#context my class is only 5 people all of us are already quite friendly and so far our teachers have been effective and professional

[blasphamoustraitors]

.

[bookwyrminspiration]

no pressure but what's it like being raised in the bahá'í faith? I've read a bit about it before and then just reread some stuff upon seeing ur tags and it actually speaks pretty well to how I describe my relationship with religion as a Catholic raised agnostic (I think that all religions hold potential truths and that there's not really a truly fully "correct" religion) so I'm curious what it's like to actually live with it/the practices & beliefs ^^

(heads up: this got a little long)

I'd imagine its quite similar to being raised in other beliefs--the beliefs themselves just vary.

For context, my family joined the baha'i faith when I was 5, and I stayed until I was 15--which is the official age you can decide for yourself, and I'd already figured out I was an atheist (though I never did the paperwork, so officially i'm still counted in the census). So I've got about 10 years experience in the faith, though I've never been a religious person

Like you said, the Baha'i faith thinks there is a truth to all religions. There's one God and every so often he sends a prophet to remind us of his teachings--Abraham, Mohammad, Jesus, etc. The most recent is Bahá’u’lláh, born about 200 years ago, which is who Baha'is follow now--and will until the next prophet.

The faith is huge on unity; it's like the core tenet. We are the fruits of one tree and the leaves of one branch, humanity is a collective so we should be uplifting and supporting everyone--including people we disagree with. Which meant it was a very kind and supportive environment focused on mutual aid and service. Trips to the food bank to volunteer, visits to each other when in need, that kind of thing

Like in other religions, we did things on Sundays, meeting at the Baha'i center. There we'd have the toddler's classes (up to age 5), children's classes (5-10), junior youth (11-15), and then the adult sessions (which I never went to myself); this way everything was in one building at the same time. So growing up that just meant I'd be busy Sunday mornings and had to plan around that.

Every 19 days would be a feast day, marking the start of another month (there are 19 months with 19 days each). These would typically be held at a member's house, and they'd house their sector. It's pot-luck style and there people would read prayers, listen to music, and talk about the value of the month (each month has a different value--we just ended Mulk/Dominion). Things like why it was important, in what ways, how to incorporate it into our lives for the next 19 days.

Also I should mention--the Baha'i community is rather small. The religion is only about 200 years old, so it's a rather close-knit community here. We were friends or at least friendly with practically everyone, and there were few kids, so we all knew each other and grew up kinda together.

Feast is held in the evening though, which means the most consistent attendees are the older people--parents with kids had to be conscious of bedtimes and whether it was a school night, so my family didn't attend all of them.

Then there'd be the Holy Days--Naw-Rúz (New Year), 1st, 9th, and 12th days of Ridván, the twins' (Bahá’u’lláh and the Báb) births and martyrdoms, etc. Then we'd all meet at the Baha'i Center in the evenings, where there'd be a program, music, praying, and then we'd go eat--which was also potluck, but on a bigger scale. The faith originated in Iran, so a good portion of the community is Persian and a lot of the food I grew up with there was, too.

I don't think this is too different from what other religions do, it's just the specific Holy Days and what/who we're remembering that's different.

What was different for me--and for a lot of non-christian/catholic raised kids was the constant underlying knowledge that you're different. You don't see your prayers, your symbols (nine pointed star is the main one), your holy figures, your practices anywhere. You make christmas crafts at school and think: this isn't actually my holiday, but here I am anyway. And there's this feeling of wanting to say something, to distinguish yourself because you know people are assuming you're christian/catholic otherwise. Because it's the default and you're an outlier.

I have never met a Baha'i person outside of the center, outside of the people I've known since I was 5. Nobody knows what the Baha'i faith is, what it's beliefs are. Everywhere I go it's with the knowledge there's a 99% chance I'm the only one in the room--and the thing is, I'm atheist. I don't believe in any god, and yet because the Baha'i faith is such a minority it's important for me to still maintain that connection that separates me from the assumptions people make. Every time it comes up, I'm already prepared to explain because I know no one else knows about it, so to be Baha'i or former Baha'i is to be an ambassador, a resource as much as I can be even with my limited experience--because it's also not a closed religion. They love to spread the teachings and get people attending. One of the times my family hosted feast my friends who lived down the street came and we competed to see who could say the most prayers (though stuff to do with budget and that kind of thing is a little more for members only)

I'm kinda jumping around to think of other info, apologies. There's a daily prayer facing Bahá’u’lláh's shrine once you're a Youth (above 15), and that's also when you start participating in the fast. During the month (19 days) of Ala, you don't eat from sunrise to sunset. There's also the pilgrimage to...Bahgdad? Haifa? No one in my family has taken it, so I can't remember the location off the top of my head, but the point is there are locations of importance (like shrines and temples) in that area of the world where Baha'is' goal is to visit at least once in their life. One of the other kids I knew did a year of service after high school and went on her pilgrimage before starting college.

This has gotten a little long so I'll wrap up here but that was generally what it was like/what was up. Very community and service focused, very warm and friendly. It just meant certain days I had things going on others didn't (attending the Naw-Rúz celebration that evening, for example), and that it was always something I knew was different about my life compared to the community I was in.

This answer feels quite scattered and eclectic, so if anyone has any follow up questions feel free to ask and I'll do my best to answer :)

[he-who-writes]

Ten things I love about you (and the one thing I can’t stand)

1. Every Tuesday morning, you wake up early because you have a 9AM class and you stop by your favourite coffee shop on the way. You sit at the table closest to the front window so you can people watch. You always order an egg and cheese croissant with a cappuccino (with a dash of cinnamon sprinkled on top). You’re so polite and friendly to the employees and other patrons, and you never leave without tipping.

2. Your favourite band is My Chemical Romance even though you were born in 2005, because it’s your big brother’s favourite band. You even have a shirt from their Black Parade world tour, that you actually stole from your brother’s closet before moving out here for college. You know all of their lyrics by heart and you love singing their songs in the shower.

3. You’re very food adventurous, more than anyone I’ve ever known. It’s like nothing is too bizarre for you to taste; I’ve seen you try all sorts of meat and even insects, and one of your favourite meals is frog legs, which I have to admit sounds disgusting to me. But you speak about food and all of its intricacies so passionately that it’s almost impossible to dismiss your words. You really just love to explore options and try new things.

4. You collect noodle stopper figurines, which wouldn’t be such a big deal if you didn’t assign each of them specific brands and flavours. At first I thought it was a coincidence that your Blue Rose Hatsune Miku always sat on Chef Woo’s Thai lemongrass cup of ramen but after a while, I realized that she never sat on any other cup. I always wonder if you’ve written down your sorting system somewhere or if you just naturally remember who goes with what cup. It’s such an adorable (and very specific) quirk.

5. On Friday nights, when most of our classmates go out to drink and party, you spend the evening at the library. I thought you were studying at first but unless you have an exam coming up, you just read for fun. The silence is almost deafening some days, because nobody is there but us. You sit at a table with a few books, usually really niche non-fiction stuff, and you flip through them until something really catches your attention. Nature, historical facts, true crime, politics, societal issues - there’s nothing you won’t read. You’ve taken out “Other-Wordly: Words Both Strange and Lovely from Around the World” three times already, maybe I should buy it for you on your birthday.

6. You talk in your sleep. A lot. And you also laugh the cutest laugh like someone in your dreams tickled you. Most of what you say is nonsense, real words but strung together in sentences that nobody awake would say in any context. I’ve heard you ask questions so absurd that I had to cover my mouth to avoid waking you up with my giggling, and I have to admit that I’ve recorded you a few times just so I wouldn’t forget all the funny things I’ve heard.

7. Your cat Milkshake is spoiled rotten. I know this sounds like a critic but it’s something I adore about you. Maybe it’s because I grew up around men who didn’t show much feelings, or only owned dogs, but your relationship with your cat is so special. I didn’t even know you could take cats out on walks before I saw you put Milkshake into his little harness to tour the neighbourhood. The fact that you have tiny seasonal bandanas for him melts my heart. And I know you hold full conversations with the little guy, where you give him his own little voice and everything.

8. You have the funniest way to sneeze. I’m so used to the stereotypical loud sneeze from men in my life, but yours is so unusual. It goes up in pitch in one syllable and then down in the second, like a word, like you’re an alien who read that the onomatopoeia for sneezing is “achoo” and decided that you should try to emulate it. But you’re an alien so you have an accent on your “achoo” and it doesn’t sound quite like the way we say it. It’s so hard to explain but it’s so delightful and always makes me smile.

9. At least once a month, you have a virtual movie night with your dad. You’re both fans of horror, thrillers, sci-fi, and similar genres so you try to always watch new releases that sound interesting when they’re available to stream. And you’re not scared of crying when something tragic happens, even in front of your father, who never berates you for it even though he’s from an older generation. Your favourite movie is The Invitation and your father really loved Parasite - both are awesome movies, by the way.

10. You have a hidden tattoo on the side of your left thigh. You never show it but you really should, because it’s so beautiful. The way the artist rendered Hokusai’s The Great Wave off Kanagawa in full colour, using a shade that perfectly replicates the rich Prussian blue used back then is spectacular. It really looks like a woodblock print that somehow fades seamlessly into your skin. I don’t know why you hide it, or what it means to you, but I could look at it for hours and never get bored of it.

With all of that said, I should really tell you what I can’t stand though, right? Communication in relationships is paramount after all.

What I really hate about you...The one thing I despise.

Is that you don’t know that I exist.

[rigelmejo]

Extensive Reading Updates - Zhenhun

I have been extensively reading zhenhun, my print novel version so I am not looking up any words. (Whereas with the hanshe pingxie fanfiction I am still occasionally clicking a word). I have read the first 20 chapters of the webnovel version of zhenhun in Pleco in the past few months, so most unknown words I have looked up before at some point. So right now I'm re-reading a lot of the same content and will be until I get past chapter 20.

I can tell that my comprehension of zhenhun probably is at about 95%. As in, its enough that I can follow the main plot and most key info details, but there's enough unknown words that I cannot guess some of them from context if its a totally new part of the novel I'm reading. And I run into a number of words in the in-depth scenery and character backstory descriptions that I just do not know and there's enough I don't always have enough context to guess relatively closely to their meaning.

Since these first 20 chapters are a re-read more or less, I have the extra context of 'knowing the overall plot that happens here' already. So I'm reading slower than I probably could, trying to figure out any unknown words from all the surrounding word context and the prior-plot-knowledge I have. For these re-reading sections this is working well, a majority of the words I can re-remember or figure out. I am hoping I will pick up enough of THESE kinds of unknown-words during this re-reading portion, so that hopefully my comprehension when I get to the new parts of the book will be a bit higher than 95%. Then hopefully once I get into totally new parts of the book: my reading speed will be a bit better (less unknown words I hope lol), and I will know a bit more words to guess more totally-new unknown words (that I've never looked up before) vague overall meanings.

Examples of what things I can read clearly versus parts I can't figure out all of the words enough to be relatively sure of the details. In chapter 1, I can read the parts about "Guo Changcheng having a phobia of phone calls" clearly, but then the details about him being afraid of people and having social anxiety I can follow certain parts, but other parts of the descriptions (like him when he sees a teacher or principal) I just sort of vaguely guessed meant he was terrified of them. When chapter 1 described Zhao Yunlan's entrance, I could clearly follow the parts about him looking serious/having a bad attitude and walking fast with the attitude of "if you're in my way roll the fuck away" and then the part about how instantly his mood changed to warm, he smiled friendly, he talked kindly and helped Guo Changcheng out by patting at his shoulder when Guo Changcheng got all sweaty trying to shake hands. But then the part about how Guo Changcheng sensed a seriousness/almost-scariness about Zhao Yunlan? All those details read vague to me and I am just summarizing that my interpretation of it was "even acting friendly, Guo Changcheng felt he was serious underneath/powerful/had an intimidating vibe." And since that detail read SO vague to me, I can't tell if that was an early hint Zhao Yunlan might be a god/used to have been Kunlun, if its just another implication Guo Changcheng is afraid of people/authority figures, or if it was trying to imply something else I just did not pick up on. So even WITH the re-reading prior context of these scenes, in-depth descriptions of character's intepretations still are more vague to me even if I can guess some of the words. I imagine this will get worse when I get to the totally new chapters - unless I learn a LOT of helpful words from context by the time I get through the first 20 chapters.

When I re-read the Kunlun intro I realized I may have translated some details wrong when I translated it to english several months ago. Now, this time I didn't use a dictionary to read at all, so it's possible I also did not interpret the details I read correctly THIS time around. But yeah, a couple days ago when I re-read that part I interpreted the 'qing yi' as possibly green/blue cloth Kunlun is wearing as the blizzard is blowing (whereas when I first translated that line months ago I thought it meant 'clear white fabric' blowing in the wind like some ripped piece of cloth - its also possible this time it still means 'bright cloth' but I do think it sounds more like its Kunlun's clothes than a random cloth blowing in the wind). And this time, when I read about Shennong it seemed more like he was either a god who'd lost his powers, or a god who'd lost his godhood fully, and its just he still retained his kind unselfish demeanor. Whereas when I first translated, I figured he was just a god 'who'd suffered' because of the great calamity that had just happened, but not particularly doing any worse than that. In this re-read though it feels to me more like its implying something more severe has happened to him/is happening. Also during this re-read, the line about 'the hole in the ground being so deep the rain did not even reach this far down' was much clearer for me whereas when I initially translated I had to look up a Ton of words in that section and still didn't quite get what it meant.

Also for the chapter 1 re-read, certain details were much easier for me to clearly understand. The part about McDonalds I FINALLY recognized that word in the sentence, the part about Guo Changcheng parking then going into the courtyard area and seeing the lobby office building, the part about human resources department, all of those sections I followed the details much easier than last time I read with a dictionary. So yeah, I'm curious which parts will be 'clearer' to me this time reading.

I am still reading at a slow 5 minutes a page (speed I was reading print novel of zhenhun last time). But to be fair? I am slowing down to try and figure out every unknown right now on the re-reading sections. And I read english fiction at like 3-4 minutes a page (why???? Do I just... picture and savor a lot???). I know when I'm reading nonfiction or back when I'd read class-assigned things I could read way faster, but I think its just because I scanned for important info and details and then moved on. Idk but...I really do read english fiction too slow too lol (I'm reading a friend's book and I've read like 110 pages despite like 10 hours on this book so far T-T just because I keep savoring it and pausing and rereading). I'm rereading a fic I wrote, so I know everything that happens, and I was reading like 1 page every 3-4 minutes ;-;. I know I can read super fast I think when I like something I just... slow down. Now, my chinese is reading slow just because reading slow is ALL I can do lol. But I may need... to be more realistic that any novel may take me 20-30 hours optimistically when I read like an english novel that's only 300 pages over 3 weeks now and I'm only 1/3 through it.

I can read chinese a touch faster if its actually in my 98% comprehended range I think. For hanshe, while when I'm slowing down looking up all unknown words its probably around the same speed as zhenhun? While I'm just reading to follow the story, I can finish a whole chapter in a handful of minutes. Now, like zhenhun, I am currently reading chapters I have already read before - so the familiarity is likely speeding me up. So that fact does mean it probably won't be as easy/fast once I get to the new chapters. At the moment though, unknown words pretty much all I have a good guess of understanding roughly in context (a lot like me reading fanfic in middle to high school as far as the amount of new vocabulary beyond my range that is not affecting my understanding). I just do not necessarily have a good chance of guessing completely new hanzi pronunciations (which is the main reason I keep occassionally looking up words). The hanzi I've vaguely seen before, I can sometimes guess their reading based on radical or the other word I know them from. But the completely new hanzi I do not remember seeing at all (although I did apparently at some point during the first read through) - I cannot make a decent pronunciation guess sometimes. And of course, the hanzi I always cannot guess correctly for the life of me (looking at you 'suspicious' 'hesitate' 'doubt' because I am STILL getting those 3 words/hanzi in them confused even though I've probably looked up each word like 40 times at least).

For me, print text is slightly easier to read (and in extensive reading its somewhat easier for me to guess new word meanings/hanzi). By this I mean the font they usually use for print novels (it looks a bit more like handwriting with more slanted lines and less 'blocky' of a look). I sort of think its because the print text usually used in books has more obvious radicals to me. So my eyes parse out the radicals I'm looking at easier and can make a guess at meaning/pronunciation. An obvious example is any time a 'sound noise' is written with hanzi with the mouth radical on them. When I'm reading in print text, I recognize 'mumbled, shouted, humph'ed, sighed, breathed in etc quite quickly. Along with sounds like 'xililala' and 'deng deng deng' and there was a sound phrase used I think in Guo Changcheng's section about school in chapter one that was like he sort of 'tumbled/fumbled his way through school' and while i know tumbled/fumbled is probably not Exactly the word? It looked like a sound-noise word to me because of the mouth radical, so I figured it might be something like that? Whereas I know when I read the webnovel if I saw a 4 hanzi phrase like that I would've just gotten confused by those hanzi cause I wouldn't have recognized the meaning of the other radicals in the hanzi. Also a few weeks ago I changed a fic I was reading's text to the print-usual text in Pleco, and had a much easier time reading less slow/recognizing hanzi I'd seen before. That said, recently reading a ton of hanshe has helped computer-text reading ability a bit I think. I'm getting much more used to recognizing radicals in computer-text website usual font, which I notice most obviously in that I'm hitting more 'sound hanzi' that are getting less confusing to me to recognize.

So I guess in summary, reading extensively is going fine. I'll find out in a few weeks if its causing any improvements. I do think its helping with my ability to recall words/pronunciations of words I've seen before though. Just because the quicker I can do that the less I pause, and I don't have a dictionary to help me out so I seem to remember some pronunciations quicker (maybe because I 'have' to). I also think its helping me with general sentence parsing a bit - which I thought I was fine at, but on re-reading the beginning of zhenhun I am realizing there's a decent amount of sentences I did NOT interpret quite right the first time around even with a dictionary.

[hollyhockash]

World-Class Wonder (full quest set)

[an Aspect quest set about focused practice at the highest levels of a sport or art] [full Shepherd and Storyteller arcs available]

You’re good at something. In fact, you’re one of the best in the world. This is about how you get even better at it, and some of the things that happen along the way.

This quest set is for chess grandmasters, world-record speedrunners, Olympic gymnasts, and marathon runners alike: because being at the top of your field is a peculiarly similar experience, no matter what you're doing.

This quest set consists of five quests, each with a full-size and simplified version. I am posting them in the order in which you would play them for Aspect. Here’s a quickref of the quests, their XP numbers, and the arcs they can go on:

Practice Makes... (20-30/35 XP) (Aspect 1/Shepherd 1/Storyteller 3)

A New Perspective (25/35 XP) (Aspect 2/Shepherd 2/Storyteller 1/2)

Exhibition Match (25/45 XP) (Aspect 3/Shepherd 5/Storyteller 2)

A Rivalry (30/45 XP) (Aspect 4/Shepherd 3/4/Storyteller 4)

The Moments You Missed (20/30 XP) (Aspect 5/Shepherd 3/Storyteller 5)

Arc Features

On this quest set, you will need to define a Sport: the thing you are one of the best at, and the thing you are continuing to work on. While it does not have to literally be a traditional sport, it is competitive and easily measurable. (Thus, pure mathematics research isn’t really appropriate; it has to be Math Olympiad.) Usually it is also a thing where you are ultimately a solo competitor. (Team sports, for example, could probably be shoehorned into this quest set with some modification, but they’re not what I built this set for.) The Sport also has a community of practice - a lot of other people who also know the Skill and are also trying to get better at it.

Your Sport needs to be on your character sheet as a mortal skill (although it’s okay if the wording of what the skill is called is slightly different), and it will almost always be rated 3 or 4. This is because this quest set is designed for things that you've worked hard to get to a very high level at, and I believe that this kind of work must be done on the mortal level. A few people may get away with the skill at 2, if it’s backed by a Bondfliction or miracle that makes you The Very Best, or if it’s something absurdly niche like speedrunning Action 52’s The Cheetahmen, but that’s not recommended.

Also, your Sport is something you genuinely love pursuing. This is something you willingly give up large parts of your life to practice. This quest set is not designed for an outside authority forcing you to pursue the Sport. If you need an explanation as to why this is the case, see the Arc Notes.

Skills for this quest are things like:

chess

gymnastics

go (the board game)

martial arts

musical instrument(s) such as violin or piano

competitive dueling

competitive magic dueling

stunt flying (with a plane, or wings)

a competitive video game, like a fighting game or head-to-head Starcraft

video game speedrunning

swimming

track and field (running, and things adjacent to running)

The conceptual penumbra of your Sport skill here will be quite large, and you can use it for a lot of different things. Not only are you comfortable with practicing your Sport and things related to it, you have an extensive network of contacts related to the Sport, you can teach the Sport reasonably well, and you’ll regularly find financial or fame-related opportunities related to your Sport (such as speaking engagements, getting free trips to play video games pre-release, or offers to put your face on the cover of national magazines). I mean, obviously you will still have an Obstacle 3 to use Swimming to fix a clothes dryer, but even then the HG should let you have a relatively free hand here. Maybe when you give up and call someone else to repair it, they turn out to be a big fan of you and give you a discount?

You will also have a Community. This is a group of people who are also pursuing your Sport. At least some of them will be roughly equal to your skill level, and you regularly compete with them on a friendly basis; they are also, to an extent, a social club. This is because when you are incredibly interested in something, and other people are also incredibly interested in something, and you often interact with each other in the context of competitions, you already have a lot of surface area to bond over.

Arc Notes

Aspect arc

Practice Makes...

A New Perspective

Exhibition Match

A Rivalry

The Moments You Missed

This is the original order of this quest set, and fairly straightforward. Your routine involves practicing every day and not really getting anywhere. Then you discover another school of thought. After that, you show off your skills to lots of people. If you continue on, you could end up in a dramatic rivalry, and might also have to confront the fact that you've lost touch with another part of your life.

Shepherd arc

Practice Makes...

A New Perspective

A Rivalry or The Moments You Missed

A Rivalry

Exhibition Match

In the Shepherd version of this quest set, your ordinary routine of practice every day is disrupted by your discovery of a new school of thought, and you work through that for a while. After that, you either finally manage to demonstrate yourself as someone's equal or come to terms with how much you haven't been able to do. Beyond that, you might participate in a legendary battle with another titan in your Sport. And possibly, eventually, you go around showing off just how good you are.

Storyteller arc

A New Perspective

A New Perspective or Exhibition Match

Practice Makes...

A Rivalry

The Moments You Missed

You find yourself suddenly interested in a new way to approach your Sport. Then you either continue to pursue that path to try to wring more results out of it, or you spend some time trying to show other people that this way is better. Eventually, you end up lost and at an impasse as to what to do next. Perhaps you are pushed to new heights by a personal desire to best a rival, and might find yourself facing the fact that you've pushed aside "little" things that are no longer quite so little.

Distinct lack of Emptiness arc

This quest set is designed for a Sport that you give up large parts of your life to practice. On the Aspect, Shepherd, and Storyteller arcs, you do this (mostly) willingly and gladly, and the bad parts come from how much of your life you give up to pursue it. As best as I can tell, then, the Emptiness arc for this quest set would be for you to break because pursuing this would force you to lose other things you cared about.

I can’t write that arc.

To explain why, let me tell you a story.

I am classically trained in piano. Part of piano classical training is to learn to play complex songs from memory. There is a special type of recital - piano competitions, in my case, although I assume there exist similar events for other instruments - where you go about showing off your memorized song playing to judges, who then rate you for your performance/interpretation and award medals, much like figure skating or gymnastics routines.

My sister and I were at one such competition. They had practice rooms, one piano to one soundproofed tiny room. These pianos were in the practice rooms because they were broken in some way; almost all had strings (and thus notes) missing, and some had actual keys missing. When I got to the venue, I went to one of these practice rooms and did some last-minute rehearsal of my song. Eventually, my performance timeslot rolled around, and so I performed the song in front of the judges and an audience, and did so reasonably well.

I was later told (by my other parent, on the ride back home) that my younger sister, when confronted with these practice rooms, went to each piano, said “this piano is broken, so I can’t practice at it”, and demanded to go to a different room, and did this again and again until her actual performance timeslot came up. Then she completely failed to perform the song, as she hadn’t actually memorized how to play it.

We had been given the same amount of training, put through the same amount of required practice, and expected to perform the same. But I wanted to be good at piano, and she didn’t, and in the end that was all that mattered.

(Later on, I encountered depression, and also moved away from that piano teacher, so I stopped. But that’s another story.)

To write this Emptiness arc, then, would be to assert that it is possible to train someone to the highest levels of performance without their consent. Certainly, it is possible to train someone to bare proficiency if you use enough force. But for someone to reach the highest levels of their craft, they have to want it with all their heart. The truly world class spend their days planning out what they want to try next, and their nights dreaming of innovations. That drive can't be forced.

As such: when you experience training as Emptiness, as something that you are broken into pursuing, that’s a story so different that it cannot be fit into this quest structure.

I would know.

Practice Makes...

Aspect 1/Shepherd 1/Storyteller 3

Realistically, when you're one of the best in the world at something, you have to practice intensively every day to maintain your skills. This isn't even time spent improving yourself. This is devoting an hour or two a day just to keep the rust off.

(Mind you, in Chuubo’s realism is not really a concern, but for the purposes of this quest set, the point stands.)

Practice Makes... (35 XP)

This is the one where you are actively struggling to keep up, and it’s hard, and it feels like the goalposts keep moving.

Major Goals: The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:

you suffer a minor injury such as a sprained ankle

you acquire a new nifty gadget that purports to help with your performance and then stop using it after a few tries

you hear of someone younger who is more talented and better than you

You can earn each bonus once, for a total of up to 15 XP.

Quest flavor: 1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP for this quest when you:

wait all day for something that was supposed to be done within an hour or so, with no explanation as to what’s taking so long

get up extremely early for practice

eat a granola bar

write emails or letters to other people in your Community

wash your hands carefully and thoroughly with soap

do maintenance on the equipment you use for your Sport

irrevocably screw up a practice run or practice test and have to start over

You can combine this with an XP action, but you're not required to.

Practice Makes... (Simplified) (20-30 XP)

This is the one where you’re just... practicing. You know? It’s not really such a big deal. (This version is not suited for use on the Storyteller arc.)

This is a Shepherd anytime quest, where the catchphrase is something like “I need to go to practice”.

A New Perspective

Aspect 2/Shepherd 2/Storyteller 1/2

You change the focus of your studies/practices. Sometimes you're looking into a different school of thought (studying AlphaGo's record instead of historical Go games). Sometimes you are focusing on a different specialization (speedrunning glitchless instead of glitched).

A New Perspective (35 XP)

This is for when changing your practice opens up a whole new field of opportunity.

Major Goals: The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:

you acquire a major upgrade for the equipment you use for your Sport

you take a complete break from your Sport, doing your best to push it out of mind, for at least a Chapter

you establish a way that you can practice your Sport without actually literally playing through it (thinking through chess problems instead of playing chess; practicing high diving moves suspended on ropes above a trampoline; using one of those extremely good trumpet mute microphones that digitally processes it back into sounding like a real trumpet)

You can earn each bonus once, for a total of up to 15 XP.

Quest flavor: 1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP for this quest when you:

study videos of someone else practicing your Skill

attempt a new trick and completely fail at it

practice as the sun rises

calculate probabilities

repeat a nonsensical word or phrase (that you are presumably using as a mnemonic device ICly) to yourself several times

catch something someone throws at you

drink the entire contents of a water bottle in one long gulp

You can combine this with an XP action, but you're not required to.

A New Perspective (Simplified) (25 XP)

This breakthrough is not such a big deal.

Major Goals: The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:

you successfully come up with a setup or technique that allows you to perform what was previously an inconsistent trick consistently

you achieve a new personal best (distance? time? ELO? perfect replication of every note? whatever it is for your sport)

You can earn each bonus once, for a total of up to 10 XP.

Quest flavor: 1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP for this quest when you:

practice in front of a mirror

write a checklist (following through with using it is optional)

carry an extremely heavy bag or backpack

ask for help

drink the entire contents of a water bottle in one long gulp

You can combine this with an XP action, but you're not required to.

Exhibition Match

Aspect 3/Shepherd 5/Storyteller 2

You attend a handful of events that are more about raising your profile than about serious competition. Often these are charity events. Sometimes you are involved in organizing or instigating them. Getting to these events is arduous, and the physical conditions under which you’re performing are not the greatest. But the energy of the crowd rooting for you keeps you going.

Exhibition Match (45 XP)

This one is for when you go traveling or touring.

Major Goals: The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:

you physically meet someone you know from your Community for the very first time

you push yourself to appear and perform despite being sick (usually with a bad cold)

you warn the people watching you that this stunt has never been done in front of a crowd before because it is incredibly scary, chancy, and/or dangerous, do it, and somehow succeed

you set up your equipment or practice despite being in a space wildly unsuitable for it (such as hauling your GameCube and CRT monitor out on a camping trip, or having someone pass you your electric keyboard through a window while you dangle outside on ropes)

You can earn each bonus once, for a total of up to 20 XP.

Quest flavor: 1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP for this quest when you:

take a long plane trip or bus ride

practice in front of a crowd

set up or practice in a place only somewhat unsuitable for it (such as doing a multi-hour running session on some random hotel treadmill, or hauling your thousand-piece wargame out onto the deck of a cruise ship)

eat junk food

connect with a stranger over your shared love of the Sport

are recognized by a slightly-too-adoring fan

have a bad dream about failing in front of everyone

use hand sanitizer

You can combine this with an XP action, but you're not required to.

Exhibition Match (Simplified) (25 XP)

For if you want less travel.

Major Goals: The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:

you compete with someone from out of town

you spend a night on the couch of someone you originally met in your sport’s Community (e.g. staying for a night or two while traveling; having a sleepover; your home being temporarily inaccessible since it’s being fumigated)

You can earn each bonus once, for a total of up to 10 XP.

Quest flavor: 1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP for this quest when you:

sit somewhere extremely uncomfortable

drink your third cup of coffee

solicit donations for a charity from friends

wear an embarrassing piece of clothing someone dared you to

have a bad dream about failing in front of everyone

You can combine this with an XP action, but you're not required to.

A Rivalry

Aspect 4/Shepherd 3/4/Storyteller 4

You compete seriously with someone else - someone so good that people half-jokingly wonder if maybe they sold their soul. (Or maybe they're just cheating with steroids or money or video editing, but you can't prove that. Not during this particular quest, anyway.) It is absolutely infuriating. It also drives you to heights of achievement that you have never before attained.

A Rivalry (45 XP)

This one is for when the rivalry is highly structured and has an audience and so on.

Major Goals: The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:

you lose. No qualifiers. You weren’t at a major disadvantage like being injured or sleep-deprived, they weren’t visibly playing dirty, you just straight-up lose and acknowledge it as such.

you invent and demonstrate a technique or trick for your Sport that was previously thought impossible (such as a quintuple jump in ice skating)

your winning celebration is interrupted by a referee’s ruling that it didn’t actually count

someone from the Rival's end of your Community (insofar as there are different sub-social-circles in your Community in the first place) gives you insider information

You can earn each bonus once, for a total of up to 20 XP.

Quest flavor: 1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP for this quest when you:

skip a barrier

have practiced so long through the night that you find you’re still doing so in the morning

wake up only a few minutes before practice is due to start, and have to rush to get ready

wander into a scene while talking to yourself about strategy

analyze footage/records of your Rival’s past performances for potential weaknesses

clean/maintain your equipment

stop in the middle of washing your face in the sink and stare up at yourself in the mirror, dripping wet

wipe sweat off your brow

You can combine this with an XP action, but you're not required to.

A Rivalry (Simplified) (30 XP)

This rivalry is more unofficial/informal.

Major Goals: The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:

someone threatens to hurt you or ruin your reputation, but you don’t back down

you do something absurd to try to enhance your performance

you don’t show up at an event your rival shows up to, and they’re crowing about it

You can earn each bonus once, for a total of up to 15 XP.

Quest flavor: 1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP for this quest when you:

crack nut shells with your teeth

wake up only a few minutes before practice is due to start, and have to rush to get ready

use a stopwatch or timer

clean/maintain your equipment

wipe sweat off your brow

shake someone's hand

You can combine this with an XP action, but you're not required to.

The Moments You Missed

Aspect 5/Shepherd 3/Storyteller 5

There is someone you haven't gotten to meet, or some part of your life that you lost, because you've been focusing so much on your sport. Maybe you receive an invitation to a family wedding that you had no idea was coming even though you should’ve figured it out. Maybe you had to miss your high school graduation. Maybe you realize that you hadn’t met your new niece for the entire first year of her life.

Perhaps you couldn’t have stopped for it. More likely you’d made the tradeoff knowingly, let it pass by for the sake of the Sport you love. How are you supposed to make up for something like that?

The Moments You Missed (30 XP)

This is the one where you go full-on doubting yourself.

Major Goals: The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:

you construct a coherent story of how things could’ve gone differently, thinking through what other decisions you’d have made if you’d been less wrapped up in your Sport

you get sick in an ordinary, Sport-unrelated way

someone in your Community helps you out of a bad situation

You can earn each bonus once, for a total of up to 15 XP.

Quest flavor: 1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP for this quest when you:

take an extremely, extremely long shower

fixate on how you could’ve done things differently

compare something in ordinary life to something in your Sport

make an extremely obvious mistake in your Sport that you should really have caught earlier

distract yourself from negative feelings by throwing yourself into your Sport instead

peel the shell off a hard-boiled egg

You can combine this with an XP action, but you're not required to.

The Moments You Missed (Simplified) (20 XP)

This is the one for when you have already gone through this a couple times, and have more or less made your peace with the fact that your Sport will make you miss things.

Major Goals: The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:

you watch a home video of someone else’s major life event

a teacher, coach, and/or mentor retires, moves away, or otherwise exits your life permanently

You can earn each bonus once, for a total of up to 10 XP.

Quest flavor: 1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP for this quest when you:

repair something

haul old toys or clothes to a donation center

do stretches

talk about what you "should" be doing

You can combine this with an XP action, but you're not required to.

[dwayners13]

Lainey Can’t be Manipulated by Greg, Because Lainey Has a Psychology Degree???. . . WTF

I’m not sure who told Lainey or Greg that having a B.A in psychology somehow makes you immune from being in a manipulative relationship, but here’s the truth. (Just to put this in context, one of my undergraduate degrees is in psychology, I work in the mental health field with adolescents & young adults).

1.) Lainey didn’t have a B.A when Greg started talking with them or dating them, in fact, (if I’m not mistaken) Lainey didn’t even have a high school diploma at that time. Seventeen year old Lainey was a HUGE fan of Onision & believed they were soulmates based off his videos & social media. That’s a relationship ripe with potential for manipulation.

2.) A psychology degree gives you an excellent foundation in psychology, with respect to: it’s history, terms, schools of thought (cognitive/behavioral, nature/nurture etc.,.) the basics of various sub specialties (developmental, clinical, industrial, forensic etc.,.), a basic understanding of how research is done (control & experimental groups, compound variables, sample population, standard deviations, t scores, methodology etc.,.) & it provides you with the knowledge/background to then pursue a masters in psychology if you want to . . . however, the idea that simply obtaining a B.A makes you immune from manipulation or would make it so you could avoid being manipulated in a relationship, (especially one you’re already in) just isn’t realistic. 

3.) While having a B.A in psychology can potentially give you a better understanding of human behavior in comparison with someone who doesn’t have any formal education in this area, the idea that you can’t be manipulated represents one of the common misconceptions some graduates have, in that they overestimate their competency, capabilities & qualifications. For example, Greg & Lainey seem to think that since Lainey has a B.A., Lainey would know if Greg had a mental health diagnoses/disorder, which as Lainey should know is absolutely ridiculous. Where I live/work, having a psychology degree alone doesn’t even qualify you to get a job as a counsellor, let alone give you the ability to ascertain if someone you know does or does not have a mental health disorder. A psychology degree barely scratches the surface when it comes to knowing the various DSM diagnosis’s, the criterion for making a diagnosis, the various &/or specific testing instruments used in connection with specific area of concern (ie., what test are used when an individual might be showing signs or potentially possesses characteristics associated with a particular disorder/diagnosis).

4.) Even if Lainey took a senior level course in ‘‘Identifying Manipulation Tactics Commonly Used in Romantic Relationships” (I just made that course up as an sarcastic example) & scored at the top of their class, when you are involved in a close, intimidate relationship with someone, you lose your objectivity & develop a subjective bias that significantly interferes & negatively affects your ability to see things from an objective standpoint which is CRUCIAL. You tend to overlook certain concerning or problematic behaviors, excuse, ignore &/or justify other indicators of manipulation, as you don’t want to A.) believe your partner would do that, B.) believe that you could be being manipulated & not even realize it (by someone you love no less)  & C.) want to believe you’ve spent all these years in a manipulative relationship & didn’t realize it.

5.) When Greg started talking about wanting Lainey to get a girlfriend, so ‘Lainey’ could explore ‘Lainey’s’ bisexuality, saying that he just wanted ‘Lainey’ to be happy, that he worked a lot & a woman could give ‘Lainey’ something he couldn’t, I think A LOT of people could see where this was going & what Greg’s ultimate agenda/goal might have been. If not, they probably saw it when Greg specifically encouraged Lainey to give a certain attractive 19 year old (Billie) a ‘second chance’, even though Lainey expressed concerns that he & Billie seemed to be doing most of the talking during the first visit, to which Greg assured Lainey there was nothing to worry about as he was just being ‘friendly’. We all know what happened on the very next visit, once Greg realized Lainey didn’t want to include him in exploring their bisexuality, he literally used what he called “MANIPULATIVE LANGUAGE”, in order to do the things he wanted to do when he was left alone with Billie. Things he knew Lainey would’ve said ‘no’ to if he had been honest about his intentions. Greg even acknowledged that he felt Lainey ‘owed’ him, with respect to a threesome. If you think Greg trying to have a threesome with Billie & Lainey just ‘happened’ with no advanced planning or forethought, I’m not sure what to tell you. Right after Lainey wouldn’t consent to the threesome & left, Greg immediately focused on Billie, even telling her he ‘loved’ her, despite the fact it was only the 2nd time he met her & he previously told Lainey they had nothing to worry about after the first visit. When someone admits to using a tactic that, they themselves call ‘‘manipulative language”, what additional proof of manipulation could you possibly want or need. 

A good & (I believe) fair definition of ‘manipulative language’ (especially the way Greg uses it) would be, “intentionally using broad & vague language, in order to conceal your true intentions, but which can later be justified as being connected to the behavior, although very loosely & not overtly obvious prior to the behavior occurring.

6.) Even after promising Lainey, he wouldn’t use “MANIPULATIVE LANGUAGE” ever again (in fact, it was in the infamous relationship contract Greg drew up), HE USED IT AGAIN. And just like the first time, it was  because he want to do something with Billie (have sex without Lainey) that Lainey had already said no to. It’s Ironic that Greg says Lainey is the ‘‘alpha” in their relationship with respect to what he can/can’t do sexually, considering he just uses manipulation tactics (i.e., manipulative language) to get around Lainey’s ‘alpha-ness’. 

It gets even worse, as even though 1.) it was Greg’s idea for he & Billie to have sex, 2.) he broke the contract by not being honest & instead using manipulative language 3.) Lainey suspected what Greg’s true intentions really were, but instead of addressing it with him, they went to Billie 4.) Greg was the one who approached Billie for sex 5.) Greg acknowledged that when Billie repeatedly brought up Lainey being mad & not wanting this, he repeatedly told Billie it was okay because he talked with Lainey . . . yet Greg & Lainey blamed Billie because SHE didn’t keep HER promise to Lainey.

It gets even better, in order to show Billie was sorry to ‘Lainey’ & committed to their relationship, Greg gave Billie a number of options she could pick in order to show that she was sorry to ‘Lainey’, one of the options was to be tied up in the basement for 3 days, something Greg characterized as ‘hot’ & called “50 shades of Greg” (as it would fit into his ‘dom’ fantasies quite nicely) . . . So he got to: 1.) break the relationship contract he made, 2.) have sex with Billie even though he wasn’t supposed to, 3.) got Lainey to blame Billie for not stoping him & best of all 4.) one of the ways he wanted Billie to show ‘Lainey’ she was sorry, was to have Billie grant GREG one of his ‘‘Fifty shades of Greg’ domination fantasies . . .again,  to prove she was sorry to Lainey. Does anyone not see the manipulation in that. He got want he wanted, was able to blame the other person & the punishment for the other person  . . . was to grant him one of his ‘dom’ fantasies. Gee, that’ll teach Greg never to use manipulative language ever again. And according to Lainey, at this point they didn’t want to continue having a relationship with Billie, so why was Greg trying to get Billie to do these things, if not for his own benefit..

I know this is just my opinion, but If this isn’t manipulation, I’m not sure what is.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying Greg is some ‘master manipulator’. iIn fact, I don’t think that he’s very good at it (at all), as the only people Greg seems to be able to manipulate are some teenage fans & those JUST out of their teen years. This is why I think A LOT of many adults have a problem with Onision pursuing relationships with not just teenagers in general, but teenage fans who look up to him.

(Please excuse any errors in grammar, spelling, tense shifting etc.,. I have an LD & usually have someone edit my writing, however not when it comes to stuff like this. It would cost me a small fortune)

[letters-to-a-listener]

29. Dec. | 17:25 - 18:30

Dear listener,

It's a low again! Yeah!!!

A few weeks ago I dropped out of school and it felt so amazing! I was constantly smiling, as happy as I haven't been in a while. But a few days ago I was starting to feel the low again. When paying a bit attention to my mind and psyche I usually can feel them coming, but I've never felt it so strong.

I'm used to those lows. That's not the problem, definitely not. The problem was me, hoping again. You need to know, I gave up on hoping to feel better soon. And then I did. And now the low feels darker than many times before. It's not the deepest one, it's quite shallow, but it feels so horribly grey and lonely.

When I was attending school I was forced to see and meet people. I hated it but I had to go. Now I am not and I'm feeling more and more lonely. There are people I could talk to but I'm not brave enough to do so.

The people I could talk to and why I can't:

1. LA: When I first got to know LA, LA was a girl. I think she didn't know in how many dark places I was over the short amount of time we knew each other. She complimented me for being a nice, friendly and helpful person. Something I have only started to hear over the past two years or so, it felt damn good. Then she met this dude (nice but not the type of personality I adore), they confessed their feelings towards eachother and messed a lot up. Not with each other, with the people in our writing group. (I met them by writing RPG btw) The group broke apart. Yay... LA is a boy now and still in a relationship with thE dUdE. He's still an amazing person, I still love him (friendship love, I think) and he continued helping me. I offer my help every now and then but he ignores the offers or declines them friendly. Now, the reason I can't talk to him: I feel horribly selfish and toxic. I feel like I'm using him and fear that people think I'm an attention hoe. I feel like it would benefit my health to stop this RPG and delete the app, pull the break for at least a few days, but I don't want to loose him and it already feels like he's slipping away. I hate it but feel paralysed. Like I can't move without breaking something.

•

2. D: D was a person from this writing group. She's bi, I'd say about 7 years older than me and probably had a really difficult past. She never told me but others say she has severe mental problems.

D was always incredibly sweet to me. Sweeter than anyone before. She told me she had a little crush on her and when I JOKINGLY asked her if it really was just a little one, she told me it was more than she could tell me. (I'm still underage, which makes this statement really weird, looking back to it.) I think I had an emotional crush on her. Maybe an emotional addiction. For a while I probably would've done everything for her and told her pretty much my whole life story, including my mental problems. Then she mentioned, in some context that made sense but I forgot, her political opinion. She wasn't right winged, no nazi bullshit, but conservative. And she liked and supported a conservative party with right tendencies. It made things extremely weird. Political opinions aren't everything, but my opinion disagreed too much with her opinion, to be something irrelevant. The drama that broke apart the group mentioned in 1 started, she was kicked out of the group, contact faded out. A few text, not much. Then - I don't remember why exactly - I was trying to read again her messages, the ones in which she told me she liked me more than a lot. They were all gone. I shattered. I talked a lot to L in that time, he's still pissed at D because of that. I'm quite sure she'd reply, if I'd text her. She'd probably help me. But I'm scared to become addicted to her toxicity. I'm tempted to call her. Or text her, I'm not sure if I saved her number. Especially since I feel horribly ugly currently and I think I'm pretty to her.

•

3. SO: SO was my classmate. She is an amazing person, helped me with many hard decisions and knows how I feel since she battles quite similar mental problems. Or at least I think so, she hasn't told me everything though. I probably could tell her, but I feel bad to only reach out to her, to ask her for help. I don't want to use her.

•

4. LI & M: Two old friends, were my classmates a few years ago. I'm sure they'd love to help me, if they knew I needed help. But they don't know help-needing-me. They know me, trying to hide all my problems and I'm not ready to show them how many I have. I'm not sure, if they'd understand. And I'm scared to scar and destroy one of the few friendship in which I don't have mental problems.

•

5. SA: SA is from the same class SO is. She'd understand me and probably would help me. Her big sister drowned while she was inside for a few minutes. I feel gross fussing over my problems to somebody with a past that horrible.

I know it's alright to get help. But it's so hard when everyone has problems as well, problems that seem bigger, more important, older. It's hard to break out of your old patterns. I try so hard.

Maybe I should call one of those anonymous hotlines. But there are people with calls more urgent and I'm scared to tell everything to a person I don't know. And I don't really know what to tell!

I'll write more letters to you in the future. Clearing my mind is calming. Expect long, probably confusing, weird letters. Hopefully some happy, positive ones, I'm not always a downer.

I hope I don't text D.

[system-architect]

i can’t rememb if i already sent an ask but if not could u mayhaps do peej

u did send an ask which i will get to in a second but i am gonna happily do pj anyway!!

Personal

1)      Age? he’s 24 and a big shit who’s weirdly conscious about being 24 despite the fact that thats sTILL YOUNG so he lies and tells people he’s 21

2)      Gender? trans gay trans gay trans gay. he’s a very GnC trans guy who hasn’t transitioned too much bc he likes how he is

3)      Romantic/Sexual Orientation? gay... he’s a big gay. loves men

4)      Height? he’s 2′10″ aka min height haha pj small

5)      Race? asura and like metaphorically a fckn demon

6)      What do they look like? (i.e, hair color, eye color, etc). like a bush baby.......... uhhh he’s a very small lithe asura with wild ass fckn scene tier spiked up hair and his eyes are Indeed freakishly huge and he’s got sort of piebald esque markings and he’s also got spots of black pigment on his tongue and gums like some dogs do! i’m just gonna link art again

7)      Any disabilities? tbh he might have occasional breathing issues from his eye size and the constant vaping. also.. Some Stuff Happens During PoF but its not anything conventional that you might be expecting...

8)      Is there a meaning to their name? nope OOPS that one asura name generator spat it out at me actually! it stuck and i thought it was a weirdly funny name for an asura while also sounding p decent

9)      What makes them, them? he’s this image:

10)   What do they want to be when they grow up/what do they want to do with their lives? tbh his life is very stagnated atm and he’s not sure what he wants. to keep surviving, he guesses

Family

11)   Do they have parents? What are they like and how do they act with their child(ren)? he’s an orphan! his parents are unknown... he was raised in an orphanage by this very prim and proper asuran lady who was very secretly kind of a party gal on the side

12)   Do they have siblings? How do they interact with them? again, orphan, so family questions are hard to answer cus he doesn’t know anything about em

13)   Extended family? Do they see them often?

14)   Do they like where they live? (Is it a safe place?) he has A Flat up inbetween arkentia valley and magus valley in rata sum (i pretend there’s more out there than there actually is jhkfgd) which is also near where the glitch is located! it is fairly safe and he is quite fond of it, although he’s at the club most of the time

15)   Where do they live? Are they wealthy? Poor? Middle-Class? i just kinda answered this but he has Money honestly....... running a luxury nightclub that’s a front for your shady information trading business will do that for ya huh

16)   Do they have a lot of expectations/pressure on them from family to do great? the orphanage owner wanted all her little adoptee children to be Starlets and tried to teach them proper etiquette and get them into refined fields........... pj is successful but in the most opposite way from this possible

17)   Do they have pets? nope and thats probably for the better

18)   Who do they look up to the most/are the closest to in their family?

19)   This there anything special about their family?

20)   Do they wish they lived in a different family/household? he’s constantly torn about like... the concept of having blood relatives out there [hopefully]........ he’s not sure if he wants to know about them or not, if he would’ve rather been raised by them or not. it’s alluring but scary

Friends

21)   Best Friend(s)? his best friend is Kinda his ‘secretary’, kessa, who is a whispers agent plant in his club that helps him run the place in exchange for siphoning information from it. PJ is aware she’s whispers and kessa is aware he’s aware she’s whispers and they have a tentative and tense but friendly??? bond. it’s like, thin ice all the time but they’re also quite close. both her and pj are savvy and sort of take turns greasing the wheels of their various dealings; i think kessa is a bit bolder and craftier than pj and more organized oops. as far as kessa as a person, she’s a tall butch with cherry red dyed hair and she goes by the nickname ‘lucky’ due to the shamrock shaped marking over her right eye. she prefers masc looking clothing and she has a suave flirty personality with a quick wit and a snarky teasing sense of humor

22)   Who was their first friend? hgjkfdgh he’s never had many friends unfortunately. he tends to drive people away...

23)   What is their friend group like? a lot of people hang around him for general exterior motives like money and status.. not many people genuinely like him

24)   Do they have a love/hate relationship with any of them? like everyone................... ‘i need you but i dont like you’ etc

25)   Do they consider any of their friends to be like siblings?

26)   Have they ever hurt a friend or lost one? definitely a lot. he’s a very abrasive person who can get fussy and picky and two-faced

27)   Do they have a crush on any of their friends? alas yeah half of pjs ‘friends’ are people he wants to smooch but its in a very vapid fashion.... even w/ deeper crushes pj isnt gonna be gettin any genuine love

28)   Do they share classes with good friends?

29)   Whom do they go to the most when they need a shoulder to cry on? he might drunk cry to viel or kessa and i dont think either would know what to do about it

30)   What would this person do without their friends in their lives? despite having shallow ‘friendships’ a lot of his self esteem revolves around popularity and being well-liked so he’d be... super crushed

School

31)   What grade are they in? If they aren’t in school, how come? he got like 30% of the way thru statics courses for political science and dropped out because he hated school... he was naturally savvy and talented with debate and an excellent candidate for a worthless weasel-y politician who can screw anyone over within a sentence but he just hated the whole school system and didn’t fit with it and getting into arcane politics wasn’t something he really enjoyed, it was all super backstabby but simultaneously Goody Two Shoes and he haaated it

32)   Do/Did they like their teachers? Was there a good one? Bad one? he probably butted heads with all of them and hated being told what to do

33)   Do/Did they listen to their teachers or are/where they goofing off a lot? definitely goofed off and didn’t care. he was good at stuff when he was asked to actually do stuff so why bother paying attention to boring stuff he already knows?

34)   Are/Where they a good student grade wise? stellar marks on very specific fields and tests and debates where the school system actually lined up with his talents but terrible marks otherwise

35)   Do/Did they need extra help? he was probably arbitrarily assigned a tutor due to his low marks but was uninterested in actually being helped and was a catty piece of shit the whole time

36)   What is/was their school like?

37)   Do/Did they have bullies in school? he’s a terrible worthless rat trash man and there was probably gossip that flew around about him but he loved hunting it down and intimidating the daylights out of the people who started it. even as a child he was a notorious drama monger and tattletale so it’s kinda in his nature. pj is a literally terrible person i’m so sorry to anyone who likes him for w/e reason

38)   Have they ever gotten into a fight at school? probably not many physical ones altho he’s def been punched a few times. most of his fights were probably weird high strung drama that contained a lot of passive aggression and counter-gossip and maybe some good ol fashioned blackmail

39)   Have they ever done something stupid/embarrassing at school? hard to categorize bc he’s a walking embarrassment

40)   How far do they plan to go with school? If they dropped out, do they want to go back? he dropped out and has literally 0% intentions of going back ever. and not as a char development thing either-- he’s never going to want to go back even if he improves as a person. it’s not his thing

Other

41)   Are they dating anyone? Do they want to date? Are the married? Divorced? pj pretends he’s shallow and only wants A Good Time but a bit more under the surface he’s absolutely desperate for more genuine bonds and wants Love And Affection and pretends ppl love him when they’re makin out idk. he’s a sad sad man

42)   What is their favorite hobby? Do they keep it a secret? he’s a boring egg who should probably pick up a hobby

43)   If they could have one thing in life, what would it be? what he’ll say he wants is like, more money/successful business but what he Needs is a kick in the ass to work on improving himself and to earn some friends who genuinely like him and to find a Meaning for himself

44)   Do they work? If so, what is it? If not, are they looking for one or even want one? shady information traderrrr he deals in secrets and identities of the asuran underworld

45)   Do they use social media? probably uses asuran instagram and snapchat

46)   Have they ever been in the hospital? probably for some very dumb injuries tbh

47)   Do they believe in the supernatural, that there is more than the eye can see? again weird Q in context of gw2 but superstitions... he’ll claim he’s logical but he’s prone to suggestion wrt this stuff and a huge chicken

48)   What do they do when they get angry, stressed, or upset? cry on bathroom floor with bottle of wine

49)   Would they consider themselves as a good person, bad person, or morally grey? i think he avoids thinking about this too in depth bc he knows he’s a bad person haha..... he’s a bit messed up atm because this doesn’t motivate him to improve despite knowing it. he’s just kinda... yeah im awful so what if you cant take the heat then get out of the kitchen

50)   Does this OC have any part of you in them? (I.e, personality traits, similar background, etc) yeah he’s a bit representative of the time period of my life where i was overfocused on Being Hurt and wallowed a lot in my trauma and i felt i was justified in being a pretty nasty person for whatever plethora of reasons, but i was stagnating and it was all hurting me really badly even if i wasn’t ready to accept that it was hurting me. i felt a huge sense of impending doom and not knowing what to do with my life or if i’d ever get better...

[wobblyfet]

The Definitive Ranking of Villainous Pokémon Teams

With USUM just coming out and Team Rainbow Rocket being a thing, I thought I’d dig up a ranking I started a while ago!

7. Team Flare

Look, those outfits are snazzy. There’s no denying that. But… who the hell are these people? What’s their goal as a team of villains?

I mean, Lysandre talks about creating a more beautiful world because he thinks humanity is dumb. The qualifiers for what a more beautiful world exactly are is never made particularly clear, just that this involves the purging of everyone not in Team Flare. He gets a bit of backstory about having a genuine savior complex turned into radical disillusionment, but it doesn’t really cover how murky his goals are here. Like, what exactly is he objecting to about the ugliness of the world? Does he want to wipe out much of the world’s ecosystem with the laser beam of doom in their headquarters or just people? How does that work? And what is Team Flare?

I’m not sure at all what the organization of the rest of this team is. The grunt dialogue suggests getting in is quite expensive, and some of them seem pretty caught up in this whole beautiful world business. There’s suggestion Flare membership is kind of an issue of status. Much of both Lysandre’s and general dialogue about it do sort of resemble the dialogue from real world radical organizations, but the problem here is that radical ideologies tend to have a deeper surface rationale than what Team Flare’s deal is. They care about class elitism while also wanting to destroy what makes the world economy, and I don’t really know why these people would be more invested in genocide than, say, aggressively running a fashion line or a country club.

The problem for me probably boils down to how little depth this team is given. The grunts are just sort of there, admins are indistinguishable, and nobody has really any characterization except Lysandre and Malva, and even that’s pretty murky. Because of that, they fall flat as antagonists.

One thing I did like about them as villains: how Lysandre uses the Holo-Caster to spread his message. Having him pop up between videochatting your friends to monologue about purity and cleansing was genuinely disquieting. In this day and age, abruptly revealing that this world’s equivalent of a smartphone is actually a vehicle for ideological evil is intimidating and relevant.

Though, I gotta say, a Pokémon game is really not the place for Holocaust puns. Boo on that.

 6. Team Aqua

These guys are the only ones to seriously rival Team Flare’s stupidity. To begin with, looking at the original games, the whole hook of “More water! Yay environments for Water Pokémon!” is really bizarre in the context of a villainous team on Hoenn. Hoenn is a goddamn island, and at that one that is already thoroughly integrated with the sea. Why there would be enough radical water lovers in this area to warrant any a whole group obsessed with expansionism is kind of beyond me.

I do like that how the remakes broadened both Aqua and Magma’s motives, but… remixed Team Aqua is still incredibly dumb. They’re a radical group in defense of wronged Pokémon, which is cool, but the answer is to destroy the world and restore it to another primordial state? What? I’m no expert in environmental science but I’m pretty sure something like that would, like, definitely wipe out most Pokémon, including the ones that live in the sea. A questionable goal for a group purportedly all about saving wronged Pokémon.

And what’s the long-term plan here for the rest of the group? Is this destruction of the world like a death pact for the members or what?

Archie is entertaining, but let’s be real, he’s also pretty lame. Going so far as to recruit a potentially suicidal eco-terrorist cult only to chicken out when a big whale starts to make it rain is kind of pathetic.

Things that win Team Aqua villain points: fleshed out and entertaining characters in Archie, Shelly, and Matt. Also, pirates are cool.

 5. Team Galactic

I feel like Team Galactic started the trend in Pokémon games of there being apocalyptic stakes with the villains. A good Pokémon villainous team doesn’t really need to be world-destroying to work well as bad guys, as I’ll elaborate on below. That said, I would still put a big gap between Galactic and the bottom two teams, and I do generally like these guys.

Cyrus wants to create a new universe without pesky things like spirit or feelings. This makes enough sense for a villainous team in the context of Sinnoh, where a person can capture deities of space and time in Pokéballs. And I also quite like how the game contextualizes Cyrus as a villain of emotional abuse in his childhood- not to say this excuses him, but it adds a nice bit of depth.

Like the last two villainous teams, I have some questions about how exactly Cyrus’s goals translate to an ideology for an entire team of mooks, or, more importantly, how such a wet blanket of a leader convinced a legion of followers to run around Sinnoh in those embarrassing spacesuits. It’s never made super clear what the rest of Team Galactic is hoping to get out of the deal, but unlike Team Flare or Team Aqua, it’s easier to headcanon a large group of people being enticed by holding positions of power in a new world where, without any spirit, people and Pokémon might easily function as slaves.

Another thing I like: Cyrus’s eventual fate in the distortion world. No redemption, no dramatic downfall scene, just him eerily ranting about his ambitions as he wanders off into the netherworld. It’s creepy and sad, and fitting ending to his saga.

Overall, I don’t have strong feelings one way or the other about Team Galactic. It’s satisfactorily developed but comparatively not as interesting as other bad guys in this franchise.

Those team spacesuits, though. There’s no explanation for that.

 4. Team Magma

Look, this team suffers from a lot of the issues that their counterparts do. Namely, the way Maxie and his team just kind of fuck off very quickly after awakening Groudon. It’s sort of ridiculous to go so far to advance your villainous team only to give up so quickly. But, other than that, Team Magma is so much better.

To be fair, in the original Gen III games, their motives are pretty thin. However, for the same reasons Team Aqua doesn’t make much sense, Team Magma does. Hoenn is a tropical island in the middle of the sea that demands travelling through the sea and jungle to get anywhere. Hell, I spend enough time facing Wingulls and Tentacools on water routes and I’m ready to sign up. Or take a Team Magma pamphlet, at least.

I kid, but that’s mostly why I like Magma’s expanded motives in the remakes so much. In a world that’s obsessed with accommodating Pokémon and keeping balance with the environment, a reactionary group obsessed with human expansionism makes for realistic bad guys. And expanding land for development at the cost of the ecosystem is exactly what a group like that in Hoenn would focus on. To be clear, none of this is to say that Team Magma is condonable, or that Pokémon’s pro-environmentalist message is somehow a bad thing- it’s just that in this context, Team Magma would be one of the most plausible villainous organizations to come up.

I also quite like Team Magma’s characters. Maxie is a cool customer and exactly the type of smug asshole you’d expect to present an environmentally-unfriendly development plan at the corporate meeting, and Tabitha and Courtney are quite amusing. Updated Courtney in particular is weirdly charming, and I kind of hope we see more of her. And even though I just whined about how easily Maxie turns around and changes his mind, I don’t really think a redemptive ending for them is necessarily a bad thing. Isn’t an ending like that what most of us are trying to get from the Maxies of the real world driving our planet to ruin?

Anyways, if Magma started looking into building eco-friendly bridges across those damn water routes, I’d totally take a pamphlet. Just saying.

 3. Team Rocket/Neo Team Rocket

Team Rocket! The OG villainous team! And easily still the most iconic, over twenty years later now. They invented the Pokémon villainous team, and they surely deserve some props for that. That’s the whole reason Giovanni’s coming back as the leader of the super-villains, right? (I have some qualms about this, but more on that later)

Nostalgic factors aside, I think Team Rocket works quite well as an antagonistic force. I just praised Team Magma for being possibly the most realistic villainous team in the Pokémon world, but I really think that dubious honor should go to Rocket. These guys don’t want to end the world or build a new universe or anything like that; they see simple profit in Pokémon and are totally willing to go after that, whatever the cost. And with that, they’re able to function on a large scale and do terrible things.

Even without threatening the Pokémon world with apocalyptic aims, for my money they’re still demonstrably scarier than any other evil team in the series. Yes, Team Rocket will actually murder that Cubone’s mother, and they will mutilate those Slowpokes for profit, and they will mess up Magikarps with freaky radio wave experiments. For that reason, Rocket plots are more memorable than like anything else in the series.

And, like any evil organization worth its butter, they won’t fucking die. They’ll be reorganizing and spreading their tendrils to the underbelly of Johto and the Sevii Islands and now Alola. It’s totally plausible to me that a mafia with an eye for exploitative profit would have more lasting power than any of those other cults and become the villains of the Pokémon world.

They’re only at #3, though, and that’s because of one thing: Giovanni makes very little sense as a big bad boss.

I mean, he’s the shadowy kingpin of Kanto’s criminal underworld, and a gym leader? Isn’t a gym leader’s entire job to be a public official/stepping stone for up and coming trainers in the league? I’ve seen the meme of the one dude in Viridian City musing on the mystery of the gym leader while standing right next a sign that says “GYM LEADER: GIOVANNI”, but really, that’s actually, that’s a really strange problem for the team.

Because really, why would Giovanni think it’s a good idea to run a criminal syndicate from inside an establishment that literally asks for kids to come in and beat him, and then when it happens, be all like “Welp, that’s it for my criminal empire. Time to fuck off to the mountains.” It’s easily the most inexplicable downfall in the series.

I’m not sure why Neo Team Rocket in Johto wanted this guy back so desperately. And I know he’s leading Team Rainbow Rocket because he’s the most iconic legacy villain and all, but let’s be real, all those leaders probably could’ve picked someone more competent to be the evil superboss.

 2. Team Plasma/Neo Team Plasma

If I were in the Pokémon world and didn’t have the luxury of a video game screen’s distance, I would probably have some serious moral qualms about the whole catching, training, and battling system. I mean, like, PETA’s response to the Pokémon franchise is over the top and unintentionally funny, but the ethics of how you train Pokémon the only way the games let you is a fair thing to consider. Would the Pokémon world be better off without gyms and Pokéballs, really?

That’s the main reason I like Team Plasma. Their premise is more ideologically compelling than any of the other teams. Because, really, in the first four generations there’s a lot talked up about bonding between Pokémon and trainers and how the two built up the world through cooperation, but there’s really not much to indicate that this exchange is demonstrably preferable to Pokémon whose best interests might not, you know, involve forcible abductions and battling until passing out. Having a villainous team like Team Plasma let the franchise address this question in a thoughtful way, and I dig it.

It also let the Team Plasma grunts be some of the most gloriously awful hypocrites in the franchise. I still remember how absolutely infuriating it was to have all these twerps show up and obstruct me with Pokémon battles while getting all self-righteous about how battling this way was wrong, and how much I hated them all even though they had a valid point. I dig that too. A mix like that can be an ideal recipe for a good antagonist.

What really sells me on Team Plasma, though, is the family drama backing it all. N is great every time he shows up, with all his cryptic dialogue and struggles to do right by the creatures he loves. Pokémon never really had an anti-villain before and he was perfect for games as much about moral ambiguity and balance as Black and White were. Having someone intimately connected to Pokémon and their needs (I remember the chills I got when you first go in his room and see all the scratched-up toys) makes him ideal to communicate the message that good trainer-Pokémon relationships are a healthy reciprocal exchange where a trainer ideally pays attention to the needs of their Pokémon. It’s a nice message.

N adding moral ambiguity to the game is great, but the drop of Ghetsis as the true mastermind is a good one too. The extent of Ghetsis’s manipulation of N was damn chilling, and silly robe or not, adding the personal touch cements him as one of the most solidly awful main bad guys in the series. Child abuse is sort of a running theme in this franchise, and I oddly appreciate much of the way it’s featured- I mean, I don’t like it, but it’s a literary appreciation. In the case of Black and White, framing an ethical struggle of how to do right by your Pokémon against someone brutally exploiting that struggle for the sake of a power grab was effective.

(as an aside, I didn’t much care for the reveal that N wasn’t Ghetsis’s biological son. I feel like the game sort of treated the reveal as a “Guess what? Ghetsis wasn’t your legitimate father all along!” which isn’t great, since whether or not a child has blood relationship to their caretaker doesn’t actually have any bearing on said caretaker’s impact and moral responsibility as a guardian, and pretending otherwise reinforces a harmful message that adoptive parents aren’t somehow “real” parents. Not super important but it’s just a little thing that bothers me)

Team Plasma’s second appearance is honestly less memorable to me than the first, but I dig the whole team evolution and split between Ghetsis’s power grabby followers and N’s good-hearted followers. It gives the saga of Team Plasma a legacy development we’ve really only seen otherwise with Neo Team Rocket in Johto, albeit with a more epic bent.

The big unanswered questions- how the hell did Team Plasma end up a weird religious monarchy? (And who the hell are Anthea and Concordia?) I feel like demanding more practical details of the running of all these evil organizations than a game for children is realistically going to give us is a running theme in this ranking, but I care about these things, dammit.

 1. Team Skull/Aether Foundation

When I first made this ranking about a year ago, I gave first place to the Sun and Moon antagonists then too, but I wondered if it was recency bias speaking. But after a year of being less wrapped up in Gen VII than I was then, I can look back and say that these guys are the definitive #1 villainous Pokémon team. I make this announcement seriously and with perfect objectivity on the matter. No questioning or dissenting opinions will be tolerated in this house, silly nit.

I kid, of course. This is just an opinion-based list I wrote for my own amusement. But that said, I do think the antagonists this game gave us are easily a cut above everyone else on this list, just with what speaks to me.

Team Skull, to begin with, is everything. Everything from their designs to their dialogue to the way Alola treats them like a giant joke really feels like these guys were crafted with a lot of affection for them. They’re perfect for the Gen VII games because, like much else, it’s goofy and self-aware and just plain fun. I’ve seen footage of the grunt reacting in horror over you getting to say you don’t remember who they are several times now and it’s still hilarious.

But also like much of Gen VII in general, it swings back around with a surprising amount of depth. The more time you spend talking with grunts, you get more and more of the sense of a lost and displaced group of people turning with their comrades on a society that doesn’t have a place for them. A lot of this is framed around the failure in the Island Challenge, but really, it’s not hard to read more into all the possible reasons the Skull kids could have turned to crime than that, right? (and even if you just leave it at that, I do sort of wonder sometimes about how much value the Pokémon world puts on someone’s strength as a trainer. It seems like it might be a somewhat limiting way to run things, to say the least, but that’s a discussion for another day)

Anyways, Team Skull resonates with me for the same reasons that Magma and Rocket do- it’s a not inaccurate depiction of what kind of evil organizations would appear in a world that resembles our own. What many of the Skullsters describe reflects real life gang psychology remarkably well. The world doesn’t want you, because the normal standards (the Island Challenge) are too high, perhaps on top of not having food or money or being shut out socially for any number of bullshit reasons. But the gang has your back, and it’s gonna provide AND stand with you against the world. Hence the perpetuation of crime culture even when “better” life choices are there, and the emphasis on belonging and group loyalty. The way the story frames Team Skull along those lines gives you another totally plausible villainous group, but unlike Rocket or Magma, it does it in a way that frequently plays on your empathy.

Don’t get me wrong here, I definitely do not mean to paint Team Skull as a bunch of poor lil’ woobies who turned to crime because they had no agency to be better people. They’re still the villains here, after all. We see plenty in game of all the ways they’re earnestly terrible to Alolans, from generally being obnoxious punkasses who get in your way to vandalizing to stealing children’s pets to taking over Po Town. As funny as it is, I’m not totally sure why the denizens of Alola are as unconcerned with Team Skull as they are; taking over an entire goddamn town is nothing to sneeze at.

It’s just… surprisingly nuanced, is all. Team Skull can be a bunch of weenies, genuinely threatening, and have a kind of a tragic reality underneath it all at the same time. Walking through the barricaded ruins of Po Town, across all the belligerent patrollers or members just sitting in the rain, is eerie for more reasons than one.

Boss Guzma encapsulates all of it pretty well. He’ll gloriously ham things up every time he’s on screen, and he’ll bully anyone in his way, but the game also gives him some backstory and, eventually, room to express his standards and prove that he’s really not beyond redemption here. Because getting caught up in Lusamine’s sinister plots really always came down to wanting personal validation and what’s best for his Skull kids, more than a core desire to watch the world burn from Ultra Space. (I might just be a sucker for the Even Evil Has Standards trope, but even so)

I also love the moment where Plumeria decides to help you. It’s not a moment of redemption in the sense that she’s seen the light and decided to stop being a punk. Her MO doesn’t ever change at all; she fights you because she wants to protect her kids, and she comes to your side because she wants to protect her kids.

I love everything about Team Skull, but they’re only half the equation. Sun and Moon also gave us the Aether Foundation. Hoo boy.

Lusamine is my favorite main antagonist in the series. For my money, she’s easily the scariest. And not just because she fucking froze her favorite Pokémon in ice to admire them at her leisure forever. I mean holy fuck what was that and was anyone expecting a scene that horrifying in a game like this. But anyways… (shudders)

Lusamine is intimidating first because of the way she wraps herself in a veneer of civility and benevolence. I mean, it’s true that she gives off creepy vibes from the introduction, just like Lysandre, but the difference lies in just how much the Aether Foundation embodies the qualities of Pokémon Good Guys we know so well at this point. They want to protect the ecosystem and, for Lusamine, it comes from a place of love. But it takes a while to figure out just how messed up that understanding of love is.

Lusamine’s love bubble is about what she can control, and when what she loves deviates from her expectations, she reacts with physical and emotional violence. Because underneath it all, she’s an astonishingly selfish person who puts her loved ones in danger by association. She treats her love for vulnerable parties as a tactic to mold them into whatever she wants, even to horrifying ends (permafreezing Pokémon who probably loved and trusted their trainer), and treats love as a commodity that can be withheld as a punishment and an excuse for doing whatever she wants in retribution. She can take advantage of Team Skull, and more horrifically, Nebby and her children, and eventually end up at critical self-indulgence in Ultra Space because all the world has failed to meet her impossible standards for love and therefore deserves to be razed by her deadly interdimensional pet jellyfish.

I mentioned in the last entry how child abuse is something of a running theme in the Pokémon franchise, and Lusamine brings the most intimate and thoughtful depiction of it yet. It winds up with Gladion lost and caught up with criminals he doesn’t even like associating with and turns cold. Lillie ends up working very hard, by way of new positive social bonds, to overcome the complexes association with her mother forced into her. In the end, both get to symbolically save themselves and stand up to Lusamine’s abuse. It touched me in a place I would have never expected a series like Pokémon to reach.

Lusamine is the fucking worst, but… I appreciated how the games even gave her backstory and space for empathy, too. The lady had a hard deal herself, and after losing your partner that way, it’s understandable that someone would end up obsessed with control and selective about love. She’s still terrible, mind you, but it’s worth seeing where something like that is coming from. And also, I really appreciated that even when her kids are breaking free and standing up, how they still sort of love each other. I loved Lillie’s monologue on Exeggutor Island about how her mother wasn’t all bad all the time, and they have good memories. It’s a realistic outcome for abuse victims to think that way, really. Lusamine’s concept of love is horrifying and unconstructive, and the fact Lillie loves her isn’t going to stop her from resisting her mother’s mind games, and the mere existence of familial love between them isn’t going to come close to fixing just how much in the wrong Lusamine is, but it’s there. It’s more unexpected thoughtfulness it would have been easy not to include, and I’m very glad it’s there.

I also love how Lusamine, like N, addresses in a meta sense some of the moral quandaries the format of Pokémon lends itself to. Because yeah, realistically, the average player is going to be kind of similar to Lusamine- we see Pokémon as ideally under our control and as decorative collectibles to be frozen in the game file indefinitely when we don’t need them anymore. And just like Lusamine, our reaction to seeing a brand new interdimensional jellyfish of doom (or the like) is going to be “I’ve got to get that.” The value of an antagonist like Lusamine is to show how this way of playing Pokémon absolutely cannot be extended to your living, real life relationships.

If I have one criticism of the Skull/Aether coalition as bad guys, it’s probably that the rest of the Aether Foundation is rather opaque. One minute they’ll be serving the wholesome environmentalist mission, and the next they’ll be attacking you with evil grins under Lusamine’s orders. Exactly how much the members knew about and were chill with Lusamine’s secret agendas or how this was dealt with after her downfall was never something that was really addressed.

(Also, screw Wicke. That woman was clearly aware of both how Lusamine was abusing her kids and the shady things the foundation was up to, and why it was wrong, but she still supported it all by working as an Aether executive. I would have hoped you’d get to kick her oily butt like you do with Faba to teach her a lesson about passive complacency in evil activities, or at least see her get a verbal slap on the wrist, but apparently not)

Overall, though, I have a hard time nitpicking when the good parts are so thoughtful and meaningful to me. It’s with this that I’m proud to declare these the top baddies! Woo!

Anyways, that’s it for the definitive ranking! I had fun with this. Will Rainbow Rocket be more or less the sum of its parts? I can’t wait to find out!

[allbeendonebefore]

Caroline and Edith: A Brief Intro

I figured I don’t talk enough about the gals so I will do so here because i can’t concentrate and wanted to write about them for like a year

about: the concept of nyo characters and 2p characters is a thing in canon hetalia and the fandoms- i’m not terribly fond of 2p as its been characterized by the fandom (as sort of two dimensional ‘bad’ versions) and have only treated it jokingly thus far, but i have for whatever reason been curious about gender bending/sliding/swapping. I personally like personifications to /mean/ something and not simply give them a different gender, so I personally have thought of nyo and on occasion 2p personifications as different aspects of one city. In the case of ‘fem ed’ and ‘fem cal’, they represent former municipalities that are absorbed into existing ones. Some people do this with their nyo!characters, some people don’t, it’s just a personal preference of mine that I think gives an extra dimension and twist to just popping existing characters into different clothes. Basically, they look similar after having lived together so long (the joke being that to people outside the city they are basically the same thing) and they have a sort of adopted sibling relationship though they are not biologically related. 

and now the gals

fyi i know more off the top of my head about edith because i’m a u of a alumna and grew up on the south side literally on campus so therefore a little biased :^) Do i have interest in creating nyo characters for other alberta ocs? idk - i have a slight interest but idk if i have the time or energy to invest in characters who aren’t as familiar or immediately important. It’s more a development that comes after a lot of research and local knowledge. But anyway, without further ado, here are some facts.

Edith / Fem!Edmonton / Old Strathcona / South Edmonton

History

- once an independent and successful city (Strathcona), joined Edmonton in 1912 for tax benefits. 

- Now exists as Old Strathcona - most well known for being the home of the University and Whyte Ave as well as Rachel Notley’s stronghold - typically the only riding in the province to consistently vote NDP in both provincial and federal elections. Hipster central (though is slowly losing that status to Ed and 124th street on the North side). 

- was given the University of Alberta to compromise between Ed/Cal, but Ed ended up getting it anyway.

- represents the area on the south side of the North Saskatchewan. As a result she has more Blackfoot heritage where Ed has more Cree heritage. Also home to a lot of Metis people who fled Red River. Really sad because Laurent Garneau’s tree just got brought down ToT

- got the railroad that ed was supposed to get because the CPR was too lazy to build a bridge. only some vague bitter feelings between her and ed over this but they’ve gotten over it - ed is making sure to hold on to the old railway tracks Just In Case.

- Fought really hard in the 1970s to keep her heritage buildings and status during a time when the city was ready to tear it all down. Still really rankled by new developments.

Looks/Personality/Interests

- round hips and buff legs, narrow torso, not-quite-flat chest. Basically shaped like a bowling pin if a bowling pin was pointy, or alternatively, shaped like the Strathcona Public Building 

- always has her hair up when not at home, most usually in a bun. Cats eye glasses which she actually does use to see. 

- Younger than Ed but grew up faster than him. Is still taller than him today (but only slightly). Generally more blunt, more fashionable, more open and outspoken politically, and less of a worry wart. Technically closer to Cal in age.

- cat person, tea drinker, and so many tattoos. probably piercings. i haven’t figured it out. seems to manage to eat cake at block 1912 and all the trendy instagrammable foods and drinks every day and yet has no obvious source of income. Seems to disappear into that mysterious door just off Whyte labeled “SECRET LOCATION, DO NOT ENTER” (aka a local brewery’s secret hq a close walk from the old railway station which has since been converted into a beer market). Her personal style is more rockabilly than explicitly hipster- there are a lot of retro dress shops in old Strath + tattoos + leather because Alberta

- volunteers at fringe every year and probably on a first name basis with nathan fillion. fringe/acting is her life. Has an expansive and expressive theatre ability on stage, but off it she’s just kind of ‘meh’ and indifferent and private.

- is at the farmer’s market every saturday, probably selling stuff ed has grown

- lives in an old Edwardian heritage home somewhere in Old Strath, has a fluffy white cat, bikes or takes transit everywhere.  

- likes to weld weird abstract metal... things?

- Likely the one who caused the political Orange Crush for Ed, but could care less about the Orange Crush of the sporting world. Literally could not care less about hockey because of the bad riots they cause on Whyte that keep her up at night - ‘literally no amount of alcohol is going to fix this for either of us, go home’. Her sporting passion is actually basketball and roller derby, but nobody knows that because she doesn’t tell anyone. Doesn’t ride horses, (if she does, it’s English style riding), but really loved betting on them back in the day. Has a lot of FC Edmonton merch and watches soccer games, but gave up on lacrosse when the Rush moved to Saskatchewan and broke her heart. In general, she loathes organized sport and Especially the NHL, but will watch U of A Pandas/Golden Bears games because they are cheap and accessible. 

- sex positive, just not interested in discussing her own sex life or those of people she knows. I tend to think of her as aroace-spectrum (i.e. sex neutral or favourable in certain contexts, not interested in long term romance. No gender preference. Doesn’t like dating people she knows/friends.) She recently started hosting Pride herself and it has been a great success. Only enters adult stores if they are cute and queer friendly.

------------------

Caroline / Fem!Calgary / Bowness / Northwest Calgary

History

- Used to be part of Cochrane Ranch in the golden age of cattle ranching. Grew up with kind of a southern belle/debutante lifestyle that hasn’t totally left her. 

- Younger than Cal, grew up in the golden age of ranching and in the middle of massive immigration. 

- that is, both she and calvin were raised in ranch houses learning to play croquet and polo and dressing well and having tea and so on and so forth - Caro in some ways moreso than Calvin who had previously grown up in the old NWMP fort as well and knew differently- slightly more about Calgary-the-wild/mild-west-frontier

- The ranch was later divided up into recreational parks and ice skating rinks and golf courses and houses and things - though it wasn’t part of the city, people from Calgary would come up to visit all the time by streetcar as a little mini ‘escape’. Met a lot of famous people during this period, including Fred McCall the ace wartime pilot who would fly her and Cal out to Banff for day trips 

- Joined Calgary in 1964 because the nearby town of Montgomery had already done so, so why not. 

- still has really strong class divides due to the history of the area

Looks / Personality / Interests

- Though she’s sort of a prairie princess in some ways, Caro really embraces the “tough flannel wearing” sort of image of western ladies who would ride all day to get to a dance in another town. She’s still very insistent on presenting herself as feminine and well to do, but she can’t shake the country image no matter how hard she may try to play big city socialite.

- Tall like Calvin, only slightly shorter than him. Freckles, more obvious and more numerous than Calvin’s. Pretty much an hourglassy figure and a little bit busty (c cup because the city’s dumb obsession with cs get it). When I draw her i have that terrible quote from Destroy All Humans stuck in my head i.e. “would you get a load of this brassiere? i could torpedo a uboat with these things!” because I guess I also think of her as a post-war suburban housewife secretly.

- Usually has her hair in a loose side braid but will attempt fancier up-dos for social events. It’s wavy and relatively long, past her shoulders. Pierced ears, likes long dangly earrings and Expensive jewelry. I tend to look at the Library when I draw her - I like the round wheely shapes from its history as an ATV shop and use those as jewelry, so its like Long and Round shapes for her body but she also has a pokey chin/nose/fingers etc like Calvin.

- she tries to keep her fashion sense in that sort of light and airy feminine zone but she still gets all her dresses and blouses from Lammles. Will Absolutely rock the full western jeans and flannel during stampede or on vacation in the mountains, but in the city she tries to keep it more urban and/or professional.

- bigger fan of sports than Edith, Extremely into hockey and is a Serious supporter of the Calgary Inferno. Only wears jerseys on game day, but has one in each colour for each team.

- her political views are slowly ~seeming~ to shift- being a typically right wing conservative stronghold was upset in the 2015 election and she now lives in an NDP riding which is Very Interesting. It was a split between NDP/Cons/WR 5:5:3 so you could argue the right-wing vote outnumbered the left wing 8:5, but it’s still Very Interesting, thanks First Past the Post. Generally like Calvin she is a True Blue Conservative, though she might lean more towards WR and he leans more Liberal (shocker, I know). But I won’t be able to figure out whether she’d be a UCP voter yet so we will have to Wait and See who she hates more xDD  

- that said, like many Albertans and particularly those in urban areas, Caro is fiscally conservative and socially liberal. She does take a longer time to understand issues that don’t obviously affect her and for that reason she is the sort of person to deny the feminist label even though she really aligns with it, but she’s learning. Generally really traditional and embraces femininity and the division of labour between genders, etc. WASPy. 

- generally very no-nonsense and more biting verbally than Calvin, but also very much a romantic. She can be the PTA wine mom of your worst nightmares or the harlequin heroine of your dreams, just try not to get on her bad side. She likes numbers and finances because they are straight forward and say what they mean.

- I’m still divided on where she lives. Calvin is the one with the penthouse downtown, Caroline is the one in the suburbs but she probably still owns ranchland that she likes to supervise even if she doesn’t actually live there. All her horses are named after horses from Heartland or something, probably. Dog person. Hangs out in Edworthy Park to meet dogs, probably.

- literally both the girl in pumps and a pencil skirt who drives a car2go to get groceries and also the girl in rhinestone studded boots who drives a big black truck with a huge pink flowery cursive ‘oil wife’ decal on the back window, or the pink flowery cursive ‘dirty money’ across the top.

- literally to understand caroline-as-socialite pls just watch gavin crawford’s wild west - the oil wife [part one] [part two] i swear to god i cry laughing every time at ‘how about a western theme- how about not’. Everything gets me but especially the passive aggressive ordering-dessert-for-everyone and staring them down until she gets her way. You know what, just watch all of the shorts, it’s a brilliant series.

[libbysilson-blog]

Week 9; Entourage

IN CLASS:

Context is the environment or setting something is in and often helps describe function or use. A typical way of describing a context visually is through adding entourage; animals, plants and people all help give a sense of scale. Placing your creation into a scene can achieve this too.

Conversions of data; to grams:

Primary energy consumption:

Linen; 100%, 6.0 MJ (611829728g (3dp))

Cotton; 86%, 5.1 MJ (520055269g (4dp))

Water Consumption:

Linen; 100%, 6.4 L (6,400g)

Cotton, 402%, 26L (26,000g)

Global warming potential:

Linen; 100%, 130g of CO2 (130g)

Cotton; 98%, 128g of CO2 (128g)

Eutrophication:

Linen; 100%, 105 mg of Phosphate (0.105g)

Cotton; 118%, 125 mg of Phosphate (0.125g)

Freshwater aquatic eco-toxicity potential:

Linen; 100%, 11g of Pesticides (11g)

Cotton; 780%, 90g of Pesticides (90g)

Data Table Chart:

From the data above, I have a clear idea of how I want to illustrate the data within my coding art; I will be creating five seperate shapes/ forms (each environmental factor), then I will bring these all together for my final, in which I will screen print onto a cotton or Linen T-shirt. Within each factor, I will use both the percentage and the gram numbers for each material; The two materials (linen and cotton) will each have their own colour, and the percentage will be thicker and possibly more transparent than the grams.

Each factor has very varied data in size in comparison to each other, especially within the grams. As each factor will create an individual art form, I am able to divide/ multiply the numbers within each set (where appropriate) to make the numbers smaller or larger so that they are easier to use and apply to the coding process, via processing.

Here is the updated data table chart:

The reason for these particular changes within the factors, is that I wanted to keep all of the numbers within all factors to the lower end of 3 significant figures (3sf) or the higher end of 2 significant figures (2sf). I kept the ‘Fresh Water Aquatic Eco-toxicity’ the same as I thought having a low data point could create an interesting outcome, and the number for cotton was already quite high.

Creating The Code:

I am going to create each factor individually on processing and then save these as individual pdfs. From this, I may import all pdf files into photoshop to create the abstract work, or I will play around with processing to see if it’s possible to create what I am looking to generate.

Here is the code for the image below, as well as the code for the individual images below):  

My coding design below, takes inspiration from the ‘class birthdates sample data’ that we collected as a class. I really liked the circular ring design that the code created. I’m wanting to develop this further to illustrate the factors and the  differences between the linen and the cotton t-shirt within these factors.

Images created via individual processing files:

Through generating these code images, I have come to realise that you can not see the differences within the materials; linen and cotton, which is one of the biggest aspects within my concept. 

I will need to repeat this process, creating floats for each individual circle ring, and alter either the shape, colours or opaqueness/ transparency of each material. Or, I can simplify this and just create basic ellipses/ or another shape, by substituting in each number from the data within each factor.  

Development One:

Within this development, I have created each factor individually; Primary energy consumption, Water consumption, Global warming potential, eutrophication, and fresh water aquatic eco-toxicity. 

Within each of these factors, I have shown the variation between each t-shirt material; Linen and cotton. I have done this by using different colours; green for linen, blue for cotton. Then, I have further refined these into percentage % and grams g; percentage being more transparent and having a thicker stroke of 5, compared to grams, with no transparency and a stroke of 2.5.

However, within this development I have come across an error within the code, where one of the rings in each sketch appeared black and had very little stroke weight; I need to ask Tim or Olly for help on this.

To develop further:

To develop further I want to bring the five circular sketches (factors) together to make a more abstract, and creative design. Whether I achieve this by bringing all of the rings into a new processing file and change the position on the page, and then put them into the draw function so I can play with mouseX and mouseY. 

Alternative ways of developing could be to eliminate either the grams or percentage from the table data, as they are essentially the same thing. From here I can change up the design, and create each factor’s sketch using only two circles, where I can then trial different ways to layout the factors; whether that be taking inspiration from a Venn diagram - overlapping the circles, using transparency, strokes and stroke weights.

Development Two:

Within this development I have decided to eliminate the percentage data from the table; allowing me to focus on the differences between the linen t-shirt’s impact on the environment and the cotton t-shirts impact.

Individual rings:

Primary Energy Consumption:

Water Consumption:

Global warming potential:

Eutrophication:

Fresh water aquatic eco-toxicity:

All factors brought together to formulate design below in photoshop; I could probably create this in processing which will eliminate blurriness etc:

Development Three:

Now that I have this design formulated, I can begin to bring these together on processing instead of via photoshop. This will just allow me to eliminate any negative factors that may effect the quality of the design, e.g blurriness, size mishaps etc.

I began by creating individual pdfs, using the OneFrame pdf export via; 

File --> Examples --> Libraries --> PDF Export --> OneFrame.

From here I created a new processing document, and wrote the code all together to form design one, as seen in the photoshop file above;

This will be my final screen print design, however, I will be developing this design further for mockup examples and aspects within my booklet, such as; Code design into different environments; Fabric/ t-shirt company, t-shirt tag, website mock up, shop window of thrift store, poster on wall etc.

Screen printing vs Heat transfer inspiration/ research:

https://medium.com/@clashgraphicsga/screen-printing-heat-transfer-and-direct-to-garment-for-custom-t-shirts-2fce6c1f679a

Screen print:

Colours used in screen printing are vibrant

High quality image

Long lasting results

I have the ink and can simplify this process using a thick piece of smooth card and a stencil - one of each colour; green, blue.

My only concern is that the design is too fine, which will be hard to get precision.

Heat transfer:

Colours will be exact to what is on the screen/ rather than using blue or green ink for a craft store

Complicated designs can be easily transferred in good quality

Obviously the image below is a lot more technical that the method I would use; print off sticker on vinyl shine paper and heat press onto T-shirt using baking paper and iron. But the image below gives you an idea of how heat transfer works.

T-shirt mockup concept:

So, to develop this design further, I want to create the titles of each of the factors and bring these into the design, next to the factor’s circle it belongs to. This will make my code easier to read, allowing the viewers to understand the environmental differences between a linen t-shirt and a cotton t-shirt.

Additional process:

Currently this design illustrates the environmental impact between a cotton t-shirt and a linen t-shirt. Linen is green (122, 204, 90), cotton is blue (91, 170, 207). From this, the design illustrates that a linen t-shirt is more environmentally friendly than a cotton t-shirt in terms of Water consumption, eutrophication, and fresh water aquatic eco-toxicity. Linen is also very similar to cotton in Global warming potential, in terms of environmental impact factors.

Development Four; Typography in processing:

In this development, I will be adding typography via processing. This will include; the environmental factor titles, the number of grams (g) within each material and possibly a project title.

I have formulated quite a lot of research into typography via processing:

First I watch a youtube tutorial by ‘The Coding Train’ called ‘13.1 Strings and Drawing Text - Processing Tutorial’

Link below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLzne4XaR3M

Here are some notes I wrote from the tutorial:

String S = “file.jpg”

Is a data type; capital S meaning it’s an object. (Can be any letter, eg A,B,C)

An ‘int’ is a primitive data type like just a number, a float is just a number, a P image is an object with pixels, height etc.

This string has a sequence of characters but also has lot of other functions that we can use to manipulate and work with:

charAt() - gives us an individual character at a specific index, there is an array; numbers, objects, its an ordered list of ‘stuff’ we access each individual element of the array by its index; starting with 0 and counting up. So to draw the first character of text, use the formula: text(s. charAt(0), x,y);

length()

indextOf()

Substring()

ToLowerCase()

ToUpperCase()

Here is the basic code that I will be using to create my titles:

Code for typography around a curve:

Here is my design with the factor titles added:

I found that the text looked a little bit blurry when the sketch opened up and when the sketch was exported as a PDF. 

Because of this, I think I will go back into photoshop to create the titles so that the work/ mockups I produce are executed at high quality.

Below are possible contexts/ environments/ applications for my code; these are just initial concepts: These are just concepts, no typography developed yet.

T-shirt; simple t-shirt design, t-shirt tag e.g. 100% cotton, 100% linen, and/ or t-shirt worn during an environmental march, in a thrift store, etc

Poster; in the window of a thrift store, in a shopping mall to create awareness.

Logo; for a t-shirt company, or fabric making company.

Website; mockup for t-shirt or fabric company, perhaps even Greenpeace?

Booklet/ zine; including all of the above aspects; could be photographed on a on a table, someone holding the book, etc.

[some-thoughts-and-crosses]

And so it begins...

Week 1 in Rome and at the WFP

Alternative title: Things Jon Snow and I have in common…

Context: I have left South Africa in a complete whirlwind to take up my 6 month post with the World Food Programme. I cannot quite believe my luck. I am working in the IRM-O team (Integrated Roadmap - Operations). The IRM is a huge initiative that will change the way the WFP functions and touches every country office it operates in. It is aligned to meet the WFP’s aim of zero hunger by 2030. Among other things, it looks at creating sustainable models focusing on drives like food security and placing more control in the hands of the local country offices. 

I arrived in Rome on Saturday afternoon, 15th July. Took a shuttle from the airport to my address, where my landlord and his family were waiting for me. Since the wifi hadn’t been installed, they took me to get a local SIM card and train and tram tickets for the work week. Turns out I bought 10 extraneous train tickets since the tram ticket is valid on the train, so long as it’s within 100 minutes.

Getting around is not quite as seamless as in London for example. To get to work I walk 5 minutes to my tram stop, catch the tram for 5 stops, get to Trastevere station (train not metro / tube equivalent), and take the train to a stop that’s a 5 minute walk to the office. It usually takes around 45 – 50 minutes one way. Unless I walk to where I’m going, any trip will use a combination of these modes. This is true for most people who use the public transport. Driving is difficult (not that I plan on), as the streets are busy and usually single, narrow lanes.

Also bought an iron, hairdryer, and some grocery necessities. By the time I got back to the apartment, I felt sick and tired. After a cereal supper, I called it quits for the day. Sunday I decided to take a trial trip to work to make sure I wasn’t lost and flustered on work day 1. More groceries and errands, and that was day 2.

On Monday morning I realised I wouldn’t be sitting at head office but next door, since the project I’m working on has a large team, and there wasn’t room enough for all of them in one location. Security traded me a temporary access card for my passport and brought me into the offices. I was met by the lovely Sabrina, across from whom I’m sitting. She took me for coffee, showed me to the main building, got me my access card, and had lunch with me. Since then she’s been my go-to person for office matters and Italian vocab queries – all of which she has been unfailingly gracious about. It has struck me just how nice everyone is. Uber polite and friendly. All of them. It’s lovely…albeit a little unexpected. I was warned to be vigilant, especially around Termini train station in Rome central. I should be aware that gypsy thieves operate there! One ruse is to have a baby thrust upon you! While you stagger in confusion you are robbed. Good to know…

Between the dictionary app on my phone and pictures of what I need, I’ve been getting by. But a working knowledge of Italian would definitely make life easier. Thankfully everyone works in English but the majority of the WFP shops and canteen employees only speak Italian. Outside the WFP, I use my dictionary even more.

I completed my mandatory security training (hectic – based on if I was in remote locations on missions…there was stuff on how to recognise land mines! Luckily not much risk in Rome…). There are apparently other mandatory courses I should complete in a 6 week timeframe. I’ll get to them – there’s been loads of other admin. Tuesday I met my manager, and started going through meeting notes and compiling questions and acronyms for clarification. There are a lot of these. The UN has its own, very specific language. 

About this time I started feeling pretty stressed about ever being able to understand this world, this huge and seminal project, and being able to contribute anything worthwhile. Coupled with missing my people and not knowing how anything worked, the local unknown language, getting lost (was there ever any doubt), physically not at peak, and a clogged shower, I was feeling somewhat overwhelmed. Wednesday I had a chat with a colleague which helped ease the sense that I was supposed to be delivering immediately (a throwback from Consulting where you need to justify your existence and start delivering from the first).

Thursday dawned a lot brighter. Sat in on a cool “gazebo” session at head office with the Deputy Exec Director and the Country Manager for Ecuador, where they discussed the project, followed by a good meeting with my manager. Also applied for my compulsory Italian ID card and Fiscal Code. Also had coffee with 3 colleagues from the Gender Office who I met on the train home on Tuesday. They live in Trastevere too and gave me a google map printout with highlighted places to look out for, what to avoid, and some WFP insight too. Also went to the WFP doctor – both the medical centre and pharmacy are on site. Upon making the appointment I realised I was covered by a medical aid for my contract duration – bonus!

It is a very international community. This is a little borrower’s library nook I found. You can take a book and leave one if you can. I spotted English, German, French, Spanish, and Italian.

I also signed up for beginner Italian language classes at the office. They are twice a week until mid August. I’ve missed 4 lessons already but the teacher doesn’t seem like this is a problem. I’ve started a vocab list on my phone and love when an Italian word has roots I can recognise. E.g. Porta (portal) is door; portare via (is takeaway); attraversiamo (cross over – traverse). I said my first full sentence yesterday, “Uno cappuccino porta via per favorre”. The coffees come smaller than we’re used to and are very good J

My ‘hood

I live in Trastevere, which is a hip and happening area (referred to as mo vida!) that has medieval roots. Many parts are absurdly pretty! I have to remind myself that it’s not staged (like Monte!). The landmark closest to my apartment is Piazza de S’ Cosimato. There’s a screen set up to show movies in the evenings (all Italian). Mondays to Saturdays the square has fruit and vegetable vendors in the morning. The square also has a lovely little play area along one side.

Down the street is a gelateria I found and have been to twice. The gender trio rated this very highly and I found it on my own. Good to know I still have my instincts! Note the name on the cup…

Like the rest of Italy, this area has many little specialty food shops: one for cheeses and breads, one for meats etc. The grocery shops have limited stocks and brands. (The Polizia cordon is for construction…the cheese shop is not a crime scene).

In the parts of Rome I’ve been travelling around, people dress very casually and colourfully. The WFP dress code seems very relaxed too. What I find myself enjoying is the lack of self-consciousness from everyone…very much a live and let live kind of place. It’s one of the traits I’m adopting J The pace is also slower in general. You don’t catch Italians running to catch the train! Though it can be an undignified mob to get on and off public transport.

There’s an afternoon / early evening tradition called ‘aperitivo’. You have drinks with friends at restaurants and they bring you at the least small snacks – but often larger portions that end up serving as dinner.

My apartment is lovely! It’s spacious – rare considering the many other pics I’ve seen during my search. It’s painted white, has high ceilings, is airy, and gets lots of light. Tours will be conducted on request.

The apartment (as most do apparently) has a very strict recycling policy. There’s a camera in reception to monitor people don’t transgress! Using the wrong bins on wrong days etc. It’s a little odd considering the streets have litter and smoking isn’t as criminalised as I’m used to. (Remember this if you sit outside at a restaurant – actually any outside space is fair game to smoke).

This is a sign outside my street that gave me pause…

I went exploring a bit yesterday evening…herewith obligatory pasta pic (which was delicious!)

On the way back, just some guys sitting around a square…

After work today I will aim to get to a cheap home ware shop called “Flying Tiger”…a Copenhagen import. For the weekend I’m aiming for more exploring and settling in and eating gelato.

Despite some anxious moments, it’s been a good week overall. Ciao for now[1]

[1] Credit: Aatish

Disclaimer: “The information posted on this blog reflects my personal views and opinions and does not necessarily represent those of my employer.”

[homesception]

May 30, 2013 - Part 2: Wherein Lobac finishes that book she was writing

Is it lazy to just use a closeup of of the panel edit from last time?  Yes.  But you need to understand, I’m a very lazy man.

Meant to get to this post within, like, a day or two of the last one, but that sure the fuck didn’t happen.  Still, it’s Lobac’s birthday, so I feel like posting!  I mean, it isn’t Lobac’s birthday for Lobac anymore, but it’s still her birthday here, so it counts!

Anyway, we left off in the middle of Lobac’s thoughts and speculations on the classpect system, mostly because Tumblr stopped letting me add random videos in place of actual effortful commentary.  Picking up where we left off:

lobac said:

OK, a few words on the titles themselves:

KNIGHT

(the answer, of course, is yes, that is exactly dave, every one of them is dave, especially the bird)

(I need to get around to playing those games some day, the first couple have been sitting in my steam account for like a year)

KNIGHT is the most obvious, selflessness and bravery are pretty much expected of you (But this also changes within different contexts, I mean, Knight of Blood? Probably not all that friendly), Knights protect the innocent

Yup.  Protector class.  Mostly martial, hits stuff with swords, etc.  That’s the mental image I think you’re supposed to get from ‘KNIGHT’ as a class title.  Whether and to what extent Hussie intended to subvert that or play it straight was, I think, still up in the air when Lobac left off.

Knight of Blood is a special case, though, since ‘Blood Knight’ conjures almost exactly the opposite image as just plain old ‘Knight’?  Like, someone out to cause suffering, and willing to harm themselves to do it, possibly even with fancy blood magic instead of just hitting things with a sword?  Calls to mind my usual Dragon Age Origins character, an Arcane Warrior / Blood Mage, devoting all his MP to persistent buffs which, combined with his heavy armor, make him practically invincible, then bleeding his own hit points to fuel offensive & static magic, mostly paralysis spells to hold enemies in place while he stabs them with a big ole sword.  Not the nicest character.  Not exactly big on protecting others.

Fun to play though.  I never did make it through the third game in that series.  Maybe I should go back to it like I did for Mass effect, just replay the whole thing?  That’s... that’s a lot of time investment, though.  I really prefer shorter games these days, like Undertale or Night in the Woods.  Or games that I can play for a couple hours at a time, then put down for a couple months without losing my place when I come back, like Pokemon.

I’m getting off track, here.

HEIR

He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind: and the fool shall be servant to the wise of heart.  The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise.  Behold, the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth: much more the wicked and the sinner.

- Proverbs 11:29-31

Hey, I didn’t say all of these would be funny.  They’re just thoughts and images that spring to my mind from the various classes and aspects.  John as the ‘Heir of Breath’ always calls this movie and this proverb to my mind, but only for the pun of it, I don’t see a lot of analytical relevance.

HEIR is… kinda weird when you’re talking about anyone who isn’t John? Do they all inherit things from the beginning? It doesn’t say all that much about someone’s behaviour or powers, other than you’re getting them from someone else? Which isn’t really the case?

Well, while his powers seem to be inherent on account of his hero status, a lot of John’s story is still defined by gifts he receives - the joke book with the message from Nana, the bunny(ies) from his friends, etc.  More so than with the other kids, really.  Though I guess Jade could be said to have inherited all of her weird stuff from her Grandpa.  I don’t know, I have some more thoughts on HEIRs, but they’re mostly Act 5 and Act 6 thoughts that would qualify as spoilers still, but in general it conjures thoughts of a hero who uses tools handed down from ancestors and mentors in order to confront challenges that are likewise inherited from those who came before.

SEER

“My God, it’s full of stars!”

- Charles Barkley

SEER is obvious, you see and gather knowledge about something (the way people’s minds work, in GC’s case)

Yeah, pretty straight forward, not much to add or analyze, except how it might blend with various aspects.  Like, Seer of Light?  What the heck.  That’s just how seeing normally works.  Everyone’s a ‘Seer of Light’.  Rose got cheated, she should file a complaint.

Seer of Light.  What a bullshit power.

WITCH

I actually didn’t hate the recent film version?  For all it cut out a lot of the point of the stage show.  And I thought Meryl Streep was pretty good.  Still, nothing and no one tops Bernadette Peters.

WITCH is rather… general I mean all the kids are basically magic (°ヘ°) Just, generally  doing impossible stuff with your element? Like bending space

I don’t know, there’s a lot of cultural/ literary significance you can dig into with witches conceptually, as symbols of transgressive female power, designated antagonists, various subversions of that, etc.  I liked Lindsay Ellis’s ‘Loose Cannon’ video on the Wicked Witch for combing through some of those ideas and contemporary culture’s shifting take on ‘the witch’ through the lens of various takes on probably the most iconic pop culture example.

PAGE

I got nuthin

PAGE? Like a PAGE BOY? I guess it’s a lot like MAID then, and sort of about passively helping your friends become stronger? Maid of Time makes sense, if somebody wants to be taken somewheere, or screws up, you need to be there to help them Page of Breath would be… Hm. Making people fly???? Bah

Yeah, I don’t know about Page.  Maid, though, i always figured was thematically more about like cleaning up other people’s messes, sort of like what I was saying about Heir before, only, like, less personal?  Like the heir inherits other people’s problems, but they’re still, like, about them in some way, but the maid, it’s just like a job.  Like Maid of Blood would be following around a party of fucking bleeders with a mop or whatever.  I don’t know.  I’m tired, give me a break.

Why am I so tired?

Geeze, it’s 11:30 already, when did that happen?  I need to wrap this up.  I’m not made of time, here.  I’ve got work in th emorning.

We still have no idea how this system works, though! Do we already know every elemental/title thingie there is? If no, how many are there? Do they come in groups, are they arranged in a spectrum?

Many good questions

I feel like people with certain elements/titles are probably meant to work together to unlock their true potential!

Obviously, Space and Time make for a completely overpowered pair

Eh, the pairing thing.  I was never big on the idea of pairing every class or aspect off with an inverse or opposite.  In a lot of places fandom speculation on that seemed really forced.  If it was ever explicitly refuted in canon, then I was probably really happy about it, and probably a little rude in my gloating over it, and likely remain a little smug about it to this day.  But if it was ever confirmed in canon instead, then I was probably a little bitter and remain sort of sullen.

Lobac also talks a bit about troll screen names, but I’m out of time for this one, so I’ll try to look at that a bit next time before getting back to the comic proper.

[pandabearlikes]

My Husband, Kim JunMeow

Table of Contents 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Chapter o1. Kim JunMeow

I hate cats.  Cats are atrocious, selfish little monsters who leave your costly business attire looking like you slaughtered a bear and your airways choking of fur balls.  

"What do they even do?  Eat, sleep, poop.  Repeat."

“Luxury life, you jelly?” my cat lover friend, Lila, clicks her pen against my temple and jeers.

“Pftt.  Of their smelly butts?  Why would I be?” I roll my eyes and collected my Chemistry textbooks from the library table.

“You’re just hating.  Cats are the cutest most cuddly creatures in this world,” she exaggerates with clasp hands against her cheeks and eyes that almost bulge out in animated hearts.

I shiver just thinking about all the entrapped saliva nestled in their fur.  My friend scoffs and begins to pack her bags as well.  It is the last semester of college and the last thing I want is to go to class but the last thing I could afford is to not go to class.  

“The world out there is your cat!” the dork leaps onto her feet and exclaims.

I smack my textbook shut in her face and amusingly correct, “You mean oyster??”  She grimaces from the intrusive breeze and pouts.  “'The world is your oyster’, it means we are all in the position to take opportunities life has to offer.”

The cherubic faced female raises her brow.

“…Because you can’t get the pearl without grinding and prying open the shell.  Some people settle for comfort and pick tiny, easy to open ones and end up with a dull rock.  Others choose to take the road less travelled, pick the biggest oyster, hammer, tear, and groove it until the mollusk reveals the flawlessly shiny one-of-a-kind pearl,” I recite with so much genuine poetic passion that I almost think I’m auditioning for a Shakespearean play.  I’d like to think Shakespeare would be proud of me.  

“No.  I did mean, ‘The world out there is your cat.’  Cats are priceless.  Pearls are not,” Lila counters.

I smack my face with my palm.  “I seriously hate cats,” I grunt under my breath.

“Well, don’t tell me I didn’t tell you, you’re gonna marry a cat one daaaay~” she singsongs.

“No, thank you, you crazy cat lady~” I play along and sing back as I skip my way through the library exit and wave goodbye to my dear friend.  

Books snuggled tightly against my chest, I slug my way to the lab to make up my Chemistry report. I had flunked it twice and it is my last chance if I didn’t want to spend my entire summer back here.

“Meow,” I hear a short purr from the bushes and skid to a stop.  “Meow~” the creature calls out to me.  Only its large circular eyes are visible from behind the shadows.  With a sharp inhale and wide-eyed with realization that said-smelly fur ball monster is right in front of me, I snap my neck to the other side and speed walk away.  

“Meow >:(,” the abandoned cat grunts and scampers back into the alley.  

~

“Ahh, I think I failed again,” I groan and blow concentrated air up at my now messy bangs.  Oh, woe, little miss damsel in distress who can’t seem to get the right amount of sulfite into the beaker or set the thermometer to beep at boiling point.

“What am I going to do with my life?” I dramatize and deflate.  “Should I start bribing the TA?” I mumble under my breath and anxiously bite my nails as I eye myself head to toe at the glass reflection of the campus building.  Hair disheveled and unwashed for three days, dark bags under my eyes, and jeans only God knows how long I haven’t washed for.  Life of a college science student~  What life.  WHAT LIFE?!?!  Even a rich geezer would steer far away, much more the young, handsome, and intelligent TA, Kim Jongdae.  Puffs of happy stars and fluttering butterfly hearts twirl in front of me at the thought of my crush's kitten smile.  

“He likes cats, you know that right?” Lila’s knowing advice replays in my mind and my shoulders slump.  

“No, not even for him, I wouldn’t—“ I start but my voice trails in projection at the sight of the twin glowing eyes reflected on the window.  Slowly, I turn around to come face to face with a white cat.  His luscious fur almost illuminates like holographic magic in the dead of the night.  

“GAHHH!” I shrill and run to hide behind a street lamp post.  

The feline’s marble-like eyes follow me with a striking intensity.  And from the bluish onyx hue, I instantly recognize it to be the same cat from before.  He approaches me, one paw at a time as I cower farther and farther behind my makeshift barricade, that really didn’t protect me much at all.  It’s a good placebo though.

“Wait, placebos are used in the context of medication, you Pabo,” I grumble to myself.  Ah, distress, pure distress of a science major who was too much of a chicken to spend eight years in Med school yet whose brain is wired in a way of a medical dictionary.  Oh woe, me.

“Meow!” the cat’s snappish call wakes me up from my own pessimistic thoughts.  

“Do-don’t get near me!” I order but the cat continues to advance, stopping right in front of me.  His fluffy paw lifts and he places it on the tip of my foot.  I hold my breath and almost lose my breath from anxiety.  Alright, alright.  I admit it, I have Ailurophobia a.k.a the irrational fear of cats.  It’s not that I hate them I just...  

“G-go…” I stutter.  The beautiful feline tilts his head and gazes up at me with a glint in his twinkling eyes.  “D-don’t make me kick you…” I make a false threat and wobble my foot that he had his palm placed on, hoping he would just let go.  

Instead, he places his other paw down too.  “Meow~”

“Stop,” I strictly say.  

“Meow :(“ his purr betrays his hurt.  Innocently, the kitty snuggles his entire body closer and settles down by using both of my feet as his cushion.  He looks up with puppy eyes…only, well…puppy eyes on a cat…yah…you know what I mean…I digress…He looks up with puppy eyes as if waiting for me to reject him but hoping I wouldn’t.

“Stop.  Don’t give me that look,” I frown, “I’m not taking you home.”  

Without letting him reply, I slide my feet backward to freedom.  The cat plops back down onto the concrete floor.  Frowning, I pull the straps of my backpack and start to walk home.  It is already past 11pm, which meant lingering any longer would be dangerous.

I take a step forward.  

“Meow~” the kitty whines, trailing my steps.  He swirls and twirls his way between my two feet and looks up with pure anticipation.  Again, I try to detach myself from this fur ball monster wearing a cute angelic face as a disguise.  He latches on with both paws around my right ankle.  I groan.

“Look kitty…there’s a bunch of cat lovers around here,” I explain with exasperation.  Pointing straight down the street, I persuade, “If you continue down this road and make two lefts and see a peach brick house, stop and meow loudly, a crazy cat lady will take you in.”

“Meow :(“ he grunts and lowers his head.  He licks his front paws and then looks up at me again.  

“Her name is Lila and she’s a little weird but she’s very caring and would adore you…” I elaborate.  “So go on your way…” I shoo and start to walk again.  Again, he follows.  I skid to a stop and try to persuade him again.  This happens for another half an hour before I give up and just head home pretending there isn’t a clingy feline tailing me.  

In front of my house, I try to distract the cat as best as possible so I could unlock the door, slip in, and slam it before he could follow me in but he holds onto my legs and begs in meows.  It is a bit chilly tonight and soft drizzles only showed potential to turn into a heavy rain storm.  Momentary hesitation equals an opportunity for the fluff ball.  He squeezes through the door gap and dashes into my apartment.  Groaning, I toss my head back in resignation.  

“It really isn’t the time for this…” I heave and head in as well.  Too tired from the day of studying and testing and failing and trying to get rid of a cat, I end up just plopping down onto the sofa.  Arms outstretched wide and head thrown back, I think about surrendering and being a cry baby for one day.  You know, the possibility of not graduating in time is quite daunting even if it does sound like #firstworldproblems.  On the other hand, unlike me, this cat curiously wanders around and makes himself at home.  

“Well, I’m tired, Kitty.  I’m calling it a night.  You be good and I’ll drop you off at the animal shelter tomorrow morning, okay?” I bargain.  

Lethargically, I drag myself to my room and toss my dead weight against the bed.  Soft whimpers fleet from my lips.  I snuggle my way into my blanket cocoon.  Flying sheep are seconds from sending me to sweet slumber when I feel a furry paw against my nose.  My eyes shot open.

“No. Stay on floor,” I discipline, lift the bad boy up, and put him onto the ground.  I roll back into my comfy bed…only seconds later, I feel a soft tug against my blanket.  My lips part and I gather up the last of my patience to scold the little monster, when I notice its choppy tugs.  He had grabbed onto the corner of my blanket with his teeth and was slowly pulling it to cover my shoulders.  My expressions soften without my permission.  When he finally deems it a good job tucking me in, the amicable creature leaps back down to the floor and tries to build his own warm bed by curling his tail around his body.  So innocent and vulnerable.  A tinge of guilt penetrates through my heart.  

“You want a blankie?” I question, my voice a little gentler than before.  

The cat surprises me by shaking his head, as if fully comprehending my question.  Chewing on my inner cheek, I spring up, grab a cushion from my chair, and place it on the floor next to him.

“You can use it as a bed.”

Again, he shakes his head.  I frown.

“The floor’s extra cold tonight because of the rain outside…” I observe but the feline tilts his head and doesn’t make the move to accept my offer.

Sighing, I inquire, “You want a towel or a soft t-shirt or a plushie to snuggle with?” I look around my room for some cat-friendly items.  That's when I squint and notice the leather band around his neck.  "Oh, hey…you have a collar.  Are you not a stray?” I kneel down and observe the pendant.  Sadly, the age and rust of the metal tampers much of the information’s legibility.  

Kim Su---

Instead of answering my question, he wraps his paws around my arm, tugs me closer, and tries to nestle on my lap.  I toss my head back and groan at this troublesome cat.  “I should just toss you out,” I grumble under my breath.

As if understanding my words, the cat instantly lets go of my arm.  His eyes glosses over and he melts against the floor as if sulking.  

“I was only joking!” I quickly back track.  "It is pouring cats and dogs outside, I’m not that heartless…” I reassure and somehow instinctively outstretch my palm to pet him on the head.  He likes it very much, much more than I had imagined.  With a long sigh, I scan my bed.  “You want to climb on the bed?”

The corners of his lips curl up and he jumps up and down with joy.  Chuckling, I surrender and hop onto the bed.  He follows suit.

“Stay at the foot of the bed,” I half-heartedly instruct with a yawn.  The white fluff obediently stays at the spot for about two minutes, before he sneaks his way toward my shoulder.  “I said, ‘Foot…of…the…bed…’” my voice slurs due to my sleepiness.  Dozing in and out, I recall him nestling comfortably at the croak of my neck.  Automatically, my body cuddles around the warm guest, who lays the final magical touch to my sweet dreams.

~

My tongue smacks against the top of my mouth palate as I half-consciously try to moistens the dryness.  Whimpering, I roll around in my sheets, hoping to stretch out my sore muscles before the alarm clock shrills anxiety back into my life.  One more satisfying stretch and I open my eyes to a good morning—

“AHHH!” I shriek at the sight of a stranger sleeping beside me.  Automatically, my body chooses flight over fight; I back away so hastily, my body crashes from the bed onto the floor.  The chaotic noise awakens the man.  

Long lashes flutter open.  His movements are fluid and graceful as he rolls out his shoulders and sits himself upright on my bed.  He stares at my astonished state with the tilt of his head and several innocent blinks.  Heaving air back into my frightened lungs, I reflexively lift the blanket from my body and look down.  Just a thin cami and PJ pants, not naked.  Not naked.  Whew.

“So nothing happe—“

The young man stands up, letting his blanket fall fluidly down his broad chest, chiseled abs, and…

My eyes widen and lips drop agape.  Heart pound against my chest.  Front row seats to Magic Mike would be an understatement.  The foreign male stands there, completely oblivious to my bewilderment.  He starts to advance toward me, inch by inch.  I almost choke myself to death by swallowing the lump in my throat.  

“Wh-wuh…who…who are you?!” I panic, scoot myself backward, and recoil against the wall.  He stops a foot from me with his exposed manly goods literally, right in front of my face.  My eyes bulge.  I swallow again, my head starts to spin.  Mouth opens wide - out of shock, I SWEAR out of shock, you dirty minded readers.    

Just then, I hear keys jiggle outside from the front door.  My name rings from the familiar voice of my mother.  Gasping, I turn to the man, who turns back to me with a blank stare.  Maniac panic ensues.  Footsteps click against my wooden living room floor.  Jerking up to my feet, I grab onto the man’s wrist, yank him, and throw him on the bed.  The sheets are tossed on top of him.

“Hey, Sweetie—“ my mother pushes open the door of my room and greets but immediately could smell the fishie fishiness.  

Nervously, I try to cover up my scandalous act and the very visible random lump on my mattress by literally sitting on top of it and pretending it’s all cushion.  Immediately, I regret such decision as I had so coincidentally place my bum right on his manhood.  It throbs through the sheets against my left back thigh and I have to bite my lower lip to keep calm.  

“Hi, Mum…heh…” I nervously ruffle my hair.

“Why do you look so guilty?” she narrows her eyes.  

“Oh-oh…N-no..not at all.”  Needless to say, I fail at my pursuit of a Degree in Deception.  My hiccup attack, thereafter, doesn’t help much either.  “Ju-just…hic-  Just sur hic- prised you came to vi hic- sit without notice…heh…”  No slick, what so ever.  

Nothing I do passes my mother’s eyes.  The sharp and observant female charges into the room, shoves me aside, and throws the cover away.  I shriek; my arms outstretch out of reflex.  Thankfully, the handsome sexy…no…focus…man gripped onto the covers before she exposed his lower region.

My full name bellows from my mother’s lips and I’m clawing my hair coming up with an excuse to cover up my possible one-night stand and not get ass-whipped by the conservative Catholic woman.  Growing up, I was taught that sex before marriage was not allowed.  

“Who is he?!” the furious woman interrogates as she takes note of how scantily clad I am too.  She sniffs the room as if trying to gather evidence of the shameful act.  Automatically, my hands lift up in a pose of surrender, though I had no intention to actually admit to her suspicions.  The gorgeous man across from me gazes in my direction with an innocent stare and a sweet, honeyed smile that contradicts his sexy Devil’s bodayyy.  I spend a moment too long ogling over his features that my mother snaps at me again.    

“I-uh…I…” Beads of tears start to coat my lashes.  

“You have some explaining to do, Young Lady.  I’m calling your father!” the middle-aged woman warns and starts punching numbers on her phone.

“No-no…MUM…” I choke.  Squeezing my eyes shut, my lips automatically move on their free will, “He’s my husband!”  

The phone drops from my mother’s hand.  Internationally, I face palm.  Really?!  That was the worse possible damage control ever.  The attractive man blinks.  He gifts me another sweet smile when he catches my gaze.  Immediately, I look away because I tell myself I can’t be entranced or horny right now with my outraged tiger mom in front of me.    

With the twitch of her brows, the older female laces my name with full warning and seethes through her teeth, “We need to talk.”  I swear my butt crack began to perspire.  

Gulping hard with panic, I glance at the mysterious man as if begging for help, only not really expecting it.  You know, like, what could he really do?  I didn’t even know where he came from for God’s sake.  Was I drunk?  Is this a dream?  I didn’t like the latter thought because I’ve been so dry and thirsty that the wetness of my panties causes ecstasy in my boring life and the thought that I had to possible wake up from it is quite unfortunate.  Priorities, much?  It’s only worth it if I don’t first get strangled by my own mother.  At my stagnancy, the older woman scans my pretend husband and scoffs at the black collar-like choker around his neck.  

I squint.  Wait…I’ve seen that…somewhere—

It’s the third time my full name rips from her throat and I know I’m in the deepest trouble I’ll ever be in.  Wiping my clammy hands against my pants, I turn to my mother and begin to push her out the door.  Blundering words escape my lips, “I’m sorry mom, I’ll explain.  I’ll call you later!  I swear!”  

“You got married?!” she shrills in disbelief.  

“Yes.  I mean No.  I mean…Yes…”  What has gotten into me?  I must be out of my damn mind or otherwise possessed.  Closing my eyes shut, I continue to direct her toward the door.

“You got married and did not tell your father or me?!” the woman scolds and then heaves, “How long have you even known that man?!  Do you know his character?!  What if he’s a stripper?  What is his name?!  I’m going to have your father investigate him!”

“Uh-I…I’ll tell you later.  Mum, can you leave first?” I nervously plea.

“Give me a name or I’m not leaving!” the female adamantly states.

Ah, stress.  STRESS.  Just as I am brainstorming a list of fake names to use, the strange male walks out with a blanket tied around his hip, and answers, “My name is Kim JunMeow.”  

A/N: Yo! I’m back (≚ᄌ≚) Did you guys miss me?  Did you enjoy the first chapter of the new series?  This is probably the only “slower” paced chapter because I had to introduce the situation but chapters here on after are fast-paced and eventful ;);) Also, do you guys like my sassy tone more or my more artistic/poetic writing?  Do share your opinions!

P.S. For the record, cats are my favorite animals in this entire world, surpassing even pandas + bunnies, and you guys know I love the latter two.  

Follow, like, comment, spam my inbox to motivate me.  Daily updates; see you tmr.

>>My Husband, Kim JunMeow Archive<<

>>Story Master Archive<<

Any guesses on what happened in this chapter??

[rojavanpuolesta-blog]

Experiences in Rojava. Interview with an anarchist YPG volunteer

Julkaisemme tekstin poikkeuksellisesti englanniksi. Julkaisemme suomennoksen tekstistä lähikuukausina.

We met and interviewed a person who travelled to Rojava to be a volunteer in the Peoples' Protection Units (YPG). We present this interview anonymously, as wished by the person interviewed.

What inspired you to travel to Rojava and join the YPG?

Different aspects, but it connected me and others to our own historical roots such as antifascism, or revolutionary internationalism.

Were you in the International Batallion?

I wasn’t in any specific international battalion, just with the YPG/YPJ taburs [Kurdish battallions] formed mostly by Kurds, but also with other people, including other internationals. There is also the International Freedom Batallion, a tabur or batallion inside the YPG/YPJ's structure, with the participation of different socialist and communist volunteers. Personally, I didn’t have contacts with them, and they are mostly marxist-leninists.

How important are political ideas of the movement (ie. Democratic Confederalism) inside the YPG?

There’s a big variety in the groups. For example the youth from Rojava are all getting new ideas through recent developments, but are still not quite understanding politics or the global perspective, and remain nationalist. Whereas, for example, Kurds from Bakur or Qandil are already very revolutionary, and most of them have a high level of political consciousness and analytical capacity.

Can you tell us about daily life in the YPG and it's command structure?

In general, daily life in the Kurdish defense units is not very similar to any army. Sometimes you forget it’s a war because of the friendships and the happiness... and dancing! The feeling of revolution is really alive.

The units put a lot of importance on communitarian relations based on Democratic Confederalism. In this model the idea is that the defense force is not an army - it is a popular militia, a guerrilla force.

The command structure is a common responsibility. For example, the komutan (commander) are the only degree of rank. Actually it's better to call it the co-commander, because above the level of team, the position is shared between a man and a woman. And whether you are the commander of a 5 person team or a tabur commander (a batallion), your position is only a task. The friends will follow your suggestions and direction because there is respect for the structure. You are in that position by consensus and because of your experience, and the rest of the friends recognize the person most suitable for the task.

the only formality is the use of “friend” before the name of others, because that reminds us that we are all friends before all else

The komutan is like the basis, or foundation, of the structure because they are the link, the articulation of the common body, and the collective brain. There is a huge responsibility to be a komutan, no matter the number of friends under your responsibility. Because of this, the figure of komutan is respected and they don't even need, usually, to give any direct orders. It is not necessary. They must at least show the correct ethics and discipline, and intelligence and courage in battle.

The rest of friends will fight following their direction, and in the space for Tekmil [military self-criticism assembly, see below] everyone can participate to discuss the tactics, and mistakes. Of course the commander-friends are human and make mistakes... and that is the moment to change their position, or send them to rest and to have some military and ideology study time. This military system that comes from the school of Qandil's Kurdish guerrillas is the most advanced in the aspect of guerrilla history and of revolution in the art of war.

Also, there is no formal show of hierarchy such as military decorations or salutations, the only formality is the use of “friend” before the name of others, because that reminds us that we are all friends before all else, so we respect each other and resolve any conflicts in the spirit of friendship.

What is the military assembly or Tekmil? Can you elaborate?

The Tekmil is an assembly for critique, where you can give friendly and constructive critique to your commander or others in your unit, and also criticize yourself. But mostly you will receive critique and you must be up for understanding it and learn to be better. This is to take care of checking bad behaviour, to avoid personal conflicts, or small problems with attitude that can develop into conflicts. I saw few punishments or repression; if there is a conflict, there is a lot of talk instead. Of course this is just the model, and for most of the friends from Rojava this is the first time they are learning about this, and where they had their first contact with political ideas.

But you can bring up anything to anyone at Tekmil. A major aim of it is to challenge your perspective, and get away from your ego. Making a critique is thus a great responsibility - to you, and towards the person you direct your critique to - and you should look for a solution and take responsibility for that solution.

This is very similar to the criticism that happens in Tev-Dem, the self-government assembly, where you take something practical and open it up to philosophical discussion. Here you can really see the Kurdish movement evolving.

What are your thoughts on joining the YPG and the training you participated in? 

The YPG academy has a lot of ideological, political, and historical education. It also included philosophy and its own Jineology classes (sociology of women). It's really like a academy. One's education there can be short or long, it depends. I was in the academy for a month and a half. The military academy is pretty basic. There are a lot of daily life routines, with an emphasis on how to stay in a team and work together, such as self-discipline and cleaning weapons. There are also academies for specialist military skills like sabotage and sniping.

Did you just spend your time in fighting units? Did you participate in any revolutionary aspect of social organization?

No, though it’s hard to say where the limits of “civilian” or “social” structures are in a revolutionary situation. Everyone is in a process of education and self-education, building tools for self-government. Every institution has its own autonomy and in some cases its own interests. This can seem like a huge chaos and full of contradictions, but the confederal system keeps it self-regulating. The Tev-Dem and the people's self defense, the HPC (Hêza Parastina Cewherî), are the most revolutionary aspects in my opinion – it provides the people with their own tools to defend themselves against even the YPG interests, the Canton's institutions - government-etc.

Did you witness a Tev-Dem assembly taking place?

Yes, I saw an assembly but did not participate. I was rather engaged with the Tekmil assemblies in the military context.

The assembly self-goverment model is forming a really strong basis for the revolution. How assemblies are created is that if an issue or new social or interest group comes up, one must make an assembly. If another interest or issue comes along, an assembly can be made within the first assembly. The assembly also needs to follow gender quotas; the equality of women is in all aspects of society. Actually the canton's coordination imposes that if a social group, tribe or village makes an assembly, for example, to manage some cooperative farms, they must also have a women's assembly that reflects the women's view about it, and that the people in charge must not be only one, that normally used to be a patriarch, but rather there has to be a co-leadership shared by a man and a woman. So there is a shared leadership position of the co-delegates; the woman represents the local women's autonomous movement. Involving the people in an assembly system to resolve their own problems is the best way to think about revolution...and keeps them away from the TV!

It has been stated that building an ecological society is one of the primary goals of Rojava Revolution. What did you see in terms of ecology and the ecology movement?

They don’t understand too much in terms of ecology, in my experience. People from the mountains or Bakur know what it means to act sustainably and with the nature in mind, but in Rojava or Syria in general, not so much. A common experience was to hear that “Rojava is beautiful!” but then see plastic trash burning somewhere.

In terms of real projects, Qamislo has a food sovereignty project, and Kobane has different proposals - and needs! - but needs volunteers. They need people! Not only to visit, but for serious projects and proposals to build a new society and new infrastructure.

However, a lot of people from Bakur and Iran are already mobilized and supporting social and ecological projects in Rojava.

What about the cooperative economy movement? Did you visit any cooperative farms, factories or workplaces?

Personally, I noticed that big landowners have escaped because they supported the regime, ISIS, or Barzani. Those lands were collectivized by the YPG/YPJ, and this includes some huge cement factories managed by foreign Turkish and French corporations, that had Syrian workers from western parts of the country. This was tied to the program of arabization of Kurdish regions during the Syrian Regime. Also there are some empty villages, and the Kurdish organizations called on refugees to not leave and go to Europe, but instead come there and be cooperative owners of their own land and work.

Although people in Rojava don't need foreign socialists to teach them what to do, they rather need to build their own reality for themselves.

But all of these experiments are limited; there are not enough people, the war puts everything in a fragile situation, there is an embargo that has stopped all investments in infrastructure, they don't have qualified and committed people like volunteer technicians and engineers, the territory is destroyed by years of intensive monoculture, the people themselves are socially and culturally destroyed... Also there are different interests inside the “Kurdish” reality. But even on this subject, some time ago I saw a text on the internet, like a call to action to help them to learn and study, and to put in practice, different historical or political socialization models. I'm not sure if it was some socialist or anarcho-syndicalist union working on this, I think traditional "revolutionary" movements and structures are watching the events in Kurdistan from a distance, they are not involved because it is a completly new paradigm of social revolution.

I saw lot of critiques on the “mixed” economy in Rojava, and the capitalism in Rojava, as well as the class interests that must lead the revolution to become a Revolution. There are a lot of socialists and anarchists of different political strains and tendencies, talking in forums and meetings about this, but very few are going there to work with them to build socialism. Although people in Rojava don't need foreign socialists to teach them what to do, they rather need to build their own reality for themselves.

There is not more economic socialism in Rojava than what the local people want to build, such as the cooperatives that are working like socialist communities. The canton governments and armed structures cannot impose the socialization of production and economy. They cannot do it and they don't want to do it, so remembering this we can have a better approach to the reality in Rojava. They do have regulations over the economy and social planning programs, but if the people want to live in capitalist relations, there are not many possibilities other than for pedagogic intervention to change people's perspectives.

There is cooperative and collective interest and support appearing thanks to the revolution, so we are at the beginning of the process of education and a process to build new social relations. Maybe we will need the next half a century of new struggles to see the fruits of these seeds.

The Kurdish movement has great respect for its martyrs. What are your thoughts on martyrship?

Martyrs and martyrdom are part of daily life for the Kurdish people and the revolutionaries. In the Middle East, but lost in Europe, the philosophy that martyrs don't die continues to live in the communal mind. This is because the martyrs gave their lives for all of us, they sacrificed for our life and our freedom. That is sacred, and it is spiritual because it trespasses the material interest of the individual. Many show respect for martyrs by showing an image of them in events, and remembering them in salutations.

I know that this is a shock for our individualist mind, that we prefer to take care of our own asses first, and that being a martyr sounds like something fanatical, not like the highest category a person can be. But is true, our martyrs don't die! Their blood never touches the ground!

Is Rojava really so ideal? Do you have any criticisms of the revolutionary process in Rojava?

If I look back on my experience now, it seems ideal. But you can also see a hard reality and lot of contradictions, and sometimes you can even feel that there is more to the aims and propaganda than in reality. There is a process with an honest intention, but it has a lot of problems to confront in reality.

We experienced a shock to our perception of reality in Rojava. I think that we arrived there with a backpack of idealistic and romantic views about the revolution, but in reality you need to build the revolution if you want it, and that means sometimes accepting that not everyone around you has the same idea of revolution and sometimes they cannot even understand why you came there to fight.

We are engaged in a democratic revolution, in the sense that no-one will impose anything upon another. This is totally opposed to the 'proletarian dictatorship' conception of revolution, definitely. This democratic conception accepts working with our own people, and other tendencies, that in many cases are the strongly opposed to our idea of revolution, or have practices opposite to our ethics.

in reality you need to build the revolution if you want it, and that means sometimes accepting that not everyone around you has the same idea of revolution

Yes, the gangs of Daesh and the Turkish state are bad people, everybody there agrees, but you can also see racist attitudes against Arabs, and all those 'circumstantial alliances' one day with USA, another with Russia and the Syrian regime. And some people are always trying to get positions of power, just like in any other part of the world.

Democratic Confederalism is against nationalism, but the nationalist idea is alive in most of the Kurdish people. This is not only about Kurdish national rights, that must be respected and defended, but about some positions and perspectives that do not care for the reality and struggles of others. Another criticism is the opportunistic use of capitalism we talked about before, and the so-called "mixed economy", but I cannot think of any other economic system for that situation, so I only remind of this criticism because we have some comrades that insist on it.

It is also important to understand that the armed structures of Kurds come from a stalinist tradition, and that they did a deep, collective self-criticism and are in a process towards a libertarian ethic, thanks to the confederalist idea and the culture of criticism. But that is a process, and although large parts of the movement are not following the stalinist model anymore, you can see it continuing in some practices like personal hierarchies and other roles.

Would you want to go back?

I wouldn't go back, but who knows... The situation in Rojava is not comfortable, in the sense that there is a hard war, and you should not have other reasons for being involved in the war than your own. I needed to go there to find a perspective on and a sense of our struggles and our lives, but now it is the time for others to do it. We need a generation with new perspectives, since our movements and environments lost the perspective long time ago.

now is the time to see what is happening in our Western countries with this growth of racism and fascism.

Many Kurdish friends, in different situations, repeated the same thing to me: "Return to your people and continue the same fight over there", "We don't need Western martyrs, we need a revolution in Western countries!" So personally I absorbed the learning and experience in Rojava, and now is the time to see what is happening in our Western countries with this growth of racism and fascism.

Can you tell us about other international volunteers in Rojava and especially were there many women among them?

Many foreigners without political ideas, or former military men, become revolutionaries over there. It's good to remember that people can become conscious to these ideas when surrounded by revolution, and can fight and spread ideas.

A few foreign women come to fight, but I didn't see any of them personally. However, compared to men, the number was very small, anecdotic. We have an internationalist woman martyr, a marxist Euro-African woman, who fought in the International Battalion. And certainly there are much more from other non-Western countries, like Turkish, Arab, or Iranian women. But it is a weak point for the "white western" feminism that there is not enough active involvement in this women's revolution, sadly.

What are your thoughts on Jineology and feminism?

The social science of Jineology (sociology or anthropology of the Woman) explains how the mankind lost a lot of their old nature because of the onset of hierarchical civilization, through the break from communitarian life, men becoming soldiers, priests, workers, etc. Even slaves, but remaining lords of their own house and wife.

Jineology argues that mankind can recover their nature through women's liberation and through communitarian life. However, this is an issue that I'm not too deep in at the moment. It is very complex, but also interesting to study and discuss. It is a new idea for humanity. We have understood our history as the history of Man, and sociology as the social science of a patriarchal society, but now emerging from years of study and discussion by the Free Women's Union in the mountains, we have a new tool to understand the evolution of power with history, and the role of women in it. Jineology is a tool for liberation because that history is also a history of the resistance of women, that we have to learn and know. Jineology is also a rupture with the tradition of Western liberal feminism.

Those inspired by Jineology are breaking with Western feminism because for them, Jineology is much more deep in its analysis; it is not partial and doesn't have tendencies of interpretations or interest groups, but it is integral and universal.

Jineology is a tool for liberation because that history is also a history of the resistance of women, that we have to learn and know.

It also has an important factor: Jineology is being put in to practice through autonomous women's organizations and co-delegations in the administrative and political management of the communities. It is a real social practice, not just the thesis of some intellectual bourgeoise women, or the lifestyle of hedonist youngsters. For example, Jineology and the Kurdish women's movement in Rojava criticize Western feminism because it was taken into the hands of modernity and positivism, and has broken ties with communitarian life to become individualistic.

I think that Jineology is a good tool to provoke a restructuring of Western (liberal and radical) feminism, especially since any new ideas around the Woman and Revolution haven't appeared in decades. We have revolutionary feminist comrades, but the feminism itself is not revolutionary anymore. Real practice is revolutionary, much more than ideas or aesthetics. Also, I do have to say that the Free Women's Movement from Kurdistan has more conscience in the radical analysis of hierarchical civilization and domination, and has much more of an internationalist and libertarian perspective than the rest of the men in the movement. And this is thanks to the study of Jineology and the example of the Kurdish guerrilla women.

But even in this situation, the Kurdish women's movement also needs to learn more from modern feminism, especially in respect of individuality and sexual liberation. They have social repression against this aspect of woman, and I think it's because they built up a military revolutionary structure that needed to defend itself against the individualist interests and sexual domination in the Middle East, but in some situations, in my opinion and with all my respects, they reproduce some Middle East's religious taboos about the body and the sex.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yhdessä Rojavan puolesta (Together for Rojava) -group is happy to produce this interview for discussion amongst our friends. We hope that the points and criticism in this interview can for their part help propel a good discussion and practice of mutual support and criticism between our libertarian, socialist and feminist movements in the West and in Kurdistan. 

Biji berxwedana Rojava! Long live the resistance in Rojava! 

[andylocksmithtipsntricks]

SimpliSafe Video Doorbell Pro Review

Overall Rating

3/5

Human detection

Doorbell notifications

Monitoring starts at $24.99/mo.

Visit SimpliSafe

See Pricing

Bottom Line: The SimpliSafe Doorbell Is a Decent Budget Doorbell

Visit SimpliSafe

At $169, the SimpliSafe Video Doorbell Pro has a lower price tag than the average doorbell camera (around $200), but it doesn’t come with as many features as more expensive devices. It’s a good option if you already have a SimpliSafe security system, but it has too many hiccups for us to put it at the top of our list for video doorbells overall.

The SimpliSafe app lets you monitor your doorbell for free, but for video recordings, you’ll need a cloud storage plan. While SimpliSafe doesn’t offer the unlimited cameras plan that we see from other companies like Ring, 10 cameras is probably plenty of coverage for most SimpliSafe users.

SimpliSafe also offers professional monitoring for its security system customers, and with the Interactive Monitoring Plan, you can monitor your SimpliSafe Video Doorbell camera with the security system.

SimpliSafe Video Doorbell Pros and Cons

Pros

User-friendly app

Human motion detection

Affordable cloud storage

Compatibility with most wiring

Cons

Audio delays

So-so night vision

Limited features

SimpliSafe Doorbell Camera Pricing

Base Equipment Cost Monthly Cost Requires SimpliSafe Security System Monitoring Type Mobile App Access Cameras Covered Base Equipment Needed Learn More

Self-Monitoring Single Camera Recording Cloud Storage Multi-Camera Recording Cloud Storage Interactive Monitoring Plan $169 $169 $169 $365 Free $4.99 $9.99 $24.99 x No x No x No ✓ Yes Self Self Self Professional ✓ Yes ✓ Yes ✓ Yes ✓ Yes Unlimited 1 10 10 1 SimpliSafe Video Doorbell 1 SimpliSafe Video Doorbell 1 SimpliSafe Video Doorbell 1 SimpliSafe Video Doorbell, 1 keypad, 1 base unit, 1 motion sensor, 1 contact sensor Visit SimpliSafe Visit SimpliSafe Visit SimpliSafe Visit SimpliSafe

{ "@context": "http://schema.org", "@type": "Table", "about": "" }

Data effective 11/22/2019. Offers and availability subject to change.

Tech and Equipment

The SimpliSafe Video Doorbell Pro has a 1080p resolution, making it sharper than the 720p of SimpliSafe’s SimpliCam. It has a 162-degree field of view, pushing it just over Nest Hello’s 160-degree coverage, although you probably won’t notice the 2-degree difference.

The SimpliSafe’s doorbell wiring goes through your existing doorbell, so it can use your existing chimes and their power source. If you don’t have existing wiring, you’ll need to call an electrician or pick a different doorbell camera. The camera part of the device works with a battery that can be removed and recharged with a USB power cable. 

We like that the SimpliSafe Video Doorbell Pro comes with two additional faceplates to better match your décor, and the angle adjustment wedge is also a nice touch for those of us with angled siding.

What’s in the Box

SimpliSafe Camera Doorbell

Installation guide

2 alternate faceplates (mint green, black)

Angled base

Mini screwdriver

Screws

Connectivity and Video Quality

I was able to access my live video feed from the SimpliSafe Video Doorbell on the first try about 75% of the time. The other 25% of the time I got “Unable to load video” messages that invited me to try again.

Usually after one or two tries, I could connect to the live feed. I noticed these same results both when I was at home and when I was away. When I was connected to the live feed, the audio would frequently cut out, which indicated that there were some connection hiccups.

The video quality was mostly clear, but when there was a lot of movement on the screen, it would get pixelated and the movement would look jerky. There was also often a delay of up to five seconds between what was really happening and what I was viewing on my screen. I just didn’t feel like I could quite trust the doorbell camera to show me what’s happening in real time.

SimpliSafe Video Doorbell Pro Features

Motion Detection

The motion sensor on the front of the camera will send a notification to your phone if someone is approaching your door. You can crank up the motion sensor’s sensitivity to high if you want an earlier warning, or if you’re getting too many alerts, you can lower the sensitivity or turn off motion notifications altogether.

We kept the sensitivity on medium and, like Goldilocks’s porridge, it was just right. We liked that we only got a handful of false alarms from things like cars, squirrels, or waving flags.

Doorbell Ring Notifications

The SimpliSafe app alerts you when someone pushes the doorbell button. Because you hook the doorbell into your original chime, your doorbell chime inside your home will ring as well, but it turned our existing chime from a two-toned “ding-dong” to just a single “ding.”

Two-Way Audio

The greatest benefit of the best smart doorbells is the ability to answer your door when you’re not at home with two-way audio. SimpliSafe’s two-way audio relies on a walkie-talkie-style press-to-talk operation, but the transmission delay of several seconds makes it nearly impossible to carry on a conversation. It’s fine for telling a door-to-door salesman to scram, but don’t expect to be able to chat with visitors.

Night Vision

SimpliSafe’s night vision works well in close range when someone is right up on your porch, but we found that it gets blurry once someone is more than about six feet away from the camera. It also doesn’t handle the glare from bright lights well at night.

Zoom

Technically, there’s no optical zoom on the SimpliSafe doorbell camera, but when you turn your phone to landscape mode and pinch the screen, you can zoom in on the picture. Because the doorbell is located to the side of your door, you can’t tilt it left or right, so people walking up to your door are always off to one side in the picture.

Installation and Setup

If you’re comfortable with using a screwdriver and you know how to work your circuit breaker, installing the SimpliSafe Doorbell Camera is pretty straightforward.

I was a little intimidated by the process, but I realized it was ike cooking using an unfamiliar recipe: I might not be able to throw it together as quickly or easily as an experienced chef, but as long as I follow the instructions and take it one step at a time, the outcome is the same.

I did run into some installation snags, though. After getting everything hooked up and restoring power to the circuit, the doorbell wouldn’t ring when I pressed the button. After troubleshooting with some SimpliSafe installation videos on YouTube, I learned that sometimes it just takes a few minutes before the doorbell starts working.

Once the doorbell was installed and functional, it took only about two minutes to get it linked to my Wi-Fi network and the SimpliSafe app so I could access the camera and its settings from my smartphone.

SimpliSafe Customer Service

SimpliSafe’s customer service hours aren’t 24/7 like other companies, but there is an online support center you can access anytime to get your questions answered. SimpliSafe’s customer reviews are mixed, and most complaints center on technical difficulties and billing issues. Still, the company earns an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau.1

SimpliSafe Video Doorbell Pro Versus the Competition

Price Smart Home Integration Resolution Field of Vision Cloud Storage for One Camera Learn More

SimpliSafe Video Doorbell Pro Nest Hello Video Doorbell Ring Video Doorbell 2 $169 $229 $199 x No ✓ Yes ✓ Yes 1080p 1080p 1080p 162 degrees 160 degrees 160 degrees 30 days for $4.99/mo. 5 days for $5/mo. 60 days for $3/mo Visit SimpliSafe Visit Kohl's Visit Ring

{ "@context": "http://schema.org", "@type": "Table", "about": "" }

Data effective 11/22/2019. Offers and availability subject to change.

The SimpliSafe Video Doorbell Pro is less expensive than both Nest Hello and Ring 2, but it lacks the smart home integration of the other two—it will connect only with your SimpliSafe security system.

Nest’s and Ring’s higher price tags also include tech like open talk channels that work more like phones than walkie-talkies, and both doorbell cams have added features like facial recognition and motion zone settings that SimpliSafe lacks.

When it comes to cloud storage, SimpliSafe has a pretty good deal with 30 days for a $5 monthly fee, but Ring has an even better one, with a full 60 days for only $3 per month. As for Nest, it’s important to note that even though Nest’s plan is only 5 days of storage, it offers continuous video recording—while both Ring’s and SimpliSafe’s cloud storage video recording plans are for doorbell and motion events only.

Conclusion

If you already have a SimpliSafe security system and you want to jump on the video doorbell bandwagon, the SimpliSafe Video Doorbell Pro is an affordable option that will play nicely with your existing system. But keep in mind that it won’t have as many features as pricier brands, and you’ll experience more video and audio delays than you might with a higher-end product.

  Visit SimpliSafe

SimpliSafe Video Doorbell Pro FAQs

How does the SimpliSafe Video Doorbell Pro work with the SimpliSafe security system?

The SimpliSafe mobile app lets you sync all your SimpliSafe security cameras—including your doorbell cam—to your security system sensors. So if an entry sensor on a door or window gets triggered, all your connected cameras will start recording. This allows you to track any intruder through your home and get valuable footage for law enforcement.

What items are included in a basic SimpliSafe security system package?

A basic SimpliSafe package costs around $200 and contains a base unit, keypad, contact sensor, and motion detector. You can have your security system professionally monitored, or you can monitor it yourself.

SimpliSafe also has a build-your-own-system option where you can add on other items like additional door or window sensors, a key fob, and cameras.

How We Reviewed the SimpliSafe Video Doorbell Pro

We installed our SimpliSafe Video Doorbell Pro to an existing doorbell location at a private residence and tested it over the course of several days. While testing it, we used both normal everyday use and our own testing scenarios to evaluate its features and video quality. For monitoring, we used the SimpliSafe app on an iPhone 6. To learn more about the SafeWise product testing process, check our full methodology.

Related Pages on SafeWise

SimpliSafe Home Security Review

The Best Smart Video Doorbells of 2019

The Ring Doorbell Pro Review

Sources:

Better Business Bureau, “SimpliSafe Business Profile“

The post SimpliSafe Video Doorbell Pro Review appeared first on SafeWise.

Article source here: SimpliSafe Video Doorbell Pro Review