#continuing to rely on the team themes for my prompts

[camarilla-arts]

Art Fight attack on @narizen of their TMNT iteration Coalescence. its so cool and neon!

[katyspersonal]

Omg, I’m so glad to hear this! I totally thought you were maybe tired of writing those long posts, and I mean granted, I wouldn’t blame you. That’s A LOT of writing, but man, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy devouring every word of it. Your thoughts are incredibly insightful (hehe, get it?). No one else I’ve seen really delves into the Japanese text and all the visual details quite the same way. I really do hope you feel encouraged to keep sharing but with no pressure simultaneously if you are looking to keep your main blog mostly for art stuff! It’s all up to you of course, but yes, please know that you have a very dedicated fan hiding in the shadows that loves scouring through your notes like a Byrgenwerth scholar studying the cosmos lol!

...Ahaha allllllright I really need to find the weird guy that started to apparently pay people to send me compliments fshjghds Because recently I am having abundance of them and that never happens :^) /j

Thank you very much though; This means a lot! I will admit, I shared majority of my core theories, the rest are just some details I share at my own pace or when prompted <:3 Bloodborne solidified my belief that videogames ARE the best form of art for me. With BB, to understand more you need to analyse EVERY medium - more lore lurks in the songs lyrics, in songs leitmotifs, in colors, in subtle design similarities between clothes, in environment, in face datas, in cut content that is STILL useful, in internal filenames, in item descriptions, in item placements... And, ah, yeah, dialogue is there too I guess! xD

I have strong love for complicated, multi-sided things like this. If BB music was just pretty music with no lore significance - that would not be the same. Just check out how first stage of Rom's theme sounds like broken version of first stage of OoK's theme! If clothes designs were just cool drips with no lore significance - that would not be the same. Look at how interesting it is that default Hunter and Henriett are wearing bootleg style of Old Hunters! It just means a lot for me when someone enjoys all these infinite DETAILS with me ;-; Bloodborne is a godsend for my habit to overthink!

But... Yeah, never count on localizations of foreign media, ESPECIALLY Japanese ones. For some reason western translations often seem to warp the original context to fit their values/agendas more - and then western fans pick that up and continue. Or sometimes they simplify lore for no reason? Just ask Kirby fans what they did with Four Matters in Star Allies! Gehrman being made into a creep that tells you that you can do... things with the Doll is just one of the most awful examples, and I totally believe it was intentional and not a misinterpretation! Because a sexist creep is "easier to understand", in opinion of localization team, for western audience than an actually cool character or something? It is CRUCIAL for me to know what creators were truly trying to say! For example:

This is what Miyazaki had to say about Fauxsefka, and it changed my perception of her a lot back then! I used to think she was just a crazy binch using people to drain Insight from them once they're Kin with the cosmos yeah... But angle of Miyazaki helped me to look from different perspective and I could suddenly see what he meant with her character? Her dialogue about 'willing to save even if just one person' no longer seemed like bullshit lying to win sympathy, but as genuine sentiment - she was helping people to evolve past the risk of falling into beasthood the only way she knew how!

And it is arguable, twisted 'heroism' but isn't it what makes it SO interesting? THE core fun of interacting with overseas media is how different some things can be! Original Japanese script is just the next fastest way to access what creators TRULY wanted to say, after reading direct interviews of course x) So yeah that's why I always rely on direct excerpts from Japanese for my theories!

[anjuschiffer]

So you know in most if not all the ladybug dc stories it is wonder woman whom is pissed off when she finds out someone thought the calls from Paris where a prank. But can I get you to write one where Aquaman is piss off about the calls going in answered. And when asked why he goes the last time we ignored the ladybugs call for help the black cat sank Atlantis you can ask wonder woman about this if you want I am going to paris to beg forgiveness. Sorry to send you two back to back

@vixen-uchiha, when I saw this, I knew I had to work on it asap! Of course, I took the liberty to change some aspects of the prompt and hope you enjoy my take on this! 

And don’t worry about sending multiple prompts! I enjoy reading them and trying to find a way to deliver them :D

So without furtherado, here’s the fic! Enjoy!

Also, I’ll be working and posting your first prompt later on, so don’t worry if you don’t see it this week

------

Tag: @theatreandcomicfreak @damianette-is-life

[MENDING A WRONG]

Arthur sighed as he walked into the meeting room, slumping into a seat at the table, Hal glancing at him -from across the table- before he resumed to look at the holograms in front of him. 

“Royal duties got you worn out?”

“Partially.” Arthur admitted, letting out another sigh. “Anything new?”

“Nothing, really.” Hal provided, not once letting his eyes leave his screen. “Agh, when will these kids stop sending these prank videos?” Arthur perked at that, getting up from his chair.

He watched as Hal archived it to some folder label ‘trash’.

“What videos?”

Hal proceeded to show Arthur the latest video sent to the Justice League, roughly from a month ago.

There, on the screen, was a girl, roughly around the age of 17. The young woman sported a ladybug theme leotard, an all black bodysuit underneath with silver bracers on her arms. Dark red boots with silver sabatons completed her outfit. 

Arthur listened as the ladybug themed girl introduced herself as Ladybug, yelling at her partner to watch his six, a flying car hurdled at them. He watched as Ladybug seamlessly saved a civilian with her yo-yo as she continued to film herself and talk about the situation in Paris.

It wasn’t until Ladybug mentioned something about being the new Guardian of the Miraculous Box and not having a mentor for two solid years -and being Ladybug for four years- that led to Arthur starting to panic. It grew worse when he finally saw her partner, Chat Noir, and heard that he was finally starting to understand his cat miraculous’ powers.

The boy wore all black attire, golden armor that protected his entire right arm, a single golden bracer on his left and a golden staff for a weapon. He looked about the same age as the girl.

“Why didn’t you tell any of us about this?” Arthur whispered as he pulled at his hair.

“Because it’s a prank. A magical one at that, and you know how I can’t-”

“That is no excuse to try and not find out if it was true!” Arthur yelled, restraining himself from slamming his fists onto the table. “How long have they been trying to contact us?” Hal’s eyes darted away from Arthur, fully knowing what was coming.

“Three years. Maybe four?” Hal flinched when Arthur slammed his fists onto the table, the stone crumbling to the floor.

“Four. Years?” Arthur grabbed Hal, hating that the man was already off the ground. “Those kids have been contacting us for four years? Do you understand what that means? What you’ve done to them?”

“Listen, I didn’t-”

“They’re children for crying out loud!” Arthur yelled, letting go of Hal, pacing a bit before returning his attention to the idiot. “The one named Chat Noir- if he hadn’t taken precautions to master the little skill set he had, he could’ve destroyed all of France if he wasn’t careful.” When Hal let out a laugh, Arthur saw red. Just as his fist was about to greet Hal’s face, someone pulled him back.

“What is going on?” Clark spoke up, Arthur keeping his narrowed eyes on Hal before jerking his wrist away from Clark’s grasp.

“Why don’t you ask him about the situation that has been ongoing in Paris for four years? Ask him about the terrorist, in which two children are expected to take down. Two. Children.” 

“Like we don’t have children that are-“ Hal started, Arthur throwing a chair at him before only for Clark to catch it midair. 

“We’ve trained them, mentally prepared them for combat, but them!” Arthur exclaimed, running his hand through his hair. “They have no one to guide them, no one to help them. They had to teach themselves to fight, to come up with plans for their citizens during attacks. They had only each other to rely on.” 

Arthur looked at the other League members that had entered the room, Barry and Diana looked concerned while Batman simply looked unfazed. “They tried to reach us, they called for our help, only for Hal to turn a blind eye simply because he thought it was a prank.”

“To be clear, if anyone else saw two teens running through Paris while recording through a phone, they also would’ve-“

“Did you not just listen to a word I said? We have to help them!”

“Why are you so sure about this?” Batman decided to speak up, Hal mentally thanking Batman for stepping in. “Why are you so keen on helping these foriegn heroes?”

“The Miraculous aren’t items to underestimate.” Arthur started, not missing the way Diana’s eyes widened. “Under the wrong hands, they wreck havoc. In the case of the boy with the Cat Miraculous, it creates chaos.”

“Elaborate.”

“Each Miraculous is a blessing from tiny gods and goddesses named Kwami, the core of each Miraculous’ power.” Arthur looked down at his hands. “When not mastered properly, it can lead to unwanted situations.” Arthur looked at his fists. “The Kwami of Destruction, the one that the boy wields… he’s the one who sunk Atlantis.”

Hal laughed, but it slowly trailed when no one else did. “Don’t believe me? Ask Diana. She knows just as much as I do.” Arthur walked off, only for a hand to stop him. 

“Where are you going?” Clark asked, hoping to talk Arthur into setting a meeting to figure out what to do next. Everyone missed how Batman left before Arthur did, quietly typing something on his phone as he walked out. 

“Paris. I have to fix the damage Hal could’ve prevented if he had said something sooner.”

———

The Justice League went a solid month without receiving any news from Arthur. None. Zilch. 

It was odd to not have any type of contact from the usually punctual man, causing the team to worry. 

It wasn’t until another three weeks where Hal, Clark, Diana and Barry found out what he was up to in the form of a national broadcast that was sent to them by Batman. 

“-as the crowd cheers the names of their saviors and protectors of four years. Ladybug and Chat Noir have kept their promise and after four grueling years, they’ve finally done it! They’ve defeated Hawkmoth.”

“We couldn’t have done it without the help of our team and mentors, people who were essential to the capture of Hawkmoth.” Ladybug started her speech, her partner wrapping a blanket around her. “With his capturing, our duty is done and as of right now, we are hanging up our mantels until a new danger dares to emerge.” Ladybug smiled as the crowd cheered and cried, Ladybug also smiling and wiping away a tear. “Until then, stay safe Paris! Oh!” Ladybug pulled the podium mic closer to her. “Hal, if you’re watching, Aqua says to be prepared for when he comes back. Something about introducing a ward or something.” Ladybug stood back, a smile gracing her lips. “That being said, farewell Paris! Until we meet again!” 

Hal shuddered at the news, watching as Ladybug walked into the room, Chat by her side. Aquaman and Batman soon followed after, the two sporting a grin… or at least it looked like Batman was grinning. Sort of.

“Thank you for helping me come up with a way to take them under my care.” Arthur said, Batman simply nodding as he sipped his coffee in hand.

Ladybug stood in front of everyone, grinning as her eyes landed on Hal.

“Hi everyone, my name’s Ladybug. Now, which one of you is Hal? Uncle Arthur promised me a match with him!”

“And then another match with me!” Chat chirped, grinning as he watched Hal grow paler.

“As of today, these two are my wards!” Arthur announced, placing a hand on both young adults. “Now Hal, be a good friend and spar with them! They were itching for a match with you.”

[comrade-meow]

Below is a statement we received from LGB Fight Back in the States, a new group that advocates for LGB rights under vicious, homophobic attack by trans ideology activists.

LGB Fight Back, a US-based organization that represents the interests of lesbians, gay men, and bisexual people, launched on February 14, 2021 with a Valentine’s Day-themed Week of Action. Protests took place across the US and Canada, co-sponsored by LGB Fight Back and Parents of ROGD Kids, a nationwide organization of parent support groups whose children are at risk of being medicalized and harmed by transgenderism. The protests sent a message of love to non-conforming kids everywhere: We love you just the way you are!

LGB Fight Back formed in response to the exponential rise of transgenderism and the forced teaming of the LGB with the transgender movement. Society at large is being gaslighted by activists into supporting the false idea that trans is “gay-adjacent.” The transgender movement, driven by medical corporations and Big Pharma, reinforces conservative stereotypes of male and female behavior, and directly targets LGB people for medical experimentation that shortens their lifespans, turns them into lifelong medical patients, and renders them sterile.

“Trans is not Gay Plus. It is not Gay 2.0,” says LGB Fight Back co-founder and lifelong progressive Belissa Cohen. “In fact, it’s just the opposite. The T is a parasite on the gay community.”

In pushing transgenderism for profit, Big Med preys on the internalized shame and external homophobia experienced by so many members of the LGB community. The invention of the “trans child” out of whole cloth reinforces the public narrative that trans identities are innate, lifelong, and unchangeable, and works to prevent LGB people from resisting medicalization.

“Not conforming to sex stereotypes is not a medical condition,” says Cohen. “It’s perfectly normal, especially for homosexual and bisexual people. So-called ‘transition’ is being used to force people, especially LGB people, to conform. Woke homophobia is just conservative homophobia with more glitter.”

The Valentine’s Week protests, most of which took place at youth “gender clinics,” addressed the harm being done to children by trans ideologues spouting the quasi-religious claim that it’s possible to be “born in the wrong body,” and their highly successful efforts to squelch research, discussion, and debate surrounding the subject. Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the site of one of the protests, has opened a second clinic in New Jersey to capitalize on this profit-driven fad. And Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, where protesting parents were welcomed by local news crews, currently refers healthy girls as young as 13 for double mastectomies that will cause them lifelong chronic pain. CHLA’s Medical Director Johanna Olson-Kennedy has also created guidelines that allow children as young as 8 to be poisoned with artificial hormones. 

Pediatric “transition” causes sterility and lack of sexual function, echoing the “progressive” eugenics movement of the 20th century, in which more than 60,000 Americans, primarily women of color and “mental defectives”–including homosexuals, who were pathologized in the DSM until 1973–were sterilized.

Medical experimentation on non-conforming children concerns LGB Fight Back greatly, as these children are likely to grow up to be the next generation of LGB people. Ample research shows that, if not affirmed as “trans,” the majority of non-conforming kids grow up to be healthy lesbians, bisexuals, or gay men. The “trans-affirmative model” that turns young LGB people into poor facsimiles of the opposite sex saddled with lifelong medical issues is highly unethical. At best, it’s a new form of gay conversion therapy; at worst, it’s a new form of LGB eugenics.

“Lesbians, gay men, and bi people have been intentionally targeted for medicalization at least since Nazi doctor Carl Vaernet started using hormones as a ‘cure’ for homosexuality in the 1930s,” 

says LGB Fight Back co-founder and former trans activist Carrie Hathorn. “Big Pharma and Big Med turned our community into a revenue stream, and now they’re doing the same to kids.

“I was once captured by this ideology, too,” Hathorn continues, recalling the two trans activist workshops she led in 2014. One of the workshops was designed for supporters of whistleblower Bradley Manning, a gay man who declared himself “trans” on the day of his conviction. “As a trans activist, I thought I was being supportive. But now I realize that Manning and my ‘trans’ friends were just attempting to distance themselves from their own homosexuality. Just like ‘praying the gay away,’ transing the gay away doesn’t work.”

Hathorn is hopeful that the growing tide of detransitioners, many of whom are lesbian, gay, or bisexual, will soon become impossible to ignore in the US. In the UK in 2020, a high court ruled that children under 16 cannot consent to bone-disintegrating drugs sold as puberty blockers. The ruling was prompted by Keira Bell’s lawsuit against the Tavistock gender clinic. Bell, a detransitioned lesbian, has been vocal about the internalized homophobia that drove her own “transition.”

“LGB Fight Back is standing up for LGB people because we know we’re perfect just the way we are,” Cohen says. “We don’t need to be ‘transed’ into fake straight people.”

But medicalization is not the only threat that transgenderism poses to the LGB community. Lesbian and gay history and LGB historical figures are being “transwashed”, or rewritten as “trans.” Stonewall icon Stormé DeLarverie, a butch lesbian, has been posthumously rebranded as a “trans man”. Malcolm Michaels Jr, a self-described gay man who sometimes went by the name of Marsha P. Johnson, has been rebranded as a “trans woman” and made the star of the Stonewall Uprising in the popular imagination, though historical accounts place him far from the scene. From Joan of Arc to We’wha and Billy Tipton, the Chevalier d’Eon to Moll Cutpurse and Elagabalus, historical figures who had same-sex relationships and did not conform to sex stereotypes are being subsumed into a revisionist “trans history”.

One of the most serious issues currently facing the LGB community is that of sexual coercion and shaming by heterosexuals under the guise of “inclusiveness”. Heterosexuals adopt trans identities in order to gain access to lesbian and gay spaces; they demand that lesbians have sex with straight men calling themselves “trans lesbians” and that gay men have sex with straight women calling themselves “gay trans men”. The concept of “same-gender attraction,” which transgenderists have invented to replace same-sex attraction, is a tool of sexual coercion and conversion therapy rhetoric. Lesbians and gay men who have themselves avoided medicalization face accusations of “genital fetishism”, demands that they undergo “therapy” to “rethink their genital preferences”, stealth rape by deception or omission, and an overall climate of gaslighting.

Of particular note is the insidious concept of the “cotton ceiling”, a term coined by pornographer Drew DeVeaux, a straight man calling himself a “trans lesbian”, for a coercive tactics workshop held at Planned Parenthood. The “cotton ceiling” is a reference to the cotton of a lesbian’s underwear, and the term is used by straight men who view lesbians’ homosexuality – to borrow a word from lesbophobic straight man Julia Serano – as “systemic” oppression against men.

The reframing of homosexuality as bigotry has been used to systematically colonize and destroy precious lesbian and gay bars, events, dating apps, and community centers. LGB people, who rely on single-sex spaces for socialization and community as well as romance, increasingly find themselves isolated, alone, and vulnerable to homophobic bullying and sexual coercion.

“A lot of straight people think that by paying lip service to ‘LGBTQ+,’ they’re supporting us,” Cohen says. “But that couldn’t be further from the truth. Our organizations have been ideologically captured, LGB funding appropriated by the TQ+ and our political movement co-opted. We understand that straight people want to be allies; they want to help. But the culture of No Debate surrounding transgenderism has turned the people who should be our allies against us.”

“If we don’t stop this new form of homophobia,” Cohen continues, echoing concerns expressed by former staff at the Tavistock, “soon there will be nothing left of our lesbian and gay communities. It’s time for LGB people to stand up to LGBT Inc. and say, ‘Enough! Leave lesbians alone! Hands off the gays!’”

Websites: LGBFightBack.org & parentsofrogdkids.com

[bubbletimestories]

From Prague with heat (reader insert)

Summary : What if you were there when the Fire Elemental attacked Prague? Beck's plan slips through his fingers and things don't go as planned. The fault lies with your boyfriend.

Warnings : curse words, shooting

Themes : saving, hero, boyfriend, pissed Beck

A/N : As usal, translated with Google. Quick prompt just for fun

https://archiveofourown.org/works/25116700/chapters/63955354

*********

A light breeze disturbs your hair as the pod lifts into the air on the summer night. You can't wait to reach the highest point so you can admire Prague and its lights, but you also savor every second in the company of your boyfriend, squeezing his hand with an excited smile. He's less enthusiastic than you, but that's his usual way of being, that doesn't prevent him from enjoying the moment with you. The Ferris wheel was your idea, but it's true that there is something pleasant about being out of sight to kiss you under the stars. You huddle together, your head resting against his shoulder as you continue to climb up to overlook the carnival crowd.

Suddenly, the ground begins to emit a thick black smoke and the passers-by hurriedly move aside before the earth begins to vomit a glowing magma that winds between the cobblestones to climb up the statues. From where you are, you don't immediately notice the danger, too busy enjoying this romantic moment. It is the panicked screams that grab your attention, the molten mass swelling and swelling into a gigantic, humanoid entity with huge, incandescent limbs. Its face is terrifying and its cry echoes through the large square, triggering a veritable movement of panic.

From his hiding place, a certain engineer relishes his moment, ready to make his debut once the Elemental does some damage. His pantyhose sidekick must be thinking in the panic of how to stop this monster, unless he relies on "Mysterio" to defeat the enemy. This little one is intelligent but also so naive that it makes him blind. All it took was a little self-confidence, a cropped beard to look like his late mentor, and a little encouragement to get him to eat out of Beck's hand. Child's play.

"Y/N, stay behind me!" "

Your boyfriend tries to block with his body as he watches the situation, the screaming passers-by, the slender black figure swinging to try to stop the lava abomination advancing and growing visibly. From your pod, you can already feel its pestilent, burning breath as the monster wreaks havoc, crushing cars with roaring roars. You feel your heart pounding and curse yourself for choosing the Ferris wheel because you are stuck, unable to escape. Besides, you're not the only ones, you can hear the screams of two teenagers a few pods below. You can't die here, that would be too awful. You suppress tears of terror as your boyfriend presses you against him briefly. He will protect you as best he can. A dramatic scene, a desperate little couple, the team pulling the strings behind this staging couldn't ask for better. It's going to be time for the armored hero to make an appearance, throw in some emerald lightning before tragically sacrificing himself (to finally survive, don't worry, kids). Quentin sits up with a big smile, it's his highlight.

Shots echoed abruptly across the large square, hitting the terrifying figure of the creature whose colors fade for a fraction of a second. Without waiting, a new burst explodes, your boyfriend aiming without even a shiver, his weapon well held in his hands. His metal arm does not shake, the young man wants to protect you and nothing will stop him. With staggering speed, he empties his magazine on the monster, which splits into a million pixels as drones drop with a final roar. As passers-by, SHIELD, and Team Mystério watch dumbfounded, the magma monster disappears, leaving behind only sparking robots. Silence falls and in a corner of the set, a teenager in a black suit descends on the pavement, a confused but relieved expression under his mask. His friends are safe and sound. As for you, you widen your eyes before slapping your boyfriend on the arm with a fake expression of reproach.

"You brought a gun to our date!" "

Bucky makes an apologetic face as he puts down his rifle (wondering how he managed to hide it) but you don't sulk for long, hugging his neck to hug him. You were so scared but luckily your hero saved the day. With a little luck, this story will restore the image of the young man and finally present him as a true Avenger. He deserves to be appreciated by people and to let go of his deadly weapon past. After all, he never did anything wrong.

***

“JAMES BUCHANAN BARNES !!!!

Returning to his team after having had to play surprise and a thousand other emotions in front of Fury and that idiot Peter (what! The Elementals are illusions! But what a surprise! I'm shocked!), Beck fumes and paces the room up and down wide, yelling at his team, which has curled up like a bunch of sheepish children. The night was supposed to be a success, the apotheosis for their fictional hero, but instead they are in serious trouble. The more far-sighted discreetly put away fragile or valuable items, their leader's anger promises to be more terrifying than any Elemental.

" Why nobody told me that the fucking WINTER SOLDIER was there ???? !!!!! It's not like it's a small detail !!! "

Oh damn… the question they've got the answer to. They must not say anything, remain silent as a grave but he will realize it. Quick, someone agree to wear the hat or Beck's fury will only get worse. Brave, Will takes a step forward, used to playing the scapegoat for angry men jealous of Tony Stark (at least that boss has hair). To tell the truth, they had noticed this guy locked in the Ferris wheel but seen from afar and with his cap on, hard to say for sure if he was really Captain America's friend.

"We thought .... we thought it wasn't important. That he wouldn't interfere."

He seemed helpless and with his girlfriend, it's not like he was prepared to face a monster. In addition, he was in the Ferris wheel so technically unable to do anything. The team already had enough to do with the kid, Spider-man, even though Quentin had said he could guide him and keep him from going to the wrong place. The latter takes a deep breath and grabs his goblet of greenish juice, trying not to crush it in his fist, not toss it at Janice's head and most of all… not to scream.

“So for you, a super soldier from WWII with a metallic arm and a talent with weapons is .... not .... IMPORTANT !!!! "

He inhales and exhales deeply. Breathe Quentin, breathe ... You are surrounded by idiots. By dint of deep breaths and imagining himself killing each of his colleagues slowly and inventively, the young man manages to calm down and turns on his heels to go to rest, not without pointing a finger at the terrorized group.

“Don't forget to remind me to pulverize you after I drank my juice. "

Shitty day...

[mediaeval-muse]

Book Review

A Dangerous Invitation by Erica Monroe. Quillfire Publishing. 2013.

Rating: 2/5 stars

Genre: historical romance

Part of a Series? Yes, The Rookery Rogues #1 of 4 (and a short story)

Summary:  She’s given up on love, and wants only independence… Torn from her life of privilege by her father’s death, Kate Morgan survives in London’s dark and depraved rookeries as a fence for stolen goods. The last man she ever expects, or wants, to be reunited with is her first love, who promised to cherish, honor and protect her, and instead fled amidst accusations of murder. He’s the reformed rake determined to win her back… One drunken night cost Daniel O’Reilly the woman he loved and the life he’d worked so hard to create. If he ever wants to reclaim that life–and Kate–he’ll not only have to prove he’s innocent of murder, but convince the pistol-wielding spitfire that he’s no longer the scoundrel he once was. Together, they’ll have to face a killer. Time is running out…

***Full review under the cut.***

Trigger Warnings: violence, sexual content, sexism, forced prostitution, rape, sexual assault, alcoholism, being buried alive

Overview: Another recommendation from the website Smart Bitches, Trashy Books. I decided to give this one a try because I’m a sucker for a spitfire heroine, murder plots, and the criminal underbelly of late Regency/pre-Victorian London. But while the previous recommendation was a hit, this one was somewhat of a miss. I think the bones of the story are good, as well as the character archetypes, but I wasn’t personally a fan of Monroe’s writing.

Writing: Monroe’s prose is fairly straightforward with some dramatic flairs here and there to heighten the emotion. It’s easy to read, and you can skim it quickly, if that’s your style. For me, however, it bordered a little too much on the melodramatic, and it became a bit repetitive when the same sentiments were evoked again and again. For example, we’re told a lot how much our heroine, Kate, can never trust a man again and that she can’t have a future with our hero, Daniel. After the first few times, I wished Monroe would move on to explore more complex emotions to develop her characters a little more. I also think the dialogue is a bit unrealistic, as characters tend to say exactly what’s bothering them or what deeper issues are plaguing them without much prompting, and real people don’t exactly talk that way. Some metaphors and choices of words were also a little awkward, which made for a confusing read at times.

By far, the biggest issue I had was the way Monroe handled the exposition and the details of her mystery. The action of the story starts out fairly quickly, which would have been fine except that I felt like I was being asked to care about characters’ histories without getting to know them first. Daniel runs into Kate after a long absence on page 2 of the first chapter of the novel, and I wish we were given a chapter where we saw Kate fencing some stolen goods or something else first to get us invested in her as a character. Also, because things happened so quickly, I felt like I was being told a lot of information rather than relevant details being shown to me organically. For example, a character might do or say something, then there’s be a kind of aside that explained the significance of the thing. Or Daniel would reference something about his quest to clear his name, then the author would take some time to tell us how he started his journey, how he knew people helping him, etc. As a result, there was a lot of setup jam-packed in the first few chapters, and I wish more had been done to create a flow that didn’t rely on duck info-dumping. Maybe if we had a chapter showing us Kate completing a sale (as I said) while Daniel is contacting his rogue friend, Atlas, who agrees to help him clear his name. Then the action between them could begin.

Plot: I love the idea of former lovers teaming up to solve a mystery, and at its heart, I think the premise of the plot was interesting. I did think, however, that some of the details and steps along the way weren’t handled as well as they could have been. There’s a lot of going to talk to witnesses or persons of interest, which makes for a lot of info-dumping, and there’s also some random chases which seemed to be inserted for the purposes of action rather than a logical unfolding of the mystery. During the first chase, for example, I was constantly wondering whether their pursuer was just a night watchmen or someone more nefarious. If the latter, how in the world would someone have known Daniel and Kate were snooping around the warehouses at night unless someone was following them? The thought that someone must know they are investigating the murder from the onset (and thus, know that Daniel is back in London) doesn’t really occur to the characters, which I found a bit frustrating.

Overall, I wished the events that made up the main narrative had been strung together more meaningfully. Every encounter that was related to solving the mystery had the potential for some interesting social commentary, and while it was gestured to, I ultimately felt that it was rushed. For example, there’s one scene in which Daniel and Kate go visit a prostitute, and Kate thinks a lot about how the girls are more than just objects and how women have to do what they can to survive. Soon after, she discloses her own rape after being tricked into prostitution. It seemed to me like the author was trying to cover a lot of things at once when the personal lives of the characters and the unfolding of the mystery could have revolved around one or two themes: the link between minorities and crime (due to poverty resulting from prejudice), for example, and the way gender also affects how women experience the criminal world. Or, given that the main undercurrent of the book is the existence of body snatching, every aspect of the story could be tied to the concept of “selling bodies” and disregard for the poor. If the bodies of the poor are being exploited to sell to medical facilities, that kind of matches up nicely with the idea of poor women “selling their bodies” via prostitution or Irish immigrants “selling their bodies” by becoming laborers. But alas, it seemed like the novel wasn’t quite interested in diving deep into those issues.

Characters: Our heroine, Kate, is a headstrong woman who has used her knowledge of her father’s shipping company to fence stolen goods following her family’s bankruptcy. I rather liked how her ruthlessness and street smarts were connected to this aspect of her life rather than the author throwing up her hands and just asserting that Kate was a badass. Kate was also pretty likable as a street-smart protagonist who knew how to navigate the criminal world of 19th century London. I liked watching her get out of tricky situations and disappear at opportune moments, and I especially liked that she had a practical, active role to play in the investigation. She’s enlisted for her quick mind and encyclopedic knowledge of her father’s company, and I found that enjoyable and well-done. However, she was a bit back-and-forth in her affections for Daniel. One minute, she’d be proudly declaring that they can’t be together and values her independence, and the next, she’d kiss him or let him touch her while thinking about how she wanted to be protected. While it was understandable, given her traumatic history on the streets, I did find it a bit frustrating, as a reader, because rather than there being some evolution or development to her character, Kate seemed to be on a more cyclical track.

Daniel, our hero, is an Irish immigrant who has returned from abroad after being accused of murder years before. I liked that Monroe set him up as a struggling former alcoholic and as having PTSD as a result of having found the murder victim before he died - it made it seem like reform was a continual process rather than a quick fix, and that men can be emotionally vulnerable in more ways than just being lovesick or abused. I didn’t quite see what Kate saw in him, however, as her main attraction to him seemed to be physical, especially when recounting their past. Why, for example, did she fall for him before the murder when she says she was concerned about his alcoholism? What drew her to him? I also think Daniel was written as a bit too jealous. He would hate a man he just met just because he potentially got to know Kate while Daniel was away. There was more than one time where his jealousy almost ruined his chances of clearing his name, which I found ridiculous.

The supporting characters were a bit of a mixed bag. I liked Kate’s barmaid friend, Jane, and Atlas, even though neither had quite enough “screen time” to be anything other than a convenient plot device. Other characters just outright got on my nerves with their general disregard for women. The villain, in particular, was poorly done in that he monologued a bit and sexually assaults our heroine for reasons that seem to just be “because I’m evil.” It made for a rather up-and-down reading experience.

Other: There were some interesting political aspects to this book in that many references were devoted to the mistreatment of Irish immigrants. There’s such potential there for a deeper exploration of prejudice and life as a “second class citizen,” including the brief references to Daniel’s code-switching (which was delightful) and his complicated feelings about being Irish but barely remember living in Ireland. I think, however, that a lot of the prejudice was left to stand on its own and generate some automatic sympathy for characters without actually thinking about how it could enhance the story. For example, are Irish people scapegoated for crime in Monroe’s world? How is the stereotype of the alcoholic Irishman subverted by Daniel’s struggle to be better or how does his past make us think more deeply about why people turn to drink (as opposed to judging everyone as uniformly “amoral”)? Just because the novel is a romance doesn’t mean that these issues can’t be explored (one has only to look to someone like Courtney Milan, who weaves social commentary into her romances brilliantly).

I also think more could have been done to enhance the romance itself. While I did like that Daniel was intent on proving himself to be a better man than he was when he left, I also didn’t think the romance was built on much other than their past and physical attraction. Daniel’s reasons for loving Kate seem to be that she anchors him, which is a bit selfish and frustrating, but he also admires her independence and intelligence, which prevented me from giving up on him entirely. That being said, their relationship doesn’t evolve as much as it’s cyclical. They fight a lot and Kate is constantly back-and-forth about whether or not she wants to be with him, so it felt like I was reading about the same issue over and over rather than seeing how trust was built between them. Daniel’s arc could have been more about accepting Kate for who she is now - not reminiscing about a past that couldn’t return - and Kate’s arc could have been about learning to trust again or valuing living people over the memory of her dead father. While Daniel’s acceptance of Kate’s past was well-done, I really wanted more insight as to how each person made the other’s lives better and more emotionally fulfilling, not just how they’re a good person for overlooking the other’s flaws or how the love interest “anchored” them or whatever. In fairness, Daniel does learn that he needs to “save himself” rather than rely on Kate to do it for him, but there was very little lead-up for him to get to that point.

Continuing with the Series? No.

Recommendations: I would recommend this book if you’re interested in historical romance (especially set in the 19th century), criminal underbelly of London, Irish heroes, reformed rakes, disinherited heroines, former lovers, and murder plots.

[koalaguru]

Character Analysis: Part 1: Sly Cooper

I’ve had a Sly Cooper-themed Tumblr account for awhile now and I have yet to post anything of note. After years spent lurking and reading the wonderful text posts many fans have made analyzing the shit out of this wonderful series, I felt like it was finally time to throw my hat in the ring of this small but large in passion fanbase because I love analysis as well. So I figured, what better way to get started than by doing a kinda series thing where I post lengthy thought posts on the different characters of the series whenever I get the chance? This won’t be something simple like stopping after doing the main three plus Carmelita...no, I’ll be talking about every major boss and character in the series, so buckle in.

The main goal here is to simultaneously share my love of this series and write analysis pieces while also highlighting what I think of each character and where the games went right (or wrong, in...some cases...) with portraying them. Where better to start than with the main character himself: The Guru Sly Cooper!

Sly Cooper is a very complicated character to get right. I don’t mean just him, I mean the idea behind a character like him. He shows so much arrogance and a flippant disregard for safety precautions in so many scenarios that if these weren’t balanced by the excellent writing of his other personality traits he’d be downright unlikable. Luckily, he’s in the hands of Sucker Punch. But that’s also why, when taken out of Sucker Punch’s hands...things tend to get a bit messy.

Sly Cooper, Nick Wilde, Nathan Drake, the list goes on. They are all similar characters. Cunning, romantic, a bit dangerous, and easily interpreted as uncaring in some instances. That is why it is important to establish a solid background to make it clear why they are the way that they are, and it is equally important to show where their limits lie. Nick Wilde for example could have easily been an annoying character. Judy Hopps is positioned as the main character of Zootopia, and so when audiences see this smug con artist making her job harder, they sympathize with her and demonize him. But the irresistible charm to his personality and the later revelations about his past lead to a satisfying arc that makes him a fan favorite. He is such a smug and cunning asshole because society never gave him the chance to be anything more, and so when Judy gives him that chance, we see who he truly is.

But enough about Zootopia...I’m talking about Sly Cooper. And if I’m being honest, I think the character of Sly Cooper should be the prime example anyone who tries to write this kind of character looks to in the future, because Sucker Punch knocked it out of the damn park.

Starting in Sly 1, we are once again faced with the potential problems of this character archetype. Sly is hard to figure out. We get a solid sense of the rest of the main cast. Bentley is the geeky and cowardly man in the chair, Murray is the clumsy oaf who often makes things more difficult, and Carmelita is the rigid woman of the law: clearly not the main threat, but a definite complicating factor that players will need to work around. Sly, meanwhile isn’t really given any exaggerated traits. In fact, he’s full of many traits that would seem to be at odds with each other. He compliments his friends and thanks them one second but then insults them the next. He flirts with Carmelita, but it’s unclear if this is just for distraction or if there is actually something there. He displays a clear cockiness with his athletic moves, but his inner monologues display a vulnerability that he doesn’t let show to the public.

Sly Cooper is a character built on contradictions, and many if not all of his arcs throughout the series center on him resolving those. In Sly 1, he ends up making his inner thoughts on his friends and himself match what he outwardly displays. He states that both of his friends stepped up to the challenge and really helped him out, matching the respect we often hear him internally communicate. His journey of earning back the Thievius Racoonus piece by piece finally let’s his inner monologue become more proud of his own abilities like his outward cockiness often shows. We get some confirmation that he does truly care for Carmelita, but never lets it go too far out of the knowledge of their opposing fields of work. 

In Sly 2, the storytelling took a leap forward and so did the characters. Something that I have noticed about Sly 2 is that many of the arcs are somewhat retreads of arcs we saw in Sly 1, but not really. See, we still have Sly getting humbled, Sly realizing his friends’ value, Sly reaffirming his status with Carmelita, etc. However, Sucker Punch managed to repeat these similar beats with entirely new circumstances to both strengthen the communication of the ideas and make it feel like a continuation rather than a repeat.

We start with Sly once again showing a bit of displeasure with his friends. He chastises Bentley for letting his nervousness get the better of him and refuses to use the code names Bentley has provided for him. He tells Murray he’s used to going it alone when the hippo can’t follow him further into Dimitri’s nightclub. However, the first important thing to note is that Sly’s development from the previous game is not forgotten. He congratulates his friends when the do well, he no longer refers to Murray as a burden, he’s generally a lot more of a team player. The second important thing about this is that the writers gave the team a new point of tension: Bentley and Murray are now out in the field with Sly. In the first game, Sly argued with Bentley because he clashed with his sense of careful planning and lack of danger when being briefed on jobs. Here, he is clashing with Bentley because he is now relying on the turtle in the field to get the job done, and he wants to keep his friend safe. If Bentley freezes up, the job is busted. Same with Murray. Where previously Sly was frustrated because he was having to make up with Murray’s mistakes as a clumsy and naive guy, now he is simply adjusting to a loud and boisterous partner for his more subdued and silent nature.

We also have the deeper storyline being developed with Carmelita. We get more instances where Sly openly admits to loving Carmelita, possibly prompted by his developing romance with Neyla. I said when talking about Sly 1 that by the end we saw that he did care about Carmelita but knew it couldn’t work due to their differing positions. But with Neyla he finally sees someone who is a viable option for him. She is a cop, but she is also less black and white than Carmelita can be, giving him hope that things can work out. And so that is why, as many have said before, the fourth and fifth chapters are such a turning point for Sly’s character in this game.

We see Neyla, the woman who gave Sly hope that he could eventually have real love, reveal that everything Sly thought she was was an elaborate lie to lock him away. We see Sly have to rely on Bentley to break out of jail, fully recognizing his contributions to the group and accepting his differing way of going about things, using Bentley’s code name at last. We see him have to break Murray out of a jail that is force feeding him drugs, making him fully realize the concern and care he has for his friend, and later the respect for his strength when he has to tangle with Murray who is in a blind rage. And we see Sly save Carmelita and help her escape for the cops, once again giving him some hope for a possible relationship.

Now one would think that resolving all of Sly’s ongoing arcs this early in the game is a mistake. After all, that just leaves an unchanging character until the end, and that will make Sly boring. But don’t you worry. It’s Sucker Punch we’re talking about. And so it quickly becomes clear that the resolving of these particular arcs has only led to more questions to come up in Sly’s mind. He has a whole new set of contradictions to consider, and these ones are much deeper set into who he is to himself and those around him.

He loves Carmelita and wants her to be happy. But he seemingly can’t have both. To start a relationship with Carmelita, she’d have to remain on the wrong side of the law, which would make her unhappy. But to make her happy and get her job back, they would not be able to be together. What should he do? He truly cares for and respects his friends, but he keeps placing them in danger. All of the hardship they have encountered so far is due to his family history and only applies personally to him. His friends may end up being better off without him. What should he do?

The ending stretch of Sly 2 aims to answer these questions, but not fully. It does end up with a solution for the time being, but it doesn’t seem to be the best one. Murray and Bentley do end up going off on their own, leaving their gear behind. But it is only because Bentley was paralyzed and needs medical attention and Murray is mentally devastated. Sly ends up making a choice about Carmelita and getting her job back, but then he escapes from her and the chase starts all over again. He’s back to square one. (Carmelita isn’t, but that’s for another day).

Sly 3 is an extremely personal journey. This game’s story is often viewed as lesser than Sly 2′s story due to its seemingly lowered stakes and less connected progression. In Sly 2, you were travelling the world to take down the members of a gang one by one and gather the parts of Clockwerk. All of this was to stop one giant, interconnected plan that would result in the entirety of Paris being driven into a hypnotic rage and Clockwerk being revived. Sly 3, by comparison, does seem like less of a big deal at first. Sly needs to get into his family’s vault, and to do so he needs to gather a team. This means he is traveling the world to get new members and stopping one-off villains while he’s at each location. If he fails, all that will happen is that he won’t get to see the inside of the vault.

But Sly 3 is intentionally more downplayed, because this conflict isn’t any bigger than Sly and his legacy. Everything he goes through is internal, and his own continuing story is the thread tying the adventure together. Sly has been through a lot. He seemingly finally managed to solve all of his internal struggles only to have them replaced by worse ones. And now it all seems worse than ever before. Bentley is paralyzed, Murray has left for a life of meditation, and Carmelita has hired a group of mercenaries, more determined than ever before to take Sly down. The dangers that come with living life on the wrong side of the law are more prevalent in his mind than ever before, and he feels like everyone he loves is paying the price for it.

Simultaneously, Sly is starting to feel like his time is up. He did it. He learned from the Thievius Racoonus. He pulled off great heists. He defeated Clockwerk twice. He’s done more than his ancestors ever could. And as the number of people in his gang grows the less he is needed in the field. He still takes on the majority of jobs, mind you, but there are more frequent instances where he can’t do something alone. Only Bentley and his tech can break into Tsao’s computer. Only Panda King’s fireworks can take out the hopping vampires. Etc. All of the signs are pointing to the idea of Sly finally retiring, but he doesn’t have any life set up to retire to.

All of these fears and hopes and desires culminate in the final assault on Kaine Island, where Sly learns the truth about his father. Dr. M, the villain of this game, is the way that he is due to his partnership with Sly’s dad, and so he is the representation of everything Sly is worried about with his friends. Has he been too selfish by dragging his friends into his family struggles? Has he not given enough attention to their own contributions? Does he even know what it means to share his life with someone? And as he draws closer and closer to the Cooper Vault, a new fear joins in with the rest. What does he have to contribute to the Cooper name?

That last bit is a question that fans have asked for years. Every Cooper was given some special move or technique that they were the master of and added to the Thievius Racoonus. But all Sly does is learn their moves and perform them. Here Sly is, running through representations of his ancestors’ history, and the only real thing he’s decided on is telling Carmelita he loves her if he sees her again. He also decided to bring Murray and Bentley into the vault with him...only to discover that it was a somewhat empty gesture since they couldn’t follow him beyond the entryway. 

So Sly gets to the inner sanctum and comes into contact with Dr. M, and when once again faced with his father’s mistakes he has a realization. His father, according to Dr. M, never gave as much thought to his friends’ interests. Sly’s conflicts over how he is treating his friends, his back and forth internal debate over their own well-being, his desire to have a life outside of thieving, all of that is his contribution. His respect for those outside of the Cooper Clan. He doesn’t have the mechanical skills to match Otto. Murray is the mechanic. He didn’t truly defeat Clockwerk, at least not without the help of Carmelita. Everything he’s done has been with the help of his friends in ways big and small. Sly finally resolves his inner contradictions by realizing that he himself is a contradiction of every Cooper before him.

So, with this knowledge in mind, Sly defeats Dr. M, gives up his thieving life to be with Carmelita (a way for both of them to be happy), and leaves the Cooper Vault and Thievius Racoonus to non-Coopers. And while this could easily be a sad ending, with the family we spent three games with breaking up and Sly seemingly giving up the focus of the games, it is played as a happy one. Because as we see in the ending, Sly is truly happy. He knows who he is, he knows who his friends are, and he’s finally made the right choice.

...And then...Sly 4...I dunno...It’s...a game...

Okay. I did say at the start of this that I would be using my analysis of the character to look at exactly where Sly 4 went wrong with the characterization. And I think if you’ve read this far and played Sly 4 you already know.

Sly drops his life with Carmelita just because he wants to steal again and doesn’t really care all that much about the situation. He finds out that his history is being erased and still spends the entire adventure throwing out quips. He frequently underplays his friends’ accomplishments. He breaks Carmelita’s heart and doesn’t understand why she’s angry, only thinking it’s hilarious that he got her so angry in the first place. Remember at the very start when I said that Sly is a difficult character to write? Very easily moving from charming to annoying? Yeah, I said all that because of this game. He has all of the humor and wisecracks with none of the deeper level stuff. It’s a fine line to walk and Sanzaru unfortunately couldn’t keep their balance.

But at the end of the day, I hope the rest of what I said was interesting to you or just a fun read. I love these games, and the main character is a big reason why. He’s had a great journey, and one less than stellar portrayal doesn’t ruin that.

[racefortheironthrone]

Thoughts on House of X #4

Over the halfway mark!

Look At What They’ve Done Infographic:

Suprisingly for an issue that, in retrospect is the climax of the standard superheroics part of House of X, this issue starts with an infographic, which turns out to be one of the more controversial in HoX/PoX.

Foreshadowing what’s going to come at the end of the issue, the tone is already different from the pseudo-academic objectivity of earlier infographics, although the term “mutant erasure” evokes the activist-inspired, post-cultural turn work of critical race/gender/sexuality studies, which is something of a stepping-stone. 

By contrast, describing Wanda Maximoff as both “the pretender” (does this mean “not-really-a-mutant” or “not-really-Magneto’s-daughter” or both?) and as associated with the Avengers is incredibly politically pointed, which speak to a particular kind of mutant nationalist identity that bears a good deal of grievance towards even benevolent human institutions.

Similarly, the term “human-on-mutant violence” is way too evocative of real world debates over racism and police violence to be accidental on the author’s point. It’s a depressing thought, but the 616 probably sees a lot of “what about mutant-on-mutant violence?” derailings, maybe as many as creep up in threads about HoX/Pox here...

So let’s get at the controversy: can Bolivar Trask be blamed for the Genoshan genocide? Contrary to a few voices in the fandom, I would argue strongly for the affirmative. As we see from his initial appearance, Trask created the Sentinels entirely out of racial paranoia/hatred; moreover, Sentinels have no purpose other than A. destroying all mutants and B. subjugating the human race along the way. Cassandra Nova’s actions on Genosha absolutely followed the Trask playbook of both father and son, and indeed relied on Larry Trask’s assistance to carry it out, making it a Trask affair from beginning to end. 

On a final meta note, this infographic really speaks to the outsized impact that Morrison’s New X-Men and Bendis’ House of M had on the X-line for the last 15-20 years. 

Observation-Analysis-Invocation-Connection:

But before we get to the punching, we get one burst of Hickman’s fascination with singularities and transhumanism, where for the first time we really get an example of how the Krakoan biological approach is going to work, showing us a surprisingly complicated biomachine:

Trinity (who runs the Secondary/External Systems part of Krakoa) uses her technopathy to gather intelligence from human mechanical systems: the Aracibo Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, “re-tasked SETI radio telescopes," both of which are real things, and the “Dyson solar observatory,” which isn’t. 

Beast (who runs the Overwatch/Data Analysis part of Krakoa) uses Krakoan biocomputers and his own scientific genius to “extrapolate that data into an actionable forecast,” to deal with the delay caused by the immense distances between Krakoa and Sol’s Forge.

Professor X and Cerebro handle the direct Connection between Krakoa and the away team, while the Cuckoos link Trinity, Beast, Storm into a psychic link with Xavier, which means all of the parts of the system work seamlessly even as Storm handles the Invocation of visually representing Jean Grey’s thoughts.

If you step back and think about it, this is an astonishing technological feat: with minimal reliance on machine technology, Krakoa has established a NASA “KASA Mission Control” that can send data across half a solar system almost(?) instantly. 

That’s before we even get to the whole secondary purpose of the system, which is to allow Professor X and the Five to resurrect an up-to-date version of anyone who dies on the mission, which is one hell of a life-rope. 

Thematically, we see a really sharp distinction between biological and mechanical transhumanism/singularity: “KASA Mission Control” is described in biological terms, “function[ing] as a singular organism,” and also in religious terms, with “eight of us acting as one” explicitly labelled as “Communion.” And yet...the eight people involved retain their separate personalities and identities and no separate, artificial intelligence is created. 

Should We Fear the Worst?

 And across five hundred million miles, all Krakoa gets is bad news. Archangel and Husk, the redshirt’s redshirts on this mission, are dead before they do anything; Nightcrawler has some level of “internal injury,” and Wolverine almost had his arm blown off.

Incidentally, page 7 is where something of a problem crops up with Jean Grey’s characterization. As people have noted, Jean Grey starts off in the passive communications role (indeed, she’s even reliant on Monet to do that job) and doesn’t really improve from there. With the added context of her wearing her Silver Age miniskirt costume, it’s all a bit sus, especially if you’ve been reading a much more self-possessed, confident, and all-around more powerful version of Jean Grey in X-Men: Red. For a while, many of us were thinking that Jean is a younger backup, but that seems to have been Jossed by the resurrection ceremony in House of X #5. 

Better characterization abounds for the men: following their conversation from the previous issue, Cyclops and Wolverine have different perspectives about the question of whether to continue on with the mission (another key element of the special ops/espionage thriller genre). Cyclops emphasizes pushing on to make Warren and Paige’s sacrifice meaningful, Logan agrees but rather because of the existential stakes of the mission. There’s an interesting parallel there between Xavier and Magneto and means vs. ends. 

Following the catastrophe, Nightcrawler successfully inserts the struje team, while “Jean and Monet will stay to maintain our connection with Krakoa;”we know know that part was crucial in more than one way, but it is a continuation of some troubling gender dynamics.

Meanwhile, despite being “technically...just an observer” (and doesn’t that ring of all kinds of Cold War proxy wars), Omega Sentinel takes action to prompt Dr. Gregor into retaliation, similarly playing to the nationalistic theme of “if you don’t, he will have died for nothing.” 

Orchis’ retaliation doesn’t go so well, as we see Wolverine carving his way through an AIM securtiy team and Nightcrawler bloodlessly tying up two scientists (note the further emphasis on differing personalities and values; whoever these X-Men might be, they’re not mindless followers) towards popping two of the four constraint collars.

Unfortunately, this is followed up by a couple pages of more Jean Grey being awfully Damselly: yes, she’s holding open the connection, but she’s coded as way more helpless and indecisive than Monet (who gets to go out like a badass defending the shuttle), and the line “I dunno what to say, Marvel Girl. Try harder” really sums it all up. So far, this is reading a lot more like Stan Lee’s Jean Grey (but not Jack Kirby’s) than Chris Claremont’s. 

With the tension ratcheting ever-higher, we see Cyclops succeeding at his mission, while Mystique...doesn’t and then gets promptly blown out an airlock. The “habitat” connection and the odd business with her getting “turned around” despite having the plans for the base in her head like everyone else is highly suspicious (it might suggest the use of a Krakoa flower, but no one’s ever suggested what her motivation would be for doing so), but it’ll have to go on the list of plot threads that weren’t resolved in House of X.

In a development that really ought to be troubling to more people, Dr. Gregor throws away whatever moral compunctions she has about waking up a potentially violently insane A.I because “I don’t let them stop us. No matter what,” a potentially existential downside to Omega’s strategy. 

Do Whatever It Takes:

Having reached the “darkest moment” in the story diagram, Professor X orders his students to “do whatever it takes” to prevent Mother Mold from coming on line. This prompts Cyclops to give the order to Nightcrawler and Wolverine to jump out into unprotected space to sever the last constraint collar. All in all, we’re following the traditional beats of the special ops/espionage genre pretty closely, down to the team leader’s moral anguish moment.

Appropriately, we then get a quiet moment where Kurt and Logan contemplate whether or what will be “waiting for us on the other side.” Even knowing what we know now about the resurrection system, there’s still a good deal of weight to this moment, because in a way this Kurt and this Logan are going to die and whether they’re the same Kurt and Logan who will be reborn is a matter I’ll take up in Powers of X #5 along with the difficult topic of the philosophy of identity. (I’m going to leave aside the question of them having gone to literal Heaven and Hell in the past, because my Doylist position is that those story threads were probably a bad idea and my Watsonian No Prize is that you can’t remember the afterlife once returned to earth.)

Surprisingly, things get only more metaphysically weird when the two teleport outside and Wolverine starts chopping his way through the last arm. Mother Mold wakes up and immdiately starts talking about Greek mythology. Mother Mold’s interpretation of the Titanomachy is a little choppy (as we might expect from an insane A.I): on the one hand, if humanity are the Olympian gods as the creator of the Sentinels and the mutants are the Titans because of “their spoiled lineage” (this doesn’t quite work, because the Titans preceded the Olympians), then the Sentinels being “Man” makes sense. And as someone who’s written his share of college papers about omniscience/predestination/free will in Greek myth and drama, there’s a plausible anti-theist position whereby human beings might “judge and find you both wanting.” (Although that language is too Book of Daniel for the Greeks.) On the other hand, if the Sentinels are man, them having “stolen your fire” doesn’t work either - humanity was given fire by the Titan Prometheus - unless the argument is that Wolverine is Prometheus because he yeets Mother Mold into the sun?

Regardless, it’s a very ominous note for Mother Mold to go out on, because the consistent anti-human/Olympian tone suggests this insane A.I might hate humans way more than it hates mutants. 

With the day seemingly saved, we transition into the Rogue One scenario where Cyclops is murdered by a vengeful Dr. Gregor and Jean is torn apart by Sentinel drones. 

As gruesome as all of this is, I think it does play a very important role in explaining a good deal of Charles Xavier’s change of mind with regard to human-mutant harmony and assimilation. While this incident didn’t prompt any of the decisions that he’s made along the way - this mission is happening post-Xavier’s announcement and a day before the U.N vote, making it quite late in the X^1 timeline - I think it does a good job of showing us the kind of thought patterns that have led Xavier to this conclusion. In addition to everything he’s seen from Moira’s past nine lives, which only lend a greater sense of urgency and the fear of inevitability, Xavier himself has experienced the deaths of “our children” over and over again as the founder of the X-Men, and clearly both the direct trauma (keep in mind, he’s hooked into the minds of all of his X-Men as they die) and the pain he feels at humanity’s apathy/atrocity fatigue, goes a long way to explaining why he’ll make the decision that integration and assimilation are no longer viable options.

For all the crap that people sometime sling at Hickman over his use of charts, I will say that the way that “NO MORE” weaponizes them by extra-textually demonstrating the breakdown of the facade of calm objectivity is incredibly effective.

[sepiadice]

DiceJar Campaign 0.1: A Slippery Slope (2020/01/03)

So I return to the mighty throne of the GM Screen! To pull the strings, interpret the weavings of fate, mold the world to my whims and desires!

However, I’m going from a module, namely Crypt of the Everflame, made famous by Trix’s adventures. So I’m treading old ground, though with fewer players, and only one returning from that adventure. The better part of a decade has passed since I played it, so plenty of details should’ve left the veterans.

The reason I’m playing out of the module is as a sort of learning experience: Viewing box text and published adventure design so that it may help develop my original adventures. As for why I chose this one: I really like the opening premise. New young adventures thrown together deliberately for their origin story. Often players get focused on making an exciting backstory that they forget to make what happens at the table be the most interesting part of their life. I think it’s charming.

It’s an element/theme I want to incorporate in future campaigns.

Anyways, how will the tomb dive go without Team Pesto?

Cast

Mogui (IndigoDie): A Hedge Mage for a Lord Grey. Essentially a living lawn ornament. He helps take care of the Lord’s menagerie. Sole repeat player of the Module.

Bernard ‘Bean’ Dipp (NavyDie): Still just a child, but his father is (supposedly) suffering polio, so young Bean needs to become the man of the house. GM of the campaign I just finished. Revenge time?

Yot (LimeDie): A traveling mercenary slash adventurer nevertheless being pulled into things because some players struggle with direction. Player is a vetran of an Improv club Navy and I were also members of.

Delilah Dunford (VermilionDie): The unruly daughter of the local snobby nobles. Roguish interests and talents. Player is also from my high school days, but not the High School game group.

Game Master (SepiaDie/Me): Everyone and thing else. Nervous wreck caught in his own head. Attended a High School once and participated in a college Improv Club.

Session One

I failed to change any proper nouns like I wanted, but I also avoided needing to say anyone’s names, so there’s still time.

There’s an immense backstory I summarized, because it was too long for me to read out and I can’t trust players to read.[1] Kassen is a town that evolved out of a hold built by a guy named Kassen, a soldier turned adventurer. One day, he went to fight an evil band of… bad people. Kassen succeeded, but succumbed to injuries taken. He was entombed in a crypt, where an eternal flame was lit. Every year, the mayor rides out to bring back a lantern lit by the flame to bless the town to survive the winter. Every couple of years, town youths are sent instead as a rite of passage.

This is one of the rite of passage years.

The mayor first meets with Mogui, a lonely mage working for one of the town’s two noble families. The mayor awkwardly stumbles through his invitation, which Mogui gladly accepts.

Next, the Mayor finds Bean waiting in the market square. The mayor, again, stumbles through his invitation, which Bean seems rather confused by the semantics of, needing to be specifically told not to just wait in the town center for two days but to come back on the actual day of departure.

Yot is found in a tavern, and attempts to talk a big game as the Mayor asks him to join the adventuring party. I still need to force a firmer connection between Yot and the town of Kassen, as my original plan of Yot belonging to what once was Kassen’s band of mercenaries was sunk before I could work it in.

Delilah pops up from behind the Mayor as he’s on his way to her family’s manor, and she eagerly joins the quest.[2]

Thus is our party arranged!

Two days later, at the predetermined time, they walk into the market square and I gently prompt them to give physical descriptions of their characters. Delilah is described as having slightly asymmetrical dark hair, while the rest focused more on height and relative ages.[4]

Mogui arrives with some sort of bipedal creature. Indigo didn’t actually know what he intended the creature to be, so I’m going to assume it’s a chocobo until gently corrected.[5] Everyone promptly forgot about it, even though it supposedly was following them.

The four mingle for a bit as I lost focus trying to recenter myself and review the next step. I tend to let my players just fill time until they get bored of their scene. I probably should work on keeping a good pace with the plot, but I also don’t want to step on their fun. It’s a difficult balance, especially if there’s no NPC handy to gently snark at them to move forward.

The bells of the Church of Polyhymnia[6] ring in the noontime.

The townspeople, dressed in blacks and other dark clothing, start to form a crowd around our adventurers. The mayor emerges with an old pony pulling a cart of supplies. He distributes backpacks to the adventurers, gives a prepared speech,[8] and sends our young heroes on their way.

Mixed into their supplies is a fourth of a map that, at an actual table, is supposed to be a real piece of paper torn and distributed to the players. Since we’re not in the same room and split between two states, I instead alluded to the paper in their bag for them to ask about, while also prepared to gently drop the detail if the players don’t engage. Pivot and roll!

Initially the torn map pieces are overlooked, and the party walks south, into the Fangwoods, following a trail that starts well-worn, but progressively fades.

A few hours into their hike, they come upon a fallen tree. Three orcs emerge from behind it, and initiative is rolled.

I overlooked a mechanic I was supposed to employ, a problem I had throughout the session. The module imbedded vital instructions mid-paragraph in the description, which means I overlooked having the players roll to disbelieve when they land hits or are hit. I did read the module in advance, though, but it’s easy to forget the details, especially details hidden away like that.

I’m a terrible note taker. In school, if I was taking notes, then I wasn’t paying attention to the lesson because I was focused on writing. This also made me a terrible stage manager. Half the reason behind these write-ups is to get the information down and in circulation in my memory because I’m not able to mid-session.

What I should be doing is reading (or writing) the module, and making a bullet point list of the bare mechanics. I sometimes do similar when trying to learn new systems.[9]

Delilah climbs into a tree to shoot arrows at one of the three Orcs, the other three taking the ground battle.

The orcs are quickly defeated, their corpses fading away. What a curious event that I’m sure has no explanation to be uncovered in the future. An utter curiosity.

At this point, the party finally pauses to ask if they know where they’re going.

Ah, time for pay off.

At this point, I describe how they’d been following a shrinking trail, but soon they won’t have it to rely on.

I’m asked to post the list of supplies to the text chat for them to pour over. A careful edit of the description of the map is needed, and I do so.

The party discusses the supplies shortly, and someone looks at their part of the map. I tell them it appears to be a fourth of a map.

NavyDie shrewdly asks if they’re all the same fourth of a map. He likely learned from the time I gave my players descriptions of dreams then later threw some wood blocks at them not to take paper for granted.[10]

I confirm that they each have a different fourth of the same map. So they jigsaw puzzle it, and Mending is cast. Now they have a single map, and a burned spell slot![12]

They follow their map for the remainder of the day. The sun began to set, and the party needed to make camp.

When the opportunity arises, players will want to roll dice, because rolling dice feels good,. So everyone rolled for the survival check meant for one.

Bean, our ranger, was the only one who failed. I punished him by having him punch a hole in his tent. Everyone goes to bed, though Yot elects to take watch for a few hours, with no intention of waking anyone to take a shift after him. He chose enough time, and made the proper check, to spot a wolf investigating the border of the campsite before slinking off.

Yot decides to increase the length of his watch a little longer. So he was still awake when the wolf returned with three friends.

New combat! Yot shouts to rouse his allies, succeeding in waking Bean and Mogui, who come out of their tents to assist. No one thinks to go wake up Delilah, so she gets to sit out of this combat.

A few rounds occur, with the lead wolf eventually knocking Yot down and mauling him a tad. Mogui uses magic to scare off the other two, but lead wolf stays intent on his objective:[13] food.

The wolf makes his way into the camp, takes a mouthful of food, and skedaddles. I declare the end of combat. Bean buries the remainder of the food,[14] and everyone goes back to sleep.

With the morning arrival, and the completion of a long rest, the journey to Kassen’s Crypt continues.

The map leads them to the shore of a large lake on a misty morning, the grey skies and fog obscuring the horizon. A bandit lays dead on the beach. Our protagonists investigate the body, and find signs of an attack by a massive serpent. The body also has a sword and a wallet of gold on him, but they are left as the body is entombed into a shallow, sandy grave.

Travel continues, and they crest a small hill overlooking a serpentine valley, within which rests Kassen’s Tomb.

This then proceeds into my second big mistake: I overlooked the acrobatics check hidden with the descriptions and had my players roll directly on the failure table. Again, the table carefully set apart drew my eye. I’m learning! Poorly!

Still, someone ran into three different trees on the way down, so at least it was amusing, if unnecessarily punishing. I’ll quietly retcon away any damage taken in apology at start of next session.

Down the overly slippery hill, a small stable’s worth of dead mounts await: two horses and three ponies, the horses long dead, the ponies a little more recent. None the same day our party arrived, however.

A description of a fancy rune in the doorway’s keystone is given, and the session ends, exploration of the dungeon saved for the next session a fortnight later.

As usual, the session was characterized with me being stressed over keeping it running and attempting to follow the script of the module. The few times I’ve managed successive sessions has hinted that I’m able to settle in as things go on and the players figure out the table dynamic. I’m mostly confident I’ll figure it out.

While I am learning the value of boxtexts,[15] modules still invoke a sense of containment on me. A fear that if I, as a GM, stray too far, I’ll accidentally break something. I don’t enjoy scripts, that’s why I did improv. Scripts means you can make mistakes that need course correction.

But I’m playing with friends, we’re learning to be a cohesive performance troupe, and hopefully this will turn into a podcast. For the future.

Until next time, may your dice make things interesting.

-

[1] I’ll grant them the benefit of the doubt that they’re literate. [2] I’m seeing a combined Trix and the Sorceress[3] from her party. I’m going to have fun with that. [3] Indigo says her name was Makenna. [4] Which will make the process of creating sprite pawns for them slightly more difficult. I’ll ask them on the discord for physical appearances when I’m done writing this. [5] Were it not bipedal, I might’ve steered him into making it into a riding jackalope. They’re… kinda my pet fantastic beast. Usually ridden by mail carriers. [6] Originally the Church of a Pathfinder Deity, but I’m transplanting the module into D&D Fifth Edition anyways, so might as well sneak the details of my setting[7] into the margins. Helps everyone’s already just human. [7] Is this canon with the abandoned Genesys campaign? You decide! [8] When I have something to read, the mayor loses the stammering and uncertainty he has when I’m doing it off the cuff. This is because I’m not awkwardly trying to do things off the cuff. [9] I should have a file that’s basically Maid RPG Lite floating around due this same habit. [10] The one time I planned for my players to ‘cheat’ and show each other the notes I gave them, and the clowns kept the notes to themselves. You literally cannot rely on anyone to do anything like they should.[11] [11] I’d say you can trust players to make things harder for themselves, but return to footnote 10. [12] When I played through this module, I arrived after the mayor distributed the backpacks, and the party already had investigated their maps. So I don’t know how this puzzle was solved then. I also don’t remember the Orc encounter. [13] Behind the screen fun: while I rolled three times fairly, I applied the single success to who I wanted. For narrative reasons. I often play favorites in this manner. [14] Sure. [15] Along with listening to Dice Friends streams/podcast.

[goldwaterscholarshipresearch874]

writing help

About me

Research Paper Writing Service

Research Paper Writing Service Make your research more sound and related by hiring the professionals of our data analysis service. Our team of analysts is extremely competent to do all kind of powerful and brainstorming data evaluation. We carry out the action with promptness and accuracy which supplies you time-bound and related outcomes. By taking the help of our best write my essay service, you possibly can simply pay money for a excessive-grade mark-sheet. Hire our best write my essay service and stay a stress-free life. We assure you to resolve all write my essay questions and various different related points. There is not any second opinion that eth essay writing is the hardest nut to crack for any scholar. Well, blame it on the superior degree of schooling and huge research that it demands. Essay writing is such a task which may’t be done while enjoying the cup of cappuccino. Students need to spend many sleepless nights to pay money for one masterwork. With our may assist, you'll be able to mark your presence with a bang. As the world calls for survival of fittest, we assist you to fetch good grades by providing our best and economical service. We are extremely skilled service which knows what the worth of original content and good grades is. Our objective was to come up with the 10 finest essay writing companies from all of our reviews and supply the information that earned them certainly one of these spots. Other than making certain the corporate provides 24/7 providers, you also need to contemplate the revision terms. You want a company that will be able to make the mandatory corrections if want be. So, earlier than signing up with the company of your selection, make certain they have a coverage that provides free revisions in case the essay does not meet the required standards. The change should take a day or less, relying on the kind of correction wanted. We also examine to see if the company provides more than tutorial writing, in order that we can present scores for enterprise and career professionals to see. Before we even conducted our first evaluate of writing websites, we established common standards by which each could be evaluated. This is the one approach to rate the businesses objectively and to be able to provide a real comparability among them. A reality is known – You are the only one to assess the topic by providing arguments on each side. Our writers analyze the background of the subject and provides arguments that help the theme and agree with the details that are past the scope of the given title. We ensure that the arguments are illustrated to supply the informative facet in simple words. We all know that a excessive-grade mark-sheet is what required thriving in the cutthroat world. When you have a boasting mark sheet, you can simply get hold of various lucrative work opportunities. In a nutshell, we are there to form your future in all potential methods. We, at Majesticessays.com, integrate quality service at an affordable value. In the world of tough competition, we make you competent sufficient to slot in. In addition, the continuous revision and extensive analysis enhance the burden. The situation got worst when essay writing becomes a curial a part of your grading system. If it might have been a sports activities exercise or further curriculum dedication then you possibly can’t think of skipping it for as soon as. As a major part of your grades are decided your submitted essay, you even can’t consider skipping it in your dreams. Your professor is aware of your writing styles from how you place punctuation marks and the way you structure your sentences, amongst others. The writer you choose ought to be capable of match your writing types at any cost. You can share a few of your writing details or give them special directions whenever you give them duties to do.

[dramarising-replacement]

http://dramarising.com/post/165416083621

Reading this post just made me… want to take a moment to talk about what I think the actual dom standings are and how I rank them. Hopefully it’s a bit more objective. I keep out mentioning drama, although a few incidents have affected my rankings if I have the suspicion that they may have prompted organizational changes or affected flight participation.

Here’s a link to my personal push tracking and the following are my current standings.

Light (30133 pop; most placings)

Earth (9357 pop; 2nd most placings)

Plague (34159; beat Water ‘16)

Nature (30786; beat Ice '16)

Lightning (32796 beat Fire '17)

Fire (19866; beat Water '17)

Wind (35721; beat Water '16)

Water (21262 beat Ice '17)

Ice (32166; beat Fire '15)

Arcane (44016; beat Shadow '17)

Shadow (47084)

Without a doubt, Light is currently the top dom flight. With 28 rankings in the top three up to this point in time (from the start of the year), as well as a well-known culture of profit pushing, Light has long solidified this title. I think their best course of action at the moment is to have event pushes that more fully engage other flights. By advertising an active user base, Light could build (or rebuild) a better reputation and continue being known as not only the dom and money flight, but also a flight that offers more involvement for those leaving less dom oriented flights. Unfortunately, it’s lonely at the top, and until other flights feel confident, Light won’t get any challengers any time soon.

Earth is a strong second, with the second most placings in the top three at 20. Although a planned Earth vs Light match needs to happen. Personally, I think this bout would make it more apparent that small flight size is a disadvantage when two flights with established dom cultures are pitted against each other. I assume Light would win this match just due to the manpower they could muster for it. They should be able to overwork Earth even with large oof help going to Earth.

There’s always a possibility that Earth could do it with a stronger dom culture than Light and a more attractive reputation however. I think Earth’s best course of action is to improve dom programs, participation, and continue to encourage dom participants to move to Earth. Likewise, with Light, I doubt Earth will receive any challengers anytime soon.

The battle for third place, typically reserved for a “dom powerhouse”, is a bit more dubious and may even be a moot point at the moment. “Historically” speaking, this slot has been juggled between Earth, Plague, and Ice for a long time now, but because of Ice’s recent losses to Water and Nature, I feel it is clear that that is no longer the case.

Water did lose to Plague in August of 2016, however, but the question is then, who is third, Plague or Nature?

Both flights tango with Light, which makes them courageous and competitive. But for me personally (and this is my personal opinion), Nature would now rank higher than Plague due to the recent performances of both flights.

Plague doesn’t seem to be the same Plague I witnessed when I was in Ice during IvP. Plague was the flight that never quit and never backed down. The flight that flipped with Light and helped raise the fodder floor to the highest it ever was.

Plague was competitive, took defeat like a champ, and were the fighters/survivors as described in their lore.

Fighting Earth was going to be a hard fight, and anyone who challenged Earth had a lot of courage. PvE was a dream match, but it fizzled out very quickly after its start. While many may argue that Plague could have been just one dragon behind, I’d argue fodder prices told a different story.

http://oi66.tinypic.com/2lsej3q.jpg

And let me reiterate that yes I am primarily basing my opinion mostly on this one fight and surrounding information. It is ok to differ in opinions on this – especially if you are in Plague with the power to change things for the better. I do feel that Plague should focus on inflight events and dom programs and could probably show its strength again from existing programs.

Nature, on the other hand, I’m waiting for the day to call them a new dom powerhouse, but it is contingent on one of two things. One: If they can manage to beat their sister flight Plague and take the title from them (a dream match for many), then they would be accepted by most people as a dom powerhouse. Or two, if they can increase their amount of pushes to be as frequent as Light or Earth’s, then they would stay on people’s radar enough to be considered a powerhouse. I do feel that if any other flight besides Light or Earth challenges Nature, that Nature would most likely win.

After defeating the old powerhouse of Ice, Nature should go on to challenge their sister flight Plague to take their crown. If that never happens and Nature is ready for a challenge, then taking on Earth’s numbers or a Light vs Nature 3 would be a wonderful fight I’d love to guess who might win. At this point in time, I have no idea! Until then, Nature can also continue increasing profit pushes and offering challenges to other flights to increase their competitiveness.

Lightning being this high on the list will surprise most. Infrequent pushing causes Lightning to be further down if factoring total number of placings and weighing 1st, 2nd, and 3rd proportionally. However, judging by track record, victories over Arcane, Fire, and Wind, Lightning could belong here. There may be bias here of course, as I am part of Lightning flight and involved in its dom scene. The victory that primarily places Lightning here is its victory over Fire in February as opposed to Water’s loss to Fire in November of last year. However, it does beg the question, in a fight between Lightning and Water, who would win? Whoever wins this match would most likely be the 4th ranked dom flight.

With a good balance of increased push frequency and improving on our dom culture and programs, Lightning could eventually have a modern rematch versus Nature. In 2015, Lightning beat Nature, but for the purposes of factoring in changes in dom culture and keeping data up to date, those numbers aren’t used in these deductions.

Fire is next primarily for being sandwiched between Water, who they scored a victory over, and Lightning who they suffered a loss from. Fire is in a similar case to Lightning, though more so. Fire does not seem to have much “background exalting” outside of conquests, and finishes near the bottom of the dom board. That being said, it’s recent victories over competitive flights point to it being competitive itself. Fire further brings up the question on if placings in the top 3 make a dom flight competitive or its track record of recent victories. As the case with Lightning, increasing pushes and dom prowess would do Fire some good. A rematch versus Lightning may be a proper goal, though for something fresh, Wind versus Fire may be even more interesting.

My gut says that Wind and Water rank similarly. Water has recently tangoed with Ice, Fire, Plague, and even Earth in Battle of the First Four Prt2. While I am impressed with Water being courageous in challenging the likes of dom giants, I personally feel the sum of the attempts and successes have yet to surpass those of Wind who has done the same thing. Wind was also in Battle of the First Four Prt2 and took second place from Wind. Wind also went against Earth solo as the only flight to accept its challenge for a father’s day conquest. Wind also has victories over Shadow and Arcane, which may not be competitive, but may have been what the flight needed to gain more confidence in dom - helping to establish a stronger base for programs and participants. This is all my opinion however. Water has recently beaten an old powerhouse in Ice, and Wind has just come from a loss from Lightning, so differing opinions make sense here. That all being said, a fight between Wind and Water would be interesting! I think both flights need to work on their strategies and programs to get a leg up over similarly placed flights.

Ice put up a good fight versus Water, make no doubt about it. But I’ve got to say, and I feel others may share the same sentiment, I didn’t think Ice would lose to Water. I also didn’t think we’d lose to Nature when it happened though (I was in Ice during that time), so there’s that. And it’s ok to lose. Losses will happen. But as far as my ranking is concerned, Ice unfortunately is nowhere near the top 3. All I can really say is that I think Ice should focus on its internal dom programs and increasing its participants. I felt that members over-relied on the dom team when I was there – to the point that without them it felt like the cornerstones of operations were gone – causing everything t fall apart. This may not be the case now, and I feel like this is also something that has affected Plague this year, so it’s not an isolated phenomenon. Dom participants should both know and have the means to execute their own gameplans to help the flight win dom. And that’s a combination of encouraging autonomy and encouraging as many participants to understand how dom works as possible.

Now, there is also a chance that I am very very wrong, because ranking Ice here means that I assume any flight above them (given the current track record) should be able to beat or at least flip with Ice in a conquest battle. I don’t think it will be easy, but I would bet on it with a certain degree of confidence. As I’ve said before, differing opinions are fine and I could be wrong.

Aside from its win versus Shadow, Arcane has not won a conquest since 2015. And I’m as disappointed about it as I am with Ice and Plague. Before the decline, Arcane had one of the first themed profit pushes I had seen. Or at least I think that was the case since I can’t actually find what I’m talking about. It was before March, but I still can’t find it. In any case, interactive events such as the Houses from their push versus Lightning had me shaking in my boots at the time. Despite that, there weren’t many flips that push, even though as an outsider I felt I’d participate in Arcane more than Lightning because of those events.

My personal opinion is that because of surrounding information on dom organization and participation, Arcane may need to refresh and regroup to prevent being known as not a dom-oriented flight. And to also not be known as the flight with dom participants who don’t want to participate in dom – for various reasons. I’m not sure if this is still the case however. I think Arcane should definitely focus on more event pushes to build up a better reputation with not only oofers, but more importantly, in-flighters as well. I’ve seen Arcane’s potential in the past, and still think they could eventually give other flights a run for their money.  

Shadow does have a steep hill to climb. Being the largest flight isn’t a guarantee of losing a dom match, but having a reputation of being known as a non-dom flight does. This doesn’t mean that Shadow needs to start making non-dom people feel unwelcomed or call them “dead weight,” however. That’s the very last thing a big flight would want to do – discouraging potential participants from participating. Small flights need to focus on outsourcing a lot of their manpower, while Big flights should be making use of their own potential participants (in addition to outsourcing their manpower). A non-dom person who logs in at least once in the two weeks prior to the last day of a push is still counted as an active participant. You are better off making your dom programs simple, fun, and social to encourage that one person to exalt at least 1 dragon than you are in telling them that they are useless. And yes, it’s true that a non-dom person might not even look at the forums or know you’re even pushing – but it’s the same for other flights. Also keep in mind that a person who moves to your flight to not participate in dom, most likely knows what dom is and thus most likely sees the forums. Changing their mind about dom is the way to go.

I feel that encouraging those already participating in dom in Shadow, to establish an energetic base would be a good starting point for Shadow. I also feel that reaching out to other flights, especially flights that don’t receive pushes often like Light or Earth for event pushes that may have joint exalting challenges, foddart, and of course events for those oof would be a perfect joint opportunity to make dom appear more inviting and exciting.

[a-writing-bear]

[PruCan] Chapter 2: Soft-Spoken Calling, They Want Their Shyness Back

Ao3 Link:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/11159997/chapters/24905436

This Has been cross-posted onto FF & Ao3 under Aliases: BearBooper

You can read this Fic on tumblr under ‘Keep Reading’

Previous Chapter    Next Chapter

Fandom: Hetalia Axis Powers

Main Pairing: Gilbert Beilschmidt & Matthew Williams (Prussia & Canada)

AU:  College AU - Art Student Matthew and Media/Film Student Gilbert

Age Rating/Mature:  Teen And Up Audiences (12+ due to mentions of mature themes as well as swearing)

Trigger Warnings: None in this chapter (Future addiction to mention themes such as addiction, rape etc.)

Finding a hook-up was never hard. Gilbert knew how to wave and woo any guy and gal (granted he needed to actually try). Night after night, a beautiful girl, a dashing lad – it didn’t matter. Putting it simply, the way the white-haired devil seduced people was effective and singular. It was not a ‘series’ of escapades; the word ‘series’ describe the concept of continuation...what Gilbert did was not continuations, not one after another (Oh he most definitely did NOT share his lays). They were separate events to him. After a tom-foolery of sorts, it would be a good morning and goodbye; a prompt push out of the door to say the least.

It was ‘fuck’ then ‘wish them luck.’

He would carry on the next day, carrying himself in such a prideful manner one could wonder how so many looked forward to being in bed with someone like that. If anyone asked Gilbert if the evenings of a stranger after stranger got boring, he would confidently shrug the question aside with ‘the philosophy of a player’. The thought of falling in love, further than a silly high school crush, was absurd. Devotion to another human being? A sudden feeling of glee towards another human being? A day when he would experience all that seemed too far to even acknowledge.

And yet here he was, locked in staring into purple irises from a boy he had only just met. Heart panging and brain whizzing without reason or sense. Breathe. Think. Breathe, why is it so hard to breathe? Think? What order was it again? It felt breathlessly confusing.

“G-Gilbert could you like let go?” a heat rose to his face and he backed away quickly and let go of a sprig of strawberry blonde hair. A soundless sigh of relief was released by Matthew, and a flustered motion of twiddling fingers accompanied the timid look the shorter boy wore. Bathing in the seemingly, weird comfortable silence that engulfed the room the taller of the two proposed to get to know each other:

“Would you like to chill here? - I mean- like if you have nothing to do. I see you like my posters and stuff.”

Gilbert watched the reaction carefully, searching for any hatred or disgust to appear, he was aware of what reputation he had.

“eh? I’ve got art coursework and I’m sorta- I’m behind on it.”

Art coursework? Considering Matthew’s brother was a mathematical prodigy and science ‘fanatic’ (Gilbert really meant ‘geek’ but that sounded rude) he found it slightly alarming to hear that the student here was in the art stream…’although that does explain his slightly dishevelled look in that paint-covered shirt’. Gilbert found himself wanting to learn more and before he could stop himself he let it slip,

“Do you want to paint in here?”

In reality, Gilbert didn’t like studying alone. As much as he enjoyed his editing and planning scenes for his media course, it was draining sitting in a room cooped up alone. Hence why he relied on loud music to occupy his fleeting thoughts. The study hall and common room had been crowded with the varsity sports teams who were watching the campus’ big play-offs this week and the noise had been maliciously distracting. The study hall bred conversations too inane for his liking; snippets of people’s personal lives too irrelevant for Gilbert to sit through. On top of that, if needing a good environment meant travelling into the student-habitat known as the library (a place of late night coffee addicts struggling to complete 4 months of work) then he would rather fail the semester.

He had noticed the unsure reaction of the artist and gulped as the boy opened his mouth to reply:

“Well- My art stuff is already setup and messy in my room…I can’t really bring it here. Would- would you like to sit in my room? I…don’t mind.”

Gilbert’s face light up with happiness (relief as well- though he wouldn’t admit to it.), he took his laptop and charger along with a portfolio that he swore weighed more than Ludwig when he was a child and followed Matthew into the neighbours’ room. Most of the people here were the first-years, a close-knit community that, 4 out of 5 times, respected and trusted each other’s personal space so they both waltzed in carelessly not looking to shut out anyone and left the door gaping out open.

Matthew motioned for Gilbert to sit down in front of his desk. Gingerly he place his laptop down and ducked down to plug in his worn out charger. As he reclined in the Canadian’s chair he witnessed a genius in the works of what Gilbert could only describe as pure emotion splayed out on a too-small-for-it’s-worth canvas.

For a few moments, the artist had pondered whether he had made another wrongful decision inviting the albino into his safe space – thinking about it more ‘I don’t usually do this huh.’ One step within his room the thoughts seemed to melt away as he looked longingly to his painting, engrossed in the pursuit to add more paint onto the canvas Matthew didn’t notice the audience-like attention his guest was giving him.  Beautiful hues of red a green were doused carefully onto the illustration of springtime bliss. “eh- I would prefer something more autumn-y or…winter.” He mused to himself and mulled over the idea of painting something for his dorm after this fairly boring assignment is finished.

“Why autumn or winter?”

He was jolted out of his caged thoughts from that question, did he say that out loud?

“I-err I don’t particularly like this piece, it’s not the best. I personally like winter landscapes mor-“

A loud gasp hit Matthew’s ears and the Albino had screeched out as if utterly bewildered by the earlier comment,

“You don’t like it?! It’s really... really good- Better than what I could ever do! I’ve been trying to find someone who could draw a scene like that for ages!” The artist’s cheeks had flamed up in such overwhelming embarrassment (and a tiny smidge of smug pride) that he almost lost the latter of what Gilbert had blurted out.

Scene? Oh. Gilbert must be a media student….-actually no wonder he seems familiar...was he that guy that sometimes appeared mysteriously near Feli and his Ludwig? – On the odd chance the departments had overlapping projects it wasn’t uncommon to find media students mingling with his fellow artists. Incidentally, he recalled about a month ago, he was commissioned by that smaller Finnish fellow (“O-Oh No I’m not Swedish, Berwald just hangs around a lot.”) to help apply face paint for a strange music video in a probably-Nordic language (I wonder if Tino did get an A for that project).

“Scene for what?”

He had obviously caught those red eyes off guard, then as if a light switch had been flicked the boy’s grin grew wide.

“An Animation! Wanna see the storyboard? I’ve been looking for an animator, seeing as my drawing skills can be described as the equivalent of a…What was that saying…um...? A fish trying to climb a tree…”

It wasn’t like Matthew was trying to be rude, however, he had tuned out Gilbert after the silver haired student had turned his heavy overloaded binder of paper for show. The page was full. It looked overly detailed, annotated words scribbled over the crudely but clearly illustrated panels of what seemed to be a short story of a young boy? As he leant down closer to investigate the piece he noticed the smaller details scrawled in between the panels like ‘Screen transition – autumn’ or ‘Redo panel, reframe’. With such a thorough and comprehensive plan, any animator would know exactly what the director would want from them. ‘Honestly, if only the people who commissioned him would give him details like that – I’m looking at you Tino’

“…Actually just realised what that fish quote meant...man that’s really smart I guess, can’t believe I…”

Oh. Gilbert was still yapping. His lavender eyes scoped up and down the page and he hummed in approval of the chatterbox’s work. He was staring so close to the page that the Canadian could feel his glasses slipping off…

“…..Hey! I should hire you to be my animator!”

Matthew had glanced so quickly at Gilbert in that moment that his glasses had slanted in the movement. This is going to be a long semester.

[thisweekingundamwing]

Weekly Recap May 27-June 3

IT’S SUNDAY!!!!

Another week has gone by and our Gundam Wing community has created some amazing content for you to bask in! 

Thank you for all your submissions! We have also tried to go through AO3 to find more published content but it’s easy for things to fall between the cracks so please continue submitting your links - we don’t want anyone’s work to be forgotten! You can submit anything gundam wing related. We want to see any and everything you’ve created.

Beneath the cut you’ll find links and information about the wonderful content created by our super creative peers. If anything piques your curiosity please give it a go. Don’t forget to comment, like, and reblog! Support and encouragement mean the worlds to creators. It helps keep them motivated and inspired.

Thank you all for being awesome and I hope you’re looking forward to next week’s update!

Fanfiction:

Also, just as a quick side note, if there aren’t warnings listed below be sure to read the warnings listed on AO3 before reading!

@amberlyinviolet​, Knife in Hand (Chapter 17)

Chapter warnings: Explicit Sex. Chapter Summary: This is exactly what you think it is: 3k words of smut. Pairing: 2x3.

@anaranesindanarie and @rhysgalentalcernunnos,  The Maxwell Twins: Shi and Duo

This is an ongoing RP between myself and Rhys. Our characters are twins. I'm Duo and Rhys is Shi. Please enjoy what we have cleaned up and finished of this so far.

BurnedVamp

Ass-king For It

Heero's irritated by Duo's moody behavior because Quatre is sexy and people want him.Boo hoo cry him a river.Sonfic: Cake By The Ocean by DNCE. Pairing: 2x4.

Memories

Things that happened between, with, and because of Trowa Barton and Quatre Barton-Winner. Drabbles. Pairing: 3x4.

War Crimes

Quatre isn't what Trowa believes he needs. That doesn't mean he isn't going to make him be so. Or delude himself into believing things that aren't real. Such as the blonde's sadistic tendencies that don't exist.Inspired by Hozier's 'Take Me to Church.' Pairing: 3x4. 

Cedechan, Within the Nexus

Unexpectedly, he finds himself partnered with Wufei Chang and one of Doctor J's former wards, and when tragedy strikes again, he must rely on their help to find the assassin.And fighting his inner demons and long-time enemy, Heero, don't help matters...

@chronicwhimsy​, Salvage (Final chapter)

Chapter Summary: 2x5 Fluff! The final chapter was posted on Monday. Pairing: 2x5.

@claraxbarton

Need

6x2 Summary: A late night of work and a few mistakes. 

Offstage

Summary: It’s Duo’s first professional job, at a summer stock theatre company in upstate New York. As an intern, he knows he has a lot to learn. But he didn’t count on having to figure out how to deal with THIS mess.6x2, 1x3, 4xR, others.

Young Gods (Prologue)

Summary: A Phoenician relic finds its way into Dr. Relena Peacecraft’s hands. An unexpected group must decide the fate of the world. Full of sex, adventure and sass.Pairings: 2x5, 3xR, Meilin x Hilde, 4x6.

DarkBluePhoenix,  Neon Genesis Evangelion: Legacy – Gundam Invasion

A Mobile Suit Gundam Wing and Mobile Fighter G Gundam CrossoverIt’s a Gundam! *RANDOM EXPLOSION!* The cast of Gundam Wing meet our young heroes and befriend them in this tale of how those who understand, those who fight, those who doubt, and those who pass by, can claim victory against the forces of evil reborn. Mission Accepted. All systems go! Gundams… Evangelions… Launching!

duointherain, Camelot: Who's the Daddy Now?

Moody and Julia are out working as bounty hunters and have a great witness, whom they've saved from the San Francisco earthquake. A very proper Irish Catholic man and his lovely young wife are gonna fit right in on Camelot... Pairing: 1x2.

@helmistress

Nicknames 

Summary: Quatre is forever insulting Zechs, and Zechs wants to know why. Pairing: 4x6 fluff. Featuring Quatre Winner, Zechs Marquise, Sneaky!Quat. For Summer of Zechs and Rhysgalentalcernunnos.

Entertainment Center (Second and last chapter!)

Pairing: 2X3 insinuations/wanting, Triton Bloom, Duo Maxwell, Une, lots of cursing >_>

@kangofu-cb 

Mission: Redacted (Chapter 5) 

Summary: Wufei, tooling around the Earth sphere, looking for something to do. Enter Sally, stage left, to make him an offer he cannot refuse. The beginnings of his very own black ops group. 

Vieux Carré 

Smutty Sunday contribution, sequel to ‘Gin and Tonic.’ Duo and Trowa have another “date.” 2x3, NSFW, no real warnings.

@la-femme-noelle, Bedayat Jadeda (Part 2)

Sequel to Heartbreak Café. Bedayat Jadeda, translated from Arabic to 'New Beginnings'. Quatre tries to settle into his new relationship with Duo and Wufei, learning the dynamics of polyamory while still trying to overcome the demons of his past. Duo and Wufei are determined to heal his pain and make him realize that he is worthy of everlasting love. Pairing: 5x2x4.

luvsanime02, Standby 

Heero goes in front of the Board of Professional Review, and now she has an important decision to make.This is the fifth story in Navigation, a fem!Heero series.

@morbidbirdy and @the-notorious-bhg, 

Where I Belong

In the year AC 205 the status of the Earth-Sphere remains relatively peaceful thanks to the efforts of the ESUN and it’s peacekeeping organization Preventer. The five young men who had once fought together for this peace now work quietly behind the scenes to maintain it. Despite their new roles in this world, Heero and Trowa struggle to establish a comfortable place in it. In the process of finding themselves they eventually realize that their place is with each other. Pairing: 1x3.

End of Line

The Grid, the legendary Tron System, has always intrigued Duo Maxwell. After years of dreaming and months of tireless work, he finally receives the final part he needs to unlock the door to the digital frontier. A blast of a digitizing laser later he finds himself in the world of his dreams. However, soon that dream becomes a nightmare as he comes to realize that his existence in this new world is both a danger to him and to the programs who reside there. With the help of Security Program Trowa and a mysteriously damaged and glitchy program named Heero, he embarks on a journey through The Grid to seek help from a mysterious entity known as the Gatekeeper. Will he be able to get out of the Tron System, or will the organizations who are hunting him manage to derez him first? Pairing: 1x3, 3x4.

@peachandbetty, Orders 

Chapter Summary:  Bit by bit, he got back to what he knew. He wasn’t a solider, and he had no firearm at his side for his hand to hover over when something didn’t feel quite right. He didn’t have an enemy to face, nobody at his heels pushing him to succeed and survive. But what he did have were orders. Pairing: 1xR Explicit.

@themanwell-deactivated20170531

A Safe Good Place

The moment when Trowa realized that the best thing in his life had finally crossed paths with the worst thing in his life, he was surprisingly relieved because, really, what it all came down to was the simple hope for a safe, good place.It would take a risk, the biggest risk he'd ever imagined but, he'd do it. He'd make it happen. At this point, there was no turning back. Pairing: 2x3.

May Demons Rest: Shinigami Sleeps 2017

A re-write of my 2004 fanfic "Shinigami Sleeps.” To find and free Duo from his demons, Trowa leaves his uneventful life at the circus for the mean streets of an obscure colony in L2. Pairing: 2x3.

@the-notorious-bhg, Kiss the Planet Goodbye

Working for NASA requires Heero and Trowa to be apart for months at a time. Astronaut and Flight Engineer Trowa Barton is about to embark on his third expedition to the International Space Station where his lover, Army Captain and Mission CAPCOM Heero Yuy will stay on the planet to communicate with the ISS team from Mission Control. Their last night will be spent joining their bodies together in the desert beneath the stars. Pairing: 1x3.

Val_Creative, Reason 

A God does not strive to understand something plainly obvious to His own eyes. Pairing: 1x2. 

@weiclown, Revenge Through Sex 

Chapter Summary: Heero shouldn’t have let Duo use his laptop. The others go out, and come home to find Heero grieving over his broken laptop. What better form of revenge than keeping Duo awake all night with loud sex with Wufei? Pairings: 1x5, 3x4 implied. 

wrennette, Dragons of Earth

Instead of dying in the attack on L5, Long Meilan proceeds with the altered Operation Meteor as the pilot of Shenlong Gundam. Pairing: 5xm.

Fanart:

@shinigami-of-excellence,  Cute little Duobat and Wufei picture.

A gift for @renmaxwell. 

@maevemauvaise

Relena as a fanct goldfish mermaid for @chronicwhimsy

Disney!Relena

Dorothy in a revamped black dress!

Mariemaia Khushrenada 

Calendar Events:

Summer of Zechs (STARTS TODAY!) runs June 4-June 17. It’s a two week festival celebrating Zechs Merquise. All content is welcome and there are suggested prompts/themes for each day!

Thank you to all the amazing creators and supporters that keep our fandom alive!

[architectuul]

Paul Williams - I Am a Negro

“The power of example is strong. A few decades ago Negroes had no examples within their own race to spur them on. But now, seeing men and women of their own color bettering their condition so phenomenally, they realize that they - or their children - can do as much.”

I am a Negro is Paul Williams’ essay written for American Magazine in 1937, which speaks the power of minority representation.

Poster from Office of War Information; Domestic Operations Branch, News Bureau from 1943 | Drawing by Charles Alston

Even in 1937, representation of minorities mattered. It still does, today, in architecture, where African Americans constitute 13% of the populations but only 3% of practicing architects. Yet, this absence does not imply a vacuum, as the misconception that clients desire designers who share their same skin profile, has not prevented but merely hidden the contributions of black architects. In this shadow lies Paul Revere Williams. A designer of over 2000 buildings around USA, Williams was best known as the postwar designer to Hollywood’s stars, crafting tasteful homes for the cultural elite, including Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaiz, Frank Sinatra, Bill (Bojangles) Robinson, Bert Lahr, and many other prominent Southern California figures. Though his prolific portfolio warrants its own consideration, his ability to be judged by clients on his designs rather than his skin tone is a tribute to the sheer power of his talent.

Paul Williams received posthumous the AIA Gold Medal for lifetime achievement in 2017. | Photo via The Paul Revere Williams Project

Born in 1894 to Memphis-natives, Paul Williams was quickly placed into foster care after both parents died of tuberculosis complications prior to his fifth birthday. While apartheid conditions were codified in large swathes of the early 20th Century United States, Los Angeles allowed racial mixing in schools where Williams thrived at the Los Angeles School of Art and Design and later at the University of Southern California. After winning awards for his early designs and serving on the Los Angeles City Planning Commission, he became the first ever African American licensed by the American Institute of Architects in 1923.

Despite the lenient racial attitudes of Angelinos, Williams still spent his early career navigating the complex behavioral conventions around race in America. The success of his career was facilitated by his acrobatic flexibility accommodating the racial discomforts of white clients. Local laws, for instance, often prevented any African American from sleeping a single night in neighborhoods for which Williams was tasked to design. He even developed an uncanny ability to draw upside down so that white clients could sit across instead of next to him. These adaptations were pragmatic to his practice, but Williams was determined to undermine racial assumptions and develop future opportunities for black architects, echoing Dr. King in his essay, I Am a Negro, 

Rosa Parks was arrested as she refused to give up her seat in a public bus to a white woman in 1955. | Photo via Underwood Archives, Getty Images

“Virtually everything pertaining to my professional life during those early years was influenced by my need to offset race prejudice, by my effort to force white people to consider me as an individual rather than a member of a race.”

Williams also understood that offsetting racial prejudice in architecture extended beyond his own practice and that the continued advancement of black architects also involved the development of black clients. Beyond luxury homes, Williams sought to inspire a new generation of black architects by investing time in exhibitions at historically-black Howard University, eventually even designing a building on campus. Additionally, his devotion to the idea of modern housing as social reform prompted a program where, for $10 USD, Williams would deliver floor plan drawings for a house on any lot, allowing poor, largely black homeowners to afford works of architecture, shifting the perception of whom architecture serves.

The living room of the Lillen Residence combines organic curvature with the modern lines. | Photo via The Paul Revere Williams Project

These innumerous and diverse commissions resulted in a unique ability to shift between forms and styles of design. Williams’s early work was largely in the classical revival style popular for Southern California homes at the time. He became known for his ability to design a voluptuous stair, proving too alluring for his most discriminatory clients. The Aaron Lillen Bel Aire Residence proves typical of a Williams home, with all the iron work and stucco expected of luxurious early century homes in the area. In contrast to the straight lines of the living spaces, the curvature of the reflected ceiling plan and the stairs emphasize a luscious counter system to the rationality of the modern home.

Perino’s classical elegance design. | Photo via The Paul Revere Williams Project

Perino’s Restaurant, a New Orleans-themed establishment designed in 1953, was the most popular restaurant for Hollywood stars during the 50s. In their move to a new location, the restaurateurs’ entrusted the project’s $400000 USD budget to Williams, which speaks to their faith in his design capabilities. The classic fare of Williams’s interior reeked of old world elegance, at odds within peak-new world California. Unfortunately, the project was ultimately for naught as a fire destroyed the building a year after opening.

The Frank Sinatra Residence integrated the newest technologies into Mid-Century Modern tropes. | Photo via The Paul Revere Williams Project

In contrast, the Frank Sinatra House declares itself an early precursor to California Modernism. Williams synthesizes a more historical materiality of stucco and ironwork to the then-latest technologies, including integrating the sound system that fueled many of Sinatra’s infamous parties into the outdoor ceiling. The low profile and cantilevered roof seem an easy first step towards the work of Richard Neutra in the coming years. In spite of its reputation as a raucous bachelor pad, Williams demonstrated his ability to morph between architectural styles and adapt to changing aesthetic and technological tides. 

This is never more apparent than Williams’s most public building, Terminal One at LAX airport. Definitively modern, the building, designed by an extensive team in which Williams was a participant, is the exemplar of Williams’s ability to morph between architectural style and approaches.

Paul Williams embraced the organic curves of modernism to design the futuristic Terminal One at LAX. | Photo via The Paul Revere Williams Project

Despite Williams’s numerous architectural achievements, black architects still face immense hurdles just to enter the profession a half-century later. In school, Paul Williams was discouraged from entering architecture, as the prevailing perception was that the black community could not afford designer homes and white clients would be unwilling to work with an architect of color. These assumptions endure today: architects still tend to look like their wealthy, white clients. Though a step in the right direction, the posthumous AIA Gold Medal Award given to Williams celebrates less his lifetime achievements, but acts as a recognition that, as a professional association, the AIA has underserved the black community.

The National Museum of African American History by Adjaye, takes inspiration from African weaving, an architect and inspiration untenable without Pioneers like Williams. | Photo by Bradt Feinkopf

Williams’s true legacy lies in an emerging generation of black architects, like David Adjaye and Francis Kere who are more free to pursue diverse architectural agendas and clients. Starchitects might be maligned generally in architectural culture, but David Adjaye’s fame has combatted the discipline’s representational issues, a next step in exposing and advancing black architecture. 

David Adjaye | Photo via Adjaye Associates

Adjaye’s fame has even led to the further cultivation culturally-black projects, like the National Museum of African American History, which acts an amplification of Williams’s work at Howard University. 

Kere’s community-focused design, bordering on non-profit work, continues Williams’s quest to extend architecture to black communities. By designing community projects in Africa, Kere further expands the definition of whom deserves architecture. The contributions of pioneers like Paul Revere Williams are directly responsible for these works and the continued acceptance and representation of black architects will rely on their continued success. 

Diébédo Francis Kéré is a German-trained architect from West African town of Gando in Burkina Faso. | Photo by David Heerde

---

by T. Craig Sinclar

[jobsearchtips02]

How investors are utilizing credit-card and shopping information is altering

Credit-card information is among the initial alternative-data streams utilized by hedge funds and other financiers.

However the pandemic has actually disrupted customer costs routines, and information suppliers have actually been required to do more hand-holding with customers.

Banks are utilizing methods like post-stratification weighting and “swarming” to assist make sense of data.

For more stories, register for our Wall Street Expert newsletter

One of the earliest and most popular kinds of alternative information is proving harder to manage nowadays.

Financiers like hedge funds have long leaned on credit-card data to assist suss out whatever from brand-new retail trends to the health of specific services.

But the coronavirus pandemic has transformed shopping routines, and that’s prompted some difficult conversations in the ecosystem of information buyers and sellers.

” Depending on set-it-and-forget-it type models might not be an excellent idea since your outcome may be completely wrong,” Inna Kuznetsova, CEO of 1010 information, informed Business Insider.

For one hedge fund, Coatue’s $350 million quant fund, that implies returning all outside capital while the company remodels its strategy. It had pulled back seriously from the marketplaces in early April thanks to the instability and unpredictability in its data feeds.

One source had informed Service Expert that Coatue uses an e-commerce information set that revealed a spike in check outs to merchants’ websites while physical areas were closed– which might have overemphasized how well specific merchants were doing total.

Find Out More: Coatue’s $350 million quant hedge fund pulled cash out of the marketplace in a move that exposes the risks of data-driven trades

How credit-card information is getting skewed

Some of the ways that stay-at-home orders have altered credit-card data are reasonably easy for financiers to predict and work around.

The shift, she said, was likely due to a single member of the family purchasing meals for everyone as opposed to each individual getting their own.

” Depending on what criteria, what indication you use for your financial investment decisions, you risk making an extremely wrong decision unless you combine a number of various factors and understand what is genuine is taking place in this sector,” Kuznetsova stated.

See more: Web traffic information shows the greatest winners and losers throughout 11 various markets throughout the pandemic: Interest in Chipotle soared while Gucci traffic sank

How banks and financiers are reworking alt-data

That’s not to say credit-card information has actually been rendered completely ineffective.

Ryan Preclaw, who co-leads Barclays’ data-science research study group, informed Company Expert the bank uses something called post-stratification weighting. The technique takes in all of the data and reweights it at the end to account for disparities in between an individual’s use, he stated.

Post-stratification weighting differs from conventional panels used in credit-card data where the habits of a group are extrapolated out to represent a larger audience– an idea similar to that of Nielsen TV ratings, where a smaller sized number of individuals are considered representative of a broader viewership.

” You’re taking a more comprehensive pool of people. You’re less likely to have actually mistakenly selected someone who winds up with a non-representative habits change,” Preclaw stated.

Jeremy Brunelli, UBS Proof Lab’s international head of structures, told Business Expert that an essential piece of the bank’s method to handling alternative-data is something called “swarming.”

The idea is to stay agnostic to the dataset, instead applying any info that could respond to the concern at hand. The outcome might be relying on invoice transaction data or app usage rather of simply credit-card data.

And while the practice was basic at UBS prior to COVID-19, Brunelli said the pandemic has actually certainly shifted a few of the “channels,” or methods which individuals are going about making purchases, which has actually created additional noise and additional demonstrated the benefits of swarming.

” I would say my experience with charge card information is that it can be struck or miss out on,” Brunelli said.

” It’s not as effective as I think people may assume it to be. A few of our clients who are deep, heavy users of alternative data choose to look at lots of various signals, in a sense, to produce a mosaic around a theme.”

Read more: ‘ A $35,000 data set that might have conserved or made $100 million’: Alt information is back in the spotlight– here’s how service providers and buyers have adapted.

While credit-card data “can offer insight into how consumer practices alter,” it’s not the end-all, be-all data source some might think it is, stated Man Group’s Hinesh Kalian, who is the head of information science for the $104 billion hedge-fund manager.

Data customers require more handholding, more options

To that point, the coronavirus has actually given a chance for other data sets to shine.

This method highlights a split that’s been emerging in the alt-data area for some time now– with suppliers choosing to either focus on raw feeds that quant funds with considerable data-science teams can mold as they see fit, or to construct out internal data-science teams that help clients utilize the data.

Some alt-data providers have actually been required to reassess their offerings as hedge funds continue to develop out their own groups focused on alternative data.

But both sides of the information formula understand the dangers of relying on simply one source of data, no matter how predictive previous outcomes appear.

” If the turkey sees gravy sales are surging in the weeks leading up, that could be a sign,” Fan added.

Read more:

Hedge funds are using these 10 alt-data sources to acquire an investing edge as the coronavirus wreaks havoc on global markets

Bloomberg’s alt-data head leapt ship to start a brand-new service at retail consultant Ascential– and it shows how firms can cut out middlemen and offer data directly to hedge funds

Alt data’s Wild West days may be ending as Congress and personal privacy supporters zero in on the market. Nearly a lots experts tell us how data streams going dark is an ‘unhedgeable’ threat.

%%.

from Job Search Tips https://jobsearchtips.net/how-investors-are-utilizing-credit-card-and-shopping-information-is-altering/

[terabitweb]

Original Post from Security Affairs Author: Pierluigi Paganini

A recent MuddyWater campaign tracked as BlackWater shows that the APT group added new anti-detection techniques to its arsenal.

Security experts at Cisco Talos attributed the recently spotted campaign tracked as “BlackWater” to the MuddyWater APT group (aka SeedWorm and TEMP.Zagros). 

The researchers also pointed out that the cyber espionage group has been updating its tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) by adding three distinct steps to their operations to avoid the detection.

The first MuddyWater campaign was observed in late 2017 when targeted entities in the Middle East.

The experts called the campaign ‘MuddyWater’ due to the confusion in attributing a wave of attacks that took place between February and October 2017 targeting entities in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Israel, United Arab Emirates, Georgia, India, Pakistan, Turkey, and the United States to date.

The group evolved over the years by adding new attack techniques to its arsenal.

In March 2018, experts at FireEye uncovered a massive phishing campaign conducted by the TEMP.Zagros group targeting Asia and Middle East regions from January 2018 to March 2018.

Attackers used weaponized documents typically having geopolitical themes, such as documents purporting to be from the National Assembly of Pakistan or the Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology.

In June 2018, Trend Micro researchers discovered a new attack relying on weaponized Word documents and PowerShell scripts that appears related to the MuddyWater APT. The final payload delivered in the campaign is the PRB-BackdoorRAT, it was controlled by the command and control (C&C) server at outl00k[.]net.

This campaign aims at installing a PowerShell-based backdoor onto the victim’s machine for espionage purposes.

As part of the recent BlackWater campaign, the MuddyWater APT group leveraged an obfuscated Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) macro script to add a Run registry key and gain persistence.

Then the attackers used a PowerShell stager script masquerade as a red-teaming tool that would download a PowerShell-based Trojan from a C2 server.

The stager download from the C2 a component of the FruityC2 agent script, an open-source framework on GitHub, that uses to enumerate the host machine.

“This could allow the threat actor to monitor web logs and determine whether someone uninvolved in the campaign made a request to their server in an attempt to investigate the activity.” reads the analysis published by Talos group. “Once the enumeration commands would run, the agent would communicate with a different C2 and send back the data in the URL field. This would make host-based detection more difficult, as an easily identifiable “errors.txt” file would not be generated.”

The cyberspies also used to replace some variable strings in the more recent samples to avoid signature-based detection from Yara rules. 

Attackers used a document that once was opened, it prompted the user to enable the macro titled “BlackWater.bas”. They protected the macro with a password to prevent user to view it in Visual Basic. The “Blackwater.bas” macro was obfuscated using a substitution cipher whereby the characters are replaced bytheir corresponding integer. 

“This series of commands first sent a server hello message to the C2, followed by a subsequent hello message every 300 seconds. An example of this beacon is “hxxp://82[.]102[.]8[.]101:80/bcerrxy.php?rCecms=BlackWater”.” continues the analysis. “Notably, the trojanized document’s macro was also called “BlackWater,” and the value “BlackWater” was hard coded into the PowerShell script. Next, the script would enumerate the victim’s machine”

Experts conclude that even if the changes implemented by the threat actor were minimal, they were significant enough to avoid detection and to allow the group to continue to perform operations.

If you appreciate my effort in spreading cybersecurity awareness, please vote for Security Affairs in the section “Your Vote for the Best EU Security Tweeter”

Thank you

window._mNHandle = window._mNHandle || {}; window._mNHandle.queue = window._mNHandle.queue || []; medianet_versionId = "3121199";

try { window._mNHandle.queue.push(function () { window._mNDetails.loadTag("762221962", "300x250", "762221962"); }); } catch (error) {}

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – MuddyWater, APT)

The post MuddyWater BlackWater campaign used new anti-detection techniques appeared first on Security Affairs.

#gallery-0-6 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-6 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-0-6 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-6 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

Go to Source Author: Pierluigi Paganini MuddyWater BlackWater campaign used new anti-detection techniques Original Post from Security Affairs Author: Pierluigi Paganini A recent MuddyWater campaign tracked as BlackWater shows that the APT group added new anti-detection techniques to its arsenal.