#creative ways to show employee appreciation

[peachyscenes]

nine to five | office workers!enhypen x fem!reader

notes: SMUT!! so mdni and proceed with caution/at your own risk! porn with some plot. you 🫵, my dear reader are in fact the same person for the rest of this piece/mini-series (not sorry lol). enhypen are pervs! like freaky pervs! decelis corp is lowkey highkey a sex service company lol. you must really need this job but it's ok because same. inspired by both enha's new music video AND the intern mini-series by @lomlhwa (literally CHEF'S kiss)

reblogs are appreciated!!

Welcome to Decelis Corporation! As the new member of the creative department, you're tasked with developing new ideas to help promote the company and bring in new investors! Though the creative department is not as big as the other departments, you and your seven teammates are just as capable and incredibly skilled! Though, no one told you just how skilled they were... And unfortunately you made the mistake of not reading the fine print when signing the contract...

All members are welcome to explore the services provided by Decelis! By signing this contract, you are consenting to every and all services at your own expense (refer to the employee handbook for the list of services)! Please note that services outside of office hours will not count as overtime unless a request has been submitted by the team leader!

Thank you for joining Decelis Corporation! We hope to have you for a while!

Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI, Part VII

PART I: Heeseung, Office Manager/Team Leader

He was very friendly when you first came into the company. Heeseung was one of the first people to really show you the ropes of the office. He told you where the good coffee was and where to buy lunch if you didn't bring any from home. He also helped you with deadlines if the other guys (Sunghoon) decided to leave you with the bulk of the shared work. Heeseung is a good guy.

What you're not aware of, is his lingering stare when you're too close to another team member. Or when you wear your pencil skirts rather than your dress pants. Or when you decide to dress more casually in jeans and bend down to find the pen you just dropped.

Heeseung was a starer with many thoughts about you.

He knows you didn't read the fine print of the company contract. You have this innocent look on your face that's unaware of the multiple uses of the break room on your floor. You smile at him so prettily, completely oblivious to the wolfish stares he and the others give you. You look at him with admiration, and it gets him hard when he's reading through the weekly reports that Sunoo emails him.

Today is no exception. You're wearing your hair in a ponytail and you're sporting glasses instead of your contacts.

"Why the glasses?" he hears Jungwon ask.

"I- I was running late..." you replied, looking a bit embarrassed. You miss the way Jungwon smirks at you, but Heeseung doesn't. And he doesn't like it.

"Jungwon." You both straighten up at the sound of the leader's voice. Heeseung steadily walks towards you both, eyes locked on the younger man. "Did you send me the spreadsheet for this week?" Jungwon's eyebrows rise up as a sudden epiphany hits him at the mention of the spreadsheet. he sputters out a half-apology, going back to his desk to start it.

"Y/n?"

You turn towards Heeseung, and you resemble a deer caught in headlights. Heeseung has to suppress the thought of you on your knees for him when you look at him with your wide eyes.

"The higher-ups really liked your report from last week," he starts off. Your eyes twinkle at the news. You also seem to relax a bit compared to when Jungwon was spoken to.

"Really?"

Heeseung nods, taking a step closer towards you.

"They were wondering if you could stay overtime to make some calls about your proposals."

That spark in your eye is gone at the mention of having to stay past office hours. Heeseung's eyebrow raises at the change in mood.

"You don't want to? I already filled out the overtime form for you, I just need a confirmation..."

"It's not that I don't want to... It's just that, Jungwon asked if I wanted to eat dinner with him later..."

Heeseung feels his eye twitch.

"And I hate the thought of staying here on my own late at night. It's kinda creepy..."

There's a bit of silence between you two and you think he might tease you but instead, he flashes you a smile. It's the same one he gave you on your first day when he welcomed you.

"I'll stay with you. I have to work on some things anyways."

Your first overtime shift was when you realized that maybe you should've read the fine print.

Heeseung's kisses were hungry. You were worried about being caught but according to him,

"Overtime means no disruptions. It's on page 15 of the handbook."

He has you perched on one of the desks in your department. His hands felt like fire. His lips were addicting. You felt like you were about to explode if he kept grinding his hardened cock against your leg.

"S-slow down, Hee," you bite your lip to swallow down a moan. He simply smirks at you before kissing down your neck. You whimper when you feel his teeth nibble around the area.

"You have no idea how long I've been waiting, baby. Been wanting to fuck you since day one." He harshly bites down on the side of your neck, and you're so sure that you're going to have to wear one of your turtlenecks tomorrow.

Heeseung's hand starts trailing from your thigh to your clothed pussy. The material of your dress pants feels rough against your clit when Heeseung cups you.

"H-hold on Hee! We don't even know each other!"

He clicks his tongue before letting out a sigh.

"Y/nnie... You've been working here for 3 months now... Of course we know each other!"

"B-but we never hang out outside of work-!"

Heeseung cuts you off by leaning in to kiss you, this time shoving his tongue into your mouth. You immediately reciprocate his kiss and move your own tongue against his. He pulls away and puts his forehead against your own, a laugh escapes him.

"You say you don't know me, but you're kissing me back so well. You want this Y/nnie~"

You let out a whine, the hand on his chest uselessly pushing him away. Heeseung proceeds to unbutton your dress pants before slowly pulling down the zipper. He holds eye contact with you as he does this, smiling even wider when you make no effort to really stop him.

"Tell me something Y/n." He shoves his hand down your underwear, immediately feeling your wet cunt, spreading your lower lips to gather your wetness on his fingers. "Have you ever thought of me doing something to you?" He adds a single finger inside your aching pussy.

"N-no!" you look away from him, too embarrassed to have let him have his way with you. Your answer doesn't seem to please him, because Heeseung then adds another finger, moving them in and out of your cunt and reaching spots that you haven't been able to. Your face falls at the sensation, and you're using every fiber of your being to not give into him.

"You're lying baby, I see the way you look at me." Heeseung's fingers pick up the pace, the sloshing sound of your cunt is so erotic and almost immediately you give up trying to stay quiet.

"Hee-Heeseung! Oh my God~" Your toes curl when he hits a particular spot, head thrown back as you quickly give up fighting against him. You unconsciously spread your legs more for him, and he can only laugh at you.

"Such a slut, baby." You clench at his words, eyes rolling back as he continues. "What will Wonie say when he finds out I fucked you on his desk?"

You can barely hear what he's saying, too focused on his fingers deep in your cunt. Your jaw hangs open as his fingers begin to get rougher.

"D-don't stop! Fuck! M'almost close Hee!" You're moaning like a mantra, too far gone because of him.

"You gonna come for me baby?"

You nod, mind going numb to truly respond to him.

He feels your pussy begin to spasm and he helps you ride out your orgasm by rubbing his thumb against your clit. Heeseung doesn't stop until you're whining at the overstimulation and pushing his hand away. You feel some seconds pass and you forget what you're about to say to him because he makes you stand from the desk and pushes you to your knees. You look up at Heeseung and he's looking down at you as he unbuckles his belt.

"We're gonna make use of your pretty ponytail, hmm?" He doesn't even fully remove his pants, instead he pushes them and his underwear down enough to free his cock. It's not girthy, but it's long. "Give it a kiss?"

You hesitantly lean in to peck the tip. It feels hot again your lips. You look back up at him and Heeseung rolls his eyes.

"You gotta put it in your mouth now, baby."

You swallow the lump that's stuck in your throat before leaning in to suck his tip into your mouth. Heeseung lets out a sigh, nodding his head to encourage you to take more of him. You slowly take as much of his length as you can, you feel his tip at the back of your throat and you can't help the gag that arises. He's not even halfway in. l

"Careful baby, don't want you to choke. Breathe f'me." You nod, and slowly take in more of him. Heeseung lets out a groan when he looks down at you. He regrets leaving his phone on his desk when your nose touches his abdomen.

You slowly begin to bob your head along his cock, careful to not gag around him. Drool begins to drip down your jaw and onto your neck. Heeseung lets out a moan. You feel the grip on your ponytail tighten and let out a whine when Heeseung begins to control your pace to a faster one.

"Look so pretty like this... Jay's gonna be so jealous." You don't register what he says, too focus on how turned on you are. Your glasses start to fog up at Heeseung's ministrations. Your face sports a sheen layer of sweat. The sounds that emit from you make you feel dizzy.

Heeseung sees the way you look and grins when he feels your hands grip onto his leg.

"You like my cock?" His grin spreads when he sees your eyes roll. "Keep going baby, gonna come real soon."

Your thighs start to rub together to relieve some of the tension. Heeseung notices and forces his leg between your thighs, placing his dress shoe against your cunt.

"Use me baby."

You grind your cunt against his shoe, your moan vibrating on his cock. Heeseung's breathing begins to stagger the more you continue. His hold on your ponytail tightens as his pace becomes sloppy.

"Gonna come, I want you to swallow, ok?" You try your best to nod, too indulged by the relief he's given you. Heeseung bobs your head once, twice, and you feel his cum release into you mouth. He keeps your head still as he empties himself out, breathing hard to calm himself down. After some seconds, Heeseung removes his hand from your hair and his foot from between your legs, you whine out in protest at the loss, but he simply leans down to catch your jaw, tilting your head up.

"Swallow baby." You do as he says, and he lets out a low groan when your tongue comes out to clean around your lips.

Heeseung helps you stand on your feet before turning you around, pushing your chest against the surface of the desk.

You finally get a good look at the desk and your eyes widened in realization of Heeseung's words from earlier. Right in front of you is Jungwon's framed photo of him and your team leader. You're about to protest when you feel your pants being pulled all the way down and Heeseung's own belt hitting the floor.

"This is Jungwon's desk Hee! We have to go somewhere else-!" For the second time, Heeseung cuts you off by landing a smack on your ass. You feel a glob of spit fall on your opening and his tip rubs itself against you to gather his spit and your own wetness.

"Don't mention his name."

He pushes into you in one go, your mouth falls open in a silent scream. Heeseung beings to pound into your pussy, his grip on your hips are sure to leave a mark. You try to hold yourself up on your elbows, but his hand pushes your head on the desk to keep you down.

"Pussy so fucking good." He throws his head back, reveling in the feeling of your pussy. You whimper as he lands a hard smack on your ass again.

"Heeseung! S-slow down!" You shut your eyes at his brutal pace. Your airways feel constricted the more he fucks you.

You want to tell him that this isn't right. Not only are you soiling Jungwon's desk, he's not listening to you at all. But the sick little side of you has always wanted this. You've thought about Heeseung before. Thought about how he'd be like in bed, about the feeling of his cock, if he was vocal or quiet. You've had many thoughts about Heeseung, you're just too shy to act on it.

"Such a whiny baby, Y/nnie. Y'feel that?" He takes your hand and trails it down to press it against your stomach. His cock bulges out slightly, making you feel dizzy at how deep he is.

"Who's fucking you?"

Your brain is barely functioning, too cock-drunk to answer him. Heeseung's hand lingers to your throat to squeeze it before pulling you up against his chest by your neck.

"Answer me baby, who's fucking you so good?"

"Y-you! You Hee! Fuck! So good!"

Your moans are incoherent, as he speeds up his pace. His thrusts begin to get more sloppy.

"Please let me come inside. Let me eat your pussy with my cum."

You clench around his cock at his words. Heeseung's hand on your hips move to rub your clit. Your legs begin to tremble and finally, you came, spasming around him. Heeseung thrusts into you a couple more times before finally coming as well.

You shudder at how warm his cum feels inside you. He stays inside for a bit and you're grateful, too spent to really move and let him move. His hands find purchase on your hips again, rubbing them as if to soothe you.

"So.... You're still gonna let me eat you out right?"

[bunkoos-mole-enthusiast]

Weekly Jungkook Fanfic Recs

Some fine JK fics for your reading pleasure. 🔞 Please show your appreciation to all the wonderful authors :)

Cuddling Costs Extra: It was an utterly stupid idea to hire a prostitute to cuddle on movie nights. But perhaps something good can come out of it after all. https://www.wattpad.com/story/116193428-cuddling-costs-extra-j-jk-ff

Man-Eater Hunting: Namjoon is never very aware of what he says when he’s drunk, and this time is no exception to that rule. Unknowingly, Joon creates a chain of events that lead to his youngest member actively chasing his best friend. All under the pretense that you’re an untouchable, unpleasable, man eater.  https://httpjungkookcom.tumblr.com/post/692893845087830016/man-eater-hunting-jjk-m

Run: Jungkook doesn't want you to leave him for some stupid karaoke party so he tries his best to make you stay. Although his intentions start out playful, they quickly grow corrupted, especially after your somewhat hurtful words. https://www.tumblr.com/idekhowtodothis/702653565156589568/run-jjk

Tales of Eros: Eros learns love is calculated, deliberate and a tiding storm when no amount of arrows can take him away from you. https://inkedtae.tumblr.com/post/642609445901352960/tales-of-eros-jjk

Golden Gills: Reader taunts Jungkook for being the new Teacher’s Assistant for her history class. She simply can’t stand a teacher’s pet. Jungkook can’t help but make her one.  https://inkedtae.tumblr.com/post/615555776590888960/golden-gills-jjk-m

Apodyopsis: Jungkook is a nude model in your art class. https://jeonsjiddies.tumblr.com/post/618504144757620736/apodyopsis-m-jjk

Take Me To Church: You can always tell when something is bothering your boyfriend, despite how hard he tries to hide it - and you have creative ways to get him to talk.  https://illneverrecover.tumblr.com/post/614946305251360768/pairing-jeon-jungkook-x-reader-genre-gangau

Youngblood: "I don’t care if he’s got the potential to be the next big thing. I’m done trying to chase a story that doesn’t exist. You’re going to send me to five of his concerts and I can already tell you how each one is going to go. He’s a wannabe bad boy who jizzes his pants when he sees a girl looking at him. Assign me someone else.” https://jinned.tumblr.com/post/188618632439/youngblood-jungkook-m

Glitter & Disquiet: Poised to inherit Korea’s largest gaming company in a few months, the world looks at Jeon Jungkook as a symbol of envy. Why wouldn’t they? He has everything, riches, power, and according to the rumour mill, endless women. Little do they know that his father’s company is on the verge of downfall, he barely has respect of his employees, and regardless of the rumors, he’s just a virgin saving himself for true love. https://joheunsaram.tumblr.com/post/652203565366083584/glitter-and-disquiet-jjk-1

Happy Birthday Loser: After three years of simping over your roommate, you give him one hell of a birthday celebration. https://jungk0oksthighs.tumblr.com/post/694133180600664064/happy-birthday-loser-jjk-x-reader-18

[literalite]

marlo velasco for @rainymoodlet's rock of love!

hii formally introducing marlo after showing them in cas first lmao i'll stick all their info and some bonus pics under the cut :3

they're filipino, nonbinary (using they/them pronouns), and androsexual- for simplicity's sake they sometimes just say they're gay

traits: erratic, hot-headed, creative likes: alternative and metal music, competency, a good discussion, wellness, getting everything just right, being praised(.......), a good visual contrast, travelling, friendly competition, hard workers, vintage artwork, and of course tattoos fhgjhkjkl dislikes: modern decor, elitism, people who lack drive or who follow tradition, being told what to do, stupid questions, green eyes, makeup, phones or cameras or honestly most modern technology, softening their tone in any way, uncomfortable shoes

quick well that was a fucking lie bio:

only child to two very conservative parents, had a very testy relationship with them both throughout their teens and young adulthood. currently no contact with them both

learnt how to tattoo in their teens and joined a tattoo and piercing shop as an apprentice at 21. they met both their ex husband and their current best friend, risa there

married their ex at 25, was truly in love with him despite being deeply unhappy in other aspects of life

came out and began transitioning at 29, which strained their marriage as he tried and failed to accept their true self as opposed to the "woman" he had signed up for

he convinced them to try for having a kid in order to save their relationship shocker, that did not work so mickey was born

after three years they divorced- admittedly marlo was not a stellar parent and left mickey mostly in her father's care while they moved on from working at the original tattoo shop, eventually seeing their kid for only a weekend per month

at 35 opened their new shop Purgatory Tattoos with their best friend risa as co-owner

two years ago, they got a call in the middle of the night, from their ex who immediately started shouting down the line at them for "corrupting" their 11 year old into thinking that she's a girl. they immediately drove the few hours to go pick mickey up and filed for custody the morning after

marlo's relationship with mickey was initially understandably pretty rocky, with marlo being really awkward around their own daughter and mickey obviously being distrustful of them. in years since, they've grown a lot closer, with marlo now really appreciating the work it takes to raise a kid. they're still very anxious about being a "good" parent though, having totally lacked for any role models

has sort of dated around since breaking up with their husband, but hasn't been able to commit to anything serious what with their focus on keeping their business running and the residual sting of a long and painful loss both emotionally and financially from their ex

signed up for this at risa's insistence and also thinking that it'd be nice for mickey to grow up with a more stable and loving environment than they did

fun facts:

they're pretty much tone deaf but nevertheless enthusiastic about karaoke much to their neighbours' detriment

for their employees and apprentices, they're known as kind of a hardass, especially in comparison to risa, but being under their guidance improves skills x10

lactose intolerant but im not wasting a trait slot on that LMAO

used to have piercings, but took their facial ones out years ago because they'd all been done by their ex- all the holes have since closed up

has pretty much no social media presence aside from their shop's instagram account, on which they've got no photos of themselves, not even a candid in the background of a shot. doesnt know wtf a tiktok is even though mick keeps begging them to do dances with her?

can't imagine moving away from tomarang even though they love travelling overseas. a big goal is getting enough money together to take mickey on a big holiday abroad

here are some pics of them and their daughter, mickey! she's 13, trans, she/her pronouns. due to their long estrangement, mickey calls them "lo" instead of any other term

[ot3]

Hey! The link to your FAQ wasn't working for me so I don't know if this question has been asked before. I really appreciate your perspectives on AI art. Do you happen to have any resources that you read/listened to on intellectual property rights and the issues with it? I just don't really know where to start with it.

[heres where i cut out a big paragraph of me, once again, bitching about how blog pages don't work on the tumblr app and i think that's fucking stupid]

anyway i dont have any generalized sources on the subject but the tl;dr of it is: intellectual property rights exclusively benefit people who have the resources to pursue sustained litigation. 99% of the time, what IP law is being used for is to reinforce corporate ownership of work that was done by their employees.

the whole disco elysium debacle is a great case study.

The shareholders of ZA/UM accused the trio of, among other things, intending to steal intellectual property (IP) from the company — a curious accusation, considering that the world of the game is based off of a novel written by Kurvitz himself. The case of Disco Elysium illustrates the shortcomings of IP rights as protection for artists. Consequently, it contains a lot of lessons for the labor movement when it comes to the arts, and serves as a reminder that creative workers are, at the end of the day, workers. But this is not just an academic exercise. It’s a human story about the intimate consequences of capitalist exploitation. “I got my soul ripped out of me,” Kurvitz told me over Zoom in April of 2023. “I got my skull cracked open and my brain lifted out of it by a fifty-five-year-old financial criminal.”

another example: alex norris of webcomic name, which you will probably recognize when you see it, has been raising hundreds of thousands of dollars over the past several years to try and keep up with the protracted legal battle over maintaining ownership of his own work.

I have been fighting this case since 2019. It arose out of an agreement to make a boardgame based on my webcomic in 2017 but the publishing company has used this as an opportunity to take all of my intellectual property, and has even claimed ownership of Webcomic Name as a whole. I can't go into more detail here, but the details of the case are publicly available to read online.

Then, in a 2024 update:

I have essentially won the main case based on the decisions made last summer. The Judge has clearly stated that I own my comics, and that the other party has infringed on my copyright. It is not over yet, as there are still a few things that need to happen. Hopefully things will all be wrapped up this year. After 6 years of legal battling, I can’t wait to be free of all of this. Hopefully, this second case will backfire, and they will be sanctioned for filing it. But to get to that point requires a frustratingly large amount of work, time and money.

An interesting thing about both of these two specific instances is that they involve creators who had entire bodies of work produced around the specific IPs that were stolen from them before they even began partnering with corporate entities to produce works. which is insane! you can spend years writing novels, drawing comics, and if a company comes in with enough lawyers they can own those ideas.

this is pretty distinctly different to me than instances of work you do while being employed by a corporate entity being owned by that corporate entity, because at least you know what you're getting into there to some degree, but i still think that's bad too. consider stuff like the owl house and gravity falls, two disney shows made by people who very very clearly did not like working for disney. disney owns their ideas, their characters, their worlds, because that's the price you pay for having an animated show produced.

essentially it's very very clear upon even the slightest examination that intellectual property in no way exists to codify who the creator responsible for specific creative concepts or works is. it exists to turn nebulous things like 'ideas' into market commodities, and to funnel the profits made by the labor of individual artists and writers into corporate bank accounts.

the only person who has ever really benefited from IP law as an individual trying to lay claim to their own work is ken penders, who notoriously won his suit to have ownership of characters and storylines he created. heartbreaking: Worst Person You Know Gets An Unequivocally Deserved Legal W.

The comics continued under Flynn’s direction as if nothing happened, but things started looking grim in late 2012, when Archie suddenly fired its entire legal team. The company had been unable to produce Penders’ work-for-hire contract, which would have given control of his creations to Sega. Penders claimed the contract had never existed. A heavily circulated Tumblr post outlining the case (which has been corroborated as a reliable source by Penders) explains that while Archie did provide a photocopy of a contract allegedly signed by Penders in 1996, Penders claimed that the document was a forgery. That it was neither an original copy nor a contract from the beginning of the writer’s tenure at Archie meant that its validity was questionable. Making things worse, Archie couldn’t produce an original copy of any previous contributor’s contract, meaning that any writer or artist who had worked on the Archie Sonic line could potentially follow in Penders’s footsteps and reclaim their work. “So are you saying prior counsel blew it?” the presiding judge asked Archie counsel Joshua Paul in a May 2013 court session. His reply was unequivocal: “Absolutely, your Honor.”

So yeah. Owning the work you do as an artist is only something that happens when the people trying to profit off of it show unprecedented and staggering level of incompetence in their legal teams.

Then, alongside not owning the concepts and ideas you produce while working with corporate entities, there's the issue of NDA regarding specific pieces you've produced. This causes a LOT of trouble for freelance illustrators/character designers/concept artists, etc. Looking for work is very hard when the past three years of pieces you've drawn can't be added to your portfolio. Some people have password protected pages on their portfolios that they use for NDA work, but I believe the right to do this varies depending on your contract. I'm not 100% sure. In cases where the project you worked on eventually comes out, that's one thing, but there will be instances where the entire project gets canned after all the work is done, but is still under NDA so essentially all of your work has been taken from you, crumpled up into a ball by a studio executive, thrown in the trash can, and legally you are not allowed to go pick it out of the bin and try and flatten it out again.

This has all been pretty art-focused because that's the kind of circles I run in and where a lot of my interests lie but the truth is none of this is even remotely close to as evil IP law gets. I've saved the most egregious for last: The Lakota Language Consortium

The Lakota Language Consortium had promised to preserve the tribe’s native language and had spent years gathering recordings of elders, including Taken Alive’s grandmother, to create a new, standardized Lakota dictionary and textbooks.  But when Taken Alive, 35, asked for copies, he was shocked to learn that the consortium, run by a white man, had copyrighted the language materials, which were based on generations of Lakota tradition. The traditional knowledge gathered from the tribe was now being sold back to it in the form of textbooks.

When you're in defense of IP law, this is what you're siding with. This is the rational endpoint of IP and it is neither a fluke nor an example of the concept being twisted against its original design. Art, culture, language, it belongs to whoever is most capable of turning it into a product. The economic incentives of producing and distributing arts and culture demand this is how things be.

Meya says his work is a vital tool in preserving the Lakota language, which did not previously have a standardized written form. He estimated that there are fewer than 1,500 fluent Lakota speakers left and that over the last decade and a half, the organization has helped add 50 to 100 more. “Just because money is involved in it does not inherently make it an evil thing,” Meya said in a recent interview with NBC News. Most of the products his organizations make are free, he said, but the cost of printing textbooks has to come from somewhere. “That tends to be sometimes part of the rhetoric, ‘Oh, there’s money involved. It must be, you know, part of the overall colonization effort.’ Well, you know, that’s just not realistic.”

Artists looking to force their way into the class of people who gets protected by these laws are not looking out for their community. They are not protecting anything but their own perceived financial interests. Intellectual property will never, ever benefit the most marginalized members of creative communities and anyone who tries to convince you otherwise is huffing some serious copium.

Frankly, I don't believe anyone can or should 'own' things like Ideas or Specific Aesthetic Flairs. But even if you do believe in that, IP law isn't the framework for handling it.

[moments-on-film]

Moments on Film: The Bear Season 3

Now that I have had a few days to process and fully…..digest S3, I am back with my most visceral thoughts.

I must say, distance did not do anything to ameliorate how I felt about this season. There were some beautiful moments, I really enjoyed episode 1, for example, and I truly appreciated the opportunity to learn more about how Sydney comports herself as a leader, Marcus‘s beautifully inspired and fresh creativity as a chef, Tina’s journey, Natalie’s inner struggles, and more backstory on chef Luca.

What I am having so much trouble with this season, is Carmy. I knew this would happen. I knew S3 would be the belly of the beast, as I predicted 🔗 here , but it was still so hard to take in.

Those of you that have read my work know how much empathy I have felt for Carmy. I have rooted for him. I see how much help he desperately needs and I am always hoping he will find a way to course correct when he gets off track. Carmy ditching Sydney in S2 and lashing out at Richie in the finale felt like a punch to my gut. I was so hoping those two relationships would be nurtured this season but in fact they got worse.

I want to be clear, I have had so much compassion and empathy for Carmy and his emotional problems, due to the cycles of abuse he has had to endure. What I absolutely cannot excuse or reconcile this season is how his behavior and actions are hurting, stifling, and traumatizing those around him.

Another thing I really want to uplift is that yes, this is a show that emphasizes found family. But at the end of the day, this is a business, he is in a leadership position, and everyone who works there is an at-will-employee. In my opinion, Carmy has completely failed as a leader, on all fronts. He has never exhibited leadership skills, with consistency. And as supportive member of the “family”, real or otherwise, he is nowhere to be found. Carmy has actually created a hostile work environment that is legally actionable and litigious with his mood swings, verbal and physical abuse and erratic behavior.

It is a stone cold fact.

I was rooting so hard for Sydney and staff to walk out the door this season. That’s how bad his behavior is. Sydney deserves better, plain and simple. Everyone working at The Bear does. Another point I want to uplift is that while Christopher Storer created the show, it is his sister, Courtney, “Coco” Storer who is the chef on whom he based much of the plot. Courtney has also moved from Culinary Producer in seasons past of The Bear to Co-Executive Producer and even “Story By” credit on this season of the show.

There is something Courtney said a few years ago on a podcast that has stayed in the back of my mind because I always wondered if it would be used as a plot point for Sydney. She shared a story of a restaurant she worked at in Los Angeles. She was promoted to CDC, loved her team and really enjoyed working there. However, it was not all perfect. She was constantly burnt out and at a physical and emotional deficit due to the stress. She suffered panic attacks. She also shared that she was not officially a partner with a stake in the restaurant, and she felt like she needed to have her own back because at the end of the day, no one else did. Although it was a difficult life decision—-she quit.

Forget Michelin stars. If Carmy cannot create and maintain an environment people want to work in, with him, he will end up completely alone. It also may already be too late.

I understand this season is apparently in two parts, I understand that everything happens for a reason. What I can’t understand is how I am meant to root for a character that has contributed to Sydney having panic attacks, has hit Richie, has yelled at Marcus during what must be the worst time in his life and who was about to lose it on Tina if Sydney hadn’t stepped in, saved her, and saved him from himself. Completely unacceptable behavior.

Carmy needs professional help. I have said this many, many times before and I am going to say it again. Carmy. Needs. Professional. Help. He cannot continue to let his triggers and emotions be his master. He is in a leadership position and people’s jobs are depending on him. He cannot offer any more hollow apologies, he has to back them up with consistent action, or I will continue rooting for the staff to leave or for him to step down.

If he doesn’t make the time, energy, and effort to stop the madness, slow down, take a beat, remember all of the gentle and beautiful mentorship he actually did receive through his rise as a chef, lead with his heart, build trust and repair his relationships, especially with Sydney, with Richie, with his sister and her new baby, he will lose it all, because he will have lost the one thing that truly matters, the people he is supposed to care about and the people who care about him.

Does he have it in him to turn this all around? At this point I am not sure. And if he doesn’t, I believe what “grows together”, and they really did, all grow—-will in fact, go together.

©️moments-on-film 2024

[archieved-watcher-blog]

Im getting emotional so let me just try to talk about how i feel and what the point in this video that i want to react to.

Generally, Steven has been someone i have been watching for quiet sometimes especially ever since from worth it. The amount of respect i have for him grew a lot throughout this video. Im just so so proud of him and so happy that he got the appreciation he deserved from keeping the business afloat and how proud Ryan and the entire team is of him.

26:17

"I love Ryan, I love Shane. They are my partners for life on this journey. They say that when you start a company with people its like getting married and yeah, its been an incredible marriage and no divorces in sight"

I was so emotional when he started describing his feelings towards his employees as a trust in relationship and saw Ryan and Shane as partners in life 😭😭

31 : 20

OH NO WAY!!! So excited for a food show that Steven said he never felt this amount of creative joy in a long time. I am so so excited RAHHHH!!! I can't wait!! I miss Steven so much. But its understanding if he will be rarely seen, as he is so so busy as a CEO of this company. Im just glad he is appreciated with the amount of work he needed to do.

On to the next year of Watcher!!

[blockgamepirate]

Here are some suggestions I have for QSMP, that nobody asked for and that nobody involved with the server is going to actually see anyway (but I can't stop thinking about this so I have to write something down)

This is me trying to be constructive instead of just critical, because I do love this server and I want it to be sustainable

I guess this is vaguely addressed to either Quackity and/or to whoever is leading the team, idk, like I said they aren't gonna read a random tumblr post so who cares

And yes, obviously I'm sure some of the things in this post are already being improved on, I just think it's still worth listing them

1: Better communication all around

Especially within the admin team obviously, including the actors and builders and everyone, but also between the admin team and the streamers! And between the admin team and the audience as well!

I promise more communication almost always helps things work out more smoothly than keeping people out of the loop or not talking to each other, or worse; actively banning people from talking to each other

This includes being more open and reconsidering which things actually need to be kept secret and from whom, because if people don't know what to expect, they're not going to know how to prepare either! And they also won't be able to let you know about potential problems ahead of time!

The streamers and the actors and other team members as well should at the very least know about stuff that's going to affect their schedule and to have some idea of the kinds of things they're gonna be expected to do. If you just suddenly throw stuff at them and expect them to be immediately ready to cooperate or play along, that's just gonna cause frustration and burnout

I would also worry less about spoilers than about backlash when people expect one thing and get something completely different; you can in fact give a bit more hints so people don't get the wrong idea and end up disappointed

(And on the other hand if you have secrets that you can't talk about because they would lead to a big controversy if they were revealed uh.... maybe don't do the thing? Maybe simply don't do the controversial thing that you can't let people know about, consider it. If you feel like something you're doing would make people mad if they knew, that thing might in fact be a problem)

2: Show your respect for everyone involved in the project

Respect people's time, respect their ability to cooperate (AS LONG AS YOU TELL THEM WHAT'S GOING ON), listen to their ideas and concerns, etc. This is honestly also part of communicating better but it's an important part

Respecting and also demonstrating your respect for your team is so crucial as a leader, and it genuinely goes a long way even when you have very little else to give them

In fact I think often people would even appreciate respect more than they would appreciate money (although it has to be genuine respect, not just empty words; hence why I say you need to demonstrate your respect with your actions)

3: Have a more collaborative mindset

Think of all the members of the team and the streamers as partners rather than as employees or as customers; this is a collaborative creative project, not a business

As much as this started out as one man's passion project, there's no way to do something this ambitious other than as a team effort, including the actors, including the streamers, so it's just much healthier for everyone to think of it as such

Also it's just better for the stated goals of the server as well, because it's all about bringing people together and what better way to bring everyone together than to make them feel like they're part of a team?

4: That said, you don't actually need to drop all the admin driven lore, that's not what I'm saying orz

Just because I want the streamers to be more involved doesn't mean I think they should also be planning all the lore, that's just not necessary

pls do get a proper gamemaster on the team, though, someone who has experience running a LARP type of thing or at least a TTRPG campaign. That would help so much, and I bet you could ask Cellbit or Bagi or Charlie if they could recommend anyone

Honestly I could probably make a whole post just about how to run the admin driven lore better, but getting yourself an experienced gamemaster would be so much better than any specific advice I could give

5: If you're gonna have volunteers, you need to treat them like volunteers, not like employees

You have to respect the fact that volunteers are not subordinates, they're here to help you, not to be ordered around, banned from talking to people, judged for their availability, or made to sign weird NDAs

They're offering their labour for free because they care about the project or because they enjoy what they do, and they deserve to be appreciated for it, not policed and bossed around (not that you should treat actual employees with that kind of hostility either tbh)

Having volunteers is not necessarily the problem (at least as long as you're not using them to make a profit), it's treating volunteers as unpaid employees, because then you pretty much do just have unpaid employees instead of volunteers

Okay, finally the big one:

6: Consider running QSMP as a cooperative

I know this is Quackity's baby and a Quackity Studios' project, but the thing is, I don't think this model is sustainable

I mean, we already know it isn't sustainable, that's why we're in this mess

As far as I can tell, Quackity Studios is not making any profit from the server, there's no way the revenue from the admin streams and the QSMP Info channel would be enough to cover all the costs if people were paid decently (in fact I don't think it's even enough to cover the costs without paying everyone decently)

This sort of arrangement, with one party running the whole thing out of pocket, makes sense if it's either a very low maintenance server which doesn't cost much and doesn't require much work to keep running, or a very short-term one, more like an event type of thing

QSMP is neither of those, QSMP is both very high maintenance and has been running for almost a full year

I think there's absolutely value in having an ambitious long term project like this, it's very cool, it's very hype, but this is not a good way to run it

And it's especially bizarre considering that people do make money out of it, but the people making money are the streamers

So I would suggest taking some tips from the Hermitcraft SMP server which is run as a collective. Obviously Hermitcraft is much lower maintenance but their model is also much more robust, because there isn't just one person who has to take responsibility for everything, or pay for everything

It would also encourage the spirit of international cooperation to have the streamers literally be part of the server, not just as guests but as partners, so they could have a say in how the server is run and be more invested in the project

(At least those streamers who want to be involved, of course I realise some of them might choose not to)

This would require regular meetings, but I think that's also a good thing, and an opportunity to also talk things through off-camera whenever any issues come up (better communication again!)

AND it would mean that the streamers should actually contribute to the server costs and paying the admins and other behind the scenes people. Probably based on their stream revenue from QSMP streams because obviously some of these streamers make more money than others (I would suggest a progressive membership fee (like progressive taxation style) to make sure that it's not more taxing for the smaller streamers than the bigger ones, but obviously it should all be agreed on between the members)

And IMO the admins, including the actors, the builders, the devs, the translators, etc. should also be considered partners, but since they don't make money directly, the way the streamers do, they should be the ones who are getting compensated for their contributions so they're better able to commit to the project, by which I mean yes you should pay them, but not as employees but as creative partners

Of course this is just one idea, I'm not saying it's necessarily the only good model by any means, it's just a suggestion, all of these are just suggestions

[best-underrated-anime]

Best Underrated Anime Group C Round 3: #C8 vs #C2

#C8: Government employee and his white cat boss

#C2: High social anxiety girl has to befriend her whole class

Details and poll under the cut!

*Text in green indicates that something has been changed.

#C8: White Cat Legend 2020 (Dali si Rizhi)

Summary:

Chen Shi, a young man from the countryside, journeys to the capital in search of his missing older brother, whose existence he only knew about upon his mother’s death. He knows neither the name nor face of his brother, and after finally arriving at the capital, he runs out of money as well. One thing led to another, and he finds himself employed at Dali Court, where he works for Vice Minister Li Bing, a large white cat.

On the other hand, Li Bing is of royal blood who was imprisoned because of his family’s treason. Now, he has to work in the government to atone for the crime.

At Dali Court, they review court cases from all over the country. But when an incident involving the esteemed ministers of the royal court breaks out, Dali Court is called to help, only to find themselves entangled in political threads and hit heads with an eccentric demon.

Li Bing is determined to get to the bottom of this, but how far can he go when he could regress into a real cat at any time when left unchecked?

Propaganda:

I’m tired of writing new propaganda every round, so I’m begging you to just trust me that it’s GREAT.

Intriguing plot? Check. Complex and interesting characters? Check. Comedy? Check. Drama? Check. 

The blend of comedy and drama is just so good. I started the show because I love cats and supernatural stuff. Who would’ve thought it would pull me into an abyss of despair of political intrigue. The cat demons turned out to be just the icing on the cake. 

We have all these different characters brought up in different ways that their ideas of what is Right conflict with each other. None of them are exactly Wrong or inherently Evil (well, except for maybe one guy), and this makes it so much more difficult to choose who to root for. You’d think everyone against the protagonists are the Enemies, but turns out even the protagonists are limited by their biases and unintentionally harm others. Even the two protagonists themselves get into arguments because of their different standpoints.

And I just love this because it makes them realistic, you know? The characters don’t always agree with their friends, and their enemies are not completely hostile either. It really all boils down to what they believe in. Sometimes their beliefs align with existing comrades, and sometimes they find it on the other side.

Production-wise, this show also gets a check on everything. As an adaptation, it’s amazing. The original manhua has quite a simple style—kind of like comic book drawings, and panels are all rectangles in one straight line. Storytelling is also simple and straight to the point. 

But the 2020 donghua? God, it went far and beyond that.  The animation team does not cut corners at all, which is a feat considering the show has a low budget from what I’ve heard. 

A short, simple scene in the manhua becomes an emotionally-devastating experience in the donghua. The animation choices, angles, music, and just everything else blend so well to deliver a STORY. This adaptation does not just copy frames from the source (like Blue Lock) or cut/reorder some of the scenes (like Horimiya and Sasaki to Miyano). White Cat Legend 2020 understands the material so well that it can creatively use the advantages of the animation medium to deliver an experience that exceeds even that of the source. Think Mob Pyscho 100 or One Punch Man s1 level of creativity. It even has mini stories at the end of the ending song. For s1, the mini stories are in stop-motion, while for s2 it’s formatted like a video game. You gotta appreciate the effort.

Please just vote for this show. It deserves to be in the Finals.

Trigger Warnings:

Cannibalism - There’s a cat demon who appears in human form, and he eats humans (it’s not shown explicitly, though).

Animal Cruelty or Death - said cat demon also eats animals raw (again, not explicitly)

Graphic Depictions of Cruelty/Violence/Gore - There’s blood and fighting, and somebody also gets tortured in season 2. But again, nothing too graphic

#C2: Hitori Bocchi’s ○○ Lifestyle (HitoriBocchi no MaruMaru Seikatsu)

Summary:

Many of us know what it is like to transition to a new school with few to no friends in a new environment, going through the arduous process of getting to know people again. Bocchi Hitori knows this struggle all too well, having just graduated from elementary school and thrown into middle school. Unfortunately, she suffers from extreme social anxiety: she faints when overwhelmed, vomits when nervous, and draws up ridiculously convoluted plans to avoid social contact. It does not help that her only friend from elementary school, Kai Yawara, will not be attending the same middle school as Bocchi. However, wanting to help her, Kai severs ties with Bocchi and promises to reconcile with her when she befriends all of her classmates in her new middle school class.

Even though Bocchi has no faith in herself, she is determined to be friends with Kai again. Summoning all of her courage, Bocchi takes on the daunting challenge of making friends with her entire class, starting with the delinquent-looking girl sitting in front of her…

Propaganda:

This is a fun and lighthearted show. Watch it if you need something cute to chill out! The art is cute and colorful, the music lively, and the animation fine enough.

As it's adapted from a four-panel gag manga, the story is simple and focuses on the various characters. They all have pun-based names related to their main personality trait, so they're easy to remember if you know some basic Japanese (Hitori Bocchi means all alone, for example). The girls are all adorable and fun in their own quirky ways, and I loved seeing the heroine doing her utmost best to overcome her fears -and other challenges- to befriend them in the hope of fulfilling her promise. That's the power of the Do-Your-Best Fairy! They all care for each other (despite some teasing) and help Bocchi with her monumental task, never pulling her down for her struggles but gently pushing her in the back when needed.

But most importantly, Hitori Bocchi is a very relatable character. As someone suffering the same trouble, I related a lot with Bocchi, from her silliest worries to her escalating panic and weird schemes in an attempt to prevent anything wrong. Anxiety is faithfully represented, mixed with the right amount of laughing to how far Bocchi can get to avoid fearful situations in her very cute ways. It feels good to see a character like me in a such positive light! The struggles are real and acknowledged, and it’s really moving to see our heroine overcome them little by little in a very humanizing way.

This series has become one of my comfort materials, and I come back to it when I need hope and inspiration in everyday social interactions! If you need one last thing to be convinced, listen to that most adorable and silly song that will give you the Power of Motivation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGoGwlNmZUQ 

Trigger Warnings: None.

When reblogging and adding your own propaganda, please tag me @best-underrated-anime so that I’ll be sure to see it.

If you want to criticize one of the shows above to give the one you’re rooting for an advantage, then do so constructively. I do not tolerate groundless hate or slander on this blog. If I catch you doing such a thing in the notes, be it in the tags or reblogs, I will block you.

Know one of the shows above and not satisfied with how it’s presented in this tournament? Just fill up this form, where you can submit revisions for taglines, propaganda, trigger warnings, and/or video.

[archiveikemen]

Morganatic Idol Prologue: Chapter 8

This is a fan-made translation solely for entertainment purposes with no guaranteed perfection; expect mistakes, grammatical errors, and some creative liberties. All original content and media used belongs to Cybird. Please support the game by buying their stories and playing their games. Reblogs appreciated.

Read this before interacting

The members of exe Creed were gathered behind Sakura.

Hitaki: Oops. I was hoping we could get closer to her.

Miu: What the heck, our talk was going well.

Rina: E-everyone…!

Ivy: Huh? Aren’t you that girl from just now?

Jace: The staff member from Aegis? Why are you here?

Rina: Um, Sakura-san brought me here…

Finn: What’s this about?

Hugh: … Who?

Sakura: She’s an employee of Aegis. She did a presentation of her project plan earlier today. 

Xeno: … It doesn’t matter who she is. Why did you have to specially gather us here?

Sakura: Because the young lady has some things she has to say to us no matter what it takes. … Right?

(Right, I’m here to redeem myself for what happened today…!)

Rina: I sincerely apologise for my actions earlier today during my presentation! 

I gave them a vigorous bow. 

Rina: I said some disrespectful things… such as calling everyone cold and lifeless.

Jace: … Huh? Is that what you wanted to say?

Finn: You came all the way here just because of that?

Ivy: Raise your head. We don’t mind about those things.

Rina: That’s not all. … There’s also the drinks.

Hugh: … Drinks?

Xeno: What about them? 

Rina: It was me who bought the drinks given to you during the presentation.

Finn: Oh. That big bag of stuff.

Rina: At that time, I didn’t ask who our guests were. I only did as instructed and bought hot coffee from a cafe.

Rina: But…

Rina: First of all, Xeno-san’s favourite coffee is a special blend from the high-end cafe ‘Delta’ in Ginza.

Rina: Ivy-san in’t a fan of black coffee and prefers a latte, right?

Rina: Rather than coffee, Jace-san prefers to drink black tea.

Rina: Finn-san prefers iced coffee over hot coffee.

Rinn: Hugh-san only drinks sweet coffee with milk.

Rinn: The drinks I bought were entirely different from everyone’s preferences.

Rinn: Had I known beforehand that our guests were exe Creed, I would’ve made better preparations… 

Ivy: You’re amazing. That information was never officially revealed, and yet you managed to know our preferences so well.

Nagi: Are you a fan of exe Creed?

Rinn: No, sorry… I’m not into idols.

Rinn: I did a thorough data collection because of this project plan presentation. So…

Miu: Hmph, so that’s what happened. No wonder she knew exe Creed well, but had never heard of us.

Finn: You researched us to that extent for your project planning?

Hitaki: I see. You’re a hard worker, it seems.

Hugh: … This is bad.

Xeno: …

Rina: I noticed during the presentation that no one touched their drinks. I’m really sorry. 

Xeno: … A trivial matter. There’s no need to go that far over drinks.

Ivy: Don’t say it like that. She’s just being considerate of us.

Hugh: … Excessively considerate. … Thank you, regardless…

Jace: Fufu, girls who take good care of others are nice.

Finn: You’re weird. You even bother about that? 

Sakura: This shows how sincere she is about the project planning.

Sakura: … Kawanaga-san, do you want to make this plan a success?

Rina: Yes! 

Sakura: exe Creed only accepts projects they personally approve of.

Sakura: Therefore, I’m giving you this special opportunity to directly talk them into approving your plan.

Rina: Um… I’m very honoured. But why are you giving me such an opportunity?

Sakura: The reason is… this.

The item Sakura-san took out was…

(Is that… my memo that was blown away by the wind previously!?)

[droughtofapathy]

"Welcome to the Theatre": Diary of a Broadway Baby

Cats: The Jellicle Ball

July 6, 2024 | Off-Broadway | PAC-NYC | Evening | Musical | Revival | 2H 30M

Well, I didn't hate it. But I didn't love it either, so at least my pretentious theatre persona didn't take a complete hit.

Cats remains one of the most divisive shows in musical theatre history. You either love it or hate it, and you can guess where I stand. Cats: The Jellicle Ball is a high-concept revival that recenters the story on ballroom culture. It's queer, it's spectacle, it's painfully appropriate. It works so well and I'm a little mad about it. I fear this was the way Cats was always meant to be presented. Now, the "cats" are ballroom performers with two Houses (House of MaCavity and House of Dots) competing for trophies and Old Deuteronomy's approval. The ultimate prize remains the Heavyside Layer, which is still basically just ritualistic suicide so I don't know what's up with that, but sure, fine, whatever.

Things of note:

Jennyanydots is a House Mother who has a litter of virgin voguers ("kittins") she's coaching to win the competitions.

Munkustrap is the Emcee of the night.

The virgin voguers are Victoria, Cassandra, and Electra.

Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer are from Jersey and cause all sorts of havoc during the category competitions.

Rum Tum Tugger is as horny as ever, and if you read any other reviews, they'll mention the actor's jockstrap. Personally, as a lesbian, I was unimpressed, and his overall performance was just okay to me. His voice was very much your basic pop star kiss the mic and pout kind of deal. Don't care.

Macavity is less of a villain here and more of an irresponsible House Father who shoplifts his house members' costumes. This is about the only real plot we have. The police come to arrest Macavity for his thefts and Old Duteronemy "gives himself up" to the cops to protect Macavity (who is now guilt-ridden and apologetic(?))

But don't worry. Magical Mr. Mistoffeles is here to save the day with a big magician's trick box and Andre de Shields emerges unscathed.

Gus, the theatre cat is played by Junior LaBeija, an icon and trailblazer of ballroom culture. He has been a member of House of LaBeija for over fifty years, and his legendary status shows.

Skimbleshanks is a slutty MTA employee.

Grizabella is a former ballroom icon who is well-past her prime. Now homeless and destitute, she longs to regain the glamour of her youth.

The changes to the setting and "story" means that some "cats" are drastically downgraded. Bombalurina doesn't get to do anything anymore (and the one "Macavity" song is...not impressive from her end). Jellylorum gets elevated to a more vocally impressive role. Shereen Pimentel is almost single-handedly carrying the entire cast's singing. She floats on that high soprano track and I am in awe.

As a piece of artistry, this new concept is radical, transformative, and wildly creative. As a musical, the source material is still...Cats... So like, there's only so high it can climb. Yes, it's a fun night out. It's wild. I sat along the runway, so I had "cats" dancing right in front of me and twerking on the little round table I sat behind. At one point, two of the cats sat next to me to hang out. At another point, they offered up vodka shots (alas wasted on my sober ass). It made for one hell of an immersive experience (which I could have done without, but I picked that seat to avoid climbing steps, so trade-off), and visually it's stunning. The choreography is a lot. I don't have much knowledge of ballroom culture beyond a rudimentary understanding (and I'm not a fan of drag, which is heavily based off that), but I can appreciate the physical feat. The cast is partially trained musical theatre performers and partially ballroom performers, and the divide is pretty damn stark. Which brings me into my main criticisms.

Dramaturgically, the "plot" they try to infuse with the police and the raid is...not great in execution. I don't think there would ever be a successful way to integrate a book into this musical. But we don't have time to get into all that.

Also, it's a really fucking rowdy kind of show with lots of screaming and hollering from the audience, which is appropriate given the show, so I won't shake my fist. However, I was prepared to be miserable when the first note blasted through the house and everyone was shrieking with glee over a projection of a "cat" shadow doing a dance. Why so excited for what was ultimately very dull projection work? But I digress.

Musically, the show falls apart. Unlike Sondheim, whose work is far more reliant on excellent actors who can carry a tune, ALW's scores call for the opposite. His music demands technically perfect singers and actual acting can fall by the wayside as long as the notes sound good. Without singers, the whole scaffolding collapses. ALW scores are not about lyrics or even storytelling. They're about the notes. And this cast, while doing phenomenal physical work, has maybe two or three excellent singers, and no, they aren't playing the roles you'd expect. When Bebe Nicole Simpson as Demeter finally gets to do something halfway through act two ("Macavity: The Mystery Cat"), her incredible voice is a breath of fresh air. Shereen Pimentel is carrying the whole damn team with her high notes. Everyone else is standard ability, or lower. The sound mixing heavily favors the beat, so lyrics are lost to the aether left right and center. Which, given how I feel about ALW, might have been a positive, except that the lyrics of Cats (thank you T.S. Elliott) were really the only good thing, and with the casual dismissal of them here, what's left?

"Memory" is lowered significantly, and you won't find any Betty Buckley brilliance here. I understand wanting to have a ballroom icon in this role from a dramaturgical perspective, but from a musical perspective, big mistake. It's not a dance track, so it needed to be a singer. The actor did manage to infuse passion into the role, so it wasn't a disaster, but it wasn't what it should have been. I may hate the original show, and the song itself, but even I feel transcendent when Betty Buckley hits that key change. That didn't happen here, and it was almost a little horrifying. Still, far from the worst vocal miss I've heard all year (looking at you...Lempicka...)

At the end of the day, it should be seen for the risky theatremaking feat alone. I've seen queer people singing its praises from Battery Park to Washington Heights, so it's got an audience. And as history shows, Cats doesn't need to be good to be commercially great.

Verdict: ALW Memorial Landfill

A Note on Ratings

You still can't gaslight me into liking an ALW show.

[theghostbunnie]

Hey, I just want you to know I really like your work! It's beautiful and really creative, and I think you understand these characters to a T, cause your headcanons are extremely in character.

Speaking of which: do you have any headcanons for David and Gwen, both individually and as friends?

AAAAAAAAAAAA TYSM THAT'S SO SWEET 💖💖💖💖 I tried to awnser this the other day but realized I was multiple paragraphs into a character analysis and not HCs (if any of you guys left me an ask and I haven't awnsered it yet I still always appreciate it I probably just plan to draw something for it or haven't got the time rn)

When David says something like "before nature took me against her bosom I was in clown school in france" (I'm not kidding he says bosom lmaooo) but he knew he loved nature at age 10, so either he was there before age 10 or the nature not yet embracing him bit meant he was withheld from it. Either his mother sent him there (cannonicaly doesn't have a dad) or he had the WEIRDEST college "figure yourself out, experiment" phase and I'm guessing the latter. He had a sudden spark of a new special interest and wanted to try pursuing it but his clowning instructor(?) scared him out of it after awhile.

I HC David wanted to be a clown bc he loved all the family friendly etiquette rules especially, ontop of the obvious making people happy and entertained.

David cannonicaly loves the zodiac signs and allthat and potential hot take but that man is a Sagittarius ♐.

David is stubborn and I feel this is an obvious fact about him but I wanna go further in depth with a HC that sometimes if he doesn't like something he won't just be in a general ol denial about it, he will full heartedly actually believe hisown truth instead.

Maybe not a "David as an individual" HC but I like to believe he respects, and likes QM's company alot! (When the man isn't being *too* off-putting) like when he's telling that ghost story about respecting your elders we see a cabin with a framed picture of silhouettes that look like QM were related to them and even the book in the story has that octopus God on it. So I assumed that was actually a real place somewhere in the woods David saw at one point/QM took him to. Either during his time as an employee or a camper himself. Also Quarter Master seems *at times* to be annoyed at David. Not like body language or facial exspressions I just get that vibe from his attitude and phrasing. He lied when he told him "fighting animals is apart of his culture" to get him to leave him alone about it I just know it.

Gwen is an anime watching "otaku" or atleast had a phase and has probably watched unheard of semi f*tish series that only lasted 10-12 episodes with really long title names. Genuinely rewatching the show so much of her screentime is hating her job in different ways or reading, writing, or playing VR 🌽. Or being a hopeless romantic. (She could've stayed with Graggle but only liked him for her monster f*tish and to romanticize herself as this YA novel MC)

She definitely LOVES x reader fics and takes on a slightly new persona in her fantasies.

I HC her with a bit of stage fright and her love for music being casual instead of a passion, that ontop of wanting to make something for herself is why she didn't piggyback off her dad's career and go into music. His career did atleast pay for whatever degree she wanted to persue (how she was able to get so many) and her fear of wasted potential is what made her have so many to begin with.

She partially willingly puts herself into positions where she gets burnt out to the point she's gotten kinda used to it.

So that's kinda why she can call it out early in David and tell him when he needs to have a break in that one EP.

David offering Gwen to read one of her stories she writes to the campers leads me to either believe he doesn't know what she writes is 🌽 or that and she also shares her sfw writing with him to get his opinion. (Which is nearly always positive but I feel like people forget David has his moments even if HE'S unaware of em) like "This chapter is excellent, Gwen!! Gosh, I'm just on the edge of my seat!! And there's only half the grammar mistakes of last time! :DD" and he fully means that as a compliment.

David also definitely got Gwen into astrology. She only cares about learning facts about her own, finding out the birthdays of celebrity and fictional characters and then seeing if they're compatible. Woman with identity issues? Eats it up.

They both loved Bob Ross before they met and it was one of the first things they bonded over as they were becoming friends. I HC Gwen was chipper at the job at the very first bit but it QUICKLY wore her down, David going off that first impression kept his excited team-loving liking of her, where as Gwen as she got to know him over those first weeks grew really annoyed with him as a coworker, but once getting to know him further than that the friendship started to become mutual.

[ladymorrie]

CHARACTER PROFILE

[last name] [name]

𝗮𝗴𝗲: 23

𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁: 167cm

𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆: extrovert, loves herself, liar, gold digger, good at understanding others and their body language, never takes anything seriously, carefree.

၄၃ Leaving school at 13 because of depression, she spent her days talking to strangers on the internet. it's obviously one of these strangers who became her best friend, Olivia. Her father was a rich man who hated the rich and the current system, had nothing else to do, she decided to help her best friend and her best friend's father in this crazy project.

⊰᯽⊱┈───── ✧ ─────┈⊰᯽⊱

KIM NAMJOON

𝗮𝗴𝗲: 29

𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁: 181cm

𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆: likes to discover new things, read books and visit museums, he takes his role as leader very seriously, philosophical, he is the core of bts because of how much he inspires the members and guides them, strong sense of loyalty, responsibility.(This is the only information the organization has.)

⊰᯽⊱┈───── ✧ ─────┈⊰᯽⊱

KIM SEOKJIN

𝗮𝗴𝗲: 31

𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁: 179cm

𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆: he's very private, extremely clever and intuitive, has this ability to smooth out uncomfortable situations, to steer the conversation to where he wants it to go, to say no in way that makes you like him, excellent businessman, takes his responsibilities as the oldest seriously, and tries hard to protect n be here for the other members of bts. (This is the only information the organization has.)

⊰᯽⊱┈───── ✧ ─────┈⊰᯽⊱

MIN YOONGI

𝗮𝗴𝗲: 31

𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁: 176cm

𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆: he is someone who prefers and enjoys his alone time, observes and thinks more than he speaks, all the other members drink coffee and smoke but it seems that yoongi absolutely needs his cup of coffee and cigarette to have a good day, several employees have reported seeing his face become softer when he pets a cat, which shows he can be kind to the people he loves. (This is the only information the organization has.)

⊰᯽⊱┈───── ✧ ─────┈⊰᯽⊱

JUNG HOSEOK

𝗮𝗴𝗲: 30

𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁: 177cm

𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆: he is a person that often doesn't show his emotions to others and always remains happy to make others happy as well, has a great sense of professionalism, highly ambitious, goal-oriented and naturally charismatic. (This is the only information the organization has.)

⊰᯽⊱┈───── ✧ ─────┈⊰᯽⊱

PARK JIMIN

𝗮𝗴𝗲: 28

𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁: 175cm

𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆: he’s a hardworking individual, always pushes himself beyond his limits, dedicated, caring,kind, gentle, considerate, someone you feel comfortable with is who employees describe him (can’t say the same for his enemies) and his personality like himself are very charming. (This is the only information the organization has.)

⊰᯽⊱┈───── ✧ ─────┈⊰᯽⊱

KIM TAEHYUNG

𝗮𝗴𝗲: 28

𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁: 179cm

𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆: mature and deep but can also be silly with people he's comfortable with, appreciates all type of beauty and art, charismatic, attracts people, like learning and exploring new things, his body language conveys openness and is confident, Jk said “he will notice things which others doesn't notice it,thats why he’s genius,he’ll do things steps by steps”, impulsive. (This is the only information the organization has.)

⊰᯽⊱┈───── ✧ ─────┈⊰᯽⊱

JEON JUNGKOOK

𝗮𝗴𝗲: 26

𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁: 178cm

𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆: He is competitive and moody, he tends to be hard on himself, persistent, very creative and has a understanding of art, independent thinkers who enjoy exploring new ideas and theories, very sensitive especially to scents.

[donnerpartyofone]

I love this from him, not only because it feels like almost no one else wants to admit that That Episode of That Show was cheesy and condescending, but also because when I first saw this screencap it was in a tweet where the user added something like, "Trying to imagine the person who recommended this to Paul." I also tried to imagine them! I want to assume it's like a younger relative who doesn't know any better or something, but first of all it doesn't take intimate knowledge of Paul Schrader to imagine that he probably would not enjoy The Last of Us; secondly, he JUST TOLD YOU he doesn't want to watch anything zombie-related, clean out your ears!; and third, please for the love of god don't badger people with your petty, meaningless subgenre distinctions. You can't even trust that every single nerd wishes to debate you on whether there is any point at all in separating out all the slightly-different shambling, infected mobs of ex-humans which are all used to tell the exact same kind of story--please don't do this insufferable thing to normal people. Especially not to someone who just told you they don't like the main form of shambling, infected ex-human mob, you're not going to trick that person into approving of your favorite show on the technicality that the mob is shambling for a new and novel reason. This all reminds me of:

1. How people just cannot allow anyone to dislike Their Thing no matter what. One time I posted this quote from Werner Herzog saying he prefers the artifice of pro wrestling to the broad, ridiculous imitation of emotion that you get from contemporary theater, and somebody reblogged it with a string of angry tags about how many innovations and revolutions have occurred in the world of live drama up to the modern age, concluding with "KNOW YOUR HISTORY". Which is so funny and pretentious, like "know your history" is how you scold people who don't know where their privilege comes from, it's not for bullying people who just don't enjoy something, by suggesting that they have to inspect every single available version of the thing before they're legally allowed to say "I don't like that, it's not fun for me."

2. I once worked for this comic book business where we had to come up with genres, subgenres, and tags for all the titles. Pretty much all of us employees were ex-"gifted and talented" students, and this one particularly pretentious dude argued that we should categorize a graphic novel of the New Testament as a zombie book because of Jesus's resurrection. He thought he was being soooooo clever as if he were the first person in the universe to think of this dumb joke, but the conversation was also a big waste of time because fancy thought experiments are simply not useful for merchandising. Like, if a customer walked into a bookstore, told you they wanted zombie comics, and you gave them the fucking King James Bible, they definitely would not appreciate your marvelous ability to Think Outside the Box, and also you'd be dangerously close to becoming a living *youth pastor voice* meme. You're not in third grade anymore and you're not getting extra credit for creativity, shut the fuck up and stop saying Jesus is a zombie. No one is impressed.

PS In that same project at that same job there was a whole controversy about how to label "adult content" because we didn't have any hardcore stuff, but we did have sort of R-rated books that served a similar purpose, and nobody knew what to call them because it was felt that "adult" or "mature" or whatever could be misleading to actual porn consumers. The Jesus-zombie guy suggested that we name this genre things like "bawdy", "ribald", and "tantalizing", as if that would actually be more helpful. He just wanted to show off words that he knows, as you can probably guess by now--but like accuracy of description aside, I dunno man, if I were in a physical bookstore, I would be WAY more embarrassed to be standing under a sign that said "TANTALIZING" than to be caught walking through the curtains to the ADULT section. (I don't know if any bookstores would have that or if it's only a video store thing but you know what I mean)

[closingwaters]

TIMING: A few days ago

PARTIES: @plunderwater @closingwaters

SUMMARY: Upon hearing that a nereid had her magic stolen, Teagan sets out to find the culprit, leading her to Aika (Shan). The two banter, threats are thrown around, but the two come to a mutually beneficial agreement.

WARNINGS: None

For the longest time, Shan wondered why they called it the Drowned Ship Gardens. It looked more like a graveyard to the transformed selkie, not anything resembling a garden. Her first swim down there led to an…interesting encounter with its self-proclaimed guardian, one that Shan had never pursued again. Succeeding swims became much more creative, finding ways to get in and around the place without the annoying singer’s notice. Or maybe Cordelia has always seen her, just not cared enough to pick a fight with a “harmless” seal.

The last time Shan had been in the area, however, a young ocean nymph tried to upset her. She knew the nymph was young because the latter didn’t seem to know what Shan was. Or maybe she did, just not convinced she was something to be feared. Days after that interaction, the selkie turned the nymph into a willing accomplice, a ‘friend,’ so to speak. Until of course the selkie’s need to recharge her pelt outweighed the ‘friendship’ of the nymph. 

“There went my ticket to the Gardens,” Shan heaved a sigh as she took a sip of her tea on the balcony of the Codfather. Pays to be related to one of its owners. The sudden trip down recent memory lane made her feel sad, more than the fact that she had stolen an innocent nymph’s magic for her own selfish reasons. “Cordelia would most likely have my head if I showed it around those parts right now… Might need to lay low for a while. Shame.”

Teagan made a point to visit the ocean after meeting Marina. Even with the beautiful nereid gone, it was easy to slip onto the beach and appreciate the ocean’s beauty. She’d even hover her hand over the water just enough to feel a soft hum. Ever so faint due to the salt within it, or so she thought. For all Teagan knew, the sensation was in her head, knowing that the ocean was not her element. She could do nothing for it besides support her fellow nymphs. 

That was what she set out to do that day, really. Down the pipeline, what fae the nix knew spoke of a selkie that had stolen her cousin’s magic. It was a distasteful act, one that required swift justice to be dealt out, and Teagan was determined to ensure that happened. “I’m looking for a woman named Aika, have you seen her?” She smiled sweetly at the hostess, who looked incredibly perplexed and suspicious. “Oh my, sorry–a bit distracted by your hair. It’s gorgeous…” She looked at the badge, “Kathy!” The employee’s brows rose with bashful surprise, and she smiled back finally. “Thank you…” 

Perfect, Teagan was excited to see that it was so easy to get a small bind. “I’ll take that gratitude and would like appreciation shown by you taking me to Aika’s table. I heard she was here.” Kathy’s eyes went blank with obedience, and Teagan was quickly led the nix to a woman who matched the poor nereid's description. Except, she left out the fact that Aika was absolutely gorgeous. “Leave us,” She waved Kathy off and slipped into a seat at Aika’s table. Her stare was intense and ready, blue and brown searing into the selkie. 

“Hear ya like to steal magic?”

As someone who has to take magic from spellcasters and especially the fae, Shan has developed a contingency to ensure her real name wouldn’t be a vulnerability. Years of dealing with the delicious tricksters only strengthened her own personal belief that words have power, and a person’s name can be used as a weapon. That’s why she has taken great effort into developing alternate identities, using different names. These also help with the less interesting laws of boring humans — Lin Ye Shan may never be able to step foot in Macau again, but Aika Chan would have no problem swindling old rich men with terrible gambling habits and an even terrible string of bad luck.

“Hm?” With eyes narrowed in suspicion, Shan turned to face the stranger Katarina had brought to her. What a betrayal. Katarina, now Kathy, had sought Shan, then Zhenchen, for help escaping her very small and very weird village in Eastern Europe. If it wasn’t for Zhenchen, actually Shan, Kathyrina wouldn’t have made a less weird and definitely much safer life in Wicked’s Rest as a part-time hostess at Shan’s relative’s swanky restaurant, the Codfather. And now she does this? Kitty Kat may end up losing her job if she keeps this up, and even this life, considering she has no more useful secrets to share. “And who might you be?”

Shan had to give credit where credit was due, though. At least the stranger the hostess brought to her was beautiful. She wasn’t the first pretty face with heterochromia the selkie has ever met, and bedded, but she was definitely in her own category. “Is that a pick-up line?” she purred, leaning forward to take in the other woman’s scent and features, all while playfully smirking at her. “But since you’re easy on the eyes, I’ll bite — What do you mean by that, hm?”

Pretty and witty, a deadly combination for the nix who had a particular fondness for the type. It was one of the many reasons Arden was so easy to drink up, and now Teagan was greedy for every glass the woman offered. “Ah…” Her lips curled into a smile, gaze turning dark as she moved past the flirtations. She couldn’t get distracted. “Believe me, lass…” Teagan leaned in, intensely. “You’d know if I was flirting. We’d already be in my bed if I was.” 

Something shone in Teagan’s eyes, foreboding and twisted. Pretty as Aika was, she’d hurt a cousin. That’s not something she could stand for, her dedication to her kind deeply rooted. “I’m Teagan.” Her gaze remained strong, expression dead. “Hope that bite’s strong because if you’re the one who took a poor nereid’s magic, then we’re about to have a bit of an altercation.” Scrunching her nose platfully, Teagan shrugged and shivered with anger so strong that it spilled over into appearing like glee. “Do you get what I mean now?”

“Well,” Shan raised an eyebrow, just as intrigued as she was impressed. “Aren’t you confident?” The selkie would be lying if she didn’t admit to herself she was fond of confident people. That and she was a sight for sore eyes. Especially with those eyes. Quite a delicious combination. Dangerous. Dark. Two things that almost always drew her in. Like a hungry seal to some free fish. Although Shan wasn’t quite sure if she was that hungry, and if this fish was even free. 

“Teagan, hmm?” Shan tried to remember if she had anything on anyone named Teagan but nothing came to her at that moment in time. “I do like my tea, but I’m not sure what you’re talking about…” Discreetly, she looked around to see if there were any other eavesdroppers, using another sip of her drink as cover, before grinning when she realized there was none. Heaving an annoyed sigh, which was followed immediately by an unintentional yawn, she turned her attention to the view. “...so let me try to make sense of all this — someone took a…nereid’s magic, you think it’s me, and now you’re here to avenge your…sibling’s misfortune?”

Teagan’s smile curled wickedly while she watched Shan’s expression turn into one of surprise. “Of course. Every scar is a lesson, and let me tell you,” She steepled her fingers, tapping them together. “I’ve learned much. Too much. So yes, I’m confident.” People rarely expected someone who looked like her to have confidence in that particular manner. Flirting? Sure, she had the looks for it. But confidence in the ability to exact violence and hold her own in a fight? Hardly anyone expected that from Teagan, and it was one of her favorite pastimes to prove them wrong.

“Lying is such a human thing, Aika. It’s pathetic and weak. Not even my human resorts to such a thing.” Well, as far as she knew, at least. Teagan was confident though, fully believing Arden to use honesty with her, where it counted the most. When it comes to emotions or issues of the heart, Teagan was even confident there. Which was more than most could say. More than she could say, even. But that was different. She wasn’t hiding to preserve herself, she was doing it to protect Arden. 

“I’m here to avenge my cousin.” Teagan began, rubbing her temples while she relayed what she’d learned. “We fae are closely knit, so as soon as I heard that a nereid had lost her magic, I immediately thought…hunter.” She giggled, genuinely happy she didn’t have to deal with that flavor of rage. Keeping her composure was important, and had Aika been a hunter, blood would have surely already painted the area. “But no, she said a woman named Aika did that to her. And lo and behold, your name is Aika.” Releasing part of the illusion, Teagan presented her claws, flexing them and digging them into the table. “So quit dilly-dallying.”

Shan grimaced at the idea of getting scars anywhere on her perfect skin. If she could, she would always avoid them, and she usually did, but she wasn’t delusional. Sooner or later, one of her…adventures was going to give her a bad one, but that was what the spellcasters she spared were for. Glamorous and all that. Like the one on her teeth right now. “Wouldn’t it be so that if you get more than one scar, then that means you never learned the lesson from the first one?” Semantics. Nothing but. But Shan did enjoy the game of words more than the game of fists. 

“A human thing…” Shan purred, downplaying the gravity of the tense situation. She feigned wonder, confusion, as she heaved a sigh and leaned back on her chair, appearing way too comfortable for a woman who was being confronted by a vengeful fae. Then again, story of her life. What sin did she commit in her past life to have such a terrible pelt, she knew she’d never find out in this one. She wasn’t even sure she’d survive to the end, to see her pelt fixed and no longer in need of a desperate fix every so often, more times than she could relax, uninterrupted by vengeful sons and daughters, siblings, and now apparently cousins. 

“Humans barely craft the lie. In my experience, the fae are so much better at it than them,” she gestured toward Teagan’s claws, implying the use of illusions as a lie, a notion that Shan wholeheartedly agrees with, using a glamour herself to play with the boring mammals on land. “I doubt your…cousin would’ve survived to tell the tale if I was a hunter. Those folks are uninspired, killing for the sake of killing…” She heaved another sigh, lamenting the many lost fae lives that could’ve recharged her pelt with little to minimal death. “What a waste!”

“If you want the truth,” Shan prepared the lie. “...I am truly sorry that your cousin had to lose her…magic.” The selkie cared about no other lives than hers. If her pelt wasn’t such a malfunctioning piece of work, maybe she’d have the privilege to care about strangers. As it stood, she wouldn’t get any close to that if she died right then and there. “But we were deep in those cold waters, and if I didn’t…‘borrow’ her magic, I would’ve frozen to death. Worse? The panic would’ve ended her, too.” A truth, though any mention of her vulnerable pelt was omitted to ensure her own survival. “I would’ve apologized to her in person but…I feared I’d drown if I returned to her.”

“Never said what type of lesson.” Her eyes went dark, expression reflecting everything she’d seen, how the wars had marked her. “Learned how to handle pain, and inflict it tenfold. Make theirs worse. The kind they couldn’t heal because, you know, you can’t heal when you’re dead.” A smile, a big one, that didn’t quite reach Teagan’s eyes, spread across her lips, an expression far darker than it was before. Aika was good at words, but her skill was no match for the nix. She was nothing compared to the skill of a fae.

Taking a deep breath, the smile disappeared, catching Aika’s insinuation. A fair one, if Teagan were honest with herself. She seldom was, but this wasn’t a matter of the darkness in her heart. This was her nature, her very appearance. She wouldn’t stand for it. “Another form, dear. Both me. Both beautiful.” Her claws lengthened the marks on the table, and Teagan was about to throw the table aside and make her attack, but Aika’s explanation gave her pause. A creature of water herself, it seemed. Hunted as well. Teagan sighed, irked that she understood what Aika had to do. That didn’t mean she had to like it, though.

“I know you’re not sorry.” She began, her hands returning to flesh. “Survival of your nature is rarely met with guilt. I can accept that. But…” Teagan rose from her seat, kneeling next to Aika to show her she could be reasoned with. Maybe Aika wasn’t fae, but she was of the water. A deal could be made. “Perhaps we can have something arranged?” Searching the woman’s eyes, Teagan’s own began to have light once again, compassion blooming. “I’ll find you a caster and you give her back her magic. Take the caster’s instead, and everything will be forgiven. Maybe…” She paused, looking Aika up and down to return the looks she’d given Teagan. “Maybe even rewarded.”

Shan paused, frowning. There was nothing else she could do when her eyes met Teagan’s. The selkie was adept at bending words to suit her favor, more than happy to profit from her silver tongue, but there was much to be said for the fae’s expertise at the field. It was like comparing a werewolf to a kitsune or a vampire to a zombie. Either way, she realized as she stole a glimpse of the restaurant’s interior, she’d rather not risk losing a very useful tool in her machinations, present and future. “Dead can be final,” she muttered as she took another sip of her tea, eyes glued on the dangerous individual in front of her. “...for some of us.”

Shan watched Teagan’s claws violate the wood of the table. What was it again? Fall collection, IKEA? She felt the tension rise, as if the other woman was about to cause a very violent scene, but remained calm. Shan was quick. She was fast. Very agile, but only because she wasn’t physically strong, especially not in a fight, not in those close quarters. The selkie had already braced herself to move when Teagan relaxed, withdrawing her, well, weaponry. “Something?” She raised an eyebrow, curious at the proposition, more so at the propositioner. The edge of her lips slowly curled into a smile. She liked that idea. All of it. 

“Maybe… But what kind of reward?” The selkie bit her lower lip, already knowing the implication. Still, she would like it more if she heard the words from her mouth. There was no declining the offer on her side obviously. Shan would prefer not making an enemy of the nix. It would be a shame for all this to end in physicality, especially outside of bed.

Teagan enjoyed the way Aika began to falter, the fight in her recoiling as she realized she had met her match. It was a satisfying sight, but there were other matters to focus on. She smiled, a little warmer that go-around. “Something, yes.” Teagan nodded slowly, leaning in and slowly tracing Aika’s jawline with her index finger. 

She watched as the woman bit her lip, the action alone enough to be a sign of agreement. But, as deals go, Teagan figured she should at least elaborate on the final details before she took anything in finality. There was more fun to be had, and she didn’t need trickery to get there.

“The kind of reward that messes up the bed, Aika.” With a boop to Aika’s nose, Teagan giggled and scrunched her nose playfully. “Now, we’ve got a deal, eh?” To seal it, the nix closed the distance between their lips, kissing Aika firmly for a few beats before pulling away with a grin. “But don’t get any ideas and don’t fall in love with me. Someone’s already got me…what’s the saying?” She tapped her chin, clapping her hands together when she found the answer. “Ah yes. Wrapped around their beautiful finger.”

[wuxiaphoenix]

Worldbuilding: The Struggles of Peace

Wars are big. Wars are colorful. Wars are Dramatic; at least as Hollywood does them.

War is also pretty much the default state of human beings, as far back as we can check. Yes, humans have instincts to be kind, altruistic, and caring... to others in our in-group. Those outside the group are either ignored, or targets.

Peace, on the other hand, is neither natural nor easy. Peace takes hard work, determination, and the occasional cracking of a non-peaceful skull. And it all has to be done in a way the majority of people involved can live with, or it all frays at the seams.

War and action type stories are interesting in part because you get to show how far characters can go and still be good people. Peacetime stories are interesting because your characters have to work within limits.

It’s like poetry. Free verse can be expressive, rhythmic, and powerful. But I’ve always appreciated the skill involved in expressing yourself in a tanka, sonnet, or ballad. When you have a set of rules, you have to be creative!

You also have to know which set of rules your characters are working under. Often there are several. Written laws? Professional codes of ethics? Social rules? Family customs? A lot of tension can come from a character deciding he’s going to have to break some rules to solve the problem, and he has to decide which rules can be broken, which can’t, and what price he’s willing to pay.

This is a big thing in a lot of works in Regency or Victorian settings. There are people you can talk to, people you must not, and certain subjects that absolutely Cannot Be Discussed Ever.

Except that realistically speaking they have to be discussed at some point. Hopefully before someone dies. And then social fallout ensues.

I used Regency and Victorian because those are familiar to a lot of readers, but honestly, up until fairly modern times, strict social rules about who could freely communicate with whom were common most places. And the unwritten rules you had to follow to avoid a breath of scandal or be ruined - meaning eventually dead, from lack of support or work....

There’s a neat example of “working within the rules to keep peace” in the first episode of Season 2 of Zenigata Heiji (see the Samurai vs. Ninja channel). Long story short, a ring of thieves figured out ways to implicate respectable shops in crimes. Meaning even when the police know who and where they are and could catch them... if the gang goes to trial and any implications come out, the businesses involved will be devastated. Leading to most of the families and employees being condemned to starvation or suicide.

If only, muse Heiji and his boss, there were a legal way to catch the gang without the case going to trial....

(It’s risky, but yes. There is.)

And if you want to see the effort needed to keep as much possible peace in a society at war, I recommend the series Foyle’s War. An inspector trying to solve murders and bring criminals to justice in WWII England has a heck of a job on his hands.

One episode ends with a murderer taunting Foyle, and... well. Here’s from Wikiquote.

Howard Paige: You sound like a sore loser. You know what the French say? "C'est la guerre."

Foyle: Precisely, Mr. Paige. "It's the war." And no war has lasted forever, and neither will this one. A year, maybe ten, but it will end. And when it does, Mr. Paige, you will still be a thief, a liar, and a murderer, and I will not have forgotten. And wherever you are, I will find you. You're not escaping justice, merely postponing it. Au revoir.

Stories with action are good. Stories with justice, even if it can’t be today - those take a skilled touch.

What kind of rules do you want your characters to break? What do you want them to uphold at all costs?