#and just a specific type of relationship to food as so many things including hospitality and security

[swordbisexual]

Not me fixin’ to turn my own obsessive tendency to collect and hoard camp supplies into Shaxibis character meta.

[izzyinarchive]

discussing the final season of carmen sandiego

*spoilers* umm....so yeah, i finished watching carmen sandiego, and i’m left in a state of perpetual sadness and despair. i feel like the ending of the show wrapped up wayyy too fast, and kind of left off on a bit of an unsatisfactory note for some of the characters. although i love the large and diverse cast of carmen sandiego, one of the drawbacks of having all those characters and arcs and storylines makes it harder to cram in a satisfying conclusion for everyone in a twenty-minute episode. so here’s what i would do if there was more time. 

let’s start off with the threads that i think were tied off pretty well: 

julia & chase devineaux: i wasn’t really a shipper of julia and devineaux but i actually really enjoyed their relationship throughout season 4. we see a lot of character growth from devineaux in the way that he interacts with julia and the world. julia pushes devineaux to become a better person, to see things with a broader perspective and from other people’s points of view. and he does really change a lot into an understanding person instead of the overconfident, arrogant detective we first saw him as in season 1. in addition, he also grows to respect julia as a person and partner, and it’s completely adorable how he looks at her while zari tells julia that they’ll follow her lead. also i love how he keeps wearing his lucky cat jacket from san francisco in season 4.  

el topo & le chevre: okay, i was pretty much shipping these two the minute they showed up on the screen together. you can tell how much they care about each other throughout the series. whenever one of them gets hurt, you can really see how they prioritize each other over whatever thing vile is planning. when things are good, they’re so sweet and they have so much fun together. and they take dumb cute selfies. they’re so, so adorable, and this season definitely brings the shipping fodder. and they end the season moving on from vile and running a food truck together. the only thing i’m mad about is that we definitely needed more screen time from them. 

shadowsan: i didn’t like shadowsan in season 1 but over the course of the series he really went through a lot of major character development and i love how he’s now basically a grumpy dad figure to carmen. the season ends with him finally reuniting for good with his brother in japan, and it’s a satisfying conclusion for his arc. i also love how he was the one to help carmen in the finale when she’s struggling with the brainwashing thing. which is way better than the brainwashing being resolved by some bs like true love’s kiss. (also carmen and gray are way too hurt and they’re super not ready for a relationship.)  carmen sandiego is a show that emphasizes the importance of family with this father-daughter duo, and i think that’s something really valuable. also i’m interpreting that shadowsan isn’t permanently moving to japan, but rather just visiting his brother. he’s still definitely going to be there for carmen going forward when she needs him. 

player & carmen’s friendship: i love this show for having a male/female friendship with absolutely no romantic feelings going on. it’s a solid friendship, and depicts a wholesome, supportive relationship. absolutely no qualms here.

and here’s all the stuff that needs expanding/fixing: 

tigress: i actually really love tigress as a character, and i personally think that there should have been more of her in the series. i would have liked to see more depth and motivation to her, since she has a lot of character potential. i don’t really know how i would rewrite tigress’s arc, because it’s virtually nonexistent and there’s not too much to go off of. i don’t think she needs a redemption arc, but i would give her more of a spotlight. (also low key fictional-crushing on her.) i would like to include sort of a tigress-centric episode, which can also generally be more expansion on the inner workings of vile.

cleo & saira: villain couple. villain couple. they need to be a villain couple, enough said. i would rewrite season 4 to have include an emotional downbeat moment in which saira struggles with being able to fit in with society and humans and being completely awkward at it while cleo, in all her regal and ettiquite-esque manners, tries to help. this wouldn’t really help with the main plot, but it would be humanizing and provide character depth. i feel like this could be the b-plot in the tigress episode somehow. 

coach brunt: you don’t betray family. at this point, coach brunt has lost the daughter she raised, who, in her mind, has basically backstabbed her entirely. coach brunt was also betrayed by shadowsan and left for the police to find, and in season 4, malestrom basically abandons her to drown. and it’s highly likely that somewhere in her backstory she’s been betrayed many times, likely by her own blood family, which would provide context for why she’s such a loyal person to vile, who she thinks of as her found family. in rewriting season four, i’m adding one extra episode that’s solely on the backstory of coach brunt. in this episode, we would explore brunt’s upbringing and the first time she is betrayed by someone she considers family. in my opinion, coach brunt was likely pushed to fall by another influence, but she also makes the conscious choice to choose revenge over moving on. potentially, we could also explore brunt’s budding friendship with the mechanic, who we never see again after that one episode, as well as a reflection upon this from her adult self. 

gray & the freaking mind control thing & his moral struggles: *sighs* i can see what the show is going for, but i really just don’t see it in the execution. the way that gray struggles with morality is like it’s an on and off switch. he’s either graham, basic civilian, or crackle, basically evil. in that one episode, he flip flops between being overly heroic, even taking out time from his day to specifically track down a random kid to return his wallet instead of just dropping it off at the police station or leaving it where he found it. and then the flip side is like he’s just robotically relapsing into stealing mode, where he just suddenly has to impluse to steal literally anything. i feel like this flip flop wasn’t really a good portrayal of his struggle and didn’t really demonstrate many active choices made by him. and the way that he’s just like “i’m actually just evil” when he confronts carmen at the lab is just super one-dimensional. i just don’t buy it that he flips to vile so quickly in the span of a few episodes. i feel like there should have been more active reflecting and the decision should have been dragged out longer. 

also it’s revealed in the finale that gray also changed his crackle rod to not go beyond a stun, and i think this was a nice touch, because it demonstrates his aversion to murder, which calls back to the first caper, in which he’s confronted with killing the archeologist at the excavation site. but he doesn’t end up having to make that choice, because carmen stops him. but this time, it’s his own choice to take that step away from vile ideals. i don’t think gray is ever going to be a “hero” of the traditional sense or have a complete redemption arc, because it just doesn’t fit him. to be honest, i don’t know what the future will hold for gray, but i definitely think of he will fall somewhere along the lines of red x (teen titans) or catwoman’s (in certain comic runs) gray morality. (and i think the way gray returns to vile kind of screws this up.) he’s still going to steal stuff sometimes probably, but he’s not going to straight up murder people. he would probably be the type to work for himself alone mostly, but be okay teaming up with the good guys sometimes. definitely no joining evil organizations tho. 

gray & carmen & the “i know you’re in there somewhere fight:” i definitely ship these two, but i think they’ve got a long way to go before they’re really ready to admit their feelings for each other. i’m happy that the “i know you’re in there somewhere fight” didn’t culminate in a kiss scene being the thing that snapped carmen out of the trance. because that is just so cliche and not the message of the show. instead, it’s shadowsan who does. and that makes sense going along with the themes of family. i think the issue with this i dislike how there is no more elaboration after carmen supposedly kills gray. this is her best friend. i would imagine that the reaction would be greater, since he was also her friend and teammate during the months they were both working under vile. and then when carmen’s brainwashing wears off, she agonizes that she killed her best friend. but that’s it. the “i know you’re in there somewhere fight” is the last screen appearance of both of them together. then it’s directly cutting to taking down vile. there should have been a hospital scene where carmen rides with him in the ambulance and talks to him as he’s unconscious, and leaves behind a note for him to read when he’s awake. 

i just really think there should be a “heart to heart” scene somewhere in this finale where they confront their feelings (not romantic stuff, but more about like shared trauma at the hands of vile and their broken apart friendship). this could happen at that sydney cafe. both times carmen and gray go on a “date” she leaves him sitting there alone, bewlildered. i think the finale should include a scene of them leaving the cafe together and then walking away and waving to each other. this shows development in their relationship, and that they are now closer, but it also visually shows that they still have differences as they walk away with a sort of two toned kind of environment angle that shows the different paths they have chosen. (and carmen calls him gray. and he doesn’t correct her.) it’s more of a see you later, than a goodbye though. we’re also getting rid of that part of when gray says he doesn’t want to complicate carmen’s life in the hospital scene. instead, he’s going to ask for a sheet of paper on which he will write an indiscernible letter to carmen. (the same letter will be seen in at the carmen brand outerwear hq a few scenes later for continuity, but unopened at the time, as if carmen’s not yet ready to read it. i feel like both of them need to heal a bit on their own before they’re ready to reconnect. gray knows he has hurt carmen in the past but he also knows it will hurt her if he disappears without a trace, so he’s leaving her with the choice if she wants to see him again instead of making the choice for her.)

ivy & zach & found family: carmen leaves a note behind for ivy and zach and leaves to find her mother. i feel like this did not handle team red’s found family very well. basically, the whole show is setting up this importance of family, especially found family not blood family kind of narrative. vile blood runs in carmen’s veins but she chooses to do good and find her own family. ivy and zach both choose carmen, their found family, over their racing career. i think that they should have stuck together, and when carmen goes to find her mom, they would have been totally onboard dropping her off at the airport and saying a “see you soon” or actually driving her to carlotta valdez’s house in lydia (the car). i just don’t think that splitting them up via a note is really a satisfying conclusion to the whole found family aspect. and in that time skip carmen really should have stopped by to say hi to the zach and ivy and the acme squad instead of maintaining the air of mystery. that would have definitely pushed the family feel, instead of the mysterious loner archetype. 

that time skip thing: yeah, no. this part was completely not needed and unhelpful. instead, we’re going to have carmen hug her mother at the airport, and go to visit all of her friends and found family, especially shadowsan in japan and ivy and zach in presumably boston. and the time skip will be a few onths not two effing years. i think it’s natural for them to grow apart a bit and pursue their own personal goals in life after vile’s gone, but they’ll definitely be staying in touch and reconnecting and seeing each other pretty often. and lastly of all, carmen will meet gray at the cafe in sydney.

basically, this is how i would redo the episodes for season 4. 

episode 1: the beijing bullion caper. (this episode remains as is for the most part, i would like more expansion on lady doksu and shadowsan's past since it seems like their pasts are more tied together than is revealed)

episode 2: the big bad ivy caper. (this episode remains as is for the most part.)

episode 3: the robo caper. (the scenes in which carmen first meets the robot and ivy runs it over with a truck can stay the same. where we start to deviate is with gray’s story with a revised, more complex, and in depth view of his moral struggles. instead of being unaware largely as gray flops between graham/crackle, he’s going to be a lot more aware. he’s still going to rob the house, but instead it’s because he feels hopeless that since he was previously a criminal, that’s all he’s ever going to be. gray doesn’t want to be a civilian, and feels like the only thing that he can do instead is be a part of vile. however, when he sees carmen again, he’s going to realize that if she got out of vile, then that means he has a chance to get out of it too. gray comes to a crossroads of deciding between carmen and vile, good and evil. 

episode 4: this will be the episode that concentrates on tigress, with a cleo/saira b-plot. most of this episode will take place within vile, and give more insights on the workings of the organization. 

episode 5: the himalayan rescue caper. (this episode is going to get a real makeover. with the insertion of episode 4, this creates more actual space between the last time we see gray grappling with his big choices, which makes it feel like more time has passed. so it actually feels like he had more time to think. carmen’s still going to try to rescue gray, and the part with player can stay the same. as gray is manipulated by malestrom, i think this episode should further emphasize how vile manipulates their recruits and amp up the shittiness of how malestrom is acting. i think malestrom should say something along the lines indicating that vile is gray’s only family left, this is what he was born to do, he belongs with them, and make up a bunch of bullshit lies about carmen. malestrom will portray this stuff as the “truth” and then say something like “we told you to the full truth, while carmen was hiding your past from you. didn’t you say you wanted to piece together more of your past?” (which gray did express interest in a previous episode.) since more time has passed, malestrom will play the “if carmen wanted to rescue you, she would have done so already. she abandoned you.” card. of course, it’s not easy to get into a super advanced vile facility, so instead carmen’s going to be having more struggles with getting in, which is the real reason she’s taking a while.) i want to keep the scene where he says that his name is crackle, not gray and not graham. i think this scene is particularly painful because graham/crackle is kind representative of the two sides of good and evil that gray thinks he has to choose between. gray will accuse carmen of abandoning him, both in the present but demonstrating that he’s still hurt by the time when she first left vile, and all those times when she kept secrets from him and disappearing in sydney. carmen asks him to leave with her, but instead of him being like “i’m bad, and i was always a villain,” he’s just going to be hurt and feel manipulated and be so conflicted. i feel like gray would choose vile, but not because it’s where he belongs but because he’s afraid of being brainwashed again if he doesn’t agree and because he just wants to know the truth, which vile happened to tell him first (and carmen had been hiding it from him for a while). why would it make sense for gray to willingly side with vile because he’s “throughly bad?” actions speak louder than words, and it’s clear that he’s definitely not evil enough for vile. 

episode 6: the vile history caper. (we’re just going to keep this episode as is for the most part. but like more el topo and le chevre moments.) 

episode 7: this will be the coach brunt backstory episode, piggybacking off of her hurt feelings about maelstrom’s intended betrayal. 

episode 8: the egyptian decryption caper. (this one is just going to be as is for the most part. the cleaners kidnap carmen, but we’re going insert one more painstaking scene of gray learning of vile’s plan to kidnap carmen. he’s not going to know they are planning to brainwash her. he’s going to feel conflicted and try to protest, but then realizes that now that he’s stuck with vile, if he goes against them he’s probably going to get brainwashed himself. and the brainwashing was really traumatizing, so it’s understandable he’s really afraid of it happening to him again.)

episode 9: the viennese waltz caper. (mostly just keeping this episode as is, but more worrying gray scenes. i feel like he should have had a bigger reaction to seeing carmen so unlike her personality. carmen’s lack of empathy should have pushed himself to question if vile is really a healthy place for anyone if they’re so willing to brainwash his best friend in a greater capacity. i think gray should recognize how bad the situation is but he still won’t act upon it since he’s trapped in the nostalgia of their old squad and since he’s been abandoned by carmen before, he’s too afraid that reversing the brainwashing will result in a repeat of her leaving him again. and he’s still afraid of the brainwashing.) 

episode 10 + 11 + 12. the dark red caper. (yeah, this episode is kind of just way too quickly wrapped up. i’m going to expand this into a three parter so we have more time to focus on everyone. basically, we’re going to expand this for the angst. and because this is the last season and i need more content. i feel like we can follow the general plot trajectory but with more nuance and include the improvements i wrote above about the finale. absolutely pushing the found family trope to its limits, and less vagueness since there’s not going to be another season. oh yeah, and the scene when carmen fights shadowsan, i feel like they could have amped up the emotional stuff and make it as much as about him being her dad figure as the doll because #foundfamily. and also the extra time gives more space for all of that other stuff like endings for all the characters, and more team red found family, and a bit about the non-jailed vile operatives, and the acme team, and also maybe a little infrastructure rebuilding montage, and also that carmen and gray moment.)  

basically i just want a satisfying ending for gray, and i love him, and he can’t just stare out of the hospital bedroom and agree to stay out of her life while melancholy music plays. 

[keilemlucent]

lavender latte: viii

(M (for now!)

hawks | takami keigo x reader

ao3

chapter 1   ||   chapter 2  ||   chapter 3   ||  chapter 4   ||   chapter 5   ||  chapter 6   ||  chapter 7  ||  chapter 9  ||

masterlist

word count: ~4.7k

realities, huh. 

warnings: descriptions of blood and bodily injury, post-traumatic symptoms, panic/anxiety attacks 

----

oof. wow. here it is, part one of the BIG boy chapter. please mind the warnings on this one!! trauma and post-traumatic symptoms are a big theme in this chapter and the next. 

as an author, these have been some of the harder, more vulnerable chapters to create and i hope that the writing shows this  :’’’^) all that said, enjoy :’^) 

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Keigo was fucked up.

Or he had fucked up.

It was hard to tell the specifics of his predicament, considering how hard he’d hit his head.

 ‘Hawks’ was known for his speed, his skill, and his ability to finish fights off before they even had a chance to truly start. He prided himself on his prowess, the product of his own diligence and meticulous training. Normally, Keigo kept to these high standards without fail and with faltering. 

On the rare occasion he did get injured, it was usually simple scrapes or bruises.

Except, sometimes time, his shortcomings created much more than scratches. 

 His left arm was twisted the wrong way, wrenched from its socket. His skull ached, hair sticking to the back of his neck and cold.

Keigo blinked slowly, vision tilting and blurry against the asphalt he’d crashed onto. He’d sent his feathers to finish off what was left of the fight, knowing that he was, bodily, down for the count.

It hadn’t started as a large fight, notably. It shouldn’t have gotten so bad. The first alert he’d received just made it seem like petty burglary. Quickly after arriving on the scene, it escalated into an entire firefight spanning several blocks. 

He’d been one of the first heroes there, naturally. It wasn’t hard to disarm and pin most of the villains down, but quickly, things got out of hand. Figures forming from the afternoon’s shadows, quickly turning the simple de-escalation into an all-out brawl. 

Keigo pushed himself from the filthy ground, coughing up spittle and blood on the blacktop below. It wasn’t from an internal injury, he knew, just a bitten tongue and cheek that made the drippings of his mouth pink and cloudy. 

He sat up, forcing himself to his feet as more heroes arrived, finishing the job out of sheer numbers. Mentally, he cursed his mistakes and his stupor. The media circus and bureaucratic bullshit he was undoubtedly going to have to deal with made him audibly groan. Keigo could handle pain without question, but his least favorite parts of his job were the nuts and bolts of it all.

 Maybe it was the head trauma or the fact he’d just gotten sloppy lately, but Keigo didn’t even notice the oddly large amount of shattered glass at the scene or the shadows that loomed and weaved without rest nearby, though they never moved to the offensive. 

...

You sat on your couch, boot propped up (as usual), and a pillow hugged in your arms. 

Typically, you weren’t one to watch the news, but the moment you’d seen the alert from your phone about ‘large scale villain attack- Hawks and Miruko on the scene!, you’d rushed to turn on any channel that had coverage.

Which, creating a sense of dread in your gut, was most of them.

You watched the varying camera angles of the fight, squeezing the pillow tightly in your arms like the pressure would comfort you.

 The fear and terror was such a contrast to the absolute bliss of the first couple of weeks of you and Keigo’s relationship.

During that time, your text-based communication hardly changed, still ambiently throughout the day and including the exchange of many memes and well-placed photographs and selfies. 

The messages had changed, somewhat, truth be told. There was a sweetness to it, soft, warm, and new. The bantering never stopped, but woven within each of your words were small, tender lines that were new to you both.

Wonderfully new.

You found that Keigo was particularly affectionate over text, but it was nothing compared to him in-person.

You hadn’t really expected him to be clingy. Not based on the way he texted and talked previously and how he was generally portrayed by the public.

But god, was he.

He came over several other nights, always bearing food, drinks, and a bright smile. He wouldn’t even think of settling for the evening in the comfort of your couch (or bed) until you’d been showered in kisses and teasing touches, always seeming hungry, maybe even starved. 

He was careful, however, to never go too far or touch too much. 

When you two would finally settle on the couch, usually finding yourself strewn over each other in some way, Keigo would continue heaping on affection in any way he could, subtle or otherwise. You returned the gestures, giving your own too.

You craved the heat of his body in the same way he hungered for yours. 

You found that, as the nights would wear on, he tended to slip his rough hands under any top you might be wearing, settling his grip on your sides or back. He’d either press and massage, or just ambiently draw shapes. At first, you thought it was some sort of sexual preamble, expecting his touch to drift higher and hungrier.

 It took you a night or two of it to realize it wasn’t like that at all— 

Keigo just craved contact.

It all made sense, though your revelation surprised you a bi at first. 

One night, with his head in your lap, you had simply hummed out, “I never thought you’d be touch-starved.”

Keigo hummed as you ran your nails around the shell of his ear, “Mind elaborating on that one?”

“You’re always touching me when we’re together,” You replied simply, heart squeezing at the little twinges of anxiety you could see forming around Keigo’s eyes. “Not that it's a bad thing— I really love all of it, it’s just sweet. I didn’t think you’d be so affectionate and touchy. I would dare to say, it's cute.”

That comment turned Keigo’s cheeks bright red, though you hardly got much of a chance to tease him about it before he was on you with another wave of soft kisses and squeezes.

Maybe, you were a little touch-starved yourself.

And definitely, surely, falling into each other simply and sweetly felt like heaven. 

 ...

 But all of that syrupy goodness was gone, the flavor of it stale and rotten.

All you could focus on was your TV screen as Hawks was being pulled from an alleyway. The camera angle was poor, the quality shaky, but the picture was clear as day to you.

Keigo was walking, barely, most of his weight bared into Miruko’s side. He looked half-dead when he first emerged, limbs twisted painfully and face downcast.

He brightened up a moment later. You weren’t even sure that anyone would’ve caught the change in his expression if they didn’t know him as intimately as you did.

 Your chest tightened painfully when he gave his most dashing smile, pearly white teeth stained with blood that was rushing from a wide cut on his forehead. The juxtaposition of him being purely fucked up mixed with the shining expressions he was flashing at the media made your stomach churn with dread.

He’s hurt.

And it seems bad.

You chewed your bottom lip until it ached. 

The newscast kept playing, showing the wreckage of the scene, all of the hurt civilians— it was a few cities over, but you swore you could hear the sirens just outside of your window.

You dug around for your phone, typing out a message to Keigo, fingers shaking as you did.

 [you]: hey i saw about the attack? how are you doing?

 Texting him was the bare minimum, wasn’t it? If you could, you’d call. But based on the way he was reported to have been taken to a nearby hospital, he wouldn’t be answering his phone any time soon. 

It didn’t feel like enough, but what more could you do?

You felt uncomfortably powerless.

A very lucid, perhaps cruel part of your mind rang out amid your quiet panic:

Get used to it.

 You fell back into the cushions, unable to turn off the screen, though unable to do anything other than watch and churn. 

 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

 Keigo didn’t have a great recollection of the day's events after sustaining his fairly significant head injury, not to mention the shattering of the bones in his right arm and a few in his left leg. Not to mention his sorely dislocated shoulder. 

Pain blotted things out memory, he knew.

Hospital trips were few and far between for Keigo, but in the unfortunate circumstance he was stuck and strung up with wires and IV tubes, he was more than well taken care of. 

He was aware, somewhat, of the Commission’s hold on the scruff of his neck, though complacent in it. His good attitude and impeccable, nearly-perfect performance earned him the best medical care they could provide. 

Some sweet girl, a student from the west, was brought in to heal his wounds. Healing quirks of any significance were rare, so it was always interesting to see how they worked and manifested.

The girl’s quirk came at the price of any energy his body had, but he was completely patched up in a number of minutes. Fatigue be damned, he was happy to be quickly and easily put back together. He made sure to put on his best camera-ready smile as the girl traced symbols on the backs of his hands, fingers shaking and shyly smiling.

She was probably starstruck, all things considered. Meanwhile, Keigo was exhausted and out of it.

All through it, all of it, the actual fight and subsequent medical nightmare, he had slipped into a far different mindset than the one he’d been occupying for the last couple of weeks. 

Consequently, he hadn’t thought of you at all. 

You didn’t even cross his mind. 

Keigo could’ve blamed it on hitting his head, but that wouldn’t be entirely fair or truthful. 

All the same, the absence would burn later. 

...

Keigo flashed a dopey smile to the door of his hospital room when he spotted a familiar puff of bright yellow hair. 

Despite his stupor, familiarity still resonated. Besides, his PA stuck out like a sore thumb amongst the greyscale scrubs and antiseptic. 

“Akane! I knew you’d never be far in my time of need,” Keigo relaxed against the hospital bed he was still resigned to. He was to be discharged as soon as possible for the bevy of press reports he would had to complete. Not to mention the mountains of paperwork he’d probably have to file and sign. 

Akane kept a stern but humored expression as she shooed a nurse out of Keigo’s room. She was shorter than most, face cut with sharp angles and high ridges. They were dressed immaculately as always, a well-tailored black suit with crisp-looking dress shoes. All professionalism, trained and honed by the Commission in a similar way to Keigo, though it was implicitly recognized. 

“You’ve got a press conference in thirty with Miruko,” Akane didn’t answer his greeting, though Keigo could tell by their quick nod that it was at least acknowledged. They rolled a small suitcase next to the bed. “Extra hero costume in there. I called your normal hair and makeup, they’ll be in a few minutes after I leave. It’s been a while since you’ve been this injured in a fight, so put on a good show for everyone, won’t you?”

Akane’s sarcasm always brought a smile to his face, contrasting so starkly with their well-pressed hems and seams. 

Keigo quickly sat up, dropping his feet to the cold linoleum below, “Always a show.”

He quickly began to re-robe into his new garments, tired mind returning to its trained roots. 

 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

 You had been watching the newscast for hours, probably (definitely) against your best interest.

You’d have plenty of time to kick yourself for it later.

You couldn’t stop watching the repetitive footage and bland media, despite the report that ‘Hawks’ was safe, well and receiving treatment. 

Until you saw him, you couldn’t rest—- Or that’s what it felt like, anyway.

The image of him bloodied felt painfully etched into the forefront of your mind. The contours and highlights of Keigo’s wounds were uncomfortably bright and hot, nestled next to swirling images of your own. Uncomfortably vivid sensations and colors of your own stitched-up wounds that once wept blood themselves.

If you steeped in it all too deeply or for too long, your breathing would quicken, memories unbridled in the way they sucked down.

Sweat dripping down your brow, you willed your breath even and slowly despite how you definitely were having trouble handling what you were experiencing. 

As the evening wore into night, you remained wired.

You convinced yourself, despite the thorns that ran deep, you would be able to rest once you saw Keigo well. 

Eventually, there was an announcement for a late press conference, a conclusion to the media frenzy.

You knew you’d stay up for it, no matter how long it took to air. You knew he was fine, it had been confirmed over and over throughout the coverage, but it wasn’t enough.

You just need to see him.

Then you’ll be fine.  

Keigo is fine.

No amount of reassurance comforted you. You were sinking too deeply in your throes, ungrounded and crackling within your own fragile mind. 

The memories of blood and gore and hot, white fear rolled over you, suffocatingly close to how you’d felt less than a month prior. 

On the cold cement floor of the tea shop, you had Keigo’s feather, the knowingness that he would be there.

Yet, now?

You were alone in your dim apartment. 

No Keigo.

No villains.

Just you and your skull. 

 You had to pull yourself back when you felt your quirk begin to activate with your adrenaline, thankful for the low stimulation of your apartment, and the pillow in your arms being exchanged for the plushie Keigo had gifted you. You forced yourself to ground, counting your breaths, and holding yourself together. 

(Maybe the trauma of your own run-in was deeper than you wanted to acknowledge.)

You pushed the thought aside as the live footage of the press conference began. It was better to compartmentalize it all, wasn’t it? Why not shove it back where it was easier to not deal with? You’d get a therapist or something.

If Keigo is okay, you’ll be okay. 

The press conference decor was coated with the diamond insignia of the Public Safety Hero Commission, along with a few sponsors and nearby police departments. Local heroes and police officers sat around microphones with plastic waterbottles, ringing around the focal points of the events:

Keigo and Miruko. 

Seeing him, perfectly in uniform and switched-on didn’t make you feel better.

If anything, it made you feel worse. 

Before everything, when he was just your regular you pined after, you saw and heard of him doing heroic duties all the time.

But, it was different when Keigo was your partner, yet living an entirely different reality from yours. In the safety of your apartment, and formerly the teashop, that line of difference was somewhat blurred, or, it at least appeared to be.

But while Keigo was shiny and dazzling, charismatic and blunt as ever on the stage of the conference, the contrast turned polar. 

As there was a jeer of laughter, Keigo grinning as Miruko clapped a hand on his back, your stomach rolled. 

Seeing him fine and good-as-new wasn’t soothing.

It was like pouring moonshine on a brush fire. 

Every moment of the conference highlighted the separation between the two of you, the feeling of fear and now loss so strongly in your mind, it started to taste like the tannin of a rotten wine . 

The concoction was made even viler as the memories of injuries didn’t fade or falter.

Your chest ached.

 The press conference droned on in front of you, but none of the content of it registered. It was all sickly background noise to your own pains

You pressed the plushie against your stomach, ignoring the phantom stabs of rancid-yellow that traced up your leg from your booted foot. 

...

“From what we can surmise, there’s activity of several different villain groups in this area that are connected. This incident is related.”

...

You were getting to yourself, you had been all evening. The problem was you couldn’t climb out— 

Not if you weren’t honest and self-aware.

Too bad you were actively spiraling away from anything even close to the latter and former. 

...

“There is much we don’t know at this time, but it is clear there must be further investigation into the roots of the attack.”

...

You recognized, even then, that Keigo was going to be in harm's way because of his job, constantly. He was always in danger.

It just felt different, having to see it play out in front of you, isolated from him in all ways except the glimmer he showed the cameras and the gore he bore prior. 

The absences burned. 

 Your gaze moved to your phone, the device still dormant. 

With a thick, sticky swallow, you resigned yourself to sitting back into the cushions of your couch, spiraling and numbing as you had been hours. 

 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

 Following the press conference, Keigo had one priority— 

Sleep.

Despite Akane’s nagging that they ‘really needed to talk to him’, Keigo was exhausted after being healed and wanted nothing more than to go home and rest for as long as he could make himself lay still. 

Maybe, he could’ve handled a patrol (if he had had anything significant of his wings left), but he could not stand the idea of dealing with bureaucratic bullshit in his wrung-out state. 

At this admission, Akane sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. 

“Fine, but you need to come to the office as soon as possible,” Akane seemed exasperated after such a long evening (now night), of dealing with the attack. “Seriously, or your publicist is going to kick both of our asses.”

Keigo didn’t ponder too far into the topic of whatever Akane needed him for. Far too mentally wiped-out to bother with what was undoubtedly bureaucratic bullshit. 

He rolled his eyes, sending a feather forward to trigger the automatic doors ahead, “I’ll be sure to come in— It’s not like I don’t have a backlog of paperwork to finish.”

“That too,” Akane sighed, pausing outside of the doors, just dimly lit under the lip of the entrance of the building. “Feel better, quick. And please, stay safe.”

Keigo raised an eyebrow, “You know I always am. I’ll see you around tomorrow, bright and early.”

Keigo flew away so quickly, he didn't notice Akane’s pinched expression and set jaw and she waved goodbye. 

 ...

Nearly featherless and on the edge of total exhaustion, Keigo dragged himself back to his penthouse. His mind and body ached, his thoughts messy and disorganized. 

It wasn’t an entirely unfamiliar state, though he didn’t get to it often. 

He had ample training to not get like this. The fuzziness he was clouded by should’ve been tossed aside easily; he blamed his own overcast on the healing he received.

(And, not that he, perhaps, had more on his mind as of late) 

More on his mind meant more to forget. 

It wasn’t until he toweled off from a quick shower that he even looked at his phone. 

It wasn’t until he saw your single text that you even came to his mind.

Keigo called you nearly instantly, jaw going tight.

It made sense that he’d forget, he rationalized. 

The portion of his psyche that was trained to be a hero was the same part that struggled the most with his feelings for you. All of the affection, validation, and deep admiration (and perhaps more) was slowly but surely allowing long-dormant parts of him to awaken— 

Yet, all of the new roots and growth aside, he’d forgotten about you in the chaos of the day. 

Maybe a passing, subconscious twinge in his gut, but otherwise? Nothing. 

A bit of guilt chewed him as the line began to ring. 

 You laid across your couch, curled up with the plushie in your arms. The news reports played like white noise, your mind long having gone to gum and static. You alternated between different horrors of memory and sensation. 

The buzzing and shrill sound of your ringtone made your jump, pulling you from your stupor.

 [birdboy <3] calling...

 You immediately picked up the call.

“Keigo?” You asked, trying to ignore the continual light shaking of your hands. 

“Hey, dove,” His voice was cool and calm. “Sorry, I just saw your message now. I figure you saw all the news, but I’m all good, no worries! How are you?”

Oh.

Was it that easy?

The gears in your skull turned far slower than you wanted them to.

He’s fine, (Y/N).

He’s so unbothered. 

Everything is fine.

You tried to comfort yourself, taking a few methodical breaths.

“Dove? Are you there?”

Get your shit together.

“Yeah, I am.” You shook your head. “I was worried, that’s all. My bad. I’m glad you’re okay.”

“The news really plays things up, huh?” Keigo laughed with a sigh, scratchy from the speaker. “Sorry about the media circus. They like the drama.”

“Uh-huh.” You replied, feeling yourself begin to spin all over again.

Drama.

Dramatics.

...

Calm down.

It wasn’t that simple.

“Hey, dove, are you alright?” Keigo spoke casually from the line. Maybe there was some concern in his tone (or you just wanted there to be). You couldn’t fully tell.

You sank back into the couch, bending your good leg into your chest, “I was just worried, is all. I freaked myself out.”

“I’m sorry about that, angel,” Keigo clicked from the phone. “I don’t get banged up too often. Besides, they always stitch me back together quickly! It’s just like this sometimes.”

“‘It’s just like this sometimes’,” You repeat mechanically, processing so slowly it was painful. Your voice sounded far off— 

You felt like you were drowning.

Why couldn’t you handle seeing him hurt?

It’s part of his job. 

Why does this all feel so bad?

 “Can you come over?” You asked, praying that he’d say yes, and maybe, maybe, you could have your fears be assuaged with some contact. Some support— 

“Sorry, dove, the healer they got for me really drained me,” Keigo yawned from the other side of the line. “I think I’m gonna hit the hay. But, tomorrow is just an office day for me, so I can come by after?”

Your heart sank in your chest, faster and harder than you could try to make yield.

“That works,” You replied, despite how rotten you felt. “Take care, okay? Get some rest.”

You hung up abruptly, not waiting for his reply, and lowering your head.

Tears drip from your eyes, soaking the plushie in your arms as you finally let out the sobs you had been holding back for hours.

 ...

 Despite Keigo’s exhaustion, he knew that the entire phone call was so off. You’d never hung up that quickly before, and you sounded a bit off.

None of it sat right. 

He shot off a kind text or two before knocking out for the night, nodding off just after sending them.

 ...

 You hardly slept. 

You felt like you were being eaten alive as the night wore on and the moon remained high.

It was all metastasized, unchecked. Breathing exercises had stopped cutting it at some point, your own thoughts and methodical actions lost in the soup of it all. 

You ‘rationalized’. 

He’s a fucking hero, he’s going to get hurt. It’s part of the job and you need to get over it.

That doesn’t matter! It’s still terrifying to see someone you care about super injured!

You knew all of that though.

None of it was new.

What was new, and harder to understand, was the storm that had buried itself like a barbed arrow between the two halves of your brain.

The rest of it.

The complex miasma of feelings that were only set off by the events and subsequent feelings you tried to rationalize. 

The mental thunder-cracks kept you tossing and turning, any sleep light and flighty. Your eyes burned and dripped through the entire night, soaking your pillowcase. 

By the time morning light began to shift in from the heavy curtains of your bedroom, you might’ve felt worse than you did the night prior.

Your mouth was dry, tongue tacky, and swollen in your mouth. You forced yourself out of bed, methodically showering despite all of the energy it took with your leg still recovering. 

You felt hazy beyond belief, fatigued, and purely awful.

Quickly, you nested for the day, still damp from your shower and sore from your lack of sleep. Tucking into the couch, you covered yourself with blankets and held the plushie to your chest, not even bothering to turn on the TV.

 Keigo, meanwhile, prepped for his office day. Since his wings were sparse, he made an extra effort for his face. Bit of concealer to brighten his dark circles and smooth out the finer lines around his brow and under his eyes.

It seemed pertinent to cover more, wipe away his anxieties as his gaze flickered to his phone on the countertop of his bathroom.

You’d never responded the night before. You hadn’t said anything— not even giving an indication that you’d seen the message.

Truthfully, now that the drum of the press and his de-facto role had died down, your lack of contact filled him with burning anxiety. 

You two had a habit of texting each other in the mornings, little sweet greetings and the occasional messy selfie that the other adored. Keigo typically woke up earlier than you, but still. 

He gave you a call.

 You robotically picked up on the second ring, hardly looking at your phone and its caller as you held it to your ear, “Hello?”

“Hey, angel!” Keigo’s voice seemed too chipper from the other side of the line. “I just wanted to call and check-in. You just sounded a bit off last night, is all. Are you doing okay?”

“Oh,” You sounded hollow, far-off, and sticky. 

There was a pause, your numbed out psyche far-too slow and miswired to say anything else.

“(Y/N)?” Keigo asked. “Are you there?”

Your name shoved you a bit closer to reality. 

 “Yeah, I am.” You blinked, your name making you twitch, “Sorry, I’m just not feeling well.”

“Awww, since last night too?” Keigo’s wings beat in the background of the call. “Is that why you wanted me to come over?”

Sort of, not really.

Your voice shook as you quickly were losing the will to keep it even, “U-um—”

How do you even explain?

Your quirk spun alive, the feeling of shrapnel and rusted nails running jagged lines down your spine.

You need to be honest.

“I j-just,” You sniffled back tears, though fruitlessly. “I just got really scared.”

You covered your mouth with your hand, holding the phone away from your mouth and praying that Keigo couldn’t hear the muffled sobs you forced to stay in your throat.

 “It’s alright, I’m okay!” He tried to assure you, tensing at the doorway to his balcony. “Everything is totally fine, there’s no reason to be scared.”

You went quiet on the other side of the receiver, all sound muffled and mixed. It made Keigo chew his lip, tightening his grip on the phone.

“I know.” Your voice broke at the same moment as Keigo’s chest tightened. You sounded so hurt. 

It pricked those seldom-used parts of his brain alive. 

It was those weird tingles and shooting bits of cortisol that screamed ‘protect them’. They screamed to life at your distress, hot and bright.

“Dove, are you alright? Are you crying?” Panic seeped into his tone as his feathers rippled from soft to razor-sharp in his instinctual rise. 

“I just got so f-fucking scared,” You choked, voice fizzling on the line. “Keigo, I’m sorry, I just— “

Your voice broke into tears, sobs echoing from the phone.

Keigo’s grip tightened, heart-pounding and feathers vibrating.

He acted before thinking too hard about it. 

“(Y/N), I’m gonna come over, okay? I’ll be there soon,” Keigo assured you, and himself, truthfully as he tore open his balcony door and launched into the sky

 You sputtering out an affirmative as wind-whipped into the receiver. 

Burying your face in your hands, you felt dread weigh you down from the inside out. 

 ||||||||||||||||||||

 ko-fi

||||||||||||||||||||

taglist: @thepandapopo @hawksexual @sinclairsamess  @darcia22 @inhalingsoysauce @yee-fxcking-haw @aproperthottie @seasalttrioforever @msgrungie @mia--merc @a-monsters-love @peach-buns-unicorns@amethyst-rose-17 @mega-bastard @an-untamed-rose @ravioliplease @keigosangel @gobestupidelsewhere

(send me an ask if you would like to be added!)

[ryuichirou]

Head canons for Adam x Langa in Quarantine? BTW thank you for all the Adam and Langa. I love the pairing and its so hard to find.

Since these two deeefinitely wouldn’t have an ordinary quarantine scenario because of the specifics of their relationships and Ainosuke’s position, it’s an interesting idea to consider… I wish I knew more about Japanese politics for that though lol

Quarantine would catch these two while they’re away from each other. Langa would get stuck at home (alone for the most part, since his mom is a nurse and would continue working full shifts and even more), and Ainosuke would still travel around quite regularly because of the nature of his job, but not as much... I guess.

Both Ainosuke and Langa would probably feel miserable because of this whole situation. Langa – because he can’t meet up with his friends (and Adam too!) and skate with them (and he’s bored as heck too, he literally has nothing to do); Ainosuke – because the prospect of meeting up with Langa was the main thing that kept him going through the hell of his adult life, and now it’s gone for god knows how long. “S” would get cancelled for a couple of months too.

Both of them would skate by themselves at nights though. And sometimes text each other when it happens.

Social distance skating is no fun for Ainosuke. He tried it one time with Langa and was super disappointed. Now he gets both himself and Langa tested before skating together every single time. I’m pretty sure taking and checking express covid tests is one of Tadashi’s newest skills now… he’s so powerful.

Ainosuke also got Langa a couple of boxes of masks. It’s important for him that Langa stays healthy… of course Langa doesn’t need so many, so Ainosuke technically provided to Langa’s mom’s hospital. What a great politician, even when he isn’t trying to be one.

The moment Ainosuke got an opportunity to do so, he grabbed Langa and took him to his family’s Country House for like a month or two. There was no staff there, only Ainosuke, Langa and Tadashi because they’d need someone to cook and do other important things. It was like a paradise for everyone included… Ainosuke honestly wished they could stay like this forever.

Ainosuke was ready to get sweetly manipulative and give Langa a “you know we can’t really risk having other people there” type of reply just in case Langa would want to invite someone else, but Langa never even mentioned it even if he wanted. Maybe he didn’t want to mess with the virus, maybe he just appreciated spending time with Ainosuke so much. Ainosuke prefers to think the latter.

They somehow found themselves a good route for skating, so they skated quite regularly there. Langa became much much better because he got to skate with Adam himself every single day for a month or two. And both of them loved every second of it.

Ainosuke is very clingy. Even though Langa is with him 24/7, he’s still having the hardest time giving him any personal space and keeping his obsessive adoration on check. He just wants to be around all the time…

I know why you’re reading this, I know what you want to hear lol. Yes, they were having sex quite regularly while they were staying at Ainosuke’s place. For the most part their days consisted of long walks, sex, skating, more sex, great food, even more skating and even more sex. Even by the end of their stay, they never got tired of it, so it was kind of sad for both of them to get back to their regular life. Well, for Langa it was bittersweet, because he was still excited to see his mom and friends and spend time with them, but Ainosuke was devastated for some time after this. But it’s all good, they’ll have an opportunity to do all that again when the second wave hits 🥳 yay

[thotsforvillainrights]

Hi, I was wondering if you’d mind doing a scenario of Lady Nagant trying to go about telling her S/O she’s pregnant with their kid

(This one is a bit specific so I apologize to the readers that don’t have baby gravy to contribute to this. I’m sorry!!!)

~Parents to Be~

headcanon|scenario|imagine|match-up

“Cmon C’mon C’mon...” She sighed impatiently ad she watched the little stick on the counter as if her life depended on it. That little three minute wait felt like an eternity but then again, she was never a patient woman to begin with. As she waited she ended up pacing in the small bathroom space, scratching her arms when there was no itch, and nearly grinding her teeth when finally the timer went off on her phone effectively letting her know that it was time to check the stick. She sighed, closed her eyes, and took in a deep breath before moving to pick up the pregnancy test and scan it with both eyes. “FUCK! eep!” She quickly dropped the stick and covered her mouth with her hands before quickly opening the door to peek at you. Still sleeping comfortably in the bed you rolled over and snuggled further into the blanket warmth while a war raged in the bathroom.

She quietly closed the door back and locked it before realizing her hands touched her face. “shit! ugh, disgusting.” She whispered to herself as she began washing her hands in a frenzy. She grabbed a bit of the toilet paper and used it as a makeshift glove to pick up the test and reread it. 

Positive...AGAIN...

This was her 4th pregnancy test in the past 2 days. She should’ve known something was wrong by the way her favorite foods had been making her sick lately. On top of that, her normal insomnia was interrupted by a new wave of fatigue/exhaustion. All of this was coupled by soreness in her boobs, and also dizziness. Now at first she figured she wasn’t eating or drinking properly so she began going on a self care regimen since she had a way about her that included putting too many peoples’ health before her own. When that didn’t work, she opted for googling her symptoms instead of going to the hospital. She was worried about the results there that ended up being the same thing both google and the pregnancy tests confirmed: Nagant was pregnant. “fucking how???” She whispered in shock and annoyance as she slid her back down the wall so she could come to a seat on the cold floor. She was mainly left wondering how in the hell this could’ve happened with all the precautions she took. The pull-out method WITH a condom, on top of tracking the days she wasn’t ovulating, AND being on birth control? She literally had no ideal how this was possible at the moment and finally opted for scheduling an appointment with her primary care doctor in the morning. 

When the next day came and you left to work, she took a day off and snuck to the clinic. After the evaluation, she told Nagant everything she already knew to be true. “Well to be honest, nothing is 100% sure about pregnancy prevention but abstinence, a vasectomy, or getting your entire womb removed or tubes tied. In fact, I’ve even seen some cases where patients came in pregnant even after their tubes had been tied for years! Even though this is distressing to you, please remember there are other options out there. Adoption or Termination are options too.” Her doctor explained as she handed Nagant some pamphlets on adoption centers and abortion doctors. Nagant left the appointment with the intent to get rid of the unwanted thing 100%. She had no intention to tell you that the pregnancy even happened either. Stepping into the car she had a child free life on mind. Making it to the driveway and stepping out of the car, she began planning out motherhood immediately. Her curiosity got the better of her on the way home and she even ended up speaking to her stomach as she drove. “You’re a fighter huh? You really made it through the birth control and everything didn’t you, asshole? Well whatever I guess....” Her mind even wandered to what the baby might look like. Brilliant imagery flashed through her mind of a mixture between the two of you. Maybe a baby girl with your hair and smile, or a boy with her eyes and the same birthmark on his ankle. After she started imagining her life with the baby in her arms it was all over with. She found herself searching online for nursery ideas and baby wipes for sensitive skin when you entered through the door and her blood ran cold. Usually she was happy to see you but now she was a nervous wreck as she tried to hide behind a smile. 

She never saw herself as being perfect or even being good enough for anyone to ever truly love until you came into her life. For you to pick her up at her darkest moments in life and to cherish her like she was some type of found treasure was something entirely new to her. You loved her as you said, but she wondered if you were going to stay after telling you the news. 3 days passed by before she knew it and she still hadn’t decided on how to tell you. Part of her insecurities told her to just to leave you and take off in the night. You would be so much happier without the sudden burden of dealing with her brokenness and a sudden child all at the same time as well. Yet she stayed, eventually not even looking you in the eyes often times. Finally at dinner one night you sighed and had enough. You got up from your spot at the table and went to where she was lounging on the couch. You kneeled on the ground and gently grabbed her confused face so it would nestle comfortably as you forced her to make eye contact with you. “Listen, I know for a fact after being with you for so long that you haven’t been happy for a bit. Now either you’re sick, having those insecure thoughts again, or I pissed you off by not finishing some random chore around here. For whatever reason that it is, I’m begging you to look at me again...talk to me again please? I love you so much and I hate to see you like this. Please speak to me love?”

She stared you in the eyes before sighing in defeat. “Well I’m not sick but you’re pretty damn close...” She swallowed all her fear as she slowly went to point at her stomach. 

“Dia...diarrhea?”

“No you fucking ding dong!”

“...wait...” You slowly reached out to rub her stomach gently before looking up and seeing her nervous gaze shifted everywhere but you, her eyes watering just slight. Suddenly everything clicked into place. “Nagant...are you...are you pregnant???” There it was. That word was thrown around for the past few days but it never held as much weight as it did when you spoke about it out loud. “Yes.” She said shortly as you continued rubbing her stomach gently. “How long? I mean how long before you decided to tell me? Wait, were you even going to tell me?” You asked with a tiny bit of betrayal on your face. She finally looked at you and took a long sigh. “It’s been a few days. I didn’t tell you because I wasn’t sure how you’d react. I can understand if you don’t want to do this whole relationship thing with me anymore. I’m not going to force you into parenthood when we never planned this to begin with.”

“Are you insane? I’d never leave you over anything unless it was cheating. For the past few days you’ve really been moping around this as if you weren’t granting me a great gift to begin with? I mean sure I never talked about being a parent with you or even considering it myself to begin with. I was just going with the flow for the most part! Just because of that it doesn’t mean I would just toss you aside if it ever happened. I love you and I mean that with all of my heart. I could never let you go. I want to be the one to spend the rest of our lives together no matter what. I’d only want little snot nosed crusted demons with one person and that has to be you, got it?” You smiled softly and playfully reached up to poke her nose. She sniffled a bit and wiped away a few tears with a smile. “Yeah, I guess. And please don’t bring this up, it’s just something in my eyes.” She brushed it aside as she continued silently crying. “Sure thing.” You laughed lightly as you moved to hug her. Parenthood would never be as bad as long as it was with her by your side.

»—————————–———————————————————–✄

Instagram: @pastelbattydraws & @pastelbattystore

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRNMJH7vHL7APNobUykhK4w?view_as=subscriber

[zmwrites]

Remnants: The Magic System

since tumblr rudely ATE the draft i had of @ashen-crest‘s question about the magic system in Remnants, this is the post i’m making to explain it instead.

Remnants is set in the same world as many of my other projects, including Indigo Wars, Open Seas, and Just Jane. the magic systems in all of these are similar but not exactly the same, as they take place hundreds of years apart from each other and in different parts of the world. as such, some of the types of magic users that appear in one WIP might not be in another.

the magic of the world can be separated into two types: extrinsic magic and intrinsic magic. i have a detailed post about them HERE, but the general gist is that each type draws from a different source of magic. extrinsic magic is the only one we need to worry about for Remnants, and is drawn from the natural magical currents of the world. (or mostly drawn from the natural currents. we’ll get into that more later.)

there are six normal denominations of extrinsic magic users: mages, witches, hedgewitches, wizards, warlocks, and sorcerers. they all use magic in different ways and for different purposes, which you can read about HERE and HERE. for the purpose of Remnants, we really only need to get into mages and sorcerers. 

mages are magical healers. there’s a formal education system in place where they apprentice under more experienced mages to gain experience and learn how to deal with more complex injuries. they’re also divided into ranks by skill and experience, starting at novitiate and rising through junior mage, senior mage, grand mage, and archmage. in hospital settings, they tend to specialize as their education progresses. most of the mages we meet in the book are outside of the hospital system and so are more general practitioners.

sorcerers are natural spell casters who possess an innate ability to use magic without studying. their connection to magic also allows them to be less restricted by what they use the magic for, and they’re more likely to be able to bend the magic to their will and invent new ways to use it.

the only sorcerer in the story is, surprisingly, Radka. however, she doesn’t consider herself a sorcerer as she doesn’t draw magic from the natural magical currents of the world. instead, she is closer to the seventh type of extrinsic magic users: mertheers, who you can read about at the bottom of THIS post. 

Radka and mertheers draw magic from concentrated but unstable pools of wild magic. these pools are attached to specific locations and so aren’t accessible in every part of the world. Radka describes the different magical pools she encounters throughout the story, and readers will see how each pool reacts to her.

what complicates Radka’s relationship with the magic is that she’s unable to reliably control it. wild magic is nearly sentient and, if she opens herself up to be a conduit in an attempt to use the magic for something, it can easily overwhelm her and do its own thing.

Damir is shown to know a few little spells, things like drying wood and starting fires, which would be considered witch magic. he doesn’t know enough to be considered a proper witch, but it does show that many people know small, useful spells or charms (also see the charms used to keep food warm and fresh) while not being considered to be any particular type of extrinsic magic user.

finally, Nadiya is a seer, which isn’t really a type of magic but could be considered magical. seers are shown visions of the future by the divine (fate or the gods, no one is sure.) going into the specifics about all of this would be enough for another post, i think, so if anyone wants to hear about seers specifically, let me know and i’ll give them their own post!

i hope this answers some of the questions people have had about the magic system in Remnants! if anything is unclear, tell me and i can explain more! thank you for reading!

[floatingbook]

The place of lesbians in women’s liberation and lesbophobia (1/2)

- Reading: Tales of the Lavender Menace by Karla Jay (part 2 here) At Karla Jay’s first Redstockings gathering:

“I would have never dared to question the leaders of a group I wanted to join. But after the [Redstockings] manifesto had been handed around, a woman named Rita Mae Brown, whom I knew slightly from NYU, pushed into the center of the room from her position in the doorway to take issue with Redstockings, even though it was her first meeting. Why, she demanded, didn’t Redstockings have a position on gay women? She began to argue that lesbian relationships were as important for a feminist group to embrace as the struggle to change men.” p. 43-44

The Redstockings completely forgetting to mention lesbians or to even have an opinion on the subject ready to be shared show how much of an afterthought we lesbians have always been in women’s liberation movement. We might only represent a fraction of women, but we still are women, and as such deserve liberation as much as any other straight women. The “struggle to change men” means having to interact, having to implicate oneself in reforming them. And what of women who would have nothing to do with their oppressors? What of women who do not want to spend all their energy and strength on the thankless task of making men understand that women are humans too?

“Rita [Mae Brown] alone had the courage to speak up at that Redstockings’ meeting, long before anyone else in New York’s feminist circles dared to be openly gay. Back then, apart from early activists such as Phyllis Lyon, Del Martin, and the other pioneering women of Daughters of Bilitis (DOB), few dared to admit in a public setting that they were lesbians. It was one thing to hang out in a gay bar where anyone simply assumed similar sexual proclivities or to be open in a gay student organization. It was quite another to announce one’s lesbianism and then demand it take center stage in a room full of straight feminists who were likely to be heterosexist (the word “homophobia” came later) and who had just issued an ultimatum to keep on sleeping with men as part of a program to mend the oppressors’ ways. Rita’s sharp challenge made Redstockings’ program seem quixotic to the point of being delusional: Were these women the oppressed or the oppressors?” p. 44

It’s a shame that being a lesbian had to remain a secret, on pain of being discriminated against. As lesbians, we have a unique outlook on the world around us and on men especially. We have way less interest in maintaining the status quo or in retaining any kind of ties with men. Our outlook on relationships with men are less tinted by the rosy lenses of the patriarchal promise of a happy-ever-after made of marriage and a brood of kids. Our very reasoning when it comes to women’s liberation is often less reformist than separatist; and as such our ideas are despised. Straight women wishing for romantic love cannot accept our conclusions that women would be better off independent from our oppressors.

“The leaders of Redstockings were disturbed and threatened by Rita [Mae Brown]’s behavior. They turned the conversation back around to men as our oppressors. Still, they looked uncomfortable. After all, Rita was calling them her oppressors when they were insisting that women like them (and us) were the most oppressed on earth. One of the main tenets of the “Redstockings Manifesto” was, “We identify the agents of our oppression as men… All other forms of exploitation and oppression (racism, capitalism, imperialism, etc. ) are extensions of male supremacy: men dominate women, a few men dominate the rest.” Although the group’s members identified with “the poorest, most brutally exploited women,” they would have found it counter productive, to put it mildly, to be forced to contemplate the ways that working-class women, disabled women, or Third World women (as we called women of coloraturas) were far worse off than someone like Kathie [Sarachild], who had attended Radcliffe College. By formulating a Marxist class analysis that emphasized unity among all women and foregrounded sexism as the tool to analyze other oppressions, they had hoped to quell demands by other women that double and triple oppressions receive priority.” p. 45

This kind of behaviour is obviously one of the reasons that led Kimberlé Crenshaw to pen down her vision of intersectionality in feminism. The founders of Redstockings and writers of its manifesto were mostly white, straight, university-educated women who had never and would never be oppressed on account of their sexual orientation, skin colour, social class or disability. As a result, the conclusions they draw in their theory can only be flawed and short-sighted. Their conclusions might be insightful, but only for a specific type of women. And according to Karla Jay, they seemed reluctant to widen their scope or take into account the experience of women different from them. While Rita Mae Brown (and other lesbians that later spoke up) offered them the opportunity to reflect on what they had concluded and make their reasoning better, more pragmatic, more adapted to the various circumstances of the women around them, they stood on their positions and dismissed lesbian concerns.

“Lesbianism was a more widely discussed issue than clashs and labor. Rita Mae Brown’s vociferous arrival in Redstockings had sparked discussion in Group X [the founding Redstockings cell], although reactions were mixed. Irene Peslikis, for one, was emboldened to admit to a long-term lesbian affair that Group X knew nothing about. But other members of Group X, echoing Betty Friedan’s assertion that lesbians were a “lavender menace,” began to blame gay women for causing dissension in the group and accused them of being “antifeminists.” Katie Sarachild wrote in Feminist Revolution that “many lesbians complained that they were excluded from the movement in the beginning often by simple virtue of the fact that the women in it spent so much time talking about such boring or irrelevant or disturbing to them subjects as sex with men, getting men to do the housework, and such related problems as abortions and childcare.”

What she and many other heterosexist Redstockings overlooked was that lesbians had been raised in families with men, had usually had sexual relationships with men, had worked with men, and sometimes lived with male roommates. Several lesbians I knew had children from previous marriages. What the straight women couldn’t see was that many Redstockings talked about men all the time the way dieters obsess about food. There were times when some of us, including a few of the heterosexuals, felt it would be more productive to focus on ways in which women could interact with one another positively.

The current of homophobia made many new members, including me, reluctant to mention homosexual experiences to the group. “ p. 65-66

Some straight members of Redstockings dismissed lesbians experiences as irrelevant to women’s liberation under the assumptions that because lesbians are not attracted to men and therefore would not engage in relationships with them in an ideal world, and so were not interacting with the male oppressor. In our world, this is a completely delusional assertion. Even in separatist communes, lesbians still have to deal with the law of the land, which has so far mostly been written and enacted by men. Lesbians too have fathers and brothers; lesbians too get sick and need to go to the hospital; lesbians too go out and use the amenities offered by society; lesbians too can be harassed and attacked by men. So women’s liberation concerns us as much as it does straight women, and our experiences with men and of sexism should not be dismissed as irrelevant.

And our experiences as lesbians tell us that straight women concerned with women’s liberation are most likely wasting their energy when they focus on trying to change men. Yes, these kind of discussions should take place, especially between women who do not want to renounce relationships with men; but lesbians are right to wonder why such subjects often take center place in women’s liberation movement.

Continued here in part 2.

[deathvalleyqueen]

Full clear on OC asks for Sam! 💋

Thank you my dear... now lets gush about John’s first born and only son shall we???

BASICS

What’s their full name? - Samuel Joseph Seed 

What does their name mean? Why were they named that? -  Well he was going to be named Joseph, after his Uncle...The Father... but his mother was having none of that and switched out the birth certificate forms for the one she had filled out because there was no way in hell Mary Jane was about to let her precious baby boy be named after Joseph... though she allowed his middle name to be Joseph as a way to keep the peace. 

Do they have any nicknames? - SOOOO MANY! Sam - is the most common one and what most people call him. Sammie - What MJ still calls him even as an adult. Bubby - Ellie’s nickname for him as a child, Thing 1 - Sean’s nickname for him as kids. Cousin It - Finn’s nickname for him. Jesus - another Finn nickname. (because he looks like the only image of Jesus they had ever seen) Weasel - Mac gives him this as small child and sticks. 

How old are they? - At the time of New Dawn 24 almost 25 years old.

When’s their birthday? -  October 19th

What’s their zodiac sign/element/birthstone/etc.? Do they believe that holds any significance?

What’s their species/subspecies? Do they have any special/magical abilities? - He’s a Seed... does that count? He has John’s “far too blue” eyes...so like... That could be considered super powers.... 

What “class” do they belong to (for fantasy characters)? If none, what weapon do they favor? - If there was such thing as a Healer Mage class in the FC universe.. .that would probably be Sam’s class because he is exceptionally smart with a real focus in medicine and science/chemistry. If the Collapse wouldn’t have happened he would probably have gone to Med School to become a surgeon. 

APPEARANCE

What do they look like? - Same is the tallest of MJ and John’s kids standing just a hair taller than his father at 5′11. He has long dark brown hair and an impressive beard, both of which he has sported since he was 16 making him often be mistaken for much older than he is. He slight of build and looks to be in far better shape physically than he is actually is. 

Do they have a face claim? - Tom Payne - Specifically as Paul “Jesus” Rovia from TWD

What’s their style like? Clothes, hair, makeup? -  He is a pretty standard guy. He isn’t fancy, mostly because this world doesn’t allow for it. He likes t-shirts, sweaters and jeans. He will wear an old button up shirt if he can find it and has several trench coats he has acquired over the years. His hair is usually down and one the rare occasion that he puts it up, Lily always glares at him and tells him to put his hair down before their mother sees... because with his hair up.. he looks a lot like a young Joseph. 

How do they carry themselves? What’s their default expression? - Sam is a very self assured young man, bordering on the cockiness of John in his youth. He has been painfully aware that he was always one of the more intelligent people in the room from a young age and developed a bit of a superiority complex because of it. He tends to stand with his shoulders back and hands at his side or in his pockets. He is an observer, rarely the person leading the conversation but always watching and passing his judgment.

Do they have any physical ailments or disabilities? - Sam is the only one of MJ and John’s kids to have been born with health issues. He had a medium sized hole in his heart when he was born that eventually required surgery. Though since that surgery had very little issue besides a heart mummer. This however left MJ way over protective of him well into adulthood. 

PERSONALITY

What’s their alignment? Lawful Neutral 

Which one of the 16 Personality Types do they fit into? - INTP

What are their hobbies and interests? Do they have any particular “favorites” (food, books, and so on)? - Sam loves music, he plays piano and guitar. He is much more of a classical music person and as a child spent hours practicing. His favorite books are Animal Farm and Frankenstein. His favorite food as a child was pizza and pasta, as an adult he is happy with whatever he can get but still loves carbs. His favorite item from his childhood he was able to keep was a model plane that John and him made when he was 6. It’s of John’s plane. 

What are they bad at? - Dealing with intense emotions, both their own and other people’s. He never knows how to react and often seems to ‘over react’ with his own emotions. He also can not shoot to save his life. 

What kind of things do they dislike/hate? - Unnecessary cruelty. Onions, Fish and split pea soup.

Do they have any vices/addictions/mental illnesses? - Well... lets just start with he has a lot of childhood trauma... which defiantly manifests it’s self in some pretty well hidden anxiety and depression. He also comes from a long line of people who suffer with various addictions and I could see Sam having again...a very well hidden...drinking problem. Particularly post-ND events. 

What are their goals and motivations? - Their end goal is not peace, as much as an agreement that would allow everyone to function as they need to with in a certain set of rules... IE... he wants to re-establish a ruling body of government on a very small scale in Hope County that would allow for the communities to work together when needed but function independently as they wish as long as they cause no harm to the other communities. This is motivated by his study of history and his belief that because he has studied so much, he has found fault in the old systems and what he will build will be better. 

What are their manners like? Any habits? - He has an odd stillness about him, even as small child. He was the quite one, the better behaved of the twins (easily the most well behaved of all MJ and John’s children). He tends to crack his knuckles when he is nervous or clear his throat when he feels the conversation is getting off topic. 

What are they most afraid of? - Not being able to do enough. He sees what happened because of his father, his family.. his mother’s family. Sam feels (like all the kids do in some way) responsible for fixing the mess that the Seeds created in Hope County. 

BACKGROUND

Where were they born? What was their childhood like? - He was born with his sister Lilith at the birthing center in Hope County (but both he and Lily were sent to a much bigger hospital shortly after they were born because the small hospital couldn’t handle them being 8 weeks early). Their childhood before the collapse was filled with pockets of really happy times mixed with stretches of chaos. Both he and Lily vividly remember The Project at Eden’s Gate and the events of the Reaping. Both he and Lily were present for the attempted arrest of Joseph. After the collapse it was still difficult in the bunker as both his parents struggled with believed loss of Jacob, Ellie and worst of all Grace. Once they left the bunker things settled into a new normal. He is very close with Lily and Rose, as well as his Uncle Mac. He is close with both of his parents but is resentful on some level of their preoccupation with losing Grace.  

What’s their family like? - A hot mess... but the core they are very tight knit. Sam is more ready to trust a member of his immediate family than anyone else. 

What factions or organizations are they a part of? What ranks and titles do they hold? - He and Lily were called “The First of the Children of New Eden” within the Project as small children and as an adult he holds the role of the “doctor” in the community John calls “Redemption” but really Sam is main intelligence gatherer as people are very disarmed by him because of his ability to help the sick. 

How do they fit into their “story”? - Sam is Ethan’s foil for lack of a better way of putting. Ethan is grasping for power, while Sam wants nothing do with holding an position at all within New Eden. He has no desire to fulfill any of the role that The Father saw him. He is easily the one most suited to lead, but has no desire what so ever to lead anyone or be any manner of spiritual leader to people. 

Where do they currently live? What’s their place like?

How do they eventually die? - He dies of a sudden heart attack while speaking to a group of people gathered in New Eden (preaching basically) at the age of 36. He dies before both his parents and all three of his sisters. 

RELATIONSHIPS

Do they have any friends? Would they consider anyone to be their best friend? - His best friend is easily Lily, because they are twins. Their relationship is just on a different level than other peoples. They understand each other often with just glances and small changes in expression. He also becomes close with Finn, both sharing a bit of a sarcastic and witty sense of humor. 

What’s their friend group like? What role do they play in it?

What’s their love life like? (See also: ship question meme.) Do they have any kids? - Well.. not really. He spends most of his time with his sisters during the story and I never really thought of him in romantic terms...at all. I could see him having kids one day, either “adopting” or by natural means... either or. 

Who do they look up to? Who do they trust? - Really the person Sam looks up to the most is Mac. He respects Mac’s ability to pragmatic about difficult choices and always put the others before his own benefit. Mac had a big hand in raising Sam, so this really comes as no surprise. As far as people he trusts, he trusts his family... his sisters (including Grace), his uncles, Rachel/Faith, Ellie,... pretty much everyone but Joseph and Ethan that share DNA with him. 

Who do they hate? Do they have any enemies? - Joseph, mostly because he puts the full blame on what happened with the collapse and the events the happened in his life right before squarely on Joseph’s shoulders. This by proxy extends to Ethan...

Do they have any pets? - As a child he had several, Boomer and Salem even made it to the bunker with them (thank you Sean and Faith) but since then he never really kept bets.

Are they good with kids? Animals? - Yes to both.

FUN FACTS

Which tropes do they fit? Which archetypes? - The Dutiful Son , Looks Like Jesus/Hippie Jesus  (that one goes without saying right?), The Spymaster & Big Brother Instinct 

Do they play any instruments? Sports? - He plays Piano and he was never much for sports. 

What are some items they always carry?- A knife, a small black notebook and a pen.

Do they collect anything? - Books.

What position do they sleep in? - On his stomach mostly with the pillow over his head rather than under his head.

Which emoji would they use the most? - The eyes emoji

What languages do they speak? - English

What’s their favorite expletive? - Fuck

What’s their favorite candle scent? - Probably like Pine...

What songs remind you of them? - Loosing My Religion - R.E.M

Which animal would you say represents them? - The Raven

What stereotypical high school clique would they fit into? - The Weird kids that don’t fit in with any other group who is kinda metal head looking but gets straight A’s. 

What would their favorite ride at an amusement park be? - Bumper Cars (he actually gets to go once as a child)

Do they believe in aliens? Ghosts? Reincarnation or something else? - For someone who grew up in such a superstitious home, if Sam doesn’t have evidence for it... he doesn’t believe. 

Do they follow any religions/gods? Do they celebrate holidays? - Again, for someone who grew up in such an intensely religious home, he lost all connection to PEG or even conventional Christian beliefs by the time he is an adult he declares he is in Atheist. He does preach about keeping a very personal set of morals that you should adhere to but, not the belief there is an all knowing deity. 

Which Deadly Sin do they most correspond to? Which Heavenly Virtue? - Pride 

If you had to choose one tarot card to represent them, which would it be? - The Hierphant 

[justfinishedreading]

Last month I watched the film A United Kingdom (2016) and realized how little I knew about the history of Botswana. In fact, I realized how little I knew about the history of almost all countries. We’re always so immersed in our own culture that we’re oblivious to the intricate and epic history of others. After the film I thought about a book from my adolescence, a bestseller at the time but one which I’d never got around to reading: The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith. I ordered a copy that night.

Now Alexander McCall Smith is a white dude, so I’m already failing my newly created goal of trying to read more fiction by authors of colour, however on the plus he does have experience and knowledge of a part of Africa: he was born in Zimbabwe, raised there until the age of 17, and co-founded and taught at the University of Botswana. It is very clear when reading The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency that McCall Smith has a love for Botswana, for its people, their mindset and way of living.

The other reason why I wanted to read this book was because I’m a fan of the detective mystery genre, I will forever love Agatha Christie and I’ve recently discovered the solid brilliance of P.D. James, and the cool cleverness of Scandinavian writers. But Africa isn’t very commonly associated with detective fiction which made The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency all the more intriguing when it was first published. It isn’t an Agatha Christie novel; there isn’t a big mystery that is solved at the end of the book, instead it follows maybe a dozen small cases, each usually resolved within a few chapters. But like Miss Marple, Philip Marlowe, Inspector Adam Dalgliesh, there is a strong yet vulnerable detective: Mma Ramotswe.

Mma Ramotswe is a black Botswanan woman in her early 30s, she is intelligent and capable. When her father dies and leaves her an inheritance she decides to invest in setting up her own detective agency, with her as its only detective. She is physically described as a large woman; her weight is commented on occasionally throughout the book but always in a positive light. This comes partly from the fact that many African countries are more socially/culturally accepting of the larger female figure. Historically in our own western world there was a time when society viewed thinness in a negative light, that’s not to say they were pro-obesity but a skinny woman was viewed as someone who lived in poverty and starvation, a woman with a fuller figure was seen as someone of wealth and leisure. Certainly, that is not the case now, but it’s interesting to see how society’s concept of beauty changes with the passing of time, and we as individuals should try to reject the idea of one universal standard of beauty, be it thin, fat or the many, many forms inbetween.

Speaking as a larger woman myself, it is such a relief to read a book in which the protagonist is large, clever and proactive, her weight is not something to be used against her. In the western world obesity is the latest “bad habit” to crusade against, once we covered smoking, (and heaven-forbid we tackle alcoholism!) we moved onto obesity. Health problems related to obesity are a real issue and there should be support and ways of prevention set up for those who want it. However there is a culture of body shaming which is not helpful or effective in a positive way. Body shaming only does two things: it makes the shamed feel more unhappy and it’s likely to worsen the problem, and it allows the shamer to feel confident and smug.

There’s controversy over whether plus-size models should be featured in magazines and shown as role models. One side believes this is promoting obesity, it is sending out the message to children, teenagers and adults that it’s okay to be fat, specifically unhealthily fat. That is a dangerous message. I understand what these people are trying to say, but in response I’d say that people who are obese, and others who are fat, and others who are just a little overweight, EXIST in the world, and therefore have a right to be represented in culture and media. The same goes for people with disabilities, and shockingly we’re still not including enough people of colour as well.

Time has already shown that a culture that only represents one idea of the “perfect” body type does NOT help the mental or physical health of that society as a whole. For decades the images of beautiful white woman have bombarded our world and instead of obesity going down, it has gone up. Now there’s various reasons for the rise of obesity; lifestyle, change in leisure activities, work, transport, food etc so I’m not suggesting it’s all down to the “evil” media, but my point is that hiding overweight women from us hasn’t helped prevent obesity and therefore there is no reason to exclude those body types -or any body types- from public view.

Which leads me to my final point on the subject: one way of thinking is that if there’s something about yourself you hate, then you should change it. I think that loving yourself is much more important, and beneficial, in the long run, than focusing on hatred and change. That seems like a very general statement but what it comes down to is that we take care and look after that which we love. If society wants to promote health then we have to promote self-love first. Nobody has ever willingly invested time and effort in looking after something they hate.

But back to The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. Regarding the mysteries Mma Ramotswe has to investigate they aren’t murder mysteries, they are the mysteries of everyday life, e.g. a woman thinks her husband is cheating on her, a father thinks his daughter is dating a boy without his consent, a head doctor at a hospital believes one of his doctors may be a drug addict, another woman thinks her husband has stolen a car. What struck me the most about The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency wasn’t the things that Mma Ramotswe had to investigate but the way she investigated them, she’s resourceful and bold, she takes matters into her own hands. It shocked me how little involvement the police had, in a few occasions I thought this would be the time to contact the police! And then I realized how we in the western world are so dependent on our police force for everything, while in some countries like Botswana people might be more inclined to take care of things themselves.

This independence is one of Mma Ramotswe’s most inspiring features, she’s in her 30s but has no intention of marrying (WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD), she married early on and that ended very badly. Part of me wishes she didn’t have to have such a sad backstory; we don’t need to give a character a tragic past in order to be emotionally invest in them. But now I realise that it’s important to show how people overcome past hardships and live past that. Similarly, I disliked how a new potential love-interest was introduced, why can’t Mma Ramotswe stay single? Why MUST she marry? Society is so obsessed with romantic relationships. But then it hit me; that instead of having a strong, clever, independent woman stay single – she is so head-strong of course she will remain unmarried! Thinks the public - it is much more important to see that it’s possible for a man to stand by her side and accept her strength, intelligence and independence, to see him not feel emasculated by it.

(Side note: Unfortunately Homosexuality is still illegal in Botswana so this novel focuses very much on heterosexual relationships). TEXT CORRECTION - I’m happy to amend this, on 11th June 2019 same-sex sexual acts were finally decriminalized in Botswana! 

Overall this novel is very good from a feminist point of view, my only criticism, and this may come as a surprise, is that it is very consistently hard on men. It felt like the number of dislikeable men greatly outnumbered those that were respectable. Feminism isn’t about man-hating, it’s about equality, so if I were to read more books from this series I’d like a touch less man-hating and a sprinkle more of women-causing-trouble.

Review by Book Hamster

[brynwrites]

Conveying Worldbuilding Without Exposition!

(As requested by both an anon and @my-words-are-light​)

One of the hardest parts of writing speculative fiction is presenting readers with a world that’s interesting and different from our own in a way that’s both immersive and understandable at the same time. 

Thankfully, there are a few techniques that can help you present worldbuilding information to your readers in a natural way, as well as many tricks to tweaking the presentation until it’s just right.

Four basic techniques:

1. The ignorant character. 

By introducing a character who doesn’t know about the aspects of the world building you’re trying to convey, you can let the ignorant character voice the questions the reader naturally wants to ask. Traditionally, this is seen when the protagonist or (another character) is brought into a new world, society, organization. In cases where that’s the natural outcome of the plot, and the character has a purpose in the story outside of simply asking questions, it can be pulled off just fine. But there’s another aspect to this which writers don’t often consider: 

Every character is your ignorant character. 

In a realistic world, no person knows everything. Someone will be behind on the news. Someone won’t know all the facts. Many, many someones won’t have studied a common part of their society simply because they aren’t large part of that fraction or don’t have the time for it.

Instead of inserting an ignorant character and creating a stiff and annoying piece of expository dialogue, find the character already existing in the story who doesn’t know about the thing being learned.

2. Conflicting opinions.

A fantastic way to convey detailed world building concepts is to have characters with conflicting viewpoints discuss or argue about them. Unless you’re working with a brainwashed society, every character should hold their own set of religious, political, and social beliefs. 

Examples of this kind of dialogue:

“The goddess Irelle would never ask for such a sacrifice! That’s a blasphemous addition to the sacred texts that only a damned cultist would propose.”

“The new lamps in the cockpit might give off a funny light, but they’re entirely recyclable! Think of all the dumps we wouldn’t need back on Earth if everyone would just switch over. If we’re ever going to successfully repopulate the planet, we need to stop polluting it further!”

“This is a peaceful country, yes, but one build on blood and stolen land! If you left your worthless barn more often, you would see that. The rest of the empire is not as placated as you think.”

And as a nice bonus, the reader gets to learn something about the characters beliefs, how they communicate, and how open-minded (or stubborn) they are.

3. Historically and culturally significant places and objects.

Characters bringing up worldbuilding topics out of the blue can feel forced and disruptive, but giving them a reason to talk about a specific topic helps soften the blow. Strategically places buildings and objects can ease the conversation into historical, religious, scientific, or political discussions. Things like:

Religion: Temples, holy books, idols, imagery, religious leaders out for a walk, worshipers praying or singing.

History: Monuments, statues, ancient buildings, historical artifacts (likely replicas), culturally significant designs that arose from mythology, historical fiction novels. 

Science: New inventions being installed or tested out, academic buildings, seminar announcements, advertisements, hospitals.

Politics: Propaganda, reminders to vote, new laws being put into practice, angry citizens, protests, war preparations. 

(Note that many of these things could also be applied to magic systems!)

4. Ignore explanations entirely.

Sometimes the best way to convey how a world works is just to dive straight in. Let the reader learn about the world by watching the main character interact with it.

This method is also a great way to start out writing your first draft, because there will always be time to adjust and add in stronger explanations for things in later drafts.

Alternately, you could go for the opposite first draft method, and write exposition for everything during your first draft, and then cut it down the the bare necessities once you start editing and rewriting.

** Scroll up to point one to check for an update!

A long list of things to remember:

- Dialogue is better than internal monologue. Whenever possible, let your characters talk about something instead of thinking it through. This eliminates daunting chunks of text and allows the reader to learn more about the other character(s) in the conversation, and the character’s relationship(s) with each other.

- Sometimes you still need internal monologue. Don’t be afraid to slap in some extra sentences of explanation when the PoV character is in a position where they’d naturally think about such things. You can always take them out if readers say they understood without the addition.

- Not everything must be known upfront. Don’t force any concepts on your reader unless the reader absolutely needs to know in order to understand the current chapter.  

- Build your worldbuilding. Each concept and piece of information should build off what you’ve already establish. This means you give the very simplest concepts first, and develop them further as the story progresses.

- Use linguistics in your favor. To help your readers remember new names and terms, try giving related objects, places, ranks, etc, similar sounding words or an otherwise consistent naming scheme. 

- Keep the first chapter pure. Little to no exposition should be included in the first chapter, whenever possible. That being said, readers who were immersed in the first chapter and are eagerly starting the second are now much more likely to sit through exposition because they’re already connected with the story and characters.

- Immersion is good. (Drowning is bad.) Set your first chapter somewhere the read gets a decent view of what sort of world this is at its foundation. A lone character walking through the forest could live nearly anywhere, in any era, in any type of world, with any number (or lack) of friends of family. A character and their sibling leaving a steampunk pseudo-Japanese theater pressed up against the same forest says a lot more. 

But remember: not everything must be known upfront. Don’t try to introduce so much of the world that it becomes overwhelming.

- Little details say a lot. Things like architecture, curses and slang, styles of dress, typical food, even the objects a normal person carries with them, can all give major hints towards the worldbuilding, and they serve to make the world feel more real and immersive.

- Emotion is everything. How does your character feel about the world? 

How to they describe the parts of it they love? The parts they hate? 

What do they find scary about it? 

Are they intrigued by advances in technology and society, or do they cling to the old ways? 

Are they attracted to old toppling buildings with historic significance, or to new, beautiful constructs? 

Do they sneak past the market eagerly searching for imports from distant countries, or do they make a beeline for the family owned business that’s sold homecooked pies on that street corner for seven generations?

- Different genre, different expectations. Every genre has a different ‘norm’ for how much detail (and exposition) is acceptable in the worldbuilding. Hard science fiction and adult fantasy tends to involve huge amounts of lengthy explanations, where as young adult fantasy and soft sci fi are far more immersive, occasionally to such a point that you can get away with underdeveloped worlds. Know what’s expected in your genre (though don’t necessarily feel the need to follow it.)

- Unique isn’t always better. In spec fic there’s a myth the most unique and original worldbuilding will be the most successful. But the truth is that, while you should certainly include original concepts, the more of them you have and the more original they are, the harder it will be to make the reader understand them. Readers will try to relate every piece of worldbuilding to something they already know. If they can’t find anything else similar enough, they’re likely to either never understand it, or contort it to better match something they do understand.

- If your PoV character doesn’t need to know it, neither do the readers. This doesn’t mean you should never include information your PoV character doesn’t need to know, but rather that you shouldn’t try to shove in a detail about the world just because you have it written in your notes. If it’s not necessary and it don’t come up naturally, don’t force it. 

- The PoV character is the center of the world. Each character will see the world you created differently. The things they focus on, the opinions they hold about it, and the emotions it makes them feel will all be unique to that character. They aren’t simply a person living in a vast place you know a lot about, but rather a filter through which to put all the worldbuilding information through.

- Critique will save you. Worldbuilding is hard, and it will never be conveyed perfectly the first time. When you let people read your work, be sure to ask them specific questions about the worldbuilding. Having a reader describe your world in their own words will tell you a lot about whether or not you succeeded in immersing them in an understandable world. 

For more writing tips from Bryn, view the archive catalog or the complete tag.

Purchase Bryn’s debut novel, Our Bloody Pearl, today!

[ofallthegodsinalltherealms]

What do you do when you begin working with a deity? Where do you go to deepen your relationship with them once you’ve established communication with them? A great place to start is to begin leaving offerings for them. Whether you’re a new pagan or experienced pagan, leaving offerings can be a great way to establish and to continue a relationship with a deity. Do your research. How did the worshipers of old honor them? What do modern followers commonly offer? What are common associations and correspondences with this deity?

Voluntary Acts of Service

I want to begin with acts of service because I think there are a lot of interesting and unique opportunities here to honor Anubis while also serving the community, many of them things that people may not think about.

Volunteer and/or donate at a local dog rescue shelter. Anubis holds all living things close to his heart, but canines are especially dear to him. Most local animal shelters will never turn down volunteers – they often are looking for people to walk the dogs, interact and socialize with them, clean their cages, and help with the distribution of medicine and feeding times.

If you can’t find the time to volunteer, consider donating to the shelter. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a shelter that didn’t need food, towels, newspapers, cat litter, or cleaning supplies. Even spending a few dollars to buy a bag of dog food can go a long way for dogs that desperately need care. Be sure to check with the shelter before donating to see what their needs are and what they accept. Sometimes they have specific needs.

You may even find shelters for rescued wolves and other canines. Near where I live in Indiana, there is a wolf facility (aptly named Wolf Park) dedicated to research and education related to these beautiful animals. They also welcome volunteers, though you may need special training before you can work with the animals in any capacity. Even if you don’t work directly with the animals, perhaps you can assist in the public education programs, or donate to their cause.

Perhaps working with animals isn’t your thing. That’s fine; don’t feel guilty about that. I spent a good amount of time in Anubis in the Darkness of Winter talking about Anubis’ role in medicine and healing. Hospitals and hospice facilities often accept volunteers to serve in a variety of roles. Nursing homes often welcome volunteers to socialize with residents.

Cemeteries

Being associated with the dead, it makes sense that one common association with Anubis is cemeteries and places of the dead. Cemeteries usually have caretakers, though the extent of the care may simply be to periodically cut the grass, depending on the size, location, and funding available.

Cleaning up trash and debris may be an option for voluntary service, though it would be best to check with the local government or institution in charge of the care of the cemetery to check whether or not it’s acceptable to do such a thing. Cleaning up a cemetery without permission may raise unwanted suspicion, even if it’s done with the best of intentions.

Leaving flowers on a stranger’s grave is a way to not only honor the memory of a dead person’s spirit, but also to give something in service to the Lord of the Dead, and you certainly don’t need permission to do so. Many people do things to honor strangers. Visit any local cemetery around any patriotic holiday, and you will often find people leaving flags and/or flowers at the grave of strangers. The same could be done in honor of Anubis with flowers, or even stopping for just a moment’s thought in honor of the deceased person, even someone you don’t know.

Creative Endeavors

Do you have a creative passion? Music, painting, sculpting, crafting, writing, drawing…these are all common artistic endeavors where many people have talents. Why not dedicate some of these to Anubis? Draw, paint, or sculpt something in his honor and put it on your altar, which I will talk about in the next section. I’ve seen some amazing artwork done dedicated to Anubis. Though I am not much of an artist myself, I still enjoy doodling and drawing in dedication to him.

Do you play any kind of music or sing? Dedicate a song to Anubis. It could be something you wrote yourself, or even a song you hear that reminds you of him.

Writing is one of the ways that I connect with Anubis. I write a lot. I do much better when I can sit down and really craft something into words the way that I want it. I keep a blog here, mostly about Anubis, but I also do a lot of personal writing that never gets published and is kept between me and Anubis. I know a lot of people who write stories and poems dedicated to their chosen deity.

Set up an Altar

Setting up an altar in your home is one of the most iconic ways to honor a deity. You should include some type of representation of Anubis, if you can. You can find many different statues of Anubis, ranging from small to large and in various colors and depictions. Many of them are inexpensive. A piece of artwork, even something hand-drawn yourself, would work well to include. There’s nothing that dictates it needs to be anything particular or something expensive. Make it meaningful and personal.

Add a couple of candles, in black and/or gold color (representing the light within the darkness). Not out of the broom closet? Find something such as a wolf, or even a dog, to include somewhere on a shelf. Perhaps add a candle to go along with it. It can be as simple and nonchalant as you wish.

There are many other things you can include on your altar, ranging from stones, incense, herbs, food and drink, or other signs and symbols. Dark stones and stones are commonly associated with Anubis, especially if they carry the properties of protection and transformation. Obsidian, smoky quartz, black onyx, labradorite, jet, and hematite are all common stones associated with Anubis.

Ritualistic Offerings

Another way to honor Anubis that may feel more traditional to some would be ritualistic offerings. Food, stones, incense, altars, and herbs are common things that come to mind for many.

Some of my favorite incense to burn in offering to Anubis include anything with a spiced, musky scent such as frankincense, sandalwood, myrrh, and cedarwood, though you may find other blends that work well. Some metaphysical stores even have a pre-made “Egyptian musk” blend, or using a similar name, that could be used in offering as well.

Food and drink were also common offerings to the gods and goddesses, the most common being beer and bread. It remains a common offering among modern Kemetic practitioners. There are some interesting myths involving this, including one involving the goddess Sekhmet (goddess of war and healing). Dark beers and ales as well as dark breads are common offerings to Anubis.

One of the symbols most commonly associated with Anubis are the ankh. The ankh looks similar to a cross with a loop at the top. The ankh was a hieroglyphic symbol that represented life, or the breath of life. The mortal life was seen as being just one piece of the journey of the soul, and the ankh represented not only that mortal life, but the afterlife as well.

Once you’ve established some regular things you can do in offering to Anubis, consider setting up a daily practice in honor of the Lord of the Night. There are lots of things that you can do to establish a daily practice. I will talk about some of these in a future article.

[mysterious-playboy]

Questions Tag 50-97

50 Do you get jealous easily?

I mean, I’ve calmed down a little but the answer is still yes.

51 What is your favourite type of food?

I like French food and I will eat almost any type of pizza. I really like Mexican food when I’m high.

52 Do you ever want to get married?

Definitely someday, maybe after I finish university. It would be a dysfunctional marriage, but at least there would be love.

53 Who was your first kiss with?

Overall? I’m really not sure...I think this girl in grade 4 that I had a crush on. My first kiss at Degrassi was Zoë.

54 Have you ever been cheated on?

Maybe a few times in prep school.

55 What is your idea of the perfect date?

Getting pleasantly high, eating food (preferably at a Mexican place), walking past the shops, and then driving home around midnight with the windows open while you feel the cool breeze and see everything all lit up with lights.

56 Are you an introvert or an extrovert?

Definitely an extrovert, but I can sometimes act like an introvert.

57 Do you believe in aliens or life on other planets?

I think it’s possible. We don’t even know everything about our own planet, so it’s definitely in the realm of possibility.

58 What talent do you wish you’d been born with?

I dunno..maybe being good at drawing?

59 What is your saddest memory?

The day before the fire and the day I was in the hospital.

60 Do you believe in love at first sight?

Not sure. I believe in lust at first sight and infatuation at first sight. I think love comes later.

61 Do you believe in soul mates?

Perhaps, perhaps not. Perhaps we have multiple soul mates, but they’re different kinds. Maybe my siblings are my soul mates but in a familial way, and Chewy and I are soulmates in a platonic way, and Esme and I are soulmates in a romantic way.

62 Have you ever dyed your hair?

I dyed my hair green once in prep school but it was more of a messy, DIY type thing than a permanent, professionally done thing.

63 Has someone ever spread a nasty rumour about you?

Oh yeah. Just ask Tristan. And look at @Bean_Block, @Bark__Obama and @BarkCrane’s Twitter pages. I would include Peep but he never spread rumours about me, only vague messages and goodnight tweets every five minutes.

64 Would you go against your moral code for money?

No, I don’t exactly need money. I guess if I was very poor I would.

65 What are three things most people don’t know about you?

1. I lived in the United States at one point

2. I’m mostly fluent in French

3. I have had multiple head injuries. Multiple is an understatement.

66 Who are you jealous of?

Grace Cardinal, people who had good childhoods and people who use healthy coping mechanisms.

67 Do you sleep with a stuffed toy?

No, but I did for a while when I was a kid. I had a stuffed dog named Brownie.

68 How long was your longest relationship?

Let’s see...Esme and I first got together in January 2016. There were a few short breakups but we were still a thing until July 2016, when I was “with” someone else (shudder). I got back together with her in January 2017 and we have been together since. So technically we’ve been together a year and 7 months, but we’ve really been together for 2 years and 7 months.

69 (YES I’VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS) Is the glass half empty or half full?

It really depends on my mood. I’d say half full sometimes and half empty other times.

70 What is the sexiest thing someone could ever do for/to you?

Help me with my anxiety by distracting me and having me focus on them instead, knowing their way around construction tools and taking charge every now and then. Also, calling me daddy. ;)

71 Who is your most loyal friend?

Chewy. Always has been and always will be. And Frankie and Hunter, even though they’re my siblings.

72 Are you in a relationship?

Yes.

73 If you have a boyfriend/girlfriend, what is your favourite thing about him/her?

Her hair, her smile, her outfits, her legs, her body, her eyes, her ability to calm me down, her intelligence, her affinity for cardigans, her stories, her confidence, her vulnerable side, her personality, her skills at getting away with committing small crimes.

74 Are you a bad person?

I don’t think I’m a bad person. I think most people are in-between good and bad, or they have the ability to be both depending on the situation. However, I’d say I’m a mostly good person who makes mistakes.

75 Are you a lover or a fighter?

Both.

76 What did you do on your last birthday?

I had breakfast with Esme, listened to music and sang to a bunch of songs with Franks and wrote poetry. It was the best birthday I’ve had.

77 What is your favourite quote and why?

“I don’t have a nervous system. I am a nervous system.”

78 What would you do if your best friend died?

I wouldn’t come out of my room for months and I would be really depressed.

79 If you had to go back in time and change one thing, what would it be?

TRIGGER WARNING:: I would never have kissed Tristan. Or even associated with him, for that matter.

80 If you only had 24 hours to live, what would you do?

I would smoke a lot of weed, have a lot of sex, listen to some good music, spend some time around trees relaxing, get my affairs in order, and see everyone that I love and say goodbye.

81 What is the strangest dream you’ve ever had?

That there was a giant Winnie the Pooh in the backyard of my childhood home and he stomped on the swing set and slide.

82 Are you happier single or in a relationship?

I suppose it depends, but for the most part in a relationship. If it was a boring, loveless, abusive relationship with no passion, single. If not, relationship.

83 Who were you in a past life?

A Beat Generation poet. I say this all the time. I was one of my generation’s best writers and friends with Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg and we traveled the country together and did a lot of drugs.

84 What is your happiest childhood memory?

I have a couple. Watching my favourite shows (The Koala Brothers, Max and Ruby) early in the morning, cheating with my siblings on this competition for catching fireflies, going to Disney with my family, watching all these strange and eclectic movies, and exploring the backyard of our second house.

85 Have you ever experienced unrequited love?

I’ve experienced unrequited like with this guy a while ago, but not love.

86 Have you ever had an imaginary friend?

I don’t think so.

87 If you were the prime minister, what would you do?

Ban Tristan Milligan from this country and banish him to outer space. Also, legalize weed.

88 What is your ideal career?

Being a writer.

89 What is your political affiliation?

I’d consider myself an Independent, but I lean more towards mild Democrat.

90 Are you conservative or liberal?

Neither since they are both too extreme for my tastes, but like I mentioned earlier, I’m more of a democrat.

91 Is the male or female body closest to perfection?

Both. Not a great question since I’m bisexual.

92 Do you like kissing in public?

I do.

93 If you could change one thing in the world, what would you change?

People’s attitudes towards bisexuality or the fact that Tristan is alive.

94 Where would you like to live?

I like where I currently live (Toronto) just fine, but if I had to pick another place I would maybe choose a place a bit more deserted with more nature and forest land, such as Saskatchewan.

95 Where would you go on your dream vacation?

I would travel Europe and Asia. Specifically, France, The Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Singapore, Japan and South Korea.

96 Describe yourself in one word.

Versatile.

97 Describe yourself in one sentence.

I am an impulsive bisexual with many contradicting traits, I enjoy writing poetry, and I love drugs, sex, my siblings, and my girlfriend.

[your-dietician]

Vaccine Access Issues for People of Color – Diabetes Daily

New Post has been published on https://depression-md.com/vaccine-access-issues-for-people-of-color-diabetes-daily/

Vaccine Access Issues for People of Color – Diabetes Daily

This content originally appeared on Beyond Type 1. Republished with permission.

By Kayla Hui, MPH

On April 21, 2021, the Kaiser Family Foundation released updated data that found that Black and Hispanic people received a smaller share of COVID-19 vaccinations when compared to their share of coronavirus cases and deaths. Throughout the pandemic, communities of color have borne the disproportionate burden of COVID-19, highlighting the importance of equitable vaccine access. Vaccine access is not only crucial for people of color, but for those with underlying medical conditions such as diabetes. When overlaid with disparities such as implicit bias, it creates a compounded healthcare issue for communities of color with diabetes.

Unfortunately, vaccine access for communities of color has been all but fair. In Arizona, Hispanic people have only received 14 percent of vaccines despite accounting for 40 percent of COVID cases and 31 percent of deaths. And in Michigan, Black people only received eight percent of vaccines despite comprising 23 percent of deaths.

“Because of long standing economic discrimination, communities of color are much more likely to find themselves in jobs where they can’t take off work without docking their pay. They have to work certain hours and aren’t able to get away for a vaccine appointment,” Michelle Andrasik, PhD, clinical health psychologist and affiliate assistant professor of Global Health at the University of Washington, tells Beyond Type 1.

Communities of color have an increased burden of COVID-19 for a variety of reasons including required exposure during work. For Black and Hispanic people, 24 percent were employed by service industries compared to 16 percent of whites. These industries include restaurant, hospitality, and retail work, all of which require people-facing interactions.

People of color are also more likely to live in multigenerational households and in densely populated urban areas and housing situations, further exacerbating coronavirus transmission. In urban counties across the U.S., people of color comprised 56 percent of the population. Additionally, data showed that four in ten Black people (41 percent), Hispanics (38 percent), and Asians (38 percent) lived in areas surrounded by multi unit residential buildings compared to 23 percent of whites.

Another driver of inequitable vaccine access is vaccine hesitancy due to broken trust in healthcare providers among communities of color. Mila Clarke Buckley, a diabetes and food blogger who created the Hangry Woman, was diagnosed in 2016 with type 2 diabetes–a condition where the body cannot properly use insulin. However, after months of failed medications and skyrocketing blood sugar levels, Clarke Buckley discovered—after taking an antibody test with an endocrinologist—she had type 1 diabetes. “I was misdiagnosed with type 2 diabetes which has given me a little bit of distrust in the healthcare system,” Clarke Buckley says.

Clarke Buckley is not alone in her experience. Phyllisa Deroze, a global diabetes patient advocate and blogger, shares that she wanted to get vaccinated, but did not want to be the first due to the legacy of the nation’s medical racism. “The field of gynecology in America was created on the wounds of Black women who were enslaved. And so there’s just really a long history in America of just not treating Black people like human beings and using them as experiments,” Deroze says.

Deroze was told by one healthcare provider that her electrolytes were off, which prompted her to ask her provider for an antibody test. But that provider was offended when Deroze asked to be tested for antibodies. “I was once again denied antibody testing. It was clear that the endocrinologist was offended by me even asking,” Deroze says.

Deroze was misdiagnosed twice for type 2 diabetes, once in 2011 and another time in 2018, albeit having type 1 diabetes. Her misdiagnosis led her to experience diabetic ketoacidosis. “My life was on the line. And that shouldn’t happen,” Deroze says. “If a person is diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, what is the harm in testing for antibodies just to make sure you’re treating the right condition?” It wasn’t until 2019 when Deroze was properly diagnosed with type 1 diabetes by her gynecologist

Clarke Buckley also recalls suggesting antibody testing on numerous occasions to medical providers. However, her idea kept getting shut down, putting her at risk for long-term complications as a result of untreated type 1 diabetes. These complications include: foot problems, urinary tract infections, eye disease, skin infections, heart disease, kidney disease, and even death. “It’s communities of color that are subjected to the system that essentially puts us at additional risk,” Clarke Buckley says.

Misdiagnosis of diabetes among people of color is not uncommon and is just one example of the bias of the medical system. Research shows that glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c)—a measure of average blood sugar over three months that can show evidence of diabetes—is not an adequate health measurement for all genetic ancestry groups. Particularly for African ancestry groups, additional screening may be necessary to diagnose diabetes. This leaves hundreds of thousands of African Americans with type 2 diabetes undiagnosed. Additionally, a high HbA1c measurement alone does not prove that a person has type 2 diabetes. It only proves that glucose levels are consistently high. Therefore, an autoimmune antibody test must be done to confirm or rule out type 1 diabetes. Because type 1 diabetes differs heavily from type 2 diabetes in that type 1 always requires insulin treatment, a misdiagnosis could be fatal and lead a person without insulin into diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), a complication that occurs when the body does not receive enough insulin to break down glucose. DKA can lead to coma and even death.

Some states have made efforts to curb the unequal distribution of vaccines. For example, in Vermont, Black adults and other people of color were given priority status for vaccines. But despite these intentions, many state efforts have fallen short.

Kia Skrine Jeffers, PhD, RN, PHN, assistant professor at the University of California Los Angeles School of Nursing tells Beyond Type 1 that in California, the state distributed vaccine access codes to improve COVID-19 vaccine availability and access for hard-hit Black and Latino communities. “The special code that people of color could use to register to get the vaccine was being distributed among people who were not people of color,” Jeffers says. Instead, wealthier populations who work from home were misusing the system, the Los Angeles Times originally reported.

Anna Lopes, MD, family physician based in Southern California, explains that the underlying culprit of vaccine inequity is systemic racism. Lopes references the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, an ethically abusive study that failed to treat and inform Black men of syphilis in the 1930s and the forced sterilization of Puerto Rican women. “There was significant hesitancy in the Black community, and other communities of color, specifically because of institutional racism,” Lopes says.

Achieving Vaccine Equity

Jeffers suggests that to achieve health equity, health leadership must reflect and have representation from the communities they serve. “If you don’t have community stakeholders involved in the planning, then community perspective is often overlooked or underappreciated,” Jeffers explains.

In addition to having representation in health leadership, Jeffers and Andrasik add that equity involves recognizing and rectifying historical injustices and distributing resources like vaccines to populations that need it the most.

“What we have found in terms of access is that you really have to take the vaccine where people are. We have partnered with Black churches, community centers, and community organizations to open up vaccination sites,” Andrasik explains. “In doing that partnering, the vaccination sites then reach out to their local communities they have long standing relationships with.”

Still, people of color are struggling to access vaccines due to transportation, financial, language, and nebulous registration barriers. To achieve equity, Andrasik, Jeffers, and Lopes stress that states need to be more intentional with their vaccine rollout process to make equity intentional. “All of these access issues really create barriers that are easily mitigated when we really think outside the box and think about how we can do things differently, and in partnership with communities,” Andrasik says. Vaccine access for people of color with diabetes is just the first step toward equity.

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[supershanzykhan]

Checklist of successful holding of a | conference Comprehensive guide to holding seminars and conferences

Event Training

If you decide to hold a conference, you must start planning at least 6 months before the conference starts. (For larger conferences, it's best to start planning a year ago.) Don't worry and stay with us, in fact, planning and organizing the conference is something that can be done in a few steps, you're not the first to hold a conference. There is no need to search multiple articles This guide will teach you the tips of holding conferences in a few steps. This paper has been prepared at a very high level and collected with the experiences of Gersha Sound team. In this article, using valuable points, your job is easier to hold a meeting.

Ready to start planning a conference?

Step 1: Specify the meeting topic

Every conference requires a topic. Firstly, you need to determine what the topic of the conference is and what is the keyword that is relevant to the topic? Keyword helps you build relationships between speakers and participants e.g. "hospital management" is better keyword the same as the meeting topic. It is better to create a specific logo for the conference to be used in advertising, posters and banners. And to create meeting-themed hashtags on social media so that participants can connect with each other with that hashtag.

Step 2: Assemble your team

Presumably, you can't organize a full conference on your own. (In fact, if that were the case, we would be shocked). You need a dedicated group to accept responsibilities for various aspects of planning, negotiations and promotion. Your main group will likely include:

Conference Planning Group Duties

Planning Group:

Conference venue, accommodation, activities, reception.

Management Group:

Budgeting, participant registration, ticket sales.

Marketing Department:

Contact the media, create promotional materials, manage websites, blogs and social media activities.

Support group:

Responsible for providing sponsors, applying for donations and fundraising. (Only for conferences that emphasize external financial resources)

Volunteers:

Help with all activities on conference day: door management, ticket scanning, guest list tracking, security, guiding people, etc.

Your main goal is to coordinate the group, set priorities and award your tasks.

Step 3: Prepare the Budget and Business Plan

Whether or not your conference is sponsored is important and you need to combine the funding. You need to know where your money comes from and spent. Having a budget will also help you determine the cost of attending the conference. The most common things you want to use for a budget are:

Conference Venue

Accommodation for guests and speakers

Transportation

Catering

Speakers Cost

Activities

Marketing

Team members

Preparing funds for realistic estimates when searching for locations and speakers will be helpful.

Step 4: Find sponsors and donations [optional]

If you are doing this conference on your own and are not looking for external sources of income, you can take this step safely.

If not, you want to look for sponsors. The key thing to keep in mind is that sponsors and their values should be in line with the theme of your conference. (Find the sponsors who have the most in common between the topic of their activity and the topic of the conference) Decide how much sponsors are involved in how you run your conference. Do you allow your brand and logo to be on ads or conference banners? Will they be able to bring their speakers to the meeting?

Remember: This is a good balance between receiving funds and maintaining the integrity of your conference. You are the judge of where you draw this line.

Step 5: Conference Execution Date

Now is the time to determine the timing of your conference. As mentioned earlier, the scheduled date must be every 6 months to 1 year before the date of the holding. You also need to specify how long the conference will take (how many days it takes)?

Here are some great tips to keep in mind:

Choose a date that doesn't interfere with other major events, such as festivals. There are a wide range of events around the world that make booking flights more expensive or even sometimes ban transportation altogether. In addition, you don't want to trouble your conference due to the big events that take place in the history of your conference. When people tend to travel nowruz and summer holidays, it is better not to hold a conference. Never hold a conference over the weekend. For most participants, attending the conference is part of their job, so put the program throughout the working week. Try to finish the session by the end of the week, so that the participants who traveled to attend the conference have the opportunity to explore. The worst days for a conference are Thursday and Friday.

Step 6: Conference Venue

Once the date has been set, you can start looking for your available locations that meet your needs.

In general, locations may be divided into three categories:

Universities:

Universities are generally suitable for smaller, academic events and are relatively cheap to rent.

Hotels:

Hotels usually have conference and food facilities. And the best choices are among all options as hotels offer accommodation and conference space, as well as the cost of holding conferences at the hotel far outweighs the rest of the options.

Conference Halls:

Many conference halls are suitable for conferences

But the cost of the venue is just one part of the puzzle. Here are a few other factors to consider the right location together.

Size:

Booking a very small place where everyone has to be squeezed in a small room is clearly a bad idea. Or vice versa a very large place for a modest population, not only will it damage your wallet but also make the conference look empty and weak.

Location:

The best choice is a somewhat hotel location so that the conference attendees can be more focused. It is even better to have a peaceful venue and a beautiful environment and a place to relax.

Atmosphere:

It's very important that the venue matches the theme of the meeting you don't want to host a business conference inside a large gym, for example.

Facilities:

Does the venue and conference room style suit your needs? Do it have the necessary facilities such as smaller rooms for meetings?

Stay:

Is the conference venue close to the residence of speakers and attendees?

Food:

Can the venue provide everyone's food? If not. Is there a place for catering companies?

Transportation:

Is it easy for participants to find a public transport vehicle to the venue? Is there enough parking for those who own a vehicle?

Technical aspects:

Does the venue have the right IT, audio and video equipment? You need projector screens or urban TV, microphones, lots of charging sockets for participants, etc.

Quick tip:

If you find a great location that suits your budget, see if you can rent the lounge at a lower cost and with a multi-year contract (if you hold a recurring conference).

Step 7: Catering Type

Typically, catering is very important in conferences. If you have a foreign guest, you should be more careful about choosing the type of reception.

Decide what kind of drink you want to make and serve a few times at the conference. Take an hour for lunch and 15 to 20 minutes for coffee and snacks. Keep in mind: If you have enough funds, it's best to choose other foods for meals instead of sandwiches and fast food.

Be sure to make sure that the catering company can handle the logistics on the day of the event. The best thing to do is to find a local company close to the conference venue to avoid problems and delays related to possible traffic.

Don't forget that the food broker needs to know the number of ultimate employees, menu and each specific diet item.

Make a list of other services you think you may need, such as a decorative service company or IT equipment suppliers, to make your event perfect.

Step 8: Select the Speaker  

This step may be more important than the rest. Your speakers are the stars of your conference. You want to use speakers to attract participants and ensure a professional experience.

One sure way to gain traction in guests is to invite a great speaker for the first time. Someone who has been very exposed to recognition and respect. This strengthens your credibility in the eyes of other potential speakers.

Start looking for thoughtful people who focus on the same topics as your conference. Make a priority list of the capable speakers you want to invite. Then start calling and finding their email.

Here are a few:

Compensation: Does it require a high cost for the speaker?

Support equipment: Does their presentation rely on special equipment?

Special conditions: Do they have a specific diet?

Is there a need for transportation and accommodation for them?

Be sure to work with the list because you need to schedule the time allocated to each speaker.

But wait for the final list! You have a number of backup speakers for the time of cancellation of priorities as Plan B.

You can also consider hiring some local speakers. In this case, you save money on transportation.

Courtesy:Event Planner & Organizer in Lahore

[orbemnews]

When Covid-19 came for their community, these Choctaw tribal members mobilized to feed and protect families “I knew it was gonna be bad because we Natives, you look at the history, our immune systems are not built for a lot of stuff,” said Mask, who lives on the Pearl River Reservation near Philadelphia, Mississippi. Mask’s friend and fellow tribal member Marsha Berry also lives on the reservation, where many families live in multi-generational homes. She told CNN that early in the pandemic, as residents had to wait about a week for their test results, many unknowingly spread Covid-19 to parents and grandparents before learning they were positive. “We didn’t have any guidance, any type of Instruction on what to do. So, we kind of were left out to fend for ourselves,” Berry said. Those who tested positive were often unprepared to quarantine for 14 days, without enough food, supplies or a support system at home. Mask’s fiancé, Sandy Steve, shared the story of a mother of three in their community who was suffering from Covid-19. Her 7-year-old daughter had to continually wake her up to make sure she was still alive. “First thing I thought about,” Mask said, “was (this is) going to affect that child for the rest of her life.” The story angered Mask, but also inspired him to take action. He went on Facebook and “said some things that I shouldn’t have said,” but that’s when he also linked up with Berry, Steve, and another acquaintance Rian Willis to help. They decided to collect donated food and hygiene products for what was supposed to be a one-day drive last June, offering families exposed to the coronavirus much-needed supplies. They secured a former Dollar General location to collect the items, and Berry announced the donation drive on a Facebook Live video. The community’s response was overwhelming. The group received far more donations than they were able to give away in one afternoon. Unable to fit the excess items in their homes, they turned the former Dollar General store into a temporary headquarters for their effort, which they named “Honoring the Choctaw Spirit.” Donations rolled in over the summer as the virus spread to more families. While the local Choctaw Health Center was the first stop for most tribal members, helicopters flew the sicker Covid-19 patients to a hospital in Jackson, Mississippi — about 80 miles away. Mask said he would hear choppers flying over his house every night. Berry recalled the emotional toll of the constant airlifts. “I remember sitting here so many times and just … putting my hands over my ears so that I wouldn’t hear the helicopters, because the helicopters came three or four times a day to pick up another tribal member,” she said. “The majority of [them] never made it back home.” Mask has lost family members to the pandemic, including a cousin who was just three months younger than him; they shared a crib and grew up together. “He was healthy … and a week later, he’s in the hospital with it. It just blows you away … you talk to somebody one day and the next day they’re gone.” The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians claim about 11,000 members. As of March 18, they had lost 113 members. The tribe’s cultural losses are staggering. Mask says they lost the wife of a former chief, storytellers, traditional dancers, and stickball players, which he describes as a game similar to lacrosse. “We were in a constant state of grief,” Berry said. “Having to deal with death on a daily basis, we almost became desensitized. Our funeral rites were taken from us because we couldn’t gather. We couldn’t mourn.” The group kept the donation drives going every Saturday through the summer. Eventually, as the numbers of new cases began to decrease, Mask and other tribal members returned to their jobs. Honoring the Choctaw Spirit then moved its effort online, creating a Facebook Group to connect with exposed families and allow them to request specific donations. After his overnight shift as a pit manager at the Pearl River Resort, Mask would return home for a few hours of sleep before driving deliveries to those in need. Nowadays, donation requests spread mostly through word of mouth or Facebook posts, Mask said. He is also running a drive to fill Easter Baskets for tribal children who lost loved ones in the pandemic. Mask acknowledges some tribal members are hesitant about getting the Covid-19 vaccine. He admits that he was scared, but given his work environment, he was glad to get it. Seeing casino patrons refusing to wear a mask frustrates him, he says, and he has a message for them: “While you may wanna die, I have a responsibility to these people out here.” Despite all the losses, Mask and Berry say they see a silver lining in this tragedy: their drives unified tribal members to help each other while reacquainting old friends and building relationships. Mask, who still makes deliveries to those affected by Covid-19, also gained a sense of personal satisfaction from this work. “I didn’t grow up the perfect person in the world or anything, but I went to sleep every night with a smile on my face knowing I’m going to heaven. That sounds stupid, but it’s my mindset now.” Source link Orbem News #Choctaw #community #Covid19 #families #Feed #Members #mobilized #protect #Tribal

[fionabasil]

What are the ProMind Complex advantages?

The important relationship between diabetes and the gut microbiome

The trends of metabolic disorders, including type 2 diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease, have grown at alarming rates in most developed countries. More than 600,000 Americans die from heart disease each year. Type 2 diabetes remains common as a precursor to cardiovascular disease and its complications.

According to the World Health Organization, "Type 2 diabetes is one of the main reasons of death worldwide by 2030". Ultimately, this disease results in heart attacks, strokes, cardiac arrhythmias, and heart failure. Similarly, obesity levels could be another reason.

However, current research is pointing to another possible reason for metabolic disorders such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease; it all has to do with your gut microbiome.

How can type 2 diabetes be related to the gut?

People with obesity, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease have a lack of microbial diversity in their stools; The gut microbiome has a limited number of friendly bacteria, but it is overwhelmed with bad bacteria.

This has already been studied before, however, more systemic studies are still needed that offer greater information potential.

Eventually, in the not-too-distant future, you may see “gut-targeted” glucose-lowering treatments that seek to harness the great benefits of improving gut health and how this relates to diabetes. The microbiome will become an essential part of treating these and other common metabolic diseases.

What is the gut microbiome?

Bacterial cells live in the skin, nose, mouth, and digestive tract. Your GI tract contains a collection of microbes called the gut microbiome. This includes bacteria, fungi, viruses, and parasites. Due to the high amounts of acid in the stomach, these organisms generally exist only in the large intestine or colon.

Friendly gut bacteria try to keep bad bacteria in check; they constantly multiply to leave less room for the bad ones. Good bacteria play a role in the production of vitamins, neurotransmitters like serotonin, and constantly improve the immune system.

This set of microbes varies from person to person and there is no real consensus on what makes the "perfect human microbiome." The microbiome is really the study of "The genetics of bacteria." Your specific biome might work just fine for you and no one else.

So understanding the microbiome can provide answers for conditions ranging from obesity to type 2 diabetes to cardiovascular disease. It has even been associated with type 1 diabetes.

What does an adult have in his microbiome?

A healthy adult harbors between 500-1000 bacterial species or 2 kilos of microbes in the gut. We have 39 trillion bacteria in the human body, that is, we are more microbes than cells.

Additionally, the breakdown consists of approximately 23% Bacteroidetes used to process protein and carbohydrates in the gut and 64% Firmicutes which process dietary fat in the gut. There are other types and smaller amounts of germs.

People with diabetes tend to have a change in the balance of their biomes, having fewer Firmicutes and more Bacteroidetes; having germs out of balance can cause illness. When in the right balance, gut bacteria can regulate hormones, synthesize vitamin K, folic acid, and vitamin B12.

What affects the gut microbiome?

·       It all starts with your DNA and a process called colonization.

·       Come into the world for vaginal delivery versus cesarean section Vaginal delivery provides the baby with germs from the mother while a cesarean section provides germs from the hospital.

·       Breastfeeding supports the development of the microbiome. Being formula fed changes things.

·       The gut biome generally stabilizes by 2-3 years, but is always in flux.

·       Antibiotics - especially when taken in early childhood, disrupt the development of the microbiome. Antibiotics kill both good and bad microbes.

·       The components of the diet - the modern western diet, refined, processed and sugary foods cause a negative change in microbes. A high-fat, red meat diet leads to poor changes in gut microbes; It allows for greater intestinal permeability leading to obesity and insulin resistance.

·       Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) affect the microbiome.

·       Possible negative effects of artificial sweeteners (research is still being done on this topic).

·       High levels of physical and mental stress alter the biome.

·       Disturbed sleep cycles and disrupted circadian rhythms.

·       Antibacterial soaps and hand sanitizers kill good and bad bacteria.

Ultimately, the health of the microbiome is based on genetics, diet, age, environment, lifestyle, and lifetime exposure to antibiotics.

What have we learned?

Several major studies have reported that "dysbiosis" or alteration of the gut microbiome can be a factor in obesity, insulin resistance, and type 2 diabetes. Stress, medications, toxic agents, genetic factors, and age also affect the gut microbiome.

It is also affected by the environment, past and current infections, gastrointestinal surgery, and certain foods. It is known that early in our lives, the development of the microbiome can affect our vulnerability and predisposition to certain diseases later in life.

Our microbiome is constantly changing as we are exposed to different factors throughout our lives. We also know that probiotics could be very helpful, but that each person will respond differently to the probiotic.

Some microbes form toxins and enter the intestine. A bad gut biome can lead to leaky gut, intestinal inflammation, decreased insulin sensitivity, and a change in metabolism.

Less variety and diversity in gut bacteria can also lead to ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease, IBS inflammatory bowel disease, colon cancer, food allergies, arthritis, migraines, and NASH-liver disease.

Strong yeast formation and bad bacteria in the gut can lead to skin diseases, vaginal and urinary tract infections, and colds. Having a beneficial diversity of the gut biome helps maintain gut integrity.

For example, it provides protection against pathogens and improves the immune system to be able to fight disease. In addition, it helps you metabolize your medications properly and digest and absorb complex foods, obtaining all the nutrients and energy from them.

What about probiotics?

As mentioned above, probiotics appear to be beneficial to the microbiome, but not all probiotics work the same way for everyone. Different strains of probiotics treat different health problems. At this point, there is no specific recommended daily intake for probiotics.

There are systemic studies, but they still lack definitive information. The facts that we already know include: probiotics are live microorganisms that can offer health benefits; They seem to eliminate diarrhea caused by the use of antibiotics.

They are also given to improve constipation problems, in place of stool softeners and laxatives.

What can probiotics do for diabetes?

·       They can modulate or change blood sugar levels and insulin levels.

·       They decrease systemic inflammation: Inflammation promotes insulin resistance, which is how type 2 diabetes starts.

·       They reduce the levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) that indicate inflammation.

·       They decrease stress on pancreatic cells and stimulate the immune system.

·       They can aid in weight loss.

·       They improve heart health.

·       Improve mental health: depression, poor memory and anxiety.

Also, probiotics have enough bacteria that survive food processing. Probiotics include plain yogurt with live cultures (bifidobacteria and lactobacilli) and certain aged cheeses (gouda, mozzarella, brie, feta, gruyere, cheddar, and cottage cheese).

Fermented foods are great for getting friendly bacteria. The fermentation process creates lactic acid; This helps preserve food and promotes the production of beneficial enzymes, Omega 3 fatty acids, and friendly bacteria. Simply put, the process transforms certain foods into something totally different.

Some examples of this would be converting milk to buttermilk, soybeans to miso and tempeh, cucumbers to pickles, and cabbage to sauerkraut. Other fermented foods include sourdough bread, kefir, kombucha (tea drink), and kimchi (Korean cabbage). Pickled gherkins and pickled onions are also fermented and very beneficial for the intestine.

If you decide to start taking a probiotic supplement, always consult your doctor first. Choose one with multiple strains, at least 10-30 billion CFU (colony forming units). Make sure it is verified by the USP (United States Pharmacopeia), as that will guarantee that it contains the actual ingredients listed on the label.

And the prebiotics?

Prebiotics are natural plant fibers that the intestinal tract does not digest. They are also a food source for the bacteria that live in your colon. Prebiotics are generally found in fruits and vegetables. They also help the body grow friendly bacteria in the gut and aid in the absorption of calcium.

Prebiotics improve your metabolic health. Some excellent food sources of prebiotics include bananas, garlic, onion, soybeans, peas, Jerusalem artichokes, jicama, soy sauce, chicory root (inulin), asparagus, oats, apples, flax seeds, leeks, dandelions, whole wheat foods and wheat bran.

Possible dietary aspects to take into account if you have diabetes

Many people with diabetes try to eliminate carbohydrates completely or follow an extremely low-carbohydrate diet, as they affect blood sugar. This often leads to a diet rich in animal fats. Unfortunately, this diet limits dietary fiber, which is crucial for intestinal function and the growth of friendly bacteria.

Consider eating more fiber, as it reduces your appetite by making you feel full, prevents spikes in blood sugar, and is good against insulin resistance.

High-fiber carbohydrates also help produce friendly bacteria. People with diabetes often have "dysbiosis," an overgrowth of bad bacteria.

Possible ways to improve gut health even if you don't have diabetes

·       Eat a plant-based diet. Having a high fiber / low saturated fat diet helps provide intestinal diversification. Indigestible carbohydrates stimulate the growth of friendly bacteria.

·       Eat nutrient-dense foods and buy organic produce whenever possible, including grass-fed meats, wild fish and eggs from free-range chickens.

·       Add high-fiber foods: legumes, nuts, seeds, berries, and low-starch vegetables.

·       Eat foods rich in Omega 3 such as wild salmon, ground flax seeds or walnuts to reduce inflammation.

·       Get outdoors: go to the field, to a camp, to your garden; Any outdoor activity can diversify gut health.

·       Stop smoking.

·       Avoid refined and simple sugars. Avoid processed foods with a long shelf life.

·       If you really have a food sensitivity, avoid gluten and dairy.

·       Get a good night's sleep, reduce your stress levels, and get more physical activity.

·       Metformin - an often prescribed diabetes pill has "therapeutic effects" on the microbial makeup.

·       Polyphenols - foods rich in polyphenols: Green tea, berries, grapes, olive oil, coffee, and wine can diversify the gut microbiome.

·       Wash your hands with normal soap and water, avoid hand sanitizers.

Yes, there is a connection between diabetes and your current intestinal flora. More studies are still needed targeting the gut, type 2 diabetes and its treatment.

There is still a lot to prove and more research is needed, but we know there are many strong connections.

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