his nightstand actually a Garfield lamp that he can’t find the heart to get rid of even though it’s childish. Everything is a cluttered mess of books, colored pencils, sketches, sports equipment, and photographs.

05/THIS OR THAT

Introvert or Extrovert? Extrovert Optimist or Pessimist? Optimist Leader or Follower? Depends on the situation but mostly a leader. Confident or Self-Conscious? Self-conscious but appears confident Cautious or Careless? Careless Passionate or Apathetic? Passionate Book Smarts or Street Smarts? Book Smarts Compliments or Insults? Compliments

06/FAVORITES

Favorite Color: BLUE Favorite Clothing Style/Outfit: Lucas loves a good pair of dark jeans, a t-shirt, a hoodie or jacket, and a beanie. Favorite Bands/Songs/Type of Music: He’s a big fan of punk and pop punk Favorite Movies: His favorite movie is Airbud and he cries every single time. Favorite Books: He likes design theory books Favorite Foods/Drinks: Favorite food is always going to be chips. Favorite drink is Squirt. Favorite Sports/Sports Teams: ALL SPORTS. He doesn’t really have any teams he’s crazy dedicated to but he just follows all sports. Favorite Time of Day: Early morning. Favorite Weather/Season: Spring time, sunny days. Favorite Animal: He loves DOGS.

[squareallworthy]

Taking UBI seriously part 5: Sheahen

This is the fifth in a serious of posts looking for a serious proposal for universal basic income. Previous posts:

A Budget-Neutral Universal Basic Income by Jensen et. al.

Basic Income – Why and How in Difficult Economic Times: Financing a BI in Ireland by Healy et. al.

Andrew Yang’s proposal as part of his presidential campaign

A variety of indicators evaluated for two implementation methods for a Citizen’s Basic Income by Malcom Torry

Score so far: 0 serious proposals for a full UBI, 1 serious proposal for a partial income

In this post, I will look at It’s Time to Think BIG! How to Simplify the Tax Code and Provide Every American with a Basic Income Guarantee by Allan Sheahen.

tl;dr: Not a serious plan. Sloppy and politically poisoned. There is no way to tell whether poor people are better off or not, and the proposal includes several provisions that would never get a hearing in Congress. If this is as good as UBI proposals get, then there are no serious UBI proposals.

Allan Sheahen was a long-time advocate of a universal basic income, or basic income guarantee, as he preferred to call it. He published two books on the subject, Guaranteed Income: The Right to Economic Security in 1983 and The Basic Income Guarantee: Your Right to Economic Security in 2012, as well as numerous articles and papers. He was an early leader of the US Basic Income Guarantee Network (usbig.net) and spent more than 30 years advocating for basic income. Basic Income Earth Network ran an article noting his passing in 2014 which you can read here.

Sheahen published this proposal in 2006, using 2004 budget figures. On the benefits side, the plan is straightforward and typical: a Basic Income Guarantee (BIG) of $10,000 per year for each adult US citizen under the age of 65, and $2000 for each child. Recipients of Social Security and other federal retirement programs would get either their current benefit or the BIG, whichever is greater. He would distribute this as a refundable tax credit, so none of the BIG would be taxed back.

He calculates a gross cost of $1,895.6 billion. To pay for this, he plans on treating all other income as taxable at standard rates and increasing taxes in various ways, eliminating a bunch of current transfer programs (basically everything except Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid), and making deep cuts to defense spending. Figures below are in billions of dollars.

The budget cuts and tax increases are enough to fund the BIG with $265 billion left over. (Sheahen also considers a 2% tax on wealth, but that is for the purpose of balancing the federal budget. Since that is unrelated to the BIG, I am leaving it out of this budget.)

There is a lot going on in that $985.2 billion in the first line. It includes personal exemptions, standard deductions, all itemized deductions, all tax credits, and most importantly, all the tax expenditures for 2004 from this list, which Sheahan characterizes as “tax loopholes.” He provides details on all these provisions -- far too many to go into here -- which give his proposal the appearance of being thoroughly thought out. Once you start digging into it, though, it becomes clear that he didn’t pay that much attention to what he was doing. As a result, his proposal is sloppy, unclear on what it accomplishes, unfocused, and politically doomed.

General sloppiness

Sheahan seems to have taken a list of what he considers tax loopholes and, without looking at what they are, decided that they all have to go. He applied the same bulldozer approach to cutting transfer payments. The result is a mess.

Contradictory on pensions. Sheahen says that recipients of Social Security and other federal retirement programs would continue to receive their current benefits or the BIG, whichever is greater (p. 7). But then on pp. 20 and 21 he calls for eliminating spending on pensions for railroad workers, District of Columbia government employees, and veterans. What he actually intended is unclear.

Double-counting  Some of the savings he expects to get from closing tax loopholes are incompatible with his spending cuts. For instance, on p. 20 he calls for eliminating public assistance programs such as food stamps, and then on p. 15 he counts on additional revenue from taxing those benefits as ordinary income. He plans on taxing contributions to IRAs, (p. 17), which would leave taxpayers no reason to use them, but doesn't subtract income taxes paid on money withdrawn from IRAs. This doesn't amount to a great deal compared to the cost of the whole program, but it's sloppy and annoying.

Unequal comparisons  Eliminating these tax expenditures means converting many things that are not normally considered income into taxable income. The biggest such item would be employer contributions to health insurance. Also included would be scholarships and tuition reductions for students, for instance, or housing and meal benefits for military personnel. Under Sheahen's plan, the cash equivalent would count as income and would be taxed as income.

Counting employer-provided health insurance as its cash equivalent could easily boost someone's reportable income by $5000. Imputed rental income (which I will return to below) could add $10,000 or more. Not everyone will be hit by these additional taxes, but homeowners with health insurance make up a solid slice of the middle class.

This means that when he compares the current system to his BIG plan on pp. 23-24, he does not compare like to like. The person with $40,000 in reportable income under the current system is not the same as the person with $40,000 income under the BIG plan. But he calculates increase/decrease figures as if they were. The net increase in disposable income he calculates on pp. 23-24 will be wrong for anyone who owns a home, has employer-provided health insurance, is in the armed forces, is a student paying tuition or on a scholarship, is paying student loans, or has an IRA, among other circumstances.

It may be Sheahen's intention to place more of the tax burden on homeowners and on people who have employer-provided health insurance. If so, it's dishonest of him to hide it in this way. But I don't think he did, because I don't think he has an accurate picture of where money is coming from and going to, which leads me to my next point.

Are poor people actually better off? How many?

The worst fault in his number-crunching is that he doesn't realistically account for the value of benefits lost to the poor. For a single parent with one child, he estimates benefits for the poorest incomes at $4,800 for TANF and $2400 for food stamps. But those are just two out of the many means-tested benefits he plans on cutting. TANF and food stamps together amount to $46 billion, but Supplemental Security Income and Section 8 vouchers add up to $56 billion, so he's accounting for less than half of the benefits the poor would lose. 

Furthermore, those benefits are very unevenly distributed. Only a minority of poor households receive Section 8 vouchers, for instance, but those that do would be hit very hard by losing them. It may be that some poor families would be better off under his plan, but some will come out worse. How many? Forty percent? Sixty percent? We have no idea.

This is why people create tax models and run simulations. The current tax system is complex, the benefits system is complex, and the variation in circumstances among people at the same income level is complex. If you are not willing to get into the nitty-gritty of those details, then you have no basis for a claim that the sweeping reform that you propose actually delivers the benefits that you want to see. Sheahan certainly doesn't.

Political poison

Sheahen seems to have given no consideration to political problems at all. He plans on eliminating “welfare programs which will not be needed under a BIG.” But "welfare” turns out to include things like this dealbreaker (p. 21):

How could anyone not immediately realize that this is political poison?

Imagine twenty thousand disabled veterans parading down Constitution Avenue. A thousand men and women in wheelchairs lead the way. They include veterans of every conflict from World War II to Afghanistan, all of them wearing their uniforms, all of them wearing their decorations. When they reach the Capitol, they raise their prosthetic arms in the air and shout “This is not welfare!”

No politician who wants to get re-elected is going to support this plan.

Other cuts under the heading of “welfare” include:

Student loans

Pell grants

GI bill benefits

Farm subsidies

Refugee assistance

As for the tax expenditures he wants to eliminate, most are too obscure and wonky for the typical American voter to care about. Many of the others, such as the lower tax rate on capital gains, mainly benefit the rich. But some of them are extremely popular. Making employer-provided health insurance taxable will anger a huge portion of the middle class. Making Social Security fully taxable will lose you the support of the AARP.

Perhaps the oddest one is “imputed rental income,” which no one but an economist would reasonably consider income. This is the rent that homeowners could be collecting if they rented their houses out. “Imputing” this income means pretending that they pay rent to themselves as tenants and collect it as landlords. Homeowners are not going to be happy to hear that they owe thousands more to the IRS because of taxes on purely hypothetical income.

And on top of this, the Department of Defense would be cut by 35%.

Whether these provisions are good ideas or not, they range from very difficult to obviously impossible in their political feasibility. Politicians who want to get re-elected are not going to support them. If you could convince Congress to cut the Pentagon's budget by more than a third, then that would be great, go at it! But you can't, so they won't, so any plan that relies on doing so is dead on arrival.

Sheahen asks, on page 7, "How can the U.S. afford $1,895.6 billion?" His answer is "by completely ignoring political reality."

Lack of focus

Remember that extra $265 billion that Sheahan was left with after totaling up his budget? Why is that there?

If he's got $265 billion left over, then his plan actually does not rely on $160.9 billion in defense cuts. He justifies his other cuts by calling them welfare, but defense spending is no more related to his BIG plan than spending on national parks or Amtrak. Singling out the Pentagon is entirely gratuitous. He could have left that out and avoided opposition from defense hawks.

With $265 billion to work with, he could have left out the defense cuts and left out the cuts to veterans benefits and the cuts to farm subsidies and left income tax rates at the post-1994 levels, all of which would have increased the political viability of his plan.

Instead, he went on to try to balance the budget with a 2% wealth tax. And then he pointlessly goes on to consider scrapping the current income tax system and replacing it with a 35% flat tax, even though this would be worse for poor households. 

So maybe cutting defense spending is a good idea. Maybe balancing the budget is a good idea, and a wealth tax is a good way to do it. Maybe we should consider changing to a flat tax.

Maybe so, maybe not, but all of these are unnecessary for the BIG program that Sheahen is proposing. Packaging them together just makes the whole thing more complicated and politically contentious. If your main goal is ending poverty, why mess around with the other stuff?

A responsible person who actually wanted to get something done and pass legislation would leave out anything that isn’t necessary to do the job. Sheahen couldn’t be bothered to do that, or to spend any time considering the political implications of his plan, or even to ask someone to look over his accounting to see if it made sense. If he’s not going to take his own work seriously enough to put in that minimal amount of effort, neither should anyone else.

Conclusion: after spending 20 years in the UBI movement, the best Allan Sheahan could do was this sloppy, unclear, politically incompetent mess. If this is as good as UBI proposals get, then there are no serious UBI proposals. And if this is what passes for serious UBI activism, then there is no UBI activism worth paying attention to.

[atcmicorgasms]

ORIGINS & FAMILY:

Name: Oh Gayeon

Nickname: Grace, Gracie

Reason for name: Grace was given as a sort of nickname for Gayeon when she was younger and it’s always stuck, so as she’s gotten older, she’s started using Grace as the name 

Birthday: May 31, 1989

Age: 28

Gender: Female

Place of birth: Grace was born in Wichita, Kansas

Places lived since: Grace lived in Wichita until she was two before her family relocated to Athens, Georgia. Grace moved to Los Angeles to attend UCLA and has stayed, pursuing an acting career

Parents’ names, backgrounds, occupations: Grace was born to Oh Jin Young, who ran his own carpentry business and Oh (nee Kim) Yoo Ne, a real estate agent. Jin Young and Yoo Ne (who would go by Jin and Yuna, respectively, at the time) met in college at the University of Kansas as lab partners in a biology class and ended up being in the same Psychology and English 102 later in their college careers)

Number of siblings: 2, Junior and Sora, Grace is the middle child.

Relationship with family (close? estranged?): Grace’s relationship with her family is distant. She still will talk to her family, but traveling to see them doesn’t happen very often. Her parents weren’t too excited about her leaving the nest but it’s something they’ve been slowly working past.

Happiest memory: Easily her acceptance into university.

Childhood trauma: Grace chooses not to talk too much about any of the actual major traumas that have happened during her childhood and instead chooses to recall the time she had been caught smoking pot underneath the bleachers and the punishment she received from there. 

Children of his/her own?: none

If so, relationship with their mother/father?: n/a

Age he/she gave birth/became a father: n/a

PHYSICAL

Height: Grace is 5′9

Weight: 

Build: straight

Nationality: Korean-American

Disabilities (physical or mental, including mental illnesses): Grace has PMDD, which gives her more severe symptoms than the average PMS. 

Complexion (freckles, acne, skin tone, birth marks): Grace has a noticeable tan, and has finally gotten control of her adult onset acne, although she’ll get very nasty flare ups the week leading up to her period. 

Face shape: rounded

Distinguishing facial features: the apples of her cheeks are very prominent when she smiles

Hair color: Brown

Usual hair style: Grace is self-conscious about her ears (Although she’s been told on numerous occasions that they’re perfectly normal) so her hair is usually kept down.

Eye color: brown

Glasses? Contacts?: none

Style of dress/typical outfit(s): Grace honestly is Target girl at heart, so nine times out of ten, she’ll find things from the clothes section in Target, she doesn’t really have a distinct style or anything typical.

Typical style of shoes: Give Grace tennis shoes or sandals any day.

Health (is this person usually sick? or very resilient?): Grace got a ton of ear infections as a kid and despite getting a flu shot every year, she tends to fall victim to the flu or a nasty bout of pneumonia if she’s lucky enough to avoid the flu.

Grooming (does she/he wear makeup? shower daily? wear only clean clothes? pluck her eyebrows?): Foundation and eyeliner are Grace’s go to for make up looks. Grace showers daily, if she skips a day, she ends up showering twice in the next day that she does shower

Jewelry? Tattoos? Piercings?: At any given time, you can find her with a simple chain necklace with some small accent piece on it (like an arrow or feather) and bangles, and about two rings on either hand. Any of the cuff style bracelets are reserved for when she’s dressing up.

Accent?: She’s worked very hard to get rid of any trace of an accent, although it’ll still slip when she’s talking to certain people or saying certain words.

Unique mannerisms/physical habits (bites nails, talks with hands, taps feet when restless): Grace tends to lick her lips a lot when she’s nervous and if she starts to feel any sort of embarrassment or awkwardness when talking to someone, she’ll wiggle in place.

Athletic?: She loves doing the high intensity workouts and pilates

INTELLECT

Level of education (high school drop out, undergrad BA/BS, PhD, MD, etc.): Grace has a bachelor’s in sociology and has looked into going towards social work if acting doesn’t pan out

Level of self esteem: 6.3

Gifts/talents: Grace has a great memory and she’s good at wrapping presents.

Shortcomings: Grace can be incredibly naive and fairly easy to upset, she’s been working on being in better control of her emotions, especially when she’s due for her next cycle.

Style of speech (loud, mumbler, articulate, etc.): Grace has a medium volume of speech, she speaks at a fairly quick cadence and her voice is a little more on the huskier side

“Left brain” or “right brain” thinker?: Right brain

Artistic?: She’s good at coloring and has made some sort of name for herself, albeit small in acting so there’s some artisticness there

Mathematical?: Not at all. She was able to scrape by in her math classes and had to study five times as hard to make sure she really understood a concept and as soon as she was done having to take math classes, she was super happy

Makes decisions based mostly on emotions, or on logic?: Emotionally

Neuroses: a mild hypochondriac. She visits webMD way too often for anything small to turn it into the mountain she does

Life philosophy: 

Religious stance: Buddhist 

Cautious or daring?: A little bit of both

Most sensitive about/vulnerable to: Some of the major life choices she’s made. 

Optimist or pessimist?: Optimist

Extrovert or introvert?: Extrovert

Level of comfort with technology: Like a 7 or 8

RELATIONSHIPS

Current marital/relationship status: Single

Sexual orientation:

Past relationships: 2

Primary reason for being broken up with: Location and it just being a short lived thing

Primary reasons for breaking up with people: Long distance

Level of sexual experience: 4

Story of first kiss (if any—if not, how does he/she want it to happen?): A middle school dance, it sort of just happened by accident

Story of loss of virginity (if any—if not, how does he/she want it to happen, if at all?):

A social person? (popular, loner, some close friends, makes friends and then quickly drops them): Grace is social when she needs to be. She’s very comfortable reaching out to network, but she can also be a huge homebody.

Most comfortable around (person): Herself

Oldest friend: A friend she made in George

How does he/she think others perceive him/her?: 

How do others actually perceive him/her?: 

VOCATION

Profession: Grace is an aspiring actress

Past occupations: She helped out with data entry in her dad’s business and has worked in the mall

Passions: Music, cat cafes, going to the beach

Attitude towards current job: She likes it

Attitude towards current coworkers, bosses, employees: It really depends on the gig

Salary: Depends on the gig

SECRETS

(Every character—no matter how minor—should always have secrets!)

Phobias: She has a reoccurring nightmare of her going into any room in her home and the lights not working

Life goals: Just to be recognized

Dreams: Win an award

Greatest fears: losing her family and not finding out for a long period of time

Most ashamed of:

Most embarrassing thing ever to happen to him/her: Her brother telling his best friend that Grace had a huge crush on him when she was thirteen 

Compulsions: She buys one of those decorative birds from Target every season

Obsessions: practicing for hours, even after rehearsal or performances are finished

Secret hobbies: Ghost shows

Secret skills: Did I mention that she’s also really good at putting shelves up and even crafting some shelving units

Past sexual transgressions: nothing completely naughty

Crimes committed (and was he/she caught? charged?): staying out past curfew, underage drinking and smoking

What he/she most wants to change about his/her current life: Nothing

What he/she most wants to change about his/her physical appearance: Nothing

DETAILS/QUIRKS

Daily routine: It varies on when she wakes up

Night owl or early bird?: Early bird

Light or heavy sleeper?: Light sleeper

Favorite food: Give Grace all the pasta and starches in the world

Least favorite food: But if Grace has to eat another cheesecake she will lose her mind

Favorite book: She really likes Danielle Steele novels

Least favorite book: Lord of the Flies

Favorite movie: Clueless

Least favorite movie: she really doesn’t have a least favorite, she just doesn’t watch the ones she doesn’t like very often

Favorite song: Edge of Seventeen by Stevie Nicks

Least favorite song: That Ed Sheeran song that’s getting played all the time

Coffee or tea?: Coffee

Crunchy or smooth peanut butter?: She’s allergic to peanuts

Type of car he/she drives (or wishes he/she drove): 

Lefty or righty?: Lefty

Favorite color: She likes the magenta-y color the sky can take during a really pretty sunset

Cusser?: No

Smoker? Drinker? Drug user?: More of a social drinker than anything, she doesn’t smoke, or hasn’t since she’s moved.

Biggest regret: Not talking to her brother and sister more

Pets?: She has a maltepoo named Charlie that she constantly posts about on her social media. 

[bevelle]

Where the Sun Shines: Part 1

(Part 1 of "Where the Sun Shines" from the seventh novel, The Game of Angels and Demons, is here! Within the novel, this story is divided into 3 numbered parts. This is part 1, which just so happened to end at the 10 page mark. Minimal footnotes included. Footnotes don't function correctly on mobile, so I suggest viewing this in an actual browser. Please enjoy!)

Vatican City. An independent country located on the east bank1 of the Italian Tiber River. It is the smallest country in the world, and to the 1.1 billion Catholics scattered across the world, it serves as a strong international community.

There is a department there called The Seat of the Disciples.

Within the organizations existing at the heart of the Vatican, The Nine Sacred Departments, the recognition and acknowledgment of beatification2, canonization, and existence of holy relics occur in the Canonization Department; while there is another department in which “miracle reports” are collected from around the world and then undergo strict investigations. They are then presented to a committee of eighteen cardinals who judge whether or not they should be recognized as true miracles. Among those working there are scientists, doctors, historians, and specialists in many other fields.

Roberto Nicolas was employed by the Seat of the Disciples as a cryptanalysis and folkloristics expert two years ago, and was still a novice miracle investigator.

A Monday in April, when bright rays of light poured down. It was a holiday for the Seat of the Disciples, as well. That day, out of all of the days in the year, was especially important to Roberto. In the morning, after finishing his prayers at the nearest place of worship, Roberto headed to St. Bernardo, the boarding school near his home.

St. Bernardo was Roberto’s alma mater, and was where he lived before attending the University of Rome. It was also a place overflowing with memories.

Upon entering the school grounds, he could hear the clear singing voices of the choir from a section of the building. He could see students in their navy blue uniforms and red ties running around the campus and playing soccer.

Roberto made his way to a certain part of the school.

There, in that old, beautiful library, massive mahogany bookcases filled the room, their shelves packed with an extensive collection of everything from adventure novels to philosophy books. The smells of ink and paper typical of old books wafted throughout the room. Outside a large, wide window was an elm tree, and the sunlight filtering through its leaves shone down on the reception desk brilliantly.

In the past, a single boy stood there. A beautiful library committee member with straight black hair. He was an upperclassman three years older than Roberto named Josef Lycolas Bartridge.

Roberto gently took a single book from the shelves. He then left the library and headed for the deserted, quiet place behind the building. It was in the grove of trees between the shed that housed the tools they used for annual events and the hutches they used for raising rabbits and chickens. Roberto often spent time there.

Before he entered St. Bernardo, he was in an abbey-operated juvenile facility. Before that, he lived with a man he called his "uncle" and his wife after they took Roberto from a police hospital.

Other than his name, Roberto had no memories of his childhood.

He listened to the whispers of the adults around him, and vaguely understood that he had seen something terrible, became ill, and lost his memory. However, talking about that was taboo, so Roberto didn’t even consider wanting to ask about it further.

He remembered doing things like sandplay therapy3 every day at the police hospital. Then, when his “uncle” could no longer support him, he was sent to a juvenile facility. Within the facility, which had been set up as an elementary school with strict rules, Roberto was treated as a “child with issues.”

The biggest reason for this was because he couldn’t speak to anyone.

Roberto truly couldn’t talk to anyone. Even if he tried to speak to someone, the words wouldn’t come out.

People talked to each other normally. That was odd to Roberto.

He lived as if he were wrapped up in a special membrane that prevented him from forming any kind of connection with the outside world. Whenever someone spoke to Roberto, the words would pass through that membrane as what he could only perceive as meaningless, grating noise. Because of this, Roberto was extremely shy, and without being able to speak, he was a problem child who could not fit into his surroundings.

The Sisters and Fathers taking care of the children at the institution saw Roberto as a nuisance, and to Roberto, they were also unreasonably bothersome. They desperately tried to force him to read Christ’s teachings aloud, and in accordance with their strict rules, when he was unable to, the rod was brought down on him. Each time, Roberto would react by closing his heart off even further.

However, to his good fortune, there was someone there who understood him. That person was none other than the head of the institution, an old pastor named Father Lombardo.

One day, Roberto was taken by the head priest—who was also in charge of his elementary education—to Father Lombardo’s room.

Father Lombardo’s room was very simple, with a large decorative cross and a landscape painting being all that Roberto could remember.

The pastor was wearing black glasses—he was blind. However, Roberto felt that he could see much more than what those with sight could see.

“Roberto, greet Father Lombardo,” the priest told Roberto in a strict voice. Roberto was startled, but of course, he couldn’t get any words to come out.

“Roberto, knock it off. You should be able to talk just fine. We can’t always give you special treatment. I told you that you would have to do this today.”

Roberto hung his head. The priest made an annoyed face, grabbed the back of Roberto’s head, and forcibly made him bow.

“He’s always like this. He’s truly a child with issues,” the priest said.

Father Lombardo, with his unseeing eyes, stared at Roberto. Roberto honestly felt as he if he were being looked at.

“Hm. So, in these past two years, this boy hasn’t spoken to anyone?”

“No, not at all. He shows no response to anything we tell him, and we’ve never seen him play with any of the other children, either.”

“However, that doesn’t mean he has a mental disability4. From what I’ve heard, according to the chairman, his test results are above average…”

“That’s true. However, he can’t live a normal life as a student like this. Once he’s finished elementary, I believe that he should be sent to the abbey.”

“Hm…”

There was a long silence.

Roberto was terrified under Father Lombardo’s incessant gaze, as if he were completely exposed.

“No… In the past, those at this institution with exceptional grades were given assistance in attending St. Bernardo Boarding School. We can’t exclude him from that simply because he can’t speak. If we do, it will seem like the church is discriminating against children with such problems. And… as far as I can tell, this boy, Roberto, is completely fine. I’m authorizing it: send this boy to St. Bernardo. If anything happens, I will take responsibility.”

“Are you sure? This carelessness may cause trouble for you in the future, Father.”

“It’s fine. Roberto.”

Roberto, who did not understand what kind of conversation was happening in front of him, was simply hanging his head.

“Roberto. Please make some good friends.”

Roberto’s life changed immediately after that. He left the facility and moved to the boarding school.

St. Bernardo Boarding School was a strict Catholic school full of children from very respectable families, and had a middle school section, high school section, and college prep section. While students would normally be placed in a six-person room and become accustomed to living together, for Roberto, the troubled child with good grades, as soon as he saw this, he decided on living in a small, one-person room.

Even so, being a child from an institution, he wondered if he was being watched around the school. There, he was suddenly thrown into a melting pot overflowing with young boys.

Every morning before class in a small church on campus, they would read scripture aloud and interpret it, and pray. “Merciful Jesus,” “Man of Truth,” the priests praised, and asked for all suffering to be resolved as they knelt in front of the statue of Christ. But even as he looked at the statue, Roberto couldn’t believe the scrawny, shabby man hanging from the cross was the Savior.

On top of that, he could only interpret the Bible as sounding like a journal of nonsensical daydreams. Looking back on it, it seemed like he didn’t believe in any of it back then.

As always, he was unable to speak. He also became anxious when people would address him, so even when his name was called in class, he wouldn’t respond. Not even he knew what made him so stubborn back then.

The one thing that could be said about him with certainty was that he was always alone.

That, and the other students all existed in bright, sunny place. They always talked, always laughed, and always had fun playing together like little puppies. No matter how he tried, he couldn’t enter that fun, enjoyable place.

Sometimes the boys would get lonely at the boarding school and would talk to each other about their parents. Parents seemed like very special and precious people, and being separated from them seemed to be difficult. But Roberto had no memories of his parents, and as such, he couldn’t understand their sorrow.

Faith, joy, sadness—Roberto couldn’t understand any emotion.

Still, he understood his studies, so that was a way for him to somehow spend his time at the school.

But unlike the bookworm he is now, Roberto didn’t choose specific books to read back then. There was nothing that he truly wanted to do. He simply studied because it was necessary to learn material for class.

Roberto had the labels of “child with issues” and “weird kid from an institution” stuck to him.

Perhaps that should have hurt him, but he was numb to such a feeling. He simply had the memories to not get in anyone’s way, and of hiding himself.

What interested Roberto most was the deserted, quiet area behind the library. It was in a grove of trees between the shed that housed the tools they used for annual events and the hutches they used for raising rabbits and chickens. There, Roberto had the pleasant shade of the trees, and a spot where the sun shone . During breaks, he would go there and spend time staring idly at the clouds. Only then did the inside of his heart become clear, and he could briefly experience peace.

He didn’t want to stand out, but thinking back on it now, he must have stood out as a mysterious child with heretical behavior.

He must have noticed him, too. This place is in plain sight from the reception desk in the library.

Roberto looked in the direction of the library from where he was laying under the elm tree, thought of his past self, and chuckled.

Vatican City is actually located on the west bank of the Tiber River. ↩︎

A recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a dead person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in his or her name. ↩︎

A specific form of nondirective play therapy for children using a tray of sand and toys. ↩︎

The priests and nuns refer to Roberto as 「問題のある子」- literally, a child with problems. This is similar to “problem child,” which in Japanese is a single word: 「問題児」. However, given the context and Father Lombardo’s comments, the “problem” the priests and nuns are referring to when they call him a “child with problems” is their concern over him seeming as if he has a mental disability, given that he does not speak or respond when spoken to. He’s different from a typical “problem child” in that he doesn’t act out or cause trouble; it’s more of an insensitive way of the priests and nuns saying they think something is mentally wrong with him and subsequently punishing him for it (like hitting him with the rod). ↩︎

[l3ambina]

all of the numbers for Chiyu ❤

omg dear

ok here we  go time to die lmfao

1. What does their bedroom look like?Probably somewhat dark, lots of plants. Succulents because she cant keep anything else alive long enough. It’s probably always a little messy.2. Do they have any daily rituals?Nothing in particular except waiting for something to happen with the League. She likes to hang out in Kur/ogiri’s bar with him and Da/bi and chat. Da/bi prefers other places to hang out though, he only stays there if he has to.

3. Do they exercise, and if so, what do they do? How often?She does, by fighting with the other league members and training herself. She doesn’t want to be useless in a fight.

4. What would they do if they needed to make dinner but the kitchen was busy?Barge her way in. She’s hungry, dammit. That, and she knows no one would mind making room for her. They’re not that competitive about it.

5. Cleanliness habits (personal, workspace, etc.)Not that clean when she’s not doing a mission. She has to be REALLY cleanly when helping a mission though because she has to heal wounds and she cant risk infecting them.6. Eating habits and sample daily menuThe only one who can cook anything decently is Kurog/iri, so there’s a lot of eating out when he’s not available. Chiyu can cook a little bit but its not a great idea. Don’t even think about letting the other league members cook, thats just asking for a disaster.7. Favorite way to waste time and feelings surrounding wasting timeAnything that involves hanging out with Da/bi. As long as he’s with her, she doesn’t mind. Da/bi isn’t one to like wasting too much time though, so they don’t do that too often if he can help it. Chiyu doesn't mind the idea of it, though.8. Favorite indulgence and feelings surrounding indulgingFavorite indulgence is sweets! She tries not to eat too many but sometimes she cant help herself. She’s lucky she has a fast metabolism. She has no feelings about indulgence either way, but thinks its better to indulge yourself at least sometimes. 9. Makeup?Nah lmao10. Neuroses? Do they recognize them as such?The same ones I have I suppose, so Depression, Anxiety, PTSD and BPD. They are self diagnosed, though since they never had access to good healthcare.11. Intellectual pursuits?Medical stuff, she has to learn all of it so that she can heal better. She can’t just wave her hands and magically heal someone, she has to understand how the body works, and sometimes it gets messy if she has to set bones and stuff. She HAS to make sure its going to heal properly before speeding it up, otherwise she will have to start over.12. Favorite book genre?fantasy, scifi, maybe a bit of medical textbooks too lol13. Sexual Orientation? And, regardless of own orientation, thoughts on sexual orientation in general?Asexual, panromantic. She doesn’t care too much about it tbh? She just knows she likes anyone regardless of gender and doesn't see the need for labels really. Especially since she’s pangender and doesn't think about her own gender too much.14. Physical abnormalities? (Both visible and not, including injuries/disabilities, long-term illnesses, food-intolerances, etc.)Uhh, none that I can think of? She heals herself so she never really goes to hospitals or anything... if she has any of those, she doesn’t really know about it. Poor girls never had a proper check-up in her life.15. Biggest and smallest short term goal?Biggest: To help the League by being their healer. Smallest: To become an asset to them as best as she can.16. Biggest and smallest long term goal?Biggest: To make the world see what is really important. To not put heroes on pedestals.  To help others and make a safer world, not just for purely good people. Smallest: To love Da/bi and help him figure out his issues and support him. 17. Preferred mode of dress and rituals surrounding dressWay prefers casual. she’s not opposed to dressing up though, it makes her feel nice sometimes.18. Favorite beverage?Green Tea19. What do they think about before falling asleep at night?A lot of things. Are they really doing what they set out to do? Is being with the League really going to help her with the world? Does that even matter? She loves the League members so much, she doesn’t know what she’d do without them. And Da/bi would never abandon her and she’d never do that to him. She just hopes she’s doing the right thing.20. Childhood illnesses? Any interesting stories behind them?It’s a miracle she didn’t die as a kid. Her parents died whe nshe was young, and she was in an out of run down orphanages for a time, until she ran away. They weren’t good places. She learned how to heal herself at a young age though so she never got too sick.21. Turn-ons? Turn-offs?Being loved, cherished and adored with a gentle kindness. But also being looked at like a piece of meat or an object, feeling like someone owns her. It’s always consensual when its like that but it.. helps her deal with her trauma, as long as she controls the situation.22. Given a blank piece of paper, a pencil, and nothing to do, what would happen?Writing her thoughts or drawing, probably. Writing helps her remember things.23. How organized are they? How does this organization/disorganization manifest in their everyday life?She’s only organized with her medical self education. Otherwise her lifes kinda messy. her room is pretty messy and disorganized.24. Is there one subject of study that they excel at? Or do they even care about intellectual pursuits at all?Yes! Medical stuff  c:25. How do they see themselves 5 years from today?Hopefully by then the world has settled into its new order and things become peaceful, but not oppressed by fake heroes like before.26. Do they have any plans for the future? Any contingency plans if things don’t workout?Hopefully goes the way she wants, but she has no plans if they dont, except to help Da/bi with his issues and remain by his side.27. What is their biggest regret?They don’t have any at the moment. Everything bad has been out of her hands up to this point, and she refuses to let it stay that way. She has taken her life into her own hands and doesn’t plan on regretting anything about what she does.28. Who do they see as their best friend? Their worst enemy?da/bi is her best friend and boyfriend, but Twice and Kuro/giri are good to her too. Her worst enemy is Endea/vor. She wants him dead as much as Da/bi does, even if she doesn't understand his motives for it yet. She doesn’t need much of a reason, though.29. Reaction to sudden extrapersonal disaster (eg The house is on fire! What do they do?)HOLY SHIT KURO/GIRI WARP IT S OMEWHERE ELSE30. Reaction to sudden intrapersonal disaster (eg close family member suddenly dies)She has no family, but if Da/bi died, she would bury herself in her work and become very quiet and reserved, only caring about her goals to help people even more at that point.31. Most prized possession?Her watch. Toga gave it to her, or rather stole it. Its very high tech and helps her keep track of how much time has passed since she has healed someone, since she can only work within ten minutes of when she starts healing them.32. Thoughts on material possessions in general?She doesn’t hang on to very many of them from her past. She has nothing to hold on to. But if Da/bi gave her something... she would cherish that forever.33. Concept of home and family?The League is her new family and she would do anything for them.34. Thoughts on privacy? (Are they a private person, or are they prone to ‘TMI’?)A bit prone to tmi lmao, she’s seen a lot with her medical work so nothing much bothers her.33. What activities do they enjoy, but consider to be a waste of time?She doesn’t consider much of anything to be a waste? As long as it gets her to her goal of helping people. Maybe some of t he things the League does feels like a counter-productive time waste, but not often.34. What makes them feel guilty?When she isn’t able to help someone, or has to reset the damage she tried healing, because she knows thats incredibly painful. She’s had to do it to herself a few times.35. Are they more analytical or more emotional in their decision-making?Very emotional, following her heart type of person. She’s only analytical about her healing, but even that is mixed with emotions.36. Would they consider themselves a Type A or Type B personality?Probably B ! Not super proactive, more go with the flow. But she does have goals she wants to reach, so maybe a mixture of both.37. What recharges them when they’re feeling drained?Cuddling with Da/bi... >///>38. Would you say that they have a superiority-complex? Inferiority-complex? Neither? Maybe a bit of both? They very much believe they’re right.39. How misanthropic are they?Very little if at all, since they want to help and reform society to something better, rather than leave it to fend for itself.40. Hobbies?Studying medicine, and spending time with Da/bi, when she is not doing things for the League.41. How far did they get in formal education? What are their views on formal education vs self-education?She never had a formal education, and taught herself every single thing she knows. She was never given proper quirk counseling either, she had to train herself to become powerful with her quirk and iron out her weaknesses. So obviously she finds value in self-education.42. Religion?Can you count Hero Killer’s ideals as a religion?43. Superstitions or views on the occult?Again, if  you count following Hero Killer’s ideals as a cult thing, then shes into that.44. Do they express their thoughts through words or deeds?A lot of both, honestly. She’s very honest and open about w hat she thinks and feels.45. If they were to fall in love, who (or what) is their ideal?Villains lmfao46. How do they express love?Devotion, adoration, thoughtful gifts, spending time, supporting and helping the other as much as she can.47. If this person were to get into a fist fight, what is their fighting style like?She doesnt get into fights if she can help it. She’s better supporting someone else, like Da/bi in a fight. She can hold her own for a little bit, though, if its a close combat situation.48. Is this person afraid of dying? Why or why not?Probably yeah, I imagine. She has lots of things she wants to accomplish and she wants to help people. She needs to be alive to see her goals come to fruition.

[brian-wellson]

What got you into writing? What's your story?

It would be cliché for me to say that I have been writing all my life… cliché, but also true. In order to understand that statement, you have to understand who I am as a person.

I come from a broken home. An actual broken home — my biological parents divorced when I was two or so; I lived with (and was physically and emotionally abused by) my biodad while my mom was in a psychiatric hospital; my biodad told me I was a mistake; and my mom lived with a prostitute because she needed someone to help her make rent. All of this by age five! Books were, by all rights, my only friends. Books were a marker of stability — they were pretty much all I had.

When I had entered kindergarten, I was already reading at the fifth grade level. By the end of that school year, the seventh grade level. Even as a kindergartener, I think I recognized that literacy was imperative, for it was through reading that I could give myself something I was not getting elsewhere. I could play in a peaceful, sun drenched  meadow, I could meet dignitaries and nobles and queens and kings, I could be a biological researcher … If I could imagine it, then it would happen. (Reader’s Digest had some amazing coffee table books back then filled with detailed pictures and graphics and flow charts … but, most of all, clear and concise text.)

Anyhow. Around second grade or so, I immersed myself in the Choose Your Own Adventure series (and its compatriot, the Time Machine series). I thought they were amazing. It was then I realized that there were so many different ways to end a story, so many different ways to your demise. I think I liked them so much because the crux of their concept and execution hinges on personal choice; the books were comprised of short vignettes, and every short vignette was accompanied by a choice at the vignette’s end. That choice would send you to a different part of the book, down a new line of inquiry. Retrospectively, I see my child’s reasoning — if I could not control things at home, then I would seek it out elsewhere. Lo and behold, I was given control in the form of books! The choices I made actually mattered! I was hooked, and read every book many times over. I found myself wanting more of them, but none in that series were to be had; I was reading them too quickly, and my pace overtook new book drops.

Concomitant with reading the aforementioned series, I began to staple little books together. They were made of college-ruled notebook paper. As you can no doubt guess, I modelled my own writing off that in which I had immersed myself. I think the first ‘book’ I ever wrote was entitled “The Lost Gold of the Seneca”. I’m originally from upstate New York, and we are pretty steeped in Iroquois culture; as a child, the Seneca tribe fascinated me. Well, I had my culture… what about the plot? The plot was based off a myth my grandfather had told me about an old, abandoned lead mine in the southwestern Catskills. So I merged the lead mine myth with Seneca culture, and made my own story. Of course there was no gold to be had in real life… but I was only eight. A writer typically writes about the things with which they have familiarity. And, like I said, I was eight. (I wonder if that little book, written on scraps of stapled notebook paper, is laying around anywhere?)

When I was 12 (1991), my mom had several psychotic breaks. She became violent and delusional. My reading habits had, of course, grown along with me over time. I had just finished Tom Clancy’s Hunt for Red October and Patriot Games. (I was also an avid reader of comic books, though they did not figure into anything. I just liked Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four, and Infinity Gauntlet. They were so fun to read!)

As my mom battled her mental health issues, my stepfather searched frantically for job following his layoff from a defence contractor… all while I had to contend with being — well, bad things would happen to me when I would visit my biodad.

High school was a  difficult transition for me. My mom, stepfather, and I moved from our creepy ass apartment in the bad part of town to a complex close to the high school on the hill; our complex was in the nicest part of town. Somehow the rent was cheaper… well, not somehow, it was about two-thirds the size of what we’d had before. I was small and awkward. I read books. I was a musician. Accusations of homo- and bisexuality were levelled at me, and I was bullied relentlessly as a result (high school was much different in the 1990s… ‘boys will be boys’ was still the norm, and bullying was not that big of a deal). You can imagine how that went — a poor, artistic kid who kept to himself, and was socially awkward, and slapped with the label of – as they would say – “being a queer”? During my walks home from school, rocks and bottles would be hurled at me from passing cars along with  derogatory taunts about my mom, my stepfather, and me. What friends I had were people of convenience, people in my orbit. One of them even shot me with a BB gun once just because he thought it would be fun. (Hint: it wasn’t.)

So I took control.

The resultant novella I wrote was sprawling, a true epic of ambition. 150 pages. Gunfights, a conflicted sniper, the mafia, international jewel thieves, a corrupt cop, the mass media, a jet ski pursuit down raging rapids, Army Rangers, and international, multicultural government agents. Oh — and a town levelled in the third act by gunfire and bombs and grenades and an exploding helicopter shot down with a Stinger missile. All of the novella’s characters were metonymic for people I knew in real life. This was my attempt to put them into the slots as I saw them: hero, villain, bystander, enabler, or something in between. This was my attempt at control. I left it open for a sequel, but it never materialized. The novella itself took about 1.5 years to crank out (on a word processor; we did not have a  computer in our house until I was a senior). Not bad for a 12-year-old. I was proud of that manuscript. I am still proud of it… in fact, it’s one of the few artifacts I have kept from those horrible adolescent years; the sole copy sits with my other archival materials from later in life (like my ballets and my flute concerto/dissertation). Who knows. If I ever write a novel, perhaps I will use that plot.

With college came baggage, and with baggage came a downward spiral of my own mental health. I ended up functionally homeless for a couple of months… I was not allowed to be around the house when my parents were home, but I could clean myself up and catch some sleep during the day. That summer (1999), I started an Angelfire online journal, one that was modelled after my best friend’s. She and I were in a very similar space, and it seemed to help her out, so I decided to try it; to tell you our state of mind, my favourite line I had written from that time: ‘I wish I was a river rat’. My best friend had been thrown out by her dad, so, that summer, we had each other’s backs: sleeping under bridges, dumpster diving for cans and bottles and trinkets, selling trash at yard sales, eating from abandoned room service trays. Things were bad, but we still had our words – I still had my words.

Every day for a year (1999-2000), I updated that online journal. Over that span, I welcomed more and more followers — so many followers that had I to buy my own domain and server space (2000-2004). The domain hosted not only my own online journal, but those of others, as well. That core of people, we became our own community, and exchanged stories with each another across the continent. We organized an epic meet up, and people from up and down the Eastern Seaboard showed up. In fact, I am still in contact with several of the other online journalers. My site won a “Best of the Web” award, an award I had not sought, nor did I necessarily think I deserved, but one which made me happy. The site was a true labour of love: all of the HTML & CSS coding was written by me (in Notepad), all of the photos were digitally rendered by me, and all of the written (and musical) content was written by me. I even had a live streaming cam for the semester when I reënrolled. (And yes, there were watchers.)

I kept that online journal for years; eventually the constant maintenance became too much for me to handle. I needed to bang out my Masters (including thesis!) in a year, and went straight on to my doctoral program (2004). Writing fell by the wayside for many years…

…and then I had an accident which rendered me neurologically and physically compromised (2010). I couldn’t work, and I hated doing nothing, so I went back to school (2012-2016), and started down a path of study which has proven to be generous to me.

If you had told that disabled guy of four years ago that he would be offered an MFA slot at many different & prestigious schools to study Creative Nonfiction, he would have laughed at you.

If you had told the little, socio-economically disadvantaged teenager from a broken home that he would be offered a slot at an ivy for graduate school, he probably would have tried to kick your ass … it had been accepted that those things weren’t meant for people like him — for people like me. We don’t get to do that, we don’t belong there. This is a belief that still haunts today for many different reasons. That said:

I believe education is the great equalizer. Knowledge, wisdom, and literacy are the things that grant equity in our culture. Yes, it is used as a weapon by some; yes, it is also used as a form of control.

But that control was mine to take. I had no other option. So, I seized it.

That just about sums it up. These are the stories and reasons why I write, why I read, and why I care so very much about literacy. These are the reasons why I care about all of the writing I read on this site every single day. Each person has it in their power to craft a good story, and each story has the potential to change the way a person sees themselves and the world around them.

These are things I believe to be true.

Thank you for such a lovely ask.

(( @alastar-wyatt ))

[vitanitf]

PHYSICAL !!

1. Describe the character’s height and build. Is she heavyset, thin, short, rangy? She’s thin, or I would put it as athletic. She’s 5′4, so she’s kind of small to be so intimidating. 2. How old is she? Eighteen. 3. Describe her posture. Does she carry herself well or does she slouch? She walks with her back straight and her head held high. 4. How is her health? Is she fit or out of shape? Any illnesses or conditions? Any physical disabilities? Hella fit. She works out a lot, so there’s no way you’re ever going to find her without a six pack. 5. How does she move? Is she clumsy, graceful, tense, fluid? Graceful. Easy. But sharp. Like she’s cutting through the air with every step she takes. 6. How attractive is this character physically? How does she perceive herself in the mirror? If Vitani needed to dress up to stun information out of someone, she would do it, but otherwise she doesn’t think about it. When she looks in the mirror, she doesn’t want to see beauty. She wants to see strength. 7. Describe her complexion. Dark, light, clear, scarred? She is biracial but light-skinned. Her skin is very smooth, which must just be good genes considering she has never done a beauty ritual in her life. 8. Describe her hair: color, texture, style. Brown. At the moment my assumption is that it looks like this. It has been both shorter* and longer*, but she found long hair just got in the way. Naturally her hair is curly* but she often keeps it straight because it’s easier to manage. Another perk to having short hair. 9. What color are her eyes? Dark brown. 10. Does the character have any other noteworthy features? She has a mole by her nose and one on her neck that are often visible. Other than that I would say maybe the obsessive amount of dark eye makeup she wears. 11. What are her chief tension centers? Definitely her shoulders. 12. What is the character’s wardrobe like? Casual, dressy, utilitarian? Bright colors, pastels, neutrals? Is it varied, or does he/she have six of the same suit? Badass. Think biker girl outfits. Leather jackets, white tees, gray tank tops, ripped jeans, silver chokers, heavy black boots, fingerless leather gloves from time to time. Dark eyeliner. Blood red nails, occasionally lipstick to match. It’s intimidating. She’s not a colorful dresser. 13. Do her clothes fit well? Does she seem comfortable in them? She’s very comfortable in them. The way she dresses makes her feel powerful. 14. Does she dress the same on the job as she does in her free time? If not, what are the differences? She’s not going to dress for anyone but herself. Her outfits vary depending on the weather -- she isn’t about to wear a leather jacket when it’s eighty degrees out -- but otherwise, her style is consistent. 15. You knew it was coming: Boxers, briefs or commando? She’s definitely a boxers kind of girl.

SPEECH !!

1. What does this character’s voice sound like? High-pitched, deep, hoarse? She basically sounds like Ashley**. She has a very sweet, childish voice. Fairly hoarse. Anyone that overheard Vitani speaking might think she was innocent because of the way she sounds. They would be wrong. 2. How does she normally speak? Loud, soft, fast, evenly? Does she talk easily, or does she hesitate? She talks easily and evenly. She has no problem raising or lowering her volume if the situation calls for it. 3. Does the character have a distinct accent or dialect? Any individual quirks of pronunciation? Any, like, you know, verbal tics? She uses pet names to patronize quite a bit. Things like love, sweetie, princess, baby girl, honey, doll. She also swears at any given chance. 4. What language/s does she speak, and with how much fluency? Fluent English and only the little bit of Spanish she's learned in school. 5. Does she switch languages or dialects in certain situations? No. If she’s seriously pissed she might not speak as correctly, using “nothing” in place of of “anything” (ex: my parents aren’t afraid of nothin’) or throwing in an “ain’t” but otherwise she sounds about the same. 6. Is she a good impromptu speaker, or does she have to think about her words? Impromptu. 7. Is she eloquent or inarticulate? Under what circumstances might this change? Eloquent. Even when she’s angry, she is usually calm and collected.

MENTAL AND EMOTIONAL !!

1. How intelligent is this character? Is she book-smart or street-smart? Vitani is fairly smart when it comes to schoolwork, enough to pass all of her classes with better than decent grades, but she’s especially street-smart. She had to be. 2. Does she think on her feet, or does she need time to deliberate? On her feet. 3. Describe the character’s thought process. Is she more logical, or more intuitive? Idealistic or practical? I would say both. Her logic is clouded by hatred and pride but she is smart enough not to make spontaneous decisions that will come back to bite her... usually. 4. What kind of education has the character had? She is a high school senior. That’s it as of right now. 5. What are her areas of expertise? What, if anything, is she interested in learning more about? Hurting people. Weapons. I don’t know, man. She’d rather be out of school and working for a living. 6. Is she an introvert or an extrovert? More of an introvert, but she mostly just hates people. 7. Describe the character’s temperament. Is she even-tempered or does she have mood swings? Cheerful or melancholy? Laid-back or driven? Oh, she’s driven alright. It’s hard to call them mood swings because she’s always in the same hateful mood but Kiara can really push her buttons. She drives her one step closer to snapping. She’s angry so often that she’s a calm angry, but definitely too easily set off. 8. How does she respond to new people or situations? Is she suspicious, relaxed, timid, enthusiastic? Bored. Alert. She’s always surveying people. You never know what information you may need to use against them in the future. 9. Is she more likely to act, or to react? Act. Or react vengefully. 10. Which is her default: fight or flight? Fight with a capital F. 11. Describe the character’s sense of humor. Does she appreciate jokes? Puns? Gallows humor? Bathroom humor? Pranks? She's sadistic. Her humor is terrible. She laughs over people getting injured or creepy death jokes. I don't want to understand what goes on in her mind. 12. Does the character have any diagnosable mental disorders? If yes, how does she deal with them? Nope. 13. What moments in this character’s life have defined her as a person? Many of the most defining moments were seemingly unimportant ones with her mother. All of the things that she said, bad things about the Santucci family and comments about being a strong woman, they went straight to Vitani’s head. She bought into it all. Had she been raised by another person, she would have turned out to be vastly different. Kovu betraying the family was no doubt the most defining at all. That was the last thing to turn any little bit of warmth left in her eyes ice cold. Any chances of her redemption are long gone now, and she’s willing to put all of the blame on him no matter how unfair that may be. 14. What does she fear? I honestly don't believe Vitani knows fear. 15. What are her hopes or aspirations? To watch Kiara die. To be a respected and feared leader, to follow in the footsteps of her mother. 16. What is something she doesn’t want anyone to find out about her? That she’s human. That she does have feelings, deep down, way way deep down, underneath that stone exterior.

RELATIONSHIPS !!

1. Describe the character’s relationship with her parents. Her father was never in the picture. It’s only been her mother for as long as she can remember, and she knows she doesn’t love her. The feeling is mutual. She doesn’t need love. As a young child she was envious over the way that Kovu got all the credit, the way he was favored, but none of that matters anymore. She has proven her worth, and she will continue to prove her worth. She does want her mother to be proud of her and she’ll do whatever it takes. 2. Does the character have any siblings? What is/was their relationship like? Not good, pal. Not good. She used to be close to Kovu, but these days she’s out for his blood. And Nuka, well, he’s just right pitiful. She doesn't care to associate with him. 3. Are there other blood relatives to whom she is close? Are there ones she can’t stand? Every member of The Outsiders are family, related or not. That is where her loyalty lies. 4. Are there other, unrelated people whom she considers part of his family? What are her relationships with them? See above. 5. Who is/was the character’s best friend? How did they meet? At one point she would have considered Kovu her best friend. Now she has no one. 6. Does she have other close friends? Nah fam. 7. Does she make friends easily, or does she have trouble getting along with people? It may have something to do with the fact that she is likely to threaten to rip peoples heads off for minor inconveniences, but she is not so great at making friends. She doesn't want to anyway. 8. Which does she consider more important: family or friends? Family. 9. Is the character single, married, divorced, widowed? Has she been married more than once? Single. 10. Is she currently in a romantic relationship with someone other than a spouse? She doesn’t even want one romantic relationship. You won’t find her juggling two. 11. Who was her first crush? Who is her latest? Some boy in middle school. She hasn't allowed herself to crush on anyone since. 12. What does she look for in a romantic partner? She doesn’t. 13. Does the character have children? Grandchildren? If yes, how does she relate to them? If no, does she want any? No, and she doesn't particularly want any. In next gen verse she does have a son and she is a surprisingly good mother. Not great. But good. 14. Does she have any rivals or enemies? Ha. Haha. Hahaha. 15. What is the character’s sexual orientation? Where does she fall on the Kinsey scale? Bisexual. Probably a 3 or a 4. She finds more females physically attractive but there's plenty of male eye candy out there too. 16. How does she feel about sex? How important is it to her? She’s definitely more open to sex than relationships. She doesn’t see it as this deep meaningful thing. There’s no shame in some good, no strings attached sex once awhile. 17. What are her turn-ons? Turn-offs? Weird bedroom habits? Her turn-ons are neck kissing, pain. She’s lowkey kinky. Whips, chains, handcuffs. You know. She marks people’s chests and backs with her nails. Those scratches won’t go away for awhile. Whoever she is with can also expect to leave with a few hickeys. Just don’t go spouting about feelings or she’s out of there.

BELIEFS !!

1. Do you know your character’s astrological (zodiac of choice) sign? How well does she fit type? She’s a Leo. Ironic, right? Leos are known to be passionate leaders, stubborn, independent yet loyal, confident, brave and inflexible. But they are also said to be generous, lazy, cheerful, warmhearted and humorous with a taste for wealth. So it isn’t a perfect fit, but I’d say it’s as close as you’ll find for her. 2. Is this character religious, spiritual, both, or neither? How important are these elements in her life? She doesn’t give it much thought. It’s hard to believe that some man in the sky is up there loving and protecting everyone unconditionally. Not that it matters. Surely if there is an afterlife hers will be spent suffering. 3. Does this character have a personal code of morals or ethics? If so, how did that begin? What would it take to compromise it? She has very few morals. If it’s going to get her what she wants, she’ll do it. 4. How does she regard beliefs that differ from hers? Is she tolerant, intolerant, curious, indifferent? By scoffing and rolling her eyes. She isn’t going to go out of her way to knock someone’s religion or anything, but she doesn’t mind having an argument if it comes up. 5. What prejudices does she hold? Are they irrational or does she have a good reason for them? She’s prejudice towards the entire Santucci clan, but whether that is for good reason or not depends on who you ask.

DAILY LIFE !!

1. What is the character’s financial situation? Is she rich, poor, comfortable, in debt? She has never been very wealthy and it has never bothered her. 2. What is her social status? Has this changed over time, and if so, how has the change affected her? In school, she does not know nor care how people perceive her. She would like to be feared, but she’s got that covered. Back at home, with The Outsiders, she climbed the ranks and she plans on doing the same when she gets back. She has a craving for power. 3. Where does she live? House, apartment, trailer? Is her home her castle or just a place to crash? What condition is it in? Does she share it with others? She lived with her mother and brothers before her life got all shook up and she ended up at Walt Academy. It wasn’t anything fancy but it was home. She had no attachment to it just as she has no attachment to her dorm room, which has stayed as untouched and undecorated as possible on her side. She isn’t so fond of having a roommate. 4. Besides the basic necessities, what does she spend her money on? She doesn’t spend much money. Material things mean very little to her. 5. What does she do for a living? Is she good at it? Does she enjoy it, or would she rather be doing something else? At the moment she’s just a student. She would much rather be at home, running things with her mother. And she plans to be back there as soon as possible. 6. What are her interests or hobbies? How does she spend her free time? Playing with Kiara and Kovu voodoo dolls. No, in all seriousness, her spare time is spent plotting revenge and exercising/training. She has very little patience for the things that are entertainment for average people. 7. What are her eating habits? Does she skip meals, eat out, drink alcohol, avoid certain foods? She tries to eat somewhat healthy to stay in shape, but she isn’t picky. She eats what she gets. Seeing as she isn’t much of a cook, it’s usually fast food or instant meals. A lot of fruit and veggies. She doesn’t drink that often but trust me -- the girl can hold her liquor.

ASSOCIATIONS !!

1. Color? Red. Also black. But mostly red. 2. Smell? Smoke. 3. Time of day? Midnight. 4. Season? Summer. 5. Book? She doesn’t read much. 6. Music? Soft female voices with a creepy tone. Anything by Daughter, Melanie Martinez, Lana Del Rey, Sky Ferreira... she has a very particular sound... 7. Place? New Jersey. 8. Substance? Vodka. 9. Plant? Roses. Because they look beautiful but they have thorns. 10. Animal? Lions. For... obvious reasons.

EVERY * LEADS TO A PICTURE !!