#attitude de leader

[ouipay]

Comment prendre la meilleure décision pour son business ? - L’édito de Ouipay.fr

Quelle couleur choisir pour mon logo ? À quel moment dois-je lancer mon offre ? Est-ce que je peux faire confiance à cette personne ? Est-ce que je travaille de chez moi ou d’un espace de coworking ? Quel tapis de souris est le plus ergonomique ? Bref, vous le savez autant que moi, quand on monte son business, une foule de questions nous traversent la tête. Pourtant, elles n’ont pas toutes la même urgence.

Pour vous aider à y voir plus clair et à avoir une prise de décision efficace, Ouipay.fr l’expert anti-crash de votre business vous invite à lire la suite de cet article. Les prochaines lignes vous aideront à prendre des décisions rationnelles et à éviter les pièges et pensées qui peuvent avoir une influence dans votre processus décisionnel.

Attitude de leader :  prendre les bonnes décisions !

Prise de décision : comment être sûr d’avoir raison ?

Avant même de vous donner la liste des questions à se poser pour monter un business en ligne rentable et surtout durable, il est essentiel de faire le point sur une chose : votre capacité à prendre de bonnes décisions stratégiques.

Se poser les bonnes questions, c’est important. Encore faut-il être capable d’avoir le sens des affaires pour trouver la réponse adéquate, celle qui vous permettra de mettre en place un plan d’action clair et percutant, en lien direct avec vos objectifs professionnels.

Pour faciliter la prise de décision éclairée et pertinente : 

d’avoir un objectif clair ;

d’avoir pesé le pour et le contre ;

d’avoir toutes les informations possibles en votre possession ;

d’agir comme un professionnel. 

Si vous n’avez pas d’objectif, comment pouvez-vous savoir si votre réponse va dans le sens de votre réussite professionnelle comme de votre réussite financière ou l’inverse ? Soyons clairs, pour prendre de bonnes décisions et développer la croissance de votre activité, prenez le temps de vous construire des bases solides.

S’émanciper des biais cognitifs qui biaisent la situation

Au-delà de vos compétences techniques et opérationnelles, vous aurez également besoin de travailler sur vous pour prendre les bonnes décisions et trancher sur les opportunités stratégiques de votre business. Le tout, de façon rationnelle en connectant à votre leadership et vos capacités de décideur.

Le développement personnel est un excellent moyen de prendre du recul sur son fonctionnement et donc de s’observer. En apprenant à déceler vos comportements, pensées automatiques et schémas de pensée, vous aurez plus de facilité à vous libérer des biais cognitifs. 

Si ces mécanismes de pensée sont initialement créés par votre mental pour vous faciliter la vie (= vous assurer d’être apprécié de tous et donc de survivre dans cette jungle qu’est le monde), ils peuvent freiner votre évolution professionnelle et être la cause du crash de votre business en ligne.

Les 6 biais cognitifs dont vous devrez vous libérer pour réussir dans le business 

Il est grand temps de vous présenter la team des biais cognitifs. Sachez que nous avons tous notre mode de fonctionnement. Toutefois, nous nous retrouvons plus ou moins dans les différents biais cognitifs suivants : 

le biais de confirmation ;

le biais d’ancrage mental ;

le biais de négativité ;

le biais de statu quo ;

le biais de l’aversion à la perte ;

le biais de faux consensus.

En fonction de notre éducation et de nos expériences passées, certains biais seront plus marqués que d’autres dans notre comportement. Un article détaillé sur les 6 biais cognitifs qui causeront votre perte, vous aidera à mieux comprendre ce qui se joue mentalement et émotionnellement dans ces schémas de pensée.

Comment développer un business en ligne rentable ?

Les questions à se poser pour prendre une décision importante, liée à l’évolution de son entreprise

Maintenant que vous savez sur quoi focaliser votre attention, lors du processus de décision et que vous avez conscience des différents biais cognitifs qui peuvent influencer vos choix, voilà la liste des bonnes questions à se poser pour éviter le crash de votre business.

Question 1 : Est-ce que ce choix me permet d’avancer ?

Question 2 : En prenant cette décision, suis-je conforme à mes valeurs ?

Question 3 : Si je fais ça, est-ce que je vais dans le sens de mon ambition initiale ?

Question 4 :  Quelles sont les conséquences de cette décision ?

Question 5  : Est-ce que cette décision entraîne des conséquences réversibles ?

Question 6 : Mon choix peut-il minimiser le coût d’une perte d’opportunité ?

Question 7 : Aurais-je pris cette direction si je n’avais pas parlé avec untel ?

Je vous vois venir ! Ce n’est pas la liste de questions à laquelle vous vous attendiez. Vous pensiez davantage à ce genre de liste : 

Quel est le meilleur réseau social pour développer ma notoriété ?

Comment puis-je attirer les clients ?

Quelles sont les tendances qui feront grimper les ventes ?

Comment créer une identité visuelle qui attire ?

Site web ou réseaux sociaux : quel choix faire pour gagner de l’argent rapidement ?

Les cinq questions ci-dessus sont effectivement des questions importantes. Cependant, si vous y répondez sans avoir en tête les sept interrogations énoncées plus haut, vous n’irez pas bien loin. Pourquoi ? Parce que vous ne pourrez pas vous assurer d’avoir pris la bonne décision pour votre business.

Et après ? Comment mettre en place des actions percutantes ?

Une fois la phase théorique terminée, il ne vous reste qu’à agir. Attention, pas n'importe comment ! Vous avez fixé vos objectifs, vous avez la réponse à vos questions… Pensez à intégrer des KPI (indicateurs clés de performance) pertinents à votre stratégie afin de mesurer l’efficacité de vos actions. 

Cette étape est essentielle puisqu’elle vous permet de vous rendre compte de manière factuelle du résultat de vos actions.

Exemple concret :  Vous décidez de créer un compte TikTok et Instagram pour faire évoluer la notoriété de vos business en ligne en prenant en compte votre cœur de cible comme votre cible secondaire.

Les KPI à utiliser dans cette situation peuvent-être les suivants : 

nombre de vues par publication sur les 3 prochains mois ;

nombre d’abonnés sur les 3 prochains mois ;

type d’audience touchée sur les 3 prochains mois.

De cette manière vous pourriez vérifier si Instagram et TikTok vous permettent réellement de gagner en visibilité, tout en vous assurant que vous gagnez en notoriété auprès du public cible visé. 

Ouipay.fr, l’expert anti-crash de votre business !

Pour vous accompagner dans la création de votre business et surtout éviter le crash de votre activité en ligne, retrouvez les conseils de Ouipay.fr sur son blog et sur sa chaîne YouTube.

[lua-magic]

Jupiter and your best quality.

Jupiter when sits with any planet, enhances the positive trait of that planets!

Jupiter + Mercury

You are good im fault finding and you possess many skills and great communication and writing skill.

Jupiter +Venus

You love to spend money to satisfy your senses, however, you are also good with money and universe sometimes blesses you money from unknown sources.

Jupiter +Mars

You are good when it comes to chase your passion and you work aggressively and give 100% of your effort. You have good work ethics and you get support from your seniors at work.

Jupiter +Saturn

You are a religious and spiritual person and love to follow ethics and morality, You have your set of values, which don't violate, You believe in karma and try to do good karma with everyone around you.

Jupiter + Sun

You are a family oriented person and make sacrifices for your family, jupiter is divine and sun is your soul, so your soul has blessing of the divine and you love to give others and has leader ship qualities.

Jupiter +Moon

You are a extremely optimistic and hopeful person, usually, people get attracted towards your positive attitude. Your mother is a spiritual person and played an important role in shaping your characteristics.

Jupiter +Rahu

You are the person, who have got out of box thinking and love to think big. You do care alot about people around you and also their opinion for you.

Jupiter +Ketu

You spiritual person and remain de attached from then people around you, You love isolation and love to know more about yourself rather than the world around you.

[theoutcastrogue]

Cartoon depictions of the homeless increasingly reflect the hostility of today’s political leaders toward people on the streets. We’ve gone from images of charming hobos with bindles to zombies taking over cities. If you consume any news at all, you’ve probably noticed that the United States is pathologically cruel to its homeless citizens. This May, the brutal killing of Jordan Neely—who was strangled to death, at the age of 30, simply because he was unhoused and shouting on the Manhattan subway—captured the national spotlight, but it was just one of many such cases of unprovoked violence. In January, two cops reportedly kidnapped a homeless man in Hialeah, Florida, drove him to an “isolated and dark location,” and beat him unconscious. That same month, art dealer Shannon Collier Gwin faced battery charges after he sprayed a homeless woman with a hose outside his San Francisco gallery, barking “Move! Move!” at her. (Predictably, Gwin got a lenient plea deal of just 35 hours of community service.) Elsewhere in the city, homeless San Franciscans have been attacked with chemical bear spray on at least eight occasions. Other assaults have been more impersonal but no less vicious. On July 14, the city of Houston abruptly closed its only public cooling center in the downtown area, potentially condemning anyone without shelter to suffer heatstroke in 90-degree weather. Among the property-owning class, the phenomenon of hostile architecture—sidewalks with spikes that stab anyone who tries to sleep, benches with iron bars, and the like—has become de rigueur. The widespread callousness and lack of compassion are both infuriating and hard to comprehend. How on Earth, we might ask, did things get this bad? [...]

Looking back at older cartoons, one of the things that stands out immediately is the absence of negative attitudes toward the homeless. In fact, during the Golden Age of animation, creators seemed to have had a real affinity for the poor and unhoused, often placing their most iconic characters in that role. There’s a wonderful 1948 Warner Bros. short called “Riff Raffy Daffy,” in which Daffy Duck is looking for a place to sleep—first on a park bench, then a trash can, and finally a furniture display in a shop window—and has to dodge the harassment of the police, as represented by Porky Pig in a little blue uniform. (Literally, the cop is a pig!) Or, in the 1950 cartoon “Homeless Hare,” Bugs Bunny’s rabbit hole is destroyed by a new construction project, leading him to unleash his usual slapstick mayhem against the developers until they put it back. In these cartoons, homelessness is something inflicted on people by outside forces—gentrification and the real estate business, in Bugs’ case—and something which can be successfully resisted. Even Disney cast a homeless dog as a romantic lead in 1955’s Lady and the Tramp, contrasting Lady’s sheltered naivety with Tramp’s superior knowledge of the world. The title invokes the memory of Charlie Chaplin’s “Tramp” films, which similarly brought dignity and humanity to the role of a homeless man. (Bugs Bunny, too, takes inspiration from Chaplin, and multiple Warner animators have drawn him as the Tramp.) In 1961, Hanna-Barbera’s profoundly underrated Top Cat followed the adventures of a gang of wisecracking Manhattan alley cats, who, like Daffy, are always outwitting a meddling policeman. At worst, classic cartoons may trivialize the suffering and danger associated with homelessness—there’s a certain recurring image of the carefree hobo carrying a bindle, which paints the whole subject in a romanticized light—but the homeless themselves are rarely disparaged or made the butt of the joke. Quite the opposite. 

It took a few years, but cartoons caught up to the Reaganite turn. In episodes from the ’90s and early 2000s, there’s a palpable shift in the way homeless characters appear compared to earlier decades. The perspective is different: we’re now seeing them through the eyes of comfortably housed characters, rather than their own. Often they don’t even get proper names. [...] This trajectory leads us, perhaps inevitably, to SpongeBob SquarePants. [..] Squidward gets accused of stealing a dime by his comically greedy boss, Mr. Krabs, and quits his job in a fit of outrage. We then flash forward to see Squidward, now bedraggled and unshaven, living in a cardboard box on the street and begging for change. [...] Mercifully, the ever-cheerful SpongeBob gives Squidward a place to stay—but the moment he’s safely off the street, Squidward turns from a sympathetic victim of circumstance into a lazy, entitled freeloader, straight out of a Reagan speech. He makes no effort to find work and loafs around SpongeBob’s house for ages. [...] Eventually, an exasperated SpongeBob writes “GET A JOB” in his alphabet soup, before shoving him (bed and all) back to work at the Krusty Krab. [...] Worst of all, though, the episode suggests that homelessness can be solved on an individual basis if the people in question simply stop being lazy and “GET A JOB.” This is the biggest myth of all. In 2021, a statistical analysis by the University of Chicago found that 53 percent of people in homeless shelters, and 40.4 percent of unsheltered people, do have jobs. The problem is that their wages are too low, and rents are too high. According to statistics from the same year, it’s impossible for someone working a full-time, minimum-wage job to afford a single-bedroom apartment in 93 percent of U.S. counties, and there are no states in which someone can rent a two-bedroom space on the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. In other words, homelessness has little or nothing to do with personal responsibility, or lack thereof. It’s a consequence of large-scale economic decisions made by landlords and bosses. [...]

— Alex Skopic

[modernelites-if]

Modern Elites is a 18+ raunchy slice-of-life IF that follows you, a young royal, navigating the world of the obscenely rich and immensely famous while trying to keep your elite, royal family together in the midst of drama and tabloids.

Setting: modern times, fictional tiny country of Selusa, New York, Paris and more.

Genre: slice-of-life, drama, romance

Celebrity. Pop Culture Icon. Heir.

Royal.

As the heir to the Selusan throne, you're known by many names. Growing under the spotlight hasn't been easy, especially since it seems the vultures all want a piece of your elusive family. Country clubs, yachts, parties, private jets, elite schools, you've had it all.

But is there something missing?

Customize your heir from appearance to gender identity to personality. Dictate what kind of person they are: rebellious, dutiful. Do they care about the royal line or are parties more on their mind? Will you keep a squeaky clean rep or ruin the family name?

Customize Salusa and cater the country to your taste.

Dictate what kind of leader you want to be, and how others percieve you.

Experience the life of the hidden .01% and the drama of the ultra wealthy.

Engage in fiery, dramatic romances that could either uplift or ruin you and your family.

and more to come.

THE ADVISOR

Imogen/Ian Lancaster [f/m]- your family's advisor and publicist. I has cleaned up every mess, every leak, every scandal and at this point, there are no secrets between your family and them. Coming from a well-off family themselves, they know exactly how this world works...and they navigate it with a steel will and a cold, detached demeanor. I has you handled like an adult with a child, trying (and probably failing) to keep you in line. Anything you do will go through them, so it's better to think twice.

THE BETROTHED

Everett/Eva St. Clare [m/f] - the eldest of one of the most influential businessmen on your side of the world, black sheep, and a source of gossip in polite society, there have been talks of a betrothal between you two since the partnership started. Because of that, you two are forced into a fake romance for the cameras. E is an arrogant and brash casanova, sex-obsessed, and is proudly noncommital with string of rumors that follow them like their own entourage. Unfortunately for you, E's exploits can damage the carefully constructed facade you two have built. Of course, E doesn't give a damn.

THE REBEL

Vince/Vivian De Grasso [m/f] - (secretly) fresh out of jail and newly reformed (not) V's politician of a mother has asked in a favor from your family: to reform them and stifle their rebellious ways by adding them to your security detail. Your father having a soft spot for the kid, brings them in as one of your guards. Hopefully V keeps in line...or not.

THE COMMONER

Cordelia/Corden Bowen [f/m]- an employee at the country club you frequent, someone less polite would call them a 'nobody.' C has a bit of an attitude, but that's expected from someone who is used to getting berated by rich people all day. There's not much else to say about them...or maybe there is?

THE JOURNALIST

Romi Marshall [m/f]- a famed journalist with contempt for royalty and elitism. Their newsletters frequently slam you and your family's every move, and they don't like you one bit. You can confidently say they're your biggest hater.

THE ROYAL BEST FRIEND

Oliver/Olivia Ames-Astor [m/f]- a fellow prince/princess from another country and your best friend, who is still hung up on their ex. Forced to betroth someone else, O has so many problems you can hardly sort through them. Still, they're kind and as polite as you'd expect from a person who has had etiquette lessons drilled into them since childhood. They're also your best friend, so there's that.

[spotlightlowlife]

aging hazbin hella confusing

As we know, Stolas who seemed every bit the powerful sugardaddy on introduction, who we know to be royalty and immortal, was placed at the same age as Blitzø at the start of this season.

They're in their mid 30s and imps age like human.

It makes sense that the immortal leaders don't care to see 'lesser' demons who they don't really respect as anything other than workers in the industry, but at what point was Stolas who was an innocent child the equivalent of 5 minutes ago to them seen as an adult?

Goatia may be the workers of the royals and that's why he was given privilege and responsibility early but how often do sins and goatia meet up with one another?

They sort of give the impression of knowing one another well but at what point do those who are thousands or millions of years old see the likes of Stolas as their peer?

Why is there a job that needed doing by a 30 something?

Though they have tried to build an 'all will be revealed' plot for Octavia and whatever important role this teenager born to a teenager will play, why now? Wouldn't the groundwork of what needs to be done in hell have been covered millenniums ago?

At the same time, we have a leading, very casual plot where hell has no issues other than an oveepopulation problem that's in hand, over in hazbin with the very infantalised Charlie who is over 200 years old?

There is nothing that screams maturity about her, in her appearance and certainly not in her attitude, if she was an actual teenager it would fit, how is her aging slower than someone who doesn't have a human parent?

Charlie has nothing to do, no expectations placed upon her, she follows a pipe dream which is actually a big deal but nobody cares, it's not a case of nobody cares to stop her because of who she is, nobody gives a crap about her, she means nothing.

Though maturity comes with exposure and in the case of hazbin our chances of seeing the sins outside of fellow nothing to is do sin Lucifer are slim so we won't see them interact, so far we have seen Charlie just be the silly little girl anywhere she went who isn't to be taken seriously. She is beyond a pushover, she is entirely impressionable.

It's like Charlie being so childish is a way of dismissing her the daughter of the big boss with her own show, the parent show at that to the sidelines, but Stolas who's importance is well established then inflated for a ship was de-aged without thought.

It's almost like aging these characters so recently was set up to fail because why weren't they born sooner? The child of the first human woman and someone with an important role in hell and it's activity. Still the investments in these characters is like night and day.

[the-lavender-clown]

TEAM DELTA TIME!!!

Mèng Yáo “Mona Lisa” Sun

Other names: D2-01,

Mutant Chinese Giant Salamander

Mona Lisa is the leader of Team Delta. She was kidnapped and mutated at the age of 12 just a couple months before Donnie and Raph. She would see them as well as Leo and Mikey in passing at the facility as they each got check ups and tests done in “the lab” but never had more interaction than that.

She has a very nonchalant yet playful personality. She loves to poke fun at people (especially Usagi) and tease them in subtle ways. She’s also very serious however, especially on missions and when it comes to her team’s safety and success. She has immense control over her reaction and emotions which leads her to be very good at keeping a cool head and coming up with plans in the heat of battle. Despite this she has a fire of passion deep in her and if she loses control the fire easily turns into an inferno that can be very difficult to put out.

Hiroshi Usagi/Usagi Hiroshi ( 飛呂士 ウサギ / ウサギ 飛呂士 ) (prefers to be referred to by family name Usagi)

Other names: D1-02, hero (by Mondo),

Mutant Snowshoe Hare

Usagi second in command of Team Delta and was originally up for consideration to be their leader but was beat out by Mona. He was kidnapped and mutated into a snowshoe hare at the age of 11 and is a year older than Mona.

He has a very serious, no nonsense, and slightly grumpy attitude and can be easily irritated if he believes someone to not be taking a situation seriously. This is due to his belief in strict self discipline and duty to those he’s meant to protect, whether that be his team or humanity as a whole. He wants deeply to do what he believes is morally right and make the adults in his life proud. Despite this he occasionally does let his guard down to indulge in humor or relax in the presence of his friends/family. There is a tension between him and Mona from his belief that he failed in being good enough to lead their team as he is the only “__1” mutant to not be selected to be leader for his designated group. He is constantly trying to make up for whatever perceived flaws he displayed in his testing.

Venus de Milo

Other names: DH3-03, Vee, Vivi,

Mutant hybrid White-Lipped Tree Frog Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle

Venus is third in command of Team Delta. She was mutated at the age of 6 into a hybrid white-lipped tree frog kemp’s ridley sea turtle and is the only hybrid mutant to ever survive, even if it was just barely. Due to complications in her mutation she is a quadruple amputee and has prosthetics for all four limbs designed personally by her “guardian” Draxum.

Venus has a very calm and private disposition. She is also very guarded and slow to trust; very few people have even heard her talk. When you do earn her trust however she is fiercely loyal and protective.

Jason Rist

Other names: D4-04, Mondo Gecko/Mondo (preferred name), MG (himself), Mon, Dodo

Mutant Turquoise Dwarf Gecko

Mondo is the fourth and last in command of Team Delta. He was mutated into a turquoise dwarf gecko at the age of 8.

He remembers much of his life before mutation however he wasn’t fond of that life or his old family and tho he knows it’s messed up he believes that being mutated was one of the best things to happen to him if it meant it brought he and his teammates/family together. Mondo has a very laid back and chill personality. He’s very go with the flow and works best with little to no plan and lots of room to improvise. His jokester personality can be quite frustrating to deal with but he just wants to make those he cares about smile and relax whenever they can. He’d do anything for them when it comes down to it, even get serious.

[dianagj-art]

What kind of dialogue exchange would take place between Separated!Leo from your AU, and Canon!Leo post Rise movie?

S!Leo would think the other talks too much (el burro hablando de orejas) and I don't think he would like him that much at first, One is more disciplined and serious when is needed and would find Leo's constant demeanior annoying af, not realizing he acts the exact same way sometimes.

I think he would aslo find his brothers and the way Leo acts with them annoying but that is more on the fact that One is an only child at heart who doesn't want to have brothers.

They both will eventually get along just fine

At first One would seem more mature than Leo, to everyone's surprise, but One snaps easly and has a constant "father I carve violence" attitude that would have him launching himself into battle without much thinking and with a high succes rate. ("battles" here being big battles against other mutants or petty fights with the brothers of Leo himself)

At the end Leo is gonna have to be doing a lot of babysitting, wich is hilarious to me considering he just took the responsabily of being the group leader and now the universe is throwing him a murderous 14 yo version of himself

[amateurvoltaire]

Wait a minute, Napoleon praised the Vendée resistance?... Why....?

Hi! Thanks so much for your question!

Yes, Napoleon did show a certain admiration for the Vendée resistance, though this was mostly for practical reasons: he wanted them to like him. Why? Because they were a semi-metaphorical powder keg! Throughout his reign, he approached the Vendée with extreme caution, often using a carrot-and-stick method to keep the region in check. The flattery was part of the "carrot."

Unsurprisingly, this cautionary attitude existed long before he was in power. Napoleon’s initial stance towards the West (1) was one of deliberate neutrality. Essentially, he avoided it like the plague. Since 1795, when he refused his appointment to the Army of the West, he consistently steered clear of the region’s affairs despite repeatedly stating that peace there was essential.

Why so passive? My guess is that he saw it as career suicide. Nothing good ever came to generals who tangled with the West...

By the time Napoleon became First Consul in 1799, the West was still a problem—a hotbed of rebellion, in fact. The Law of Hostages (2), the deportation of refractory priests, and conscription had stirred things up enough that Charles d’Autichamp and others were raising armies. Although this uprising fizzled out by November, it was a reminder that the region was still volatile.

From a strategic viewpoint, the West also represented a vulnerable border for France, especially with the ever-looming threat of English intervention. Controlling it was necessary to prevent foreign interference, whether driven by émigrés or other factions.

Politically, the Vendée was a glaring reminder of the revolutionary regimes’ failures (3) and became an emotional anchor for both royalists and revolutionaries. The French, weary of war, had seen two failed peace efforts in the region. The first attempt, from December 1794 to June 1795, collapsed over fundamental disagreements about religion and loyalty to the Republic. By May 1795, Vendéen leaders, bolstered by the Anglo-émigré alliance and promises from the Count of Artois, reignited conflict. The second peace attempt, led by General Hoche from 1796 to 1799, initially showed promise, but the coup of 18 Fructidor sabotaged his efforts, and by the summer of 1799, things were back to square one.

In short, achieving peace in the Vendée was important but elusive. Successfully doing so would be a huge PR win for the young First Consul. And Napoleon definitely loved his wins.

His immediate dilemma was how to secure lasting peace. Six years of repression had proven useless. As such, he turned to diplomacy, carefully crafted laws, a hefty dose of charm, and a focus on economic recovery.

Napoleon’s previous neutrality paid off by earning him a decent amount of public trust in the region. And, whether he genuinely believed it or not, flattering the Vendéens by praising their military prowess and describing the conflict as "le Combat des Géants” helped. This, along with his correct understanding that religion, not royalism, was the crux of the rebellion, earned him the support of key figures like Abbé Bernier.

Economically, Napoleon took a "throw-money-at-the-problem" approach. He launched an ambitious reconstruction programme, allocating millions of francs to rebuild roads (4) and houses and even create a new city (5). Alongside this, he doled out aid to the needy, offered grants for rebuilding, prioritised education, gave tax exemptions, and moderated military conscription. He was focused on rebuilding the region and erasing as many of the markings of war as he could. His propaganda visit to the area in 1808 basically sought to ingratiate him further with the locals by showing interest in their history and the war.

But despite these gestures, Napoleon remained cautious. His reconciliatory actions were paired with close surveillance of former Vendéen leaders and potential troublemakers. For better control, he also attempted to co-opt the families of former Vendéen commanders into his army, though with mixed results. For example, Louis de La Rochejaquelein (6) dodged service by pleading poor health and a large family. At the same time, his brother Auguste wasn’t so lucky, ending up as a sub-lieutenant under threat of imprisonment. Meanwhile, Charette’s nephew Louis joined Napoleon’s honour guard, only to later be arrested on suspicion of plotting. Talmont’s son was also a sub-lieutenant. Others, like Guillaume Faugaret (7)  and the Viscount of Scépeau (8),  were allowed to retreat into public life, becoming mayors and avoiding overt political involvement.

In short, Napoleon was trying really hard to win these people over—for entirely pragmatic reasons. Despite his flattery and attempts at charm, the region remained difficult to control. Don’t get me wrong, he arguably did better than the regimes before him, but incidents like the Lead Affair, the rise of Le Petit Église, and various plots showed that the West was still a risky and volatile region.

Notes

(1) The conflict went beyond the department of the Vendee and encompassed most of the north-west of France.

(2) The Law of Hostages, passed by the Directory in 1799, allowed for the detention of relatives of émigrés or rebels as "hostages" to ensure their good behaviour. If any anti-revolutionary actions occurred, these hostages could be fined, imprisoned, or even deported, effectively using them as leverage to maintain order.

(3) Fun-fact: since 1793, every year , one government or another would announce the end of the war in the Vendee, only for it to start again…

(4) One of the main reasons why the various insurgencies were so successful were because the whole region was mostly forests/marshes and had very few roads, and those roads were bordered by bushes in which the insurgents would hide and wait for the republican armies.

(5) In 1804, Napoleon decreed the creation of a new city of 12,000 to 15,000 inhabitants at La Roche-sur-Yon, which was named Napoléon. This wasn’t a vanity project but  was part of his strategy to establish regional administrative control⁠.

(6) Louis and Auguste de la Rochejaquelein were the brothers of the late Henri de la Rochejaquelein. Louis was married to Lescure’s widow, of Memoirs fame.

(7) Guillaume Faugaret was one of Charette’s former leuterrants

(8) He was the brother-in-law of Bonchamps

[burr-ell]

If the De Rolo children ever decide to become adventurers in their own right, what class would each kid be....... and how would Vex and Percy react when they tell them.

So to begin with, I honestly think Percy and Vex encouraged their kids to be adventurers, or at the very least encouraged them to pick up the skillsets and travel. I don't think they want them actually doing anything dangerous, per se, but I think they're both practical and self-aware enough to know that the things they learned about the world as adventurers made them better leaders who could be more responsive to the needs of their people. (See: the passage in Tal'Dorei Reborn that mentions them rehabilitating criminals instead of punishing them; Percy and Vex both know from firsthand experience that the root of most crime is poverty and suffering.) So I don't think they'd necessarily want them slaying dragons or traveling to the Nine Hells or anything, but I think they're probably aware that their kids will both need and want to go off on their own eventually, so they'll give them the tools to defend themselves and encourage them to do so responsibly.

Now I feel fairly confident we'll find this out one way or another when the short story anthology comes out in March, but I have my guesses!

Vesper: She could go a lot of different ways! Based on 3x112, where she's seen with a bow over her shoulder and telling Vex she's going to bring back a few more rabbits, she's a hunter in some capacity. Taliesin mentions that she's going to be taking Cassandra's place politically and Cassandra is a Fighter, which raises the potential that Cass and Vesper have a close relationship; to me it's between a Ranger or a Fighter. My guess? Probably a Hunter Ranger, just based on what we saw in C3, although personally I'd love it if she was a Fighter/Rogue like her aunt.*

Wolfe and Leona: We saw them in 3x36 coming back from a hunt with Vex, bickering about who caught more, and Leona claims Wolfe is terrible at it "every time", so it's safe to say they regularly learn hunting from Vex. When Vox Machina leaves Whitestone in 3x112, Vex specifically asks Leona to keep an eye on Gwendolyn and not to let her follow, and we know from 3x36 and 3x76 that Gwendolyn is particularly sneaky, so Leona is probably in turn particularly perceptive. That doesn't necessarily mean Wolfe is not, though; Matt notes that out of all the children, both Wolfe and Leona are the ones who seem to most understand the gravity of the situation. So all that to say, they're the ones I think are the most likely to be some distribution of Ranger/Rogue, probably Hunter or Monster Slayer and Scout, combining the best of their mother and what she learned from Vax (maybe with some lessons from Aunt Cass on the side). They're the ones likely to properly join the Grey Hunt.

Vax'ildan: Freddy's a bit of a wild card here, because the only things we know about him so far are that he's an outrageous little shit and that he's close with Trinket's cub Charlie. I've enjoyed the headcanon that he's close to his Aunt Keyleth and is learning to become a Druid because of it, but I think that holds less water as of 3x112, where neither he nor Keyleth really react to each other. He doesn't appear to be particularly sneaky, either, so I'd rule out Rogue. We do learn in 3x112 that he was on a bit of a holiday with some friends nearby, and between that, the attitude, and being the fourth of five children, we can reasonably infer that he doesn't have a lot of responsibilities and that he's mostly just a sociable teenage boy, so he probably isn't worried about optimizing a skillset (read: being a little munchkin like Dad). With all of that in mind, my guess is he's a Beastmaster Ranger who, if he were to be a proper adventurer, would be more of a laid-back sandbox kinda guy.

Gwendolyn: Rogue. At a young age, she's sneaky in a way that only Orym can detect. According to Taliesin, Percy and Gwen have a game they play every time strangers visit the castle where she has to find out three things about them that they haven't spoken aloud and then report back to him. Vex tells Leona to keep an eye on Gwen and to not let her follow them. She also doesn't seem to have much interest in the outdoors, which would rule out a Ranger multiclass (she knows who Galdric is, but he's also the protector of the city and there's a gate named after him). @rightpastnowhere and @snowthelostgirl have both suggested Arcane Trickster, which I personally really like and would pair well with her Thaumaturgy, but it's also possible she's Inquisitive or Mastermind, given the aforementioned secrets game and that Vex switched to the Inquisitive subclass as well.

*I do, however, have a soft spot for Nova's headcanon that Vesper is actually a Divine Soul Sorcerer.

[beautiful-basque-country]

Y'know, I think so often of how Spain is this hotpot of multicultural existences throughout history and how utterly fucking insane it is to homogenize it all as "Spanish" when we could be like. Idk. Celebrating how cool and diverse we are. When I was a kid in the south we had a day in school to talk about the different places we all came from, and it's like, IMBEDDED in my brain when a nun and my mom were talking and how my mom said, "Learning a language is never useless. Every language has a value, because every culture has value." It fucking stuck with me.

Saying that euskera or any other language in the peninsula is a Spanish dialect to me feels like fucking cultural genocide at this point.

Kaixo and eskerrik asko for your message! 🧡

Totally agree. Your mother's attitude is a treasure! Sadly in Spain there are many people that don't share her point of view at all and can only respect the people that are, talk, and vote like them.

Spanish nationalists - call it righties or far righties, they're the same - truly believe that Spain and their idea of Spain and Spanishness belong to them. They've kidnapped the anthem and the flag, for example, and I'm sure there are many Spanish lefties who would like to show their support and pride to their homeland, but we all know what wearing a wristband with the Spanish flag or having a Spanish flag on the balcony means. They're theirs. And the government should be theirs, too, that's why they keep on asking to repeat the elections, because they didn't turn out as they wanted to.

And inside their idea of Spain and Spanishness, the usual suspects: just Spanish - with no accent, please, don't be a hillbilly - no dialects or any other language, ffs, a true Spaniard just speaks Spanish and if you don't, you're attacking Spaniards and their culture. Even no Spanish nationalist leader speaks English, because they're SPANIARDS. Male white Spaniards, btw. As Primo de Rivera used to say, Spanish nationalism "is a movement of men". There's a loooot of sexism and homophobia and transphobia in their roots even now. Put God first, but don't touch the Church. And it goes on and on. Just Francoism 2.0, where they want to reach the political elite to benefit from million-euro contracts, commissions, money diversion, etc etc. Let's be honest, most of them don't even believe in what they preach, just want to be put where the money is and start grabbing it.

Coming back to your ask, sorry, Spanish nationalism has always needed an enemy, and what a better enemy that somebody that doesn't speak like they do? Here we come the Basques, and when they got bored of us and couldn't get many votes out of selling how bad we all were, they turned to the Catalans.

Now the Catalan tale seems not very profitable, they side with Israel and call the rest antisemitic.

Tomorrow who knows who the new enemy of Spain and Spanishness will be.

[louthestarspeaker]

[ID: A collection of six images of Jurassic World: Chaos Theory promo material. The images are in the style of a magazine, with a cover and interviews from each of the Nublar Six, minus Brooklynn.

The cover has all of the Nublar Six lined up on the docks in Costa Rica, just after they made it back to the mainland. Yaz and Sammy are holding hands, Kenji has a hand on Brooklynn's shoulder. All the kids are smiling nicely, with the exception of Darius whose smile is kind of awkward and looks a little uncomfortable on camera. The title of the magazine, The Dino Times, is splashed across the top of the page. Just below it is the subtitle "Who are the Nublar Six?". Below the photo of the campers is text that reads, "Meet the miraculous survivors of the Jurassic World catastrophe in this exclusive, celebrating the anniversary of their return."

Each of the interviews has a picture of each of the Nublar Six as a young adult, their name printed large, and a little logo for The Dino Times in the corner. A transcript of the text of each interview reads as folllows:

Darius: Dino Nerd Turned Hero

Darius Bowman never would've expected a shy, nerdy kid from Oakland could become the leader of the Nublar survivors.

"Back at Camp Cretaceous I had to learn to trust myself and my friends to make it through. It was a terrifying experience, but what they were doing to those dinosaurs at that facility just wasn't right. Somebody had to do something."

Since his return, Bowman has traveled all over the country giving talks about dinosaur conservation, and has worked with the Department of Prehistoric Wildlife.

Ben: Brave Soul Against All Odds

Ben Pincus had perhaps the most dramatic metamorphosis as a result of his experiences at Nublar.

"I was terrified of pretty much everything," he said. "Germs. The dark. Non-organic snacks. And then all of a sudden we were up against actual dinosaurs."

Luckily, Pincus found an unlikely ally in a baby Ankylosaurus he named Bumpy.

"Bumpy is my best friend. She helped me face my fears and see how much I had to contribute to the group."

We'll have to see if the campus office can make an exception for Bumpy as Ben gets ready for college in the fall.

Sammy: Cattle Rancher, Dino Wrangler

Sammy Gutierrez lived with her parents on a Texas ranch before Camp Cretaceous. Ever the optimist she remarked, "At least I was already used to big animals before that whole fiasco! There;s really not much difference between a longhorn and a Triceratops if you think about it."

Back at home, Gutierrez maintained that positive attitude by staying busy.

"I have my own ranch, now. And my girlfriend, Yaz. And tons of pies to bake! We don't have time to keep worrying about all that running for our lives stuff!"

Yaz: A Track Star and Her Team

Yasmina Fadoula went from national track star to Nublar Six survivor in the span of months, and the aftermath hit her particularly hard.

"I wasn't used to feeling helpless. Before, I would just push through to the finish line no matter what. Nublar made me realize you can't win all your races alone."

She credits her relationship with fellow survivor Sammy Gutierrez as a major source of support.

"I've been going through a lot of anxiety since coming back, and Sammy's been there constantly. I want to show her I can be the strong person she sees in me."

Kenji: Cool Kid Finds New Family

Kenji Kon has declined to comment on his father's incarceration.

"All that matters is my new family. They're the ones who always had my back."

The Nublar Six have been instrumental in Kenji's return to normal life, from his relationship with Brooklynn, to his best friend Darius.

"All I wanna do is chill, you know? I've moved out somewhere peaceful. Started my climbing school. All is good in Casa de Kenji."

End Transcript. The page of Kenji's interview has a ragged edge, like the page next to it has been torn out. There is no interview for Brooklynn. End ID]

[ouipay]

Comment prendre la meilleure décision pour son business ? - L’édito de Ouipay.fr

Quelle couleur choisir pour mon logo ? À quel moment dois-je lancer mon offre ? Est-ce que je peux faire confiance à cette personne ? Est-ce que je travaille de chez moi ou d’un espace de coworking ? Quel tapis de souris est le plus ergonomique ? Bref, vous le savez autant que moi, quand on monte son business, une foule de questions nous traversent la tête. Pourtant, elles n’ont pas toutes la même urgence.

Pour vous aider à y voir plus clair et à avoir une prise de décision efficace, Ouipay.fr l’expert anti-crash de votre business vous invite à lire la suite de cet article. Les prochaines lignes vous aideront à prendre des décisions rationnelles et à éviter les pièges et pensées qui peuvent avoir une influence dans votre processus décisionnel.

En savoir plus

[scarlettaagni]

Original Zs’skayr

The original Zs’skayr was a cruel High Ecto Lord on Anur Phaetos. Enforcing his need for total control across its globe, handsomely rewarding his sycophants, and siccing his thralls onto dissenters.

At least until his tyrannical influence had begun intruding onto other planets, which caused the disparate populaces, collectively outnumbering his loyalists, to rise up and depose him. In a show of mercy he would never have afforded them if the roles were reversed, they banished a notably un-dismantled Zs’skayr instead of destroying him.

His own homeworld had forsaken him, and no place in Anur proper would have him. Few citizens of Anur had left the system, him included. The safest place he knew was remaining adrift in the vast expanse between planets and moons.

With no one to abuse or deflect to, having nothing left to his name, the cold vacuum of space gave him no choice but to begin introspection.

Zs’skayr lost the will to fight for his throne, as well as his hunger for power. There was little left to feel but shame.

With a new purpose in mind, he would explore the galaxy outside of his native system. In the face of his narrow-mindedness, Zs’skayr replaced his thirst for power with one for knowledge, and broaden his horizons.

To learn about the people and worlds outside Anur as well as he did the ones inside, he possessed various beings to explore.

A not insignificant amount took it poorly, such as on Vrykola—

They could’ve used their tools right then or come back with a mob holding pitchforks and torches, so he just counted his lucky stars and more discreetly picked a different host.

Most worlds were just confused, though.

A precious few took it well, like Aldabra—

The Geochelone Aerios were pleasantly surprised to meet an outsider who wished to learn and understand as much as they did, and they had a lot to discuss with him on autonomy and free will, as well as pacifism and de-escalation. Zs’skayr had much impromptu therapy there.

Some were even receptive to him outside of a more familiar host, or even outside of his (what he would come to recognize as appearing “less-threatening”) sun shade. In fact, the royal elect of the Chimeran Empire insisted on it.

That was mainly so it was easier for them and the snipers stationed around the capital to destroy Zs’skayr if he made a move they didn’t like.

Aside from the dawning realization he had just unintentionally threatened an imperialistic military state in front of its leader, the tour he received was enjoyable. They did not make mention of Vilgax.

It was strange, because he had heard developing stories of Vilgax’s conquests and reigns of terror upon other worlds. Maybe it wasn’t so strange the Chimerans didn’t acknowledge this sensitive, worsening stain on their history.

Considering what he and Vilgax had in common, Zs’skayr thought that his kind may have adopted a similar attitude about him. He ultimately would prefer for truth to prevail above all, including information embargos/taboos for the sake of his or anyone’s comfort.

Tales of the Omnitrix’s development similarly spread throughout the galaxy, in hushed whispers, and on his travels, Zs’skayr heard nothing but its prospects as the ultimate weapon.

He was none too pleased, already being surrounded with violence and advancing weapons. It seemed to be all talk and no bite, however. Equal in frequency of stories about the Omnitrix were the ones debunking its existence. It never turned up within Zs’skayr’s vicinity, anyways.

He helped others,

and he was helped by others.

Eventually, Zs’skayr had learned all he wished to, talked to more people than most do in their lifetimes. He was homesick, but knew no good would come from trying to return to Phaetos.

Still wishing to be close, he found a habitable rock on the outskirts of the Anur system, far from Phaetos and made a home.

Since then, Zs’skayr had lived a quiet, humble life in isolation. Built up a cottage, sewed furniture, cultivated a garden in the gnarled wilds that managed to sprout on this rock.

He didn’t feel he deserved to live with his people again, and he didn’t deserve an update on how they were doing, however they decided to govern themselves in his absence. Whether it was good or bad, it wasn’t his business anymore, and they wouldn’t want to be bothered. He respects their wish.

He writes (working on a journal of his travels), he gardens, he goes out for walks and floats, he sleeps, he’s become a tea-fiend, even leaving his rock to the nearest nebula to collect stardust for flavoring. Just a place to wait out his days in peace, hurting no one, retired from social interaction.

At least until an outsider entering the Anur system noticed the clearly inhabited rock and landed to explore. Though painfully shy, Zs’skayr politely greeted her and asked what she wanted, balking at the mention of contributing to the Omnitrix’s creation. As far as he was concerned, it was some superweapon that probably didn’t actually exist, and if it did, he wanted no part in it.

Myaxx gave Zs’skayr the boilerplate explanation of the Omnitrix project her boss Azmuth wrote out for her to read out to all potential donors.

The Omnitrix is a device, not a weapon, that allows its user to become another species. The wielder would become a symbol of galactic unity among its denizens, and to help them grow closer together. It pulls from a catalogue of DNA samples volunteered by willing members of their species. Would Zs’skayr do the favor and, on their behalf, volunteer for the Ectonurites?

The idea of someone who could step into another being’s shoes, or rather, assume the guise of another species to bridge the gap was personal to him. It was a radical, ethical, almost impossibly ideal version of what he had done across the galaxy to understand others better.

Zs’skayr could somehow contribute to the healing of entire worlds and systems. It was something he would have declined earlier in his life, and even doubted he could do now.

Moved by this, he agreed to be the Ectonurite donor for the Omnitrix and tore off a shred of his tentacle for her.

Unfortunately, a grave miscommunication neither realized had occurred. Zs’skayr knew that the sample had a copy of his consciousness on it, but believed that an Ectonurite was only being asked for a DNA sample because the Omnitrix project knew and had a way of correcting it.

Anur’s species are quite insular, rarely leaving or allowing outsiders, and as such, details of their anatomy are not common knowledge to them. Simply put, Myaxx didn’t know to ask, and Zs’skayr didn’t think to tell her.

The now original Zs’skayr then continued his isolation on the edge of Anur, secure in the knowledge that he, at last, could make a net positive impact.

He’d be proud to know of the difference Ben made with him, for the short while he could.

[indelen]

This is my reread of the Lockwood and Co. Books, organized by @blue-boxes-magic-and-tea , I'll make a general summary of several chapters and then post bits and pieces that jumped out at me.

Part I - Chapters 1-4

The Whispering Skull - while it does properly introduce my beloved murder sewer rat boy - is George’s book. It explores his character, his flaws and faults and his extraordinary skills and talents. We see a lot more into his past, his history with Fittes, his attitudes and world view and not all of it is good. George, as told by Lucy, is an interesting character - a lot of what Lucy finds objectionable about him is filtered through her highly biased lens. Many of the things Lucy dislikes about George is surface stuff, a mix of shallow teenage meanness and insecure projection (Lucy is VERY self conscious and insecure and to mask this she takes it out on basically everyone around her who is not Lockwood) but there are things about George that are true flaws. He’s single minded and obsessive, he is insensitive and shows least empathy of the three. He also picks fights and arguments honestly a shocking number of times. We saw this in The Screaming Staircase, where he easily snapped back at Kipps, but also slagged off someone like Barnes when really the more wise thing to do would have been to keep quiet. Combined with all this you really do see that living with George would be very trying day to day, he’s a good kid and a loyal friend but he has that abrasiveness that comes from being right a lot from a very young age. And I like that the books both show it is important to have self worth but also that George needs a dose of self awareness no less than Lockwood or Lucy sometimes.

Odds and Ends:

Importantly, the book starts with George making a mistake. Because while he is smart and he is dedicated and thorough - no one is perfect. Sometimes people make the wrong call. The Screaming Staircase showed George being right most of the time, but The Whispering Skull shows just how bad things can go when someone as smart as him makes an error in judgment.

The books consistently and often in small subtle ways show that Lockwood is a good leader. He trains with Lucy, trusts and believes in her evident strengths but also helps, guides and encourages her in areas where her training shows gaps. Lucy’s not a great fencer at the start, likely only having ever been shown the very basics by Jacobs, Lockwood works hard with her to get her to improve without hounding her about it. He’s shown to keep cool in moments of panic and doesn't waste time assigning blame. Lucy is definitely besotted with him and her impressions of him are filtered through that lens but you definitely get the sense that Lockwood is good when it matters.

This is an interesting book-to-show change. In the books it’s George who originally proposes a competition between the agencies and goads Kipps, not Lockwood. Lockwood actually tries to de-escalate at first but gets caught up in the competition. In the show it’s Lockwood’s recklessness alone that leads to the bet and both Lucy and George are equally appalled by it. Lockwood may be reckless but so is Geroge, it just manifests in a different way. George regularly needles people and because he is very perceptive he can really get under someone’s skin. It’s all childish bickering for now, but of course if you prod the wrong person it can get dangerous…

That said Lockwood is amazingly bitchy too. And this sort of sass is also cutting, just in a different way. He’s saying the same thing George is saying, just more subtly - “look at you, big man, ordering tiny children under ten around. That's not for me.”

In the Screaming Staircase Lockwood tells Lucy that the agency has been registered only about three months when the books start and that previous to this Geroge was with Fittes for around six months. George is implied to be around Lockwood’s age (or maybe even older, though if so, not by much). That means that Fittes did not select George and indoctrinate him into their system in early childhood as they did with poor “maybe eight” (EIGHT!!) year old Gladys or age-ten-at-best Bobby. Bobby, despite barely in the double digits, has clearly been with Fittes for some time, he’s probably on his way to getting Grade Three here (he doesn't have a rapier in this scene, but will soon). These kids are incredibly young and impressionable and already are in the field. They’re in awe and have a massive hero worship of their supervisor because he’s functionally the only adult that takes care of them on a daily basis and they latch on to him and take cues from his behavior. Because they are children. Meanwhile, George had a normal upbringing with his family, in the book he is an only child, he likely received a decent education, excelled, took an interest in the Problem and only then, age maybe 13-14 or so, got a job with Fittes. And that heathy, relatively normal, supportive upbringing gave him a substantial amount of self worth and clarity. This was not a kid who would latch on to any adult provided to him, he has caring parents, he has a life outside being an agent. He immediately saw through the Fittes lies and indoctrination since he had no devotion to the agency to cloud his judgment. He didn’t owe them anything and Fittes didn’t like that. This really shows that as an agency Fittes doesn't want just any Talent, they want Talent in specific kinds of damaged and vulnerable kids that are easy to mold and manipulate.

This is where things get dicey. Lucy is correct. Even setting aside the ethical questions for a moment, constantly conducting the same experiment with effectively the same type of negative stimuli and hoping for a different response is flawed methodology. This is classic STEM tunnel vision - having a hypothesis, conducting an experiment, not seeing data you want and rather than re-evaluating your hypothesis, digging in your heels and repeating the same experiments over and over trying to get results that support your ideas. This is the first we see of George’s obsessiveness and self assured nature being a detriment, it’s actively working against him but he dosen’t realize it yet.

And this is where the ethical questions we set aside before, return. The ethics of conducting experiments with Visitors are so, SO dicey. All sorts of things are called into question here. When does a person stop being a person? It can’t be that it’s simply at death, because if it was the case we would not have a history of funerary rites going back to before Homo Sapiens. If we view the dead as still human and deserving of dignity, are Visitors not entitled to at least some of the same courtesy? The idea of performing medical experimentation on a body without some kind of consent or permission is considered unethical and what is Geroge (and … others) doing but basically that? And yet this does not bother him, in part because of that scientific tunnel vision. He wants to know the answers and to him everything else is secondary. But in part also because of how desensitized to death and irreverent to human remains this society has become. Any once alive human being has become nothing but 206 potential issues and problems. Grief is lost and made small by a million bureaucratic failsafes that make any life ending a bother.

Another interesting change between the books and the TV show - in the books the boys never for a moment doubt Lucy when she tells them The Skull spoke to her. This is even before Lockwood senses the conversation taking place (though he cannot hear it) so this was on her word alone and neither batted an eye at it. I get why they changed it for the show, which needs more stakes episode to episode but I dunno it’s kinda sweet these two never questioned Lucy. And I think, after being so dismissed and disregarded by Jacobs, it must have meant a lot to her to have her testimony be trusted so implicitly.

Girl…Come on.

The contrast between George knowing immediately Lucy is attracted to Lockwood and Lucy herself having no idea is so funny, but it also goes back to that emotional awareness George has that Lucy simply does not because she was not raised in a well adjusted enough environment. Where would Lucy even see boys and girls interact in a normal and healthy manner? Where would she see a couple showing affection for one another? She doesn't recognize in herself what she never saw in others.

Once again what bothers Lucy is the power imbalance, she opened up to Lockwood and he was sympathetic but there was no reciprocity. And this bothers Lucy although she can’t explain why, she dosen’t recognize what her attempts to reach out to Lockwood emotionally mean. Why, although the secret is obviously a curiosity to George, he’s not as bothered by the room as she is. He’d friends with Lockwood but he’s not attracted to him. He’s not looking for the kinds of emotional connection Lucy is.

Lucy describes Lockwood Smile counter: 1

[cosmicjoke]

i have a trouble characterizing furlan in my head i cant seem to understand what he is like

Well, Furlan's a very interesting character, and complex, I think, so I can see why it would be hard to fit him into any, one box.

Just the fact he's Levi's first, real friend says a lot though. I imagine most people probably never gave Levi a chance, really, to become their friend. They would have taken one look at him, at his seemingly surely, unfriendly attitude, his unsociable demeanor, and probably been turned off. And doubtless Levi's reputation proceeded him. Most people probably thought he was too dangerous to get near. But Furlan wasn't really afraid of Levi, which is very interesting. He knew Levi was strong, as evidenced by the fact that he tried to force Levi into joining his gang. But the fact he even took that chance tells us Furlan wasn't scared enough of Levi and his strength to steer clear of him, like I imagine most people were.

It's important to understand too that Furlan's initial interaction with Levi was an attempt to manipulate and use him. He essentially saw Levi as a mark, as someone he could press into his own service to bolster his gang's standing Underground. Of course, his plan failed miserably, and I think the fact that Levi didn't fall for it was probably a bit of a shock to Furlan. Furlan strikes me as the sort of person who was maybe a little cocky, a little arrogant, because he was used to being able to get people to do what he wanted with words alone. He was used to being able to manipulate others. But Levi saw right through him, and I think that probably forced Furlan to start respecting Levi a little more, and to start regarding him more as a person than as simply a weapon he could utilize. Maybe he initially thought Levi was just a dumb thug that he could easily control. But of course we know Levi is anything but stupid.

We also know that Levi saved Furlan's life at some point. We don't have any real detail on it, other than Furlan mentioning that his own gang turned against him, and Levi rescued him. I kind of imagine, from that one line, that, after trying to lay a trap for him, Levi had been paying attention to Furlan and his movements, keeping an eye on him, and that's how he was able to intervene and save Furlan's life. Maybe Levi was impressed by this kid's guts, by his willingness to engage with Levi at all. Like I said, I doubt many other people, if any at all, had been willing to even give Levi the time of day. Furlan, whether he realized it or not, was probably the first person to ever, really treat Levi like he wasn't some kind of unapproachable monster. And by doing so, he was maybe the first person since Kuchel died to ever treat Levi like a person. All Levi needed was a chance to be someone's friend, and we see where that lead. Furlan became like family to Levi. He became someone Levi was willing to do just about anything for, including going along with his wild plans.

What I get from the dynamic between Levi and Furlan is that Levi, essentially, lets Furlan use him. He acts as the muscle to Furlan's plans. He lets Furlan make the decisions, etc... Even as Furlan and Isabel sort of see Levi as their de facto leader, and Levi indeed leads them when it comes to immediate action, like what to do and where to go in the midst of a heist, for example, we never actually see Levi give out any sort of dictates or put his foot down and tell Furlan no. He seems to leave all of the scheming up to Furlan, and whatever those plans are that he comes up with, Levi is just there to execute them. When Erwin makes his offer to Levi to join the SC, we see Levi look over at Furlan, as if for confirmation of what his answer should be. He leaves the decision to him.

We see this same dynamic develop between Levi and Erwin later on, of course. And this isn't a statement on Levi's submissiveness as a character, as I'm sure some people like to frame it. What it is, I think, is a testament to Levi's selflessness and his commitment to others. He puts his own wants and needs aside for the sake of other people's wants and needs. Levi isn't interested in telling people what to do, or in controlling them. He isn't interested in power. He just wants to help people, and he does that by letting people use him for whatever it is they need him for.

Levi doesn't want to accept Lovof's offer of going to the surface, for example. He's got a bad feeling about it, and doesn't trust Lovof or the situation. But Furlan wants to go to the surface. We know it's something he's been trying to accomplish for a long time. It's his dream. And Levi has always been somebody who, while having no real dream of his own, supports the dreams of others. So Levi goes along with his plan of accepting Lovof's offer and joining the Survey Corps. He agrees to help, even as it's something he himself doesn't particularly want.

I also tend to think Furlan is a bit reckless, and Levi kind of serves as the person who gets him out of binds when things go south. That Furlan's own gang turned on him and he needed to be rescued is part of what makes me think that about him. And the fact he wants to go along with Lovof's offer, despite the obvious risks, is another reason. Levi strikes me as the practical one in their relationship, while Furlan strikes me as the one who might go off half-cocked on a hope and prayer, lol. I think, oddly, he's maybe the wild one of the group. Not that he's stupid. Far from it. Furlan is obviously quite intelligent. But like I said, maybe a little reckless and a risk taker. I think Levi would have been much more content to just keep his little family safe in an environment that he knew and understood, one he could keep them protected from, awful as that environment was, rather than take the risk of going some place he knew nothing about, with threats he couldn't predict or anticipate.

Basically, I think Furlan was the dreamer of their little group, and Levi was there to protect him, as well as Isabel, and to protect those dreams.

Once someone gave Levi the chance to be that for them, to be a protector, he took it. Because that's what Levi naturally is. That's who he's always been. Someone who helps and supports others. And I think Furlan was probably the first real person to allow Levi to be that, the first person that let Levi be who he actually is.

[rocksibblingsau]

¿como se sienten los lideres de AV durante y después de que Branch perdiera y recuperada sus recuerdos? Quiero decir, seguro llegaron a encariñarse por lo menos un poco de este Troll que no solo respetaba su musica y el echo de que eran muy diferentes a el (a diferencia de cierta Reina del Pop) si no que también amaba y disfrutaba su musica y dichas diferencias genuinamente, solo para que lo perdieran tan rápido como apareció cuando perdieron su confianza y ahora se niega a tan siquiera mirarlos.

Translation:

How do the AV leaders feel during and after Branch lost and regained his memories? I mean, they surely grew at least a little fond of this Troll who not only respected their music and the fact that they were very different from him (unlike a certain Queen of Pop) but also loved and enjoyed their music and said differences genuinely, only for them to lose it as quickly as it appeared when they lost his trust and now he refuses to even look at them.

During the time he's an amnesiac there's a bit of caution at first but they all quickly grow to love Branch. He's kind, thoughtful and values them in ways they never thought a Pop Troll could. They're astounded that Branch likes their music for what it is, but it pains them to know this isn't who he is. Or at least, that's what they think. True he's not the smiles, the sunshine attitude and the emotionally open Troll he seems to be, but his care and his opinions on their music are real.

There's a deep loss after he regains his memories. It feels a bit awful to say, but they're mourning a troll who never existed. AV Branch was their friend, and they grew to love him and his quirks.

Then, from afar, they see that he never really stopped existing, and they hurt even more because they ruined that friendship. AV Branch was everything they could have had, but one day when the hurt fades, Branch offers them a second chance to get to know the real him.

If they'll have him.