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shady-scripter · 4 months ago

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Forged by Sacrifice

One thing that the Hero of Warriors would always know is sacrifice. The day his mother gave birth to him and his sister, she made a sacrifice. His father never let them forget that. So much so that they both ran away to the military. The world threw sacrifice in his face since the day he was born. And he would know it even now.

His leg bounced, but it wasn’t like he could stop it. Blood still stained the Veteran’s bandages. No matter how much he’s heard, “it wasn’t your fault” the Captain knew that he would never believe it.

He dropped his guard for only a second, he would swear. A bomb arrow went off on the field. He told Wild not to use them in forests, but when he turned to shout, a sword burst through the smoke. Warriors had felt his breath leave his lungs as he knew that there was no time to dodge. His head would be taken off.

He was shoved to the ground so suddenly, but he saw that red tunic and light blue hat. He was standing so still with the beast’s sword through his stomach. The Captain wanted to scream, but his throat closed up. The lynel pulled his sword back, Legend stumbled forward.

“Aw shit,” the Veteran mumbled just loud enough for Warriors to hear. The boy’s body began to tip back and Warriors was finally able to move. He caught Legend before he hit the ground.

“Traveller!” He shouted. He remembered the field! He was in the field! This hesitation could get someone killed!

”I’m trying!” Hyrule cut another monster down, but more blocked his path.

“Is he well enough to swallow?” Warriors slightly jumped as Sky spoke, already on his knees, rummaging through his pack. Twilight and fire arrows rained down on the monsters. “Vet, you with me?”

“Unfortunately.” Legend croaked.

“Good.” Sky brought out a bright red bottle and shook it. He then popped the cork. Warriors lifted Legend’s head and the boy groaned. “I know, I know. You ready?” Legend slightly nodded. Sky slowly poured the potion into the Veteran’s mouth. He sputtered but then swallowed. Soon, the bottle was empty.

That was when Legend had passed out.

Now they were in Hateno in Wild’s house and Warriors was on Legend duty. The same scene played over and over. He looked over to where the Champion should’ve been, then he was pushed, then Legend was stabbed.

With every second that ticked by, his leg would bounce, begging time to go faster. For the Vet to heal faster.

He rummaged in his brain, looking for any other memory. Something, anything, to get his mind off of the near death of his friend, of his brother.

“Captain?” Warriors eyes snapped towards the steps. There, without armor and battle attire, was a tired Old Man.

“Hey.” Warriors looked back to Legend’s bandages that won’t be due for changing for another hour.

Time was at his side now, no doubt looking down at him. Warriors had never felt intimidated by his, still technical, little brother. But he did fear the day that his little brother left him.

What was he thinking? He knew just as well as Warriors that this was his fault. What would he say? Would he ask him what he learned and mock him? Would he lecture him about being more aware? Would he try once more and fail to tell him that it wasn’t his fault?

“Go rest.” Time placed a hand on the Captain’s back.

His eyebrows furrowed. “It’s still my turn.”

“You look exhausted. You’ve looked exhausted all day,” Time said in a tone that sounded like a dare. “Go rest.”

“Not tired.”

“Captain.”

“You heard me.” Time sighed, removing his hand from his brother’s back. Time opened his mouth, but Warriors talked first. “Don’t tell me it’s not my fault.”

Time’s mouth closed, then opened again. “What do you want me to say?” Time leaned down and sat on the carpet with an oof! and some bone cracks. He seem to smile at it.

“I want you to say the truth! I want you to lecture me on how dumb my actions were! Something, anything!”

Time hummed. “The events that took place all influenced each other, so it’s not one person’s fault. Wild shot the arrow which blinded a lot of us with the smoke, but he did it to alert us that there was a lynel coming. He had good intentions, but he did it the wrong way. You were going to tell him about forest fires or maybe the smoke screen, but the lynel was barely injured by the bombs and it was charging at you to begin with. The smoke screen obscured it, making you unaware that it was there. So that couldn’t possibly be your fault. And-“

“You-“

“I’m still talking,” Time put his hand up, the Captain shut his mouth. His vision started to become blurry and he looked down to his lap, praying Time hadn’t seen his tears start to form. “Legend wasn’t paired with anyone, just as you weren’t. He saw what was happening, he saw what he could do, and he acted. I wish he hadn’t used himself as a shield, but it is what it is. He’ll be okay. It’s really only a surface wound now thanks to Sky’s potion and the Traveler’s healing.” Time shrugged his shoulders. “There. That’s the truth.”

The Captain didn’t respond. Time stood. “Glad you decided to listen tonight. Go rest.” The Captain didn’t move. Time sighed, seeing Warriors grip his trousers with enough strength to rip them. He put his hand out to his brother. Warriors took it after waiting a few seconds. Time pulled him to his feet and yet, the Captain’s eyes hadn’t left the ground.

Time brought Warriors to his chest and wrapped his arms around his, technical, older brother. Over his shoulder, Legend didn’t move an inch. There was a deep seated worry in the Old Man, one he knew wouldn’t come to pass. But one thing he was sure of was, “I’m sure he’s been through worse. He’ll be okay.”

#the shady lad writes #linked universe #linkeduniverse #linked universe time #lu time #lu warriors #linked universe warriors #lu legend #linked universe legend

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justinspoliticalcorner · 5 months ago

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Dean Obeidallah at The Dean's Report:

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has done more for our veterans than Donald Trump, JD Vance, Tom Cotton, and all of Trump’s despicable enablers put together. Yet we’ve seen these people—led by Vance—smear Walz’s dedication to our country with lies like he “abandoned” his fellow National Guard members when they were about to serve in Iraq. In reality, Walz may have stopped serving in the National Guard in 2005, but he never stopped serving our nation and the women and men of our armed services. In an effort to correct the record, let’s start with the headline that should appear in corporate media. Tim Walz did go to a war zone in Iraq. He also went to a war zone in Afghanistan. If you are asking: “What am I talking about?!,” it’s because the sheep of the corporate media all tell the same story without challenging the lie fueling it. In his first term in Congress, Walz travelled to a war zone in Iraq as well as Afghanistan to speak to our troops and find out what more they needed in terms of support. As the headline of the Minnesota Tribune article from January 16, 2008 reads, “Walz visits war zones to study veterans' care system.”

Another local Minnesota paper wrote at the time, “Walz said the trip gave him a renewed sense of urgency to improve access to soldiers' medical records.” Walz—who is pictured in the article in both Iraq and Afghanistan speaking and dining with our troops—talked of the need to streamline databases so that active duty soldiers in these combat zones can get the care they need as well as making it easier for them to continue the care when back stateside.

Walz did not have to go, he chose to go to a war zone. In future years he would visit Syria and other places in the Middle East in times of tensions. From there, Walz would continue for his entire time in Congress--from 2007 until he was elected Governor in 2018--being a champion for the members of the military and our veterans. Walz co-chaired the National Guard and Reserves Caucus, ran leadership outreach roundtables for veterans service organizations, was applauded by veterans affairs groups for his work on the VA panel, especially for focusing on mental health care issues. One of Walz’s biggest legislative achievement in Congress was championing a bipartisan veterans’ suicide prevention legislation that became law in 2015. Through his work, Walz rose to become the ranking Democrat on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee and served multiple stints on the Armed Services Committee. Walz’s record of service to our nation, however, began well before running for Congress in 2006. Walz enlisted in the Nebraska National Guard on April 8, 1981, two days after his 17th birthday. Not long after, Walz was off to basic training in Georgia, on the first stop in a military career that would take him to Arkansas, Texas, the Arctic Circle and other places in the world. As Walz told a Minnesota radio station in 2018, "You go where you're told to go."

[...] Walz could’ve retired at the 20-year mark. In fact, he probably would’ve. But then came 9/11. That attack on our nation inspired him to re-enlist. In August 2003, Walz was deployed to Italy, Turkey, Belgium and Britain to support U.S. operations in Afghanistan under Operation Enduring Freedom--where he would remain for nearly 10 months. But his time in an artillery unit came at a cost to his health. The deafening booms and shock waves from howitzer barrels left Walz with hearing loss in both ears. In 2005, he underwent stapedectomy surgery to alleviate the problem-- a procedure in which damaged bones inside the ear are replaced with a prosthesis. That was the year he decided to retire at 41 years of age and after serving for 24 years in the National Guard. That is the American patriot JD Vance, Trump and their allies are smearing with lies. Obviously, Trump is man devoid of honor. His entire life has been in service of himself. When Trump had an opportunity to serve our nation in the military, he refused—instead choosing to fabricate the medical condition of bone spurs. As a reminder, in 2018 the daughters of a Queens foot doctor say their late father diagnosed Trump with bone spurs to help him avoid the Vietnam War draft as a “favor” to his father Fred Trump.

[...] When it comes to Vance, he did serve in the US Marines as a combat reporter from Sept. 2003 to Sept 2007. He didn’t re-enlist. Instead, he went to Yale law school. And while Walz was fighting for veterans in Congress, Vance was hobnobbing with tech billionaires in Silicon Valley—who would later bankroll his run for US Senate.

Dean Obeidallah has an excellent column spotlighting Tim Walz’s military service and how he actually supports the troops, compared to weirdo JD Vance.

#Tim Walz #J.D. Vance #US Military #National Guard #Nebraska National Guard #Minnesota National Guard

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mariacallous · 2 months ago

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As the United States nears its consequential November election, concerns about the impacts of artificial intelligence on the country’s electoral integrity are front and center. Voters are receiving deceptive phone calls mimicking candidates’ voices, and campaigns are using AI images in their ads. Many fear that highly targeted messaging could lead to suppressed voter turnout or false information about polling stations. These are legitimate concerns that public officials are working overtime to confront.

But free and fair elections, the building blocks of democratic representation, are only one dimension of democracy. Today, policymakers must also recognize an equally fundamental threat that advanced technologies pose to a free and open society: the suppression of civil rights and individual opportunity at the hands of opaque and unaccountable AI systems. Ungoverned, AI undermines democratic practice, norms, and the rule of law—fundamental commitments that underpin a robust liberal democracy—and opens pathways toward a new type of illiberalism. To reverse this drift, we must reverse the currents powering it.

Liberal societies are characterized by openness, transparency, and individual agency. But the design and deployment of powerful AI systems are the precise inverse.

In the United States, as in any country, those who control the airwaves, steer financial institutions, and command the military have long had a wide berth to make decisions that shape society. In the new century, another set of actors joins that list: the increasingly concentrated group of corporate players who control data, algorithms, and the processing infrastructure to make and use highly capable AI systems. But without the kind of robust oversight the government prescribes over other parts of the economy and the military, the systems these players produce lack transparency and public accountability.

The U.S. foreign-policy establishment has long voiced legitimate concerns about the use of technology by authoritarian regimes, such as China’s widespread surveillance, tracking, and control of its population through deep collusion between the state and corporations. Civil society, academics, and journalists have recognized the threat of those same tools being deployed to similar ends in the United States. At the same time, many of today’s AI systems are undermining the liberal character of American society: They run over civil rights and liberties and cause harm for which people cannot easily seek redress. They violate privacy, spread falsehoods, and obscure economic crimes such as price-fixing, fraud, and deception. And they are increasingly used—without an architecture of accountability—in institutions central to American life: the workplace, policing, the legal system, public services, schools, and hospitals.

All of this makes for a less democratic American society. In cities across the United States, people of color have been arrested and jailed after being misidentified by facial recognition tools. We’ve seen AI used in loan refinancing charge more to applicants who went to historically Black colleges. An AI program aimed at preventing suicide among veterans prioritizes white men and overlooks survivors of sexual violence, who are much more likely to be women. Hidden behind computer code, illegal and unfair treatment long banned under federal law is becoming harder to detect and to contest.

To global observers, the trendlines of AI in American society will look familiar; the worst harms of these systems mirror the tenets of what has been called “illiberal democracy.” Under that vision—championed most famously by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a darling of the U.S. right—a society “maintains the outward appearances of a democracy … but in fact seeks to undermine all the institutions and norms that give democracy meaning,” scholar Susan Rubin Suleiman wrote in 2021. This doesn’t have to look like canceling elections or dismantling a sitting legislative body; instead, the vision takes the form of a more subtle assault—foreclosing the ability of individuals and minority groups to assert their rights.

As powerful new AI products are born and come of age amid a growing political alliance between far-right ideologues and some of the most powerful leaders in the technology industry, these foundational threats to free society could accelerate. Elon Musk, amplifying alarmist narratives on migrants and dehumanizing language about women and LGBT people, has said he would serve in a potential second Trump administration. Elsewhere in Silicon Valley, a growing cadre of venture capitalists are boldly betting the house on Trump in the belief that their portfolios—brimming with crypto and AI bets—may be better off under a president who is unfazed by harms to the most vulnerable and who challenges the exercise of fundamental rights.

Simply studying these tools and their effects on society can prove difficult: Scientific research into these systems is dominated by profit-motivated private actors, the only people who have access to the largest and most powerful models. The systems in question are primarily closed-source and proprietary, meaning that external researcher access—a basic starting point for transparency—is blocked. Employees at AI companies have been forced to sign sweeping nondisclosure agreements, including those about product safety, or risk losing equity. All the while, executives suggest that understanding precisely how these systems make decisions, including in ways that affect people’s lives, is something of luxury, a dilemma to be addressed sometime in the future.

The real problem, of course, is that AI is being deployed now, without public accountability. No citizenry has elected these companies or their leaders. Yet executives helming today’s big AI firms have sought to assure the public that we should trust them. In February, at least 20 firms signed a pledge to flag AI-generated videos and take down content meant to mislead voters. Soon after, OpenAI and its largest investor, Microsoft, launched a $2 million Societal Resilience Fund focused on educating voters about AI. The companies point to this work as core to their missions, which imagine a world where AI “benefits all of humanity” or “helps people and society flourish.”

Tech companies have repeatedly promised to govern themselves for the public good—efforts that may begin with good intentions but fall apart under the pressure of a business case. Congress has had no shortage of opportunities over the last 15 years to step in to govern data-centric technologies in the public’s interest. But each time Washington has cracked open the door to meaningful technology governance, it has quickly slammed it shut. Federal policymakers have explored reactive and well-meaning but flawed efforts to assert governance in specific domains—for example, during moments of attention to teen mental health or election interference. But these efforts have faded as public attention moved elsewhere. Exposed in this story of false starts and political theatrics is the federal government’s default posture on technology: to react to crises but fail to address the root causes.

Even following well-reported revelations, such as the Cambridge Analytica scandal, no legislation has emerged to rein in the technology sector’s failure to build products that prioritize Americans’ security, safety, and rights—not to mention the integrity of U.S. democracy. The same story has unfolded in the doomed push to achieve data privacy laws, efforts that have stalled out in committee ad infinitum, leaving Americans without the basic protections for their personal information that are enjoyed by people living in 137 other countries.

The Biden-Harris administration decided to push harder, through initiatives we worked both directly and indirectly on. Even before ChatGPT vaulted AI to the center of the national discourse in November 2022, President Joe Biden’s White House released an AI Bill of Rights proposing five key assurances all Americans should be able to hold in an AI-powered world: that AI technologies are safe, fair, and protective of their privacy; that they are made aware when systems are being used to make decisions about them; and that they can opt out. The framework was a proactive, democratic vision for the use of advanced technology in American society.

The vision has proved durable. When generative AI hit the consumer market, driving both anxiety and excitement, Biden didn’t start from scratch but from a set of clear and affirmative first principles. Pulling from the 2022 document, his 2023 executive order on AI mandated a coordinated federal response to AI, using a “rights and safety” framework. New rules from the powerful Office of Management and Budget turned those principles into binding policy, requiring federal agencies to test AI systems for their impact on Americans’ rights and safety before they could be used. At the same time, federal enforcement agencies used their existing powers to enforce protections and combat violations in the digital environment. The Federal Trade Commission stepped up its enforcement of digital-era violations of well-established antitrust laws, putting AI companies on notice for potentially unfair and deceptive practices that harm consumers. Vice President Kamala Harris presided over the launch of a new AI Safety Institute, calling for a body that addressed a “full spectrum” of risks, including both longer-term speculative risks and current documented harms.

This was a consequential paradigm shift from America’s steady state of passive technology nongovernance—proof-positive that a more proactive approach was possible. Yet these steps face a range of structural limitations. One is capacity: Agencies across the federal government carrying out the work of AI governance will need staff with sociotechnical expertise to weigh the complex trade-offs of AI’s harms and opportunities.

Another challenge is the limited reach of executive action. Donald Trump has promised to repeal the AI executive order and gut the civil service tasked with its implementation. If his first term is any indication, a Republican administration would reinstate the deregulatory status quo. Such is the spirit of plans reportedly drawn up by Larry Kudlow, Trump’s former National Economic Council director, to create “industry-led” task forces, placing responsibility for assessing AI tools’ safety into the hands of the powerful industry players who design and sell them.

And Biden’s measures, for the most part, guide only the government’s own use of AI systems. This is a valuable and necessary step, as the behavior of agencies bears on the daily lives of Americans, particularly the most vulnerable. But the effects of executive actions on the private sector are circumscribed, related to pockets of executive authority such as government contracting, civil rights enforcement, or antitrust action. A president’s pen alone cannot create a robust or dynamic accountability infrastructure for the technology industry. Nor can we rely on agencies to hold the line; recent Supreme Court decisions—Loper Bright, Corner Post, and others—have weakened their authority to use their mandated powers to adapt to new developments.

This, of course, is the more fundamental shortcoming of Biden’s progress on AI and technology governance: It does not carry the force of legislation. Without an accompanying push in Congress to counter such proposed rollbacks with new law, the United States will continue to embrace a largely ungoverned, innovation-at-all-costs technology landscape, with disparate state laws as the primary bulwark—and will continue to see the drift of emerging technologies away from the norms of robust democratic practice.

Yet meaningful governance efforts may be dead on arrival in a Congress that continues to embrace the flawed argument that without carte blanche for companies to “move fast and break things,” the United States would be doomed to lose to China, on both economic and military fronts. Such an approach cedes the AI competition to China’s terms, playing on the field of Chinese human rights violations and widespread surveillance instead of the field of American values and democratic practice. It also surrenders the U.S. security edge, enabling systems that could break or fail at any moment because they were rushed to market in the name of great-power competition.

Pursuing meaningful AI governance is a choice. So is the decision, over decades, to leave powerful data-centric technologies ungoverned—a decision to allow an assault on the rights, freedoms, and opportunities of many in American society. There is another path.

Washington has the opportunity to build a new, enduring paradigm in which the governance of data-centric predictive technologies, as well as the industry that creates them, is a core component of a robust U.S. democracy.

We must waste no time reaffirming that the protections afforded by previous generations of laws also apply to emerging technology. For the executive branch, this will require a landmark effort to ensure protections are robustly enforced in the digital sphere, expanding enforcement capacity in federal agencies with civil rights offices and enforcement mandates and keeping up the antitrust drumbeat that has put anti-competitive actors on notice.

The most consequential responsibility for AI governance, though, rests with Congress. Across the country, states are moving to pass laws on AI, many of which will contradict one another and form an overlapping legal tangle. Federal lawmakers should act in the tradition of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, issuing blanket protections for all Americans. At a minimum, this should include a new liability regime and guarantee protection from algorithmic discrimination; mandate pre- and post-deployment testing, transparency, and explainability of AI systems; and a requirement for developers of AI systems to uphold a duty of care, with the responsibility to ensure that systems are safe and effective.

These AI systems are powered by data, so such a bill should be accompanied by comprehensive data privacy protections, including a robust embrace of data minimization, barring companies from using personal information collected for one purpose in order to achieve an unrelated end.

While only a start, these steps to protect democratic practice in the age of AI would herald the end of America’s permissive approach to the technology sector’s harms and mark the beginning of a new democratic paradigm. They should be followed forcefully by a separate but complementary project: ensuring that individuals and communities participate in deciding how AI is used in their lives—and how it is not. Most critically, more workers—once called America’s “arsenal of democracy”—must organize and wield their collective power to bargain over whether, when, and how technologies are used in the workplace.

Such protections must also extend beyond the workplace into other areas of daily life where technology is used to shape important decisions. At a moment of weakening democratic norms, we need a new, concerted campaign to ease the path for anyone to challenge unfair decisions made about them by ungoverned AI systems or opt out of AI systems’ use altogether. This must include a private right of action for ordinary people who can show that AI has been used to break the law or violate their rights. We must also open additional pathways to individual and collective contestation, including robust, well-resourced networks of legal aid centers trained in representing low-income clients experiencing algorithmic harms.

We can bring many more people into the process of deciding what kinds of problems powerful AI systems are used to solve, from the way we allocate capital to the way we conduct AI research and development. Closing this gap requires allowing people across society to use AI for issues that matter to them and their communities. The federal government’s program to scale up access to public research, computing power, and data infrastructure is still only a pilot, and Congress has proposed to fund it at only $2.6 billion in its first six years. To grasp that number’s insufficiency, one needed only to listen to Google’s spring earnings call, where investors heard that the tech giant planned to spend about $12 billion on AI development per quarter. Next, the U.S. government should invest in the human and tech infrastructures of “public AI,” to provide both a sandbox for applied innovation in the public interest and a countervailing force to the concentration of economic and agenda-setting power in the AI industry.

These are some of the measures the United States can undertake to govern these new technologies. Even in an administration that broadly supports these goals, however, none of this will be possible or politically viable without a change in the overall balance of power. A broad-based, well-funded, and well-organized political movement on technology policy issues is needed to dramatically expand the coalition of people interested and invested in technology governance in the United States.

Ushering in these reforms begins with telling different stories to help people recognize their stake in these issues and understand that AI tools directly impact their access to quality housing, education, health care, and economic opportunity. This awareness must ultimately translate to pressure on lawmakers, a tool those standing in the way of a democratic vision for AI use to great effect. Musk is reportedly bankrolling a pro-Trump super PAC to the tune of tens of millions per month. Andreessen Horowitz, the venture firm led by anti-regulation founders, increased its lobbying budget between the first and second quarter of this year by 135 percent. Not only are the big corporate tech players spending millions of dollars on lobbying per quarter, but each is also running a political operation, spending big money to elect political candidates who will look after their interests.

The academic, research, and civil society actors whose work has helped change the tech policy landscape have succeeded in building strong policy and research strategies. Now is the time to venture further into the political battlefield and prepare the next generation of researchers, policy experts, and advocates to take up the baton. This will require new tools, such as base-building efforts with groups across the country that can help tie technology governance to popular public issues, and generational investments in political action committees and lobbying. This shift in strategy will require new, significant money; philanthropic funders who have traditionally backed research and nonprofit advocacy will need to also embrace an explicitly political toolkit.

The public interest technology movement urgently needs a political architecture that can at last impose a political cost on lawmakers who allow the illiberal shift of technology companies to proceed unabated. In the age of AI, the viability of efforts to protect democratic representation, practice, and norms may well hinge on the force with which non-industry players choose to fund and build political power—and leverage it.

A choice confronts the United States as we face down AI’s threats to democratic practice, representation, and norms. We can default to passivity, or we can use these instruments to shape a free society for the modern era. The decision is ours to make.

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blindaysblogforturtles · 1 year ago

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Remnants of a Family - "High School/Normal lives" AU

The Hamato Family.

Leo, Mikey, Raph, Donnie, sons of the notorious olympic champion and renowed martial artist Hamato Yoshi.

Mikey is into music, art, and everything colors and emotions involved. Aspires to become an actor and a teacher. He is a social butterfly and is widely popular because he never seems to judge anyone for anything.

Donnie is the math-science-tech genius, straight A's, but allergic to sports and crowds - even though he is good at martial arts because of his father. Aspires to create his own tech empire and leave his mark with his revolutionary ideas. Is driven by passion and spite.

Raph likes fighting. Box, street fighting, roughousing. Doesn't care about school as much, but keeps his grades afloat to avoid Yoshi's nagging. Doesn't always work. Secretly very much into gardening. Wants to open his own flowershop.

Leo is a martial arts prodigy, perfectionist, focused on following Yoshi's footsteps. Popularly reffered to as Yoshi Jr.

Yoshi strives for perfection and expects nothing less from his sons. He became bitter after the divorce (but was he even that different before it happened?) and distanced himself from his younger sons after a fight between him and Raphael when he became 16.

They live in New York. Their mother, Tang Shen, divorced Yoshi and went back to Japan. She didn't keep contact with the boys. Yoshi is the owner of a multinational dojo, with branches in many places, which he wishes to pass on to one of his children. Donnie doesn't care because he doesn't even like fighting that much and has plans of his own, Mikey kinda feels hurt because it's not really fair to expect so much of them, but Raph is very vocal about his opinions on Yoshi pushing that bs on them to justify his favoritism towards Leo, which earns them both some very crazy training sessions. Until he stops training him alltogether.

Yoshi hired an old friend to mentor/babysit his sons when he was busy (which is most of the time), a pilot veteran who learned martial arts with Yoshi after leaving the military. He leaves the boys' training on his hands after that, but tests them from time to time. Leo is still required at the official dojo for one on ones with Yoshi, though. Raph scoffs every time their training is as much as mentioned. The veteran allows them to call him by his old nickname in the forces, Splinter. 'Cause he was small but a pain to get rid of.

Fun facts:

Raph's best friend, Casey, let's him grow plants on his yard. To keep them safe from Yoshi and his brothers (Raph doesn't need anymore teasing, thank you very much). Casey does complain about his little sister's crush on Raph though. They usually play videogames, complain about life, roughouse/fight and garden when Raph comes around, and Lisa is often around when they do so.

Donnie has his whole life planned and tunes out most of the things he doesn't care to keep around for the future. He loves animals but couldn't have any because Yoshi hates furr - especially from cats. His best friend is Timothy, who is a few years older but shares his interest for machinery. They are in the same university, which Donnie got in ahead of his time.

Mikey is in almost every club possible in his school, but his favorites are the theatre and cooking clubs. Sometimes after his actvities he hangs out with his best friends: Armando Guillermo, known as Mondo, and a school dropout called James Peterson, who they call Leatherhead because of his pointy teeth and taste for tight clothing. He soon introduces René Tabitha to the group. (He'd had been calling her Renet for 6 months when she explained that René T. was just her signature. Everyone mocked him but the nickname sticked).

Leo has a pet turtle called Spiky, and is gifted an unnamed mouse later on, he just calls it little bud or baby friend. His closest friend is his rival Oroku Karai from the martial arts competitions. He likes to make up stories and doodle but doesn't do it much (not Yoshi approved).

The boys are close, but some relationships are a bit more closed off than one would expect. Raph doesn't talk to Leo in private except arguments (which usually become non private after the first few yells); Donnie isn't close to Mikey because he envies how almost scot-free his brother's childhood was when compared to his own, but they aren't bitter towards each other; Mikey holds a grudge towards Raph for all the jabs he takes on Leo, but still has a nice relationship with him - even though he takes Leo's side almost every time. Donnie is mostly indifderent and thinks their fights are a waste of time since father would agree with whatever Leo said and Raph would always disagree with whatever was decided.

#rottmnt #tmnt #tmnt iteration #tmnt au #tmnt human au #lol im so gonna prank ppl with yhis #bad parent yoshi btw #bad parent hamato yoshi #Remnants of a Family au #teenage mutant ninja turtles

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anestofocs · 4 months ago

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Muse Profile: Baek Doo San

The Killer Hawk

Basic Details:

Name: Doo San Baek

Age: 49

Birthday: April 10th

Title: Killing Hawk

Fighting style: Taekwondo

Occupation:Dojang Master

Faith: Unknown

Likes: Hwoarang, Teaching Taekwondo, His Family, Westerns,Skydiving

Dislikes: Ogre, Jin Kazama, Devil Jin, The Mishima Zaibatsu, Kazuya Mishima,

Apperenace Details:

Hair colour: Gray

Skintone: Tan-Light

Eye Colour: Brown

Height: 5′11

Weight: 70 kg

Gender: Cis male

Country of Origin: Korea

Ethnicity: Korean

Nationality: South Korea

Deeper Details:

Family:

Mr Baek: Father

Mrs Baek: Mother

Various: siblings

Personality:

A stern,disciplined man with a strict code of honor and conduct. Doo San is a veteran of his craft and The King of Iron Fist tournaments. Respected by the military of his country and more surprisingly, the hot headed punk that is his student Hwoarang. Being one of the few, if only people who can make the redhead act politely. Yet behind this seemingly unshakable persona lies a heartbroken,guilt ridden man haunted by his past and regrets. Even to this day, Doo San’s trauma over accidentally killing his own father causes him to experience flashbacks and get easily triggered by the sight of blood. Often flying into unexpected rages.

Despite these troubles, he is a deeply caring and fatherly man who’d willingly sacrifice his life to save those he loves.

Bio:

Born to a champion Taekwondoka with a loving mother. Baek Doo San’s early life was a fairly happy one until an injury ended his father’s career. With his father falling into a heavy drinking problem then getting jailed. The Baek family was thrust into poverty and the young Doo San had to step in and act as a parent to his younger siblings. Yet things grew more bleak, when one day, his mother left. Though he tried to do his best, he couldn’t care for himself and his siblings at the same time. A spark of hope arrived, His father had come home not long after his mother vanished. Doo San overjoyed. But that hope was dashed when, during a friendly sparring match, the younger Baek had accidentally killed his father. When the Police found him. Doo San was deeply traumatized.

Years under care rolled by. Doo San recovered and began following his father’s footsteps, becoming a master of Taekwondo in his own right. Yet again however his joy would be dashed. Someone in the Mishima Zaibatsu found out about how his father died, Blackmailing Baek into destroying dojos, Including the Dojo of Marshal Law, who defeated Baek in the second king of iron fist tournament. Now freed from being blackmailed. Baek returned to South Korea and opened up his own Dojang.One of his pupils, Hwaorang, would become his personal apprentice and star pupil. Viewing him as a son. Twenty years rolled by and while returning home, Baek would be attacked by the god of fighting, Ogre. rendered comatose for over a year. He’d awake in a military hospital. Spending time there, teaching. He’d eventually convince both the military to release his student and for Hwoarang to complete his duty to their country. Competing in the Fifth Tournament together. Unfortunately a demon hospitalized his beloved student. The same creature, wearing the face of Hwaorang’s friend, would go on to cause a war against the world.

Together with his student and a Spaniard who reminded Baek of his younger self, They would create a civilian resistance against The Zaibatsu’s rule. Though beaten by an amnesic Alexandersson and the android known as Alisa, this wouldn't stop them from standing against the Zaibatsu then G Corporation's reign of terror.

Alas for Baek, age would. Realizing that he was passing his prime. Baek entrusted his student to fight in his place. Now that the war has ended. Baek finds himself restless. Retirement felt ill suited.

#killing hawk - doo san #muse profiles #HE HERE

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ecsundance · 1 year ago

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Winner Film Review

There is something wrong with our government and society when being idealistic and truthful becomes a crime. The film Winner directed by Susanna Fogel is a true story about an Air Force veteran and National Security Agency (NSA) contractor who as a translator becomes disillusioned with the government and the lies they tell the public and decides to act upon her beliefs.

The story is about Reality Winner (Emilia Jones), a woman who is unyieldingly idealistic, a trait she gets from her father Ron (Zach Galifianakis). This film which premiered at Sundance demonstrates this characteristic in a flashback of her at the age of nine. Here she frees all the dogs from a pet store which in her mind was saving them from death if they were not sold in time. Winner has very definitive beliefs about right and wrong and follows her own moral compass whether it be freeing puppy mill dogs to stealing a dog that is being neglected by its owner.

That same year 9/11 occurred and while watching it unfold with her family, she learns through her father that violence can be avoided. You just have to work to understand each other. After that, she teaches herself Arabic hoping that she can help with the initiative of understanding each other.

Later, after meeting a recruiter at her high school, she is pursued by the Air Force to enlist promising her many things like her dream of going to Afghanistan to help translate for convoy missions providing aid. Winner becomes convinced that joining the Air Force will enable her to help people in other countries.

After joining the Air Force, she discovers that her real job was not to help people in these countries, but rather, through her translations to identify terrorists who were then assassinated by means of drone strikes. As stated in the film, Winner never met the people she was saving but instead she only saw the people killed.

She eventually realizes that her hope of going to Afghanistan with the Air Force where she could meet and help the locals was not going to happen. As a result, she becomes disillusioned with the military and on finding an opportunity to work in Afghanistan, she decides to leave the military. This did not go in her favor either because the organization would not accept her experience in lieu of a college education.

Since she was unable to get a job requiring a degree, she went to work as an NSA contractor which although did not fulfill her dream, was at least a lucrative job. Here, she translates data related to Iran. However, through the continuously running television at work, Winner ends up watching President Trump deny that Russia was involved in election interference in the 2016 election.

Questioning whether that was indeed true, Winner decides to access classified information on the 2016 election discovering that the government indeed knew that Russia had tampered in the election. With that knowledge, she decides the people need to know the truth. She prints the material and mails it to a media outlet. She does this knowing that leaking information is a federal offense. Winner is quickly discovered by the FBI and the government decides to make an example of her. This offense carries up to a ten-year prison sentence.

The film raises an interesting question. Why is Winner’s punishment harsher than others such as Paul Manafort and Maria Butina who receive minimal punishments for acts that are much less altruistic than Winner. Her mother Billie (Connie Britton), a social worker, championed this idea by promoting it through the press. She was able to go on national television and state this information showing the disparities. This pressure eventually led to a reduction in Winner’s sentence.

The story is less about whether she commits a crime, or if she will get away with it. It is really about her personal journey and how her internal rigid compass conflicts with society. The film is more philosophical. There is no doubt that she has committed a crime. There is no doubt that she knows she committed a crime. It begs multiple questions. The questions to be answered are threefold. First, is Winner going to be punished for her lawlessness? Second, why is she punished for telling the truth? Third, what would you do if you were faced with making a decision that put your own moral compass competing against what the law says? Would you have the stomach to step up to what you believe should be done?

We will all face these questions at some degree in our lives. The questions become: Are you willing to stand up for your beliefs? Will you sacrifice anything for them? This is seen through Winner’s father when he says, “We all need a hill to die on.” This is the theme throughout the story. Winner takes it to heart as she stands up for multiple causes she believes in.

This film does a great job of setting us up for making this decision. It also does a wonderful job of keeping the subject matter light through dark humor. Lots of comedy is included and it helps to emphasize various points. For example, every so often images would appear of a military plane. At the same time there were voice overs that would state that Winner was finally going to Afghanistan. Almost immediately after, the voice over would state that was not true.

I give this film five stars as I thought it was thought provoking on the difference between what is right and wrong in that situation and what you should do. That is to stand up and take action for what you believe in.

Ryan McCormick

#sundance #sundance2024 #filmfestival #independent #filmreview #winner

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musicasweapon · 2 years ago

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vimeo

Box 2

Transcription:

Torture through music « happens in a lot of awful places, and not just in far-away ones. » It is one of the major technique used inside of interrogation rooms, in order to mentally “break” a detainee and to make them confess what the guard wants to hear. It has been used as part of the punishment and humiliation tactics « as early as you can think of>>

In this box you will hear David Vance, an American Navy veteran who was held in detention at Camp Cropper, the United States military's maximum-security detention site in Baghdad in Iraq for 97 days beginning in April 2006.

In the following recording, he talks about sleep deprivation and starving being paired with an exposure to loud music. In a written document, he also mentioned songs that were played at the same time, creating chaotic rhythm.

<< They regulate the temperature in your cell, and then you’re being kept up with sleep deprivation techniques, you’re experiencing what they call “food manipulation” which is just a fancy word for “we’re gonna starve you” (��)

There is constant blaring music, you’re being bombarded by hard rock music (…) you begin to tell them anything that it takes to get a meal, to get water, to go to sleep. I was almost at the point where I would have look the interrogator the eye and say: “yes! I’ll sign anything, put that document in front of me that says that I’m a member of Al Qaida and I’ll sign it, can I have something to eat today? (…) would you please just let me go to sleep for an hour, I’ll sign it””.

When you get to that point, you’re lost, you’re gone.

I guess now that I’m free I sometimes wonder how many people are still being detained year after year after year after year, for something that they probably said in order just to… just to have a meal, but it really wasn’t the truth, they just said it because they were hungry, they just wanted ten minute to sleep, I’d say anything, anything! I’ll do anything! >>

Queen - We Are The Champions(1977) and Nine Inch Nails - Closer(1994) songs playing together.

#Vimeo

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terrence-silver · 3 years ago

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What do you think Terry’s views of transgender people are?

Depends which era of Terry we're talking about.

I think Twig would be rather uninformed simply due to the period and environment he grew up in, which would be around the early 50's. I imagine he was a sheltered, tucked away kid during his formative years and his first exposure to Transgender people might've been in Vietnam and after it, returning to The States, finding the increased awareness hitting it's momentum in protests during the late 60's and early to mid 70's (at the peak of which, he still was in the military and in a POW camp and possibly training in Korea afterwards). I think a young, post-war Twig would see a lot of himself in this community, feeling somewhat otherized himself as a returning veteran with PTSD (furthermore, possibly a returning veteran with PTSD and with conflicting sexual attractions), but that the family and raising he came from would've been so repressing and stifling in mentality and structure, he'd still be in denial of internally relating, just like he'd be in denial about any feelings for Kreese / attraction to men (although, for much, much shorter then Kreese himself would've been), even though these emotions were very much present and have been for a while now and it's simply due to the pressure of society that they're made so complicated. Twig is unsure, Twig is on the road of discovery, Twig is evolving and learning.

By the 80's, I think a once-repressed Twig lacking knowledge would be more progressive then most of his peers of the decade, going through immense growth on the topic. I also think Terry's deeply ironic and morally conflicting of a character. That he'd be insanely backwards from one end (his clear and obvious racial bigotry as a result of his post-Vietnam syndrome) and then extremely forward from another, to the point, that during these particular years, I can literally see him being an up and running charity donor to a great many causes, including the AIDS relief charities in the early 80's, various LGBT and Trans communities and I think that often times in the strictly tight laced, dyed in the bone corporate circles he'd dabble in, being a Billionaire himself, he'd often have an unfair infamy for such ventures, having him be deemed somewhat extravagant for it. Ironically, the truly good, noble deeds Terry Silver does for his fellow man does would be scorned and talked of negatively by his peers in the world of rich pencil-pushing CEOs, but the extremely bad ones, like polluting Third World Countries for profit and bribing judges for criminal indictment pass vastly unnoticed and are even congratulated as simply 'having a knack for business'.

Modern day old man Terry is accepting and champions their rights and it's not for show or social brownie points either --- Terry really is something of a communal paragon of acceptance--- while still being ethically reprehensible and a hidden sociopath. That's what makes him so daunting and complex, I think. That he manages to be both at the same time. Terry is accepting of others finding themselves in a safe and accepting environment, with the resources to do so, whereas he isn't as accepting of himself anymore and frequently hides himself behind masks and personas to keep himself in intentional control and in check --- you can even read that as his deliberate suppression of his own sexuality later in life. I think he admires anyone who is themselves and turns into themselves as they feel they were always meant to be (just like he did, in a roundabout way, since Vietnam, and even though it's not the same ordeal, to him, it could be vaguely comparative and reflective), because he himself so frequently does around this part of his life, shoving down trauma, his past, his identity, his pain, his suffering and his truth behind increasingly newly-minted, clinically washed out facades in order to fit in and keep himself from going unhinged. At least until he has his 'breakdown'. Or as I like to see it, his return to himself.

#terry silver #kk3 #cobra kai #headcanons #anon ask #important real life issues #tw; trans issues

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kittyreading · 4 years ago

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Manga Master List: Recommendations and My Personal Wish List

!!//PLEASE READ//!!

Below is every manga from my amazon wishlist I would recommend(as of February 11 2021) with a picture and a 3-5 sentence explanation of what the manga is about. Underneath will also be the number of volumes I have read, the number I own, and it’s status of ongoing or complete and how many volumes it has. This way you can decide for yourself if you think I have read enough of it to give an accurate recommendation.

This list only includes manga you can purchase (including digital purchases) from the wishlist. I decided that I would in fact include my personal amazon manga wishlist here and at the bottom for people to buy THEMSELVES a copy of any of these manga they would like. Keep in mind many of these won’t have volume 1 in the list but you should be able to get to the series page from the list. If a manga shows up on the amazon list that I did not include in this one that is because I have not read enough of them(or any of them) to recommend. Ok? Cool, enjoy the list!!

1. The Girl from the Other side is about a little girl living with a gentleman monster. It is a supernatural mystery with beautiful art.

Own: 0

Series: Ongoing at 9 volumes

2. Pumpkin Scissors is a military fantasy about a War Veteran named Randal Oland who joins the pumpkin scissors core to help with war relief and uncover the deep corruption of the government. It is similar in themes to FMA in the sense it appears to be based on a World War, and corruption of government but it more focused on the power of the noble houses in government. There is also a fun science element but it is not as in focus as in FMA. The two but are very very different overall tho. Only 5 volumes were distributed in physical English copies as the publishing company went bankrupt, all others are only available digitally. (I couldn’t get the manga vol. 1 cover to work so the picture above is a poster for the anime)

Own: 0

Read: around 10

Series: Ongoing at 23 volumes

3. Monthly Girls Nozaki-kun is a slice of life about a bunch of highschoolers. Nozaki is the mangaka of a popular Shoujo manga who uses his personal experiences with friends to create his monthly comic series. It is a fun gender stereotype reversal manga with a large cast of both male and female characters (one could be HC as genderfluid but she’s still canonically female at this time) The manga is one of the easiest to read as the panels are mostly in straight down rectangles so the pages are extremely easy to follow and is very funny.

Own: 1

Status: Ongoing at 12 volumes

4. Yu-Gi-Oh! is well known to be about the card game yu-gi-oh, using magic and myths to further the story, HOWEVER, Yu-gi-oh! is the “Season 0″ of the series it is much darker than to be expected and there is no card game. The Yu-gi-oh most are familiar with is Yu-gi-oh Duelist (just found this out myself) and is the Yu-gi-oh you probably already know. There is no overarching plot to this mini series it is just Yugi fucking shit up playing games and destroying some bullies. I have yet to read any of Duelist as of the creation of this post therefore I cannot recommend it :/

Own: 5 (1-3 & 6-7)

Status: Completed at 7 volumes

5. The Way of the House Husband is about a former yakuza who gets married and flips his script. He becomes a house husband for his working wife and carries on doing chores and errands while still looking and acting scary unintentionally and getting himself in trouble. It is a slice of life comedy with some adult jokes but is over all extremely funny and pleasant to read.

Own: 0

Status: Ongoing at 7 volumes

6. Hikaru no Go is about a highschool boy who finds a haunted Go board. He meets the ghost who once was a prolific Go player. Together they work to become a world class Go champion meeting new people along the way. This series was cut short due to legal issues with a real Go player and therefore will remain unfinished but the story that is there is golden. It is still one of the most popular manga in Japan.

Own: 0

Status: Complete at 23 Volumes

7. Zatch Bell! This manga is about a teenager named Kiyo who gets sent a young boy with amnesia named Zatch Bell who turns out to be an alien called a momodo. Now the two must battle other momodo in order to understand what happened to Zatch and to make Zatch the new king. Along the way they make many friends and save both the momodo and human worlds. This one is difficult because it is a classic that did not do well in America so the volumes are expensive and the series is unfinished in English. You can only buy 27 of the volumes in English and a few of them are almost impossible to find, however it is well worth the money if you can afford it and it is available online.

Own: 6 (1-5 & 13)

Status: Complete at 33 Volumes only 27 printed in English (you can finish series online)

8. Fullmetal Alchemist is a cult classic most have read it, watched the series, or heard of it at the very least. This is one of the most popular Manga of all time and for good reason. The manga is about 2 brothers Alphonse and Edward on a journey to return their bodies to normal after committing the taboo of human transmutation. The manga has themes of racism, government corruption and manipulation of the military. The versions on my wishlist are the special Fullmetal Editions so they will have a different price point and volume number than the regular volumes or the omnibuses’

Own: 12

Status: Complete at 27 Volumes

9. Princess Jellyfish is about a young woman who is sort of an outcast otaku living with 5 other otaku women. She has a deep love for jellyfish as they remind her of her late mother. She meets a beautiful woman who turns out to be a male college student and slowly comes out of her shell making new friends and growing with old ones as well. This manga is very sweet and I really don’t know what else to say haha.

Own: 0

Status: Complete at 17 volumes

10. !!!HUGE TW FOR EATING DISORDERS!!! In Clothes Called Fat is a, oneshot, non romanticizing story of an office woman trying to lose weight and developing several eating disorders in the process. She goes through hardships in relationships and bullying as well. It has a bittersweet ending and should be read with caution but it is beautifully done. Please do not read this if you are under the age 16 at the very youngest there are NSFW moments as well as just generally not being a topic for younger audiences.

Own: No

Read: Yes

Status: Completed one shot

11. My LOVE Story!! Is an adorable Slice of Life shojo about a highschooler named Takeo Gouda, his girlfriend Yamato, and his best friend and hear throb Suna. This series is rather refreshing as the relationship starts pretty much immediately, the best friend is very supportive, and it is focused on Takeo’s personality over looks as he is often compared in manga to a gorilla or bear. It is a generally heart warming story with some emotional side plots. The ending is sort of sudden but it’s really enjoyable.

Own: 6 (1-3,8,10-12)

Status: Completed at 13 Volumes

12. Soul Eater is pretty popular but if you don’t know what it is about it is about a Weapon named Soul and his Meister Maka. They attend a school that teaches them how to defeat people before they turn into Demons, saving the world in the process. Once a weapon eats 100 evil souls and a witches soul they can become the new death Scythe! That is the plot presented, and it of course goes off into a much more complicated storyline. It is super fun and engaging with a fascinating plot near the end.

Own: 5

Status: Completed at 25 Volumes

13. D. Gray-Man is a little complicated. Similarly to Soul Eater D. Gray-Man is a story based around defeating people turned demon and the saving of the world through an organization, however the plot gets very complicated very quickly. The art is some of the most interesting and beautifully fun art I’ve come across and the characters are (so far as I’ve read) all amazing. The story has a lot of christian influence and is one you have to really keep up with to understand but I recommend it regardless!

Own: 10

Status: Ongoing at 27 Volumes

14. One-Punch Man is also very popular and is about a man who becomes so strong he only needs to punch you once to completely annihilate you, and it greatly annoys him. This manga greatly touches on the themes of self worth as Saitama becomes a hero that no one seems to want. The fights are fun and engaging, tho at times can be difficult to read. The art is gorgeous, with some of the most heavily detailed work I have ever seen.

Own: 3

Status: Ongoing at 21 Volumes

15. The Boy and The Beast is the manga adaptation of the movie by the same name. This is a bittersweet story about a boy who finds a family in the land of the beasts and the repercussions of this intermixing. It is sweet and sad and there’s not much else to say, but that it is a beautifully crafted story.

Own: 1

Read: 1 (but I’ve seen the movie and read the light novel)

Status: Complete at 4 Volumes

16. MAR is not a manga I should be recommending as I genuinely don’t think I have read enough of the story to do so but I love it so much I’m going to anyway. MAR is a classic Isekai Shonen, a kid goes through a door into another world and has to fight a war to save it, there is a super fun magic system and some wonderful story building with genuinely enjoyable characters and battles. I am recommending this more based off the anime than the manga itself because it was one of my absolute favorites when I was younger, so take from that what you will! This manga has the same issue Zatch Bell does however, the series did not do amazingly so the volumes can be expensive!

Own: 3

Status: Complete at 15 Volumes

Thank you for your time haha! I hope you liked the list, here is my wishlist again and if you have any questions please let me know!! I will try to keep this master list updated as it and the wishlist will only continue to grow, but I make no promises for doing it often. Making this took me a very long time so I hope you like it!

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thevindicativevordan · 4 years ago

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I talked a bit earlier about Metallo here where I went in depth into his background and also what I thought was essential to the character’s success. With that in mind I’m going to now talk about the overall arc I’d like to see Metallo undergo, as well as the type of stories I’d want to see told with him.

Stage 1: Loyal Soldier

This would be the stage of Corben’s career where he still thinks of himself as a loyal soldier and trusts his superiors and the government to look out for him. Nursing hopes that a “cure” can be found one day to allow him to take off the suit, Corben accepts the promises from General Lane that the military’s top scientists are studying him to find a way to restore him to normal. Metallo distrusts and dislikes Superman, blaming Clark for his current condition, and is unhappy that the military have brooked an uneasy truce with “the alien”. He also really doesn’t like the interest Lois seems to be taking in Superman, accusing her of being a traitor to her species, although it’s mainly just a thin disguise for his jealousy that she might prefer someone else over him. He still respects General Sam Lane even though he does resent Sam somewhat for his condition. He dislikes Lex thinking of him as an arrogant pencil pusher, and not very subtly implying that he would love a chance to kick the shit out of Lex for helping to turn him into a cyborg.

At this stage Corben is still a man bonded to a super suit that keeps him alive, more Darth Vader than the Terminator. Conflict with Kal would come from Corben working as the military’s enforcer in much the same way Vader performed for the Empire. I’d have him protecting Cadmus experiments from Superman’s interference, assaulting military targets across the globe, preparing countermeasures against Superman and other metahumans should the need arise, and protecting VIPs that the military deems crucial such as Lex or others. Corben works to further the United States goals as defined by his superiors, and doesn’t question orders. At this stage his purpose as a character is to showcase the ugly side of “The American Way”, to keep the relationship between Superman and the government tense, and to explore the darker corners of Metropolis as Superman’s fight to champion the oppressed of Metropolis inevitably cause him and Corben to trade blows, threatening the fragile accord Superman has struck with his government.

Stage 2: Going Rogue

This is where the split happens between Corben and Sam Lane. Despite promises from Sam that he would find a way to “fix” Corben, in return for Corben continuing to serve as a soldier, Metallo learns that wasn’t the full truth. The scientists who were studying him were also tasked with finding a way to replicate the technology he’s merged with, but to do so in a way that wasn’t permanent. That goal also took precedence over finding a way to separate Corben from the suit, as Sam didn’t want to separate Corben from it until he had a replacement, otherwise he’d have lost his primary safeguard to a rogue Superman. Sam wanted to make more Metallos, an army of them. This pisses Corben off because Sam didn’t tell him this, worrying that Corben would take it as the military studying for a way to replace him. Corben comes to that exact conclusion, and terrified that the military will simply dump him in a cell somewhere with the other “obsolete” tech, and not trusting Sam to have his best interests at heart anymore after discovering the cover-up, chooses to do the unthinkable: The military’s Anti-Superman weapon for if Superman ever went rogue, goes rogue himself.

Corben steals top secret military files about a variety of projects he knew about thanks to his work as a Sam’s agent: Cadmus genetic experiments, Lexcorp weapons programs, Project 7734, and gives them to the one person he knows Sam can’t bully or buy off and won’t assassinate: Lois Lane. Lois publishes these materials along with an exclusive tell-all interview with Corben, and Sam’s operations are thrown into chaos. Sam is called before Congress with many of his initiatives being shut down, Lexcorp’s stock takes a massive hit from all the bad publicity, and in the pandemonium Metallo slips out of the country. The military, Lois, Lex, and Superman all try to track the cyborg down but it proves impossible. Corben simply vanishes.

Months later Corben reappears on the scene as a mercenary for hire, working for terrorists, third world dictatorships, megacorps, and anyone else who can afford him. His goal at this stage is to acquire the money or technology to either fix his broken body or replace it with superior augmentations. He’s very bitter and angry about how he was used, and will often target Sam Lane and Lex’s international and American holdings as his subdued resentment towards the both of them for how they handled his reconstruction boils over. He considers the two of them along with Superman his greatest foes, and seeks to torment all three wherever he can.

At this stage Corben’s role as a character is to act as a foil to how Superman’s relationship with the military and the government has evolved. In the beginning Corben was the loyal tool of the government, similar to DKR Superman, but now he’s become the outlaw. So where does that leave Superman? If Clark can catch Metallo what should he do with him? Turn over to the military where he will doubtlessly be dissected in an attempt to replace him with an army of super soldiers? The stories Metallo is in now can cover a wide range, from terrorist attacks, to corporate espionage as the megacorps hire Metallo to assault their rivals in Metropolis, to transhumanism stories about Metallo’s cybernetic evolution, to much much more.

I’d have Corben gradually replace more and more of his flesh with cybernetics, but I’d avoid the cliché about “Cybernetics Eat Your Soul”. Corben’s replacement parts will ultimately not just restore his ability to feel, to taste, to smell, but enhance them. Metallo would become more superhuman thanks to his upgrades over time. The bulky suit he would wear in Stage 1 would ultimately give way to a much more streamlined look, similar to the current Rebirth design he now sports.

Stage 3: Nation-Building

This is the final stage in Metallo’s arc as I envision it. Metallo has embraced his augmentations completely, fully transitioning into a synthetic body similar to what the Vision has. His new body gives all of the senses he had as a “normal” human, but augments them far beyond what they used to be. He’s more powerful than ever, with weapons that potentially pose a threat to the planet, and has left his roots as a mercenary behind. Metallo no longer wants to be used as a tool by the powerful: Now he has his own goals and will serve no man but himself.

At this juncture Metallo makes an announcement that shocks the world. Having acquired various technologies over his career as a merc due to his search to improve his augmentations, Metallo is able to create a small artificial island in Oceania. He declares the island to be for veterans and for outcasts, anyone who doesn’t fit in mainstream society. He specifically reaches out to soldiers who have suffered due to cybernetic or genetic experiments performed on them by their countries governments that were done with the aim of providing safeguards against “superheroes” or the Justice League invading and ousting them from power. To the shock of many, multiple veterans attempt to defect, causing uproars in Europe, Russia, China... and America. Many attempt to flee to this safe haven where Metallo promises them care and treatment for their conditions.

Superman is unnerved and unsure how to respond. Metallo remains a terrorist, a murderer, and needs to face justice. But Clark has always been wary of intervening in foreign government’s affairs, yet how is he to respond to a man who has tried to kill him multiple times essentially founding a rogue nation? He decides to investigate and discover whether this nation is what Metallo claims it is, or if it harbors some ulterior purpose.

The main attribute explored between Superman and Metallo at this stage is Superman’s ambition and his role as Champion of the Oppressed. Metallo acquires followers because soldiers have suffered at the hands of the governments they serve, and often their suffering goes unheeded. He promises to take care of them, to do what their countries won’t. If Superman removes Metallo from power, what does he do with all these soldiers who need help? He can’t turn his back on them, even if it means angering the governments of the world, including America’s. The stories with Metallo would revolve around him building this new nation, Superman investigating the nation and exploring Metallo’s motives for building it, and the fallout of Superman getting involved. I see it as providing a long term home base for Metallo and his plans for the world that elevate him into being a major threat.

#superman #metallo #storytelling #dc comics

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thesxmmersword · 4 years ago

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DETAILED BACKSTORY

Early life (8:89 - 9:03)

Cauthrien was born into a family of two elder brothers and in the years that came she gained another six siblings. As a child, she lived through the last thirteen years of the Orlesian Occupation. A dirt-poor farmer’s daughter, always hungry and in danger of some Masked Noble deciding that she was worth more as sport than as labour. It was a clawing and desperate existence with little to no moments of joy, a constant fight for survival and one that many of Cauthrien’s siblings lost.

Those losses hit the young girl hard, her mind and, at times, her father, calling her responsible. The impact of the Occupation was indescribable on her. She was trapped, abused and helpless. Her family were killed off around her and she saw only doom and death in her immediate future. Everything she suffered was out of her control. She still had good influences and good principles from some and she would often go greatly out of her way to help others, risking her life for people she hardly knew. But Cauthrien was very young when she realised how powerless she was and it had a lasting and irreconcilable effect on her for the rest of her life.

It was in her thirteenth year that the young King Maric routed the Orlesian forces and freed Fereldan from their tyranny. However, even with them gone, Cauthrien’s life did not become significantly easier. Less dangerous perhaps, she felt the freedom she had never known, but the influx of banditry was immense and immediate. Cauthrien found herself fighting off men twice her size on an almost weekly basis, but at the very least now she had a chance of winning.

Early Military Service (9:03 - 9:11)

It came to pass that in her fourteenth year she found a man being beset by a large group of bandits. She had still managed to hold onto some instinct of self-sacrifice throughout childhood, despite it all, so she quickly came to the man’s aid, picking off some of the bandits with her bow before charging in with a stolen Orlesian sword and hacking until none were left.

To her great surprise, the man she ‘saved’ turned out to be Loghain Mac'Tir, Hero of the Battle of Riverdane and one of King Maric’s personal friends and advisors. Cauthrien was awestruck. The feeling was apparently mutual because Loghain offered her a position in his Military. It didn’t even take thought, Cauthrien wanted to fight, wanted a purpose, needed a reason to continue on after everything she had seen and done. She wanted to feel like she was useful, that she deserved to exist, that she had control and power over her life. She could think of no one she would rather pledge herself to. Loghain was a saviour to her. If not for him, the Orlesian Monsters that had dogged her childhood and killed her family would still be abusing and infecting her homeland now. She would have died along with them, eventually. Now her life might mean something and if she spent it, it would be for a good cause.

And so she entered the Gwaren army as a new recruit, her commission and equipment fully paid and her housing dealt with. Still, initially she struggled. Cauthrien’s teenage years were entirely transitional. She was a mess of conflicting personality traits, opinions and capabilities. She could feel a boil of anger in her but was restless and confused about how to deal with it. All her trainers agreed, she was skilled, but they found her hard to control, hard to tire. It wasn’t until Lieutenant Rikke took her on that Cauthrien found the real rigid and all encompassing structure that she could settle on. Having strict rules, expectations and timetables counterintuitively gave her the freedom to explore more of herself. At the end of her apprenticeship, Rikke wrote this letter into her dossier;

FROM: Lieutenant-Captain Rikke of Redcliffe

SUBJECT: Soldier Cauthrien of West Hill, 9th Infantry Battalion

SUBJECT BORN: 8:89 of the Blessed Age, 27th of Wintermarch

DATE: 9:05 of the Dragon Age, 6th of Guardian

A description of the Soldier’s career and suggestions as to her assignments and promotions hereafter.

Cauthrien shows remarkable endurance of every extreme. Natural strength and height gives her an advantage on the field of battle and she is still young enough to be expected to exceed these attributes in the years to come. She outmatches all of her peers currently on simple physical levels and hand-to-hand sparring combat has seen her as the Champion for this year.

She has mastered Shield and Longsword at levels far above her peers and exceeds most of them in almost every other manner of battle, bar duel weaponry. Her abilities on horse-back still leave something to be desired and she has little to no literacy in any language.

As a Soldier she shows promise. She follows orders precisely and without complaint. Her understanding of positions and combat movements is advanced due to specialist training and all of her Commanders have reported, at least, that she has never failed in her duties.

A LETTER IS THEN INSERTED HERE

To whomever this might concern,

Cauthrien is a true asset, there can be no doubt of her potential. I do not think I have trained such a promising recruit in the whole of my career. Her tolerance to pain alone has seen her battle three men whilst trailing a dislocated arm and thinking nothing of it. I have seen a number of similar individuals, admittedly. Many Children who survived through the Occupation have emerged durable and committed to our Country’s defense.

However, Cauthrien shows extremes in all this, as well as the side effects. She holds a fury and a fear that I doubt she will ever be rid of. I have discovered little about her family, but from what I do know she has lost as much as any of us to the Orlesian’s swords. She has a drive to prove herself that, while it might be considered perfect for a life of service, I would advise not encouraging. She has made it plain that sacrificing her life for her Country is her intended end and, Ser, it is disturbing to hear a pup of seventeen say such things in such a tone.

I would suggest that any commander wishing to take her on in a full time placement should be aware of these factors and keep in mind she works best under strict timetables and orders.

Her Loyalty will be well worth the effort spent to earn it.

In conclusion, Cauthrien is a candidate for greater promotion and I believe would thrive in a Captaincy of her own in years to come. For now I suggest offering her greater responsibilities and assigning her to a fixed Battalion with a steady command. I agree with my Teyrn’s recommendation of introducing her to Commander Torvin of Maric’s Shield.

Torvin, the old elf in charge of Maric’s Shield at the time, was suitably impressed. Young though she was, the members of the battalion were eager to welcome her. Perhaps because she was young. Quite a few lacked the vitality she possessed, nor could sport the kind of endurance she had any longer. She was welcomed and she was valued and with Torvin reporting directly to Loghain, she even saw more of him. And when she truly began working towards the betterment of Ferelden, bleeding and fighting for her country and winning alongside comrades who felt the same fervour, she realised she was powerful. And it viscerally delighted her.

Now that she was no longer a cornered animal, but a formidable predator, quivering fear and crippling grief became roiling fury and stoney apathy. The extremes that she switched too shocked everyone. Suddenly gone was the quiet and defensive and stiff girl, she was an avenging angel of persecution, no Orlesian was safe behind Fereldan borders and she made absolutely certain it stayed that way. She and her comrades would goad visiting chevaliers into ‘friendly competitions’ that never ended well, but always ended with Cauthrien’s bloody victory. She was more unstable. Violence came to her easily and quickly. Everyday felt like an endless battle to keep control of her emotions when outside of her duties, a war she won the majority of the time, but those slips were cataclysmic in nature. Emotion she had been forced not to feel was returning to her, stale and bitter and poisonous after being left to ferment for so long.

But crucially, her comrades in arms accepted this all as part and parcel. Many were old veterans to the occupation themselves, or indeed youths who’d grown up in it, Cauthrien’s turmoil was no stranger. They learned where not to touch her, they learned how to take her away from fights, they learned how to steer her out of trouble as though it was a natural part of duty, something they would and did do for anyone else. It was necessary, for her, to feel such rage, to validate how terrible it truly was. There was always too much fury inside her to fully release, but she managed to get some of the way there, she found a little calm place to settle and her new sense of family helped.

Military Command (9:11 - 9:20)

Even better, at twenty one Loghain was suddenly placed as Regent to Ferelden and he knew he needed a trusted second to aid him in the turmoil of Maric’s sudden disappearance. Cauthrien was initially surprised to be requested, but it did not last long and she committed herself to those duties without reservation. With new responsibility and a new importance placed on her own reputation, she found even more calm and control and by the end of the year she had changed dramatically once again. Now she flexed and grew into herself, her initial rushed excitement of power tempering to a lionine contented confidence, her manner exuding and intimidating kind of comfort that made her perfect for command. Which helped greatly when she joined Loghain in besieging the Circle Tower and once again foiling an Orlesian plot to retake the country.

She retained her position as Loghain’s second after Maric returned, though she also returned to her duties within Maric’s Shield. An easier task than it sounded when Maric’s Shield followed their Teyrn so closely and received their orders from him directly. Still, it allowed her and Loghain to truly get to know each other. Cauthrien spent time with his family, became known and liked by Lady Celia and gained confidence in her right to stay at his side and exist in his circles. They came to trust one another too, in a more personal way, the trappings of hero worship finally discarded for genuine understanding and respect. They learned each other’s reticent and restrained languages.

And with Torvin’s retirement from command, Cauthrien was the natural choice to succeed him, though she was only twenty four at the time. It was well earned and well received within the regiment and Cauthrien herself felt heartily ready for the commission. A fact which she summarily proved a few years later. With her own alertness where Orlais was concerned and the information she was now able to access, realisation that the empire was beginning to once again test their borders came quickly and chillingly. Troop movements beyond the mountains, scout ships in Storm Coast waters, it felt dangerously familiar. But they could not risk any overt combat, trying to preserve the fragile ceasefire whilst Ferelden was still recovering from the occupation.

Through a complex and intricate web of plots and misdirections, Cauthrien managed (using only her own forces) to draw some of Orlais’ emboldened forces over the mountains. With their crossing, an act of war in itself, Cauthrien no longer needed to show restraint. Maric’s Shield spent three months in the Frostbacks, crafting ambushes and disrupting camps, ensuring the emperor’s soldiers never left the mountains and culling any reinforcements that arrived. In the end she lead a crucial final onslaught that saw the snow painted red and finally drove any hint of a second invasion back. She sustained a near fatal blow to her chest in that final engagement and Loghain was at her side when she awoke.

No one but Maric was made aware of anything surrounding the incursion, which was by specific design and Cauthrien had always known she would see no recognition for it. However, a year later, King Maric declared that Commander Cauthrien would be knighted for ‘dedicated service rendered for king and country’. And truly, though Cauthrien would have been content to simply do her duty, her knighthood was one of her proudest accomplishments and a true moment of success in her eyes. Even her parents came to witness it, though they did not stay long.

However being Ser Cauthrien brought other challenges. Where classism had always been a factor in her life, her inclusion into the noble classes by way of her knighthood was not viewed favourably by all. She gained enemies within the nobility and her right to the title was often covertly questioned, though never in Loghain’s presence. But still, she was well prepared to deal with such petty issues by then and manage her frustrations when it became an obstacle to her goals.

At thirty one the Gwaren forces were fully recovered and had become one of the largest and best kept armies in the country. Loghain’s duties took him often away from Gwaren and with his forces so large, he gave Cauthrien the title of General over their barracks. It was a point of amusement to them both that not a month after this was announced, Emperor Florian was found dead and his niece succeeded him. The girl had not held the throne long before official peace was declared between Ferelden and Orlais. It was a kind of victory, one that was celebrated quietly among Cauthrien’s circles. Loghain gifted Cauthrien the summer sword shortly after, something to mark the year. She accepted it with fondness and thoughtfulness both.

The Fifth Blight (9:30-9:31)

After a truly gruelling four years, Cauthrien and Loghain both face the news of a new darkspawn threat with an embittered and weary kind of dread. Maric’s sudden loss shocked everyone and Cauthrien was still worn from the search when Lady Celia suddenly and unexpectedly died, a further crushing loss to compound the hurt. She had been as present for Loghain as she could be, but she was aware this was a grief he had to contend with for as long as necessary and her true aid could come only with guiding his days and nights. Which had been her intent, until the next threat had arrived.

Cailan had never been a man who inspired much faith in Cauthrien, though she treated him still with all the deference a King deserved. But the fact remained that Cailan was not ready to lead them all alone through this crisis and Loghain was needed, whether he was ready for it or not. And it was that kind of severity of purpose that she knew they both shared that made Cauthrien allow Loghain to push himself as he did. First their request for the Orlesian warden’s aide was met by a completely laughable demand, next Cailan became enamoured by Duncan’s charm and he became even less manageable, and all throughout the constant tension of Cailain’s treatment of Anora became harder and harder to bear.

It also brought an unsettling amount of chaos into the Banns and Arls, the political climate unstable and growing worse by the day with Arl Eamon’s encouragement. All in all, Cauthrien was aware that they were sailing into dangerous waters and it only grew worse from there.

With the disaster at Ostagar, Cauthrien could say she was disappointed but not surprised by Teagan’s idiotic dramatised rebellion. The landsmeet was perhaps a more horrifying failure than Ostagar had been, suddenly all of Ferelden was in danger of splintering apart at the worst possible moment. Blight or no, a darkspawn attack without opposition would see the country brought to its knees and thousands dead. And with the knowledge that at least half of the nobility were motivated in their insurgency just because of Loghain’s common birth, it ground Cauthrien’s teeth and dragged in her a very sharp kind of cold. She came with Loghain to the final meeting between him and Bann Bronarch, which could have stalled the fighting in it’s tracks if it had gone well.

It had not. And Bronarch had been beheaded by Cauthrien herself. The battle was won and the crown gained the upper hand, but it did not feel like a victory to her.

After that Cauthrien was mostly kept away from Denerim, risen to Captain-General alongside Loghain’s regency and fighting a bloody civil war for the eventual peace of the realm. She knew Howe to be a snake, she knew Loghain was slowly slipping under the weight of so much grief and horror, but there was little she could do. There were just too many fires to put out. And she admitted, she had lost her patience too. Bann Grainne had been so satisfied with herself, standing in front of a full years worth of burning harvest, and Cauthrien had lost her temper. They lost allies, even as they won victories, and though Loghain succeeded against terrible odds at wintersbreath, and Cauthrien clawed victory from defeat in both Oswin and the Lachus Valley, they soon realised it would not be enough.

Arl Eamon’s recovery from their careful poisoning saw the end to their campaign and Cauthrien returned to Loghain for the Landsmeet. She found a thoroughly broken man. Others perhaps could not see it, but Loghain was so changed to Cauthrien that she sometimes could not recognise him. She found Howe’s influence so entrenched that there was no way for her to dig him out. Anora was wary of her now. The world was changed and, once again, for the first time in a very long time, Cauthrien was powerless to help.

Loghain had told her not to accompany him to the Landsmeet. Cauthrien understood why, but that did not make her oaths or convictions any less binding, nor did she trust that either Eamon or these green wardens could successfully pull the country back from the brink. And so she had to stand between Loghain and death one last time. But her faith was shaken and she was wounded, weary and aching from all the harm she had caused to a people she had sworn to protect. In the end, when faced with the Warden a second time, she finally left it all up to fate.

#To those for who still follow me.... I am sorry for this monster #/cauthcanon/

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alolanrain · 4 years ago

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Can you tell us about the bug type gym? Bug types are my favorite but they don't get enough love and the gym being last makes me think it's the strongest, which is interesting.

Jackson Mquires is what everyone immediately will say is a stoner. Because he is one. The man cannot go one fucking week without pulling a per test positive for fucking anything.

Does he give Pokémon the shit he uses? Hell no. He may be a ducking idiot b it he didn’t get to be top of the line Gun leader for giving his precious ‘Mons steroids. He’s childhood best friends with Eric and they both rag on each other since their so opposites.

Laid back with a very hippyish style of choice. He’s dark skinned with long healthy dreads and you can always spot him hanging with Lily Nova, the poison type Gym Leader, at her gym hanging out and watching her do her work outs while tossing sugary snacks at her. Rumors among the league say their secretly dating, other’s say their each others beards to get their over protective parents off their backs.

He’s very lanky, standing at almost 8 feet tall, and not all that strong physically wise. Basically a standing string of a tree. With gold eyes, and oddly enough, white freckles dotting his skin. Doctors has ruled it ‘albino freckles’ though that’s not the technical term.

Jackson comes from a very rich family. The youngest of ten siblings and apparently the only one successful enough in life to warrant his parents “effection”. Their constantly trying to push him to go for the champion title but Jackson likes keeping his head on his shoulders and his team with their limbs attacked thank you very much. Eric is to cemented to be pulled from the title without a war happening.

Maya Mquires is the proud family owner of a long line of dentists and she has multiple practices across Orago, Unova, and Sinnoh. She’s very much a Karen on steroids and bitches about everyone and anything if it doesn’t go her way. She specializes in fire types and her main Pokémon is her guard dog Houndoom.

Micheal Mquires is also a straight lace, no nonsense, military veteran. Even Lieutenant Surge despises the guy. He’s also a brilliant scientists and works with a bunch of backers on vaccines and other human body shit. He doesn’t have specializes in typing and his only Pokémon is a Garchomp.

Nidoking is his lovely evolved starter. He’s been with him since birth, as per family tradition on his mother’s side. Crobat, Skuntank, and Toxicroak were caught all in the same time. Dragalge was the first, and last, gift from his grandfather before the man past. The only reason why he was even given the old Dragon is because he’s “the only one with brains enough to deal with her.” Dragalge was his prized possession and it going to Jackson was like a slap to the face to his daughter. Garbodor is the last to join the crew, caught as a Trubbish in the back of his gym with its garbage bag ripped from scavenging Pokémon. He nursed it back to health and now she’s a vital part of the team.

#Wolfy talks #orago region #jackson Mquires #lily nova #maya mquires #eric kingler

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mcnsieur · 4 years ago

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verse: paris

Before I get into any details of this verse, I want to say that this verse can apply in both a reincarnation type of way, and as simply just a descendant type of way. This verse will take inspiration for how it works very similar to E’s The Royals.

Lets lay down the basics Philippe in this verse is primarily going to be in his late 20s, and early 30s. I will only play him in his teens if it is significantly plotted out with my partners, also note for that I will be using my young FC as his faceclaim for that. But do not expect it. Philippe is an adult by default on this blog.

Philippe in this verse is of the Bourbon family making him Philippe de Bourbon. This differs from canon only in that the d’Orleans family is a different family because of you know history. I tend to lean with the fact that the Bourbon family in general would be the correct family to rule France if it went back to a monarchy but their are arguments for the d’Orleans family. However, I want to make it clear that no matter what Philippe is descended from Philippe Duc d’Orleans I no matter which family he is in because of Philippe’s children and who they married.

Philippe was born the second child of a very well off noble family in France. He has an older brother Louis, who is two years older than him. Louis was said to be the miracle baby for the family, who looked more like his mother than his father. In fact it was largely rumored that Louis was not actually their father’s son at all. However, Philippe came out with a head of super dark hair and was a spitting image of their father. Two years later their father died, leaving them with their mother Anne and a whole host of nannies.

From a very early age Philippe was very obviously not the favorite. Sure Anne had her moments with Philippe, particularly when she wanted to do more traditionally feminine things. Philippe liked these moments and honestly he could care less about what he was doing with his mother. He just wanted time with her.

As time continued on both boys were enrolled in ballet, but soon Philippe lowered the amount of classes he was in, and doubled up his time in fencing as it appealed to him more. By the time he was twelve both he and Louis were known enough in their respective sports, Philippe with fencing, and Louis with ballet. Philippe was quite good and got a bronze medal at the Olympics when he was 14. He was a national champion from then on much to the displeasure of his mother.

When he was 16 and Louis 18 their mother died from breast cancer that she had been battling for years, and Louis became the head of the family. Something he was well and ready for. Louis had always been like a father to Philippe despite their small age difference. However, when their mother died this became to a level of controlling that made Philippe hate his life. Louis was much more strict and did not like Philippe truly expressing himself.

Philippe knew he was gay very early in life, that was never truly the issue. In fact until his mother died Philippe’s more experimental clothing decisions weren’t an issue. It only became an issue when it started to outshine Louis in a positive light instead of a negative one. That was a rift between him and Louis that was quite public. As a sixteen year old Philippe became a darling in the eyes of the media which made Louis jealous. It made the year after their mother’s death incredibly hard and dark for Philippe.

That made the announcement when Philippe was seventeen that he was joining the French Military. He left regular school, he was never a perfect student, or the best student. He excelled at certain subjects like math, but he did leave it for the military.

His time in the military was always a mystery as it was important to keep his location a secret because he was nobility. His time in the military was hard, but he proved himself quite capable early on and quickly rose in the ranks to be one of the higher ranked members of the military. He did a few tours, and on his last tour he saw the men he was in charge of get hit and die. He was injured and was sent home. He is technically still active military, but it is unlikely that he will be deployed again. He does not talk about his time in the military as it has caused him a great amount of stress. He also has PTSD.

When he returned he was about 24. He and his brother were friendly with each other. At first. His brother was happy he was home. Philippe was happy to be home. He thought things would be fine, but old feuds began again. Louis was greatly displeased with things Philippe did. They did however try to keep their feud more secretive than before. Not that it worked especially as Philippe became comfortable with his gender, and decided he was gender fluid, preferring male pronouns but would not oppose any others. Especially feminine pronouns from ones he held close, as his mother did and his long term on and off again boyfriend did.

When he returned he became a huge advocate for LGBTQ+ rights. He actively participated in Pride, and the celebrations of pride. When he announced a clothing brand proceeds from the brand go to three places besides his employees. His proceeds go to veterans, breast cancer research, and LGBTQ+ charities. His brand is very affordable despite being a high demand brand and he being a high demand designer. He refuses to raise the prices because he wants anyone to be able to afford his clothes. He has a line of suits specifically made with veterans in mind so they can afford them if they are struggling. Before he announced his brand he did start going to design school, and graduate.

When he is in his very late 20s and early 30s he is trying to live his life the best he can despite all that is going on. He has an on and off again boyfriend who has the same name as him whom he calls his Knight his Chevalier, that he has known since he was a teenager. He thinks they are destined to be, but it is always so open for him since he never knows what to expect from Chevy.

He kept up with fencing and ballet his entire life. When he was twenty nine he joined a production of Swan Lake with Matthew Bourne, in an instance of stunt casting, that worked surprisingly well. He was initially cast as the Prince, but upon rehearsals he switched to the Swan and Stranger, and it went very well. He enjoyed his time there, and hopes to join them again. He is with the production for almost a year, and split his time between Paris and London.

He’s in his early thirties and just living life, while constantly trying to repair him and his brother’s relationship. But the media is not helping, and his brother is hard headed as always. He also iis contemplating going to therapy for everything, but is incredibly nervous and scared. Things are how they are and he would hate to ruin the image of their family even more. Its such a hard balance. But c’est la vie.

#tw: cancer #tw: war #tw: death #tw: ptsd #verse: paris #verse information

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subrapture · 4 years ago

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It appears it's time to post this again, for the newcomers and the curious.

THE OLD GUARD, HISTORY, ORIGINS AND TRADITIONS.

By Guy Baldwin M.S.

Guy Baldwin, M.S. a Los Angeles psychotherapist, served as International Mr. Leather and Mr. National Leather Association during 1989-90

While reading a recent interview with Brian Dawson, I came across some of his comments about that '0ld Guard' In the leather lifestyle. Although I used that label in a piece I wrote almost three years ago, I only recently realized that there was a strong likelihood that large numbers of leather guys don't quite know for sure what the phrase, '0ld Guard' really means. I'm sure that I have never seen a description of the style (and it is a style, so I want to offer one now. I have carried my own '0ld Guard' card in my wallet right next to my Selective Service Registration card (draft card) for long enough that I probably qualify to offer what follows so, here goes...

First, a bit of historical perspective will be more helpful than you might guess. '0ld Guard' is really a misnomer - a misapplied name - for the earliest set of habits that jelled by the mid- to late 1950s in the men's leather community here in the U . S. It is very important to remember that the modern leather scene as we now know it first formalized itself out of the group of men who were soldiers returning home after World War ll. (l939-1945).

For many gay men of that era, their World War ll. military service was their first homosocial experience (first time being thrown together mostly in the company of other men for significant lengths of time), their first time away from their growing up places, and their first experience of male bonding during periods of high stress. War was (and is) serious business; people died, buddies depended on each other for their lives, and the chips were down. Discipline was the order of the day, and the nation believed that only discipline and dedication would win the war and champion freedom: (Ever notice the especially strong patriotic feelings that happen at leather events?)

Anyway, these gay war veterans learned about the value and pleasure of discipline and hard work in the achievement of a noble purpose. They also learned how to play hard when they got the chance for leave time. Indeed, military life during wartime was (and is) a mix of emotional extremes born out of sure knowledge that one could literally be 'here today, and gone tomorrow. ' Lastly (for these purposes), the gay vets had the secret knowledge that they fought and served every bit as well as straight soldiers, and this information strengthened their self-esteem. All of these things came to be associated with the disciplined, military way of life as it existed during the wartime years.

Although not all gay men of that time served in the military, those who didn't were exposed to the military attitudes through their contact with the vast numbers of military men who were everywhere to be seen and cruised both during and immediately after the war years. In any case, all these things greatly influenced the shape of masculine gay sexualities. Mars

Upon their return to the States about 1946, many of the gay vets wanted to retain the most satisfying elements of their military experience and, at the same time, hang out socially and sexually with other masculine gay men. They found that only in the swashbuckling motorcycle culture did such opportunities exist and so the gay bike clubs were born. It was here that they found the combination of easy camaraderie, the stress and thrill of real risk taking (the riding), and the masculine sexuality that they had known during their military days.

Since one can tell who is and is not in the military only when uniforms are worn, these gay men unconsciously (in most cases) transferred their loyalties to their own uniform-the leather gear of bike riders with a few paramilitary touches thrown in. Club insignia often recalled hose insignia of special military units: Thunderbolts, Warriors, Blue Max, and Iron Cross to name only a few. Club members would exchange their insignia with members of other clubs in friendship; christening rituals were transferred from tanks, ships and airplanes to motorcycles and piss was substituted for champagne; the military dress uniform hats became the leather bike caps-all these elements were just as had been during military service.

Incidentally, during the war, the soldiers would often put on skits for their own amusement. Since women were not allowed at the front, some of the men would play the parts of women by doing a kind of mock dress-up (as in one scene from 'South Pacific'). Later, this tradition would be expressed in 'drag' shows during bike runs. So, masculine men pretended to be pretending to be women-not truly 'drag' at all. (lt. still happens in a few places.)

In any case, being in the military also meant following lots of rules. And just as in the military, there were (unspoken) rules about what you did and did not wear, how you handled your personal affairs, who you could and could not socialize with and more. All this was overlaid with a kind of ritual formalism just as in the military. Those men who were really into dominance and submission, SM, or leather sex tended to take these rules rather more seriously than those guys who simply thought of themselves as butch. The butch ones wore just enough leather to be practical when riding, and those into the exotic sexualities tended to wear more gear than necessary to signal this fact about themselves, but they all hung out together in the same settings. As you might guess, in some cases, any particular person might be into both riding and the exotic sexualities.

Just as an aside here, before and during the war, kinky folks seeking to identify each other would sometimes defensively ask, 'Do you play the mandolin or the saxophone?' to discover which of them was the masochist or the sadist by the first letter of these instruments. All this while wearing street clothes! The creation of a butch subculture by the gay vets began to allow people to specialize their sexual interests in a way that had been impossible earlier. Prior to this development. it was not apparent that there were very many ways to be gay.

The bike clubs and the bars where they hung out became the magnets of their day which attracted those gay men who were interested in the masculine end of the gay spectrum, but it was the leather men who defined the masculine extreme at that time. (Nowadays, we know there are many ways to be masculine.) This meant that those who had an inclination to kinky action pretty much felt compelled to explore kink in the context of the leather SM scene since it was the only game in town. If motorcycle riding or black leather itself was not 'your thing', that meant one felt obligated to visit the hang outs and look and act the part as much as possible to find one's way into the inner circle of those who looked like they knew something about the exotic sexualities. This meant finding out what the rules of inclusion were (how can I be included?) in order to gain access. To some extent, all this is still true because the attitude still prevails that the 'uniform'' indicates experience and social access to the Knowledgeable People.

And so, the Scene became EX-clusive rather than IN-clusive, meaning that the people in the Scene understood the rules and tried to keep outsiders out-to exclude them. An outsider became defined as anyone (butch or not) who did not have a primary interest in and experience with the exotic sexualities or at least an interest in motorcycles. (This excluding attitude was probably also reinforced by guilt about being kinky.)

I know that this combination of kinky men mixed in with motorcycle riders may sound a bit odd now, but that's how the Scene worked and, to some slight extent, still does. All through the 80's, with the emergence of kinky organizations and specifically leather/SM events, the motorcycle riding community and the kinky leather community have grown apart such that now those in one group are pretty much ignorant of or indifferent to the events happening in the other.

This growing separation is more true in larger cities which have the numbers of people that are necessary to support each of these two communities, each with separate needs and agendas. Consequently, many old and venerable bike clubs have experienced a drop in membership and some have disbanded altogether.

But for the most part, kinky people have segregated themselves out from the riders as the process of erotic specialization has continued. Generally, the riding community seems not to have minded this development perhaps because many of the members of riding clubs are either turned off or embarrassed by the erotic visibility of the kinky crowd "Birds of a feather". But for this discussion, it is noteworthy that many of those kinky people retained the paramilitary trappings, manners and attitudes of that early, core group of returning World War ll. gay vets.

Most importantly, these features of the military mind-set joined with inky interests and became erotic in and of themselves became fetishes. These men then were the original '0ld Guard', and so it will come as no surprise that their quasi-military rules of inclusion and exclusion still influence kinky society today.

So what exactly were the (unspoken) "Old Guard' rules? Here are a few of the more important ones that had prevailed by 1970:

About Attire

Always wear boots, butch ones, and preferably black.

Always wear a wide black leather belt plain, not fancy.

Never mix brown leather with black leather.

Never mix chrome or silver trim with gold or brass trim.

Long pants only, Levi's or leather, and no shorts.

Chaps indicate more commitment than Levi's, and leather pants more commitment than chaps, especially when worn consistently.

Leather Jackets must have epaulets (bike riders excepted).

Head gear is reserved for Tops or experienced or heavy bottoms only.

Bottoms may not own collars unless a particular Top has allowed that bottom to be the custodian of the Top's collar. A bottom wearing a collar is a slave, and belongs to the owner of the collar who, presumably, has the keys. Other Tops are not to engage a collared bottom in conversation, but other bottoms may do so. Should such a relationship end, the collar must be returned to the Top.

Never touch the bill of a bike cap, including your own.

Never touch another man's cap (or head gear) unless you are very intimate friends or lovers.

Keep studs and other decorations to a tasteful minimum unless they happen to be club insignia.

Never wear another man's leather unless he puts it on you.

Leather, other than boots and belt, must be 'earned' through the achievement of successively challenging 'scenes.'

Wearing gloves is reserved for heavy players, glove fetishists or bike riders.

Always indicate SM preference, only with keys left or right.

If you are cruising seriously, wear the keys out; if not seriously, tuck them in a back pocket. Always indicate strictly leather sex or 'rough sex' interest by wearing no keys at all.

Those who 'switch' are second class players and not to be taken as seriously because they haven't made their minds up. If you must switch, do so in another town.

'Full' leather is reserved for after 10:00 P.M. only and only with 'our own kind'.

Respect the public by wearing less of it during the day--don't frighten old ladies (l did once by accident), or anyone else for that matter.

About Socializing and Cruising:

Experience in the Scene determines social seniority (Top or bottom) , not age, not size, not amount of leather worn, and not offices held in organizations, awards received or titles won.

Tops and experienced bottoms should be accorded higher respect and deference unless and until they behave rudely--all are expected to observe rules of social courtesy-bad manners are inexcusable and can lower one's status in the Scene (thereby reducing access to the Knowledgeable People for information or play),

Real Leathermen keep their word: they do not borrow or lend money; they conduct their affairs with honor and integrity-they don't lie.

Preliminary social contact should be on the formal side.

'Senior Persons' (Top or bottom) are not to be interrupted when in conversation.

Experience being equal, Tops lead the conversation.

Junior Tops defer to Senior Tops and Senior bottoms in social situations.

Junior bottoms defer to all others in the Scene but not to outsiders.

When walking together, bottoms walk half-a-step behind and to the left of Tops with whom they are involved or playing.

It is up to the Top or the experienced bottom to extend a hand to invite a handshake. (All touching is highly restricted during initial contact between strangers.) NEVER over-indulge in drugs or alcohol in public, or otherwise attract scornful attention to one's self--to do so brings dishonor on the men in the Scene,

Tops should always have the first two opportunities to make verbal or physical contact,

The more submissive one is, the less direct eye contact one makes-glance frequently at or stare at His boots only when cruising; less so in non-sexual conversation. The more dominant one is, the more direct the eye contact is unless there is no erotic interest (cruising only).

Men in the Scene do not discuss (or write about) the Scene with outsiders. All men in the Scene must be able to spot outsiders with the 'right stuff' and be ready to facilitate them into the Scene after they indicate sincere interest.

None of these rules are taught or explained to anyone except by innuendo, inference, or example.

Erotic technical information is only shared among peers.

Maintain formal and non-committal relationships with those outside the scene; avoid contact with feminine men. Women are not allowed although Senior People may occasionally have intellectual or brief social relationships with the occasional qualified kinky woman, but only in private.

Very few men maintained full compliance with all these rules all the time, and some, flatly refused to follow rules they personally objected to. But, to be included one was expected to follow at least most of these rules most of the time. Also, confusingly, there was some variation in some of the rules depending on what city you happened to be in at the time. The list above is not complete although it conveys the sense of the style.

Understandably, a certain stiffness surrounded the men who followed these rules, just as a certain stiffness surrounded the military men of the era. Those who sought inclusion had the challenge of finding a relaxed and easygoing way to follow rules. However, this required considerable social skill and many kinky people lacking those skills (or patience ) simply gave up and accepted a frustrated role on the fringe.

As time passed, there were more and more guys in their twenties whose early sexual development had not been influenced strongly by contact with the military. Therefore, they lacked the early raw material with which to fetish-ize the military features of the '0ld Guard' leather/SM scene. Still, they needed information and experiences to help shape the urges of insistent kinky longings.

These people were essentially without resources until the establishment of kinky organizations brought about new educational opportunities that were not bound by '0ld Guard' rules.

Consequently, there is a lot more support now for new people coming into the leather/ SM scene who have other ideas (non- military) about what is hot. Long hair, rockers with wild designs on their jackets, road racing bikers with brightly colored leathers, leather faeries, skinheads, women and others now are found on turf once dominated by the '0ld Guard' system'.

So, '0ld Early Guard' or perhaps thought of as 'Early Guard" or perhaps 'First Guard' because that style makes sense given the erotic influences that shaped the inner lives of the men who were coming of age sexually at that time. The Old Guard made some real contributions and made some real mistakes, and still does both.

It is more useful to understand than to criticize. And, perhaps most importantly, what the Old Guard did for the development and expansion of kinky life and butch gay male sexuality can best be appreciated against the backdrop of what had existed earlier--not much of anything!

But remember this, as long as we have a military, and a paramilitary police system, and as long as that military has traditions of initiation, ritual, inclusion/exclusion, honor and service, there will always be an '0ld Guard'. Its size and influence in the leather/SM scene will probably always be proportional to the role played by the military and other paramilitary organizations in society-larger following wartime and smaller during peace.

I thought maybe you'd like to know.

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