#and given that she jumped into an assistant role maybe she wants to have purpose? to be useful? to contribute to something greater?

[i-spilled-my-soup]

doing close reading of the titans curse to study for a time travel au and augh. auguuuagh

[mitts2002]

There’s nothing wrong with maid outfits!

Inumaki and (Y/N) play with maid outfits while everyone’s out on a mission or so they thought.

I feel like Inumaki would definitely be the type to play around in a maid outfit especially after that jujutsu scroll.

Most students at jujustu tech had been out on a mission besides (Y/N) and Toge who were currently watching anime in his little dorm.

"TOGEE I'm kinda bored can we go out and do something please?" You asked tired of watching maid sama for almost 3 hours straight. The white haired male stretched and simply nodded in response.

The pair had gotten ready quickly grabbing their keys, phones and money before leaving the premises. "I kinda wanna go shopping, ever since nobara got here seeing her with 10 million bags has given me the urge to go on a spree, but don't tell her we went without her I know she'd kill me" you calmly rambled on and on grabbing Toge's hand as you both walked to the nearest town center.

After a full 2 hours of shopping, eating and drinking milkshakes you and Toge decided to call it a day. You waffled on to the small boy as he nodded and gave small hums to let you know he was listening but something caused him to halt in his step.

"Shake shake" Toge's large eyes glistened as he pointed at the shop window a beautiful monochrome maid outfit displayed for everyone to see.

"What's up toge, do you want it?" You reluctantly asked unsure if that was what he was implying or not.

The purple eyed male huffed and grabbed your hand pulling you inside the shop. The moment you entered you felt nervousness arise being surrounded by more mature customers as the shop was clearly targeted for those interested in lingerie. You jumped too focused on the beautiful lace designs and patterns and ribbons to notice the young worker walking towards you both to give her greetings.

“Hi welcome! before i ask if you need any assistance is it okay if check your ID“ the brunette asked politely waiting for one of us to pull it out. Luckily you had just turned 18 the month before and already had applied for a provisional lisence as getting escorted out of a lingerie shop was not something you wanted to do today.

“Sure!“ you pulled out your ID and showed it to the woman before she proceeded to ask if there was anything she could help with. Panic quickly arose as you wasn’t exactly sure what you were in here for. I mean why on earth would Inumaki Toge want a maid outfit in the first place?

Toge looked at you as if telling you to say yes we need help so you willingly obliged. “well are you looking for something specific or going with the flow?” the woman asked chirpily as I once again looked at toge.

It all started to click when he pulled out his phone and showed me a picture of maid sama, pointing at not only himself but me aswell. “I think he wants to get maid outfits for the both of us” You said blushing and slightly embarrassed at the situation you were currently in.

“ooh I see well that’s not a problem we actually have some really nice designs that just came in. let me show you“ she replied walking to different sections of the shop and picking up some of the outfits that she thought would suit the couple.

“Tuna” Toge tugged on my sleeve pointing at the maid outfit he saw in the shop window then motioning back to the wonderful woman helping us. “excuse me um do you have any more of the ones that is displayed in the window” I asked politely. Honestly the things you did for this stupidly adorable boy.

“YES personally I think that’s a great choice! would you like 2 of them or just 1?“ she squeaked out as Toge put up a single finger to say he wanted one. After finally deciding which one I would purchase and trying out the dresses to get the right sizes we bought the clothes and thanked the store assistant who was way too patient with the indecisive pair. God bless that woman.

“Toto why did you want these anyways?“ You asked on the way home realising you bought them with no idea why, although buying expensive outfits wasn’t exactly an issue as you had Gojo sensei’s card.

‘after watching maid sama don’t you wanna play around in some maid outfits‘ Toge signed a cheeky little chuckle escaping his lips. ‘plus who doesn’t like wasting Gojo sensei’s money on random things‘ he added causing you both to erupt into laughter.

Once you both returned to the dorms you put all the things you bought away except for the maid outfits which Toge insisted you both wore today as everyone was out and likely to return later on.

“Well what do you think Toge“ you did a little twirl after getting your dress on. The design was simple and fluffy with decorative lace on the frills as you didn’t really want anything too revealing. “shake!“ Toge gave a thumbs up before putting his dress on and asking “takana?“

You could’ve sworn you choked on your own spit at the sight of him. The dress rested on his mid thigh and unsurprisingly the monochrome dress complimented his off white hair and black curse marks perfectly, it looked incredibly cute on his small form. He smiled at your reaction and turned around signalling to tie the back which you did for him in a nice ribbon.

"Now that we got these on what should we do?" You looked at yourself in the mirror still in disbelief that you and your boyfriend was actually doing this.

'Well I have a bunch of ideas! Let's recreate some scenes from the anime, oh we better take cute ass pictures too but make sure no one sees them It'll be our little secret and then let's bake some cakes while acting like actual maids serving our master' Toge quickly signed as you laughed at all his weird yet brilliant ideas. They sounded fun so why not? And how could anyone complain when the end result would be cake?

After taking various videos and pictures admiring the beauty you both displayed is these dresses you decided there was only one thing left to do. bake!

“well head maid Toge, what type of cake would master like? chocolate? OH maybe a red velvet?“ You stayed in role trying hard not to burst out in laughter

‘well my darling apprentice maid (Y/N) masters favourite cake happens to be red velvet! for your first day your not doing too bad‘ he signed back to me his acting over the top and movements large. “You know Toge you should take up acting i’m sure you’d be great at it“ you mocked unable to keep your laugh in as he smacked the back of your head.

“okaka!“ ‘i’d be the best actor Leonardo DiCaprio ain’t got nothing on me‘ he responded with a chuckle as we finished up making the cake mixture. (Y/N) buttered the tins while head maid Toge poured in the batter. You both had a great time laughing and singing to overly cheesy love songs making a little mess but careful not get any on your fits while the cakes were in the oven.

“SHE PUT YELLOW HEARTS AROUND MY NAME I THOUGHT THEY WERE ALL JUST THE SAME“ (Y/N) screamed at the top of their lungs while Toge danced around purposely swishing his dress from  side to side until a cough was heard from the kitchen door.

There stood the Gojo sensei, the first and seconds years who didn’t know how to respond. The silence was awkward all that could be heard was the music before panda and Gojo broke it with laughter and pulled out their phones.

“WAIT NO we can explain- Why are you even back so soon!?“ You panicked while Gojo teased the living hell out of Inumaki who looked like he could kill Gojo with his dead stare.

“How the hell are you going to explain this? i mean maid outfits really“ Maki asked as Nobara, Yuuji and even Megumi joined in the unwanted photoshoot (Megumi finally getting revenge on his senpai for all the awful pranks)

“well there’s nothing wrong with maid outfits!“ You argued while Toge sulked in the corner until his head sprang up and yelled “tuna tuna!“

“What’s up To- OH NO THE CAKE!”

[nissakii]

What do Mystic Messenger characters represent in society? [MysMe]

Mystic Messenger which is a game filled with a lot of action, drama and some sort of romance is still really close to our reality.

Especially the characters represent a lot of us and the many different situations people can be in and suffer from, as every and each of them offers us a route in which we can see more of the character and help them to achieve their ending (or not if you are curious to get the bad endings).

Yet what do those characters represent in our usual lives?

Where do we see each and every one of these characters in our society?

In the following blog post, we will see that every character shows us a certain place and piece of our reality that Cheritz put in their game.

Yoosung Kim

Starting with the youngest member of RFA let’s take the one who hasn't experienced the world of work yet.

As an uni student Yoosung is the very representation of someone who isn’t sure where life could lead him after achieving one big goal: getting into university.

Because despite the fact that standing on one’s own feet starts at that phase in life it is mostly the time where many feel lost as they see themselves stuck in their current life.

And Yoosung is one of those many cases that represent those people in Mystic Messenger.

Living alone for the first time and suddenly feeling the overwhelming force of being responsible for his own mistakes, he sees the sudden challenges of life that come with it.

On top of that with the death of his cousin Rika which he loved so dearly, nobody is very considerate of his feelings, depression and sadness that still lingers inside of him despite that they all claim it is understandable.

His dream job as a vet that was closely tied to the death of Rika’s dog is the more unattainable and painful to think about after the events as he requestions the morals and standards of society.

Being in the age of constantly being expected to give good results and succeed in order to become valuable to society’s standards, he starts to realize how unfair the chances in life are as he compares himself to Jumin Han who was born rich and with his future already set.

We already discussed a lot about Yoosung’s insecurities and general character in another blogpost, but referring to it Yoosung constantly sees no value in whatever he does beside in helping the RFA which as well due to the death of Rika became inactive until MC appeared.

When someone stops to value what he does or sees no merit in it, there are always the questions:

Why did I start this anyway?

What is the whole purpose of this?

Maybe it’s not for me?

And with those questions, with the heavy burden of a private life and social circles that also have a place in one’s life, sometimes there is a need to escape them all.

As a student just running away or taking holidays is not that easy leaving a bunch of responsibilities behind, so the next best way to stop thinking about the life around you is, immersing into another life- gaming.

Gaming may be a good coping mechanism but also a big threat for those who want to constantly flee from their reality slowly developing a game addiction without realizing, just like Yoosung slowly started to lose himself in LOLOL.

Studying, sorrow, wanting to flee but also wanting to become someone standing on stable footing.

They are all parts of finding oneself in the process, going through the harsh times of slowly diving into the world of adults and that is what Yoosung represents - the start of a new phase in life, probably one of the harshest.

Jaehee Kang 

Close, but still more experienced would be Jaehee Kang the only female of the RFA next to the MC, a chief secretary at C&R and  also the assistant of Jumin Han.

Jaehee is someone seen as a prime example and role-model, being a stable career woman who achieved a lot in her life and has a fairly high income to support herself.

In society’s eyes she is someone who contributes to success and as she is even an early top university graduate for which she got a scholarship in highschool making her extremely diligent and intelligent since her childhood.

Yet Jaehee gave up a lot to be in the position she is right now, she even cut her long hair and wears glasses despite her good vision since it is part of the demands Jumin made for the job as his secretary.

As she said herself her work contains a lot of tasks which some of them she isn’t even supposed to do and go beyond her ordinary secretary job, yet she does them and doesn’t complain since she gets paid for it.

In Zen’s DVD she tried to find a bit of happiness in her daily monotone routine as she works day in and day out, where she even eats out a lot and until late hours, having to take care of her boss’s cat when asked to.

In one of the chats in which Jaehee and Yoosung are talking about how successful and stable Jaehee is unlike Yoosung who is still feeling lost and doesn’t have that stability in life which she wouldn’t understand.

Jaehee on the other hand responds that despite having a job it’s not really that what she wanted to do and that she is still wondering what it is that she actually wants to do as she mentions that she used to go hiking a lot as her hobby, showing that despite being in a good position in society Jaehee still doesn’t feel fulfilled and rather a bit trapped in her monotone working routine which she basically devoted her life to.

Jaehee represents those of who seem like they have achieved a lot and do have a place in society job-wise but are still not sure what it is what they really want to do as they live in and out of their secure routine which they maintain and people expect them to be satisfied with.

Zen

Zen or how he is called by his real name, Hyun Ryu is one of the few characters that actually went through and made his dream his actual job.

Despite his looks he did not become a model but an actor depicting many emotions and roles in which he loses himself in while giving his best to show the audience the true nature of the persona he is currently playing.

We see Zen being a bit more on the easy-going side and encouraging Yoosung for example to follow his heart and dreams like he did, since it worked out for Zen. Yoosung encounters that Zen has the looks to follow the way he wants to which he won’t deny yet it’s not the only quality Zen bears.

He is a very hard-working person, strict on himself when it comes to working out or dieting and also tends to be a workaholic engrossing himself in constant development to fulfill his dream, which is not tied to his looks. Quite contrary Zen despises the fact that some people choose him a role only fitting for his looks and even worse asking him only to model instead of acting, as he mentions that it is acting that he wants to do and not modelling.

In that way his wishes often get disrespected or disregarded due to his looks, also he is being seen as shallow which may lead to people jumping to conclusions.

We see in Zen’s route what a harsh path he had to take in order to pursue his dream, it took him a lot of sacrifice, patience and work to be where he is and it’s only the start for him.

He ran away from home since his parents did not approve of his dreams, he was not the best at school and also dropped out renting an apartment for himself struggling through hard times to survive.

But despite that he never gave up since his dream was his passion and something he did with much eagerness and seriousness, even though many may call it foolish or risky.

Zen is the best representation of the people in our society who choose to derive from the usual path striving for a stable job and take many risks to achieve their dreams.

Because of those dreams life may get a bit harder and the chances are not high, yet Zen is the best example that it takes time, sacrifices and sometimes harsh circumstances to reach that what you want to do.

He is the hard reality of chasing your dreams.

Jumin Han

More or less in our category of society, Jumin Han is a less common case of working hard to achieve a high status and standard in that sense which doesn’t make him lazy or given everything for nothing, but makes his life sure easier from a materialistic perspective.

Cue materialism the first thing that not only RFA mentions when MC enters the chatrooms in the first days but also a misunderstanding from the start is that Jumin only sees numbers and facts, wielding his money to obtain whatever he desires and living an easy life.

Sure enough, money is one of the most fundamental problems that make life much harsher when it's lacking, also it’s the main cause of many stress factors since education, work and status are all basically tied to money. 

If the world is not about money in a certain sense why are we struggling that much anyways to get amazing jobs and maybe in some cases like Jaehee give up part of our life and identity?

But Jumin is the perfect example that the rich people who exist out there or at least some of them do not rely solely on their privilege of being born rich, yet still work hard to prove their position in society as Jumin still graduated as a top student, being part of MENSA which requires high IQ to become a member of and has a policy of working as efficiently as possible.

In that sense Jumin is a talented, intelligent young man who doesn’t want to simply rely on his background but also showcase his skills as he always strives to get the best results in the company to make sure he deserves the place as the CEO in line.

Since Yoosung constantly nags and complains about Jumin’s background being a bliss and that he had a comfortable and easy life, Jumin does not tell him he might be wrong but that he simply did not decide to be born that way and still encourages Yoosung that he has good qualities which Jumin finds appealing enough to hire him as an intern, showing him that it’s still important which skills someone hones.

Yoosung is just one example of people viewing him as someone who is just lucky enough to be born rich or the unfairness of status by birth, but they do not see the the dark side of Jumin’s life as he never had any stable relationships beside V that he cherishes so much also that people only put light on his status but not the work that he himself put into, visiting lessons since childhood not growing up like a usual kid playing freely without fearing to be kidnapped.

Therefore the concept of love is quite strange for him and beside in the good ending of his own route where he finally starts to learn about it, the box of emotions Jumin holds is always hidden deep within him projecting his own weaknesses on Elizabeth the 3rd who gives him the secure form of love and loyalty.

In any other situation love is not needed in the world he grew up in since facts and cold logic represented as results of success is what the people need to see from him, mistakes are a sign of weakness and incompetence especially him who everyone is constantly watching.

Jumin represents those in society who may seem to have high status, wealth and cozy life yet struggle due to the things that cannot be merely achieved by money alone, highlighting the importance of interpersonal relationships.

Saeyoung Choi/707/Luciel

That the world is not an easy place that can be seen only as black and white shows us the next character who suffered a lot through the dark and hidden secrets that society often tries to brush under the carpet.

Saeyoung Choi and his twin brother who we will examine later, show us the cruelty hidden in a small apartment living with an abusive mother who used to beat them up, verbally abuse them as a consequence of them being the illegitimate child of the prime minister.

Since Saeyoung was the more skilled one from a young age, he was treated badly but not as worse as his brother Saeran, which left him with no choice than using his talent to save his brother.

In order to that there was only one option and it was to leave his brother behind leaving him in the hands of V and Rika to protect him while Saeyoung would study to make sure when comes back he and Saeran could run away together.

And he took that option instead of fearing to be killed by his father one day or even by his mother.

In the end Saeyoung landed in an agency which stripped him of any identity and made him work like a machine even before he turned legal due to his level of skill and intellect.

With no place to escape anymore and the only light thinking that Saeran is safe and protected from some floppy disks he has with some pictures of him, he gave into corruption but not turning bad since his intentions kept him pure.

The RFA were a little safespace for him yet Seven never had the right as he claims for that since he doesn’t even have an identity anymore being neither Saeyoung nor any other person as his jobs demands for him to constantly change names and places if needed, therefore he doesn’t even have personal data anywhere.

He even forgot who he is at some point if it wasn’t for V and the floppy disks leaving him in an identical crisis and no hope to be understood by anyone as he constantly wears a mask and never is his true self.

In his eyes his is constantly extorted by his agency and even in some routes he claims that RFA puts a heavy load of work on his back which he likes to do but there are some endings in which Seven finds out that Saeran is under bad circumstances and even worse the hacker who infiltrated RFA and wanted to get rid of him, leaving him to lose trust in the last person he had, V.

Saeyoung Choi represents those who are mistreated, used and extorted in society, forced to live a life in which they cannot decide for themselves and were left to make choices that led them to an unfavorable position instead of helping them.

He is the one showing us that the shadows exist and fear of losing existence due to being nuisance and eyesore for people who have a more favorable place in the eyes of the government.

Saeran Choi/Unknown/Ray

Last but not least the other part of the shadows, Saeran Choi also known as either Ray or Unknown.

Unlike his brother he is at first not shown to have any special talent and since childhood he was a very fragile and kind boy who was seen as weak due to his nature.

A trait that made him prone to being attacked and mistreated not only by his mother but many other people.

But starting with his mother as he was less free than Saeyoung and even tied him up to avoid that he would roam around freely, his mother used to call him weak, useless and of no value as his brother is far better than him and skilled, at least making him worth to be kept alive.

She even deprived him of food and water at times, beat him up and made sure he would know his place in the world as she describes people like us comparing him to her.

Yet Saeran always looked up and trusted his brother since he was a good-natured person despite the fact that he started to manifest the idea that he himself is useless and a burden.

Even when Saeyoung left he was sure that he had a good reason and blamed himself for being useless, but due to certain circumstances and manipulation he was told that Saeyoung ran away from him.

It took a lot of torture and brainwashing to make Saeran finally give up the idea that Saeyoung will keep his promise and never ran away from him. which he later fueled his grudge with.

Rika who used him for mint-eyes plans made sure to keep him as Ray, the one who knew that he was of no merit or value to the outside world, and the moment he would leave the place he now belonged to would be the moment people would trample him, the weak down to the ground.

She also made sure to make him believe that there is no other place for him since he is someone unstable, someone who can only bloom if he worked for mint-eye and that his skills are not needed beside in here the place that would never betray him.

As we notice in Ray’s chats, the same exact words are used when he speaks to MC as he tells her if he doesn’t succeed he would be thrown away and that the world outside is an unprotected place full of people who are cruel.

Weirdly enough in one of the chats Ray shows MC a photo of two plants that sprouted in the from the same ground, but one was almost dying while the other one bloomed as he referred to Saeyoung and himself,  noticing that the stronger one used the weaker to survive therefore he cut the stronger one and used it as a fertilizer rejecting the idea that in any kind of way the stronger could win over the weaker one even in nature’s way.

MC who can be as nice to Ray/Saeran as she wants to be, he will always bring up the fear of being left behind as he has the stigma of being unstable by himself or unusable if not finishing the job as it’s the only thing he can bring any profit in and that he is no use if he doesn’t fulfill his role as a puppet.

Saeran Choi represents the undermined and discarded people of society who were not give a chance nor an option to show their ability, but were stigmatised or manipulated to act as puppets as they are only of worth when they can fulfill the needed tasks as their weakness is something unsightly and doesn’t have a place in this world.

The weak never survives, it’s the survival of the fittest… which means if there is no merit in what he does there is no need to keep him.

Are there any other characters which you see in society that are also part of the mystic messenger cast?

Do you feel especially tied to one of the characters in one of these aspects?

Until then - I just got a message

Makii

Original Source

[athenril-of-kirkwall]

#6. OC scolding LI, and LI loves it!

I’m going to do a quick switcheroo on this one!

f!Lavellan/Josephine co-starring Prof. Frederic, Prof. Bram Kenric, Lace Harding, Collette: “Of Professors and Pastries” (AO3)

Josephine resisted the urge to slam the door behind her as she followed the Inquisitor into her office, a short corridor away from the main hall of Skyhold’s main keep, where an affray which had broken midway through a function was being concluded, the aggrieved shouts of its participants echoing behind them until the door finally sealed shut.

Rivka had crossed the room, sitting back on Josephine’s desk with her hands astride her bottom, tapping gently on its edge as one would an instrument, her lip curled into a slight smile even as a furious Josephine was closing the distance with her with every stride, until she stared down as imperiously as she could at her Inquisitor and girlfriend, taking advantage of the three-inch difference in height between them.

The ambassador took in a deep breath, finally stating slowly but firmly, “I am going to need a full explanation as to why the two eminent scholars of the University of Orlais are covered in cream pastries and are being physically restrained by Scout Harding and Collette.”

Rivka’s eyes narrowed as she asked, “Do you need the entire context, or…?”

Clasping her hands to stop them from making strangling motions, Josephine said, “That would be appreciated, Rivka.”

“All right,” she started, “So I thought that whilst we were holding that dreary academic symposium…”

Josephine screeched, “Dreary?!”

“…over here, and yes, while I do understand the importance of sharing our knowledge, coming from where I have, there are only so many lectures in the War Room I can sit through before drifting into the Fade…”

“Just get to the point,” Josephine hissed.

“…I thought I might draw upon the knowledge of our archaeologist and draconologist friends, namely, Professors Kenric and Frederic, as concerns one of the artefacts that we’ve wound up with in the undercroft.”

Josephine raised an eyebrow, asking, “One of the weapons you’ve encountered in your exploits, you mean?”

Rivka nodded, saying, “Exactly. To be precise, I just wanted to know what either of them could tell me about that Axe of the Dragon Hunter I got off Bonny Sims down in the courtyard.”

“Ah, right,” Josephine said. “Given that it was an easy twelve thousand sovereigns from the treasury I suppose that makes sense, from a certain point of view. Incidentally, next time you’d do well to let me negotiate prices especially when the values come up to that much.”

Rivka crossed her arms, asking, “Are you lecturing me on diplomacy or haggling, Josephine?”

Josephine’s stare was so sharp it could cut the air, where with enormous restraint, she finally managed, “Those are one and the same thing in Antiva, Rivka. Will you let me continue, or at least stop digressing?”

Rivka held her hands up in surrender. “All right, so the main point of what I was going to say was that I just wanted to learn more about Bonny Sims’ axe, and suddenly Professor Kenric got all professional, saying it was hardly appropriate for him to try and valuate it with his expertise then and there, but Professor Frederic was more than willing.”

“So, they had a dispute over the professionalism of evaluating artefacts on the spot?”

“Oh, no, it wasn’t that,” Rivka said, continuing, “Not wanting to be outdone, Professor Kenric started cutting in with his own observations, and while I don’t remember all of the details of that flurry of points they were shooting at each other, the exact moment Frederic excitedly concluded that this couldn’t be anything but the original, Bram objected that this clearly was a forgery made twenty years after Nephram Pentaghast’s possible lifetime.”

“Ah,” Josephine said comprehendingly, adding, “Oh no.”

“Oh yes,” Rivka said. “It was right at the moment that Frederic called Bram ‘a puffed-up abecedarian of a Marcher with no sense of romance’ that the two of them started coming to blows.”

Josephine planted her wrists on her hips, questioning Rivka, “And that’s the point where you decided the best thing to do was to arm Professor Kenric with a pie?”

Rivka answered, “Well, it was that or the axe.”

Becoming increasingly incoherent with rage, Josephine spluttered, “You-you, oh you…were those genuinely the only two options?!?”

“He had the axe in his hands,” she said defensively. “The way I see it, at least this wound up turning the two of them into laughing-stocks instead of, well, dead.”

Taking several deep breaths, Josephine said, “All right, all right. Maybe you had a point there…where is the axe now, anyway?”

“Safely in the hands of the retainers,” Rivka said, “And yes, I mean, it was admittedly hilarious, but I was actually trying to defuse the situation, so—”

Rivka never finished her justification, as the door swung open to reveal the two professors, who had made some attempts to clean the cream and cake off their clothes, being marched as sheepishly into the room as students into a headmaster’s office, Frederic being escorted Collette, and Kenric by Harding.

Bram glanced imploringly over to his research assistant, and Collette flashed him a look nearly as steely as Josephine’s to Rivka earlier on, cocking her head towards the Inquisitor and the ambassador as though it was an order.

Clearing his throat, the professor began, “I, and the eminent Professor Frederic, are here to apologise for our conduct as concerns what ought to have been a purely academic matter, and the effect that our, ah, affray has had on the atmosphere of the symposium.”

Frederic added, “Even were one of us in the absolute right and the other in the wrong—and this happens to not be the case, or at the least, the possibility certainly exists—clearly hurling pastries at each other is unbefitting of gentleman scholars, and certainly not fellow colleagues from the University of Orlais.”

“As it so happens,” Bram said, straightening himself up, “I was so fixated upon the Van Markham crest upon the fittings that I had, in my haste, neglected to consider the ritualistic reuse of such venerable weapons long past and jumped to conclusions concerning its relatively recent manufacture.”

“And I was so enchanted by the antiquity of the weapon itself,” Frederic explained, “That I had not even seen it upon first pass. But it undoubtedly dates to the Steel Age and was treated with great renown within its own time, leading to the plausible conclusion that it is the original weapon of Nephram Pentaghast…”

“…and was refitted with Van Markham decorations to commemorate the restoration of Pentaghast rule,” Bram concluded. “An eminently rigorous conclusion which we reached once, ah, our tempers cooled.”

Frederic nodded, saying, “For the time that the Inquisition shall be retaining this weapon of great antiquity, our joint recommendation is that it would be a fine gift to the Lady Seeker should you wish to use it for such a purpose, given her connection to it and, well, her role in breaking up our conflict.”

Silence reigned in the room as the two expected some sort of announcement or judgement from Rivka, who cleared her throat and straightened out her tunic, adopting her officious tone as she addressed the two academics.

“I, and the Inquisition, am very pleased that the two of you have achieved some form of resolution, and look forward to your continuing contributions to this seminar,” she said, continuing, “And I certainly look forward to your future discussion over this antique weapon later this evening over refreshments.”

Right on beat, Josephine added, “We’ll make arrangements for some privacy at the Herald’s rest after dinner, and we certainly look forward to your presence. Both of you, professors.”

“As well as Cassandra, seeing as you think so highly of Lady Pentaghast. I would hardly like to deprive the two of you of the opportunity to present it to her. That is what you both want, isn’t it?”, Rivka asked.

Frederic and Bram glanced at each other nervously before turning to the two women, nodding complyingly.

“It would be, ah…”, Bram started.

“…our honour, naturally,” Frederic finished, bowing to Rivka and Josephine.

Imitating his actions, Bram followed him and Collette out of the room, Harding closing the door behind them, flashing them a grin right as it closed after her.

“Right, so I believe I’ll grant that to myself as a job well done—”, Rivka said, stopping as she wheeled around to the sight of Josephine with her arms crossed and an eyebrow raised, next asking, “—what, I’m still in trouble?”

“Immeasurably,” Josephine said. “Please meet me in my quarters once you’re done entertaining our squabbling academics such that I may apprise you of the numerous letters to the University of Orlais which I’m going to need your signature on. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going back to the main hall to oversee the clean-up. You’re just fortunate that neither of them egged a Fereldan potentiate in the process.”

With that, she turned to the door, Rivka asking after her with a wry smile, “‘Apprising’ me? Is that what it’s called amongst humans?”

Controlling her own mirth, Josephine shouted back, “Don’t make this harder on yourself, Inquisitor!”

“What if I like the sound of that?”, Rivka teased.

“Enough!”, Josephine shouted, finally slamming the door shut behind herself.

Rivka chuckled to herself as she sat back upon Josephine’s tables, wondering just what her beloved ambassador had in store for her. Whatever it was, she was reasonably certain she’d enjoy it far more than what Josephine intended.

-

@dadrunkwriting

[shallowgravesrp]

“Books take you on a journey with characters who have their own stories and purpose, but how do you read it if you only judge the cover?”

Dirk Cresswell

Age: Twenty-Three

House: Hufflepuff

Affiliation: Neutral

Career: Assistant Head of the Goblin Liaison Office 

aesthetics: The smell of an old book. Butterscotch candies. Giant shelves of a library. Roaring crowds of a quidditch match. Scarfs. Sunday tea with the folks. People that make the heart skip. Stories from far off lands. Feeling of when peace arrives. Yellow and Black. Exploring a new world. Neatly organization office. Peacoats. Butterbeer. Taking new adventures. Nights out with friends. Fresh jar of ink. Meeting agendas with notes scribbled on the sides. Snow. Trees. Rooms filled with laughter.

what we all know: A quiet Hufflepuff, Dirk has never been one to involve himself in fights. Often, he just does what he can to survive. Even when he was in Hogwarts, Dirk stuck to what he needed to do to get through the day and then would keep to himself past that. Now working in the Ministry, it’s hard for him to keep to himself like he would prefer, but he makes it work. Something he doesn’t tell people about is the reason for him being quiet, is the trauma he faced in school. That when he says he was just trying to survive, it wasn’t an exaggeration, and those who did it in school have continued into adulthood.

For some people, the stories that they adored as children only seem to come to life in their heads, but for Dirk, his life was like it jumped off the pages of one of his mom’s books. Dirk is the only child of an English professor and author from Edinburgh. While they didn’t have much, they did what they could to make sure their son had everything he needed. What they did realize was that all Dirk wanted was to hear the stories they told him. He loved imagining what it would be like to fight pirates, travel to space, and even cast spells like a wizard. Dirk had never really cared that his family didn’t have a lot in terms of money or things, because they had a lot of fun together. There was so much more they could do with it just being them.

Something his parents hadn’t expected was the odd things their son could do. Small things that would happen around their son that they couldn’t explain. Even Dirk found himself questioning why he was suddenly lifting small objects without touching them or changing things without being near it. Eventually, the answer had arrived in the form of a visitor, someone who explained that the Cresswell’s son was a Wizard. Even without being born to a wizarding family, he still developed powers and would soon be eligible to go to a wizarding school for young witches and wizards. At first this was too much for his parents to process, but Dirk was in love. Suddenly he was given the chance to live out some of his favorite stories. He was given the chance to learn about all things that had to do with wizards. The young child almost couldn’t believe it was actually happening. As the man said, his letter arrived in the mail and soon he was off to what he believed to be a great adventure. 

Hogwarts was overwhelming for the young wizard. Going from one world where you knew how it worked to another world where you had no clue was more of a shack that he had anticipated. Especially when it came to the idea of a hat knowing who someone was and where to place them. Dirk himself had been placed in Hufflepuff, where he seemed to fit in with the other students perfectly. They all seemed to have similar ways of thinking to him, which helped when Dirk learned one of the hardest lessons of being a wizard. What Dirk hadn’t expected when joining the wizarding world was the hatred people felt towards wizards like him, towards muggle borns. Of course Dirk never could understand why someone hated a group of people so much. Muggles were just people living their lives like anyone else. There was no threat. Not only did he learn that people generally didn’t like muggles or muggle born wizards, but that they were willing to do anything to prove the point that they didn’t belong. Dirk had spent years being tormented and treated terribly over the years, traumatizing him a bit. However, with Dirk being who he was, he continued to try and power through as best he could. 

Lessons at first were a little difficult for Dirk. While other students had known about the wizarding world and some of the things that go with it, Dirk knew nothing. Everything was new to him, but eventually he started to get the hang of it. He was able to pass all of his lessons and even do fairly well on his tests, giving him the chance to do just about anything once he got out of school. Outside of lessons, Dirk did fairly well for himself. He was a Hufflepuff that made friends easily, and was open minded to others opinions. Even met some people who didn’t agree with the idea of muggle borns in the school, but still seemed to accept him as a friend once they moved passed it. Having met so many people through school gave Dirk some new perspectives on what it was to be a wizard, and potentially where he would go with his career. 

Finishing up his time at Hogwarts, Dirk now was left with the choice of what he wanted to do with his life. Of course he wasn’t going to leave this magical world behind, but he also wasn’t going to leave the muggle world behind. He made sure that he kept up with his family and friends from the world he was raised in, while also keeping a life going in the world he lived in now. Using his strengths to help his career, Dirk found himself working in the Goblin Liaison Office. He's naturally good at bringing people together and being able to form some sort of solution for those involved. Dirk was actually so good at this job, he quickly found himself becoming the Assistant Head of the office. His goal is to eventually become the Head of the office and see things between Goblins and Wizards become more civil, but that is a hope that will take a few years of work. 

One of the harder things for Dirk to cope with right now is the war that’s been brewing. People he knew in school, and those he now knows from the ministry, voicing how they believe Muggles should be rid of. People that could include his family and his friends, vanishing. With everything this war was bringing hitting home for him, Dirk found himself on the edge of trying to figure out what he wanted to do. Part of him actually wanted to help, wanting to fight, but he couldn’t help but think about what that could mean for his parents. He never told them about the war, not wanting to worry them, but he worried about them getting found, getting hurt, just because of who he was. So he decided to lay low. To keep to himself, but if someone were to pay close attention, they might find him providing some help to the side he believes in most.

EMMELINE VANCE - Dirk has been friends with Emmeline since she started working at the Ministry. She’s a good friend to him and he has always enjoyed her company. 

BERTHA JORKINS - Bertha is someone Dirk doesn’t understand. She’s always been a bit rude to him, even though he doesn’t really talk to her. He has no clue what he ever did to her, but maybe one day he’ll ask. 

AMYCUS CARROW - Amycus is one of the people that actually haunt Dirk’s dreams. He can’t actually prove that Amycus has ever come after him, but he can almost remember it happening. He’s so sure it was him, but what can you do with no proof?

CONNECTIONS DIRK CRESSWELL IS MENTIONED IN 

Dirk Cresswell is currently a CLOSED role with the faceclaim of Tom Holland. He is played by Admin Katie. 

[aparecium-hq]

Welcome to Aparecium, Pat! You have been accepted for Dierdra Jones. Look, we’re both familiar with your writing already and support any character you’d write, but your ideas for Dierdra are super fun. We can’t wait to see them in action! Check out the new member checklist, and jump right in.

Character Basics

Birthday (Age): December 8 (26 years old)

Gender (Pronouns): cisgender female (she/her)

Sexuality: Bisexual

Blood Status: Halfblood

Hogwarts House/School: Hufflepuff

Occupation: Seeker for the Holyhead Harpies

Faceclaim: Laura Harrier

Any requested changes? None! 

Biography

Emrys Jones lived a relatively quiet life after Hogwarts, which meant that his daughter lived that same quiet life--one that she should have been more grateful to have. Dierdra grew up in Caerphilly in a small wizarding neighborhood not far from the muggle population. Her life had been full of warnings, cautioning her to behave with made-up stories about how the muggles would take her away if she didn’t stay within those boundaries. It made muggles out to be much scarier than they were, though the only purpose of those stories as Dierdra would find out later, told by their neighbor Cardella Wopsle, was to keep the Ministry from coming in and causing everyone trouble.

Since her parents were always working, Dierdra was always at some neighbor’s house. If it wasn’t the stories of muggles, it was a fear of being disliked that kept her on her best behavior, understanding that the reason she hadn’t just been kept in her own house by herself for hours was because of the kindness of her neighbors. And it was really those neighbors who introduced her to Gwenog as someone who was much more than her auncle she saw at family Christmases and Catapults’ home games.

The closest thing she had to a role model, really, was her auncle Gwenog… or rather, Gwenog’s career. Spending time with a few neighbor kids made it easy to keep up with Quidditch every season, and Dierdra was a staunch supporter of her auncle—not quite realizing that their belligerent attitude on the pitch wasn’t just them being larger-than-life as they were during the holidays. Gwenog would still be her favorite relative, Quidditch player or not, but there was something to their brazenness that made Dierdra yearn for more than just the cul-de-sac she lived in. But hearing stories from them about their last match or their opinions on the Quidditch finals made it easy for Dierdra to see that they were in their element, and easier as well to be convinced that she too wanted stories like that to tell.

She did not, however, figure out a way to make a name for herself once she was in school. She couldn’t figure out how Gwenog managed to take up so much space and still glow in the hearts and minds of Harpies fans. Hufflepuff showed her that she didn’t need to be more than she was—but it was fortunate that what she was… was a Quidditch player. Anything else would have been acceptable, but she still hung onto Gwenog’s stories and their appearances on the sports pages of the Prophet. Everything else outside of Quidditch had been filled in by what her classmates had decided for her, her opinions molded by (if not a copy of) theirs. 

Because of the unspoken rules of their magical community, Dierdra took the hint not to ask for a broom from her parents. The first time she had ridden one was the rickety older models in first year flying. It wasn’t that she had gotten a more functional broom by chance during her first class. After the second, third, and fourth meeting, it was clear that she could fly faster and higher than most of Hufflepuff house, receiving the first detention then when she strayed too far, but at the time she felt proud of herself for having proven that she had that natural talent.

Although she wrote to Gwenog about what had happened, the letter had gotten shuffled in the same pile as the fanmail their assistant slogged through for them. But perhaps by way of apology, even though Dierdra hadn’t felt like she was slighted, for Quidditch players were always just busy, Gwenog gifted her a broom after her first year to tryout for her house team, noting that the seekers are the speedy ones. Their advice made sense to her even if Gwenog didn’t tell her outright that she should be a seeker; what they said was barely advice so much as it was an observation. Dierdra did not have it in her to knock people off their brooms, nor did she want to get involved in the mid-field wrangle for the quaffle.

Dierdra’s life at Hogwarts did not revolve around Quidditch to the point where she had abandoned everything else; rather, Quidditch was a tool to remind her that the only thing worth doing was doing what she was good at. Sure, she did her due diligence, perhaps giving some of her favorite classes a little more attention than she should have--but her achievements academically were so patchworked that it was obvious that she hadn’t given much thought to how the combination of them could turn into a real career. Most of what mattered was that her marks were high enough so she could stay on the team.

While Dierdra made fast friends at Hogwarts in her first year, the peak of her popularity at school had come after victorious Quidditch matches, having broken the school record for the fastest snitch catch in her fifth year. It was then, she realized, that she didn’t need to be as boisterous as Gwenog to fill the space in someone else’s opinion of her… because most of that work was already done by whatever preconceived idea they had of what Dierdra should be. This didn’t mean that Dierdra was never honest; she had just become more selective about what she made sure to let people see, though there wasn’t much there anyway that would turn anyone’s heads. She didn’t mind; she was no trailblazer by any means.

Despite the fact that she had inherited the talent (if it worked that way), there had still been no guarantee that her Quidditch career would extend past seventeen. Even during her Career Advice meetings, she had been advised against pinning all of her hopes on the sport. She couldn’t find herself at all interested in the typical Quidditch-adjacent work: journalism at the Prophet or a Ministry position under the Department of International Games and Sports. A combination of the right OWLs and NEWTs would have qualified her to be a broom maker, had it not been for her lucky break.

Dierdra called it lucky. It was one of the matches where recruiters were watching, though she put that out of her mind and tried to treat this game like all of the other ones she had played in the last six years. For a Seeker, strategy didn’t seem to matter; no amount of height or speed mattered so much as Dierdra caught the snitch.

She was first signed to the Pride of Portree out of school and was traded to the Magpies after four seasons, though her rise to stardom didn’t start until she signed with the Harpies—though the media storm had been less about her record as a pro seeker and more about carrying Gwenog’s legacy. The Harpies were any player’s dream team to be part of, and barring being signed with them, they were any player’s dream to defeat in the finals.

Being signed on the Harpies didn’t make Dierdra work any harder than she already did. It felt as if Dierdra had done all she had sought to do, but she had wondered if being a Quidditch star had truly been a goal at all, so much as she was doing what she was good at doing. Perhaps that was the reason why she had always looked up to Gwenog: they were always so assured of themselves while Dierdra was convinced that her path to the Harpies was a series of events that just happened to be in her favor.

More often now, she wonders what her life would be like had she become a broom maker instead, understanding the magic between her and her broom and reliving the first time she flew. Maybe she’d be more enthusiastic about the muggle toys that started to take over the last few years, especially since GPS has become more prevalent as a broom accessory out of Quality Quidditch Supplies.

Besides, what the helll was wrong with using a map? Dierdra had found herself lost trying to use the new muggle device, having chucked it in Cardigan Bay on a flight back to Caerphilly. It just felt wrong, the way it interfered with her and her broom. But that was the least of her muggle problems: having a phone now had been mandatory for the Harpies. Dierdra was wary of being forced to have a social media presence, unsure of what to fill her profiles with and unsure of how much autonomy she really had over what she was forced to give away. Now more than ever she was forced to channel the energy Gwenog had, with words like aesthetic and brand she never had to think about before. Quidditch was demanding more and more of her beyond catching the snitch nowadays.

As some of her teammates were talking about retirement because of a bad fall here, a pulled shoulder there, and bludger injuries everywhere, no one seemed to talk like their careers were over. They still had to carry the legacy through whatever they posted, and it seemed like all anyone spent their time doing off the pitch was creating something out of nothing for the sake of staying relevant.

Dierdra had never succumbed to her injuries too long to miss a significant portion of any season; how lucky was she to have fantastic healers behind the scenes. (Hell, they were even integrating muggle methods like physical therapy that kept her on the pitch, but she’d never understood how it works.) She wasn’t just in good health; seekers had a penchant for being injured often and she was doing better than most of them in the league as far as recovery time. She should be grateful that she has the next eight to ten years still to keep doing what she’s doing.

Or at least, what she thought she was supposed to do. What she thought her only job was. Muggle technology had more than just complicated what Quidditch was supposed to be. Playing the sport itself—getting on the broom, lifting off, searching for the snitch—had become less worthwhile because of the sacrifices she had to make for her career, beyond just becoming a good seeker. But even if she could cut and run, the lack of stability scared her into doing so. Dierdra had always been risk averse. On her pros/cons list, there were always more cons: it would be scandalous, she didn’t want to ruin her luck, she wasn’t qualified to do anything else, she didn’t know how to live without Quidditch…

That last detail grew into something beyond just a bullet point on her list; the mere thought of this hypothetical other life eroded her resolve and extinguished her passion. Dierdra had friends from school at this point who have had their luck lead them differently. She attended weddings and had her assistant send snitch themed gifts for their newborns. Dierdra couldn’t help but feel she had everything and nothing at the same time, missing out on something she was sure she hadn’t seen but had given up without even knowing.

Character Questionnaire

How does your character feel about their family?

As much as she admired her Auncle Gwenog, the two of them had never really been close—but that didn’t make them any less Dierdra’s favorite family member, if only because that was what people found interesting about Dierdra when she was younger. She modelled herself to be like Gwenog, but in failing that, she just ended up being more impressionable as she got to school.

Dierdra knew that they were proud of her rise to the top, especially after she joined the Harpies. Perhaps then she could say they were close, corresponding more often then, if only for the media appearances. As her career progressed, her auncle had become more of a caricature of what people found entertaining, though that didn’t mean she cared for them any less. It wasn’t disillusionment at all, since she still admired them even if it wasn’t the same sort of amazement she had in her formative years. Rather, she had come to terms with the fact that she would never deal with her Quidditch quandaries in the same way they did.

Some people called it going soft now that Dierdra’s taking the time to reconnect with her parents. The longer she played for teams far from home, the more she missed Caerphilly—even if it took missing several holidays because of the league’s schedule for her to finally admit it. Since going home more often when she can, rumor has it that she’s planning on signing with the Catapults—which didn’t seem like a terrible idea. The Catapults didn’t graze the front pages as often as the Harpies did, and maybe she could manage to look good as a hometown hero, especially since reputation was all the rage these days. Regardless of all of the Quidditch considerations, coming home and getting to know her parents better is her way of connecting to the idyllic life of being a kid in the neighborhood, and trying to capture what she had missed before. That always weighed more heavily every time she went back.

What does your character value in a friendship? 

Whatever she says may as well end up in the Prophet, and whatever she posts may as well be picked to pieces out of context. Dierdra values someone who can be trustworthy. Someone who she can open up to about what’s on her mind without fear of having to hear her own news read back to her from someone else. She never thought she has much to say—but she’s never found someone she could truly open herself to.

How would your character describe their own work ethic? Is that an accurate measure of themself?

Dierdra is constantly worried she’s not working hard enough. Despite having the advantages of being well-off enough as a professional athlete, she’s terrified that everything she’s worked for would be swept aside. She’s willing to put in the work where she thinks it’s supposed to go, but very often her focus (on Quidditch) makes her blind to the bigger picture. So she’s right about having a great work ethic—whether or not she spends the time on the right task is another question. 

How would a stranger who has just met your character describe them?

If this stranger knew anything of Gwenog’s threatening rage on the pitch, their niece Dierdra is much more behaved. A first impression of Dierdra is a quiet woman, having much more of her father Emrys in her than she thought. Friendly, welcoming, but not alluring by any means—someone quickly forgotten at the end of the day. Dierdra does not have a different face she puts on for the public; rather, she picks and chooses what she wants to share, and she really believes she has little worth sharing. There’s nothing she can say that hasn’t already been said better by someone else. The more she stays out of anyone’s radar, the less they care about her business—but the issue now is that there seems to be no escaping scrutiny since every witch, wizard, and wix could have a camera on their person.

What magical skill or talent is your character most proud of?

Dierdra wouldn’t consider it a skill, really, even though Dierdra wouldn’t know her way around an oven or a stove to save her life—so most of her cooking is done magically. What’s worse is that she’s incredibly out of practice. But she can confidently make two things: (1) Every year on her birthday, she bakes herself a cake from scratch as a tradition she insists on keeping, even if it falls apart as she tries to cover it up with icing. (2) She knows how to make her eggs any way she wants, realizing it takes patience to properly make them over easy without breaking the yolk. The process of cooking—getting the ingredients together, preparing them, and heating them just right—is meditative, and very rarely does she allow herself to have these moments.

Para Sample

I usually write somewhere between 150-300 words per post! See https://alices-husband.tumblr.com/ for a recent sampling of my typical writing length.  

Product sponsorships put the numbers on her paycheck, though once upon a time the products were simpler: weatherproof jackets, leather gloves, reliable scrunchies. Of all the broom attachments the Harpies could have sponsored, they had to pick the one that made the most noise.

The damned GPS beeped as Dierdra had taken off from Holyhead and somehow shouted at her as if it were trying to make conversation with the air rushing past her ears. She didn’t need a muggle box to tell her which city she was over; she had made the flight back home enough times, even in the worst of weather.

It felt like her broom was being weighed down by the device, though she shouldn’t have been surprised: the device could hardly stay on her broom to begin with. Dierdra thought she was adjusting her steering more than usual, like she was fighting with the broom to fly straight. Somehow her trusted Nimbus had become the worst broom she had ever flown on after having attached the device onto it. She gripped the handle tighter with her hands.

The device was supposed to keep her from getting lost, but she was the one who was supposed to be doing the flying! A bundle of wires was no equivalent for a decade and a half of practice and Merlin be damned if she let some muggle toy take control of her broom for her.

This voyage home should have been easy. She had given the device a fair enough chance to prove its usefulness for less familiar trips. Dierdra screamed into the wind as the broom jerked again against her will.

She fumbled to get her wand with her left hand, regretting using the sticking charm now to attach the device onto her broom. But as soon as she let that hand go, the broom skittered to her left. Her body wasn’t trained for stability like the beaters were, but seekers were only one-handed on a broom for a few seconds. Except now, the few seconds turned to a dozen soon enough as she fought with her jacket to take her wand back. She calculated the next move, biting her lip hard upon realizing that it was necessary.

Her right hand lifted from the handle and she felt the broom slip, losing elevation despite her knees still steering. She kept her eyes forward, though there wasn’t much to see except the clouds she had hidden herself in. She knew she wasn’t over any cities yet so no muggles could see some “ooh-foes” out of the sky, but a water landing was complicated by the fact that there was nothing solid to land on. She slowly lifted her fingers to her jacket, fighting the force of the wind to unbutton it with both hands.

The force of the jacket billowing out behind her nearly threw her off her broom. Her heart leapt to her throat, her left hand reaching for the broom handle as her knees gripped for control. The wind tore her wand out of its inner pocket as soon as the fingers on her right hand reached for it, and she pulled the broom out of its planned path to make a swift hairpin turn.

The device screen flickered wildly, taunting her for going in the wrong direction. Her teeth gnashed together as she dove for her wand, speeding down this time to anticipate catching it from above. She needed to be out of the cloud cover to watch for the wand drop, making a wide circle before she spotted the wind carrying it further from where she had opened her jacket.

Dierdra leaned forward as she sped off towards the wand. Her muscles tensed as the broom urged her to turn back, the pull of the device stronger than ever now that she forced the broom to steer in the opposite direction. Again, she’d have to risk the broom wandering of its own accord when she made the final catch, but her timing had been nothing but impeccable: it was only half a second to reach out and grab it, its slenderness much easier to grip than a rounded golden snitch.

She inhaled sharply as she let the device bring the broom back to its intended course, clinging to the broom until she was steady again. It was only when she let the broom cruise did it finally behave, but the benefit of this was lost on her as soon as she tried taking control again to lift her back into the clouds, defying even that simple command. Her wanded hand clenched into a fist and raked over the thick strap that held the device onto her broom, opening her mouth only to shout the severing charm in frustration.

The strap would have fluttered elegantly like a broken ribbon carried by the wind—instead it looked like a misshapen tadpole diving into the sea, watched by a relieved rider securing her wand in its pocket and buttoning her jacket. Dierdra leaned forward, not bothered this time with cloud cover; she was nearly crying as the broom accelerated home, finally unencumbered. 

[homenum-revelio-hq]

Welcome to the Order of the Phoenix, Nicky!

You have been accepted for the role of DORCAS MEADOWES! Your application was amazing! I really enjoyed seeing how well thought out this version of Dorcas was in your mind. I can clearly see where she’ll fit in and can’t wait for her to start blowing shit up! The Order needs someone to rock the boat and you’ve brought that through in your application!

Please take a look at the new member checklist and send in your account within 24 hours! Thank you for joining the fight against Voldemort!

OUT OF CHARACTER:

NAME: Nicky

AGE: 30+

TIMEZONE: EST

ACTIVITY LEVEL: Medium, sporadic; I work retail hours which means that my schedule is not consistent between days. I expect to be able to make several replies each week, however, and am available to check-in or chat often. Tuesdays and Thursdays are the only time I’m really out-of-touch for considerable periods on a regular basis although in general I have more free time in the latter half of the week than I do at the beginning – and of course when Winter Holiday Shopping Season rolls around I will be more absent than usual!

ANYTHING ELSE: For experience, I have played in and adminned several roleplays, 90% of them Harry Potter-based, with a little time doing indie rp as well. I mostly only rp on tumblr (I like the visuals!) but I’ve been around for several years now. I tend to be long-winded but value content over quality, and don’t care about “length matching” on replies. I will also basically always post images with my replies because it’s an integral part of the “acting” experience for me, but I have no objection if my interaction partners prefer to go straight-prose in their posts. No triggers, although I would appreciate it if any posts involving the deaths of cats (or kneazles) could be tagged so I can brace myself or skim over them!

CHARACTER DETAILS:

NAME: Dorcas Dembe Meadowes 

(her parents named her Dorcas for grace–it means “gazelle”–and because her father just liked the way it sounded, and Dembe for peace to honor their hopes for the world and her future; while she is hardly clumsy, aside from that there seems to be little of Dorcas’s names in her attitude or personality…especially not of her middle name! So much for the wizarding superstition that a child’s names can be prophetic…)

AGE: 18

GENDER & SEXUALITY: Dorcas is a cis-gender witch who uses she/her pronouns. I haven’t settled 100% on her sexuality (given the time period, I expect she hasn’t either) but I’m leaning heavily toward her being either a lesbian or a bisexual. I plan to start the game with her being somewhat aware of her preferences, but not having sorted it all out yet. While romance is not a priority in terms of plots I’m seeking, I am definitely interested in Dorcas exploring and discovering more about herself and her identity throughout the game. I think she’s definitely someone who would throw herself into the idea of being Out (and damn the consequences – as usual) which may be especially interesting if it serves as a stumbling block for friends or fellow Order members (or potential/current romance partners) who come from a more conservative (muggle?) background and aren’t keen on her flaunting that.

BLOOD STATUS: half-blood

HOUSE ALUMNI: Hufflepuff (certainly never a prefect, although she did fly Reserve on the Quidditch team as a Beater for two years, playing in a total of one match)

ANY CHANGES: None!

CHARACTER BACKGROUND:

PERSONALITY: 

“Brash enough to be a Gryffindor,” is something people say about Dorcas a lot – but only because they’re missing the point of Hufflepuff House, Dorcas insists. Hufflepuffs aren’t dull, mild stick-in-the-muds any more than any other House; they just have that reputation because they have more follow-through. Gryffindors are useless after the initial rush of bravada and adrenaline has worn-off; Ravenclaws are too easily distracted overall; and Slytherins are too quick to jump for the new advantage to see things through. Hufflepuffs, though, Hufflepuffs know how to focus. And while Dorcas might be quick to jump into a fray, she is no quitter. She’ll never admit a cause is lost (even when she should), never give up on anyone or anything…unless they betray her. Dorcas is an open-hearted, amiable, outgoing soul who is quick to offer friendship to others, but she is unforgiving and unshakable in the grudges she holds against those who let her down. Small things she can forgive, of course – she’s no monster and no one is perfect! But true, genuine betrayal? Of person or principle? That, she will not tolerate.

Dorcas herself is not always easy to tolerate either. Stubborn and blunt, she speaks her mind (even when perhaps she ought to keep it to herself) and her skill in tact and tempering is stunted from disuse. She redeems herself somewhat with those who can bear-up under her brusque honesty by being a loyal and helpful friend, but even that is sometimes negated by her devotion to whatever plan or purpose currently dictates her motivation. It’s not that she’s unkind – just something of a bulldozer. When Dorcas Meadowes decides to do something, she sees it through and damn the consequences – whether that be the numerous detentions she served in school, the bruised feelings of friends and foes alike, or the bridges she has (mostly metaphorically) burned behind her, she will not balk or hesitate even if it kills her (and everyone around her). And with the higher stakes at which the Order of the Phoenix operates, it just well might.  

BRIEF OVERVIEW OF FAMILY: 

The only child of Olive Blott and Thewton Meadowes, Dorcas grew-up in a comfortable, secure, sedate, middle-class magical home. Her parents doted without spoiling her and while she never wanted for anything much, she wasn’t the kind of child who was showered with expensive brooms or designer robes – which was just as well, as Dorcas wouldn’t have cared much for those sorts of over-priced trinkets anyway. Like Dorcas, her parents were solid, hard-working Hufflepuffs (they had met in school; although they hadn’t been in the same year to share classes, they shared plenty of time in the common room and cheering for their friends together on the Quidditch pitch) but unlike them, her work-ethic was rather flexible about where it was applied. Maybe that was an innate aspect of Dorcas’s personality, or something she learned from her non-Hufflepuff friends at school…or maybe, something she picked up from her grandmother. Zawedde Meadowes was a firebrand, an iconoclast, and a fighter. She taught her granddaughter not only how to fight, but when to fight. (Dorcas may have learned that lesson a little too well, with none of the accompanying “and when not to fight” counterpart.) It was Grandma Zawe who broke the erstwhile “purity” of the old Meadowes family line when she married into it – but after seven years as a muggle-born student in Slytherin, some disapproving family glares (and hexes) weren’t enough to make her break a sweat. Despite her more conservative son and daughter-in-law’s efforts to temper Zawe’s outspoken attitude and boundless confidence, Dorcas learned a lot from the grandmother who often served as babysitter while mum and dad were working in the bookshop. Olive and Thewton would have much rather their little girl were a little bit meeker and milder. More willing to go with the flow, like they do; to not cause a fuss. But “fuss” is what Dorcas excels at. The older she got, the more she has come to look on her parents with bemused and at times almost condescending affection. How could they be so content with a world that was so unfair? Keeping their heads down might have kept the shop free of controversy, sure, and that kept them profitable and free of the sort of attempted censorship that louder opinions often garnered, but it didn’t do anything to change things. While Zawe doesn’t know the full extent of Dorcas’s activities with the Order of the Phoenix – nor, indeed, does she know for sure exactly what the Order is nor that Dorcas is a member of an illegal vigilante group – she knows that her granddaughter is up to something dangerous and illicit, something that mirrors her own not-so-long-ago-as-all-that battles against Grindewald. Having personal experience with war makes Zawe aware of just how much danger her granddaughter may be in, but it also makes her proud. When she entertained little Dorcas with stories of her wartime activities, she never thought she might be preparing the girl for her own battles – but if that is where the world is now, so be it. Zawe continues to encourage Dorcas just as she always has, whether that be with playing alibi for mum and dad or by offering words of advice and encouragement after a particularly difficult battle or frustrating conversation with the Order’s more stick-in-the-mud members. Dorcas may have learned the value of hard-work from her parents, but she learned the importance of standing her ground from her gran. With those two elements combined, she’s proven herself a true force to be reckoned with – at least when she’s doing something she thinks matters. (Otherwise…well, “lackluster” would be a generous way to describe her effort.)

OCCUPATION:

Dorcas works as a part-time assistant at the family business, Flourish & Blotts, the main bookseller in Diagon Alley. Her parents would be a lot happier about the fact that she’s showing an interest in the family business if she would actually show an interest – but half the time she cuts out of her shifts early, or sprints in late, or calls-off altogether. If she weren’t family, she’d have long ago been fired, but how do you fire the woman who’s going to inherit the place one day? Scolding her doesn’t seem to help; she either shrugs it off or stomps off, claiming she has more important things to do. What can she be up to that’s keeping her so preoccupied?

ROLE WITHIN ORDER/THOUGHTS ABOUT THE ORDER:

As one of the newest – and also one of the most openly passionate – members of the Order, Dorcas ought to be sitting back and following the lead of her elders and proving where she can be most useful. Instead, she’s causing something of a stir with her big mouth, blunt criticism, and insistence on doing things differently. Dorcas wants the Order to be more proactive, even if that means being more violent. She’s not afraid of collateral damage; this is a war, after all! People get hurt in war, and letting things drag-out because you don’t have the conviction to do what needs to be done is only going to get more people hurt in the long run. So far, she hasn’t swayed anyone who matters to her side – not Kingsely, not Moody, not [Alice] Longbottom, and certainly not Dumbledore. But she is riling-up the younger members, which can be both good and bad: it’s hard to make proper plans when a quarter of the room won’t stop shouting, but it’s also hard to sink into morose despair when there’s a wild-haired girl barely out of her Hogwarts robes shouting in your ear about “taking the fight to Voldemort directly, what are we waiting for?” She has become something of a pivot point within the group – not yet carrying enough weight to tip the balance of power or force any major confrontation or schism, but enough to make people think. Enough to make people argue. Enough to stir things up – which is exactly what she wants. Dorcas has no time for complacency; that’s her parents’ stock in trade, not hers. She is so adamant about not waiting around in fact that she has branched-out on her own private “missions” outside Order edict, support, or sanction – which isn’t quite crossing the line, because it’s not as though they’re an army with orders to follow. They’re a group of desperate vigilantes all pitching-in together to stop a great evil…but Dorcas is pitching a little harder than what some people are comfortable being associated with. So far Dumbledore hasn’t said much about Dorcas and her methods one way or the other – but with how preoccupied he’s been with his own secretive efforts, one has to wonder if he’s had time to notice? Worse (or better, depending on your point of view), she’s convinced other junior members to go along with her on her mad, reckless crusades – acts that the Daily Prophet more often than not labels terrorism. They’re too skittish and scared to understand the difference between what she does and what the Death Eaters do, that’s all – them, and all the complacent fools sitting huddled in their houses, waiting for someone else to come and save them. Dorcas thinks that the Order has been coddling these people too much, letting too many wix get away with sitting on the sidelines by not forcing them to take sides – by letting them bury their heads in the sands and pretend that if they ignore the strife all around them, it will go away. She knows better, and she thinks she can force those layabouts to pick up wands and pick a side if she just rubs their noses in it a bit more. If she brings the war to them, they won’t be able to sit back and marinate in their timid apathy; they’ll have to join the fight, because when she’s through there won’t be any sidelines left in which to hide. Voldemort won’t stand a chance then, not once the rest of the magical community finally gets off their arses and admits that some wars need fought. She has no time to wait for the Ministry, they’re a lost cause – and she’s running out of time (or maybe just patience) to wait for the Order either. Dorcas is going to save the world – and if she has to burn down half of it in the process, so be it.

SURVIVAL: Dorcas’s safety net is her family; it always has been. They may not be enough to protect her from herself this time, though – but she hasn’t been involved in the war for long. She’s still living at home but spends more than a few nights each month crashing at the Potter estate, her room at her grandma’s flat, or with someone else in the Order after a mission or a meeting that runs late – or while she’s waiting for her wounds to heal enough to be able to go home without causing too much outcry. Her parents just think she’s “staying with friends,” as youngsters do – and that’s not technically a lie. Even the people in the Order with whom she doesn’t get along are companions in arms, and that’s almost the same thing as friends surely. Whether she’ll be able to maintain her parents’ ignorance for much longer may be a moot point; someone like Dorcas burns so brightly she may well burn out before there’s time for suspicions to raise.

RELATIONSHIPS: 

NOTE: this is all very much first impressions based on bios etc and subject to change when characters are actually claimed and backgrounds plotted; ergo if you see anything in here about your character that doesn’t feel like it “fits” or you have a better idea for or just aren’t in the mood etc – splendid! Any and all of this can be changed, and is just a basis for what I’m going to springboard off to start with until other options can be discussed or developed! In general, Dorcas’s relationships with the rest of the Order are…okay. She’s new, so some of them don’t trust her yet; she’s reckless, so some of them never will. On the other hand, she’s enthusiastic in her commitment, and that’s something of a breath of fresh air amidst a war that’s starting to seem to some to be unwinnable. Definitely she’s a divisive figure – you can’t easily ignore or turn a blind-eye to Dorcas Meadowes, she’s too loud. Too demanding. Too sure that she’s got the right idea to win this war. That doesn’t mean everyone (or even a majority) agree with her methods, and that can make her easy to dislike – or resent. If she’s so willing to accept collateral damage, then how could the Order continue to hold its head up in moral superiority to their opponents? But what if she is right, and only more extreme methods will win the day? Doesn’t that mean the rest of the Order are failures…or cowards? For some people in the Order, it’s easy to say that Dorcas is wrong (or right), requiring only a simple gut-check to know. For others, the question she forces is much more uncomfortable to confront. For many, that makes Dorcas an uncomfortable person to be around – or someone who causes their temper to snap faster than even she maybe deserves, lashing-out at her rather than facing their uncertainty about themselves. She’s a catalyst, and those are not always well-liked by the people thus catalyzed. As for Dorcas’s feeling about some fellow Order members in specific… James Potter. Everything she knew about James before she joined the Order was that he was a bold, reckless, slightly-wild wizard who never passed-up the opportunity for a prank or a laugh or a spot of danger. He was supposed to be some kind of “golden boy” idol for fun-loving troublemakers. So she expected something…more. What she found was someone far too meek, far too reliable, far too tame. What happened? Was his reputation always a bunch of hot air, or has he just lost the will to fight? Regardless, Dorcas is disappointed – but maybe he’s salvageable. Sometimes she thinks she can see a spark in his eye when she’s outlining a scheme; sometimes she thinks if she can push his temper far enough over the edge maybe he’ll snap out of this funk and get back to the person he should be. Maybe he’ll stop letting Moody and Kingsley and Lily Evans hold him back and he’ll actually get off his butt and do something! Caradoc Dearborn. The man’s a bit of a stick-in-the-mud, sure, but he’s a reliable stick-in-the-mud. (If they had more Hufflepuffs in the Order, they wouldn’t all be sitting on their hands like this!) And no coward either – just too cautious for Dorcas’s tastes. She thinks she can fix that, though. He just needs more of her influence and less of Moody’s and Shacklebolt’s sense of caution. Needs to push himself out of their shadow and back into the proper fight. Dorcas is convinced that’s where he wants to be, too – she just needs to show him how to get there. Shouldn’t be too hard. (If some Death Eater had murdered her mother…!) And once he does, he won’t suffer from the sort of second thoughts and backtracking that plague so many of their fellows and keep the Order locked in this endless cycle of act-regret-act-retreat; Hufflepuffs get things done. She won’t deny that it’s nice to have a “familiar” face in the Order too – even if he’s too old to have actually shared time at Hogwarts with Dorcas, they both come from the cozy Hufflepuff cellars and the dedicated Hufflepuff work ethic and that’s pleasantly familiar; just talking to Caradoc for a little can be a balm to her otherwise jangling nerves or anxious energy. Emma Vanity. If Dorcas has a best friend in the Order, it’s got to be Emma. Which is odd, maybe, because Emma Vanity is not the sort of person one would expect someone like Dorcas to be friends with (or the other way around!) but here they are! They came into the Order together, and so far Emma’s seemed happy to stick at her side through thick-and-thin (and through older, more cautious Order members lecturing them both into behaving more – as if anyone ought to “behave” during a war!) and Dorcas is both glad and grateful. She acts like she doesn’t care if no one likes her – but it’s nice having a friend who always does. Emma’s refined and delicate high-society manners don’t even get on Dorcas’s nerves the way such things do with most people…maybe because with Emma they seem natural rather than forced, or maybe it’s because Emma is always so quick to follow Dorcas’s lead without acting like she’s lowering herself. Maybe it’s just because Emma’s pretty manners remind Dorcas of her late great-aunt – the one “old school” Meadowes who actually got along with Dorcas’s muggle-born grandmother, and who was always the nicest part of family gatherings for Dorcas. Emma has more gumption than people give her credit for, too – even if she does have to pushed into it, most of the time. Good thing Dorcas doesn’t mind doing a little bit of pushing. Benjy Fenwick. Him losing his Quidditch career like that was a waste – Dorcas saw him on the pitch enough in school to know that – but the sport’s loss was the Order’s (and her) gain, so she can’t be too sad about it (even though she tries to make sure she acts like she is, if the subject ever comes up; her focus might be a little narrow but she’s not mean!). She feels a little protective – no, a little proprietary toward him, too. After all, she was the one who knew he’d be a great fit for the Order; she was the one who knew he’d be of great use to the Order. (It’s not all running into battle and sprinting away from arrest; there are so many other skills that matter just as much!) The one who knew he was looking for somewhere to belong and was clever enough to offer that. That means he’s “on her side” – regardless of his thoughts on the matter, maybe! It’s not like she’s taking advantage of him, either; she’s just doing what’s best. For everyone. Including Benjy! He’s happier now than he was when he was just sitting around moping, right? So well done, Dorcas! And if that means she has access to a semi-professional Healer who won’t ask questions or go tattling to Moody or Kingsley or Dumbledore if she and a few mates come in all banged-up right after someone’s set-off an explosion in Knockturn Alley or started a fire at some pure-blood estate…well, that’s just a nice side benefit, really. Sirius Black. Dorcas doesn’t trust him. He can be a lot of fun, and can even be a lot of use – but if there’s a candidate for “most likely traitor” it’s Sirius Orion Black. Something about him just rubs Dorcas the wrong way (maybe it’s the fact that she doesn’t like the parts of him she does like; maybe it’s just knowing how his relatives treated her relatives once upon a time – but Dorcas doesn’t believe in inherited guilt any more than she believes in inherited purity so it can’t be that!) so even though he’s one of the few in the Order who really seems to get what she’s pushing for, who really seems to be on board…there’s a little nugget of suspicion. He just seems to be trying too hard all the time – as though his rebellion against his family were pure performance. The fact that he “broke it off” with the Blacks too early to be able to give the Order any real information about his family’s (very very likely) support of Voldemort is awfully convenient. The fact that his “disreputable best friends” are two half-bloods and a pure-blood rather than, say, any muggle-borns or anything really objectionable is awfully convenient too. Almost like the sort of friends someone who believed in blood-purity but wanted to pretend they didn’t would acquire. (He seems to respect James – the pure-blood – the most, too. How convenient.) He even inherited a nice convenient little chunk of money from some uncle, didn’t he? Almost like his family wanted to make sure that he had enough to live on while he was “cut off” from their fortunes… Oh yes, there are a lot of things about Sirius Black’s story that are just a little bit too convenient for Dorcas to easily swallow. A lot of things that would make him the perfect spy for the people who share his surname…and the person a lot of them are almost certainly working for. The fact that there’s never been any proof just shows that Sirius is more subtle than he lets on, that’s all – unless he isn’t the spy. (But if not, who is?) Dorcas isn’t sure – and she isn’t one to turn down a gift horse just because she thinks it might bite her fingers off. As long as Sirius wants to help her plot some mayhem, she’ll take that help and even enjoy herself along the way – and she certainly isn’t going to say anything to undercut the support he sometimes offers her when a big argument gets going about how proactive (or not) the Order should be. But she’s going to keep an eye on him, anyway…someone should.

OOC EXPLORATION:

SHIPS/ANTI-SHIPS: 

I have no ships in mind for Dorcas. Speaking generally, I think she is likely to be the kind of person who tumbles passionately into and out of love, and for the most part the “cause” comes first and “happily ever after” is for quitters – or at least, that’s the outlook on which she will insist both to herself and to others; her heart may disagree however, and Dorcas is not one to be ruled by common sense or cold logic, which could potentially place her in interesting circumstances. For individual characters, I’m keen to bounce Dorcas off of both those who agree and disagree with her – and regardless of whether they end up sporting romantic inclinations toward one another or not, I’m particularly interested to explore her relationship with Emma Vanity. Also her relationship with James Potter, but I’m definitely not seeing any potential for romance there! XD

WHAT PRIVILEGES AND BIASES DOES YOUR CHARACTER HAVE? 

One might think that having a Muggle-born grandmother she so adores and looks up to would leave Dorcas free of any traces of blood-prejudice – but one would be wrong, because Dorcas did still grow-up in the magical world and it is far, far too easy to internalize the prevailing attitudes of one’s society even when one ought to know better. Oh, she’s no blood-supremacist – but has she ever looked at a talented Muggle-born with shock at their skills because she expected less of someone with Muggle parents? Of course she has. Part of that comes from her own grandmother’s stories, even: knowing how hard Zawe had to work to keep up with housemates who knew so much more than she did about everything when she started at Hogwarts, Dorcas knows that Muggle-borns are starting-out a little behind the rest of the class…and when you “know” that and grow-up surrounded by a society that’s all-too-quick to assume anyone of Muggle origins is “less than” everybody else? It’s all-too-easy to fall into the same lower expectations…even when you tell yourself it’s just “more impressive” coming from someone like that. The fact that Dorcas doesn’t believe herself to have any sort of anti-Muggle-born prejudice really only makes it worse, because if confronted about it she’d only get defensive and argue the point – she isn’t, she can’t be. Don’t be silly. She’d never! She also shares most of the same other base prejudices common to magical society: werewolves are unclean and dangerous, giants are stupid and violent, goblins are greedy and unstrustworthy… All the “classic” prejudices that become so ingrained in society that it can be hard to even notice them until you know they’re there. Being a half-blood with such close Muggle-roots means thar Dorcas herself falls on the middling-low end of the privilege/prejudice ladder, which gives her just enough social stigma that she can sit back and blithely convince herself that she isn’t prejudiced while still giving her enough of a privileged position to make her life comfortable. No, she’s not some pure-blooded toff with connections stretching back halfway to Merlin who can wink-and-nod their way out of an altercation with the law…but she does fall well within the borders of Ordinary Citizen, nothing too fishy or objectionable about her to make somebody look twice or doubt her word. Plus she’s got the convenience of a recognizable and respected family to fall back on when she trouble comes calling – particularly in the form of the M.L.E.P., who are usually inclined to cut her some extra slack. (“Her parents run Flourish & Blotts, after all, my kids got their schoolbooks there! Go ahead and let the lass off with a warning there John, she’s just blowing-off steam, you know how kids are! No harm done…”) Her time with the Order is just enough for Dorcas to begin noticing this – which is both uncomfortable for her to have to own-up to in her own mind, and convenient for a woman with an agenda like hers. Knowing she can get away with a little bit more than she ought to is going to come very much in handy for dear Dorcas…even if the concept sticks in her craw.

WHAT ARE YOU MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO? 

I am honestly just so excited to get to explore the imperfections and prejudices within the Order; too often fandom makes 99% of the characters in HP so black-and-white in terms of good-vs-evil when most of them aren’t. Sure, there are extreme end-of-the-spectrum characters like Voldemort and Bella and Umbridge who are pretty much Pure Evil (and the occasional opposite end like the hardly-flawless-but-wholly-good-hearted Luna Lovegood) but for the most part, the people in this story are just people. (All that “both light and dark inside us” blah blah blah stuff.) But when you only focus on the Good Guys vs Bad Guys – particularly when the cause the bad guys are fighting for is so bad – it’s easy to gloss-over the flaws in the people fighting against them; easy to forget that they aren’t always great too. Easy to forget that just because you’re fighting against a group of people trying to enshrine prejudice as near-holy writ in their society doesn’t mean that you’re automatically free of prejudice yourself. (Maybe some of the people in the Order are there because they oppose blood-supremacy, but does that mean they like werewolves? Doubt it! Or what about the ones who come from Muggle roots who thus have Muggle prejudices that the wizarding world has little of – racism, for starters! What about queerness? Is it more tolerated in a magical society where people can change genders as easily as they transfigure themselves into rabbits and armchairs, and where marriage has always been about preserving the family line more than romance so who cares what the gender of your “bit on the side” is as long as you produce a proper heir? Etc. What about religion? I doubt too many wix go in for Muggle religions, when so many of those belief systems take the tactic of “thou shalt not suffer a witch to live!” so how does that conflict play-out between those who grew-up with one foot in the magical world and one in the Muggle? So many options for turmoil!) Just because someone is paying enough attention to know that Voldemort is evil doesn’t even mean that they don’t share some of the same ideals being spouted by the Death Eaters – maybe unconsciously, maybe to a lesser degree, etc…but still there, in their head. Internalized. Needing to be unpacked, confronted – but fandom does so little of that. Good Guys are Good, End of Story. The Order were all friends who got along, la la la! Nope. Don’t think so. The Order was made up of a bunch of scared, desperate, angry, beleaguered people (several of them outcasts in their own way) fighting life-and-death battles against an enemy they couldn’t always even find, opposing their own government in many ways in order to “do the right thing” – fighting a war that half the populace would rather just went away. Even if they had all started as buddies, that would have been enough strain to crumble half their friendships by the end – and conversely, to forge people who otherwise have nothing in common into lifelong mates. The interpersonal relationships and inevitable clashes and arguments and confrontations – those are going to be awesome. I’m so excited.

ROULETTE IDEAS (OPTIONAL): 

Firstly let me just say that I am happy to offer Dorcas up for any plotting purposes needed – whether that be her little group doing something destructive or illegal, a line that shouldn’t have been crossed, an injury or death that can be blamed on her directly or indirectly, kidnapping (with temporary hostage-plotting of Dorcas; I can sit out a bit no worries!) and rescue mission, whatever! Even if it’s not a plot drop about her, feel free to make use of Dorcas in any sort of inciting incident required; I’m not possessive! As for specific ideas… -Epidemic: because disease doesn’t seem to be something the magical community has to really deal with much (got a cold? Take a Pepper-Up Potion and it’ll go away in an hour!), not the way Muggles do, so I think it would be interesting to have a sudden outbreak of something (something Muggle or something magical?) run rampant through Wizarding England, particularly right now mid-war. (Perhaps rumors will fly that it’s deliberate – but from which side? And engaging in biological warfare in magical war, really??? Are we Muggle barbarians now??) Something strange and uncommon for them to deal with…something that will drive people in to St. Mungo’s in larger-than-usual droves and leave the potioneers and herbologists working overtime and meanwhile there’s a bloody war on we’re busy enough already do you mind? -Someone Gets Bit: either there’s a second werewolf in the Order now (has Remus been exposed yet? Guess it’s his responsibility to play Lycanthropic Yoda – or if he’s still closeted, time for a Guilt Waterfall deciding whether or not to out himself and help out! uh-oh!) or it’s a Bill Weasley/Lavender Brown situation where the offending werewolf wasn’t transformed but oh no lycanthropic taint now what? and general panicking with a heavy side-helping of bigotry whoops! Maybe the Death Eaters get wind of the fact that the Order has a Pet Werewolf, so they sic their own (not so) tame puppy on them with an ambush by Fenrir Greyback and his buddies…or they could decide to fuck with the Order by using Transfiguration to fake a werewolf pack attack, and everyone panics over the bites that are actually harmless but too late to take back anything they said or did when they figure it out whoops – basically just the Death Eaters pulling a nasty prank (because the Marauders aren’t the only immature asshole wix out there lol) but also has the potential “side benefit” of the Order risking exposure by going to St. Mungo’s to get treatment etc….idk this one sounded better in my head before I started detailing it, but I’m sharing it anyway in case it triggers a better idea with someone else! XD -Fake Defection: probably making use of a temporary secondary character, or as a potential idea for someone who wants to join the game only for a few weeks (due to scheduling issues or attention span or whatever) and then write their character out: a Death Eater makes contact with someone in the Order and wants to defect! Everyone is equal parts excited/suspicious! They are brought-in for debriefing and discussion! Things seem to be on the up-and-up…but they aren’t, it’s all a ploy by Voldemort and not a real defection at all but an attempt to worm a spy into the Order or at least sow distrust oh no! They make leading comments and sly little observations that has the Order distrusting each other as much as the supposed defector (who is the spy within the Order???) and eventually blows their cover either with a fight or by ratting-out some of their plans to the Death Eaters leading to an ambush etc etc…but in the meantime? At least one or two Order members thought they’d made a friend (and maybe they really had! but the Death Eater’s loyalty trumps their affection!) and that hurts. (Alt: if the player ends up falling in love with the character and wants to keep them, throw in a twist where the DE in question initially came in as a double-agent for Voldemort but then ends up falling for their new friends and even questioning their own prejudices as a result of direct exposure to the people they used to think weren’t people and now they have to work-out how to really switch sides without burning their bridges with the people who thought they’d already switched sides, whoops!) -Burning the Books: trouble at Flourish & Blotts! Maybe something nasty follows Dorcas home one day; maybe someone in the Death Eaters just gets offended at some of the product being stocked and Dorcas’s parents ignored the threatening letters and hints (because who would actually do any of those things? They’re just selling books! This is a civilized society!) so the Death Eaters decided to make a bigger gesture. Maybe it wasn’t even the Death Eaters themselves, but someone who was inspired by the current social strife and decided to act on their own agenda of hate for from arson-style censorship. How unsettled would Dorcas be to discover her safe-haven was a target now? Would it hit home hard enough to make her question her own policy of “collateral damage is inevitable, stop fussing!” that she’s been pushing? Would it inspire her dial-back her more extreme efforts – or only make her embrace them harder, because if even home isn’t safe anymore than all bets are off! Maybe it’s even all out of her hands by then; maybe it would be a wake-up-call to respect the rules of engagement more but it’s too late, her agenda has a life of its own and she can’t stop it now…so better run and keep up before you get run over? Or plant your feet and try to make a stand, even if you’re standing against what you used to advocate?

ANYTHING ELSE? nothing!

[desertbroad]

kaj + (inverted) tropes: part two! * * i don’t know all the actual Official TM names for these tropes, so most are made up. also, you might notice the regular trope list (part 1 of this headcanon) is significantly longer. this is because kaj has a few main inverted tropes but tons more regular ones, since tropes are like atoms: they make up everything. i just wanted to focus on the few inversions that created her character and let the rest come naturally! under a read more for length. ** also as of 7/6/19 part one isn’t done yet. yes i know please don’t shame me ok IM GETTING TO IT

fridged woman (aka back from the dead)—

for this one i took inspiration from laura moon from american gods, with a few tweaks (love neil gaiman, but some of the things about her character are...a bit squicky). unlike a good number of women in media, kaj isn’t shoved over gently and pronounced dead so that a man can grow from her pain. in fact, she’s shot in the head twice, pronounced dead, & buried. while her “death” means more pain and character development for the characters surrounding her, it means pain and character development for her, too. truth be told, she survives a hell of a lot more than any average person should, especially one with her low luck stat. half of this is the fun and wacky way new vegas’ world works (obviously, no real person could survive all this), but also because of her good ol’ courier determination. things that should’ve fridged kaj but haven’t include: two shots to the head, numerous combat scrapes, being stabbed, having her brain/heart/spine removed, having a bomb collar attached to her neck, killing an entire fortification of trained legionnaires, stepping on landmines, etc etc. the courier is pretty much the bruce willis of fallout.

world ending vengeance—

specifically applies to certain characters. while most others who piss kaj off get the full brunt of her wrath (see: caesar, mr. house, elijah, general oliver, ulysses), benny, along with dr. mobius & the think tank & mcnamara*, get a pass. in fact, she lets him go not once or twice, but on three separate occasions, even knowing he’s likely to betray her again. the reason why? not even kaj knows. some people speculate it’s because she likes him / slept with him (incorrect; she liked house to a degree, and slept with caesar); others speculate it’s because they’re so similar (also incorrect; she shared an alarming number of similarities with ulysses & elijah). the theory that comes closest to the truth is that she pities him. it fits in line her past behavior with mobius & the think tank, who were physically unable to see the effects of their actions and thus were spared a horrible fate. likewise, kaj seems to have judged benny to be innocent in her own personal court, and though he continues to be a thorn in her side again and again, she refuses to “sentence” him for anything. it helps his cause that his plan helped her take over vegas, and he created yes man, one of the only living beings she’s ever fully trusted. also a slight inversion of kaj’s maneater / black widow trope; the one person she truly should seduce and kill, she doesn’t.

that said, benny doesn’t get away from their encounters without any punishment—after narrowly escaping being crucified, both kaj and benny have matching rope burns around their wrists. it’s her morbid idea of a joke.

*mcnamara doesn’t fit within this trope, but kaj spares the bos for veronica & christine’s sake, despite yes man’s warnings. also for the off chance that they might convert to being her allies (they don’t, and this choice helps lend itself to more BOS trouble all over the wasteland).

white man cowboy—

kind of a simple inversion that’s been done before, but an important one and one that i like a lot. for starters, the “john wayne” cowboy is a bastardization of a history that was made up of ethnic minorities and whitewashed for hollywood aesthetic (also fuck you john wayne). while none of my research has come up with anything about women of color or nonbinary people in the western scene, only moc (whether this is intentional or not, i’m not sure), i still wanted to write kaj as non-male. frankly, this is because i wanted her to be an inversion of tired tropes, and that included being a debonair, byronic woman / non gender conforming hero (think gentleman jack) instead of a debonair, byronic white dude. we’ve got 20 of those for every fleshed out woman/enby on screen, lbr. kaj is also a femme fatale, but only by coincidence; she’s more of a wandering heart breaker than a necessarily dangerous woman, much like many of the heroes on screen.

i also find that non-men of color are one of the most underrepresented minorities in fiction—even media that celebrates diversity simplifies them down (hamilton), or centers their narrative and entire purpose around a man (hamilton, again). nevermind nonbinary people / trans folk. for that reason, i wanted kaj’s story to be about a woman of color / someone who doesn’t conform to expectations and doesn’t allow herself to be put in the sidelines for a white person or a male to lead her life. and regardless of whether a woman filling this swaggering, womanizing cowboy role is accurate to history or not, fallout’s setting lends itself an air of exaggeration, so i felt it was appropriate to include her here, instead of arguing with people over whether someone like her existed in actual history (my suspicions say yes, and that these people have simply been erased from the narrative for the convenience of certain people’s feelings, but still).

smarter than you look / deadly doctor (this one actually has a tvtropes page! look it up!)—

from the deadly doctor page : ‘ surely the ultimate example of the morally ambiguous doctorate. one reason for this is due to all his/her training : while having advanced knowledge on the human body can be used to save people, it also gives all the knowledge on how to injure and kill people with minimal effort by knowing all the body's weak points. some more sympathetic examples equate to the medical version of a well-intentioned extremist, who may certainly have good (or at least sympathetic/understandable) intentions but ruthless medical ethics. ’

one of the most important things kaj took from her thorough education is medical training—unable to depend on anyone after being traumatized, trusting any doctor who happened along to treat her illnesses was out of the question. she was also smart enough to know the original kaj wouldn’t be around to heal her up forever. thus, she began her training as a self preservation instinct; but over time, as she grew and relearned how to be compassionate and empathetic, she decided to use healing for good, too. trained as a young girl by the original kaj, and then later trained officially as a combat medic by the ncr, kaj has spent a countless amount of hours inside army tents, healing wounds and assisting doctors with tough cases. she even keeps a medical bag on her person for exactly that sort of situation (especially since supplies in the mojave aren’t exactly easy to dig up). though she’s a big scientist in general (the big mt saw to that), medicine is her specialty. she’s even stitched up her own wounds, though it’s not something she particularly enjoys (it takes a lot of whiskey and something for her to bite down on).

for reference, consider this scene of anton from no country for old men (TW: he’s performing self surgery, so it’s pretty gruesome). though both anton and kaj’s lifestyles are rough and even sadistic at times, they both still have medical training—if not to protect others, then to at least protect themselves. and like anton, it shows kaj’s inability to trust anyone with her most important commodity: herself. this makes her surgery in the big empty doubly as horrifying, given she took specific pains for something like this to not happen. it’s why she refuses to leave without all of her organs (also, stubbornness). all of this is just one of the ways kaj is way more ... well, everything than she looks. which leads into...

underestimate me if you dare, aka femme fatale (sort of?)—

though fallout prides itself on being a soft reset on the world, people’s perceptions of minorities are still ... iffy, due to real world influences by the creators. thus, the people around kaj often jump to assumptions about her based on her identity—mostly, that she’s weak. once, it offended her, but now it’s a perception that she encourages. after all, she’s not flat out strong like your usual hero, but is more of a hamlet-type; smart, perceptive, fast, and willing to strike from the shadows. it’s hard to do any of that if you’re putting on a big performance about your power (though admittedly, she’s been known to go big or go home if she’s planning on killing everyone; if she’s not faking nice and telling you what you wanna hear, trouble’s ahead).

of course, the reality is that kaj is a powerhouse. but these perceptions about her supposed weakness are why posing as a legion member is so easy—those who think she’s weak underestimate her or keep their distance, which gives her leave to do what she wants. she’s viewed more like a pet than a person by most, and though it frustrates her at times to pretend, it also gives her leave to do more, than if she were to simply pose as a man.

all that said, kaj doesn’t exactly qualify as a femme fatale. most of her lovers are just information givers, and they escape from their interaction unharmed. kaj killing her bed mates is actually less likely than her just sparing them and letting them go, none the wiser. of course, you kill one tyrant (maybe two or three) and suddenly you’re a black widow—

[thewildthewarlikeandthewoebegone]

I made a file for Lothric in Dark Souls 2 (and wrote up a thing about the storyline I developed for it, here [xxx]), but why finish one project when you can start more projects to sporadically switch between, endlessly?  So I made Lothric in Dark Souls 3.  He’s still astral projecting, but he’s not playing around with history this time.  Being chased by endless unkillable foes, forever, who are persistent enough to get around literally any obstacle, is starting to drive him up the wall.  The world will end soon anyway, but he’s too mad to wait that long.  And the chance that somebody could kill him while they’re all waiting for the sky to fall is absolutely unacceptable.  He’s quite good at astral projecting after spending a lot of his adolescence worming his consciousness into the past to escape his home life, so why not assume the role of an ashen one and kill all of those dusty re-risen goddamn Lords of Cinder himself (how hard could it be)?  He already has his own soul.  If he can become the one who holds the power to link the flame, the only one, he can choose to smother it.  Even if the cycle can be reset if someone links the flame (which isn’t a given), that will only create an environment where those in power will make another Lothric, another sacrifice, to see if it can be done yet again.  Reality is so far gone that the cycle can’t be sustained without treating people like kindling, baking suffering and dehumanization into the very DNA of the world.  It’s time for a cycle like that to die.

The firekeeper knew exactly what he was from the start - knew exactly who he was - but she is so committed to her sacred duty to indiscriminately assist ashen ones that she can’t bring herself to do anything but help him.  At first she had a brief flash of disbelieving hope that he’d sent this projection to her to turn himself in, but then it smiled at her and played coy about being an ashen one on a quest to link the flame.  If he wanted to link the flame, he had no reason not to be straightforward.  The only thing left for him to be after is an age of dark, and all the firekeeper can do is hope that he fails, or is killed by a true champion before he succeeds.  Firelink Shrine is a tense, tense place when Lothric is around, and the others who take refuge there have no idea why.  Everything’s going exactly according to Lothric’s plan, in other words.  

Since Lothric and Lorian’s souls are linked, they actually both pilot the projection like a Jaeger from Pacific Rim, or like the sensate from Sense8.  Lothric has more say in how it looks and what it does because it’s his magic that created it, but there’s a lot of Lorian in there too.  With Lothric skilled in magic and Lorian skilled in melee weapons, they have a lot of bases covered.  Lothric’s not used to sharing his astral projections, so he’s a little miffed about that.  Lorian’s used to approaching combat using a body that has more strength and stamina, so he’s a little miffed about the lost potential and the strong need for caution.  It’s an effective partnership, but not a seamless one.  They’re very different people.

Lothric didn’t know he’d find Emma on the High Wall.  There was a time he trusted her, a time he didn’t know better than to trust her and fancy she cared about his well-being.  But she’s just like the others, and always has been.  What’s worse, she firmly believes that forcing him to link the flame is “helping him.”  He wasn’t prepared to meet Emma, not there, not then.  But perhaps the worst part was, she didn’t even recognize him.  Lorian quickly guided their projection away.

Lorian wanted to teach Lothric how to fight Vordt like a knight.  Lothric wanted to summon somebody else to fight Vordt like a knight, so he could hang back and shoot magic at the thing... that’s how he’s always done it when he and Lorian fight ashen champions.  They’re very different people.

The game will inevitably present a boss fight with the “actual” Lothric and Lorian, but I can decide things and just like that it’s not part of the story’s canon?  In the canon of the story, they’ll go out of their way to get the projection they’re piloting to their actual hideout, but only so they can give it a cool sword.  Lothric can only astral project his consciousness, he can’t send tangible objects through the link.

You can jump onto Lothric’s throne at Firelink Shrine and sit in it, so that’s Lothric’s resting spot for when I exit the game.  I imagine he likes sitting up there like it’s... well, like it’s a throne.  Just a humble, ordinary ashen cleric, definitely on a journey to kill that bastard Lothric instead of usher in an age of dark.  His lazy, vicious confidence makes the firekeeper extremely nervous.

You don’t find Lothric’s outfit until late in the game.  I figure Lothric starts out by posing as an ashen cleric because he doesn’t want everybody to immediately know who he is.  By the time the game hands out his actual outfit, that signifies the point where he’s so confident in his purpose and his eventual success that he doesn’t give a shit anymore if people know.  That being said, his commitment to not obviously being Lothric doesn’t necessarily sync with a commitment to being perfectly unremarkable.  If you’ve spent your whole life not having to wear pants, it’s not an imposition you will ever be prepared to take kindly to.  Lorian points out delicately sometimes that wearing pants with that cleric robe would actually lead to taking less damage from something like Vordt (who he definitely knows how to fight with a melee weapon, and maybe they could just...) but Lothric is adamant that if Lorian wants an astral projection that wears pants, he’d better get started right away figuring out how to make his own.  The devs actually recorded a devious little slapslapslap sound for bare feet, a truly mischievous sound, which I imagine they made for me, personally, to augment this playthrough specifically.

[gofancyninjaworld]

OPM Chapter 93 Thoughts

<20 in bold at the end.

It goes without saying that if you've not read this chapter yet, you probably shouldn't read this!

Typeset: https://imgur.com/a/cuCBt76

Youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AopCejGDKMg

The ART!

If there’s only one thing I’d declare my love for, it’d have to be the art.  It brought the characters and the sense of place to life in a way I’ve not yet seen in One-Punch Man.

This chapter round, Murata did not pour his energy into elaborate backgrounds or spectacular scenes. His assistants did wonderfully at the backgrounds, particularly in showing the dereliction of City Z. So you'd think this chapter would be quick and easy to knock out? NO. WAY. Murata poured his art into detailing and delineating characters, bringing their very souls to life as we've rarely seen before. So many characters, both familiar and new. Along with the incredible character interaction, this chapter has been a real treat for the eyes as well as the mind.  

More thoughts still under the cut!

Chapter Theme: You Can't Escape the Pressure

Everyone is under pressure. It's on everyone, both that imposed by the external circumstances and that imposed on themselves by the characters. So much of the ugliness we see in the S-Class meeting comes from that pressure. I'll deal with Fubuki, Bang, King and Genos separately.

The collective pressure to prove themselves is on the support heroes. While they may be the support, their role is just as crucial and their objectives are many -- containing any escaping monsters, clearing an escape route and making sure that Waganma is escorted to safety. OneShotter definitely feels the toughness of the assignment while Needle Star focusses on the other side of the pressure: the potential reward of promotion.

Even at the top, the pressure is intense. If anything it's worse. Being based in A-City, the executives have to look at the results of their failure every single day, at the still-raw lunar landscape that used to be most of A-City. Metal Knight didn't even bother trying to fill in the larger craters, but just built road bridges over them. Sekingal may be ambitious but he has earned Sicchi's respect for not merely being the guy in the suit who sits back in relative safety while sending heroes to their doom. He's going to be there with them -- he's tied not just his reputation and career trajectory to the success of the mission, but his very life.

I don't think many people would begrudge Sekingal his ambition nor any of the support heroes for being politically shrewd in their desire for promotion. They're doing the work and taking the risks, why shouldn't they make sure to get their reward? It's people who use politicking as a substitute for doing the good work whom we object to.

Wanted: Leadership and Unity

ONE has long had a special dislike for experts without actual expertise. One of his early cameo characters was a Mr. Nanmoshirane (Mr. I don’t know) who was a pundit making useless pronouncements on the mosquitoes that had appeared over City Z. So, why is a ten year old in charge of S-Class? Because he's the best at the job and has lots ofleadership experience? HA, not a bit of it! It's because he's clever (technologically), is available, and is the only one who will speak up. 

Unfortunately, Child Emperor hasn't got the personal authority to shut down dissent and is having to rely on mollifying the egos of the other heroes to keep them all on side and focussed on the threat in front of them.   To watch the clash of titanic egos as they try to work out how best to approach the Monster Association raid is to feel for Child Emperor.  But he manages.

And then Sweet Mask appears.  As a deeply disliked and barely respected hero, his presence is unwelcome in the first instance and his insistence in not just joining the strike team but leading it started to create an ugly situation. 

Watching the S-Class meeting nearly implode into bloodshed, all I can think is with allies like this, who needs enemies? It's evident that no matter how talented the individuals are, without a sense of shared purpose around which they can rally and actual strong leadership, they're going to be easily working at cross-purposes to one another.

Fubuki: The Power of Spite

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned? I guess Shakespeare knows what he's talking about -- here comes Miss Blizzard and she's looking to raise hell, both with the Monster Association and with her sister.

So much of her anger is not for the monster, Do-S, who brainwashed her group. After all, Do-S is a monster -- that's what monsters do. It's for Tatsumaki, who seriously hurt the members of her group and who has now had her dismissed without so much as a say. That's what she cannot forgive. She's taking them both on, both on a personal level and on the behalf of the group of heroes and compatriots she loves and nurtures.

While it's hilarious that she thinks of Saitama's group as her 'new' Fubuki group and is outraged at how completely she's ignored, her astuteness cannot be faulted.

Go Blizzard!

Bang: A Shabby Way to Treat a Good Man

I salute Bang's sense of responsibility in coming all the way out to A-City in order to find out what is going on, since the loss of his communicator has meant that he has no way to keep abreast of the situation. Watching Sicchi lie to Bang's face was just painful.

It's shocking how quickly narratives grow up around events. Sicchi may have defended Bang staunchly to the other executives, but he's asking if Bang let Garou go. Even Bomb is questioning Bang over it. And Bomb was there! You see how deeply this hurts Bang.

And yet, even now, Bang hasn't given up on Garou. He's jumped at the chance to 'accompany' King as he puts it in order to fulfil his duty to apprehend Garou. Maybe even to save him if he still can.

King: The Paper Tiger Becomes a Cardboard Tiger

King running away only to get himself deeper into trouble is nothing new, although it's wonderfully done here. His accidentally defusing the S-Class meeting's tension was absolutely stellar timing. And how freaky is it that even through several walls, Zombieman can hear the King engine?

However, what's new is that King can be mighty brave... so long as it's from behind Saitama. Watching King dying inside even as he puts on a brave face and says brave-sounding things has been quite the edifying development. He so wasn't counting on being bundled off to the Monster Association like a secret weapon though. Being deferred to and consulted by the other heroes was terrifying enough. The out-of-body experience he was having at the end is one for the ages. :D

You Wait Forever For A Cyborg And Then Three Come At Once

Conventional wisdom is that a cyborg is hard to kill. Defeat one, sure. Kill one, that takes some dedication. Accordingly, we see the return of Jet Nice Guy, phew! His backstory is that he won the lottery, then used his winnings on buying body modification surgery -- I'm glad they were good enough to keep him alive and that he's still got enough money (and enough desire) to return to hero work, looking better than ever. Learning that Drive Knight is also a cyborg has been awesome. Finally the question of what Drive Knight is has been settled, although the clues have been there for a while, mostly in Murata's art spreads, one of which shows him eating noodles through his mouth grille and another that shows him lounging in the swimming pool with a snorkel. His cyborg nature is why the rest of the S-Class are hoping that he may yet be alive, even if he's incapacitated.

I hope that we get to see what Jet Nice Guy and Drive Knight do. I hope the conventional wisdom isn't tested too hard!

As to the cyborg we know best, Genos, he has has gone dragon-crazy. [That said, his enabler-in-chief, Dr. Kuseno, has no right to say that it is Genos who is reckless: there's a bit of the devil in the old man too, what with putting such a badly-balanced build together for him.] I think I see the rational side of why Genos is gunning for dragon-level monsters so hard. As far as he's concerned, they're just a stepping stone in his path to strength -- huge, treacherous, bitey stepping stones, but stepping stones nonetheless. But they're rare monsters. If one pops up, it'll be assigned to Tatsumaki or a group of well-tested S-Class heroes. As a new guy who is still building his track record, Genos has no chance of being assigned one, not even to support another hero.

The conservative way to become a dragon-slayer is to painstakingly grind away, improving his proficiency with demon-level monsters until the HA is so confident in his ability to deal with them that they'd consider briefing him on joining other S-Class heroes to deal with a dragon-level threat. That'll take weeks. Genos is a little less... patient.

The Monster Association is the only place where he's guaranteed a crack at them. There are five main possible outcomes.

A: He gets killed or crippled (the scenario that literally keeps Dr. Kuseno awake). It is a risk that exists regardless of what he does -- monsters target even the most peaceable civilians. As a hero, Genos has a great big target on his back anyway.

B: He gets beaten down without taking out any dragons. Here's the thing: at the very least he's no worse off than beforeand he gets invaluable battle data to build up on. The data will help to sort between changes and strategies that were never going to work and those that might yet work with some improvement.

C: He gets beaten down but kills or critically injures at least one dragon. He gains that invaluable battle data plus a basis on which to consolidate gains. Gets a promotion to around S-10 (more likely rank 10 - 12)

D: He doesn't get beaten down and kills or critically injures at least one dragon. He can work on using data and experience to further refine the fighting platform. Gets promotion to well within top ten and to ask Saitama for his next assignment.

E: He doesn't get beaten down but doesn't take down any dragons, either. This scenario will have Dr. Kuseno sigh in relief, but it's the only really bad outcome from his perspective. He's lost data and the chance to tackle such monsters. He'll have to grind like mad and hope for another lucky break.

I rate the likelihoods of the various scenarios as A - 0%; (ONE isn't about to kill Genos over this fight), B - 60%; (no change from webcomic), C - 39%; (it's a big step up and still respects what happens in the webcomic), D - 1%; (in that case the first half of chapter 108 is redundant) and E - 0%; (don't worry boy, here be lots of dragons).

Rounding up

This may have been a set up chapter, but it was anything but uneventful. 32 people are responding to what is for most, the greatest challenge they've yet faced. Okay, one of them is Saitama and he's just wandering around oblivious to the import of anything.

I can't wait for the fights, when we see all the tensions and motivations explode into action.

<20: The keg is full of dynamite, and the fuse is lit. Bring on the explosion!

[ijustwant2write]

Wrong Lover-Steve Rogers x Reader x Bucky Barnes (Part 3/?)

(GIF credit to owners)

Masterlist

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 4 / Part 5 / Part 6 / Part 7 / Part 8

Summary: (Y/N) throws herself back into work, hoping that it will help her regain some memories. The team decides that a simulation is needed before she can be out back into the field but of course it doesn't all go to plan.

Characters: Steve Rogers x Reader, Bucky Barnes x Reader, mention of other Avengers

Meanings: (Y/N)= Your name

(Y/L/N)= Your last name

Warnings: I don't know a lot about amnesia

Tags: @lovely-geek @projectxhappiness @seargantbcky @pluckastarfromthesky @crazy-little-thing-called-buck @aznkim @buckyness-intensifies

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Glancing up at the clock, I sighed deeply as I saw how many hours had gone by since I first started working. I didn't want to sit around and do nothing, I needed to get back into my work routine. After requesting this, I was given some files that needed to be typed into the system; so basically work that was beneath me. I didn't type up files often, only when necessary or if I had lead a team myself on a mission. But my sole purpose in S.H.I.E.L.D was to go out in the field. This frustrated me, I wanted to go back out there. However it was deemed 'irresponsible' and 'dangerous' to let me back out there as I didn't have a strong bond with my team members anymore. Plus they wanted to see if I would fully recover before putting me back out there.

Shutting down the computer, I rearranged the files, slipping them back in the envelope they arrived in. For a moment I just sat on the bed, unsure of what to do. I didn't want to risk going out of my room, I could run into someone. It was a strange feeling, I wanted to get to know these people but at the same time I couldn’t bring myself to do so. Suddenly, an female sounding AI voice erupted through my room, making me jump out of my skin.

"Miss (Y/L/N), Mr Stark requests your presence in his lab." She spoke.

Do I answer back? Was I supposed to say anything?

"Miss, do you wish to be alone?"

"Oh no, uh, I'll be there." I answered, waiting for her to say something back. When she didn't, I presumed that she had told Tony my reply.

I had literally just thought about hiding myself from the rest of the world, yet when confronted (and by a voice no less) I instantly caved. Letting out a frustrated huff, I gathered a better looking outfit than leggings and a hoodie, heading to meet Iron Man himself.

Ever since I arrived, it seemed that Tony had stayed away from me. I'm not sure why. Perhaps he didn't want to deal with it? Maybe we weren't as close as everyone thought we were? Either way it had sort of helped that there was one less person to deal with, as horrible as that sounded.

This whole building was a maze in itself, so I had been sent a digital map to my phone, hoping that I wouldn't get lost whilst recovering. As I studied it, I hadn't realised someone was walking towards me, though neither had they. We collided, the force of our bodies sending me flying backwards until I was caught. Looking up, I had been saved by Steve, and I started to panic at our closeness. Without thinking, I shoved him away, feeling an intrusion of my personal space. His face showed hurt, though he tried to smile. I couldn’t think of anything to say, instead I just walked around him, picking up the pace as I rushed down the hallway. It felt as if I was in a cringy rom-com and I played the awkward yet adorable lead role who didn’t face the problems in front of her. I didn’t even look back, I couldn’t risk that, knowing that he would be upset by what happened. 

Trying to ignore the encounter, I carried on  with my journey to find Tony, suddenly freezing when I arrived. The walls were made up of huge windows that gave everyone a look into the lab. Tony was working on a suit with a robotic crane assisting him, holographic computers surrounded them. I had seen his work before obviously, but never this close...not that I remembered. He spotted me wavering outside the door, returning to his suit as the doors slid open for me. Taking a hesitant step inside, I took in everything around me, amazed that one person could invent so many things. 

“Take over for me.” Tony said, confusing me at first until I saw the robot take over ending the suit.“This is awkward, though I didn’t for once think it was going to go smoothly.” 

I stood in the middle of the room, not sure where this conversation was going to go.

“Your therapist said that he wanted to hold meetings with all of us to help you but I honestly couldn’t see how being stuck in an office would help.” He gestured to the space around us.“Hence why I invited you down here.”

“Did I spend much time in here? With you?” I finally spoke.

“Sometimes. You liked testing out the technology for missions. Most of the time was spent with Steve though.”

A wave of nausea went through me and apparently Tony could see that.

“I don’t see the same spark you guys used to have. Obviously this amnesia situation is the reason but I’ve gotta be honest, I’m not sure how it’s all gonna turn out.”

I shrugged.“Me neither. Nothing seems to be working.”

“I don’t have any memorabilia to help you. Our friendship was just based on...memories.”

“Don’t worry. I’m hoping something just triggers everything to come back.”

I heard footsteps in the hallway, making me glance behind me out of curiosity; this conversation was also going no where, I needed a distraction. Bucky was walking by, looking in when he saw me. I smiled at him, receiving one back immediately. When I turned back around, Tony had a different expression on his face, though I was scared because he looked angry.

“What was that?” he asked.

“What was what?”

“You two, smiling at each other.”

“So? It was just a friendly smile.”

“You haven’t smiled at any of us instinctively, why does he get one?”

“I...I just did... don’t know what else to tell you.”

“Do you feel comfortable around him? Relaxed?”

I was starting to raise my voice.“You’re jumping to conclusions.”

“Am I? I just don’t want this jeopardizing your chances of getting better-”

“Everyone keeps saying how I need to get better yet no one has asked what I really want.” I shouted.

“And what do you want?”

“I...” my voice went quiet again.“I just want to live my life without everyone telling me what it used to be.”

With that, I walked out the room, tonnes of thoughts rushing to my mind. Everything was so confusing. Why couldn’t I just go back to work and go from there? Why couldn’t I live my life how I wanted to? I ran all the way back to my room, slamming the door shut behind me and shutting everyone out for the rest of the day.

The next day was filled with tension. The team had been called together by my therapist, though none of us knew why. We collected in the common room, everyone was already sat down by the time I arrived. They all looked at me with warm smiles and I masked one back for them. Hesitantly sitting down, my eyes met with Bucky who nodded towards me. For some reason I felt reassured, until I realised Tony was watching me like a hawk. Luckily Dr Warwick came in, standing in front of us with his clipboard.

“Thank you everyone for coming. I wanted to conduct an activity that may help Miss (Y/L/N)’s recovery. We will be using the simulation room today like you would whilst training. So the scenario will be one of which you are out in the field and I just want to see how you all interact. That and the fact that someone is eager to get back to work.”

I lowered my head, not liking the sudden attention. The focus went back to the doctor who explained the activity further. Once finished, we all got suited up, stepping into the simulation room. I had used this before, in my own training and to train new recruits. Although you were stepping into a virtual reality, it all felt so real, even the pain; it wasn’t as bad as an actual injury but enough to stun you. We all stood together, awaiting further instruction. I felt myself drifting towards Bucky, stopping myself as my thoughts went back to Tony. No, he wasn’t going to get to me, not now at least.

“Can you all hear me?” Warwick’s voice rang through our coms.

We all nodded in response. 

“You are going to be based in a forest where a terrorist organisation’s secret bunker is located. There are a number of S.H.I.E.L.D agents being held hostage. Your aim is to get all of them out of there with minimal injuries. The simulation will commence in ten seconds.”

“(Y/N),” Natasha caught my attention,“you’ve done this sort of missions before, you know the basics right?”

“Yeah, just guide me along, I don’t know how you guys work together.”

“Don’t worry, it’s pretty easy to follow along.”

I took a deep breath, hoping that all would go smoothly. Bucky placed his hand on my shoulder, making me look up at him.

“You sure you’ll be ok?”

“Yeah, let’s do this.”

The simulation started, all of us suddenly on the edge of the forest. People were paired off, Sam and Tony took to the sky, Wanda, Steve and Vision headed straight on and Nat and Clint went to the left; looked like Bucky and I would be going to the right.

“Bucky, look after her alright?” Steve instructed before heading off with the others.

“I always do don’t I?” he replied, making me run after him as he went into the forest.

“Are we normally paired together?” I asked quietly as we stealthily ran through the trees.

“Yeah, most of the time. Steve is with us too normally.”

I grabbed his hand and pulled him behind a tree. He stayed silent, though it was obvious he didn’t know why I was hiding us until he heard distant shouting which weren’t our team mates. I peeked out from behind the tree, spotting two soldiers.

“Oh look at that, one each.” I beamed.

He chuckled.“You’re already enjoying this aren’t you? You take the one on the left, I’ll take the right.”

We jumped out of hiding, charging towards the unsuspecting soldiers. They were shocked as they spotted us though had no time to defend themselves. It only took a few punches and take downs before they were knocked out cold. I spoke into the coms.

“They’ve got soldiers patrolling the area. They won’t be in big numbers but they’re armed so be careful.” I assured everyone, receiving confirmation after. 

Bucky and I continued walking on, hearing bits and pieces from the others. I held onto my gun tightly, eyes scanning the area constantly. Something wasn’t right, it was too easy and that was never a good sign. The terrain was starting to become steeper like a hill, giving us an advantage as it acted like a barrier against the enemy. We fell against it, knowing that we were close to the bunker from Tony’s information. To our right we could see Steve, Wanda and Vision also leaning against the hill. We needed to get to them in order to advance but there was a dip in the barricade, meaning that we would be exposed to the enemy.

“You go first, I’ll cover you.” Bucky said, surveying the area as I got ready to run. 

It was an easy dash, no one had spotted me and I made it safely to the other side. Steve reached out to me, holding my hand as I joined them. I decided to hold onto him, hoping it would help with the mission. We all watched in anticipation as Bucky checked around him before running. The four of us covered him this time, but somehow none of us spotted the shooter aiming right at Bucky. He was suddenly hit in the torso, a scream erupting from me as I saw him get knocked down. Ripping my hand out of Steve’s, I sprinted towards his body, not thinking about the consequences. Bullets ricocheted around me as I tried to drag Bucky back to safety. Steve ran out to help me, lifting him easily and hiding us behind the barricade again. As we placed his body back down, I crouched over him, inspecting the wounds.

“(Y/N), you can’t just run out into the fire line-”

“Steve shut up! You’re friend is hurt.” 

When in these simulations you got so lost in the task that you forgot that none of it was real. All that Bucky had suffered from was a light tasering, not a real bullet but in my mind I couldn’t stand to see that happen. As I watched Bucky try to control his breathing, Steve starting shooting back at the enemy. 

Steve crouched down again.“(Y/N), we need to carry on. Vision can get him back to base safely.”

“No, you need him out here. I’ll get him back.”

“That won’t work-”

“It makes sense for Vision to-”

“The simulation has been terminated.” Dr Warwick announced as everything around us froze.

The group was together again, despite the distance put between us in the field. Bucky groaned as I helped him to his feet, shaking off the pain. I pretended that the others weren’t watching, practically reading their minds about the situation at hand. I didn’t care. They may have thought that I was their friends but at this point in time I didn’t feel the same way. it was cold hearted and it was the only way I was going to get through all of this.

“I have seen enough. Thank you everyone for participating, you are dismissed.”

As soon as the last word was spoken, Steve stormed out of the room, Bucky and Sam chasing after him. The rest of us were stunned, I could feel them all looking at me. To get away from them, I too scurried away, going after the boys out of curiosity. My breathing was still fast, I was panting for air and my limbs were hurting. Things were moving too fast for me, I was struggling to keep up both mentally and physically. They hadn’t gone far, I almost ran into them. Hiding around the corner, I listened to their conversation, trying to remain as silent as possible.

“Steve, it isn’t Bucky’s fault.” Sam said in a stern tone, obviously trying to diffuse whatever was going on.

“You didn’t see the way she looked at him! She used to look at me like that.” Steve argued.

“You’re probably just seeing things. You want her back, we all do.”

“How come she’s more comfortable around my best friend rather than me?”

Bucky spoke up.“You were in a relationship, you can’t act neutral around her. The rest of us can and that’s why she’s comfortable. The doctor did tell you to tone it down.”

“I know how to get her back, and following their orders is not going to help.”

“All I’m saying is the day she woke, you were very full on.”

“She looked at you like she loved you, and I should know cause we looked at each like that all the time.”

It went quiet after that. I leaned towards the hallway closer, wondering what was happening. Suddenly there were footsteps heading back towards me and I had no where to go. Before I could even take another step, Steve rounded the corner, stopping as he saw me. His intense glare made me look away from him, scared for what was about to happen. He said nothing, turning in the opposite direction, Sam and Bucky going after him again. I shared a guilty look with Bucky. 

What was I doing?

Why was I ruining everything?

[elane-in-the-shadows]

Red Queen Fan Fiction - Blood Curse Chapter 20

Find this on wattpad

chapter 1

chapter 2

chapter 3

chapter 4

chapter 5

chapter 6

chapter 7

chapter 8

chapter 9

chapter 10

chapter 11

chapter 12

chapter 13

chapter 14

chapter 15

chapter 16

chapter 17

chapter 18

chapter 19

chapter 20

chapter 21

chapter 22

chapter 23

chapter 24

chapter 25

chapter 26

chapter 27

chapter 28

chapter 29

Final chapter

Mare POV

Evangeline laughs. It’s a shrill, pretentious sound, and its overstatement calls such attention from those around her that for a moment, I feel like it blots out the noises of the unrest in the shelter.

Tiberias winces. Yet his eyes fall on me, lock on me, and I stare back. I like to unsettle him. Evangeline’s switched to snickering when Farley dashes to us behind Tiberias. She slows as she arrives, searching for Clara in Bree’s arms. There’s a change in her demeanour that tells of her urge to go to her child and comfort her after the stress of the evacuation. That vanishes quickly. She stops mid-step, falling back into the general’s role as she scans us with hard eyes.

There isn’t much to see, as we’re still left stunned and frozen by Tiberias’s arrival, apart from Evangeline’s faux amusement. It makes me angry, he shouldn’t be able to unhinge us like that. I step forward with a clank, a sound that makes time move again, breaking the spell over us. “Is the town safe now?” I ask with all haughtiness I’ve learned from Bess Blonos and the princess next to me.

Tiberias nods, Farley speaks. “Calore heroically fought against the bombs he could find. And even located some culprits. Commoner Silvers, this time.”

“They are most of the times,” Tiberias says. They’re his first words and I expect them to sound rough, husky, as if he was silent during the weeks I didn’t hear his voice. How stupid of me.

“I assume you’re experienced with the situation, then?” Farley asks him. “It’s good to know that burners are helpful in this kind of thing.”

“Lady Ventos could assist me the next time,” he says, nodding to the Silver woman behind me. “I fear this will happen again.”

“I’m no lady,” Ventos snaps. “There’re no ladies or lords among us.”

Evangeline rolls her eyes but doesn’t start her chuckling again. She tries to hide her insecurity but doesn’t dare to meet my eyes, or those of her betrothed.

Tiberias disregards her likewise. “It’d be nice if that was true,” he says to Ventos. “Unfortunately, there’re many lords and ladies vying for control of Harbor Bay.”

“And you’re here to tame them?” I inquire. “I want to see that.” It’s not a rhetorical question. I move closer to him, noticing Kilorn’s worried gaze from the corners of my eyes – and Tiberias’s shock. That rather contents me. Just like Evangeline whose smugness is suddenly a lot more real.

His earring blinks red in the only ray of sunlight I see this day. He still wears it, the earring he gave me and which I returned by piercing him myself. He looks behind himself, to me, certainly noticing how I watch him although I try to hide its intensity. The corners of his mouth twitch and I think if I see his grin again, I’ll run away. But it hardly evolves into amusement. These days – weeks – have hardened him. Is he the same man who tried everything to free me from my imprisonment? The one who sat with me in the Bowl of Bones’ cell? The commander prince –

He strides like one for certain. But he’s less regal now, a little slouching, dragged, as if some part of the depression laying over the city sunk into him. And we aren’t even in the worst sectors yet. The streets are still empty, as people are reluctant to leave their houses apart from those coming back from the bunkers. But those are from other quarters, and Farley and Kilorn finding shelters for those left homeless with comrades from Harbor Bay.

“You know very well where the explosions where,” I state.

Tiberias is startled, causing a break in his stride. He glances at me for a second before focusing ahead once again.

A few people look at us, the two from the rumours. The crown prince and the Red rebel enwrapped in an illicit love affair. If they think we’re back at that, I find myself not caring. Six months as a prisoner and actress for propaganda did that to me.

“Farley told you I tried to deactivate the bombs,” he says.

“And, did you? Are you an expert at bomb deactivation?”

“Only in stopping the explosions and decreasing their radii.” He cackles and turns to me. “That would be an actually good idea, Mare. I don’t have to fear failure while training.”

The words – my name – are a bait I don’t fall for. “But I hope you found the culprits as well,” I say.

“A group of Silver commoners. I could only arrest two of them, the rest got away.”

“Can’t you find them again?”

“Probably. They’re known in Harbor Bay’s underworld and been up to no good for weeks.”

Oddly, this wakes memories of the last time we were in this city, when Crance brought us in and Maven branded me. I resist the urge to touch the scar, to even think of it. “So, you have your sources here? A royal lowering himself into the ugly shadow business?”

He fastens his gait. “The commoner Silvers did it before. There’s always been business between them and the gangs, but only about some forbidden goods. Then the governor here was murdered and a scapegoat was found. A Red, claimed of being a gang member who was executed afterwards. Only he wasn’t a criminal. And the unrest here started for real. Control had lessened everywhere after … you were freed and the Rift declared their independence.

“In Harbor Bay, the rest of the city council fled or went into hiding. Now the Silver commoners try to take hold of both the underworld and the city proper. There’ve been fights between new and old gangs. That is a minor issue, though,” Tiberias claims and I snort. I wonder what’s so proper about the Silver parts of the city.

“The real problem are the weapons showing up currently,” he continues. “Those are military gear, from Harbor Bay’s own arsenal.”

“Meaning the Silvers holding them are taking a side,” I conclude. “Or staging their own coup.”

“Exactly.” The buildings around us are becoming more and more destroyed, the farther we go. It’s not a living quarter, but the administrative sector, and its air is still filled with dust and smells burned. I check my lightning, preparing for further attacks. They don’t come though the sight of Harbor Bay’s royal palace, Ocean Hill, at the center of the sector doesn’t lift my dread. Yet it’s Tiberias’s goal and I follow. Once he told me it was built for his mother but it has nothing of a queen’s holiday residence anymore. Unlike the buildings around it, it hardly shows damage, only a few marks in its steel and concrete façade. Again, I have to think of Coriane Jacos, a woman who lost herself under the burdens of Norta’s crown. Did her heart become as heavy as her palace? Or is it the heart of her son, the soldier king-to-be who locks away his feelings?

“I’ve heard nothing of Harbor Bay,” I say. “Neither in Piedmont nor in Archeon.”

He opens the gates. “Strange, given how vital Harbor Bay is. But every town, every region, fends for itself now.”

It disturbs me that he says the same as Farley – although it shouldn’t. He’s doing his job. His bleeding, awful job. I stop in the front of the stairs under the doors that he’s already climbing.

“Why have you vanished, Tiberias?” I say. “Archeon, Whitefire and the throne were yours for the taking.”

He turns and stares. I’m tempted to say more, voice all the things I’ve pondered on in the last weeks, but I stay quiet. I won’t give him possible excuses and explanations, he has to think for himself. He does so visibly. His lips quiver, his eyes burn, finding mine with a begging intensity. I’ve asked a question, but he’s asking me something as well. For trust, maybe. Not only for mine, which he won’t get, but, as I realize when a shadow of doubt falls over his face, his own in me too.

“I didn’t want to marry Evangeline,” he says finally, thus stomping out the tiny flame I felt kindling a moment ago. “She wouldn’t ever have wanted me but couldn’t deny her family about it,” he adds.

I laugh. Louder and harsher than Evangeline did, so it fills the dull gray sky above us. I believe he means it. Yet it’s a blatant omission of his true reasons and the following scowl on his face is proof, and a pleasing sight. It’s like a cold coffee, distasteful, hardly enough, but still serving its purpose. “How considerate of you, Tiberias. Truly, I’m impressed how much Evangeline’s feelings concern you. Unlike mine.”

It’s even better to see this arrow hit its mark, and the devastation and shame in his eyes. Although it cools my heart even more.

“I care about you, Mare Barrow,” he claims, not too proud to contradict me. A part of me is glad he thinks it’s necessary to insist on it.

“You should rather show me,” I say. “You say the Red and Silver gangs fight. What do you do about that? Do you work with the Red Watch?”

For a second, relief washes over him because I’ve switched the topic. However, he turns sombre quickly. “The Red Watch’s house was the one attacked today.”

I hmph. I jump up the stairs and open the doors in his place. Where’s all the security gone? The palace seems positively evicted. “Now I really hope you find the culprits.”

“I – I’m working on it. There’re the two arrests today, and the contacts in the gangs. However, the Silvers … I can’t trust their reports.”

“What an observation. You want the Merandus’ back?” The foyer is still lush and luxurious. Tiberias, finally catching up with me, points down a corridor. “Maybe you need better interrogators,” I say.

“Maybe I need to give the Silvers something,” he replies.

“Maybe your lot has had enough already.” I stop to face him. “Maybe all you should promise them are their lives and freedom in exchange for their cooperation.”

He doesn’t object again. He nods. “You realize you admit I have power here,” he says.

“And you should use it for good. Promote the Red Watch. Declare the alliance with the Scarlet Guard, again. Give Farley command – “

“You think I haven’t considered that myself? It won’t work, Mare. I can’t hand over rule, the Silvers won’t have it. They only accept rule taken by power and strength – “

“Don’t interrupt me ever again, Tiberias Calore,” I say with all calmness I can find when a storm forms in my guts. I don’t care where he wants to take me any longer. Every second in his presence only raises old issues. His fake understanding paired with utter conservativeness and resignation. He unravels me and I can’t stand it. I can’t stand this place.

I take off. I walk down corridors where I might’ve murdered people and ran for my life. Portraits of Calores and their ancestors and allies look down on me and I wonder of Tiberias feels cosy here, if he re-hung his mother’s image as well. Does he like it here, does he like to feel royal, powerful, and probably welcome again? I, for sure, know I’m not welcome here. These walls want to exile me, and if not that, chain and incarcerate me. With its red and gold colours, the palace is nothing like Whitefire, I tell myself. There’s no Maven. No Arvens, no manacles. My lightning is proof of it, as is the flickering of the lightbulbs I pass. Yet my breathing fastens and my sight fails, red paint turning into bloodstains.

Tiberias runs to me, calling my name in dimmed sounds I can barely hear. All I want is to get out before I really faint. Stumbling, I take step after step with my blackening sight until I can taste the sticky city air again. I sit down, crouching and hugging myself. What has happened?

Slowly, I try to calm my breathing, let my eyes rest. I know Tiberias is near. His hand is on my back, warm and steadying. I would’ve pulled away in another situation but I remain still, too exhausted to move at all.

His palm is gone the second I straighten. I still don’t dare to rise. Perhaps I’d fall down on weak legs. “You see, I could never be your queen,” I murmur, and my confession already feels like a concession, a weakness.

“So, are you going to declare yourself king in your mother’s palace if you don’t dare to in Archeon? Even though Evangeline is here, there’s no Anabel to make you marry now.”

Cruelty is my only crutch. His grief, for his mother and grandmother, is tangible. Yet he doesn’t leave me. I could tell him to sod off but what I want is to prompt him to finally say he won’t become king.

He doesn’t do that either.

@clarafarleybarrow @mareshmallow @inopinion @redqueenfandom @lilyharvord @hannaharies @petekavinsky @mareenattitanos @redqueenforever @selenbean-beany @runexandra @wrenskonos @queeniriscygnet @iris-cygnets

[rock-and-compass]

Rock and Compass Watches Once Upon A Time – 6.17: Awake

Overview

Emma labours under the immense burden of responsibility with being the saviour; her parents are under a sleeping curse, Hook is trapped in an unknown realm, Henry is having a strange reaction to his author powers, the book is near its end, Gideon is still afoot, the final battle looms… Snow and David, desperate to be there for Emma try a radical cure for their curse but it backfires making the situation worse. The Black Fairy makes her presence known and in a flashback to the time of the Dark Curse, Snow and David have the opportunity to reunite with a young Emma.

Discussion and Thoughts and things of significance

What was good about this episode was very, very good. What was bad was awful.

The power of love – The theme of sacrifice is explored throughout the episode, apt for an installment that screened on Easter day. We see numerous characters make willing sacrifices for the greater good, or indeed because they are putting another person ahead of themselves:

Firstly we see Snow and David put duty and the entire population of Storybrooke ahead of their opportunity to be reunited with a ten-year-old Emma; the curse is still eighteen long years away from being broken and they know that if they go through the door to meet her then they are dooming an entire population to an eternity of living the same day over and over while being separated from their own loved ones.

We see Emma, willingly shoulder each new crisis sacrificing her own personal priorities for greater cause.

Hook resigns himself to dying at the hands of the Lost Boys safe in the knowledge that he has helped get something to Emma that might be pivotal to her in the final battle.

Tiger-Lily also puts this achievement ahead of all else.

Gideon, in allowing one small flower to survive his magical eradication, sacrifices a position of security and trust with The Black Fairy to assist the person with the most potential to defeat her.

Probably the most powerful example of sacrifice comes from Snow when she tells Emma to use the limited amount of magic flower dust to get Killian back rather than use it to cure their curse. It’s a lovely epiphany moment for Snow, the parent who has had the most difficulty in transitioning from friend to mother and indeed, separating Emma from her fated role of saviour. The realisation that Emma has already sacrificed too much for them is a lovely counterpoint to the events from the days of the Dark Curse.  In the flashback we see Snow put her duty to her people before her own needs as a mother, David’s as a father and before Emma’s right to be raised by her own loving family – Looking through the doorway Snow and David see 10-year-old Emma sitting on the bed reading, listening to music – she seems happy and content. They see that it would be selfish to go through the door and resign all the people of Storybrooke, inadvertently swept up in Regina’s vengeance, to an eternity of a repeated day and separation from their own loved ones. The greater good wins out. They trust that Emma will grow up safe and well and will find them when the time is right. They don’t see the situation from Emma’s side of the door – the bunk beds of the group home, the shabby surrounds, and the fact that Emma is lonely and unloved and has spent time on the streets. They are not to know that the next eighteen years are not going to get any easier for her either. Without knowing the true weight of it, they ask Emma (again) to bear the burden of sacrifice for them and a population of people she doesn’t even know exists. In the present, when Emma knows with the instinct of true love that Hook is in danger, Snow finally understands the level of sacrifice that Emma has made for them. Should she have realised this sooner? Possibly, given the nature of the flashback. But perhaps it’s fitting that Snow, whose first priority is always David, finally gets it only when Emma is about to lose the man she loves too. She gives Emma the magic flower dust and tells her to use it to get Hook back; she acts like any mother would and puts her daughter’s happiness first. This is not about “Emma the Saviour” – it’s a mum, giving her child an incredible gift out of pure love. Anyone bending this story to suggest that Emma is selfish in “choosing” Hook over her parents is deliberately missing the entire point of the episode.  

Of course, Snow’s decision to close the door on a chance to raise Emma for the good of others is paralleled by select and representative residents of Storybrooke willingly taking the risk of drinking the sleeping curse for Snow because there is a chance that it will free her and David from the spell. Unselfish sacrifice is both a gift and a reward – the cost may sometimes be high but this is the hero’s path, the hard way that always finds justice in the end.

There is a contrast though. Rumple is shown to be the exact opposite when he is clearly willing to sacrifice the entire town to get his son back. Rather than play his card close to his chest, Rumple deliberately reveals his hand to his mother and so invites the war to erupt between them – She promises retribution that will leave nothing standing if Rumple crosses her, and yes, that’s a price he’s willing to pay. It’s tempting to think that Mr Gold was being benevolent and selfless for the people of Storybrooke when he encouraged the newly awoken Snow and David to drink the memory potion and wait out the remainder of the curse in ignorance, but remember his stake in the curse in the first place, and the fact that he needs the curse broken so that he can leave town, with his magic intact to find his on long-lost son. Never forget, he’s an absolute master of puppetry who always put what’s good for Rumpelstiltskin ahead of all else.

The proposal 2.0 - Another aspect of the episode that is satisfying is the second proposal. Hook’s first instinct on arriving back is to apologise for not being honest about his responsibility for Robert’s death and for ever contemplating running away from the issue. He feels 100% responsible for the mess he’s been in and the worry he’s caused. Emma, like most people when receiving a genuine, heartfelt apology, diffuses blame by saying she didn’t make it easy for him to come clean with her pre-emptive discovery of the ring and her eagerness to hear that proposal. It’s not her fault. She knows it. He knows it. But that’s the way apologies work, especially between people who love each other. This is not Emma “taking the blame” for Hook’s crimes; it’s the simple act of finding common ground and making the reconciliation easier. And yes, it’s easy for Emma and Hook because they want the same thing – each other. We’ve seen Snow and Emma use this tactic for years, diffusing the issues with Regina – Snow casts herself as a spoilt brat to appease, Emma shoulders blame to diffuse Regina’s wrath after Marion returns from the dead (my god, watch 4.05 to see the diffusion in action!).

Once the apology is out of the way, Killian jumps straight to the proposal, knowing that the time is never right, that something always happens in this freaking town, you’ve got to strike while the iron is hot he pops the question, again,  

“Swan, I know you face an uncertain future but there’s one thing I want you to be certain of, I will always, always be by your side. So, Emma Swan, what do you say – will you marry me?

It’s brief but it’s perfect. In those few words he promises her the very thing she wants above all else – a partnership based on love and trust. He knows that her life is crazy and unpredictable, but he promises her the certainty and security of himself. He will be there by her side and she will never be alone again. She kneels with him to give her acceptance – this is equal – it’s not “the saviour” and the ‘villain she saved’, its Emma and Killian embracing a future together. Gorgeous. Should the proposal have happened while Snow and David lie under the sleeping curse a couple of meters away? Maybe not, but you know, it’s actually a great example of the difficulty of finding the perfect moment for these kinds of things in Storybrooke, but more than that, the symbolism of Killian being there when her parents can’t is kind of appropriate – Her parents are important, and always will be, but Killian is her home and she’s no longer alone regardless of where Snow and David are in the future, Emma has found what her parents have. This is the new story.

That one time we woke but never mentioned – While the theme and purpose of the episode was good, the method of getting there was questionable. Retcon is a hard fish to sell on the best of days and this example was very much on the nose. Yes, it is one random day that happened in among twenty-eight years of days and we are not to know what happened on all of them . . . no, wait, yes we are – the same thing happened day after day with only slight variations because that was the curse. But now, suddenly, six years into the show and we are told that no, there was this one day when Snow and David were woken and had the chance to find Emma years before she was due to come to town. I have a hard time buying it because surely it would have got spoken of before? Not to mention the fact that their premature awakening from the curse depends entirely on the growth of a plot-convenience in the form of a magical flower that only grows in the presence of great evil, and that miraculously, this magic flower grows in Storybrooke even though there is no magic in the town. Then to get continuity back on track so that it matches with established canon, Rumple, David and Snow all must drink a  memory potion to ensure that they forget this day ever happened. And then, once the curse is broken, not one of them talks about the aberration, ever. Add to this the fact that the flashback provides the impetus for Snow’s epiphany about Emma’s heavy burden of responsibility and the use of retcon is even more pointless – why would something that Snow already knew provide such inspiration now?  What a missed opportunity to have an episode centered around Snow, David and Emma and to feature sustained dialogue and meaningful conversation! Unfortunately, we didn’t get conversation, we got a revised history with the major purpose begin to provide a contrast between Snow and Rumple. In the flashback Snow knows her duty is to her people, she can’t let them suffer the Dark Curse forever in the name of her own happiness. This is of course, the opposite to Rumple who is willing to let Storybrooke and its people be destroyed in the pursuit of his son. And the funny thing is that we knew that Snow took her duty seriously when she put Emma in the wardrobe, I’m not sure we needed the reminder.    

Cure for the curse – with Snow giving up the cure for the sleeping curse, we are left with an obvious narrative need to get the curse broken and fast, so the story can move forward – we have a wedding to plan after all. Slight problem, when the curse has been set up as unbreakable. As it stands the method chosen to break the curse was very odd indeed. The idea occurs to Regina out of nowhere, and it’s illogical that a spell that is already in Snow and David’s hearts can be broken by a group of people suddenly drinking a suddenly liquid version of the spell when it is already in Snow and David’s hearts. It makes no sense, as my illustration attempts to demonstrate using tea as an analogy:

A plus B does not equal C. I know that it’s magic and that it doesn’t have to follow any rules but come on, some logic should be present and this just doesn't seem to have any. We’re either just supposed to accept it or . . . something else is going on. I wonder if there is a purpose that Regina wants all those hearts with a little bit of Sleeping spell in them and whether it will come back into play later? In an episode about sacrifice, featuring a saviour, airing on Easter day it’s hard to miss the obvious symbolism - the cure very much resembled a communion service, the chalice being passed from person to person, only instead of the ‘blood of Christ’ it contains a sleeping potion. It recalls the last supper, the meal that Jesus introduces his disciples to the communion ritual, before his “final battle” and crucifixion. So, is Emma the ultimate sacrifice in our story? Will she “die” and be resurrected to win victory over darkness? And who among these people will be her betrayer? You can’t have an Easter story without a Judas.

Skull Rock – well something went down there that makes Tiger-Lily very dubious about Killian Jones. Wonder if we’ll ever find out more… probably not. Hook’s long history in Neverland remains as mysterious as ever. The only thing lacking in the interactions between Hook and Tiger was a directive to use the shadow spell to escape Neverland. As it was presented, Hook’s innate knowledge of what to do with the magic sort of came out of nowhere. I wonder if the explanation was cut for time?

That stubby stick – The small stump of wood that both Killian and Tiger-Lily are prepared to risk their lives to get it back to Emma is obviously going to be important. Tiger says that it is part of a wand, the most powerful wand ever made. Does that mean they’ll have to find the other part or parts? Is it a new wand or one we’ve met before? And How is it going to help Emma in this coming battle?

Tiger-Lily – She’s an interesting character. I liked her a lot. She is very invested in defeating the Black Fairy, partly because she sees it as her fault that she went down her dark path, obviously part of the past that she’d rather forget. She is also very knowledgeable – she knows about saviours and she knows that the Black Fairy is in Storybrooke. How does she have such precise information? Hmmm… I wonder if Gideon is in communication with her somehow? Last week I wondered if Hook was sent specifically to Neverland to rendezvous with Tiger-Lily and now I’m even more suspicious. Tiger did seem to be expecting him. It is also very interesting that Tiger-Lily’s story with the Black Fairy seems to mirror Tinkerbell’s history with Regina – those parallels just keep coming.

Doodles of doom – Henry’s author problem only gets a passing reference and we get a close-up look at some of his sketches – lots of all-seeing eyes and stylised figures. Plus a rabbit and a deer….

Calling it like he sees it – It is interesting that it is only after the split queen has been dealt with that anyone acknowledges that Regina and the Evil Queen were the same person. David, does it when he is losing patience with the lack of progress being made on breaking the curse on Regina’s end. He directly attributes the curse to her. They don’t want us to forget that they were one and the same, even though they made all the characters ignore it while it was going on. Maybe all that audience frustration at it never being acknowledged was deliberately induced? Speaking of Regina and her suspiciousness, her reaction to Emma’s hand shaking is a bit odd, she doesn’t look concerned, she looks pissed off. The way she slams the book shut and has an air of general peevishness is inconsistent with the actual situation.

A field of evil – “whoever you’re supposed to face in the final battle, they’re already here.” It’s an interesting line. We’re meant to assume that it’s about the Black Fairy and she has caused the phenomenal growth of the magic induced-by-evil flowers, but what if it’s not? What if the “Great Evil” was already there? They’ve shown us one particular person who had the ability to grow such a flower in a town without magic and this same person has just had a fresh influx of evil and darkness reinserted into a previously (although artificially) pristine heart. It’s got to have some effect on her doesn’t it?

Not so Hopeful – I really liked the characterisation of Emma in this episode. She’s got a lot on her plate, she’s putting on a brave face but the shakes are giving her away. Hope is not her natural forte; she has to remind herself to have it but she’s clearly struggling. The separation from Hook is trying and she marvels at her parents ability to cope and still work together despite their separation. Despite the fact that she and Killian clearly have this ability (as demonstrated with the Underworld arc), the fact that she doesn’t know where he is gives her pause. I love that David has innate faith and gives it to Emma - he knows that Killian is working hard to get home to her. And the beauty of the whole situation is that he is. That’s what he’s doing in Neverland and even though she doesn’t know it, they are working together, she on the flower part and he on the weapon part and it’s a beautiful example of how they are a team, how they are connected even across realms.

Last Battle Schmattle - All this talk of the “last Battle” is bizarre. The Black fairy says she has been waiting to meet Emma for a very long time and that they have been fated to clash since the beginning of time… but wasn’t she trying to kill Emma to gain entry into this world? It doesn’t make sense. The Black fairy still feels like all talk. What’s her aim? What’s her motive? They keep telling us that she’s terrible, terrifying, evil-personified but they’ve not given us any reason to believe it. Unless her upcoming feature episode is wall-to-wall murder, pillage, rape, vengeance and malice then she is never going to stack up to our two home-grown villains. She has no personal beef with anyone that i can see, She seems to want Rumple to join her, and her fight against Emma seems to be driven by “fate” rather than enmity… her running around yapping on about this “final battle” is absurd! If her object is “bring the darkness” or claim back her dark curse with a new casting then why doesn’t she do it instead of just talk about it? If a saviour who can break the curse is the problem then why wouldn’t you just get rid of Emma straight away rather than pre-announcing the coming confrontation? And if the “final battle” is a solo mission for Emma, then why is the Black Fairy talking about it at all? None of this does anything to stop my suspicion that we are being deliberately misled and distracted

It's my Destiny – and there’s nothing you can do to change it. There’s that narrative challenge again. So, I’m guessing that someone will do something to change it? Something that requires sacrifice? Or perhaps the “destiny” is not quite what she expects it will be? And after being ironic about needing to propose before he  gets sucked into another portal, we can guess what’s going to happen to Killian sooner rather than later…

Duty and the Crown - So much emphasis on duty throughout the episode, particularly around Snow and her people. I’m wondering if they will exit the show to return to the Enchanted forest to fulfil their duty to the crown. With Emma and Killian’s impending marriage, the show has been painstaking to show us that Emma won’t be alone if her parents are not there so it is possible that knowing this, they will feel ready to return

For my Mother – Gideon clearly has his own agenda going on and I’m suspecting that it revolves around protecting Belle; I’m sorry father, she’s my mother. Maybe one day you’ll understand. Says Gideon when he arrives with The Black Fairy - another cryptic statement that could easily mean something other than the obvious– what if the Black Fairy has threatened that if he doesn’t help her then she will force him to rip out Belle’s heart and crush it. I wonder if he will be made to do it?

Papa’s big mouth – in trying to one-up his mother, Rumpelstiltskin drops Gideon in the poo big-time. Why the fuck would you tell the crazy bitch that you knew that she was controlling your son’s heart? Why the fuck would you tell her that he was resisting her orders because of the strength of his affection for Belle? Honestly, he’s father of the year material. Hasn’t he put a freaking great target on both their heads?

[dawnajaynes32]

Fighting Hate, Teaching Tolerance, and Seeking Justice with Design

How can my work make an impact? If you’re a designer, you probably ask yourself that very question, wanting to create unforgettable design experiences, moving people to act, creating change. In-house designers at The Southern Poverty Law Center do those things on a daily basis, designing award-winning work, making the complex understandable, and educating the masses. Their designs are so significant that not only do they impact their audiences, but they also impact the in-house designers who create the work.

Photo from left to right: Alex Trott, designer; Sunny Paulk, designer; Hillary Andrews, designer; Cierra Brinson, designer; Shannon Anderson, designer; Russell Estes, design director; Angela Greer, design assistant; Scott Phillips, senior designer; Kristina Turner, senior designer; Michelle Leland, senior designer; photo courtesy of the Southern Poverty Law Center

Located in Montgomery, Alabama, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is a nonprofit organization with an in-house team that designs materials for litigation, legislative advocacy, and public education, all of which are tools for change according to former SPLC staffer Valerie Downes. She joined the Southern Poverty Law Center in 2000, working there until June 2018. “My experience was so rich and layered,” she said. The content they work with and the designs they create make it rich and layered. “The SPLC is dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry and to seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of our society. Using litigation, education, and other forms of advocacy, the SPLC works toward the day when the ideals of equal justice and equal opportunity will be a reality.” That mission, clearly stated on their website is monumental in scope, so it’s hard to imagine a small team taking on that work. But in 2000, Downes was brought on as just the third designer, originally working on direct mail for development and fundraising endeavors. Since the SPLC is driven entirely by donations, that work carried a lot of weight, and continues to do so.

The Civil Rights Memorial, as showcased on the SPLC website, the Memorial is located on the south side of their office building, putting history all around them, “in a very physical sense,” according to former SPLC designer Valerie Downes.

But the team has grown over the years, led by Russell Estes, SPLC’s design director. Estes joined in 1996 on the 1-year anniversary of the Murrah Federal Building attack. Estes has many roles, all of which he takes on with enthusiasm. “In my role as design director, I’m involved with hosting events for our supporters. When you meet the person who’s been giving $20 a month for 40 years, you can’t help but be moved by their dedication. It drives home the power of the work and our responsibility to the communities we work in. And when you’re able to contribute to projects that make a real difference in people’s lives, you realize the value of where you work. It makes you want to deepen your understanding of the issues so your work can be even more effective.” Estes will celebrate twenty-three years with SPLC in April 2019.

Cover, Immigrant Family Preparedness, A Guide for Georgia Families

During her own tenure, Downes moved up the ranks, promoted to senior designer in 2005 and then deputy design director in 2017. Although she left the organization in 2018 to bicycle the TransAmerica Trail—from Astoria, OR to Yorktown, VA—Downes still works as a freelance designer and art director. She is no longer designing for the SPLC, but focuses on personal projects and select freelance assignments. Reflecting on the work she created with the SPLC, and the recognition her and her colleagues have received, Downes said, “Awards are nice and getting recognized by your peers is an honor, but the mission is the most important part.”

Typography and image come together to create an important call to action, exemplified in the campaign to get college students to vote in 2018. Their social media channels such as Instagram reinforce the importance of these and other issues.

            View this post on Instagram

                        A post shared by Southern Poverty Law Center (@splcenter) on Oct 6, 2018 at 6:28am PDT

Opportunities Born Out of Necessity

And what a mission it is. SPLC designers tell human stories, according to Downes, “those of detained immigrants separated from their families, of incarcerated individuals without access to health care, of victims of bigotry and hate along with those rallying against it, of educators in classrooms across the nation.” Downes sees a majority of the design used for educational purposes, as well as law enforcement, law makers, the general public, and donors, whom she says make all of the work possible. It’s a privilege to call yourself a designer at the SPLC because the work makes an impact. And there’s so much work to do that designers get the chance to frequently spread their wings.

One of the benefits of working in-house at SPLC—and really, working in-house anywhere—is having the opportunity to cross-train. Want to work on video? Design a website? Tackle social media? Do claymation? It’s all possible, and in fact, Downes did some claymation while at SPLC, crediting Estes for that opportunity and all of the others she experienced. “Any given day or week I could be working on a combination of trial demonstratives, special publications, an issue of the magazine, postcards, posters, presentations, image shares, filming interviews, editing video, or shooting portraits. This goes for any and all members of the design team. And the entire staff leans on one another, relies on one another. Although individuals manage their own projects, we are in constant dialogue with one another. As the Design Director, Russell has always encouraged us to expand our skill set… to anchor all of our design work with solid typography and then jump off from there.”

When asked about inspiration, Estes cited Edward Tufte, and took time to explain how type plays an instrumental role in their work. “Good typography is our secret weapon, but the imagery and graphic elements are what bring our message home. Images are so important to our storytelling. Clean type and design makes it all accessible. Or course, it all starts with good, compelling content. We’re also fortunate to have relationships with award-winning illustrators and photographers who help visualize our message.”

Publications that educate readers about tolerance, teaching challenging subjects, and confronting hate (photographed by Jason Tselentis).

Clarity and content matter a lot to Estes, but even before they begin the actual design, they identify the story they’re trying to tell. “When we present information, we strive to present it with clarity because good design can be the catalyst that compels the public to understand and care about an issue.” So how do those issues get assigned? Do SPLC designers get to choose where they work, on what content? Teamwork plays a big role, as Estes explained, “Everyone on the design team is paired with an internal department or practice group whose work they support and whose subject matter they specialize in. But we also cross over and collaborate on projects such as Teaching Tolerance magazine and the Intelligence Report. We’re always trying to figure out cool new ways to tell stories. The claymation video was one example of how we were able to illustrate a complex topic like intersectionality; we also used animation for a video on confirmation bias. These choices are organic and usually borne out of necessity. With such abstract topics, we don’t have any footage or images to work with, so we have to decide how to best tell each story.”

Many Design Opportunities, Many Privileges

Sometimes, the best way to tell a story is with clay. Or maybe it’s print design. Video and social media also factor in from time to time. When faced with the decision to work in-house, designers might see it as a place where you’ll always work with the same content, the same client. How might Estes convince somebody to come work in-house at SPLC, especially when they might have reservations about being “trapped” in-house? “From my experience, being in-house has been extremely rewarding and fulfilling. Some of the advantage is a function of working at SPLC due to the variety of communications channels and topics we engage. We work with educators, attorneys, investigators and journalists—all in-house. We’ve also moved from the print world into digital, video, podcasts, etc., and we’re always experimenting with new platforms and media. We’ve historically been a small staff, so it’s been necessary at times to flex and re-invent ourselves to work on these different kinds of projects and find the best visual solutions to storytelling challenges. That—and the nature of the work itself—has kept us fresh, and that’s needed now more than ever.”

The team designs materials for a range of media, including but not limited to print, web, and video, helping to push educational assets, such as Teaching Hard History, through a number of channels.

When Downes first came on board, one of the first projects that she worked on outside of fundraising and development was for Teaching Tolerance, a project providing free classroom materials to educators across the country. ”A film kit called Mighty Times: The Legacy of Rosa Parks was in development in 2001 and I was tasked with photographing participants from the Montgomery Bus Boycott along with their family members from subsequent generations. It was incredibly powerful to hear the stories, to witness the stories shared with grandchildren. I don’t even think the images made it into the final film, but it was a great privilege to share such an intimate space for a day or two with these brave individuals—I knew in that moment that SPLC was the place I wanted to be for years to come.” In 2005, Downes worked on another Teaching Tolerance film kit about human rights activist and Holocaust survivor Gerda Weissmann Klein. She called it an awesome opportunity. “I flew out to her home and spent the day photographing her personal family documents (items that miraculously survived the Holocaust) and hearing her stories. She is such a generous, wise and loving person—I’ll never forget the experience.”

Although she’s no longer a full-time member of the Southern Poverty Law Center, the time Downes spent with the organization made a lasting impact, one she fondly remembers, and will always keep close to her heart. “When you’ve spent the last 18 years designing while engaged in conversations about race, economic justice, and gender equality, you walk away from the experience with a desire to utilize design to continue the conversation—and being better for it.”

Designs by the Southern Poverty Law Center, created by the dedication of many hardworking people.

The post Fighting Hate, Teaching Tolerance, and Seeking Justice with Design appeared first on HOW Design.

Fighting Hate, Teaching Tolerance, and Seeking Justice with Design syndicated post

[jhpaulsen]

Delving Deeper into Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why

The first three paragraphs are a relatively spoiler-free review, but be warned, there are many, many spoilers later on in this post. 

13 Reasons Why is Netflix’s latest must-binge series. It’s based on a book with the same name, optioned (a while ago) by executive producer Selena Gomez. She was originally slated to play the role of Hannah Baker, a high school junior who commits suicide – but not before recording 13 tapes, one for each reason why she took her own life. Hannah was eventually played by newcomer (and Australian, though you would never know it) Katherine Langford, and she was terrific. This is not hyperbole -- she absolutely crushed it.

In fact, the entire ensemble was well-cast and gave strong performances, with the usual caveat that some of the actors looked a bit too old to be in high school. I’d like to give a shout out to Dylan Minnette, who played Clay Jensen, the main protagonist, with just the right amount of awkwardness and determination necessary to pull off such a complicated role in a series that jumps around frequently in time.

A unique premise is only as good as its execution, and the series fared pretty well in this area. There are some plotting issues, but they are fairly minor, and become an afterthought since the directing, editing and writing are so strong.

**SPOILERS BELOW**

I spent last Thursday watching the final five episodes. In this age of binge-worthy television, I couldn’t imagine having to wait three months for this series to reach its conclusion if it were shown on a weekly basis. I jumped on the freight train in first episode and by the end of the first tape I knew I was going to try to complete the series within a week. I think it actually took three days.

I’ve heard complaints that the series should have been shorter, maybe 10 episodes, and while I agree that there are tapes that dragged a bit and/or could have been combined, I never finished an episode thinking, “Well, that was a waste of time.”

I normally wouldn’t write a post to discuss a show that I liked, I’d just tweet out my recommendation and move on with my life. But I feel compelled to write about a couple of the show’s plot points that haven’t necessarily received the coverage that I think they deserve based on the reviews I’ve read and heard. (I read a few finale recaps and listened to an hour podcast – Talking TV With Ryan and Ryan – which is a spoiler-heavy recap with a plenty of discussion about the pitfalls of a second season.)

Hannah Baker Equals Frustration!

Langford did a terrific job portraying Hannah, but that didn’t stop her from being a frustrating character to watch. Two examples jump out: 

1. How Hannah treated Zach Dempsey

In Zach’s tape, we learn that he returned after Marcus mistreated Hannah at the diner. He knew Marcus acted like an asshole, so he returned to stay with Hannah to support her. It was a stand up move, but the next day he squanders that goodwill by mentioning her “great ass” before saying that there’s so much more that he likes about her. I’m paraphrasing, but that was the gist. Zach’s comments were poorly phrased, but the sentiment was positive, wasn’t it?

Hannah didn’t see it that way. As soon as she heard “great ass,” she was seeing red and she let Zach have it in front of the whole cafeteria. I thought she was too hard on him given the nature of his crime and the capital that he had earned at the diner the night before.

Zach is not the sharpest tool in the shed, and Hannah should have realized that his heart was in the right place. She could have explained her point of view in a much better manner to avoid alienating a person who was just reaching out in his own clunky way to say that he liked her. 

2. Going to Bryce’s house

In tape #12, Hannah explains how she ended up going to a party at the house of a known rapist.

After she loses $743 of her parents’ money, she goes down this dark path…

It seems like no matter what I did I kept letting people down. I started thinking how everyone’s lives would be better without me. And what does that feel like? It feels like nothing. Like a deep, endless, always blank nothing. And for those of you who will now be looking for signs everywhere, what does it really look like? Here’s the scary thing – it looks like nothing.

It wasn’t a short walk. I walked forever that night, through my old neighborhood where the houses were nicer than the one I lived in now. All the way up to the hill, where the rich people lived. Where you (Bryce) live. And from blocks away, I heard it. The music, the murmur of voices. The siren call of a party. You’d think I’d know better than to follow that call after Jessica’s party, but my feet followed it. My mind and heart were still in the big, blank nothing.

She ends up in the hot tub in her underwear, remains in the hot tub as the two other couples run off to the house, and the rest is history.

WHY WOULD YOU GO TO A PARTY AT THE HOUSE OF A KNOWN RAPIST?

I realize, for story-telling purposes, that there had to be something to push Hannah over the edge, to the point where she would seriously consider committing suicide. But for an otherwise intelligent, street-smart girl to wander into a party at Bryce’s house and stay, alone, until the end – it was a bridge too far.

(For those who may accuse me of victim-blaming, I’m really not trying to blame Hannah for what happened at the party. She should be able to get in the hot tub at the party and leave when she wanted to. Bryce is a narcissist, a probable sociopath, and an all-around disgusting excuse for a human being who should be locked up for a couple of decades...at least. I just think it was an extremely out-of-character decision for Hannah, given the information she had.)

Mr. Porter, Worst Guidance Counselor Ever? 

I’ve heard a few people complain about how Mr. Porter handled his session with Hannah. Some said he didn’t want to hear about the assault, others went so far as to call him the worst guidance counselor ever.

Here are a couple of key parts of their interaction:

Hannah: I need it to stop.

Porter: You need what to stop?

Hannah: (crying) I need everything to stop. People…life…

Porter: Life? (gives her tissue)

Cut to Porter/Clay conversation, cut back

Porter: Hannah, what did you mean when you said you needed life to stop? Because that seems like a very serious thing to say.

Hannah: I know. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that, I guess.

At this point, Porter should not have let Hannah leave without bringing in a suicide counselor of some sort. She could be in crisis, and even though she said she didn’t mean it like that, it’s better to be safe than sorry. Instead, they go on to talk about the “best ass” list, and what happened at the party (with Bryce) a week ago.

I don’t agree with the assessment that Porter did not want to hear what Hannah had to say about what happened to her at Bryce’s house. He ignored his phone twice, stuck it in the drawer and hung up the phone when it rang. He pressed her multiple times about the identity of her assailant. Hannah even got up to leave in the middle of the session, and Porter convinced her to stay.

Porter: Did he force himself on you?

Hannah: I think so.

Porter: You think so, but you’re not sure. Did you tell him to stop?

Hannah: No.

Porter: Did you tell him no?

Hannah: No.

Porter: Maybe you consented and then changed your mind.

Hannah gets annoyed at this point, and won’t give Porter the name of her assailant unless he can promise that he’s going to go to jail. He says that can’t make that promise, so they’re at an impasse. He says that if she won’t pursue charges or tell him who raped her, then she has one choice: to move on.

Initially, I thought he did a decent-to-good job given the information he had, but I watched it again with my wife, who is an assistant principal at a high school, to get her take. She was less positive about his interaction with Hannah. She said that he asked most of the right questions, but that he didn’t give Hannah space to talk. Instead, it was like he was going down a checklist.

To “move on” is a logical piece of advice, but Hannah didn’t necessarily need logic at that point. Porter got off track by focusing on what happened at the party instead of Hannah’s earlier statement that she needed “life to stop.”

Hannah acts as if she’s accepted the fact that she needs to move on, but viewers know that at this point she has decided to commit suicide. She gets up to leave quickly, and Porter once again tries to get her to stay. But his phone rings (for the fourth time) and it sounds as if it’s his supervisor since he says “Yes, sir.” during the call.

Keep in mind, Hannah is standing just outside his door waiting to see if he’ll come after her. When he doesn’t, she wanders down the hall, talking into her microphone.

Porter failed Hannah by not immediately arranging for suicide counseling. Instead, he got off track with the discussion about the party and when that conversation ended, so did the session. Keep in mind that Hannah was recording the whole thing. Was she really looking for help or was she just looking for an end to her story?

A Second Season?

I’ve heard rumblings about a second season, which is a terrible idea. This series worked in large part because of Langford’s performance and the time-jumping story structure, which relied on Hannah’s tapes. I don’t see how Langford has a continued presence on the show, or how they carry the show’s unique structure into a second season.

They may try to turn Alex’s gunshot wound (suicide attempt?) into Hannah Baker, Part II. Miles Heizer was one of the best parts of the ensemble, so if a second season lost both Langford and Heizer, they’d be hard-pressed to carry the story forward.

Sometimes it’s okay for there to be 13 episodes of a great series and then that’s it.

One final note: The series soundtrack and musical cues were pretty great, so if you’re interested in hearing more, there’s this playlist on Spotify.

[universeinform-blog]

Will Harry try these jumping beach bars on his Caribbean tour?

New Post has been published on https://universeinform.com/2017/03/30/will-harry-try-these-jumping-beach-bars-on-his-caribbean-tour/

Will Harry try these jumping beach bars on his Caribbean tour?

As you read this, Prince Harry is starting a whirlwind tour of the Caribbean, taking in a roll call of the region’s most enjoyable islands: Antigua and Barbuda, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, and Barbados. He’s working hard, mind. Very roughly, the schedule is: wake up, visit the school, tour museum, fist-bump Rasta, meet the prime minister, get walloped at cricket, eat official dinner, go to bed. And repeat. Not the itinerary we would have provided for the party prince, but, due to a strange oversight by the royal household, we weren’t asked. Had we been, we’d have dropped a few extracurricular stops into the trip. If you’re reading this, Harry, the real parties are here.

Short Ways To Stop Your Dog From Jumping On Guests

Dogs are full of energy and they take no 2nd hazard to bathe their love on all and sundry whether or not it is you or maybe your guest. Many pet mother and father include the trouble that their canine simply jumps on everyone people who visits them. Though omitted by means of many puppy owners, it’s far vital to offer the fundamental behavioral training for your dog with the intention to avoid any of the embarrassing moments that you or your visitor might also face when those bushy friends simply placed their heels excessive.

What steps may you to take to prevent your hyper dog from jumping on others?jumping definition

Be a % Chief to your canine

Commonly, Puppies search for a captain and once they don’t have clarity approximately their Leader, they are trying to fill this function with whoever visits the residence. Consequently, taking over the race as a frontrunner you’ll maximum probably assist in bringing cool and assertive strength making your puppy behave aptly.

Correct dog leaping Conduct

A  pacesetter will never tolerate any deviation inside the pastime or Conduct, which you need to recall and follow. just make your canine comprehend that what he’s doing is inaccurate in a chilled assertive way. This may permit your dog to figure out what rules he want to comply with.

whilst Guests Arrive Ask Your canine to sit Patiently

The dog is a true follower of his front-runner. So, he will follow each command of yours whilst he sees and respects you as his chieftain. Additionally, understand that animal Leader would not compromise for whatever for what she or he wants.

Be a leader for All of the Time

It isn’t always for few days or few weeks to guide your canine. You cannot be a director for simply sometimes. Management desires to be consistent and it is all the time. Consistency encourages your canine to paste to rules and behave within the utmost way while inconsistency tends to create confusion, anxiety, and ends in hyper dog Behavior. Animal leaders in no way step down or waffle from their Management role, and the same applies to you as leading a Percent.Reward with a Deal with

Profitable your busy pal with a Treat on every occasion he behaves well induces positivity and inculcates accurate Conduct in him. Consequently, every time he listens in your command inspire this Conduct by giving him a Deal with.

Conclusion:

Dogs are short learners and it’s constantly less difficult to teach your canine to do something instead of coaching no longer to do something. Generally, leaping has been reinforced intentionally. In addition, coaching your pooch to take a seat showering reward and a Treat, and directing him to sit down thru contact whilst leaping is an effective tool. With little-staying power and perseverance, you may make him a nicely-mannered dog that he would not soar on Visitors.

Why Even Celebrities Endorse the South Beach Diet – A Food For Thought

The world is used to celeb promotions, from politics to apparel and the entirety in among. What is exceptional when they sell a diet regime is that weight control is part and parcel of their careers. Most celebs need to preserve their trim, toned our bodies as part of their process. Packing at the kilos will motive headlines proclaiming a weight benefit nightmare for a starlet. Because their weight reduction and health packages are a requirement to hold their picture, that is one endorsement in which they’re truly practicing what they preach.

What is weight loss plan the favorite of a number of the celebs? The answer is the South Seaside weight loss plan and the cause is Because they experience outstanding outcomes. Troy Aikman (of Dallas Cowboys reputation) claims, “It worked for me, I’ve lost 10 pounds. It’s been appropriate”. The purpose the South Seashore weight-reduction plan is the only diet plan decided on by using so many celebrities is because it gives quick weight reduction consequences and promotes a lifetime of wholesome consuming. Outlining a plan for correctly dropping weight, the South Seaside food plan does not permanently cast off any individual food institution. As an alternative, the eating regimen routine prescribes a method for choosing suitable carbohydrates versus awful carbohydrates. There are appropriate fats, which might be allowable, and terrible facts, which need to be averted.

So, what celebrities are South Seaside diet followers? Nicole Kidman is one, at the side of Oprah Winfrey, Bill Clinton, Lorna Luft, Bette Midler and Kim Cattrall of “Intercourse inside the Town” reputation. Each of these people claimed superb results from adhering to the healthy diet weight-reduction plan. Kim Cattrall has publicly introduced that she follows the South Beach weight loss plan and adds exercising to hold a healthful lifestyle. Unbelievably, Invoice Clinton has said to his burger-binging days of old and has misplaced a pronounced thirty-five pounds with his dedication to this diet. Lorna Luft (daughter of Judy Garland) claimed the South Seashore weight loss plan as the only she used to shed pounds.au naturel beach photos

South Seashore” turned into the response whilst Fitness Magazine’s Robin Vitetta-Miller responded to questions about Nicole Kidman’s weight control program. She added, “You have got a nice balance of  protein and complex carbs, and you’re possible to live with the diet for the relaxation of your life.”

Oprah Winfrey’s war with weight reduction has been roller coaster experience that all of Yankee has watched for years. Now, it seems, the outspoken celeb has located her plan, the one that she’ll keep the use of for weight managers for the rest of her lifetime. And the plan she has chosen is the South Seaside eating regimen.

a number of those celebrities are as an alternative infamous for saying something is on their minds. It’s far widely recognized that being displayed on television adds weight simply due to the media used. How “fast” the celeb appears when viewed is of the most concerns whilst planning a display. Retaining body weight is one of the utmost priorities. Failing to mission “the photograph” has sabotaged careers (remember Kirstie Alley of “Cheers” repute?).

Whilst you bear in mind that the movie star’s economic destiny is directly tied to their look, then you may comfortably be given that they truly consider inside the weight loss regimens they sell. The South Seashore eating regimen has won now not best recognition, however, is touted through celebs as their weight loss approach for lifestyles. The wholesome way of life technique of the South Seaside eating regimen is viable around any profession. It is able to be observed while eating in restaurants or while touring. It does no longer contain buying tough to discover products. the whole lot you need for dropping weight with this plan is on the neighborhood grocers. Your eating regimen routine will encompass a wide variety of choices from all the food groups. This makes the South Seaside diet very transportable – you could use it anyplace you pass. It is an essential trouble to Hollywood celebrities who journey all over the global.

Caribbean Coconuts – A Surprising Fact I Bet You Don’t Know!

Earlier than you study the relaxation of this article about Caribbean coconuts, I need you to do me a favor:

1. Get right into a relaxed function 2. Near your eyes three . Allow yourself get nice and comfy, almost to the factor of napping four . Imagine you are one a heat Caribbean beach five . Discover that photograph on your mind for a while 6. As soon as you have got your photo memorized, open your eyes

Now, what precisely did you spot on your intellectual picture of a warm Caribbean beach?

  Did your image include coconut palm timber? Did you scent coconut oil?

I am betting you probably did because that is what most people think about after they reflect onconsideration on a Caribbean seaside. Powder white sand, blue-green water shimmering in the sunlight, and people iconic coconut palm timber fringing the period of the seashores.private beach photo people

Coconut palm bushes are so much part of everybody’s vision of a Caribbean panorama, they count on they were always there.

But… guess what?!

They are No longer without a doubt native to the Caribbean and that they were there much less than 500 years!beach pictures people tans

They have been added to the Caribbean region with the aid of the Spaniards and other Eu colonizers all through the first half of the 1500’s. However, Christopher Columbus and his guys never saw a coconut in any in their four voyages to the brand new World. These befell among 1492 and 1504. Coconuts virtually were Not there after they were given there. They came later.

I realize this could sound a touch sudden. You may be saying something like, “But… I idea coconuts could face up to the erosion of sea water and were buoyant enough to waft for lots of miles. Right? Is not this how they got to the Caribbean and all over the International? They floated there from somewhere else, Right?”

Well, I understand that is what many humans believe. In reality, this is what a few historians believed. But, the evidence proves this to be incorrect — and it does so very definitively.

Not one of the earliest recorded information of the Spaniards, and the records of different colonizing European countries that had been exploring the Caribbean within the overdue 1400’s and really early 1500’s, ever point out a coconut. Moreover, there has been no Taino word or Carib word for coconut — Those had been the local humans of the Caribbean Islands and if all people knew in the event that they were there, they might have recognized. A native word for coconut is absent due to the fact coconuts did Now not exist Earlier than the Spaniards delivered them there. Most linguistics trust the phrase coconut comes from the Spanish word for “monkey” due to the fact they concept the coconut gave the look of a monkey face with two eyes and an open mouth.

Now, the Spaniards DID in reality find out coconuts at the WEST coast of Primary The united states. For a long time, the records books and other ancient bills mistakenly said that coconuts had unfold from the west coast of Valuable The united states over into the Caribbean. However, genetic proof very convincingly proves this to be certainly incorrect!

It turns out that while you run DNA analysis on coconuts all around the World, they fall into 2 wonderful and separate genetic groupings. They are all one species but the 2 businesses are genetically special enough they may be effortlessly separated.

One organization of coconuts originated in the Pacific Indonesian location. The other group of coconuts originated close to India at the Indian Ocean. The best place the two agencies seemed to have blended is on Madagascar. It’s been very convincingly validated that the coconuts which are discovered on the WEST facet of Relevant The united states are in the Pacific Indonesian group and that the coconuts discovered within the Caribbean are inside the institution from India. Therefore, the coconuts in the Caribbean did Not originate from the west coast of Vital American.