#and also so many of these humanities majors help one learn to better understand structures of power not just wgs

[rendnotmyheart]

"What is a women, gender, and sexuality studies degree even good for?" they ask.

"What's it good for?" I repeat from atop my armchair, laptop perched beside me as I sip from a goblet containing an unknown liquid. "My dear, it is the backbone of over 100 pages of complex mythological, political, and cultural dnd lore, the likes of which you can only begin to imagine."

Slowly the light from my laptop screen grows brighter and brighter, until the room is engulfed in it. They fall to the ground and clutch their burning eyes as the light imprints into their brains concepts and realities they have heretofore refused to acknowledge.

"I see," one says, eyes alight with new understanding. "It is a framework through which one can learn to better understand structures of power and how they affect every facet of our lives. With it, you can do anything."

"Exactly," I say, and they are sucked into my laptop screen to live out their revelation in the world I have created, informed by my own wgs studies.

[deeplyridiculouslyinlove]

Ranking Wheel of Time Characters and their Narrative Arcs

I've been thinking about a post like this since probably book 8, so here we go. My ranking of the arcs of the major characters in the Wheel of Time book series, and separately my ranking of those actual characters (because they are not the same!!)

Arcs:

Nynaeve

I could say a literally never-ending amount of things about my darling Nynaeve. I think she has the most internal development of any character in the series, which makes her feel especially human to me. Getting to watch her learn that her anger is rooted in fear and a lack of control and to confront that was so powerful and it felt very real. Watching her grow from hating Moiraine to standing beside Moiraine at the end with Rand made me so emotional. And speaking of Rand, it was so nice to have one of the original Emonds Fielders with him in the later books to witness his descent--I think it added depth and believability both to her character and her position having cared for the younger ones when they were kids, and also really helped humanize Rand. While I tend to think Nynaeve's relationship with Lan is really random since they barely speak to each other when they fall over their skis in love with one another (apparently), by the end of the books I'd accepted it and it also made me emotional when she went behind Lan's back to find all the other Malkieris to ride into battle with him. I just feel really proud of Nynaeve and want the world for her and I'm glad that she was given a real growth arc the series.

2. Mat

So I grew from thinking Mat was a bit annoying and childish, to finding him fine as a character but listening to his chapters at 1.6 speed because I didn't care about carousing at inns or random bands of fighters, to having his chapters be my favorite. And I think that's because Mat really evolves throughout the series in a way that still feels very believable and true to the same person/character. He's is written so well as a character learning lessons while staying true to the core of who he was in the first book. I felt a lot of pride for Mat when he rescued Moiraine, and although I saw some chatter by folks on the internet that they'd be fine if the Daughter of the Nine Moons thing doesn't happen in the show, I actually really liked his relationship with Tuon because it was one of the few relationships we saw actually build and develop slowly. Despite being a fated relationship, they also spend time together and develop a rapport. It was a fated marriage not fated love, and I thought that worked much better than the fated loves of Rand’s polycule. I also liked that Mat and Tuan's relationship had some ambiguity until the end; although they clearly cared for one another, we never saw them come to really understand one another, which felt authentic to the situation they were in. Mat is also one of the very few men in these books who actually recognizes that there are things he doesn't know and doesn't need to be involved in, and I appreciate that from a male character in what ultimately remains a pretty patriarchal world despite RJ's structural changes to society (I can back up this statement about patriarchy, but that is a whole separate post). I think this is likely at least in part because Mat doesn't engage with the Power, which is the part of the books that most upholds patriarchal stereotypes and values. Now I'm rambling about Mat more than his arc, but I think he both has a lot of depth and grows internally in significant ways and I really appreciate it!

3. Aviendha

I love Aviendha as a character, and I think her arc is another really good example of slow internal growth. We see get to see her go from Maiden to Wise One to the person who discovers the new message hidden in Rhuidian and what that means for her entire people. We see her struggle with what it means to have left the Waste and what she feels is right for the future. And all of this without that many point-of-view chapters compared to other characters! Aviendha's relationship with Rand also feels the most authentic to me of any of his three women. We actually get to see their dynamic build and see them spending time together, it’s not just like “oh I’m fated to love him!” They also spend time apart and Aviendha doesn't spend that time pining over him, but rather focused on her own goals and the bigger picture. From the narrative, I get why they like each other and also why they are a good match for each other. I don't love her getting injured in the way she does at the Last Battle because I'm not really sure what purpose it serves (I guess it's the ultimate sacrifice for an Aiel to not be able to walk or fight?), but if my biggest qualm with her arc is only at the very end, I'll still rank it quite high.

4. Egwene

When I started reading the books and talking to friends about the gender dynamics in them and the female characters, so many of them mentioned how Egwene gets one of the best arcs in the series. And while I don't disagree with that (I have her ranked in the top 5 still!), I think the fact that Egwene is not a ta'veren in the series really hurts her arc in the later books. Once she's Amyrlin, and particularly once she goes back to the tower as Amyrlin, I feel like she starts to get plot armor that detracts from her actual development. All she has to do is talk and people are completely swayed to her side in a way that I think sort of stunts her internal growth. I loved her time with the Wise Ones in the Waste and with the Aiel and I think it really showcased her eagerness and dedication in a way I related to, and it made her growth in Tel'aran'rhiod and becoming the Amyrlin feel really deserved. Her ending was tragic and powerful and somehow it both doesn't feel like what she deserved but also feels like it lives up to Egwene and I feel really conflicted about it!! I'm was very meh on the Gawyn stuff, since I don't think it really added anything and he's a bit of a downer of a character--honestly, Egwene is the character in the books I most wish had just not had to have a romantic relationship. That said, unlike a lot of other relationships in the seires, we at least see Egwene's feelings for Gawyn develop over time in the dream world so it wasn't as frustrating for me as some other characters' romantic arcs.

5. Rand

For me Rand's and Egwene's arcs are really really close in terms of how much I like them, but I think there are things missing in the execution of Rand's arc that make it a bit lower for me--had it been done slightly better (from my perspective) I think it would have edged out Egwene. I really *want* to empathize with Rand starting around book 11 when his PTSD and the weight of everything else he’s carrying really starts to impact him. But because he spent the first five books whining about how everyone is trying to use him as a puppet (and particularly suspecting literally any woman with power before he had been given any reason to do so), his later arc doesn’t lead well into him then being someone you’re supposed to empathize with in my opinion. Particularly because his whole arc in the later books is about love and compassion, but I don't feel like we get that from him in the early books? I find it very confusing. I think for that progression to work we really needed a part of his arc where trusting and/or showing compassion to someone leads to serious harm, then he turns hard, and then he remembers the need for compassion. Maybe I’ve just forgotten it but I really can’t think of anything at all like that first step in the books? He distrusts the people who eventually hurt him? And things generally work out for him, even though he’s struggling internally? Anyway, this rating is higher than it otherwise would be because of how much I *want* it to work because having a chosen one who so clearly struggles with the weight that destiny places on him is interesting and the madness angle is also interesting to me. Oh also, I think Rand should have actually died at the end and that not doing so makes his arc more boring, sorryyyyy.

6. Faile

Faile is another character I really wanted more for. I hated the weird dynamics in her relationship with Perrin, but I could have liked them together without the physical abuse and if the power dynamics had felt more consensual and didn't have this whole element of her expecting Perrin to behave towards her in a way that he clearly didn't want to. Her being the lady to his lord was cute! I also liked Faile's progression from being a Hunter of the Horn to guarding the horn at the end. I like how self suffiicient she was and how she was able to find a way to combine what she was born for/raised for and what her parents wanted for her (being a noblewoman) with what she wanted (adventure and love).

7. Perrin

I have very few real issues with Perrin's arc and I’m sure other people liked it a lot. My ranking it relatively low is much more that it bored me and I left the series unsure of what it was trying to say than it being a bad arc or doing Perrin a disservice. I hated Perrin's relationship with Faile, and I hated that I hated it because (as discussed above) I think it had a lot of potential. Like Mat, I appreciated that Perrin did not think he needed to be involved in everything nor that he was always right, and I found his growth from boy to man quite believable and that it took place over the course of the books in a way that was well-constructed. I found the whole question of hammer vs axe and his contemplation of the Way of the Leaf to be really interesting! But I'm not sure I fully grasped the resolution of that debate and what the entire focus on it in the narrative was trying to say. And I feel the same about his struggle with the wolf side of him. Is the point just that violence is sometimes needed? And/or that it eats us up from inside? (But also that we have to accept that?)

8. Elayne

I want to do my best to separate Elayne from her arc, since I personally don't love her character for reasons purely of personal preference. I think the reasons her arc specifically is lower for me is that I feel like we don't get to see her growing into being a queen, since one of her primary character traits is that she is already so royal when they all meet her. I think the decision to have her win her crown in Caemlyn with a battle where they just snuck up behind the other forces was a weak one -- why couldn't they have defeated these people before if it was that easy? I also don't love that she gets no time to like learn how to be a queen before she is more focused on becoming a mother. The whole pregnancy arc doesn't sit quite right with me. She sleeps with Rand literally once and it's basically just to get pregnant? But this just builds off of what I dislike about how she just decides she's in love with Rand one day because she is fated to be. Give me the scene where they bond over war strategy and thinking like rulers like six books earlier instead of in the last book! It also seems like there's no reason she and Aviendha couldn't have become friends before realizing they both liked Rand instead of because they are forced into proximity by that fact, and I also feel like she and Rand should have spent actual time together before falling for each other--to my mind the way her part of the polycule goes down weakens Elayne's relationships with both Aviendha and Rand, which otherwise could have been interesting.

9. Moiraine

I have far too much to say about my baby Moiraine. I'm including New Spring in these arcs, and reading that made me want to reread the whole series in a new light. I love her. I love her I love her I love her. And to me New Spring makes her arc in the main series both more powerful and more tragic. Seeing in New Spring just how determined she is and also how much self-doubt she carries and how much her Aes Sedai serenity of the later books is disguising inner turmoil is so rewarding. I wish we had gotten to see so so much more of it. I know that she has to be mysterious to our main characters, but I don't think she has to be mysterious to the readers, particularly once we are more than a few books into a fourteen book series. To that end, I know why she had to go away (she is the Merlin character after all!), but I wish she had come back a few book sooner and we could have seen literally any interiority about reckoning with her time in the Tower of Ghenjei. The Moiraine in New Spring would have been going CRAZY both leading up to knowing she had to go through that archway and while stuck in the tower--even if she was being tortured, which she also would have withstood for a while. The fact that she couldn't take action that it was such a passive way of supporting Rand and his mission would have killed her, but also she would have been so very resolute, and I wish we could have seen that more. Instead, she just like shows up right before the last battle, speaks her piece, goes to help Rand (presumably thinking she's going to die??), and we see none of it from her POV! She never sees Siuan again and because we can't see into her mind that's just like...chill?? And obviously I hate the book pairing her with Thom, particularly her *offering to give up her abilities* for him. I see what it adds for his character arc, but what does it add for hers? Plus there is literally no reason to remove her powers and give her that powerful ter'angreal instead. That's just RJ's obsession with disempowering women and I despise it.

10. Siuan

Oh Siuan. My other baby Siuan. I'm only ranking her arc this high because I think it had a lot of potential to be telling an interesting story, but I think her ending was so horrible I can barely think about it. There was so much potential here to be telling a story about how you can have power and influence and be important even if you are less powerful and that the strength to manipulate and steamroll people is not the only way to make a difference, but I feel like this would have been a much more interesting message if she was the only (or one of the few) powerful women to get knocked down like this rather than it happening to literally every woman with power at the beginning of the series in one way or another. I particularly hated that with Siuan they did this knocking her down a peg in a way that made her younger and pretty for an old man (when she was only like 40 in the first place I might add!)--and she also started acting younger in a way that felt strange. I liked her teaching Egwene, but why couldn't she have some of the teacher vibes Moiraine did? And the way she dies with no one noticing or caring and it making basically no difference to the plot is so horrible. And, I'm sorry, it's not what the character deserved. Nor was it in line with the message I thought her arc was trying to send about the ability to have an impact no matter how unpowerful in traditional ways. And it happens because she doesn't stay with a man?!?! No one even knows she mattered after she was deposed and it’s all so unfair.

11. Lan

I feel like Lan doesn't really grow that much as a character since he spends the entire series basically just expecting to die in various ways at different times. Even with New Spring I don't feel like we get a good sense of what his character is meant to be doing besides impacting other characters in the series. I am not against his relationship with Nynaeve, but I don't think the books flesh it out very well. And I'm still mad he ends the series mad at Moiraine--where is their New Spring dynamic of him vibing with her even when he's annoyed with her? Obviously his leading the Malkieri into the blight really hit me in the feels and was a great culmination of his plight, however, which is why I still think the arc deserves an honorable mention.

12. Thom

Thom's arc is basically just from hating Aes Sedai to marrying Moiraine, and getting continually paired with weirdly young women. I guess he learns to overcome prejudice based on his nephew's death? I do like the role he plays with Rand and Mat and their respective character development as they grow up from the Two Rivers to adventurers, but I'm not sure that's really his arc or development. But for that I'm giving him a higher ranking than his Moiraine arc alone deserves.

13. Tuan

I don't think think Tuan gets that much of an arc. While she becomes Empress, she doesn't seem to grow or change her mind on things during the series, and mostly she puts aside things she doesn't like very much with intentions of dealing with them later. BUT I like how her and Mat challenge each other and engage with each other, and I think the internal growth is somewhat implied or is something that would have happened if we had had more time with her. I wish the entire Seanchan plot was more resolved at series end, but that's not specific to Tuan.

14. Loial

This may be controversial, but I don't like Loial's arc very much! I don't think he needed to get married! I'm glad he seems happy about it in the end, but it feels unnecessary. I loved him adventuring and writing his book and being sort of childlike in a really endearing way, but everything with his mom and with Erith took him out of the story for a long time and seemed to be sending the message that ultimately everyone wants to settle down. Let him explore and write his book and be a late bloomer! Idk.

15. Min

I am ranking Min even below the characters that only have a fraction of an arc because I loved Min so much in the earlier books and I hate the way the series treated her subsequently. When we first meet her she is determined to be fully herself, despite a talent that makes her stand out and a personality inclined against confrontation. She's brave and interesting! I hated watching her become more ladylike for Rand, and for a while essentially being absolutely nothing more than a lover and comfort for Rand. I really wish we had had more lingering payoff for the many books that Min was reading and trying to parse out what the prophecies meant, but it felt like Cadsuane was basically like "yes I agree" and then...it was no longer about Min having figured it out?

And just for fun, here would be my list of these same characters from ones I like most to ones I like least (although I like them all tbh!!)

Characters:

Moiraine (main trilogy + new spring)

Nynaeve

Egwene

Moiraine (main trilogy only)

Aviendha

Mat

Siuan (main trilogy AND main trilogy + new spring)

Loial

Rand

Lan (main trilogy + new spring)

Perrin

Lan (main trilogy only)

Faile

Elayne

Tuan

Thom

[saltysplayt00ns]

The way Kique draws felines drives me crazy. The golden lioness looks like a plushy and sleeping Feaf… Oh my god. This guy calls himself a professional‚ can't he use references‚ learn anatomy or what

I couldn't agree more on that aspect, but it's understandable why the felines look " plushy". Feaf being a Taiga lion which is a Lion, unless their is a lion subspecies where kique lives. Lion's and similar wild cats surprisingly are very muscle built and sturdy with course fur. They're literally built different XD

Most wild cats that have to pull down and carry prey that can be more then their body weight, which requires a lot of muscles to take that down. Not only that, their structure is not the same as Canines. And that's the problem, Kique doesn't want to be out of his comfort zone, he is used to tracing and doing the same poses and scenes and plot every time, heck majority of the pages of Home has been dogs but not only that JARO'S AND RIFLES. SO whenever he tries to branch out, it becomes wonky and out of place, He tried to do a human, and you would think from those 6 years he had practice behind the scenes to get ready - for all I know it's just another of kique's self insert. it's just too inconvenient and takes too much time to do and rather minimize as much work as possibly and pop out half-bake pages. He only puts effort in scenes that interest him...like Ranach, Rogio and stuff like Rome and Jahla talking with each other. ---- RE-STRUCTURE The Felidaes for one should have been the top predators of the food chain. If you placed one dog with a lioness, it would be severely wounded - and a male lion probably kill it. It's why hyenas , AWD, Hippos, Crocs, Elephants, wildebeests, buffalos etc. have really big groups and most tackle one lion or a cub, cause most likely someone is going to die and the Prey would rather take action and question later. So having a feline be the Capitol matriarch or at least be another Matriarch/Capitol would've been better. If not you have to have a reason why Dogs are top of the food chain when a lion can call a spirit to kill them all or why they have not revolted and formed alliances over the pass 3 decades.

PG. 710 & 711 Like Why the hell would you do this???!! Literally Kique had Nubia hang Iberion instead of breaking his windpipe with her teeth, JUST SO Ranach can be a hero and be with Iberion and then dip. Plot convenient for Ranach. SUGGESTIONS; - Could have made the Felines smaller, like Lynx or cheetah. - Have felines not be in big groups but in smaller groups, be consistent of the dogs wiping out any threats/ competition and placing very strict laws over them. - Have canines destroy alters and historical information involving the felines, limiting their way of spiritual contact. - Have them not be in a public beach and not a established tribe, be difficult TO register and seeing a large pride would start the dogs of "weeding them out" , so Have them hidden underground or dangerous, deep parts of the grouse forests. These helps build up the narrative of why Zilas died instead of a mistake, Axi being a tightwad, and using archery to hit from afar and not starting a panic from the canines, living in thick, tropical forests. Unseen and protected. It also have the lion's protect their only contact of their bloodroots, which was the " Golden Lioness " being protective and caring of her people but Disdain and judgmental over the dogs. Making Rhovanion the first dog to be trusted with the secret, and why Feaf did the same for Rhovanion in keeping a secret for him in wanting to see Jahla and other events. mind you, there's many other sensible ways but these what pops up. ---- ALSO CONSISTENCY OF DESIGNS kique use his broken genetics to do the design but really he just have dogs, cat and horse patterns over the animals with no construct. If you have a structure on how designs work for each species, it wouldn't be a hassle, he had literally section of fodder designs on Wiki with names and everything before it got nuked.

PG. 698 & 654 literally two dogs have feline patterns so far shown, for no reason except " it's cool factor " and " because I want to " no wonder the planet is sucked of life and activity, cause nobody can hunt with a noticeable look over their bodies. they're all over the place.

For starters have the Forngrym be the first Starting cats and over 30+ years, and I mean more then 30+ yrs, the sabers separated down warmer climates to form the Taiga lions, where the saber teeth are not robust and stronger to take down big prey like mammoths and giant bears. They become smaller and and focus on suffocation and tactical ambushes, their spots are not as prominent and subtle, being less as they get older...like actual lions heck some kept their cub spots. tail tip is lighter for groups to follow, signal and for cubs. ---- ART Actually It took a bit long cause I was working on the Golden Lioness to show/ demonstrate what could have been done. and find other concepts I have did involving Felines and place them here and separately if people want to only look at the artwork.

Firstly I had to look up some references and other people gave some of theirs that helped piece out a simple " Golden Lioness" but still interesting to look. They were going to be full golden, but added Whites and different gold color for the mane, to break out the colors and provide and interesting look.

Later I wanted to see how it look with 3 simple Panels, instead of just doing the same pose, I wanted a different narrative, giving it an entry and show it's full-bodied before close up shots.

Later, I worked on the character, had references to help with Feline anatomy both realistic and 3D sculptures to clean up the body. and Finally I got to work on the colors, tweaked Feaf and the bedding, Worked on light and shadow directions and then added effects. ----- I hope you enjoy this meaty blog ♥

[friendlyfaded]

Thoughts on veglasko?? Would luv to know ur opinions on it!!

I think about this a lot. Like, a lot. I feel like that's not surprising, though, considering I've made it Abundantly Clear that I'm both a major Vega simp and a huge Lasko kinnie. So this has been in my brain for a while lol.

To address the elephant in the room here, in canon, there's no way this would ever work. I'm well aware of that. Freelancer and Gavin both loathe Vega, and Lasko loves both of them too much (platonically or romantically, take your pick) to associate with someone who caused either of them harm. But, if we were considering a universe where Vega never hurt Caelum, and as a result, never crossed paths with Freelancer or Gavin, there's a possibility.

I don't know if you know this, but there's a lot of really negative feelings at most higher education institutions. Like, if you ever get the chance to listen to your English Department talking about other departments, colleagues, other people's work, etc, you'll see what I mean. Academia often becomes this huge pissing contest built on passive aggressiveness and superiority complexes, complete with gatekeeping and general snootiness. Needless to say, I feel like it would be a very viable place for Vega to find food.

So he's unformed, just kind of vibing in the departmental offices building, when he feels concern instead of annoyance. He finds a professor in one of the offices talking to a student. Most of the teachers did genuinely care about their students, but that care tended to be overshadowed by their own self image. This professor wasn't trying to put on any kind of act, though. He just wanted to help.

Vega is intrigued. He doesn't often care much about humans, but this one seems so much softer and more passive, for lack of a better term, than many of his peers. He doesn't make backhanded jabs at his coworkers. He doesn't get annoyed when people ask him to run copies or deliver things to the registrar's office. He just does it, and he's genuinely happy to help.

I'll be honest, I have no idea how they would end up meeting. My best guess would be that Gavin would notice some demon he doesn't know hanging around Lasko and confront him. When he realizes that Vega is a sadism demon, he's even more confused, since Lasko has literally nothing for him. Vega ends up admitting, in his roundabout way, that he's fascinated by Lasko and is curious to know more about him. Gavin (very astutely) points out that the best way to learn more about someone is to talk to them, not to stalk them.

Vega figures he can try it Gavin's way, if only because he doesn't want to get chased off, and he ends up walking into Lasko's office one day, fully-formed and visible. Lasko understandably panics a bit, but he recognizes Vega's magic. Vega ends up having to explain that he's been feeding there for a while, and Lasko ends up kind of laughing because that's totally valid. Vega also says he's curious about Lasko, which catches him off guard since he has no idea why some sadism demon would even spare him a second thought.

They talk for a while, and Vega ends up appreciating that Lasko is willing to answer his questions. Better yet, he puts thought into his answers. He speaks with nuance and understanding of the topics he talks about, and Vega likes that. He's also drawn in by Lasko's gentleness. It's not something he sees a lot of in humans, so he's intrigued by it. On Lasko's end, he's very flattered that Vega seems to find him so interesting. Like, here's this tall, hot demon that just walks into his office and asks about how he feels about the frequent othering of demonkind and the prejudices against his race, and then actually listens to his thirty minutes of nonstop rambling about how discrimination of any kind, including against demons, does nothing but enforce damaging power structures and stir up tensions between empowered humans and demons to keep their attention off of the problems the government itself perpetuates.

Their relationship would be built on mutual intrigue and the connection I feel like they'd form with each other at being largely outcasted and misunderstood for reasons outside of their control. I can vividly see that "he asked for no pickles" meme with Vega looming over Lasko and glaring at some poor employee. This is his human, and nobody gets to cause him any pain or distress.

Mobile fucked up the extension to this post so I'm posting it separately lol

[dhirajshinde]

Is the SAP Course in Thane Right for My Career?

As a student eager to make a mark in the ever-evolving world of technology, you may be wondering if enrolling in an SAP course in Thane is the best step toward enhancing your career prospects. With SAP being a widely recognized software system for managing business processes, it’s no surprise that learning SAP can open many doors. However, you might be curious about the specifics of the SAP course in Thane and whether it's comparable to the SAP course in Mumbai. Additionally, finding the best SAP course in Thane with expert faculty and placement support is critical in shaping your future. So, how do you make the right choice?

In today’s fast-paced business environment, SAP skills are in high demand. Whether you’re considering a career in finance, logistics, or human resources, the right SAP course in Thane or SAP course in Mumbai can help bridge the gap between you and top-tier employment opportunities. But what sets Thane apart when it comes to SAP training? For students searching for the best SAP course in Thane, there are several factors to weigh, such as the course structure, teaching quality, placement support, and proximity to job opportunities.

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When choosing the best SAP course in Thane, there are a few important criteria you should consider. First, look at the credentials of the institute’s faculty. You want to ensure that the instructors are SAP-certified professionals with years of hands-on experience in the industry. A qualified teacher can help you not only learn SAP concepts but also provide you with real-world insights into how SAP is used in large corporations.

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Finally, the placement support offered by the institute is crucial. As mentioned earlier, Thane’s growing industry base means that students have access to local job placements upon completing the SAP course in Thane. Be sure to choose an institute with a strong placement track record, as this will ensure you have the best possible start to your career.

SAP Course in Thane Vs. Mumbai: Which is Better?

The debate between an SAP course in Mumbai and an SAP course in Thane is ongoing, but the choice ultimately depends on your personal circumstances and goals. If you're someone who thrives in a fast-paced environment with immediate access to large corporations, an SAP course in Mumbai might be the better fit for you. However, if you're looking for a more focused learning environment with excellent placement opportunities in a burgeoning local market, the best SAP course in Thane could be your ideal choice.

It’s important to note that the quality of SAP training in Thane has risen dramatically in recent years. Many students find that they receive just as good an education here as they would in Mumbai, but with the added benefits of a more personalized approach and greater access to resources during the course.

Final Thoughts: Should You Enroll in an SAP Course in Thane?

If you’re aiming to elevate your career with in-demand skills, then an SAP course in Thane could be the right step forward. With top-tier teaching, hands-on training, and strong job placement support, the best SAP course in Thane provides everything a student needs to excel in today’s competitive job market. While SAP courses in Mumbai might have a reputation for being top-notch, the quality of SAP training in Thane has reached similar levels, making it an equally compelling choice for aspiring SAP professionals.

In the end, the decision to choose an SAP course in Thane versus Mumbai comes down to your personal preferences and career goals. But rest assured, if you choose the best SAP course in Thane, you're setting yourself up for success in the dynamic world of business technology.

[digitalxonixblogs]

“Transforming Financial Analysis: The Impact of Natural Language Processing on Finance and Investment”

Over the last few years, AI has been actively and seriously affecting many industries, including finance. In particular, one of the so-called sub-branches of AI, namely NLP, became a really disruptive technology in financial research, investment banking, and wealth management, generally speaking, in finance. This technology is incomparable when dealing with the analysis of huge volumes of unstructured data, like news articles, financial reports, and even social network posts, allowing financial professionals to work in ways unimaginable in the past.

Introduction to Natural Language Processing

NLP is an abbreviation for Natural Language Processing, which-branch of AI aimed at enabling computers to understand, interpret, and generate human languages. Therefore, computational linguistics integrated into machine learning enables NLP to have the ability to let computers process and analyze large loads of unstructured textual data. Technology is very important in financial research because big texts are studied, which form a vital part of market trends and investment decisions.

NLP in Financial Research

AI in financial research has flipped how data is analyzed. Conventionally, financial analysts have to lean much on numerical data and manual processes, with a host of informed decisions at hand. However, with the coming of NLP, the doors of financial research opened to qualitative data sources. NLP algorithms sift through millions of news articles, financial statements, earnings calls, and even social media posts in search of trends, sentiments, and emerging risks.

NLP, for example, could review sentiment in news articles covering a company to determine possible trend-based movements in its stock. Because this form of data is non-structured, analysts can do more with the processing of this kind of data through AI in finance, receiving meaningful insights and therefore reducing the time involved in research, alongside improving the quality of predictions.

AI in Investment Banking

With the integration of NLP, investment banking also underwent several major steps. In a field where information is power, the ability to read quickly and accurately vast amounts of data becomes important. Due diligence, risk estimation, or market trend prediction is done with the help of AI tools driven by NLP. For instance, it may analyze M&A news and financial disclosures to calculate the potential impact on stock prices and market sentiment.

Besides, AI investment banking has smoothed the drafting process of documents and reports on finances. The algorithms of NLP can summarize and emphasize key information from really long documents. This saves bankers precious time because now they can focus on making tactical decisions.

NLP for Improved Wealth Management

The other important fields of application are in wealth management, wherein communication with clients is the very underlying tool for providing personalized services, and NLP AI should make sense of the client’s interaction to draw out information on customer needs, concerns, and goals of their finances. Also, due to an understanding of subtlety in clients’ languages, understanding, and observations, the wealth manager can give more tailored advice and services.

NLP will also allow market condition analysis to predict the performance of the investment portfolio. In this regard, AI in wealth management processes financial news, economic reports, and other relevant data to make more accurate forecasts that are helpful to the client in making better investment decisions.

The Future of NLP in Finance

As financial markets continue to grow in complexity, and volumes of unstructured data grow, the ability to analyze it more quickly and accurately than the competition will be crucial. AI-driven NLP in finance would provide unparalleled insights previously out of reach for financial professionals and thus assure better and more informed decisions.

Conclusion The Inclusion of Natural Language Processing in financial research, investment banking, and wealth management has changed the face of how interpretations of financial data are made. Since AI technology is constantly developing and growing, the influence of NLP on the financial industry will also keep on expanding, opening more doors for innovation and growth.

[kabbur28]

Importance of Skill based school

There are two major trends seen in our community that pose a fundamental challenge – and many opportunities – to our educational system. One is the shift from an industrial economy to a knowledge economy. The other is the rising generation who are brought up on the Internet is very differently motivated to learn. These two forces, compel us to reconceptualise education. NPS Sarjapur road, the best CBSE schools in Sarjapur road, enrich students with appropriate knowledge and internet usage in a balanced manner. One of the key findings was that 94% of business leaders expect employees to pick up new skills on the job. This has increased sharply in the recent past. By the time current students are graduating into the job, learning on the job will be an expectation across the verticals.

What’s more, companies estimate that around 40% of employees will require reskilling. Skills-based recruitment is also a major post-pandemic trend in the employment market at the moment. So, in this background, skills-based education is significant. Students will need robust learning skills and the ability to think critically and creatively to thrive in the future world of work. NPS Sarjapur, is Bangalore’s best schools which help students to equip with skill-set to face such challenge.  Ultimately, knowledge and skills are both essential foundations of education that challenges students and pushes them to achieve their fullest potential. Students cannot develop skills in a vacuum or from nowhere. So, knowledge is like a feeder for their learning. But at the same time, students need the time and opportunity for putting into practise the skills which will help them to apply their knowledge effectively. The best curriculums will balance knowledge and skills, to help students sharpen their understanding of both themselves and around them.

Skills and knowledge are the driving forces of employment opportunities and economic growth thereof. The economy becomes more productive, innovative and competitive through the existence of more skilled human resources.  The degree of employment, its components and the growth in employment opportunities are the critical indicators of the process of development in any economy. Increasing pace of globalization and technological advancements provide both challenges and growing opportunities for economic expansion and job creation.

What are employers looking for?

In the 2020 report from the World Economic Forum, titled – The Future of jobs, the top five skills that employers will be looking for in 2025 are:

Analytical thinking and innovation

Active learning and learning strategies

Complex problem-solving ability

Critical thinking and analytical skills

Creativity, originality and initiative

So, what is a skills-based education all about?

A skills-based education is one where the focus is skills development rather than knowledge acquisition alone. This type of curriculum is structured so as to prioritise student-led learning and aids students to develop the type of transversal skills which they can apply across the subjects and use in every walks of their lives. Let’s look at an example of a skills-based plan:

Introduction: a warm up activity to engage students in the topic, giving an opportunity for students to get familiar with the subject.

Activities: get students researching and collaborating on the topic, so as to bring the creativity element.

Presentation: students present what they’ve learned in the session thereby doing a course correction, if any.

Advocates of this system believe that skills-based education, better equips students with the tools they will need to adapt and thrive in a rapidly changing economy. In this model, the measure of successful learning is the development of skills which can be used in different situations in real-times, to solve different types of problems. Critics of knowledge-based education argue that developing transversal skills would be beneficial once students are part of the workplace – and in order to develop these skills, students inevitably need a skills-based education.

[basket-of-radiants]

Coming from someone else who also gets irrationally angry at the entire series for this specific reason, good post op and good addition. Just to tack on to this and make a long post longer, I don’t think it’s wrong to write stories with aristocratic protagonists (it’s a good way to raise the stakes of any character choices) and I don’t think it’s wrong to include racism in a story (it’s a facet of human existence and is entirely deserving of a place in any narrative involving class and empire.) And honestly, I don’t really want or expect Sanderson to “solve” racism. Given how the Alethi society has been set up, I can’t really imagine any way racism could be solved within the books’ limited timeframe that wouldn’t feel cheap and inauthentic.

That all being said. Racism and its associated oppressive structures were the theme of the very first book in the series. You decide you want to read Stormlight Archive, so you open Way of Kings, and you get a book about a man enduring the hardships of slavery interspersed with flashbacks of how a lighteyes had abused his power over his family when he was younger. You get explicit discussions of how an entire racial caste is being used as grist in a war machine that serves nothing but the vanities of its betters. These things are front and center, not to mention intrinsically tied to Kaladin’s story of what it means to be an honorable person in a society like this. Maybe the answer to that question was always meant to be “the honorable and righteous thing to do is turn the other cheek and rise above it” but even if I’m supposed to accept that as a satisfactory resolution to Kaladin’s arc (which I don’t), I think I could still be forgiven for having assumed the larger themes of racism would continue to play a part in the narrative. 

It’s like you said in the original posts, if the narrative fully acknowledged Kaladin’s contradictions, this could be fine. Having higher status and greater power genuinely can change a person’s values pretty severely, not to mention the Kholins have been kind of grooming him to essentially become one of them. It’s not unreasonable for a character in that position to start empathizing less with other darkeyes and more with other lighteyes. In any caste-based society, your rank is not just determined by how high you personally rise, but also by how many people are categorically beneath you. In this kind of system, is anyone who rises through the ranks inherently a class traitor? What kinds of systemic power does Kaladin have to help other darkeyes? Why isn’t he using that power? What are his limitations there? Solving all of racism isn’t his responsibility either, but this is a character who broke down in tears the first time he was asked to accept he couldn’t save everyone. This stuff should at least weigh on him.

Unfortunately Kaladin’s assimilation in the upper class can never truly be an indictment of him as a person, or a flaw he gets to grapple with, because every other major protagonist is a lighteyes, and if we say it’s bad that Kaladin is becoming more like them, then we have to say that they’re also bad. So we get a Kaladin who criticizes Dalinar and then does everything he says anyway. A Kaladin who sympathizes with the plight of the singers but who still kills them just the same. Or as a much clearer and easier to see example, a Kaladin who makes an effort to understand and relate to Adolin and Shallan, even though they never make the same effort to understand him. Seriously, love to Adolin and Shallan, but even when they’re being supportive friends it’s always “how can we make Kaladin less sad” or “man, Amaram is the worst” and never “wow I had no idea your experiences of racism were so bad, I’m so sorry for having added to them.” Sure, everyone else gets to have the character development of learning to accept a darkeyes as an equal, but ultimately Kaladin always has to be the one to change.

It’s sort of doubly frustrating how so many of Kaladin’s original problems from Way of Kings have just been handwaved away by other characters with no involvement from Kaladin himself. Sadeas is horrible to his slaves? That’s okay, Adolin killed him, he’s gone. The Alethi are protecting Amaram? Well Amaram defected so it’s fine, no one cares if he’s dead now. Roshone? It’s cool, he’s undergone some character development offscreen, so honestly you’d have to be super evil to still hold a grudge at this point. The institutions of princedoms governing this country are awful and abusive? Fortunately the Kholins are all really into honor and self-improvement right now, and they’re such trendsetters that the other highprinces just can’t help but join in as well! Slavery? Jasnah fixed that. Turns out all anyone needed to do was wait for a nicer monarch to take power, no need for him to have gotten uppity, someone was going to get around to ending slavery eventually. And even that doesn’t have to have any consequences, you’d think as in the original post, that there would be a massive labor shortage, but that has literally been magically solved because now you have a bunch of magical knights and magical food and magical gates that fix any logistical issues, which is all to say that the topic of slavery gets to be neatly swept under the rug and it doesn’t have to reflect on any of our characters anymore.

It’s not even that Kaladin doesn’t care about any of these problems you mentioned in the original post. It’s that a lot of these problems have been hurriedly resolved so that Kaladin doesn’t have to care.

As I said before, I really don’t need Sanderson or Kaladin or any other character to solve racism. And honestly, I’d prefer they didn’t, because it’s pretty frustrating to see everyone treating it as if it’s just not a big deal anymore.

I love kaladin but i fucking HAAATE kaladin. As soon as kaladin became upperclass, class struggle no longer mattered to him. You just dont hear about slaves anymore, you dont hear about darkeyes. You would think with the parshmen gone, and the world in turmoil, darkeyed enslavement would be out of control, but we wouldnt fucking know because kaladin doesnt fucking care. Kaladin doesnt care that dalinar has slaves, he doesnt care if he works under a corrupt monarchy, he does as hes told and turns a blind eye, despite being powerful enough now to make change. He contradicts his own morals and it makes me so angry that it almost feels inexcusable to me

[cherry-espresso]

Gleam and Glow

Chapter 1

Pairing: Grey! Bucky Barnes x Fem! Reader

Word count: 3,374

Description: The reader has been held captive by their own mother their whole life, taught to believe the world is bad and that they need to be protected from it. That their gift needs to be protected from it. They possess 70 feet of hair with healing properties and some people will do anything for a chance at peace.

General Warnings: This story contains dark elements and various dark characters!! Do not read if this makes you uncomfortable!!!, kidnapping, violence, language, angst, whump, for the purposes of the story the reader has 70ft foot long hair that glows gold- this does not change regardless of hair color or texture, inspired by the movie Tangled.

Chapter Warnings: kidnapping, manhandling, betrayal, mention of trafficking (selling/buying of a human), John Walker, very naive reader, brief sexual implications,arguments, un-gendered pet names,choking, illusion to sexual harassment, language, please read at your own discretion.

DO NOT REPOST MY WORK, REBLOGS ARE WELCOME AND APPRECIATED

A majority of your childhood was peaceful. You got to do all the normal kid things- of course you were never totally sure what a ‘normal’ kid thing was on account of the fact that you’d actually never met another kid but, it felt normal enough. Aside from the very abnormal ‘birth defect’ you were ‘gifted’ with. You stopped considering your magical abilities as a gift by the time you were seventeen, when your mother made it abundantly clear that you could never leave the tower, you could never go outside, and you could never cut your hair.

The only thing more annoying than the seventy foot long tresses was your mother. According to her, your father was a sloppy one night stand she found in a tavern. He was a love em’ and leave em’ type of guy; he gave your mother one great romantic night and then disappeared off the face of the earth. You’ve never met him. You’ve never met anybody. Your mother has always been your only companion. She was a beautiful woman, she said you take after her more than your dad. While she was gorgeous and protective, she was also passive aggressive, rash, and ostentatious. If it was possible for her to get out of being “the bad guy” she lunged, dragging you under at the first chance. When you were younger she would tell you stories about the outside, she made it seem like a gorgeous place. She described the kingdom and the many villages outside its walls. She started with all the good things until you showed interest in escaping, then, she gave you the truth. She began to spin tales of roads rich with crime, vigilante gangs, covert groups of thugs, and rebel Viking camps. From what you could piece together, the rebel Viking camps were the greatest concern.

The rebel Viking groups weren’t actually Vikings. Your mother had said they called them The Vikings because of their rugged and brutal lifestyle. The camp they occupy is more like a small village, the structures following Norse architectural style, chalk-full of criminals and runaways. Runaways. Your mother had always explained to you that when young girls ran away from their mothers they ended up in that village living a life of crime. The very thought of falling into the wrong hands has kept you from sneaking out or from begging to leave the tower. You found ways to be content, ways to keep busy.

The tower wasn’t as big as it looked from the outside, the only living space was at the very top of the tower. The top of the tower had about two floors worth of open space, minimal and organized in the lower level and very maximalist in the bedrooms and wall decor. Mother said the rest of the tower below was sturdy white brick and vine, aged by time and the weather. Most of the exterior bricks were cracked or crumbling, so all the support for the turret came from the tower’s solid core. The roof was a chipped and rusty blue color mostly concealed by untamed ivy growth, which also hid the entrance to the tower’s turret. To your home. The only way in and out of the tower was an intricate pulley system made from twisted vine and rope. Originally, mother had used your hair to get into the turret, until one day a strand snapped from the pressure, dying and losing its magic. In an effort to protect your gift, you helped your mother make the pulley.

Crafting things was just one of the many ways you spent your time in the tower. After you’d turned eighteen your mother didn’t stick around much, if at all, leaving at night to go to the palace or the tavern, sometimes coming back in the morning and sometimes being gone for a day or two. With so much time alone the only option was to learn how to entertain yourself. Reading books, cooking, painting, testing the information you soaked up from all of the books, sewing holes in clothes, polishing leather, polishing silver, dusting, drawing in the dust. It’s a really long list. If there’s more to add you add it, forever stretching the possibilities. As the sun started to go down however, it started to seep in just how repetitive and predictable your daily activities had become. While you knew leaving the tower would be a horrible and dangerous mistake, you couldn’t help but long to be outside. To feel the grass between your fingers or to stand out in the sun, somewhere other than where it leaks through the turrets window entrance. It could never happen. Knowing this was an impossibility kept an icy grip on your stomach, a lonely sort of feeling, naturally touch starved by fate. It’s been years since the last time you asked to leave. Much before you knew how dangerous it really was out there. Asking one more time couldn’t really hurt could it? You’d be twenty soon enough, just one touch wouldn’t hurt anyone.

Mother had left early in the morning, off to do some much needed grocery shopping; if she hadn’t decided to stop by the tavern she would be home very soon. Too soon to come up with a better plan. Quickly you started to prepare for her to come home, sweeping the dining area and pulling out the utensils needed to make a special stew recipe you remember she had enjoyed. If she was going to say yes she needed to be buttered up first. Once the cooking utensils were nicely organized on or beside the unlit stove, and the dust was done away with, it was time to make quick work of anything she could use against your argument. Rushing to one of your most treasured bookshelves you pulled a discarded velvet scrap from the back of one of your more worn astronomy books. The midnight blue fabric had been torn from one of your favorite dresses when you were sixteen, unwilling to part with the shredded material, it was quickly fashioned into a long braided bookmark. Since then you’ve opted for shorter than floor length gowns or comfortable riding pants and tunics. The supposedly “masculine” style annoyed mother to no end but then again she really couldn’t understand how suffocating the corsets could become, or how difficult it was to fasten them without getting hair caught beneath the strings.

Unbraiding the bookmark allowed it to become one long thick strand, setting it on the dining table, you went to gather your hair. For the most part, you tried to keep it close to yourself. Getting any part snagged or wrapped around something was more of a pain in the ass than taking the time to gather it together. Gathering so much hair was difficult, it took time and it was unbelievably heavy. Once you were finally able to get it all in one place you started the tedious task of braiding. In order to braid it up enough to keep it off the floor you split it into three sections, braiding those separately before braiding them up into a complex Dutch braid. It took nearly two hours to finish so you could finally tie up the end with the dismantled bookmark. The complexity allowed the braid to settle halfway down your calves, keeping it neat and off the ground. Now all that was left to do was light the lanterns around the room and wait. Waiting for mother to get home was nerve wracking, if possible you’d busy yourself with starting the stew but you were fresh out of the most important ingredients.

“Y/n let down the vine!” Mother yelled from the bottom of the tower and the tension finally broke.

“Coming!” You sighed out in relief rushing to the window and lowering out the vine life you had made.

Once you were sure she was safely in the lift’s sling, you utilized the pulley system to begin pulling her up. The tower was around forty feet tall, making the trip up lengthy and difficult. When she was close enough to the window entrance you hooked the vine slack onto the wall hook, keeping it stationary, before quickly coming to help her in with the groceries. Taking the canvas grocery bags from her arms and into the kitchen, you started pulling out the items to take inventory on what she’d bought at the market.

“How was the market? Did that man give you trouble on the celery prices again?”

“Ugh doesn’t he always? Absolutely exhausting, he wanted double, and then there was a fight at the tavern again which I always have to break up.” She pulled out a chair at the dining table, sitting into it and slinging her feet up into the neighboring chair.

You slowed for a moment, pulling the bundle of carrots from the bag slower as you processed that she may be intoxicated which meant there’d be zero chance of having the conversation you desperately desired.

“You went to the tavern?” You asked, feigning excitement.

“Of course sweetheart, I promised that I would but I wasn’t there for long I promise.” She got up to meet you in the kitchen, resting her hands on your shoulders.

“Now what are we having? I’m absolutely starved.” She smiled.

“I was going to make that stew from last winter that you liked so much. Now that fall is settling in.” you started to add broth and small peeled potatoes to the pot.

“That sounds delightful darling, I’m going to go rest my eyes, call me when it’s done?” Mother started to walk away. It was now or never.

“Actually!” You cleared your throat., “Actually I was hoping I could talk to you about something.”

“Alright but let’s make this quick, mama’s feet are aching.” She turned back around to sit in another chair.

“Well as you know I’m almost twenty, an adult really and I’m already very responsible around the tower-“

“Y/n where is this going?” She interrupted, rubbing her temples.

“I want to go outside.” You turned to look at her.

“We’ve talked about this! It’s far too dangerous! You know what would happen if anyone discovered your gift!”

“I know, I know, but I’ve thought about it and no one would even know! I won’t tell anyone about it, and if they don’t know I have it then they don’t know how to use it, so it’s useless to them. If I just keep it braided I’ll be completely normal!” You came to sit across from her, hoping it’ll be convincing.

“No absolutely not, it’s much too risky! I have kept you safe for nearly twenty years! I am not stopping now! You’re far too young to understand but this is what’s best for you!” She got up and started to walk away again.

“But it’s not! I’ve never met anyone else! I’ve never had friends or met other people my own age! I’ve never even seen a real man!” You were absolutely desperate.

“Oh a man?! This is about men huh?! So you want to leave the safety of the home I built for you to go whore around for a man?!” She was absolutely furious, beyond cooling down.

“Mother no!” Your face was burning with embarrassment at the very suggestion of sexual activities.

“No truly I understand! You would rather leave this place and be used by men! Drained of your power in one of those Viking camps no doubt! I won’t hear another word, I’m going out for air and your attitude better be gone by the time I get back!” She walked over to the vine, untying it from the wall and setting it into a rustier pulley wheel that would let her down slowly, she was gone just as soon as she’d finished her sentence.

You had no choice but to sit in utter silence and shame. Swallowed by guilt that mother could ever consider you’d do that to her. As much as you wanted to leave and experience the real world, you desperately didn’t want to disappoint your mother or end up somewhere bad. Very quickly you dissolved into regret, backing over to try and undo what’s already been done, planning a way to forgiveness. Finishing the stew was the only way you knew how to start so you got to work, making this the best stew you could ever devise. Having never written the recipe down you had to go solely based on flavor and gut feeling. That was the best way to cook anyway. Once it had been spiced to taste you put the lid on the pot to let it simmer.

Almost immediately you found yourself overrun with anxiety, filled with a need to do something with your hands. To occupy your mind. There really wasn’t much to do in the tower to occupy you enough to erase this from the forefront of your mind. So you opted for the only thing that you could: cleaning. Your started polishing, dusting anything that you could and when there was nothing left you sat and you waited. The silence was absolutely deafening. You’d totally zoned out until you heard the rattling of the pot lid on the stove, snapping your head to it only to see the stew boiling over.

“Shit!” You rushed to turn it off, burning your hand in the process as you cleaned up the mess. Suddenly you were no longer hungry.

Opting to leave the stew on the stove for whenever mother would return you left the kitchen, going to your room as you cradled your hand gently. Tears stung your eyes, threatening to drip through your lashes and you curled up on your bed. Reaching for your braid with your uninsured hand, you gently took the end and rested it over your burned palm, reaching to wipe away some loose tears. Whether the tears were from the pain or from emotional discourse you couldn’t be sure. After drying your tears you closed your injured fingers around the large amount of hair, and began to hum a soft familiar melody. As the melody continued your hair began to glow a brilliant gold, almost glittery in color. Once the shimmer reached your palm, the heat faded and the wound healed. You were able to breathe. You looked to your palm, it was as soft and unharmed as it had been that morning. As it had always been. No scars or leftover pain. Just smooth healthy skin.

You couldn’t be bothered to really prepare for bed. The dress you wore was moveable, the corset easily undone as it tied in the front rather than in the back. Laying back you took a deep breath, closing your eyes momentarily to let go of all the stress that you could. After a minute of peace you pushed yourself up and off the bed, walking over to the dark wood armoire, opening it to look in the mirror, you sighed looking at your dress. There was stew on the navy skirt and what looked like a sizable carrot. You’d have to change to sleep. Lifting the skirt up closer you plucked off the carrot and disposed of it in the nearby waste basket. Returning to the armoire you flipped your braid back over your shoulder and checked the white sleeves of the off the shoulder blouse, slid your hands over the black corset, grabbing the tied strings from the vertex of the sweetheart neckline you untied the knot. Just as you’d finished untying the security knot you heard a loud grinding bang from the lower level. Pausing to listen you grew concerned.

“Mother? Are you alright?” You called gently.

When you didn’t receive a response you dropped the corset strings and left your bedroom, looking over the bannister you were met with the worst sight you could possibly have imagined. A large piece of the stone floor was broken and pushed out of the ground, slid off to the side and two large men climbed out of the dark hole below. Half a million questions filled your head. How was there a space under the floor? How did these men find you? Did they know who you were? There wasn’t time to think, you had to act. Silently and quickly you snuck back into your bedroom, burning out the lamps and climbing into the armoire as best as you could. Tilting your chin up to silence your breathing you listened. Waiting. Thinking. The men were much bigger than you thought a man would be. From what you could make out they dressed in dark clothing. Leather. Worn and hardly taken care of if at all. They were similar heights. One a redhead and the other blonde, both with rugged facial hair. You only had a brief look and the adrenaline pumping through your veins was making it difficult to focus.

“I am never doing that shit again, forty feet of crumbling bricks and thirty feet of rope, you seriously didn’t think that through?!” You could hear them arguing.

“It didn’t look that tall alright? Can we just find the chick and get out of here? I lost my good boots in a poker game with trash panda and if I don’t win them back he’s gonna tear them apart.”

It was clear they were coming for you. The only thing you could do was hope mother came home or that they didn’t see you behind all the other clothing in the armoire. The stairs creeped. Once. Twice. There was only one creaky step. They were both coming up. You held your breath.

“Food on the stove and the lamp in here is still warm. She was here recently.” They made it into your bedroom.

“If I had to guess I’d say she’s still here.” The footsteps stopped. It was silent.

Suddenly, the hem of your skirt was yanked-it had been caught in the door-and then the armoire burst open. The blonde man grabbed your arm as you struggled, ripping you from the small dark space and out into the open. He spun you around, pressing your back to his chest, his left forearm braced across your neckline and gripped your right shoulder. His right hand held a sharp silver blade to your heart.

“Well, well, well, Princess did we catch you at a bad time? These corset strings are so very loose for company.” The blonde man taunted, using the tip of his blade to pull on the cords.

You gripped this forearm, pushing back closer to his chest in an effort to get away from his blade as you struggled.

“P-please just leave me alone, I won’t tell any-anyone.” You stuttered, trying to stay calm the way your mother had taught you.

“We have plans for you, this hair of yours… hear there’s some people willing to pay a pretty penny for just a touch.” The red headed man stroked your braid, you jerked your head away.

“Oh oh oh” the blonde man laughed. “She’s a feisty one, are you sure we have to deliver her so soon? Could be fun…”

“Oh c’mon man don’t be gross he wants her unharmed. Mostly. C’mon just cloth her so we can go. Boots remember??” The red head said, grabbing your wrists and tying them together roughly. He took the dagger from the blonde, continuing to hold it in its position as the blond reached into his pocket.

“No no no no no please please I’ll give you anything you want just leave me alone!” You begged, swerving your head away from the blondes clothed hand as it moved towards your mouth.

“Bitch stop fussing around!” He slid his left forearm up to your throat, both choking you and effectively stabilizing your head long enough to clamp the cloth over your mouth and nose.

It hardly took thirty seconds before your vision started to swim and your vision started to fade to black.

“We’re already late. He’s waiting.” One of the men said as he slipped a cloth bag over your head. Your hearing went out, senses dulled as you gave in the the dark.

[villainsandvictimsalliance]

Do you know how a basic story structure is designed? No?

Well, you need at least two very simple parts:

A main conflict or problem.

A way to solve the problem or conflict.

If you can to add another part, it can be:

The consequences of that problem solving.

It baffles me that people doesn't know yet that they can't possibly understand the theme or major point of MHA / BNHA without studying Shigaraki Tomura along with Midoriya Izuku.

Why? Because from those two characters the plot and the theme of the story are built. Shigaraki is the personification of the problem, while Deku is the personification of the will to solve the problem.

But first, what do I believe is MHA / BNHA theme anyway? That answer is easy: violence.

Think about one of the first interactions in the whole manga, the panel where Bakugo bullies Deku and throws his notebook out of the window. That scene is really really important because it contains the basis of the whole manga, it sets in your brain how the story will follow:

A kid fails to understand and see another kid because he's filled with violence, to the point he doesn't care what type of damage he's causing. The other kid wants to react violently, but fails to do it. He doesn't know how to explain himself or make the other see him from his own point of view, so he goes home, not giving up on his dream.

MHA / BNHA is the story of how people can learn to break the chain of violence that drives a society in order to stop generation more violence. Ah, do you recognize which speech I'm referring too? Hold on for a little longer, we're getting there.

Now, after being told he couldn't be a hero by All Might because he didn't have a quirk, Deku saved Bakugo anyway, proving that the concept of hero in that society was not the best. A hero doesn't need to have quirks (related to violence) to save someone. It's not only about the fights, but about saving the heart of the other people, inspiring them to do better.

Of course we see Deku adopted the violent ways of the heroes once he starts attending UA. By inserting himself in that society, Deku needs go to its very core to understand the problem. That's why the Bakugo vs Deku battles are so important, or why the plot furthers through fights and violent confrontations instead of simple talks.

Do you know who's the one who actually breaks the society view and shows Deku that violence can't be fought with violence? Take a guess.

Shigaraki Tomura.

Yeah, like I say, if you want to know what this manga is about, don't get distracted with the story or the setting, you need to pay attention to the characters who are explain almost to the reader what is going on in their world.

Tomura's first speech is the very foundation of this story. He says that they, in the mha /bnha universe, live in a society ruled by violence that has fallen into a never-ending cycle. Violence generates violence that generates violence.

He proves his point with his mere existence.

But there's a sub-point, a thing that allows violence to exist in that universe : lack of communication or poor quality communication.

Or, how I like to call it, the inability to see the world through the other's eyes.

This inability is what makes of Endeavor an abuser, for example. He failed to see the world from other perspectives and drowning on his own beliefs, he refuses to accept a version of the world that's not what he thinks.

When All Might and Deku first met, All Might failed to see Deku through his own eyes and for that he didn't understood the kid had a hero heart at first.

Or in the case of the League of Villains, the heroes keep failing to at least consider their perspectives of the society they live in, and that's why they'd rather see the members of the League as monsters and villains than humans hurting and victims seeking validation.

You can see how in the course of the manga, the UA kids and Deku learn how to see the world from new perspective, specially from little kids' points of view, because they are not used yet to the way society works. Again and again, Deku has the opportunity to peak through the villains and victims eyes. Horikoshi builds a whole path Deku has to walk before reaching the final battle, when he's gonna need every bit of experience he got.

Now, the breaking point from Deku, the moment he had enough experience to finally understand what was happening or at least begin to do so, what's his battle with Shigaraki Tomura on the War arc.

Please note how a conversation with Izuku was what gave Shigaraki a clear goal of a thing to focus on, and note that Tomura does the same for Izuku, because then again, the are the two more important characters in the whole narrative. Every other character is a version of the conflict and the solution or they are the consequences, where we get to see what a violent society generates.

It's because Izuku had had so many battles that he could stare into Tomura's, pass the society prejudices (the villain), and find what used to be Shimura Tenko (the victim). In that moment, like he did many times before in minor cases, he broke the violence against violence ritual the hero system normally uses. It didn't last, but that's not important. Deku looked back at the way he'd been through and found that never once he tried to stop the villains by trying to see from their point of view. Instead, he followed the pro-heroes behaviors and stayed happy with just putting them on jail.

He was failing as a hero, because they were also people who needed help.

Turns out the answer was not in the heroes all along, but in the villains, specifically with the League. They were very loud about what they wanted and what they thought was wrong, but heroes refused to listen and instead discarded their opinions as stupid beliefs. Now, please note how people like Stain didn't have the same treatment, because they were obeying the rules of their society at a certain level.

You may not like Shigaraki Tomura, you may not like the League of Villains, but when it comes to breaking down Horikoshi's writing and story, you need to admit their importance and the depths of these characters. And even more, you can pretend to guess what will happen in the manga by blindly ignoring the main villains. You're just doing exactly what Horikoshi criticizes on his writing.

In the end, bnha / mha is about how we as a society need to learn how to properly communicate to stop generating conflicts that could be avoided, and it's also about how violence is never a satisfying answer because it is not a complete answer at all, it's only a prolongation of the problem.

[hungwy]

Thank you for answering my question. Regarding your reference to the Sapir Whorf hypothesis: Do you subscribe to the idea that learning a foreign language, whatever that language may be, gives one a unique insight into how the L1 speakers of that language think and view the world? I feel somewhat uneasy agreeing with that. As in: Of course learning any language implies studying and learning about its original people's cultural norms, history and values, but isn't that something that can also be done independently from language learning? What I'm trying to say is, I think the simple action of learning vocabulary, syntax, morphology and other rules of a language doesn't really help us see through the eyes of the people who speak it natively, and the parts of language learning that do help us do that, can also be done without learning the language (I.E. we can learn about the cultural referents and norms of the french or the chinese without actually studying french or mandarin or cantonese etc). Regarding "Authenticity" and Prescriptivism: My thoughts regarding the role of language preservation actually stem from an opposition to the notion of authenticity: Isn't the notion that a people would/should learn a language to be able to better understand the viewpoints of their elders and ancestors something of a quest for "Authenticity"? Coming from a position of skepticism towards linguistic relativity, what i can't help but see in language restoration efforts is the pursuit of authenticity in the name of tradition, as in "A proper X-ese person should speak the X-ese language, because that's what their predecessors did". I of course agree with the idea that people who don't live personally can only go so far as make hypotheses, but the reason for my doubts is that I see those parts of language preservation i'm skeptical of as something of a pidgeonholing mentality, an act of making people perform a time-consuming ritual of learning how to rapidly access vocabulary, syntax structures and schemata from their minds as sort of a performance of "proper belonging" to a people they already belong to. Sorry for burdening you with this big long answer, you don't need my permission but feel free to ignore it

I do believe languages give unique insights into their native speakers. There is a "weak" version of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis that language influences -- and is influenced by—a variety of both overt and covert biases enacted by the population of speakers. This 'linguistic relativism' has a great deal of evidence and is, as far as I have read, accepted by every linguist. This weak version opposes the "strong" version of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, linguistic determinism, where language DETERMINES thoughts/biases. Whorf's own evidence for this, shortly, kind of sucked.

But Whorf does have a point in that a language is in some ways its own experience. There is a distinctive quality to embodying that old perspective through speaking and hearing the heritage language, different from simply learning the facets of that perspective and the cultural-historical context it appear[s/ed] in. One can know a certain person founded an ethnic group, or that past people performed a specific ritual certain way at a certain time due to certain concerns, or even how to perform that ritual. This is different from participating in language. By speaking and listening one must interact with those views in mind, and one only gains this knowledge through performance. Participating in tradition is the goal here, rather than knowing of tradition.

Whether experiential and factual knowledge are equally valuable is an old and never-will-be-settled debate. But I do think language revitalization projects help participants see through the eyes of people who speak/spoke it by re-enacting (even reifying) the mode through which those biases are conveyed. I think the factual aspect of learning is a major facet of achieving a wholesome understanding of any worldview, but I'm trying to deny your claim and emphasize the fact that language is inexorable from that understanding.

I think it is both pigeonholing and reductive to group all revitalization projects as "getting proper X-ese people to speak proper X-ese, because that's what their predecessors did". Let's get an example, The Cherokee Revitalization Project:

"The results of the 2002 research survey funded by the United States Department of Health & Human Services Administration for Native Americans [found while] in 2000 there were an estimated 10,000 speakers of the Cherokee language in the state of Oklahoma, by 2002 the survey found no fluent speakers under the age of 40. Based on research of endangered languages, the Cherokee Nation estimated that the language would die out in one to two generations. The survey found, as one possible cause, that many elders resist speaking to their children and grandchildren in Cherokee in the belief that it will help them avoid the negative experiences of their own generation. Based on the results of the study, Principle Chief Smith declared a state of emergency and preservation of the Cherokee language became a top priority for the Cherokee Nation. Organizing a task force comprised of elders, educators and concerned citizens, the Cherokee Nation Language Department formulated a comprehensive language plan to preserve, protect and promote the Cherokee language."

Here we see a language on the verge of death that has "proper" speakers capable of teaching the language in what I imagine would be an "authentic" way. The implicit argument for language revitalization here is that the language deserves to live and the people most connected to it want it to continue to live. It is a different perspective from "an act of making people perform a time-consuming ritual [...] as sort of a performance of 'proper belonging' to a people they already belong to." Which, if true anyway, what's the problem with affirming ones identity of belonging with a "time-consuming ritual"? Is it because the idea that governs what counts as a ritual of affirming a given identity—tradition, perhaps—is in some way unethical?

I think your skepticism about "language restoration efforts [in the name of tradition]" is skepticism about tradition as a whole. That's why I said you're more concerned with "how we as humans relate ourselves to the past". But to be honest I'm also not exactly sure of your wording since you said you are "coming from a position of skepticism towards linguistic relativity" and then say this supposed enforcement of authenticity is a pidgeon-holing mentality, so I'm just going to assume you mean you ARE a proponent of such relativity (against which the truth claims of authenticity is opposed). I can't really converse confidently about whether tradition is, at large, a concept we as humans should have, and what to do about that if we shouldn't. I read a paper for this ask (here) about the question of authenticity in anthropology and its an entertaining and thoughtful read. It relates the concept of authenticity to whether there is a subjective or objective truth, or something in the middle, the relation which makes sense: Authenticity is the deciding the "realness" of a given idea or practice and culture is to some degree the enforcement and reinforcement of that authenticity. To me this authenticity or realness is obviously culturally relative and thus the meaning or realness of a given authenticity can't be decided by someone outside that experience.

But returning to the main topic, learning the rules and parts of a language is, again, equivalent to learning facts. That's not what language revitalization is here for, and not what the participants and organizers want. They want to experience the language firsthand as it is performed and to mingle with that world of experience. This cannot be done simply with learning historical facts and theoretical processes. How they are allowed to prune the tree of authentic experience I don't really have the authority to comment on.

[moonbaby26]

Title: Aftermath

Pairing: Peter Maximoff x Reader

Summary: Continuation of previous chapter. Set after the battle with Apocalypse, you and the others are finally picked up from Cairo by allied forces and transported to a nearby aircraft carrier for temporary shelter/debriefing while you try to arrange travel back into the U.S. The reader helps Peter work through the continued emotional fallout from realizations of all that his father Magneto has done.

Warnings: Some cursing. More emotional baggage being unloaded. But also fluff/comfort, and eventual brief makeout session to help with the stress relief.

Chapters: Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

Taglist: @drikawinchester , @n0obmaster69 , @alexloveskili , @what-a-silver-lining , @bluesprings18 , @weakmoony-stuff , @slytherinsi-mp , @wintwrsoldiwr , @tommy-braccoli , @amourtentiaa , @cringingmemeries , @bi-panicatthe-disco

Peter Maximoff x Reader Masterlist

——————————

Like Magneto had warned, it’d still been a long time before anyone had come to help. Trying to put back together some semblance of working communication equipment from the remnants of the jet, and whatever they could scavenge from the damaged homes and buildings all around had taken Hank and Moira long enough.

But even when Moira could finally establish renewed contact with the outside world to put out a distress call, finding a U.S. ally willing and even capable to fly into ground zero to pluck all of you out was another matter.

Unfortunately, you had eventually realized that the destruction here in Cairo hadn’t been all there was. Most population centers through the world had been impacted, many of the larger air and naval bases among them. It was hard to say how much had been Apocalypse, and how many had fallen solely because of Magneto though. From the little bit Moira did relay back to you all, the more metal any structure had had in it, the more likely it had ended up decimated.

It was only helicopters that finally came, no runway area available in all the rubble for any larger plane. When the soldiers exited them, you picked up that they were all speaking Greek.

“We’ll all be going to the island of Crete.” Xavier had confirmed, meeting with you all before boarding. “There is an allied naval base there, where U.S. officials will be awaiting to debrief us.”

It was no surprise that he could sense the unease in the majority of you, after all that had occurred the last time you’d been forced into helicopters with men dressed in military fatigues like this.

He had changed then to communicating telepathically with each of you individually, to give the soldiers no chance to overhear. Though the message was the same for everyone. “We will all be split onto only two helicopters. I will be in one, and Jean in the other. If they should even think of anything unsavory, we will, let’s say alter their plans to otherwise. But everyone stay at least paired please as precaution. Together, you are all your own best protection.”

It’d been no question that you would board with Peter. On one helicopter it would end up being the Professor, Moira, Peter, yourself, and the white haired girl you now knew as Ororo Munroe. On the other, Hank, Raven, Jean, Scott, and Kurt.

Ororo had actually been rather nice to talk to, once she was no longer trying to blast you out of the sky anyway. You’d learned she’d been living on the streets of Cairo for quite some time, just stealing to survive before she’d run into Apocalypse by chance when he was first trying to recruit powerful mutants.

When she’d spoken about having no living family, and thereby no desire to stick around in Egypt any longer, Kurt had been the one to excitedly tell her all about the school. Which the Professor had already vowed to rebuild thankfully, inviting Ororo immediately should she wish to join you all.

Gladly, she accepted, and by the time the soldiers were sliding the helicopter doors closed, the sun was finally setting. The interior lighting was already dim, as you glanced over to Peter in the growing darkness, seated together on bench like seats along the inner hull. He’d been waiting until the very last moment you thought to see if Erik would come back, but he never did. Though you couldn’t imagine Magneto ever would have agreed to travel like this. Or that the Greek airmen would have even allowed it, still knowing he was wanted worldwide.

You did believe Xavier though. When the dust finally settled, you thought Erik would be back. He’d find his own way home. And to contact Peter again, he’d only have to reach out to the Professor. Which of course Erik would no doubt, as those two old friends always crossed paths again eventually from all the stories you had heard. They never gave up on each other in the end, despite all their differences in beliefs.

You didn’t fight it when you finally began to nod off. Even over the pulsing of the helicopter and the radio chatter coming from the soldiers’ headsets, it was all just white noise eventually. Peter had his arm around your waist, his head leaned back against the hull and yours on his shoulder as you’d both fallen asleep somewhere over the now moonlit Mediterranean Sea.

——————————

Waking up had been much harder. As stiff as you were from the helicopter ride, you still had been in no hurry to move as you’d heard your name called. Xavier was trying to round you all up before the soldiers got impatient.

They’d at least provided him a wheelchair you noticed as you all groggily reconvened on what was actually the flight deck of a large U.S. aircraft carrier now docked in the bay alongside the Greek naval base.

All of you certainly looked worse for wear, Peter especially had his glasses skewed almost comically now, hair mussed in about every direction as he yawned big, standing on one leg with an arm thrown over your shoulders for support.

Once you were all accounted for on deck, the Professor spoke quickly. “Given the state of things, there will not be any transatlantic flights available currently. We will be staying here in the short term. For all of you, you will be given medical treatment as needed in this ship’s sick bay. We have also been provided sleeping arrangements separate of the crew. I am asking all of you to please rest up as best you can tonight. Moira and I will speak to these gentlemen as to the events that have transpired today.”

The “gentlemen” Xavier referred to looked about as pleased to be here as you all had been to wake up in Stryker’s base. You knew little of actual military rankings, but from the amount of bars on the fronts of their uniforms, you’d guess they were pretty high up there in authority.

But the Professor only continued in your heads for good measure. “Please understand that non-mutants especially are on edge right now. There were fatalities and very extensive damages to some cities today. I implore you all to be patient with any persons you may encounter on this ship. I believe they’ve moved the majority of the crew to the mainland already to better quarantine us here and limit tensions. But please remember, that by your demeanor and your choices, you represent us all. I will reach out to you all as soon as I know anything more on our options for returning home.”

He’d bid you all good night then, leaving with Moira and the most senior looking of the men while the rest of you had followed some nervous looking officers to the lower decks. You got the sense that Hank and Raven now felt obligated to chaperone and protect the group, as the oldest of you now, only second to the Professor.

Raven had assumed her blonde, human appearance before the helicopters had arrived, but without his medicine Hank could only remain in his Beast form. You could tell how uncomfortable both he and Kurt now made the soldiers as Hank had requested to accompany you and Peter to the sick bay, while Raven went with the others to whatever living quarters you were being given.

You’d be lying to say that their obvious judgment on Hank and Kurt’s physical appearances didn’t bother you. But you tried to remind yourself that they also didn’t know any better. They didn’t know how ridiculously smart, and even a bit nerdy and loyal Hank could be. Or how kind, forgiving, and genuine Kurt was.

When you did get to the sick bay, the doctor on call also looked like he’d just been dragged in there against his better judgement. But he did greet you all, saying he’d been made aware that there was a broken leg he needed to set and make a cast for.

His reaction to the metal splint Peter already had though was almost something funny. You knew Peter wanted to joke so badly about his “dad making it for him”, but you’d all agreed before the helicopters had arrived to downplay Erik’s role in all of this if he didn’t show himself.

Xavier had promised to make clear to the U.S. officials that Erik had been on your side in the end though. Yes, Magneto had blood on his hands from past and present, but having the world pursue him any further would only lead to more violence. It wouldn’t undo anything that had already been done.

Beast had been strong enough to unbend the metal with his bare hands, carefully removing the splint. He’d also helped Peter get out of the flight suit and dirtied clothing to wash up. Though they’d just cut his clothing away from his broken leg with surgical shears, not to injure it any further.

They’d put a screen up for some privacy while they worked on him. You knew Hank would protect Peter, so you were okay focusing on yourself a bit as you also got undressed and a nurse checked you for broken bones. With your clothes off, you finally got to see how badly bruised you were everywhere. But they’d agreed that your only actually damaged bones were cracked ribs, which there was no real treatment for save going easy to give them proper time to heal.

After the examination, you were allowed to take a shower. Which was honestly more amazing than you expected, not realizing just how much dirt, sweat, and blood had accumulated through all of this. Afterward, you’d gotten dressed with some clothes they’d left you. A plain white t-shirt with a small U.S. Navy insignia, and dark blue sweatpants essentially.

They’d offered to escort you to where the others were bunked. But you declined, choosing to wait for Hank and Peter instead.

And it had been a while, but eventually they cane back out. You could see they’d gotten the same treatment as you while here. Both had showered, though Peter made a point to laugh at how poor Hank had had to help him essentially get a trash bag tied over his leg cast first so he wouldn’t get it wet.

They had on the same white t-shirts as you as well now. Though even in the largest size, Hank’s looked uncomfortably small. Hank also got the same blue pants as you, but for Peter it was only blue shorts to accommodate his cast. You all looked like you were late for P.E. class honestly, albeit maybe at a U.S. Naval academy somewhere. You’d gotten a good deal of amusement from that.

They’d given Peter crutches too, which he was clearly playing with as he tried to see how quick he could move on them. Hank reprimanded him more than once when Peter had almost fallen flat on his face a few times on your way to the bunks.

The soldiers hadn’t separated you into guys and girls for the sleeping arrangements. Probably because to them the separation was more mutant/non-mutant only in all reality. But it didn’t bother you any. Really you felt safer knowing everyone else was close. By the time you had gotten to the bunks though, it was already lights out and Raven was the only one still awake waiting for you three.

“Sleep where you want,” She said, motioning to all the still empty beds. It looked like this block was meant to house a lot more than just your small number, but had evidently been cleared out for your arrival. Still being on a ship though where space was at a premium and the beds were double stacked and inset into the walls, it would be sleeping like books on a shelf.

You’d walked down a ways past your sleeping friends to find some open ones. Naturally you started to climb into the top bunk, knowing Peter would need the bottom with his cast in the way.

But you didn’t even have both legs pulled in before he startled you by grabbing your ankle. “What?” You breathed in a whisper, not wishing to wake the others as you tried to look down at him in the dark. With the main lights off, there was only the faintest glow from small emergency type lights sparsely spaced along the walls.

Mostly you could just see the white of his teeth, knowing he was grinning back at you. In this moment it reminded you only of the Cheshire cat, mischievous and a little disconcerting.

“There’s room down here, goofball,” He whispered back.

“Peter,” You answered, the tone saying far more than the short response. You weren’t alone here, and it, well it just didn’t seem proper. With the immediate threat of death now finally passed (hopefully), it really felt more like being back at school for the moment. There were standards of behavior and-

“If one of Hank can fit in these, then two of us definitely will.” He was clearly unfazed by your sudden reservations, though seemed to realize the cause pretty quickly. “Raven doesn’t care. Where do you think Scott and Jean ended up? You didn’t even notice did you?”

You could hear the bit of amusement in his voice. But no, you didn’t count heads as you were walking by. Why would you? If Scott and Jean had made it into the same bunk already, it wasn’t your business.

Which, yes, admittedly if you felt that way, would the others be as okay with it for you and Peter? He’d rightly guessed that it was more the fear of being judged that made you hesitate, than actually being uncomfortable sleeping beside him. You’d already slept side by side in the helicopter on the way here after all, but that wasn’t quite the same as being in the same bed.

“Still waiting,” He reminded, squeezing your ankle lightly.

You knew if you actually said no, he would drop it. It was only your indecision that he was waiting for you to resolve. But, how often would you have this chance again? Thinking of it in those terms, you relented at last, climbing back down.

You could still see his smile in the dark, no doubt excited over the small victory as he scooted back as much as he could to allow you in.

Trying to get into a comfortable position was a little awkward at first, especially with his cast. But you eventually ended up both laying on your sides, your back against his chest as he wrapped an arm around you under your shared blanket.

You were quickly learning how much he seemed to be comforted by physical contact. It wasn’t long at all before his breathing steadied out and you realized he was fast asleep, his head nuzzled into the back of your neck.

The feeling was warm and pleasant though. Yourself following suit not long after, sleeping deeply at last for a long deserved rest.

——————————

When morning finally came, there was no real way to know it. There were no windows to let in the daylight. By the time you’d woken to hear the others’ voices and the fluorescent lighting buzzing back on when one of them hit the switch, you’d learned it was actually almost noon local time.

Which none of you were complaining about. But you were hungry now. Sleep had been the primary physical need beforehand, and with that now met, you needed some more calories to burn.

Peter especially. You could actually hear his stomach growling as you’d all gotten up and headed into the common bathroom to brush teeth, brush hair and the like with the standard toiletries they’d left in there for everyone.

“Yeah, I’m like a hummingbird basically,” He’d explained nonchalantly on your walk to the mess hall afterward. “I just haven’t fallen out yet here because I haven’t gotten to run since dickhead busted my leg. But normally yeah, high octane all the time to keep things going. My blood sugar tanks if I don’t keep snacking at least. Twinkies are a personal fave in the old survival kit.”

“Those are good,” Kurt agreed. “I like the little pies too,” He gestured a circle shape with his hands, “With the little...the dried purple fruit, what are those in English?”

“Raisins, my bro.” Peter responded. “Old raisin creme pie. I swap back and forth on those. Oatmeal pies are alright too, but you know where it’s really at is zebra cakes, man.”

“Zebra...cake?” Clearly Kurt was trying to envision in his head how a zebra would have anything to do with the naming of a cake.

“It’s got white icing with brown stripes,” You answered. You weren’t super into junk food, but you did grow up in the U.S., so a lot of this knowledge was entirely unavoidable.

“But zebras have black stripes?” Kurt replied with some bit of bemusement.

“I don’t think Little Debbie or Hostess are too concerned with accurate representations of wildlife.” Raven chimed in, halfway amused at the randomness of the topics you all came up with, but still looking quite unimpressed.

“They do have brown stripes when they’re juveniles, before they get their adult coat.” Hank corrected though, glancing down at her.

“So they should be called baby zebra cakes. Got it.” Scott finally piped up, though also clearly thinking this ridiculous.

Raven and Jean just exchanged a look of their own as Ororo glanced to you. “Is it always like this?”

“Pretty much,” You answered with a slight smile. It was good to see Peter meshing in so well with the others though, even if he was a little bit older. You hoped that whenever the school was rebuilt that he’d consider staying. Xavier always seemed to be able to make room for any young mutant willing to learn and also work as a mentor to the even younger kids.

You were all still chatting lightly as your group walked through the mess hall doors. But after being just the few of you for so many hours, it was a bit of a shock to see several tables worth of sailors look up at your sudden intrusion.

It was clear by the amount of still empty tables though, that this wasn’t near the normal occupancy rate. You remembered the Professor commenting that he thought a lot of the men had been forced to disembark to the mainland, just to make a larger bubble for you all.

And by all the expressions on the faces of those that were left, it seemed that most disagreed whole heartedly with that decision.

Your group quieted immediately, everyone picking up on those stares and the bit of whispering as you got in line together. The mess hall was set up cafeteria style, so you had to grab trays and slide them along, picking what you wanted as the kitchen staff would spoon out or serve whatever it was you’d chosen onto your tray.

“Maybe we should just take the food back to the barracks?” Kurt asked quietly, looking down with an evident bit of anxiety building.

“It’s okay,” Raven answered, “Just keep your head up. We won’t be long.”

You were conflicted though. You shouldn’t have to eat, segregated out of everyone else’s sight like some sort of criminals, just because your presence might offend someone. But then again, what purpose did it serve in the larger scheme of things if you antagonized these sailors into an avoidable confrontation right now?

As the Professor had said, tensions were already high. Throwing any spark into that powder keg couldn’t possibly end well.

Hank had volunteered to carry Peter’s tray for him, as Peter needed both hands to work his crutches. You were glad for that at least as you could only envision yourself dropping it all in spectacular fashion. Especially when Peter insisted on a triple portion of some kind of strawberry cake desert they’d had.

“I think we should go back to the bunks,” Jean spoke up though when you were all about to walk away from the line with your trays and drinks. “There’s one of them, he’s about to go off.”

You all paused, looking to Raven and Hank simultaneously, seemingly all deciding without speaking that they’d become the de facto leadership in the Professor’s absence.

“Fine,” Raven relented, obviously not wanting to roll over in this situation, but also remembering all you’d already been through recently. Just getting to eat in peace should be a reasonable thing to want.

But even turning the other cheek, didn’t seem to be enough.

“Hey!” One of the sailors called out before you could get close enough to the door.

“Keep walking.” Raven just directed.

“Do you even know what the rest of the world looks like right now!?” He kept on, standing up as his voice only grew louder. “My Mom and my little brother were in San Francisco. Their goddamn apartment building collapsed!”

Peter was the first one to stop, looking back then.

You could hear the tone in the man’s voice change though, and in that moment you knew he was not going to attack anyone. But it almost made it worse that he didn’t as his voice broke, nearly pleading to you all. “I don’t even know if they’re alive, if they made it out or not. The phones won’t work...no one can get through.”

“We didn’t do that,” Raven spoke up as calmly as she could, looking back to him as well then. “I’m sorry.”

“But you know who did, don’t you!?” He countered. “It was him. Wasn’t it? The one from Washington D.C. that could move metal. And he got away. You let him get away!”

The men next to the sailor were trying to pull him back down to sitting now, trying to remind him something about orders, making you realize they must have been given a similar talk as you all had. Don’t cause trouble, don’t antagonize, keep the peace because you’d been told to.

Even with two food trays in hand, Hank was now trying to usher you all through the mess hall doors just as intently as the man’s friends were trying to make him stop as well.

But Peter just twisted right out of Hank’s reach in a blur, calling back suddenly then. “It was Magneto. I’m sure it was. But he’s gone, man. He ran.” Peter looked pained, but shook his head. “His family was killed...but that doesn’t mean he had any right to take it out on the world. I hope you find your family. I really do, and I’m sorry.”

With that Peter shoved through the doors, going on ahead of you all and not looking back. His frustration was palpable as the crutches limited him. If his leg hadn’t been broken you doubted any of you would have seen him leave at all. Like he too wanted to run away now, instead of having to face the painful reality that this was.

——————————

Nothing was said about the incident for quite some time as you’d all eaten quietly in the barracks. The food was plain, the simple kinds of things that could be made in bulk to feed a large crew on a ship like this. Macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, rice, and the like.

You were sitting on the floor eating while Peter was sitting on his bottom bunk, now just picking at the strawberry cake he’d most wanted with a fork. “This was definitely some pre-made frozen crap they just defrosted and put whip cream on.” He commented in dry disappointment.

“Yeah, I guess it’d be hard to keep fresh strawberries for long on a boat,” You replied, sipping one of the soft drinks you’d brought back. At least these were canned to still be carbonated well, but it wasn’t all that cold anymore.

He smirked. “I’d go crazy living on this thing out at sea. Not too many steps up from a prison cell really.”

Though you could imagine submarine life would be even worse, you didn’t think he was far off base. “It takes a special kind of person to enlist that’s for sure.”

“Yeah,” Peter agreed, going back to silence for a while as he dissected the cake idly.

You’d about finished all your food before he spoke to you again.

“What do you really think of him, (Y/N)?” Peter asked you in a somber tone then. “I mean, am I an idiot for trying to get to know him? My whole life I thought about what it would have been like if we’d had a real dad. If it wasn’t just Mom stressed the hell out all the time trying to keep us from getting evicted, or me from getting arrested honestly, or her worrying about Wanda being depressed so much. It’s like we were always broken. I had this idea if we’d just had that missing piece of a father, that everything would have been fixed. But then I finally meet him, finally find out who he really is, and he’s just as fucked up as anyone.”

You moved your tray to the side, considering your words carefully as you got up to go sit beside Peter on the edge of the bed. “You’re not an idiot.” That was the easiest point to make first. “There’s nothing wrong with wanting to know who your parents are.” But the rest, that was muddled and complicated.

“I mean, that was the first time I’ve actually ever met him in person. So I only know the stories really.” You continued. “I know the Professor thinks highly of him. They’ve always been close.”

“Xavier punched my dad right in the damn face the first time I saw them together.” Peter responded, turning his head to look at you directly. “Knocked him on his ass actually.”

You blinked. “Um, well...I have heard their relationship has had its rough patches too. They disagree on a lot of things as well. But they always seem to care about each other in the end, when it’s all said and done.”

Peter laid the last of the cake back down on the floor, before laying back down behind you in the bunk. “So you’re saying that’s what I have to look forward to? Alternating between wanting to kick his ass, and wanting him to stick around and have a relationship together?”

You could only be honest. “Not really what I was going for, but, I mean, that’s kind of Erik right?”

“But he’s killed people hasn’t he? How do I get past that?”

That was really the hardest question of all, wasn’t it? And now the one probably weighing on Peter’s mind the most after the interaction with that upset sailor in the mess hall.

“His sins aren’t your sins, Peter.” Was what you finally said, sighing and looking at your hands now in your lap. “Erik has lost so much too. His parents, your grandparents, I know they died at Auschwitz. The Professor told us that. And they experimented on Erik, tortured him to try and use his powers as a weapon. Erik ended up killing the man most responsible for that. But Xavier had tried to stop him anyway and ended up paralyzed for it. It was an accident though.”

You could feel Peter shift behind you, sitting up slightly in the bunk. It was most likely that he’d never heard any of this. You hated that it had to come secondhand from you. That you, this random mutant would know more about his own father’s history than himself.

But you continued. “And then what he told us in Egypt, about his wife and daughter....I mean, my God. Like you said, it doesn’t mean he can just go around hurting everyone else just because of what’s been done to him. But what would anyone else really do? How can we say where our own breaking points would be?” You weren’t trying to absolve him by any means, but how could you sit here and judge him either?

“Yeah,” Peter answered, sounding distant. “I mean, I tried not to think about it too much, everything was already so messed up. But I’ve got to tell Wanda all of this too at some point. And I don’t know how. We had a little sister, and she’s already gone. How do you...how do you even process that when you didn’t even get to meet them? How do you get closure?”

You heard him moving around like he was wiping at his face with his hands. You didn’t think he was crying, but maybe his eyes were trying to build up something that he wasn’t willing to allow yet.

“Can we just lay here for a bit?” He asked you after another moment.

“Sure,” You answered, laying back down in the bunk with him. This time you didn’t care if the others would pay any mind or not. He needed someone right now.

You were just laying the same way you’d slept last night with your back to his chest. But after a while you felt him tug at your side.

“Turn around,” He asked.

You did hesitate momentarily, knowing how much more personal that would be in the confines of the small bunk. But you allowed it, rolling over so that now you were nearly face to face, torsos touching as he wrapped his good leg over you before pulling up the blanket.

“Hey,” He smirked, seeming to cheer up at your awkward look. Your stomach flipped as you thought he was going in for a kiss, but he just ended up kissing your forehead once before pulling back.

Whatever expression you made then got a real laugh out of him.

“I was just going to tell you thank you.” He said teasingly, before leaning back in to whisper in your ear, “But you look kind of disappointed...did you want a little more?”

There was no question you were fully flustered now as you felt that heat rising in your face yet again. You’d have to make a mental note to apologize to Jean later if she was getting any of this broadcast to her. But then again, she did live in a house full of teenagers doing God knows what at any given time. Maybe she was already used to it. But you didn’t even want to think about Xavier possibly picking up on your current emotional panic either, that would be mortifying.

Sensing your spiraling distraction, Peter lightly touched one fingertip to the end of your nose. “Boop. Earth to (Y/N), have we lost signal? Overheated the engines already?”

You blinked. “That’s not funny.”

“Oh, it’s hilarious. And still waiting, dear. Always waiting...”

To be honest, when you finally kissed him, it was more just to wipe that smug look off his face. But on second thought, maybe that had been his plan all along. To taunt you into action. But it worked. It worked extremely well, as you’d both closed your eyes. His hand pressed into your back, making sure you stayed tight against him as you’d let it happen again and again. One kiss after another.

It’d been different too. The first ones back in Cairo had been so desperate more than anything, just a burst of emotion like a dying wish when neither of you had really expected to make it out of that desert.

While this now was far slower, much more thought behind each. It did make you forget everything else for those moments except the taste and feel of him.

But as much as you liked the sensations, you also knew you had to be the one to steer you both back out of it. When you felt his hand starting to move under your shirt, sliding up greedily across your bare skin, you realized he was already wanting more. And this wasn’t the place, not the time. Not yet at least. You weren’t immune to those feelings either, but it’d be much better if you waited. As much as you knew he hated waiting...

You’d pulled your lips away, but he then only moved to kissing your neck instead as you had to speak his name to try and call him back out of it. “Peter.”

“Mmm?” He responded after a moment, at least pausing, even though his lips were still touching against your throat.

You tugged his hair a little to try and get him to look back up at you.

He resisted slightly, not a lot, but you knew he was stalling as best he could before he finally relented. “Stop sign comes out huh?” He breathed, though not upset, just clearly having trouble coming out of the mood as his hand slid back out of your shirt to rest only on top of your clothes.

“Not exactly enough privacy here,” you responded quietly. Which was of course a huge understatement as the others were probably just out of earshot right now. If you were lucky anyway.

“It’s a big ship, babe. I’m sure we can find a place,” He joked, but only partially you were sure. As you really thought if you said the word right now, he’d make it his mission to find such a place immediately.

You toyed with his hair a little more, moving the messy silver strands out away from his eyes. “I think it’s getting to be pretty inevitable if you really want to know the truth.”

He leaned into the touch, just kissing your hand once more as your palm neared too close to his mouth. “You make it really tough either way, I’ll say that.”

You knew better than to lecture this one on the virtue of patience. But this was already the most physical you’d ever been with anyone as it was, and all so soon. Yet you knew it was only a matter of time. These new feelings were only growing. None of this would be fading any time soon.

You just laid your head back on his shoulder after a while, speaking to him, “Hey, after we’ve cooled down a bit more here, you want to see if anyone will allow us on the flight deck? It’d be nice to see the ocean at least before the sun goes back down. Get some fresh air.”

“Romantic stroll in the ocean breeze you say? Well maybe more a romantic hobble for me.” He chuckled dryly. “I’m game.”

——————————

(Continued in next chapter here)

[him-e]

what did you think of shadow and bone? have you read the books? i only read the duology

Thoughts on Shadow and Bone, now that you've probably seen it?

I think the show is alright? It lacks a real wow factor as far as I’m concerned, but it’s enjoyable. It’s especially enjoyable in those parts I didn’t anticipate to like / didn’t even know would be there. 

Whereas the main selling points leave a lot to be desired.

The good stuff: the visuals. The aesthetic. The overall concept. Production, casting and costumes are excellent, the setting is fascinating. The worldbuilding isn’t perfect and is sometimes confusing, which is probably due to the show jumping ahead of the books and introducing elements that happen much later in the book saga, but I’m loving the vague steampunk-y vibe of it mixed with more typical fantasy stuff and slavic-inspired lore, the fact that it’s set in dystopian Russia rather than your usual ye olde England.

I find it interesting that in this ‘verse the Grisha are simultaneously superstars, privileged elite, legendary creatures and despised outcasts, according to the context and the type of magic they wield. It’s A Lot, and so far it’s all a bit underdeveloped and messy, like a patchwork of different narratives and tropes sewn together without an organic worldbuilding structure. (there are hints to a past when they were hunted, but how did they go from that to being, essentially, an institutionalized asset to the government isn’t clear yet. There’s huge narrative potential in this, and I hope future seasons will delve into those aspects)

Many of the supporting characters are surprisingly solid. I appreciated that Genya and Zoya eventually sort of traded places, subverting the audience’s assumptions about them and their own character stereotypes, despite the little screentime they were given.

Breakout characters/ships for me were Nina/Matthias, and even more so the Crows, i.e. the stuff I didn’t see coming and knew nothing about (having only read the first book). (I thought the entire Crows subplot was handled in a somewhat convoluted way, at least in the first episodes; it was hard to keep track of who wanted Alina and why, but the Crows’ chemistry is so strong it carried the whole Plot B on its shoulders).

HELNIK. As an enemies to lovers dynamic, Helnik was SUPER on the nose, I’d say bordering on clichéd with the unapologetic, straight outta fanfiction use of classic tropes like “we need to team up to survive” and “there’s only one bed and we’ll freeze to death if we don’t take our conveniently damp clothes off and keep each other warm with the heat of our naked bodies” (not that I’m complaining, but i like to pine for my ships a bit before getting to the juicy tropetown part, tyvm). And then they’re suddenly on opposite sides again because of a tragic misunderstanding - does Bardugo hate high-conflict dynamics? It certainly seems so, because between Helnik and Darklina I’m starting to see a pattern where the slow burn and blossoming mutual trust is rushed and painted in broad, stereotypical strokes to get as fast as possible to the part where they *hate each other again* and that’s... huh. Something.

^That’s probably why I’m almost more interested in Kaz x Inej, because their relationship feels a bit more nuanced, a bit more mysterious, and a bit more unpredictable. (I didn’t bother spoiling myself about them, so I really don’t know where they’re going, but it’s refreshing to see a dynamic that the narrative isn’t scrambling to define in one direction or the other as quickly as possible)

-

Now, as for Darklina VS Malina... I found exactly what I expected. 

Both are ship dynamics I’m, on principle, very much into (light heroine/dark villain, pining friends to lovers) but both are also much less interesting than they claim to be, or could have been with different narrative choices. I’ll concede that the show characters are all more fleshed out and likable than their book counterparts, and the cringe parts I vaguely remembered from the books played out differently. And, well, Ben Barnes dominates the scene, he’s hot as HELL, literally every single second he’s on screen is a fuck you to Bardugo’s attempts to make his character lame and uninteresting and I’m LOVING it, lol.

But yeah, B Barnes aside, Darklina is intrinsically, deliberately made to be unshippable. 

It makes me mad, because it’s - archetypally speaking - made of shipping dynamite: yin/yang-sun and moon, opposites attract, COMPLEMENTARY POWERS AND SO ON. And what does Bardugo do with these ingredients? A FUCKING DELIBERATE DISASTER:

^ Placing the kiss so early on (season 1, episode five) effectively kills the romantic tension that was (correctly) building up until that point, and leaves the audience very little to still hope for, in terms of emotional evolution of the dynamic. 

Bardugo lays all the good stuff down as early and quickly as possible (the bonding, the conflicted attraction, the recognizing the other as one’s equal, etc) only to turn the tables and pull the rug so y’all sick creepyshippers won’t have anything to look forward to, because THEY’VE ALREADY HOOKED UP AND THAT BELONGS TO THE PAST, IT’S OVER, THEY’RE ENEMIES. This, combined to the fact that she falls for him *without* knowing who he really is, is the opposite of what I want from a heroine/villain ship (it’s basically lovers to enemies, and while that can be valid too, I wanted to see more pining and more prolonged, tormented symbolic attraction to the Shadow/Animus on Alina’s part). 

But here’s the trick: it’s not marketed as lovers to enemies - it has all the aesthetics and trappings of an enemies to lovers (the Darkling is, from the get go, villain-presenting, starting from his name), so it genuinely feels like a trollfic, or at the very least a cautionary tale *against* shipping the heroine with the tall dark brooding young villain, and I don’t think it’s cool at all. It makes the story WAY less interesting, because it humanizes the villain early on (when it’s not yet useful or poignant to the story, because it’s unearned) but it’s a red herring. The real plot twist is that the villain shouldn’t be sympathized with, just defeated: there’s a promise of nuanced storytelling, that is quickly denied and tossed aside. So is the idea of incorporating your Shadow (a notion that Bardugo must be familiar with, otherwise she wouldn’t have structured Alina and the Darkling as polar opposites who complement each other, but that she categorically refutes)

Then we have Malina. The good ship.

Look, I’m not that biased against it. I don’t want to be biased on principle against a friends to lovers dynamic that antagonizes a heroine/villain one, because every narrative is different, and for personal reasons I can deeply relate to the idea of being (unspeakably) in love with your best friend. So there are aspects of Malina that I can definitely be into, but it troubles me that in this specific context it’s framed as a regression. It’s Alina’s comfort zone, a fading dream of happiness from an idealized childhood, to sustain which the heroine systematically stunts her growth and literally repressed her own powers, something that in the books made her sickly and weak. But the narrative weirdly romanticizes this codependency, often making her tunnel vision re: going back to Mal her primary goal and centering on him her entire backstory/motivation, to the point that when she starts acting more serious re: her powers and alleged mission to destroy the Fold, it feels inorganic and unearned. 

Mal is intrinsically extraneous to Alina’s powers, he doesn’t share them, he doesn’t understand them, he has little to offer to help her with them, and so the feeling is that he’s also extraneous to her heroine’s journey, aside from being a sort of sidekick or safe harbor to eventually come back to. People have compared him to Raoul from Phantom of the Opera, and yeah, he has the same ~magic neutralizer~ vibe, tbh.

The narrative also polarizes Mal’s normalcy and relative “safety” against Aleksander’s sexy evil, framing Alina’s quasi-platonic fixation on the former as a better and purer form of love than her (much more visible and palpable) attraction to the latter. This is exacerbated by the show almost entirely relying on scenes of them as kids to convey their bond. I’m sure there are ways to depict innocent pining for your best friend that don’t involve obsessively focusing on flashbacks of two CHILDREN running in a meadow and looking exactly like brother and sister. LIKE. I get it, they’re like soulmates in every possible way, BUT DO THEY WANT TO KISS EACH OTHER?

Which brings me to a general complain: for a young adult saga centering on a young heroine and full of so many hot people, this story is weirdly unsexy? There are a lot of shippable dynamics, but they’re done in such a careless, ineffective way that makes ZERO EFFORT to work on stuff like slow burn, pining and romantic tension, and when it does it’s so heavy handed that the viewer doesn’t feel encouraged at all to fill the blanks with their imagination and start anticipating things (which is, imo, the ESSENCE of shipping). The one dynamic that got vaguely close to this is, again, Kaz and Inej, and coincidentally it’s also the one we didn’t get confirmed as romantic YET. Other than that, where’s the slow burn? What ship am I supposed to agonize over during the hiatus to season two? Has shipping become something to feel ashamed of, like an embarrassing relative you no longer want to invite in your home?

Anyway, back to Alina/Darkling/Mal, this is how the story reads to me:

girl suspects to be special, carefully pretends to be normal so she can stay with Good Boy

the girl’s powers eventually manifest; she’s forcibly separated from Good Boy

the girl’s powers attract Bad Boy who is her equal and opposite but is also a major asshole

girl initially falls for Bad Boy; has to learn a hard lesson that nobody that sexy will ever want her for who she is, he’s just trying to exploit her

also, no, there is no such thing as a Power Couple

girl is literally given a slave collar by Bad Boy through which he harnesses her power (a parody of the Twin Scars trope)

you know how the story initially suggested that the joint powers of Darkness and Light would defeat evil? LOL NO, Darkness is actually evil itself and the way you destroy evil is using Light to destroy Darkness, forget that whole Jungian bullshit of integrating your shadow, silly!

conclusion: girl realizes being special sucks. She was right all along! Hiding and suppressing her powers was the best choice! She goes back to the start, to the same Good Boy she was meekly pining for prior to the start of the story.

... there’s an uncomfortable overall subtext that reads a lot like a cautionary tale against - look, not just against darkships and villain/heroine pairings, but also *overpowered* heroines and, well... change? Growth?

Like, it’s certainly a Choice that Alina starts the story *already* in love with Mal. That she always knew it was him. The realization could have happened later (making the dynamic much more shippable, too), but no. 

[ianthe-is-a-bitch-and-i-love-her]

On Education

An excerpt from Memoirs of a Flesh Eater, never published.

Previous Excerpt

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I think every parent struggles with the question of when they should teach their children hard truths. At some point, every child needs to learn about death. They need to learn about hatred. They need to learn about the horrors people will inflict on them for being different. This is something that is as true for ghouls as it is for humans. For most people, it is a fact of life that someone will hate you for existing.

Human-on-human prejudice is still something I don’t fully understand. At least humans have a reason to hate us. I don’t know why they go looking for reasons to hate each other too.

Educating ghouls is a challenge. We need to know about ourselves, of course. We need to know about our kind - our needs, our history, our ways of moving through human society - but we need to learn everything that humans learn too. The more we can fit seamlessly into the human world, the safer we are. You probably don’t know this, what with how much the news loves a story about a ghoul living in secret among humans, their murders exposed to the shock of their friends and acquaintances, but those of us who are brought up among humans don’t get found out very often. It’s the feral children, the big city packs that still hunt most of their food, the all-ghoul communes, that are easier targets for the exterminators. Those of us that are fully integrated are much harder to sniff out, unless we seriously fuck up.

{Editing Note: Don’t say fuck. Even though it’s a really good word}

The best way to make sure a ghoul can pass as human is to start us young. Get us into kindergarten, then elementary school, and keep going all the way through college. There’s nothing better than hands-on training. That’s what my mom did for me, mostly. I was raised in human society, in the human public school system, and I’ve never had a true close call. I’ve never caught the eye of an exterminator, and no human has ever asked me pointed questions about my habits or diet.

For the sake of completeness, I should say that I was in the human public school system for everything except for middle school. It’s not like that’s a great loss, though - everything I’ve heard about middle school sounds like hell. I don’t know how any of you survived going through puberty in front of all your peers.

{Editing Note: I am not talking about ghoul puberty unless I can find a reliable human to tell me what their puberty was like. If I wrote about something that I thought was ghoul-specific but is actually normal I’d die on the spot. I’d call a fucking exterminator on myself.}

Conventional schooling might be the best setup for success, but it’s also the most dangerous route. Kids talk, and that’s as true for us as it is for you. It takes a lot of work to make a child understand that there are some things you can never tell anyone, not even your closest friends, not ever. It’s not a fun burden to grow up carrying either. I’ve known the fear of death for literally longer than I can remember. I’ve known that letting myself be truly honest and vulnerable with any of my classmates would bring it to me and my parents before the day was over {Editing Note: True vulnerability is what I need now, though. I should find a place to talk about my dad}. It’s more loneliness than any child should ever grow up with. I was lucky; I found Scarlet in 4th grade. There are plenty of ghoul children that don’t find each other until high school, if there are even any other ghoul children to be found.

Some parents decide that the risk is too great. They’d rather have alive children than well-adjusted children, so they homeschool them {Editing Note: Okay, that’s way too harsh. Don’t be biased}. I did get to experience this approach for those couple of years when I wasn’t in middle school, and it does have some advantages other than safety. When I was in public school, my mom had to find time after school to teach me about our people. In a homeschool setting, ghoul studies could actually be integrated into our curriculum. It wasn’t completely asocial, either - ghoul parents often use their Society connections to find other ghoul children that are homeschooling so we can learn together. I met my second best friend, Scorpio, because we were homeschooled together.

{Editing Note: My friends are going to read this. I need to make it super clear that Scorpio is the second best friend I made chronologically. I’m not ranking my friends in front of the entire world.}

Scorpio’s a good friend, but he’s also a good case study for the drawbacks of homeschooling. He was homeschooled K through 12 and he is definitely the worst of my friends at passing. He has no idea what’s normal for ghouls vs normal for humans, so he compensates by either saying nothing or saying the most obvious, outlandish lies you could imagine when childhood comes up in conversation. In his defense, those lies are usually pretty funny, and he does connect pretty well with the right kind of people. Scorpio’s got a bunch of very specific subjects that he knows a ton about and loves to talk about. He and Scarlet can go on for hours about literary theory.

{Editing Note: That’s too meandering. I’m just trying to explain why some ghouls homeschool and some don’t - I don’t need to put my weird friends on blast.}

There’s another kind of formal schooling for ghouls that’s much, much rarer - the ghoul private school. The only one I even knew of, St. Raymond’s, was shut down last year by exterminators. Normally I’d tell you to take the lurid details you hear on the news with a healthy pinch of salt, and I still would, but that many rich young ghouls, completely cut off from the rest of humanity… it’s hard to predict what becomes normalized in that kind of echo chamber.

Fortunately, my patron knows more people than I do, so I have more to offer you than grim speculation. According to her, these kinds of places always have a very small student body, rarely breaking a hundred. The lesson content is pretty similar to homeschool - fully integrated ghoul curriculum, plus a few specialized lessons on blending into human society. Out of necessity, they’re almost always boarding schools. It’s easier to keep a low profile if you don’t have a bunch of ghoul kids not used to hiding going to and from the campus every day.

Apparently, it’s that kind of logistical challenge that makes these schools so rare. Aside from all the money you need to run a school in the first place, and how careful you need to be to pass scrutiny from the Board of Education, providing discretely for the needs of that many ghouls is an organizational nightmare. I mean, there’s a reason that ghoul families are so small, a reason why even our extended households rarely do more than scrape the double digits. There’s only so much flesh that can be safely obtained in one area at a time. There aren’t a lot of ghouls that have the resources and the inclination to put one of these schools together.

There is, of course, one more ways that ghouls are educated - the school of hard knocks {Editing Note: That’s such a trivializing way to put it. Have some sensitivity, me}. Given how short our average life expectancy is, it’s inevitable that some ghoul children have to fend for themselves from a very young age. I doubt it comes as a surprise that most of them don’t manage to integrate into human society very well. The lucky ones figure out early on how to kill discreetly, how to hide their nature from observers, and how to vary their hunting patterns enough to avoid the attention of the exterminators. The rest either starve quietly or die violently.

Most of these feral ghouls who survive to be teenagers eventually find each other and form packs. From a pure survival standpoint, this is a bad move. A group of feral teenage ghouls have a much harder time covering their tracks than they would as individuals, but for most, the chance at companionship is too tempting. It’s miserable, being alone in the world. Packs offer most of them the best chance to escape loneliness that they’ll ever get. And for most of them, it ends in a shallow grave within a year. Putting down a pack of feral ghouls is a good headline for an exterminator, and it’s a lot less work than trying to ferret out those of us who’ve figured out how to pass. That isn’t how the majority of ghouls die, but it’s how a plurality of us do.

For those few feral ghouls that survive to adulthood, their lives take one of three paths. Sometimes they find a patron and fall in with a household, and they do their best to heal from the trauma of their childhood. They do their best to find a happy life in human society, just like those of us who were luckier. Sometimes they become true Hunters, living their lives on the outskirts of our Society; still embraced by us, if only at an arm’s length. I’ll talk more about them later.

And sometimes, they become the Lost. Not that ghouls from any walk of life are immune to that fate, but… I’ll get to them later too. You may not have heard of them by that name, but I guarantee you’ve heard of the Lost.

{Editing Note: That’s a really grim note to end the chapter on. I should play with the structure a bit and find a more uplifting note to leave this subject on.}

{Editing Note: Or I could ask Kestrel. I’m sure she’d have ideas on how to better write the section on feral ghouls, and she could help me strike a more authentic tone. But… I don’t want to upset her. She doesn’t like to think about it, and I don’t want to hurt her. Is this important enough? Would she think it’s important enough?}

[ballet-symphonie]

I'm curious about the dynamics of ballet company friendships. Without any personal experience, all I have is the drama of the books, films and series. And it's always a cesspool of backstabbing people who will stop at nothing to move ahead. I am pretty sure this is not an accurate representation at all and I'd love your thoughts on this. Is it possible to have enduring relationships inside a company? Even when someone is promoted and another one is "left behind"? I understand competition for so very little spots is fierce but is it a healthy competition? Compared to ballet academy, where do you think it's harder to navigate?

Hm it's an interesting question, I don't think one is harder than the other, just different. Ballet in the media does tend to dramatize everything. In ballet school, it's fiercely competitive because you're all fighting to get the teacher's attention, to get leading parts, to get top marks, to get a job. Combining young, determined but immature teenagers, with often pushy parents and a very demanding environment often results in a lot of chaos. There's a lot of jealousy, petty drama, favoritism, and definitely some backstabbing, even if it's less explicit than shown on screen. I have definitely seen some scandals though, the most egregious being stealing someone's music before a competition, soaking pointe shoes, and destroying costumes. However, because you spend so much time together and you understand that each one of your classmates have the same goal as you, the bonds you make are so strong. My closest friends from the school are friends I'll have for life; some are at the same theatre as me, others are literally all over the world.

The company is different, it's a place for adults, not children. There's no parental interference and the structure of the company itself does help negate some drama. For instance, if Swan Lake is coming up, the vast majority of the company does NOT expect to be cast as O/O, because the majority of dancers aren't principals. In school, everyone in the graduating class plus the top half of the junior class (and the parents of these students) would often not only expect to get O/O but the parents would think that they deserve to. So adults are more realistic, have a better understanding of their own standing in the company. However, the competition to get out of the corps is especially intense because the workload is so grueling. And you feel like there are SO MANY people, how to make yourself stand out? Of course, there's also the favoritism and sponsorship to contend with as well. It's a lot of similar problems honestly. Although you make a lot of friends and deal with the endless group scene rehearsals together, it mostly tends to be friends around your age. There is a joke that the longer you spend in the corps, the more bitter you get. I think it's partially true. Some older corps members were really kind to me when I joined, helping me to learn the choreography and company expectations. Others were...less than helpful.

However, in my first year as a soloist, I feel much more isolated. Usually, I'm rehearsing by myself or in small groups. I have a different dressing room now. I still see my friends in class around the theatre but it's a bit more separate than being surrounded by the camaraderie of the corps. Some of my acquaintances have drifted after I got promoted, but I think this is only human nature. It's easy to be jealous, and the good friends who really support you stick around. One of my classmates got promoted with me and we have always been close. I have my personal coach of course and there is a principal that has taken me under his wing a bit and he helps me out some but I'm not really super close to other principals or soloists yet. I really enjoyed myself rehearsing the trio of shades because I got acquainted with some of the other soloists gradually. However, I dance in a company with a lot of dancers, and I'm sure the dynamic is different if there are fewer people. The competition is still intense, and it becomes narrower. In the corps, I was thinking ok how do I make myself stand out from the masses. Now, I know exactly who I'm 'competing with" and who I'm being 'compared with' for the future. I feel like it's more head-to-head competition.

[mallowstep]

first go at making a cat development chart

been writing mothkit, hawkkit, and frogkit (my beloveds <3) so. cross-referencing several sources on both cat and human developmental milestones, here goes.

this is totally something i'm likely to revise and adjust as time goes on. this leans on accuracy, so i haven't smooshed anything for narrative convenience, but i find for kits you usually have to.

newborns

like human newborns. the first week is actually a little bit: so newborn kits can't see or hear, which is different from newborn humans. but you know. it's roughly the same.

week one

week one is when ears are opening. so far, human infants are still ahead. that won't last. but kits still can't do much more than take in info.

week two

eyes are opening! their vision isn't great but when you couldn't see anything, something is always good. i like to pin the earliest baby speech here. of course, from the pov of kits, i tend to write them speaking big proper sentences. babies are so sure they are saying stuff. it's adorable.

so we're up to about a month old child.

week three

kits start to toddle. they're going to be investigating the nursery, and, weather and parents permitting, outside the nursery. their senses are still not great, but they're much better. they look more like cats and less like beans, but still are solidly bean shaped.

their caregivers are going to be able to put together most of what they're saying, even if the kits are still speaking in mostly babbling.

four to six month old infant. maybe closer to a year? you can't draw great direct comparisons really because humans and cats get skills not in the same order.

week four

kits start to be weaned. their teeth come out. we're up to more or less understanding and being understood, although they're still children.

they look mostly like cats, and start to act like cats. they still can't groom themselves very well, but they're trying, and their movement is much improved.

they play! their play looks like cat play, even if it's a little clunky. riverclan kits are first introduced to water, although they're not taught to swim yet.

about three years old. from now i can start to make better direct comparisons.

week five

kits can take care of their own basic needs, although most won't be fully weaned at this point. and "take care" by which i mean they can, not that they should. just because your kid can make a sandwich at three doesn't mean you leave them alone in the kitchen.

their social structure as a litter is pretty developed, and they're beginning to get the deeper social structure of clan life. this is when they stop being annoying to warriors who don't like kits. (mostly.)

they're speaking in full sentences, and starting to play more complex games.

about five years old, although again? direct comparisons still aren't amazing, just roughly trying to give myself markers to hang dialogue and memories on.

weeks six and seven

not much changes! i'm shooting for six years, roughly.

this is about when permanent memories start to form, although they'll still be pretty hazy, and not well remembered.

week eight (moon two)

kits are cat shaped! their eyes are filled in, and their baby teeth are all out.

solid permanent memories form from now on. stories transition from fun to educational (but still fun). windclan kits start to learn hymns. riverclan cats start to learn how to swim.

kits are growing up! their human age equivalent starts to slow down. they're around seven or eight.

moon three

not a ton of super interesting developmental milestones at this point. they're kids.

they do start to have more and more unsupervised time (unless you're in riverclan), and they start to get excited about being apprentices. they might "help" with camp chores, from helping take old bedding out of dens to running messages across camp.

kits have a lot of energy and they don't have a lot to do with it, so they get into the most trouble around this age. they also tend to be irritated by their younger denmates.

we're at around nine.

moons four and five

kits start to direct their energy into more focused activities. things like practising hunting, sneaking out of camp, or playing with younger kits. they might start to play with apprentices again (if the apprentices are young and have energy), and they can irritate warriors by being very energetic.

a lot of kits start to do things like take food to the elders and queens, and thunderclan and shadowclan kits are learning how to tell stories. riverclan kits might start to weave flowers.

kits might go on short excursions outside of camp. thunderclan kits might sneak out of camp, but stay in the ravine, with warriors turning a blind eye.

windclan has the easiest camp to leave, and so kits racing games start to push that boundary. riverclan and shadowclan medicine cats might take kits on close to camp herb/flower/moss/etc. gathering trips, provided the kits are sufficiently responsible.

many queens start to return to warrior duties, provided there are enough eyes in the nursery.

still around nine or ten year old child, but a mature one.

moon six

brief break from the pattern: apprentices! i use 12yo as a rough guideline for this because it feels appropriate. that said, some kits are going to act a little immature from being in a fully structured environment.

while cats play in the worst of conditions, training burns a lot of energy, so the troublemaking that kits get up to starts to fade.

moons eight and nine

apprentices continue training. they start to develop their own specializations, here. a cat inclined towards the nursery might start offering to kit-watch, etc.

crushes transition from kit crushes to more "adult" feelings, although serious courting behaviour won't start for a few more moons. still, some childhood romance tropes are going to start pairing off.

social drama gets more complex.

around 13yo, 14yo.

moons nine to twelve

warriors finish their training. as apprentices, they're now allowed to go on solo missions. courting might get serious, although the clans don't consider cats capable of being serious mates until they have their full names.

by the end of this, we're roughly 15 to 17yo. i say roughly because (a) larger cats physically mature slower, and (b) cats are physically and mentally a bit out of sync. they're almost fully grown, much like an older teen: they don't expect to get much larger, just maybe put a bit more muscle on.

but mentally, they're still fairly young.

year two

i end this with: by the end of year two, cats are considered "full" adults, responsible enough to have an apprentice, or their own kits. it's typical for mates to demonstrate serious courting activities, something that varies on the clan.

medicine cats get their full name about halfway through, six months after their littermates. they're given a lot of autonomy in their final six months, much like the residency of a human doctor.

(altho not quite as residents are technically full doctors. kind of. but for that to be a perfect analogy, medicine cats would get their full name with their littermates, but still not have full autonomy.)

by the end of year two, cats are around 25yo: fully developed, physically and mentally.

(albeit, larger cats take longer to finish growing. thunderclan cats might continue to grow subtly until three or four years, and riverclan cats might for three years. while they lose the designation "junior warrior" at two years like their smaller compatriots, they're less likely to have kits until they're three or four years old.)

the rest of their life

maturation slows down a lot at this point: cats will stay "young adults" for most of their life. warriors will be called senior warriors usually around 4yo, but the specific marker for that can vary on clan and the warrior's maturity.

around eight, they might start to slow down. they've accrued some battle injuries, maybe long-lasting ones. queens might have one more litter, but that's probably it.

cats who get a major injury around eight are likely to retire: they're old enough that relearning skills is difficult, and they've given a lot in service of their clan.

most warriors retire around ten, although it's always a personal decision. nursery queens might not retire until they're twelve or older, since they tend to have less injuries, and they're not necessarily doing the most active part of child rearing.

medicine cats have a tendency to work to death, but they typically retire around fifteen.

and then it's the elders den, and they start telling kits stories, completing the cycle.